Hello everyone!
Having been at Bana ba Metsi now for almost 3 weeks I thought
I would give anyone interested, a little run down of my daily activities. First
off, the schedule here is ordered around a number of bells being rung at
different times, the first of which being at 6am to wake the boys (and us) up. The
second is to signal the serving of breakfast which is either tasty homemade
bread (sometimes with a very sweet coffee) or soft porridge, which I haven’t yet
tried with the optional mayonnaise addition the boys love. Next up is registration
before the boys do a quick prayer, have a sing and are told something in
Setswana before running off to head to class while the teachers have a quick
chat to see what the agenda of the day entails.
With one teacher away on maternity leave, recently the
volunteers have been covering the standard 5 class, who are the newest students
in the school, just coming up to finishing their third term. This can be a
challenge but with Archie and I taking them for 4 periods (1 period is 35
minutes long) after breakfast and the German volunteers, Nick and Tilmann,
taking them for the 4 after our tea break, or vice versa, it gives everyone
enough time to plan and catch their breath. Between the lessons there is a
break where we get whichever food I mentioned above, that we didn’t get for
breakfast that day.
Lunch is then at 1pm which can be anything from rice, pap, beef, soup/gravy, cabbage in various forms and once a week an orange, not all at once of course. The boys already know me as both tall man and for (apparently) always being hungry, with food piled on my plate by some boys when they serve, and comments about the fullness of my stomach being a hot topic to some. Then on a Tuesday and Thursday at 2-2:30pm is swimming, which is always such great fun and a brilliant way to cool off from the hot weather! There is then a school meeting at 3pm where we understand very little of what is said with everything being in Setswana, apart from the bits from Mr Harpt and Mr Dow. The meeting is then followed directly by manual work where we either help a group or are assigned our own group of boys to do different jobs. So far I have painted the old kitchen and the boy’s toilet block, collected firewood, built a makeshift path from a tap to the pool, collected litter and other various things. I am glad we do manual in the afternoon, so we aren’t in the midday sun too much, and it can end anywhere from 4:30-5:30. Then again on Tuesdays and Thursdays is sports with the boys and apart from that the evening is generally our own. With our dinner of bread at 6:30pm and the ability to watch TV (what the boys are watching), go to the gym, play cards or read etc. we then usually hit the hay early, usually before the boys, for our busy day ahead.
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| The 4 Bana ba Metsi volunteers - Me, Tilmann, Nick and Archie |
Lunch is then at 1pm which can be anything from rice, pap, beef, soup/gravy, cabbage in various forms and once a week an orange, not all at once of course. The boys already know me as both tall man and for (apparently) always being hungry, with food piled on my plate by some boys when they serve, and comments about the fullness of my stomach being a hot topic to some. Then on a Tuesday and Thursday at 2-2:30pm is swimming, which is always such great fun and a brilliant way to cool off from the hot weather! There is then a school meeting at 3pm where we understand very little of what is said with everything being in Setswana, apart from the bits from Mr Harpt and Mr Dow. The meeting is then followed directly by manual work where we either help a group or are assigned our own group of boys to do different jobs. So far I have painted the old kitchen and the boy’s toilet block, collected firewood, built a makeshift path from a tap to the pool, collected litter and other various things. I am glad we do manual in the afternoon, so we aren’t in the midday sun too much, and it can end anywhere from 4:30-5:30. Then again on Tuesdays and Thursdays is sports with the boys and apart from that the evening is generally our own. With our dinner of bread at 6:30pm and the ability to watch TV (what the boys are watching), go to the gym, play cards or read etc. we then usually hit the hay early, usually before the boys, for our busy day ahead.
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| Our first ever lunch - rice, soup, cabbage and occasionally an orange (my favourite) |
I really am loving it here and there is so much more to
share so watch out for more blogs. I hope everyone reading this is getting on
well, especially all my friends just starting university, have an amazing time!
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| Nick, Khosi and Lebole |
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