pictures

here is a picture of me with 2 of the babies on the trampoline

south africa 09/03

Ive been given half an hour off in a 12 hour shift today. Ive never known i an eat myself, hold onto a baby and wash up all at the same time, i really can multitask!

 

Oh by the way, WE NOW HAVE ELECTRICTY AND WATER!!!!! I CAN SHOWER!! WOOHOO!!! amazing isnt it, you get so used to living in the british culture, having 3 meals a day, electricyt to watch TV, computers etc, water to wash up, to bath in, to wash your hands. Then i come here and its such a culture shock!

 

I am so tired today, ive been here since 8am and was asked to clear out the main storage room, this meant lifting boxes of aqueous cream (about 30 tubs ot a box) from above my head to the floor and then having to stock take everything in the room! The stuff they have in there are mainly donations and i admit i have never in my life seen so much cream, the problem we have is that most of the cream that is donated is out of date and shops give it to TLC because they cannot sell it, the question is though, why do the shops think that our babies deserve out of date produce?

 

anyway enoug waffle. This week i am creepy leader, this means that i am in charge of 10 toddlers for 7 hours a day. As you can imagine this is VERY tiring and i end up shattered b the end of the day. The toddlers are hardwork, specially at the moment becaue they are getting to know me and are testing the boundaries. I must admit, i did put a child in 'time out' (a crib that is away from the other children) because she bit me today! She was fine afterwards though. it must be so hard for the children to be constantly under different peoples rules. What is acceptable behaviour for one person may be inappropriate to another. For example, one volunteer may allow a child to leave their milk if they dont want it, wheraes another volunteer may put the child in time out until they drink their milk. Must be confusing for the children.

 

bless them though, the other night they were lying on the sofa before bedtime and one of the little toddlers Erik, he said to me "I love you jen' awww he was so cute! Even though every day he is a handful, he has his moments.

 

So what to tell you about the nursery itself, well the babys are all doing well, we have a bout of ear infections going round the nursery at present which is bad news, lots of screaming babies! Lovely.

 

Im enjoying my time here and the days are going with a blur, the day is so hectic and busy that you sometimes dont even get a chance to sit down and play with the babies, its like a conver belt and you fed, change, put to bed, repeat. there just aint enough hours in the day.

 

My accent is getting a hit too, people here think its hillarious when i dont pronounce my 'th' 'sh' 'er' they find it funny. Apparently i dont talk like a proper english girl!

 

I have a day off work on Tuesday, I think im going to Johannesburg zoo with Melinda and her mum (the little girl I picked up from the hospital last year)

 

tomorrow

its tomorrow guys! hardly any time at all!!!

the next post will be from south africa!!

luv Jen

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