My last week at Lily of the Valley involved lots of wild animals—no, I don’t mean the children, but rather the wildebeest and zebra and ostrich sort. Lily is located right next to Tala Game Reserve [in fact, the first time I figured out where Lily was happened after getting lost in Tala with the YFC volunteers], and it would be a shame to be so close to such beauty and the kids never able to see what is inside. We took multiple trips a day with two SUVs full of children each time [there were almost 130 kids to take] and I had so much fun with the kids. I think it must be spring here [I gave up on trying to figure out the seasons] because the reserve is full of baby animals… it is so beautiful! Baby zebras, baby impalas, baby wildebeest, baby hippos, baby ducks… everywhere. During these trips I did learn at least one thing—little girls are cute, but little boys are so much fun.
I went with the German girl volunteers on Saturday Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park to continue the animal searching. They really wanted to see elephants and lions—I didn’t really need to because I saw more than enough elephants and a few lions on my road trip to Cape Town, but I came for the good company. There wasn’t nearly as much density in game viewing in this large park, so you would drive around for hours trying to spot animals, but it was still a beautiful place. [Quick advice from Brittan: if you are going to a game park, pay the extra to get a guided tour—they know where the animals are and have vehicles that are permitted to go off the road to get closer. Otherwise you drive around for hours and see nothing.] I am so glad that Africa is working hard to preserving much of its natural beauty in the wake of industrialization—and it is definitely good for their economy when it comes to tourists [I had to pay more to enter because I am “international.” Hmph.]. It was a fun day that started with driving there at 1am and getting back home around 9pm.
On Sunday I prepared and gave the Sunday School lesson to the preschool and nursery children at Lily. It was fun! I have enjoyed singing their Zulu songs and watching Dani and Steffi teach them English songs. After the lesson I had made a coloring page for them to “personalize” with an outline of their “helping” hands [my lesson was on helping]. I also drew the nativity scene for them to color for the Christmas Sunday School lesson a few weeks ago—I should publish my own coloring book. Kidding.
Disaster struck after Sunday School. Devastation. Dani was going to copy my pictures on to her computer, and as she put the SD card from my camera in her computer she took it out as it was still loading and damaged the card. It could also just be a crappy SD card, but at least now we know not to do that. Nearly 8GB of pictures from South Africa… destroyed! Not only the Heritage Day photos and Cape Town photos [which I was fortunate enough to save some on the internet], but many photos I had not yet saved like fun things in Pietermaritzburg, our Hluhluwe adventure the day before, the Tala excursions with the little girls, Sunday School that morning. I was SO sad. I am still sad, but fortunately the tech guy was at least able to reformat the card so it will work with my camera again. I also have some of the photos from Lily that Dani had saved on her computer before my card was wiped. On the sad side I lost hundreds of pictures I can never get back, but on the positive side I now have 8GB of memory to work with! :::sigh:::
The last minutes before I left I tried to take pictures of some of the kids I had really developed relationships to make up for the loss of pictures that had happened hours before. I couldn’t help but to realize how much I really love these kids. Love. Them. I never met all of them, but I did try to make a point to develop relationships with at least a handful of children.
I love Zanele, the 11-year old with a really bad attitude that I had a love-hate relationship with; she gave me attitude the first few days and I gave it right back to her—she learned that rolling her eyes and saying “talk to the hand” didn’t work with me. I talked to her like an adult and not like a child. She’s a smart girl, but she is a brat. I think some of the volunteers were surprised to hear her on my last day: “Miss Brittan. When do you leave? Say bye before you go?” She is a beautiful girl with a gorgeous smile. Zanele and Thandi helped me fold my laundry when I was packing to go.
I love Mphumelelo, my 3-year old boyfriend who followed me everywhere, gave me kisses, and loved holding my hand. He is such a cutie! I loved seeing him run towards me at full speed whenever he saw me.
Akhona, a 7-year old girl [who is still in pre-school] who no one thought spoke English until one day she said to me, “Where are you going?! Come here!”
Yonela is seriously like a very little old man. He gets very upset if his shoe comes off, and no matter how hot it is he will keep his sweater on and zipped to the top. When we would go to Tala he would point to a wildebeest and say, “Look! A cow!” then to a giraffe and say, “Look! A cow!” and to a zebra, “You’re lying. That’s not a cow. It is a zipper.” To a hippo, “Look! Bread!” The first day I was there he came to me crying... I had no idea why. It was because his little loafer fell off his foot. He will be the cutest old man! Seriously.
Amahle, who was called my “future child” because we have the same exact hair…although she has much more than I ever did at her age.
I love little Siya, who is 3 years old but much smaller than he should be. He sat on my lap while we went to Tala, was amazed at ability to make fish lips, and felt comfortable enough to fall asleep in my arms.
Sanele, the new kid with a toothy grin [when you can get it from him] and a naughty predisposition. I fell in love with him because of his close resemblance to one of my family members [he is an interesting mixture of what this person looks like now and what this person looked like as a child]. Then I fell in love with him because no matter how much he tries to act like he is a tough guy, I always manage to sneak a smile out of him.
Okay. I will stop. But I really like them! You have to admit, these kids are pretty darn cute. As I rolled my suitcase to the car, I was surprised to find an entourage of about 25 kids holding my hands and following behind me, waving goodbye as I left. I am grateful that I am just going to Pietermaritzburg and not back to the US, so when they ask if I will visit I can say “yes.”
I love Zanele, the 11-year old with a really bad attitude that I had a love-hate relationship with; she gave me attitude the first few days and I gave it right back to her—she learned that rolling her eyes and saying “talk to the hand” didn’t work with me. I talked to her like an adult and not like a child. She’s a smart girl, but she is a brat. I think some of the volunteers were surprised to hear her on my last day: “Miss Brittan. When do you leave? Say bye before you go?” She is a beautiful girl with a gorgeous smile. Zanele and Thandi helped me fold my laundry when I was packing to go. 
Yonela is seriously like a very little old man. He gets very upset if his shoe comes off, and no matter how hot it is he will keep his sweater on and zipped to the top. When we would go to Tala he would point to a wildebeest and say, “Look! A cow!” then to a giraffe and say, “Look! A cow!” and to a zebra, “You’re lying. That’s not a cow. It is a zipper.” To a hippo, “Look! Bread!” The first day I was there he came to me crying... I had no idea why. It was because his little loafer fell off his foot. He will be the cutest old man! Seriously.
Sanele, the new kid with a toothy grin [when you can get it from him] and a naughty predisposition. I fell in love with him because of his close resemblance to one of my family members [he is an interesting mixture of what this person looks like now and what this person looked like as a child]. Then I fell in love with him because no matter how much he tries to act like he is a tough guy, I always manage to sneak a smile out of him.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to comment! If you have anything you are curious about and you want me to blog about, leave those questions here,too. I would love to hear from you!