Written on July 23rd, 2010:
As is typical of my musings, I sit here in the darkness of the purple house way past my bedtime (which has been steadily getting earlier and earlier...I suppose I really am not in college any more!) listening to the (awesome) CD that Rosie gave us and thinking over the past month and a half and the future ten months I’ll be here. And I feel that the only word to describe how I feel right now is this one: grateful.
Tonight Pat and I had a short meeting with Rita to discuss some of the projects that we want to get under way starting this weekend. Towards the end of our conversation Rita expressed her gratitude at our being here, but as she thanked us all I could think was “this thank you is so backwards” – I feel so blessed to be here.
The past two weeks since my last blog entry have been fantastic. (Tom, please note that I used the word thesaurus for “wonderful” on that one – I’ve been told I use that word much too often.) Where to begin recapping the last ten days?
As I mentioned in my last blog entry I have now begun a new schedule with the kids. I start each (weekday) morning with the three five year-old girls who need to improve their English which is at once incredibly rewarding, and frustrating (but ultimately more rewarding than frustrating). We’re currently working on letter identification and have since mastered the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F! (My greatest triumph came last night when Caitlin mentioned that one of the girls, one of my not-so-secret-favorites, came up to her and correctly identified a C and an E on her shirt!) Working with the girls has pushed me to try to be more creative in a lot of ways too – we work a lot with foam letters but we’ve also worked with chalk boards, sticks, paper, books, and our fingers. We’ll see how things go…a work in progress certainly!
In the afternoons the three girls and I join the four year-olds in the crèche (our on-site preschool) and do a craft project. This I love! The past few days the kids have been making clay fish and painting and decorating them with an atrocious amount of glitter! It really is pretty precious. They have also taken to having me lead them in rendition after rendition of the song “Everywhere we go – everywhere we go-oh! – People wanna know-oh! – People wanna know-oh!...” from Remember the Titans. (Only in their version they sing “we are Open Arms…mighty, mighty Open Arms. It really is too, too cute!) They seriously make me sing it about 20 times a day…Another favorite song that I get requests for (a lot, especially during crazy hour) is “Who Took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?” They love that song. And they always crack up when I accuse them of taking the cookie, except one of the toddlers who burst in to tears once when she thought we were actually accusing her of taking a cookie (woops!). Singing really has become an integral part of life here (and yes, I remain musically challenged) – some of the kids really took to breaking into “Happy Birthday Kea-ten” over and over again (and I do mean just that verse). It was pretty funny! (It wasn’t even my birthday yet mind you!)
In any case, after crèche ends I start my playroom duties, which involves, as I mentioned, taking the children in one at a time into the playroom. It’s part of a their play therapy time which I’ve started to read up on quite a bit. I’ll suffice it to say that it’s extremely interesting the things that they do and say when they’re on their own and allowed to do what they want. It certainly has been a very rewarding process thus far, albeit a long and tiring one – there are 25 kids a week that cycle through the playroom.
But rest assured, the days at Open Arms aren’t all work. As volunteers we make a point to have a great time both while the kids are awake but also when they go to bed. One of my favorite nights to date at Open Arms was the night that we all gathered in the purple house (with Rosie) to play dominoes (a new favorite), Pictionary telephone (an ND favorite – thanks for teaching me guys!), and Who, what, when, where, why (I’d never played that before!). It was hysterical! Especially since most of our games were centered around events at Open Arms (kids falling into the pool, silly quotes, and of course lots about uncle Zach). We also found time to take a much needed break from the home to spend the day out at a game reserve with a friend of Rita’s, uncle James, having a “bry” (I’m sure I’m butchering that spelling…). A “bry” is essentially a traditional South African cookout. It was a blast! We all loaded up into the back of James’ pickup and rode down windy dirt roads chatting and keeping an eye out for wild game (springbok, blessed buck, and baboon prints/calls). Then we spent the (supremely gorgeous) day down by the Kubussy river (sp?) fishing, relaxing, chatting, eating delicious lamb chops/warthog dogs! (The lamb chops were disgustingly delicious!). I should also mention that I caught two fish. (Alright, I might have just reeled them in, but still! Big deal!). It was seriously the most awesome day.
The night after our big day out was also awesome as we had “Girls Night” in the girls house. I’m sure you girls know exactly what that entails: painting nails, eating candy, watching a girly movie (A Cinderella Story), blasting music, and chit chatting. I even allowed my nails to be painted pink (yeah, pink! I have since unpolished them however). That night was so much fun, two of the girls fell asleep in my lap during the movie which is not an uncommon occurrence, but still awesome.
Other highlights? Several new arrivals! Since my last entry we have had two new arrivals: one volunteer, Liane, and one new kid, a 16 month-old boy! Coincidentally Liane is absolutely head-over-heels in love with him. It’s actually a pretty crazy feeling, one day there are 36 kids and then suddenly there are 37! (That may seem like a “duh” statement, but it’s pretty bizarre when you think about it!) Admittedly, he’s pretty dang adorable. He’s quite a chunker too. We often joke (although we’re actually serious) that he weighs more than one of our nine year-olds. It’s nice to have another baby around too (our youngest just turned one as I mentioned in my last entry and has since learned to crawl, which was quite the struggle for the few weeks prior!).
