Luthando Educare

My placement is a daycare in a township and called, "Luthando Educare". I am in love with it already. There are over 70 children from the ages of 6 months to 5 years. There are 3 connected rooms that consist of a few small plastic tables and chairs that move between rooms, a few homemade posters on the walls, a small collection of old books, a few sets of flashcards, one small set of blocks, a small collection of old crayons, and a whole lot of cement! The resources are very few for the amount of children here, but that doesn't stop the energy. These children are FULL of life! We get there by 8:15 in the morning and it doesn't matter if you are dead tired when you arrive, because you WILL be awake after 10 seconds. There is little schedule and it is very chaotic, but I have surprisingly found myself very relaxed in this crazy setting. There is one woman who stays with the babies in one of the rooms at all times. Then the rest of the children are basically in mine and one other voluneer's charge. The woman who owns the place with her mother, can understand some English so that has been very helpful. But we only see her occasionally; she walks in to settle the kids down (we don't speak their language so they don't listen to us!), then she's out again. This leaves the two of us young girls to manage and entertain 60+ children for the day! It has been so much fun though and I am learning so much from this experience!