Bananas

The last few days we have begun to get the swing of things. On Tuesday we arrived at James House at 10am, the scheduled time for us to start, but we had to wait for about a half hour for any kids to show up. Ultimately not a lot returned for the second day, which I probably wouldn't have either. Only 3 of the 5 kids in my group came back, so we joined up with another group for the day and started off by playing the human knot icebreaker where everyone grabs hands and has to untangle themselves. At some point during this game both Tess and I ended up with blood on our clothes from some kid with a cut. After 2 years of working with blood at the Hutch this was definitely not my first encounter with foreign blood on my clothes, but I know that here blood is high risk so it freaked me out a little bit. Needless to say today we did our first load of laundry.

Photo cred Tess
We went over peer pressure and STD's with the kids in the morning, which was a pretty basic start to the day. I also heard a quote that seems to be a common saying here during some condom discussion; the boys kept saying that you wouldn't eat a banana without peeling it first, or you wouldn't eat a candy with the wrapper on. Horrible as it was I found it really entertaining. We then went on to spend the rest of the day talking about pregnancy. We asked them to make a list of questions about it first, and these kids know almost nothing about it besides you get fat and as Riri put it "when you're pregnant all you want to do is clean and sleep." Hahaha sure, something like that. My group discussed the issue of telling your parents if you get/get someone pregnant, and everyone overwhelming agreed that they would be terrified to tell their fathers. Mandla said his dad's reaction would be "congratulations! Now get your things and get out." That sounds pretty normal to me, but it was still kind of funny. Finally there was a guy named Smash who is without question the most outspoken kid in the group. Smash is a little bit of a player, and started to tell us about his two girlfriends which we then managed to discuss somehow in every conversation. Thank goodness for him because he kept things interesting.

Although we are constantly pushing the use of condoms, the kids reminded us yet again that they don't really know how to use one. We thought about doing a demonstration since Tess and Meghan had brought bananas for lunch, but we didn't have time today. Hopefully that will happen in the next few days.

At lunch Tuesday instead of hair braiding, we tried to learn how to dance from some of the littler girls. They were doing the coolest African dances, and we tried to follow them but it was a hot mess. I have some great videos of it but the internet isn't good enough to upload them.

After our day at James House we drove to nearby Chapman's Peak where you can see the whole of Hout Bay. There we watched the sun go down over the western cape and got some AMAZING pictures. Plently of "glam shots" as Erica says, as well as a few fun ones. There was a railing that reminded me of the Titanic, so of course I had to take a picture on it. These are the incredible results.



Photo creds Tess and Catherine
Finally, roommate bonding has reached a whole new level. I told them about butt huts, where you put up blankets around your bunkbed to make a little hut, and we now have butt hut parties at night before bed.

And as if constant poop talk wasn't bonding enough, my roommates and I have reached a new level of comfort with each other. Tonight as I showered they took turns coming in to use the toilet, brush their teeth, and get ready for bed. It was like being back in the Chi O bathrooms and kind of made me miss home. Though with the apparent bedbug infestation I would much rather be here.