Monday, June 1st, 2009 11:36PM Portadown, N.Ireland
Today was quite a busy day for me. A lot of trips back and forth to different cities. We had to go and pick up stuff from the office in Lisburn to bring to the base camp that I am currently at and empty it out, then go back to the office for training (which helped but also confused me too) , and then go shopping. Kyle arrived today, he isn’t part of my tour, but he will be helping us out for the beginning. He’s from Ireland, but now lives in Scotland. He’s been really nice to have around. Heather has returned to Scotland where she lives, she works part time as a teacher there. So she will be back on Friday. So we are at the base camp with Kyle pretty much preparing for the children to arrive on Wednesday. Tomorrow we will be unpacking and sorting everything for their travel bags and such. It’s nice to have a boy around, I know it sounds odd, but having 4 brothers, I’m just used to having boys around, so it was a bit weird for me. He’s helpful with preparing us for tour because he has a lot of experience and he has toured mostly in the States so he knows what types of differences we can look out for here, because he has been through the transition already.
I’m staying in a room with Michelle tonight, we are getting closer and closer everyday, it’s really nice to have someone around to talk to. I really enjoyed having a roomate in Kamloops, and I feel the same way now. It won’t be like that for long. When I stay in host families it’s just me and 3 or 4 children in a strangers home. It will be interesting. Anyway, it’s late and I don’t want to keep her or myself up any longer.
Kyle will be going over administration stuff with me again tomorrow, in a bit more detail, so hopefully I will feel a bit more confident about it then. Right now I’m not too nervous, but I do feel as if I need more training and there will be things I will forget. Julian is the Financial Administrator in the UK, so he is sort of another one of my bosses, but he explained everything really quickly and didn’t go into detail (which I need.) I tried to take notes, but it was quite a bit to take in. He’s a really nice guy though, so I know he will be patient with me.
I’ll be off to bed now...
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 4:06PM Base Camp
Yesterday I didn’t really make time to write in here. I did a bit more training, and spent the rest of the day organizing cute clothes into sizes for the children. I’m very anxious to meet them, it’s hard to hear so much about them and only have a photo to look at.
For dinner we made fajitas and home made guacamole. The avocados aren’t that great here, so it took a while to mush them down. It ended up all tasting excellent. It’s my favorite meal so far.
Today Helen arrived, she is in charge of the education for the South African children. They have a certain curriculum that much be followed while on tour. She went into major detail of what we will be doing as far as being tutors, so I’ve learned A LOT today. She went over a lot of history of South Africa which helps me so much to understand the children better and their way of thinking.
Michelle is now becoming the Head Tutor, which puts quite a bit of pressure on her, so I will help out where I can. I will be a tutor along with 4 others teaching Life Skills, Literacy, and Numeracy. We thought it would be easier to have each tutor be assigned to 4 or 5 children instead of the whole group, I think it will be much better that way. The majority are in Grade 3, and a few are in Grade 4, the education system is much different there so we will have to see what actual level they are at when they get here. Some may still be at a Grade 2 level.
The children are due to arrive in 15 minutes, my stomach is in knots because I’m so nervous and excited. It’s crazy. I feel like I have been waiting forever for them to arrive. Things are going to get very hectic for me now, and I will be responsible for them, and they are my priority, everything else comes after.
I am quickly realizing I won’t have much time to communicate as I had realized. I will not be updating everyday. Maybe once a week. I will try my best and you all will have to be patient and understanding with me. It’s a full time job, and it doesn’t stop. On my days off I will be doing everything I can’t do on the other days, such as laundry and any administration stuff I haven’t done. Other team members will also need my help, but I will try to get some alone time so I don’t go crazy. It’s going to be really really really hard to get used to, but I knew what I signed up for and I’m as ready as I can be. The host families will be wanting to talk to me a lot, and I have to be respectful of them, because they are opening up their home, and feeding us as well. I will ask when I think it’s appropriate if they wouldn’t mind for me to use my lap top to communicate with friends and family.
I’m also realizing there would be pages and pages of terms that the Brits use, and I won’t be able to name them all. It would simply take days for me to remember every new word I hear. Each country is very different as well. My favorite word is Portadown right now, because of the accent sound in the “ow.” I can’t do it myself. Irish isn’t an easy accent for me to do, but I have picked up some terms which I’m sure you will hear when I return.
I don’t miss home too much yet. A little bit, but I’m doing relatively well. Also if I didn’t mention it already, I didn’t really get jet lagged, which was nice. Oh I think I did mention it, things are beginning to become a blur for me.
Hope everyone is doing well, again I apologize for not being able to let anyone know that I’m alright. Hope you aren’t too worried about me. I will probably have internet on Friday, not that you know that now...
I’m going now as the children will be here any minute!!! :)
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