We started service sites this week. I am already dreading having to say goodbye to the kids. I am working at place called River of Life or "RivLife." Our first day was insane. We planned out the schedule of what our regular week will be looking like. Tuesdays and Fridays we will be going to a women's HIV/AIDS support group in the morning and coming back to RivLife in the afternoon to play with the kids. Wednesdays we will be going to hang out with the "Gogos" which is a group of old ladies who basically meet because they all want to remain active. They go for runs, they do gardening, they do everything. I can't wait for them. We're going to have a dance class for them. It's going to be so great. Thursdays we will be going out to do home visits to people who are terminally ill to clean their houses or cook food or do anything they need help with.
After we planned out our weeks, the ladies who work there, Gloria and Beatrice, basically told us we were going to play with kids all day. So my team and I, comprised of 7 other girls, took all 30-ish kids outside. We went out to the tent and all the kids sat on chairs and stared at us as if they were waiting for us to do something amazing. So all 8 of us just kind of stood there...Whaaaat do we do? These kids don't speak English. We don't know any Zulu. This is going to be interesting. So naturally we reverted to good-old "Ageko Ofana" which is a simple Zulu song we learned on day one in South Africa. We figured it would be a good icebreaker since most kids we have met know this song. So we all got into it, clapping and doing the hand motions. The kids just stared with blank expressions and mouths wide open.
Aaaalright then. Moving on to Plan B.
Duck duck goose, anyone? We decided it would be semi-easy to teach kids how to play duck duck goose without using words. We figured we could just teach by example. So we got all the kids to "hlala" (aka "sit") in a circle. We brainstormed and squealed with excitement when we realized we knew the Zulu word for duck (idada), but then felt defeated when we didn't know the word for goose. We made it work though. We changed goose to lion (ibhubesi).
"Idada...idada....idada...IBHUBESI!!"
One of us proceeded to stand up and drag a kid along with us around the circle. We did that a couple times, then realized we were not getting through at all. I got picked to be the ibhubesi, and when I went to pick up a little girl she started crying hysterically. Let's just say we failed at Idada, Idada, Ibhubesi.
Then it hit us...SOCCER. It seems like every kid in the nation knows and loves this game. It was the perfect way to get most of the kids involved without having to talk.

Somehow in my time in college, I have forgotten how unsanitary children can be. There was this little boy on the first day eating a plum, but somehow managed to get the plum all over his shirt and hands instead of in his mouth. And for some reason he felt the need to jump all over me. Every kid has snot running all over his face and wipes it on you like it's no big thing. It's disgusting. But they are so cute you can't help but love them.
The second day we went to the women's HIV/AIDS support group. There are about 10 women who meet twice a week and do crafts and stuff like that. When we first got there they were all pretty quiet and didn't seem like they wanted to talk to us. Our Community Engagement professor, Frances, came with us. Thank God he did because he kind of got the ball rolling on asking questions and getting conversation going. The first order of business was getting names down of all the women. That was pretty hilarious. Their names are all so exotic and hard to remember. So we're going around and their throwing out names like Bosolile, Ututu, and then they get to this one lady named Patricia. We were praising Jesus for an American name. Interestingly enough, every time we meet an African with an American name, the name tends to be a rarity in America. Patricia for example. I know one Patricia. Shout out to Aunt Pat. Heyoo. The other lady who works at RivLife is named Beatrice. I have met one Beatrice in my life as well, and that was my friend's hamster. It's still a wonderful day when we have to remember a name that we find familiar. The women are absolutely amazing. They are all HIV positive and look like they are mostly in their late 40s or 50s. The women had the translator ask us if we were sure we wanted to be there and if we knew they were HIV positive. They tried to tell us they would understand if we wanted to bail out early because most people in this country run away at the mention of the word AIDS. It was absolutely heartbreaking to hear that. We assured them we wanted to be there and we weren't scared of physical contact. To show them that we all got up and went around to give each woman a hug. You can tell they don't get hugs very often because they held on as long as possible. After they knew we weren't scared of them or weren't going to run away, they got more comfortable. They pulled out all their crafts and tried to teach us how to crochet. They crochet plastic bags. It's incredible. Like they make mats out of plastic bags they find lying around on the street. I suck at regular crochet, let alone crochet with a plastic bag. It's a bad situation. I'll leave the crochet to the ladies. It's hard to communicate with them because there is only one translator, but we will make it work. I'm really excited to go back.

I already have a favorite child. His name is Aya and I want to take him home with me. He is so cuddly and has the most beautiful big brown eyes. I am in love. I just love love LOVE my service site so much. The next few weeks are going to fly by, but I'm going to love every second of it.