Some anecdotes from the past two weeks? Hmm. Well my favorite was probably the day that Caitlin and I walked back to the purple house to find the door wide open. We walked in tentatively and to our surprise only found one little four year-old boy running around in the middle of the room. (They’re not allowed in our house normally.) Wide-eyed and hilarious, this boy just stopped and looked at us. Apparently he had followed Liane back without her noticing, the little sneakster! Another favorite was when I got a phone call from Reed early one morning. I snuck out of the purple house and onto the stoop of the blue house next door where I normally talk on the phone at night only this time it was really cold so I brought my big ND blanket with me and covered myself with it. Well it was about the time the kids were all getting ready for school so one of the mama’s walked by across the lawn and saw me. Well naturally she had no idea who I was so she shouted “Who are you?!” at me and I told her it was me. Well later that day the talk of Open Arms was “Why was auntie Kea-ten sleeping outside on the blue house stoop?” Oh those kids.
As if I wasn’t in love with these kids already, they showed me just how adorable they could be when my birthday came around. Periodically throughout the day before my birthday kids were burst through the playroom door (which they’re not supposed to do mind you) to hand me cards they’d made for me. I received a whole big stack of them by my actual birthday and they seriously just melted my heart. Among my favorites were messages like these: “Dear Keaton, Happy birthday Keaton so much and you love me to and I love you to you are so beautiful,” “Dear Keaton, I hope you are so special and I think you nice lady. I am so proud of you I hope you are going to stay next of next year I wish a Happy Birthday and have a nice day today. I love you very mush if you go I would cry because I will miss you,” and “I love you so much Keaton we all love you. I hope you well choose movie is csper the friendly ghost. I hope you ken stay in Open Arms South Africa.” Now tell me these kids aren’t the best? Actually, my birthday was amazing here. It started very early with Rosie surprising Elyssa and I with a delicious chocolate cake (with Mint candy bar crushed over it!) last week (it’s Elyssa’s birthday on the 26th). On my actual birthday we “farmed” (Pat’s manly word for gardening), i.e. we planted the seedlings in our garden – pretty intense, a little, hard, very windy, but also really awesome! We also made chocolate chip cookie bars (yum!), the kids sang to me during crazy hour (as is tradition), and we had a “purple house party” that night where we all just sat in the purple house and chatted and had a great time.
The only downside to my birthday really was that it was Caitlin and Kaitlyn’s last night at Open Arms. In the past 10 days it’s been incredibly sad – Zach went home, Rosie went back to varsity (university), and Caitlin and Kaitlyn left. Not to mention Elyssa leaves on Wednesday. It’s so weird without them here! (If any of you are reading this now, know that I and everyone at Open Arms miss you something awful and we think of you lots!). Pat and I are beginning to mentally prepare ourselves for the arrival and departure of lots of volunteers this year.
In any case, rest assured that all is well here at Open Arms. Every day I find myself falling more and more in love with the kids, more committed to making my experience more meaningful, and certainly more settled into this magical place. The other day while chatting with some of the other volunteers I mentioned my notion that being here was being in the business of loving. I think about that a lot. And I’m learning every day that while I thought I knew how to love people, there are so many more dimensions to loving people than I thought. Yes, there are hugs, there are kisses, there are kind words and there are compliments, but there’s also discipline, patience, therapy, education. There’s timeouts, there are times to pick up the kids up and times to refuse their chorus’ of “pick me up!.” There are times to sit with them while they cry, to hold them, to spoil them, to play bad cop. I don’t know how parents do it. They’re seriously saints and I know I never gave mine enough credit. But I digress, the point is the same point I make in every entry: I love Open Arms. There are lots of challenges here, but every night ends the same: I am so grateful to be here.
Thanks to all of you for supporting me in this journey. You are all so wonderful!! And your comments, e-mails, phone calls, letters, thoughts, and prayers mean the world to me! Never hesitate to stay in touch and please do let me know everything that you’re doing!! I certainly miss and think of everyone back in the states lots (the kids and other volunteers certainly get an earful about my friends and family!). Alright, well now it is way past my bedtime!
All the best,
--Auntie Keaton
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Written on July 23rd, 2010:
As is typical of my musings, I sit here in the darkness of the purple house way past my bedtime (which has been steadily getting earlier and earlier...I suppose I really am not in college any more!) listening to the (awesome) CD that Rosie gave us and thinking over the past month and a half and the future ten months I’ll be here. And I feel that the only word to describe how I feel right now is this one: grateful.
Tonight Pat and I had a short meeting with Rita to discuss some of the projects that we want to get under way starting this weekend. Towards the end of our conversation Rita expressed her gratitude at our being here, but as she thanked us all I could think was “this thank you is so backwards” – I feel so blessed to be here.
The past two weeks since my last blog entry have been fantastic. (Tom, please note that I used the word thesaurus for “wonderful” on that one – I’ve been told I use that word much too often.) Where to begin recapping the last ten days?
As I mentioned in my last blog entry I have now begun a new schedule with the kids. I start each (weekday) morning with the three five year-old girls who need to improve their English which is at once incredibly rewarding, and frustrating (but ultimately more rewarding than frustrating). We’re currently working on letter identification and have since mastered the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F! (My greatest triumph came last night when Caitlin mentioned that one of the girls, one of my not-so-secret-favorites, came up to her and correctly identified a C and an E on her shirt!) Working with the girls has pushed me to try to be more creative in a lot of ways too – we work a lot with foam letters but we’ve also worked with chalk boards, sticks, paper, books, and our fingers. We’ll see how things go…a work in progress certainly!
