9/29/09-The Day I Fell In Officially Fell in Love

Today was my first official day at Nomzamo. Considering I'm sharing a bathroom with 5 other girls I had to get up earlier than I would have liked to shower, but it's okay. I woke up before my alarm went off and just hung out in bed until it was my turn. Then it was a quick blow dry, a quick bite to eat, and out the door to the van with the rest of my group off to the Langa township...finally! 

I was the second-to-last one to be dropped off. I wasn't able to meet with the lady I was supposed to meet with because she's in meetings all week supposedly so I was immediately thrown in with the toddlers. i LOVED it! There were about 10 little kids running around, all under the age of 6. Only one of them spoke English so I had 9 little ones running around screaming and clicking at me. Luckily, that little guy stayed by my side and would tell me what the other ones were saying. They were absolutely obsessed with my hair. I had it in a ponytail but the very first time i knelt down, i was mobbed by all the girls who pulled out my hair tie and started petting me. All the little boys joined in and I had 20 little hands - dirty snotty drool infested beautiful loving little hands - playing with my hair. It was almost impossible to get them to let go. I was left alone for quite a bit of the morning so it was kind of hard to communicate with the children. We managed mostly with gestures and facial expressions. Before I knew it, it was breakfast time. We took the kids into the kitchen to eat but before they did  the teacher had them all line up against a wall. They said a little prayer ("God is great. God is good...") in English! and then bum-rushed the tiny little tables where their breakfast waited. Then it was time to play outside where I became a human jungle gym for the next 3 hours. My day was filled with piggy-back rides, flips, somersaults, more hair playing (and pain!), a grass fight, monkey bars, and oh-so much more! 

When we were done playing we went inside to get them cleaned up for lunch. I was waiting in the room with all the kids and watching a movie when the door opened and babies starting streaming in! Ok, so it was one baby at a time seeing as how someone had to bring each one in, but that's not the point. The point is the toddlers and I were joined by 6 of the cutest babies on the freaking continent! And can I just tell you, my heart melted to see the older kids immediately go to the babies on the floor, pick them up, and take them to their seats. They were so good with them, holding them and playing with them, comforting them if they started to cry...oh my gosh! It was absolutely priceless! I barely got to hold any of the babies because the little ones would get mad if I took the babies away from them! But at lunch time while the other kids were eating I got to hold all the babies and feed them so it worked out! The time to leave came way too soon. I could've have stayed there much longer and been totally fine with it. I could probably just move in with the kids and sleep on one of the tiny little beds they sleep in and be totally happy. I might just do it. Seriously. 

Tonight I had my first xhosa lesson. It's the harder of the two languages but it's so much fun! I already know some of what my kids were yelling at me today haha! I recognized the words quickly so I'm hoping I can manage to pick it up fairly quickly. Not that I'll ever sound good speaking it because their tongues have to move in ways that mine just finds impossible. No joke. There are 3 different clicks in the language and every one is more complicated and harder to do than the last. And there are consonant sequences that you've never seen! "NdinguTiven mna" means "I am Tiven." They also don't like spaces in xhosa apparently! But I really enjoyed learning it and our teacher was a lot of fun and very accommodating when we asked for ridiculous sequences of clicks and what word had the most clicks, or the greatest combo of clicks. Needless to say we all got ahead of ourselves trying to pronounce these suckers!

Overall my first day was great. Better than I could have ever thought. When I got back to the house, my roommate told me it looked like I had just come back from war because my hair was up and I was covered in dirt and food and snot! I absolutely loved it! It was amazing to see the warmth and love in the way they welcomed me. I didn't have enough arms, or kisses, or hugs to go around. As soon as I picked one kid up I had 5 more grabbing on to my legs or arms in the air wanting a turn. These kids are so much smarter than me too! They pick up words so fast. It only took me saying, "up!" 3 times before they figured out what it meant. And that's all I heard for the rest of the day. I think the best part of my day though was just watching how much the older kids looked after the little babies and seeing how gentle they were with them. Boys and girls alike were so loving. Yes, these children have been abandoned or orphaned, but by no means are they alone. They have their only little community family. One thing that was hard to see though was how understaffed the shelter is. I am so glad I can be here to help. I know I'm not the first and nor will I be the last but I know my time here is appreciated. 

Lesson of the day: do NOT shower in the morning. Shower in the afternoon when you're all done getting dirty and snotty!!! 

I can't wait for tomorrow!