There’s No Such Thing as an Ordinary Day at Nceduluntu!
“Teacher! Teacher!” is our wakeup call here in Gordon’s Bay, South Africa. The kids run at you when you arrive and you know that it’s going to be a good day.
After feeding the gorgeous babies in the morning it’s time to have the first lesson of the day – Maths. We start the lesson off by singing the morning some and going through the class rules. Normally we have around 10 kids in each class with two teachers. After 30 minutes of Maths we move on to English where we are practicing shapes, colours, objects and writing together with the kids. We get the opportunity to see them develop and move up to higher classes, which is our goal.
During snack time which is right after English, we make sure that the kids pray and don’t spill all of their food which is hard work! After some free play where we can get to know the kids better and start recognising their laughter, we come to my favourite part of the day – physical, music and movement! All of the kids (around 50), the carers and the volunteers gather together in a big circle to sing and dance. The kids get a chance to show off their awesome rhythm to the rest of us!
“Who wants to go to class?” asks Ali, the coordinator of Nceduluntu, and soon they are all lined up one-by-one ready for our creative session where we let them use their own imagination and just be kids.
After 30 minutes of scissors, colours and glitter we serve the kids their lunch (and make sure they eat it all up) it’s “Shoes off, toilet and lala” - time for the kids daily nap. They are packed in like sardines in one of the classrooms, while we play around with the babies, talk to the carers, eat lunch and wait for the kids to wake up. That’s the main focus for the afternoon – to give them attention, a shoulder to lean on. This is the time the younger kids who don’t have class with us during the day get one-on-one time with us in the container classroom. This is something they all look forward to and constantly ask “Teacher, me?!”
At around four, it is time for us to say “see you tomorrow” and start looking forward to the following day with the kids.
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