In the afternoons the three girls and I join the four year-olds in the crèche (our on-site preschool) and do a craft project. This I love! The past few days the kids have been making clay fish and painting and decorating them with an atrocious amount of glitter! It really is pretty precious. They have also taken to having me lead them in rendition after rendition of the song “Everywhere we go – everywhere we go-oh! – People wanna know-oh! – People wanna know-oh!...” from Remember the Titans. (Only in their version they sing “we are Open Arms…mighty, mighty Open Arms. It really is too, too cute!) They seriously make me sing it about 20 times a day…Another favorite song that I get requests for (a lot, especially during crazy hour) is “Who Took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?” They love that song. And they always crack up when I accuse them of taking the cookie, except one of the toddlers who burst in to tears once when she thought we were actually accusing her of taking a cookie (woops!). Singing really has become an integral part of life here (and yes, I remain musically challenged) – some of the kids really took to breaking into “Happy Birthday Kea-ten” over and over again (and I do mean just that verse). It was pretty funny! (It wasn’t even my birthday yet mind you!)
In any case, after crèche ends I start my playroom duties, which involves, as I mentioned, taking the children in one at a time into the playroom. It’s part of a their play therapy time which I’ve started to read up on quite a bit. I’ll suffice it to say that it’s extremely interesting the things that they do and say when they’re on their own and allowed to do what they want. It certainly has been a very rewarding process thus far, albeit a long and tiring one – there are 25 kids a week that cycle through the playroom.
But rest assured, the days at Open Arms aren’t all work. As volunteers we make a point to have a great time both while the kids are awake but also when they go to bed. One of my favorite nights to date at Open Arms was the night that we all gathered in the purple house (with Rosie) to play dominoes (a new favorite), Pictionary telephone (an ND favorite – thanks for teaching me guys!), and Who, what, when, where, why (I’d never played that before!). It was hysterical! Especially since most of our games were centered around events at Open Arms (kids falling into the pool, silly quotes, and of course lots about uncle Zach). We also found time to take a much needed break from the home to spend the day out at a game reserve with a friend of Rita’s, uncle James, having a “bry” (I’m sure I’m butchering that spelling…). A “bry” is essentially a traditional South African cookout. It was a blast! We all loaded up into the back of James’ pickup and rode down windy dirt roads chatting and keeping an eye out for wild game (springbok, blessed buck, and baboon prints/calls). Then we spent the (supremely gorgeous) day down by the Kubussy river (sp?) fishing, relaxing, chatting, eating delicious lamb chops/warthog dogs! (The lamb chops were disgustingly delicious!). I should also mention that I caught two fish. (Alright, I might have just reeled them in, but still! Big deal!). It was seriously the most awesome day.
The night after our big day out was also awesome as we had “Girls Night” in the girls house. I’m sure you girls know exactly what that entails: painting nails, eating candy, watching a girly movie (A Cinderella Story), blasting music, and chit chatting. I even allowed my nails to be painted pink (yeah, pink! I have since unpolished them however). That night was so much fun, two of the girls fell asleep in my lap during the movie which is not an uncommon occurrence, but still awesome.
Other highlights? Several new arrivals! Since my last entry we have had two new arrivals: one volunteer, Liane, and one new kid, a 16 month-old boy! Coincidentally Liane is absolutely head-over-heels in love with him. It’s actually a pretty crazy feeling, one day there are 36 kids and then suddenly there are 37! (That may seem like a “duh” statement, but it’s pretty bizarre when you think about it!) Admittedly, he’s pretty dang adorable. He’s quite a chunker too. We often joke (although we’re actually serious) that he weighs more than one of our nine year-olds. It’s nice to have another baby around too (our youngest just turned one as I mentioned in my last entry and has since learned to crawl, which was quite the struggle for the few weeks prior!).
Some anecdotes from the past two weeks? Hmm. Well my favorite was probably the day that Caitlin and I walked back to the purple house to find the door wide open. We walked in tentatively and to our surprise only found one little four year-old boy running around in the middle of the room. (They’re not allowed in our house normally.) Wide-eyed and hilarious, this boy just stopped and looked at us. Apparently he had followed Liane back without her noticing, the little sneakster! Another favorite was when I got a phone call from Reed early one morning. I snuck out of the purple house and onto the stoop of the blue house next door where I normally talk on the phone at night only this time it was really cold so I brought my big ND blanket with me and covered myself with it. Well it was about the time the kids were all getting ready for school so one of the mama’s walked by across the lawn and saw me. Well naturally she had no idea who I was so she shouted “Who are you?!” at me and I told her it was me. Well later that day the talk of Open Arms was “Why was auntie Kea-ten sleeping outside on the blue house stoop?” Oh those kids.
As if I wasn’t in love with these kids already, they showed me just how adorable they could be when my birthday came around. Periodically throughout the day before my birthday kids were burst through the playroom door (which they’re not supposed to do mind you) to hand me cards they’d made for me. I received a whole big stack of them by my actual birthday and they seriously just melted my heart. Among my favorites were messages like these: “Dear Keaton, Happy birthday Keaton so much and you love me to and I love you to you are so beautiful,” “Dear Keaton, I hope you are so special and I think you nice lady. I am so proud of you I hope you are going to stay next of next year I wish a Happy Birthday and have a nice day today. I love you very mush if you go I would cry because I will miss you,” and “I love you so much Keaton we all love you. I hope you well choose movie is csper the friendly ghost. I hope you ken stay in Open Arms South Africa.” Now tell me these kids aren’t the best? Actually, my birthday was amazing here. It started very early with Rosie surprising Elyssa and I with a delicious chocolate cake (with Mint candy bar crushed over it!) last week (it’s Elyssa’s birthday on the 26th). On my actual birthday we “farmed” (Pat’s manly word for gardening), i.e. we planted the seedlings in our garden – pretty intense, a little, hard, very windy, but also really awesome! We also made chocolate chip cookie bars (yum!), the kids sang to me during crazy hour (as is tradition), and we had a “purple house party” that night where we all just sat in the purple house and chatted and had a great time.
