What I Do All Day

Many of you have asked, "So what do you exactly do all day, besides blog and eat boerewors?" To answer your question:

Lately I've been working on developing an after-school programme for the orphan day centres. I have been looking over some wonderful children's bible studies from churches here and in Modesto (thank you, BVG!), and breaking one week's lesson into five, smaller sessions, adding games that contribute to the Bible lesson's theme, etc., so that every day after school, the orphans will have a programme that will centre on a weekly idea/lesson/theme/verse.

Every morning begins with prayer and devotions with the team. Some mornings we get into heated debates; some mornings we share something that touched us deeply and have "watery" eyes, and some mornings we need an extra cup of coffee.

Some days I go shopping with Christo at Makro (similar to Costco in the U.S.) to buy food for the orphans. Some is distributed to the day centres, and some is prepared into parcels and given to the orphans once a month, to cover the meals they don't get at the day centres. The parcels take a few days to prepare. It takes at least two people and sometimes three trolleys full of food to load, unload, load, unload, and load again (Christo does most of that!). Then it has to be driven out to the townships.

Other days can involve trips to the post office, organising used clothing to be distributed to the orphans, making coffee for my boss and those meeting with him, answering phones, or just working on building relationships with those whom I work, both at the office and out in the township.

Every day ends at 1:00 for me, when I go to pick up the children from school, prepare lunch, supervise homework, etc. I guess saying that my day "ends" at 1:00 isn't quite true... in many ways it is just beginning!

To be honest - I've only been here six months, so I still feel like the "newbie" who hasn't found her rhythym yet. There is still much to learn, much to understand. I don't always see the big picture. Sometimes I only get little bits that are fuzzy. But like anyone at a new job, I plug away and hope to do better in time, becoming more intuitive as to what needs to be done, and hopefully proficient at how to do it (in a culturally relevant context... that's the hard part!).