Tired

     As the title says, I am very tired.  We woke up at 7am in order to walk two miles to the train station.  Today was our first day on the train, so all the classmates met together to walk to the train.  One girl was late and it ended up making us miss the train and be 30 or 35 minutes late for class.  It wasn't a huge deal though because Grant rearranged this lesson plan in order to not leave anything out.  When we first got to class, Grant asked us to think of our own personal motto.  Tyler couldn't think of one, so she borrowed mine.  Today was the "sad class".  We discussed the poverty in the school and the other challenges the students face.  Some of the stories Grant told us, made my skin crawl.  I will only tell one of them because I don't want people getting nervous to read my blog because of these stories.  Kids here hardly ever miss school.  When they do miss school the teachers and the principal notices big time.  These two children were absent two days in a row and so when they came back to school they were asked why they had missed school.  The children said that their mother didn't wake them up.  All of these kid's parents work, so they asked why she didn't get up.  The kids said that she was just very tired and was unable to get up.  Social services here are very good, so they checked on the woman only to find out that she had been dead for 2 nights.  As I said, I won't tell any of the other stories, but they get a whole lot worse.  There is so much stress on these children, but they are so happy.  They are some of the happiest children I have ever seen.  I wish so badly that some of the kids in the USA could see what I have seen here.  The low income schools struggle, but not like this.  These kids have so little, but seem so much happier and more confident than middle school kids I have worked with in the USA.  Apparently there are really strict child laws here, but because young children working is so ingrained in the culture a lot of kids are asked to stay home to work on the farms.  The parents don't report the farmers because there are times when the kids are the only ones able to work and if they don't work on the farm, then they don't get to live in the houses.  While this is a very common thing, the people who are reported and put in jail are singled out as especially bad by the inmates.  Grant said that there are murderers in jail that see people who broke a child law as really bad and they are not treated well in the jail.

     On a lighter note, Grant's mom made us beef curry!!!  It was so delicious.  She is so hard on herself.  She was talking to me about how she wasn't happy with the curry because the carrots weren't soft enough.  They barely had any crunch to them.  She is such a wonderful cook.  Grant said that she is going to make Chinese stir fry for us soon!  I know it probably won't be the same as the Chinese food in America, but it will be close enough.  She also made us scones for snacks.  After class we got back on the train and began our two miles back home.  On our way home, we saw a woman in the middle of the street and it looked like she had fallen.  Apparently she got hit by a car!!!  Tyler said he saw that she was bleeding on her head and everything.  I didn't see the blood, but I saw that she had a baby with her.  I think the baby was ok  because she wasn't crying, but it was still so scary!  Now we are home, very tired, and just hanging out.  We may go downtown for dinner tomorrow night, but other than that we have no plans.  Sunday will be tons of fun because we are going on a tour of Robben Island!  That's about it.  Hamba kakuhle.