Today Marks one week since I arrived in South Africa with my team. We are staying in Port Elizabeth at a home for young men with troubled pasts and troubled families. The boys are court ordered to live here and are placed by social workers. The kids and young men range in ages from 6-21 and they all have different roles here at the home. They go to school have chores and play sports just like american kids however the circumstances for them are a bit different. The boys are not forced to stay here, the gate is unlocked but chances are if they were to leave they would end up on the streets. The boys are on winter break right now and have been since we arrived. However 4 boys have been here the whole time because they had no where else to go during the holiday break. The rest of the boys will arrive this coming Friday and things will surely become a lot more hectic for us. The plan for us is to work with the boys throughout the their day . Our work day will go from 10-8 and it will consist of schoolwork sports chores and everything else that goes with raising teenagers and kids and i am very excited about the challenge awaiting our team!
Since the boys have been gone our host has set us up with some of her other contacts for this past week. We went to one of the local townships to work and were exposed to some severe poverty. Me and one of my female squadmates named Ryan were posted at a local daycare all week. The Daycare is open from 7-5 and is host to around 55 children under 6 years old on an average day. The women who runs the daycare is a 36 year old named Pluwme (i probably spelled her name wrong but whatever African names are hard) she runs the daycare which is connected to her house and separated by her kitchen. The daycare is small, back in the states it would be the size of a classroom suited for around 20 children. The roof has holes all over with a couple severe gaps so anytime it rains the classroom is flooded and the children are taken to Pluwme’s house. The Kids were exhausting for me but i had a blast playing with them and trying to pronounce their names. Friday was our last day with the daycare so before we got there we stopped at the hardware store and got supplies to try and patch some of the holes in the roof as well as some colorful paints for the walls that the kids would enjoy.
Life with the team is going good so far it is easier for some than others but we are making it work. We will be in Port Elizabeth until around the 28th or so and then we will meet the rest of our squad in Durban and then travel to Swaziland. I will do my best keep this blog updated its not my favorite thing to do but i do know that it is necessary .
