Sometimes we smile and sometimes we cry as we engage with the children that we work with.
Smile
I had to smile at all the things that the kids in Patensie were up to during the school holidays. Some slept, others played with dolls and jumped rope, while all the boys played rugby. It made me laugh when I asked them if they were in the scrum or in the back line, when some of the tiniest ones were in the scrum. But when I asked them if they can run fast, most of them answered with a very positive: “Yes!”
I love the times I spend at Patensie. It is now beginning to feel as if I have settled in in my role there and that the staff are now comfortable with my presence among them. I am so encouraged by the progress that all 15 children I work with are making. May this reading key unlock many doors for them in their lives.
Cry
This past week a girl that Kagiso is teaching English reading to, made her cry when she heard of her life's circumstances. Sometimes when you look at children from the outside you cannot imagine all the trauma and sadness they are experiencing or had experienced in their lives.
I am therefore so glad for the training that the Sophakama Interns received last Friday from Annemarie Barnard on the subject of sexual abused children. She gave us very practical tools how to be of help to such children.
And so we share the joy and pain of the children we teach.
Evelyn
Smile
I had to smile at all the things that the kids in Patensie were up to during the school holidays. Some slept, others played with dolls and jumped rope, while all the boys played rugby. It made me laugh when I asked them if they were in the scrum or in the back line, when some of the tiniest ones were in the scrum. But when I asked them if they can run fast, most of them answered with a very positive: “Yes!”
I love the times I spend at Patensie. It is now beginning to feel as if I have settled in in my role there and that the staff are now comfortable with my presence among them. I am so encouraged by the progress that all 15 children I work with are making. May this reading key unlock many doors for them in their lives.
Cry
This past week a girl that Kagiso is teaching English reading to, made her cry when she heard of her life's circumstances. Sometimes when you look at children from the outside you cannot imagine all the trauma and sadness they are experiencing or had experienced in their lives.
I am therefore so glad for the training that the Sophakama Interns received last Friday from Annemarie Barnard on the subject of sexual abused children. She gave us very practical tools how to be of help to such children.
And so we share the joy and pain of the children we teach.
Evelyn