The only downside to my birthday really was that it was Caitlin and Kaitlyn’s last night at Open Arms. In the past 10 days it’s been incredibly sad – Zach went home, Rosie went back to varsity (university), and Caitlin and Kaitlyn left. Not to mention Elyssa leaves on Wednesday. It’s so weird without them here! (If any of you are reading this now, know that I and everyone at Open Arms miss you something awful and we think of you lots!). Pat and I are beginning to mentally prepare ourselves for the arrival and departure of lots of volunteers this year.
In any case, rest assured that all is well here at Open Arms. Every day I find myself falling more and more in love with the kids, more committed to making my experience more meaningful, and certainly more settled into this magical place. The other day while chatting with some of the other volunteers I mentioned my notion that being here was being in the business of loving. I think about that a lot. And I’m learning every day that while I thought I knew how to love people, there are so many more dimensions to loving people than I thought. Yes, there are hugs, there are kisses, there are kind words and there are compliments, but there’s also discipline, patience, therapy, education. There’s timeouts, there are times to pick up the kids up and times to refuse their chorus’ of “pick me up!.” There are times to sit with them while they cry, to hold them, to spoil them, to play bad cop. I don’t know how parents do it. They’re seriously saints and I know I never gave mine enough credit. But I digress, the point is the same point I make in every entry: I love Open Arms. There are lots of challenges here, but every night ends the same: I am so grateful to be here.
Thanks to all of you for supporting me in this journey. You are all so wonderful!! And your comments, e-mails, phone calls, letters, thoughts, and prayers mean the world to me! Never hesitate to stay in touch and please do let me know everything that you’re doing!! I certainly miss and think of everyone back in the states lots (the kids and other volunteers certainly get an earful about my friends and family!). Alright, well now it is way past my bedtime!
All the best,
--Auntie Keaton
As is typical of my musings, I sit here in the darkness of the purple house way past my bedtime (which has been steadily getting earlier and earlier...I suppose I really am not in college any more!) listening to the (awesome) CD that Rosie gave us and thinking over the past month and a half and the future ten months I’ll be here. And I feel that the only word to describe how I feel right now is this one: grateful.
Tonight Pat and I had a short meeting with Rita to discuss some of the projects that we want to get under way starting this weekend. Towards the end of our conversation Rita expressed her gratitude at our being here, but as she thanked us all I could think was “this thank you is so backwards” – I feel so blessed to be here.
The past two weeks since my last blog entry have been fantastic. (Tom, please note that I used the word thesaurus for “wonderful” on that one – I’ve been told I use that word much too often.) Where to begin recapping the last ten days?
As I mentioned in my last blog entry I have now begun a new schedule with the kids. I start each (weekday) morning with the three five year-old girls who need to improve their English which is at once incredibly rewarding, and frustrating (but ultimately more rewarding than frustrating). We’re currently working on letter identification and have since mastered the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F! (My greatest triumph came last night when Caitlin mentioned that one of the girls, one of my not-so-secret-favorites, came up to her and correctly identified a C and an E on her shirt!) Working with the girls has pushed me to try to be more creative in a lot of ways too – we work a lot with foam letters but we’ve also worked with chalk boards, sticks, paper, books, and our fingers. We’ll see how things go…a work in progress certainly!
In the afternoons the three girls and I join the four year-olds in the crèche (our on-site preschool) and do a craft project. This I love! The past few days the kids have been making clay fish and painting and decorating them with an atrocious amount of glitter! It really is pretty precious. They have also taken to having me lead them in rendition after rendition of the song “Everywhere we go – everywhere we go-oh! – People wanna know-oh! – People wanna know-oh!...” from Remember the Titans. (Only in their version they sing “we are Open Arms…mighty, mighty Open Arms. It really is too, too cute!) They seriously make me sing it about 20 times a day…Another favorite song that I get requests for (a lot, especially during crazy hour) is “Who Took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?” They love that song. And they always crack up when I accuse them of taking the cookie, except one of the toddlers who burst in to tears once when she thought we were actually accusing her of taking a cookie (woops!). Singing really has become an integral part of life here (and yes, I remain musically challenged) – some of the kids really took to breaking into “Happy Birthday Kea-ten” over and over again (and I do mean just that verse). It was pretty funny! (It wasn’t even my birthday yet mind you!)
In any case, after crèche ends I start my playroom duties, which involves, as I mentioned, taking the children in one at a time into the playroom. It’s part of a their play therapy time which I’ve started to read up on quite a bit. I’ll suffice it to say that it’s extremely interesting the things that they do and say when they’re on their own and allowed to do what they want. It certainly has been a very rewarding process thus far, albeit a long and tiring one – there are 25 kids a week that cycle through the playroom.
But rest assured, the days at Open Arms aren’t all work. As volunteers we make a point to have a great time both while the kids are awake but also when they go to bed. One of my favorite nights to date at Open Arms was the night that we all gathered in the purple house (with Rosie) to play dominoes (a new favorite), Pictionary telephone (an ND favorite – thanks for teaching me guys!), and Who, what, when, where, why (I’d never played that before!). It was hysterical! Especially since most of our games were centered around events at Open Arms (kids falling into the pool, silly quotes, and of course lots about uncle Zach). We also found time to take a much needed break from the home to spend the day out at a game reserve with a friend of Rita’s, uncle James, having a “bry” (I’m sure I’m butchering that spelling…). A “bry” is essentially a traditional South African cookout. It was a blast! We all loaded up into the back of James’ pickup and rode down windy dirt roads chatting and keeping an eye out for wild game (springbok, blessed buck, and baboon prints/calls). Then we spent the (supremely gorgeous) day down by the Kubussy river (sp?) fishing, relaxing, chatting, eating delicious lamb chops/warthog dogs! (The lamb chops were disgustingly delicious!). I should also mention that I caught two fish. (Alright, I might have just reeled them in, but still! Big deal!). It was seriously the most awesome day.
