The morning that the creche course started , we arrived at the school and found a big empty room. No chairs, no tables, no people and no power for the laptop and projector to work. Fun times lay ahead for us: "Are we too early?", "Where are the people?", "Where are the people going to sit, IF they do arrive?", "How can we get power for the electronics?", "How on earth is this course going to be a success?" … all these questions were racing through our minds as we stood in this empty room, feeling very lost and not quite sure what to do.
A few minutes later, a lady walked in and got some children to carry chairs from a different room to our room. We got an extension cable running from the main house to the room for electricity. A few minutes later, there were a few more ladies walking in the door. When the course finally started, we had a total of 15 students in the room.
The ladies always eager to listen and learn
The course is usually run over a period of 6 weeks (where the student comes 1 day a week for 2 hours). Since we did not have Sis. Leona with us for 6 weeks, we needed to have a crash course, and it was done in 4 days flat ! That meant having to double up on the hours, i.e., we would be busy for 5 hours each day teaching and learning. The ladies were all very attentive and enjoyed the course, as evident in the photos below.
Leona teaching the "Today is" chart
Craft time.. making a spider
Joyce with a beautiful sun flower made of polystyrene
Even though the course was squeezed into 4 days (done super quick), the ladies still managed to do their homework and present it to the class.
Julia showing her Bee she made
Ntombisa made a doll out of old rags
Zameka showing cat she made
It works well to let the ladies do the actions to songs, play the games themselves and do everything we want them to do with the children. This way, the ones who can't understand or speak English can at least see what we do and they also remember it so much better.
Singing songs
Memory games
Musical chairs
Balancing tins
Playing games to teach concepts
The students made crafts; some were just to see how to make things out of waste; others were specifically for puting on their wall at the creche to teach their children.
Making weather charts
All in all, the crash course turned out to be a very successful, We also got to build many great relationships.
Lovely group photo for our first course
Because we had a relatively small number attend, we got to know the ladies very well. The township in which they work is also much smaller than Tembisa in Kempton Park. The day after the course ended, we (Leona, Hendri, Liezl and Sheriden) went to drop off the ladies certificates at their creches. We could also then see what kind of facilities they had.
We didn't have a clue where the creches were; so we would drop off one certificate and get the teacher of that creche to drive with us to the next creche, and so it went on until we got to the last one. Bro. Sheriden who came with us was able to donate a cot to one of the teachers who had almost no place for her children to sleep.
First creche we visited, where we could help out with a cot
Leona singing a song with the children
Children LOVE you from the first time they see you
Children excited to see Bro. Sheriden
Very popular activity
Nap time in car chairs
Pre School with 7 children
Well behaved children...
Zameka receiving her certificate
With these relationships that have now been established, we can move on to running more courses such as brain gym, cooking courses, homework clubs, Sunday school, Bible classes and correspondence courses.
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