Bhekuzulu Youth Club

The time has come to update you all about the status of the Bhekuzulu Youth Club. We are now at week two and it is running wonderfully! It is amazing how easy it is to please these kids. The first week we did simple friendship bracelets made out of embroidery floss.this was an absolute hit. the kids asked if we could continue making them. unfortunately, it was time to move on. This week we did (are in the process of doing) simple self portraits. the instructions was to be as detailed as possible when drawing--the first day was only with pencil--and today will be with paint on their pictures. I was really amazed to see how much of a good time they had! CRAZY. I wish children in the US were this enthusiastic about anything, if that was true with the resources that are available to us we would all be geniuses! Up close it is amazing to see how greatful these children are. Any activity is a fun, great one. Anything makes them happy. Soon we will be sewing and making bags, aprons and then on to scarves and beading. It is strange to work with children who do not have any idea of how to draw or have very poor fine motor skills. It breaks my heart. However, we are changing this. Hooray!

I am not really too clear on how the life skills went last week. from the report that i got from my coworker, things went well. however, she did mention that the woman who came to talk to them about teenage pregnancy also mentioned that when young girls eat cheese they get horny and wearing pants makes them want to have sex more. when i brought this up as being untrue, i was told that this was ZULU CULTURE and that I was just simply mistaken. Whatever, they did get the knowledge about why getting pregnant early is bad and how to avoid it--so you win some you lose some, i guess? sometimes my life is so crazy i cannot accurately describe it in words. ANYWAYS! Tomorrow we are doing a nutrition lesson that I am hoping will include lots of fun with fruits and vegetables. yum yum.

Here are some pictures from the two weeks:

WEEK ONE: bracelets!

WEEK TWO: Self Portraits

Note: our group has expanded to 50 kids! Eeeek! This means that there is a great deal of over crowding for the big activities (such as drawing on huge pieces of paper). However, this should improve with stuff like beading and one on one activities such as sewing.