The night after our big day out was also awesome as we had “Girls Night” in the girls house. I’m sure you girls know exactly what that entails: painting nails, eating candy, watching a girly movie (A Cinderella Story), blasting music, and chit chatting. I even allowed my nails to be painted pink (yeah, pink! I have since unpolished them however). That night was so much fun, two of the girls fell asleep in my lap during the movie which is not an uncommon occurrence, but still awesome.
Other highlights? Several new arrivals! Since my last entry we have had two new arrivals: one volunteer, Liane, and one new kid, a 16 month-old boy! Coincidentally Liane is absolutely head-over-heels in love with him. It’s actually a pretty crazy feeling, one day there are 36 kids and then suddenly there are 37! (That may seem like a “duh” statement, but it’s pretty bizarre when you think about it!) Admittedly, he’s pretty dang adorable. He’s quite a chunker too. We often joke (although we’re actually serious) that he weighs more than one of our nine year-olds. It’s nice to have another baby around too (our youngest just turned one as I mentioned in my last entry and has since learned to crawl, which was quite the struggle for the few weeks prior!).
Some anecdotes from the past two weeks? Hmm. Well my favorite was probably the day that Caitlin and I walked back to the purple house to find the door wide open. We walked in tentatively and to our surprise only found one little four year-old boy running around in the middle of the room. (They’re not allowed in our house normally.) Wide-eyed and hilarious, this boy just stopped and looked at us. Apparently he had followed Liane back without her noticing, the little sneakster! Another favorite was when I got a phone call from Reed early one morning. I snuck out of the purple house and onto the stoop of the blue house next door where I normally talk on the phone at night only this time it was really cold so I brought my big ND blanket with me and covered myself with it. Well it was about the time the kids were all getting ready for school so one of the mama’s walked by across the lawn and saw me. Well naturally she had no idea who I was so she shouted “Who are you?!” at me and I told her it was me. Well later that day the talk of Open Arms was “Why was auntie Kea-ten sleeping outside on the blue house stoop?” Oh those kids.
As if I wasn’t in love with these kids already, they showed me just how adorable they could be when my birthday came around. Periodically throughout the day before my birthday kids were burst through the playroom door (which they’re not supposed to do mind you) to hand me cards they’d made for me. I received a whole big stack of them by my actual birthday and they seriously just melted my heart. Among my favorites were messages like these: “Dear Keaton, Happy birthday Keaton so much and you love me to and I love you to you are so beautiful,” “Dear Keaton, I hope you are so special and I think you nice lady. I am so proud of you I hope you are going to stay next of next year I wish a Happy Birthday and have a nice day today. I love you very mush if you go I would cry because I will miss you,” and “I love you so much Keaton we all love you. I hope you well choose movie is csper the friendly ghost. I hope you ken stay in Open Arms South Africa.” Now tell me these kids aren’t the best? Actually, my birthday was amazing here. It started very early with Rosie surprising Elyssa and I with a delicious chocolate cake (with Mint candy bar crushed over it!) last week (it’s Elyssa’s birthday on the 26th). On my actual birthday we “farmed” (Pat’s manly word for gardening), i.e. we planted the seedlings in our garden – pretty intense, a little, hard, very windy, but also really awesome! We also made chocolate chip cookie bars (yum!), the kids sang to me during crazy hour (as is tradition), and we had a “purple house party” that night where we all just sat in the purple house and chatted and had a great time.
The only downside to my birthday really was that it was Caitlin and Kaitlyn’s last night at Open Arms. In the past 10 days it’s been incredibly sad – Zach went home, Rosie went back to varsity (university), and Caitlin and Kaitlyn left. Not to mention Elyssa leaves on Wednesday. It’s so weird without them here! (If any of you are reading this now, know that I and everyone at Open Arms miss you something awful and we think of you lots!). Pat and I are beginning to mentally prepare ourselves for the arrival and departure of lots of volunteers this year.
In any case, rest assured that all is well here at Open Arms. Every day I find myself falling more and more in love with the kids, more committed to making my experience more meaningful, and certainly more settled into this magical place. The other day while chatting with some of the other volunteers I mentioned my notion that being here was being in the business of loving. I think about that a lot. And I’m learning every day that while I thought I knew how to love people, there are so many more dimensions to loving people than I thought. Yes, there are hugs, there are kisses, there are kind words and there are compliments, but there’s also discipline, patience, therapy, education. There’s timeouts, there are times to pick up the kids up and times to refuse their chorus’ of “pick me up!.” There are times to sit with them while they cry, to hold them, to spoil them, to play bad cop. I don’t know how parents do it. They’re seriously saints and I know I never gave mine enough credit. But I digress, the point is the same point I make in every entry: I love Open Arms. There are lots of challenges here, but every night ends the same: I am so grateful to be here.
Thanks to all of you for supporting me in this journey. You are all so wonderful!! And your comments, e-mails, phone calls, letters, thoughts, and prayers mean the world to me! Never hesitate to stay in touch and please do let me know everything that you’re doing!! I certainly miss and think of everyone back in the states lots (the kids and other volunteers certainly get an earful about my friends and family!). Alright, well now it is way past my bedtime!
All the best,
--Auntie Keaton
Monday, July 12, 2010
Almost a month gone!
