Beginning in Old Naledi

The past 2 days have been exhausting. We made our first trips to Old Naledi which is the poorest part of the town. 50,000 people live here and they just live in little shacks. The first thing I saw when entering was a dog whose ribs I could count. It's the kind of place we've been told to never be in after the sun goes down. Champ, a wonderful man who grew up here and is an inspiration to many of them, was our contact and showed us around the area. We saw the school, the Tlamelo project (where they feed 100+ orphans every day), and the church where we met the pastor. We were waiting for the kids to come for lunch the first day and were immediately attacked by 4 and 5 year olds whom we had never even met before. They literally climbed all over us and I think at multiple times we were each holding 3 at a time. I think my clothes were all streched out because of people pulling on them from every angle. We were so excited to finally meet these kids who just wanted to be held and played with. Paul was actually drug to the ground and tackled by all the little boys. We had quite the welcoming.

The next day we met some Canadian students who are leaving next week and have spent the past 4 weeks within the school. They have been doing a lot of work on the administrative side. For those of you that don't know, this is a private school. All children get to go to the public school and if they don't pass then they can go to the private schools to try to get up to par and get back into the public schools. So that means that the teachers in this school are very underpaid and overworked. We hope to continue what the Canadian students have been doing, which involves getting the computer lab running, and getting an after school program going to help with English. We're hoping to set up more long term things that will still be in effect after we leave, so we'll see what happens.

At the Tlamelo project, all the kids eat while we serve them and then they were all hanging around when we sat down to eat. Well today I noticed that 2 of the boys had extra hot dogs and were sharing them with their friends and just gulped them down. Well, I decided that I didn't need my other hot dog thing and asked them if they wanted it. Everyone wanted it and were trying to grab it. Paul then did the same thing and gave his away and I think Nicole and Cara did too. I then decided I did not need the rest of my rice and I think 4 boys went through my plate until it was pretty much licked clean. I could not believe how hungry these kids were. They said that a fair share of these kids were orphans and that was the only meal they get for the whole day. It really was a reality check.