Doorknobs
Like a swarm of screwdriving pirannahs, an army of YMCA workers, students in the peer education program and caretakers descended on Groenvlei High School today, removing old and broken doorknobs and replacing them with shiny new ones. Step one of our restoration plans was a sucess.
Pictures:
1) Locks galore
2) Installation
3) Peer Educators group photo
4) This road divides 2 gang turfs
Edit: Today (the next day) is also worth writing down... This morning, going to a store to pick up a meat-pie, I got too close to a money truck and a guard pointed a massive shotgun at me. Most of the day was spent supervising a teacher-less classroom, managing insane jr. high kids all day. I counted 5 comments from the girls about my beautiful blue eyes, while the boys just threaten to stab everything in sight. At one point I physically had to bar the door and shove kids out of the entrance to keep them in the class. My partner drew a massive penis on the board during one long impassioned speech, and in the final class, a student vomited out his nose.
5 comments:
Your mom put me onto your blog. It's great. Really it is. I was
thinking of how to reply to your entry about your thoughts on God,
but I am not able to come up with anything profound. I must
admit that I can personlly relate to a lot of what you wrote though I
would not be able to write it as passionately or eloquently as you
did. Thanks!
The photos of the lock replacement are great to see. Just even you
little PS as the bottom of the photos about following the money
truck, the kids at school, the "art" work, etc all make me realize
what a TOTALLY different world you are finding yourself in. No
wonder you feel just "a bit" stressed out at times.
Take good care of yourself and know that you are in my thoughts
often.
A hug of encouragement from
Cathy
Hey Cathy
thanks for the encouragements. I also struggle to come up with profound things to say, usually it ends up being questions and complaints with no answers.
South Africa is a wierd place because you can totally be in a first-world country, drive for 5 minutes, and find yourself in a 3rd-world slum. Two worlds in one for sure.
We enjoy the photos, hope they keep on coming. I am glad that your first project was successfull.
Do you still plan the paint project?
I can imagine that that will be a big undertaking and hopefully not too messy. Good luck with it. The kids on the photo look so disciplined and obedient in their neat uniform!
Thinking of you a lot.
Your family
Hey family
Painting is still in the plans, though I'm not sure when it'll go. In general the kids in our "peer education" group are well behaved, but the students at large are not.
Duno yet about paint, since the lock project turned into a bit of a gong show. We will try to fix up SOME school for sure, but perhaps the students at this one are just too destructive.
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