On Wednesday I will have been here exactly a month. Much like at Notre Dame, time seems to be operating as a paradox - both passing very slowly and extremely quickly! It seems like just yesterday that I was with my family at the Grand Canyon (or graduating from ND), but it also feels like I've lived here for years. I find myself saying "let's go home" in reference to Open Arms more and more often.
So what have I been up to these past two weeks? Well July 1st (the day after my last entry) marked our youngest kid's first birthday and it was absolutely adorable to see the kids crown around him and sing happy birthday (with an extra verse of "God bless you today!" as is customary) and watch him clap and laugh and smile in celebration (then promptly pass out in Kalienka's arms...). And since then lots has gone on...
I got the opportunity to take a day long trip with Rita, Auntie Ruth (Rosie's mom), and Zach to Grahamstown (this awesome little town!) for Festival - a huge festival with tents full of crafts for sale and food and all sorts of performances (though we couldn't go to any of them). We spent the day looking at local crafts, eating kudu dogs (a local antelope-like animal native to South Africa), relaxing in the sun, and having team and discussing South Africa vs. America with Rosie's sister and brother-in-law. Needless to say I had a great day and picked up a few treasures along the way!
Other highlights have included a trip into East London with the kids to see Toy Story 3 (so great and the kids loved it for the most part - and were so well behaved!!), a trip to the dairy farm where the kids got to see the cows being milked, pet some baby calves, and try the milk, headband making (they really like the ones that Sophie gave me so we made some more with things we found around the house! - I still hear chorus' of "we can make bandages today?"), and volunteering to make crepes for dinner (let me tell you, making crepes for 35 kids plus volunteers plus mamas is no easy task!!).
Really lots has happened in the past two weeks, it's hard to recap! In the past two weeks six other volunteers have come and gone. Kalienka and Adell were here for two weeks (two awesome girls from South Africa off on university holiday), Liz and Matt were here finising up the tail end of their seven month world trekking adventure, and Yani and Paul Horn (who works for Notre Dame) came by for a short two day stint to take pictures of the ISSLP site. They are all greatly missed but have assured us they will stay in touch (and perhaps we'll be seeing some of them back in here within the next year!).
This past weekend also marked our World Cup final celebration! We kciked off our celebration with a big soccer game (volunteers vs. children of course) in town (volunteers barely lost by golden goal...). The kids got a surprise from Auntie Caitlin at the end of the game too - Notre Dame hats! (rest assured that they have been taught how to say "Go Irish!" and they do...a lot...). Then last night (the night of the final) we had a pinata! (Truth be told the paper mache pinata that we attempted to make with the kids became a shriveled up raisin when the balloon popped too early so it was really just a cardboard box that we decorated and let them beat up on for a while...). But the pinata was amazing!!! It was actually so hilarious to watch! The kids chanted everyone's name as they swung and by some sort of divine miracle no one got hit (though there were a few very close calls!). *Ps. if anyone wants to send a REAL pinata, it would be most welcome!* We also decorated cupcakes with the Van Beveren secret recipe for frosting and decorated the lounge with balloons and flags made in my playroom classroom. Then we watched the game with the older ones (but let me tell you, by that time I was so wiped out I could barely stay awake!!).
In the past two weeks we have also been blessed with the arrival of two new volunteers that will be with us for a while: Pat and Erin. Funny story actually...(although perhaps not so funny to Erin). The night that we were supposed to pick up Pat (an exciting event for me since he'll be here for the whole year too!) Rosie, Caitlin, Katelyn, Elyssa, Zach and I all piled into the bus and went to fetch him in East London. We made a quick pit stop at Windmill for milkshakes and the convenience store to load up on Magnum bars (these delicious chocolate ice creams!!) and candy and then went on to the airport. There we messed around and probably annoyed everyone within 5 feet of us by playing cap baseball (so much fun by the way!). Finally we saw Pat arrive and he came over to us with only he had another girl in tow. We chatted with Pat, not sure who this other girl was, but when Pat turned to get his bags she introduced herself to us. We busted up laughing we had NO idea who she was! She then proceeded to follow us all back to the van and put her bags in. We couldn't hold it in - we just lost it at this point and doubled over laughing and nose-going to see who would have to ask her who she was. Finally someone told her and Pat they should take a trip to the "lou" before we left so we could call Auntie Rita. We did and of course when we called Rita told us that she'd forgotten to tell us we had another volunteer coming too! We felt SO bad! Poor Erin, we'd just completely ignord her!! It was pretty hilarious in the end though and ended up working out just fine. She's great and Pat's great and it's all wonderful!
As for the anecdotes from the past two weeks about the kids? There have been lots. One day one of the kids, a particularly hilarious three (or four?) year-old boy who always looks surprised heard me telling the other kids to be quiet. He then proceeded to point his finger at everyone who was talking face and scold them "stop it!" then move on to the next one "stop it! stop it! stop it!" it was too, too precious! This is the same kid, mind you, who runs up to you five times a day (at least) and say "what'syoname" (one word) and then quickly follows it up with "Kea-ten!" before you can get a word in edgewise. This same boy (wow I've got lots of stories about him!) also tried to do the spiderman web shooting thing with his fingers but accidentally flipped Auntie Liz and I off (woops!). Another little boy, a hilarious boy who is quite the charmer (he just bats his eyelashes and you do whatever he tells you...) broke it down in the garade while we were waiting to go to the movies (I will be sure to get some videos of him dancing - it's just too precious for words!!). Another favorite of mine is when one night we took a night walk (with glow in the dark rings!) - we broke up into groups of three (one adult and two children) and it was just the most hilarious thing to watch the kids hide in the grass and try to scare other groups! Well one of the kids I was with found it so funny that he ran ahead of us and scared US! It was super scary!! Speaking of being scared too, the tiniest (yet oddly strongest) nine year-old boy you'll ever meet followed me out of his house one night when the power went out - ofcourse I didn't know it - and I kept hearing footsteps behind me that would stop when I stopped and start when I started walking - I was seriously terrified! He then jumped on my back so I screamed bloody murder! So ridiculous! Tricky boys...
