Africa #2 - working at the Creche and opinions on the area so far

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been assigned to work at the Creche, in the village of Kurland. While this would not be my #1 choice, it is an easy assignment to plug someone into, because there are no time requirements for the assignment and no training requirements. You can imagine that this creates a few dilemmas for the volunteers, who are asked to "assist" in a classroom of 20+ children who all speak Afrikaans with no tools as far as what the curriculum is, what stages the kids are at, and how to tell the children to sit down, ask if they have to go to bathroom, or tell them to be quiet! It is not uncommon for the teacher of my class (also the administrator among other things at the school) to be in her office for long stints at a time and leave the classroom to me. I have taken the approach of speaking to them in English and pointing a lot, with the exception of some poorly pronounced words in Afrikaans. It took only a few days of reciting the alphabet and numbers and conversing with the kids for me to realize that they don't actually KNOW their letters and numbers (at least in English), but they are very good at repeating what someone says to them. In fact, they remind me of little parrots who repeat exactly what I say, but do not recognize the number "8" when I show it to them. I've made it my goal to teach them the English pronunciation and recognition of 1 - 10 and A - Z before I leave...less than 4 weeks left!

There are times throughout the day that all of the children are occupied and the teachers are gathered around, supervising. I have never been in a situation where I am the minority when it comes to language, so I find myself the odd man out. They are all conversing in Afrikaans and I am sitting quietly across the room. Very interesting and humbling situation to be in, for sure.

Overall, the experience so far has been a whirlwind...but has been great. I am forming a lot of opinions on the culture of several groups that I have come into contact with - the backpackers, the Kurland Village people (not to be confused with the Village People), and the white South Africans. I need to further observe and test my opinions about these people before blogging about them, but I find them all very different and all very interesting to study and understand.