30+30=?

Today was full of kids and babies. In the morning we had Masikhanye women’s empowerment group, where I hung with the twelve little ones. It brings me such joy to see them running down the brick path every Thursday and jump into my arms. They actually call out my name now, instead of saying “mulungu” or “white person”. We made up songs about elephants, froggies, hippos, horsies, chickens, and dolphins. We ate snacks and had story time. Their favorite book was Dr. Suess’s ABC book. A…a…a…. what words start with the letter A? They would then pucker their lips and scrunch their eyebrows in deep search for words that begin with A. I especially enjoyed when we got to X because the English language doesn’t contain many, but the Xhosa language has quite the reservoir!

After Masikhanye, I did a little math lesson with Bonga and Athi (another boy at CATCH). They really enjoy these math lessons! I write down problems and then they huddle close to the paper and solve each one, some better than others. Little Athi had the problem, 30+30=? He chose to use the clay balls on this problem. He counted out each ball of clay one by one until he got to 30. He put those 30 aside and then began to count the second batch of 30. Once he had both batches, he put them together and recounted every piece of clay. After about five minutes, he proudly said, “60!” I smiled and responded, “You too cute”.

The older kids came in the afternoon for reading club, where we played a game. We had a spell-off between two teams. One candidate from each team would come forward and they would receive a word. Whoever could spell it correctly would get the point. At the end of the game, they asked that myself and the other teachers have a turn in the hot seat. The word I had to spell? Onomatopoeia. I was like… for reals? Ain’t nobody know how to spell dat word!! I tried but failed.

We fed all the kids running around CATCH and then I went home to a tiny baby! My housemates are taking care of a baby from a Foster home this weekend. She is so tiny and sweet. She is from a Foster home that currently holds twenty-five children! The Foster home is actually just a family that has decided to take in children, and take in lots of them! To voluntarily sacrifice ones personal plans in order to lavish love upon neglected and abused children… it makes my heart happy. This family recently won a prize of one-million rand from Mercedes Benz to help with housing and feeding these children. What a blessing for that family!! The message is so clear. Their Provider is not of this world.

We have a long weekend ahead of us, which are always nice! I had a dream about running, I miss it. A couple of weeks ago, I landed on a divot in the road and haven’t been able to run since. Oh I miss it a lot! Gods gonna heal this tendon or whatever it is. Shoo, dis gurl gots a marathon to train for! It all good tho, cuz He is my Healer! Belieeeed dat.

I’m going to check my emails now, hopefully I have word about changing my returning flight!