I seriously could just go on and on and on. The funny moments number in the thousands every day! And I guarantee that my imitations of their thick accents and their funny sayings will continue long after I've returned home ("I am losing?!" for one - that's what they say when they think they've lost a privilege...).
My duties with the children have also changed since the last blog entry I wrote. Since the kids are heading back to school tomorrow, I will no longer be having my group of ten in the playroom (phew!). The past two weeks have definitely been a challenge - though I love them all. I eventually wised up after the first few days and would wait patiently for them to calm down before I started anything. I mean literally I would just sit and wait for them to listen to me. It actually got pretty funny as they'd notice how quiet I was and say "sooo-rry Kea-ten!" over and over again. We also got to starting the mornings with a little yelling, which was always fun. We'd scream together and they'd watch for the signal to stop and then we'd start up again. Good times! But in any case, those days are now over and it's back to school tomorrow! So what am I doing now? Well, I am now taking each child (over 4 years) into the playroom individually and observing them play. It's actually pretty interesting. I can't divulge any details but suffice it to say that you would be surprised to hear the things that are said in accordance with what you know about each child. It's a really great time for me to get to know the kids though and to let them express themselves by playing since their language isn't developed enough just yet to say what they're feeling. I also am going to help out in the preschool and get the three girls whose English isn't quite good enough for them to attend school caught up.
As if there weren't enough highlights in this blog entry - I have one more! We actually go to spend a volunteers night out the other night at a Game Reserve not far from here called Mpatshane (proundoung mm-pa-tsha-nay) with Rosie and her friends. It was great! We got to talk, dance, and just get to know some of the locals outside of Open Arms - not to emntion this game reserve is beautiful and we saw some zebras! (however only briefly...).
In any case, I suppose I shouldn't go on too long here, but the truth is: I love it here. I say it every time but I really do. I love the houses and the beautiful sunrises. I love the kdis and their antics and the way they roll their Rs. I love trying to learn Xhosa (I'm failing miserably...). I love the food (for the most part). I love watching moveis and eating chocolate chips with the volunteers (feel free to send more!). I love having the kids fall asleep in my lap. I love watching them play. I even love being jumped on. This play is just full of love. And while I do get frustrated and tired and even verging on angry sometimes - the truth is I mostly just feel so happy being here and I can't believe my good fortune!
Of course, I miss you all but thank you so, so much for staying in touch! It really means a lot to me!
Love always and signing off after almost a month!,
Auntie Kea-ten! (we're getting there...).
So what have I been up to these past two weeks? Well July 1st (the day after my last entry) marked our youngest kid's first birthday and it was absolutely adorable to see the kids crown around him and sing happy birthday (with an extra verse of "God bless you today!" as is customary) and watch him clap and laugh and smile in celebration (then promptly pass out in Kalienka's arms...). And since then lots has gone on...
I got the opportunity to take a day long trip with Rita, Auntie Ruth (Rosie's mom), and Zach to Grahamstown (this awesome little town!) for Festival - a huge festival with tents full of crafts for sale and food and all sorts of performances (though we couldn't go to any of them). We spent the day looking at local crafts, eating kudu dogs (a local antelope-like animal native to South Africa), relaxing in the sun, and having team and discussing South Africa vs. America with Rosie's sister and brother-in-law. Needless to say I had a great day and picked up a few treasures along the way!
Other highlights have included a trip into East London with the kids to see Toy Story 3 (so great and the kids loved it for the most part - and were so well behaved!!), a trip to the dairy farm where the kids got to see the cows being milked, pet some baby calves, and try the milk, headband making (they really like the ones that Sophie gave me so we made some more with things we found around the house! - I still hear chorus' of "we can make bandages today?"), and volunteering to make crepes for dinner (let me tell you, making crepes for 35 kids plus volunteers plus mamas is no easy task!!).
Really lots has happened in the past two weeks, it's hard to recap! In the past two weeks six other volunteers have come and gone. Kalienka and Adell were here for two weeks (two awesome girls from South Africa off on university holiday), Liz and Matt were here finising up the tail end of their seven month world trekking adventure, and Yani and Paul Horn (who works for Notre Dame) came by for a short two day stint to take pictures of the ISSLP site. They are all greatly missed but have assured us they will stay in touch (and perhaps we'll be seeing some of them back in here within the next year!).
This past weekend also marked our World Cup final celebration! We kciked off our celebration with a big soccer game (volunteers vs. children of course) in town (volunteers barely lost by golden goal...). The kids got a surprise from Auntie Caitlin at the end of the game too - Notre Dame hats! (rest assured that they have been taught how to say "Go Irish!" and they do...a lot...). Then last night (the night of the final) we had a pinata! (Truth be told the paper mache pinata that we attempted to make with the kids became a shriveled up raisin when the balloon popped too early so it was really just a cardboard box that we decorated and let them beat up on for a while...). But the pinata was amazing!!! It was actually so hilarious to watch! The kids chanted everyone's name as they swung and by some sort of divine miracle no one got hit (though there were a few very close calls!). *Ps. if anyone wants to send a REAL pinata, it would be most welcome!* We also decorated cupcakes with the Van Beveren secret recipe for frosting and decorated the lounge with balloons and flags made in my playroom classroom. Then we watched the game with the older ones (but let me tell you, by that time I was so wiped out I could barely stay awake!!).
In the past two weeks we have also been blessed with the arrival of two new volunteers that will be with us for a while: Pat and Erin. Funny story actually...(although perhaps not so funny to Erin). The night that we were supposed to pick up Pat (an exciting event for me since he'll be here for the whole year too!) Rosie, Caitlin, Katelyn, Elyssa, Zach and I all piled into the bus and went to fetch him in East London. We made a quick pit stop at Windmill for milkshakes and the convenience store to load up on Magnum bars (these delicious chocolate ice creams!!) and candy and then went on to the airport. There we messed around and probably annoyed everyone within 5 feet of us by playing cap baseball (so much fun by the way!). Finally we saw Pat arrive and he came over to us with only he had another girl in tow. We chatted with Pat, not sure who this other girl was, but when Pat turned to get his bags she introduced herself to us. We busted up laughing we had NO idea who she was! She then proceeded to follow us all back to the van and put her bags in. We couldn't hold it in - we just lost it at this point and doubled over laughing and nose-going to see who would have to ask her who she was. Finally someone told her and Pat they should take a trip to the "lou" before we left so we could call Auntie Rita. We did and of course when we called Rita told us that she'd forgotten to tell us we had another volunteer coming too! We felt SO bad! Poor Erin, we'd just completely ignord her!! It was pretty hilarious in the end though and ended up working out just fine. She's great and Pat's great and it's all wonderful!
As for the anecdotes from the past two weeks about the kids? There have been lots. One day one of the kids, a particularly hilarious three (or four?) year-old boy who always looks surprised heard me telling the other kids to be quiet. He then proceeded to point his finger at everyone who was talking face and scold them "stop it!" then move on to the next one "stop it! stop it! stop it!" it was too, too precious! This is the same kid, mind you, who runs up to you five times a day (at least) and say "what'syoname" (one word) and then quickly follows it up with "Kea-ten!" before you can get a word in edgewise. This same boy (wow I've got lots of stories about him!) also tried to do the spiderman web shooting thing with his fingers but accidentally flipped Auntie Liz and I off (woops!). Another little boy, a hilarious boy who is quite the charmer (he just bats his eyelashes and you do whatever he tells you...) broke it down in the garade while we were waiting to go to the movies (I will be sure to get some videos of him dancing - it's just too precious for words!!). Another favorite of mine is when one night we took a night walk (with glow in the dark rings!) - we broke up into groups of three (one adult and two children) and it was just the most hilarious thing to watch the kids hide in the grass and try to scare other groups! Well one of the kids I was with found it so funny that he ran ahead of us and scared US! It was super scary!! Speaking of being scared too, the tiniest (yet oddly strongest) nine year-old boy you'll ever meet followed me out of his house one night when the power went out - ofcourse I didn't know it - and I kept hearing footsteps behind me that would stop when I stopped and start when I started walking - I was seriously terrified! He then jumped on my back so I screamed bloody murder! So ridiculous! Tricky boys...
I seriously could just go on and on and on. The funny moments number in the thousands every day! And I guarantee that my imitations of their thick accents and their funny sayings will continue long after I've returned home ("I am losing?!" for one - that's what they say when they think they've lost a privilege...).
My duties with the children have also changed since the last blog entry I wrote. Since the kids are heading back to school tomorrow, I will no longer be having my group of ten in the playroom (phew!). The past two weeks have definitely been a challenge - though I love them all. I eventually wised up after the first few days and would wait patiently for them to calm down before I started anything. I mean literally I would just sit and wait for them to listen to me. It actually got pretty funny as they'd notice how quiet I was and say "sooo-rry Kea-ten!" over and over again. We also got to starting the mornings with a little yelling, which was always fun. We'd scream together and they'd watch for the signal to stop and then we'd start up again. Good times! But in any case, those days are now over and it's back to school tomorrow! So what am I doing now? Well, I am now taking each child (over 4 years) into the playroom individually and observing them play. It's actually pretty interesting. I can't divulge any details but suffice it to say that you would be surprised to hear the things that are said in accordance with what you know about each child. It's a really great time for me to get to know the kids though and to let them express themselves by playing since their language isn't developed enough just yet to say what they're feeling. I also am going to help out in the preschool and get the three girls whose English isn't quite good enough for them to attend school caught up.
As if there weren't enough highlights in this blog entry - I have one more! We actually go to spend a volunteers night out the other night at a Game Reserve not far from here called Mpatshane (proundoung mm-pa-tsha-nay) with Rosie and her friends. It was great! We got to talk, dance, and just get to know some of the locals outside of Open Arms - not to emntion this game reserve is beautiful and we saw some zebras! (however only briefly...).
In any case, I suppose I shouldn't go on too long here, but the truth is: I love it here. I say it every time but I really do. I love the houses and the beautiful sunrises. I love the kdis and their antics and the way they roll their Rs. I love trying to learn Xhosa (I'm failing miserably...). I love the food (for the most part). I love watching moveis and eating chocolate chips with the volunteers (feel free to send more!). I love having the kids fall asleep in my lap. I love watching them play. I even love being jumped on. This play is just full of love. And while I do get frustrated and tired and even verging on angry sometimes - the truth is I mostly just feel so happy being here and I can't believe my good fortune!
Of course, I miss you all but thank you so, so much for staying in touch! It really means a lot to me!
Love always and signing off after almost a month!,
Auntie Kea-ten! (we're getting there...).
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