Sisonke life has been very busy for this teacher.

Last weekend we had a fundraiser at one of the local hostels. It was Halloween and we dressed up and had a ton of games that I and the other American volunteer put together. I had the kids created the decorations such as bats and paper mache pumpkins. I also helped the children of my class bake cookies and muffins.
The games that we generated were “Bobbing for Apples”, “Mummy Wrap”, a guessing game of which we had the British volunteer where a large pumpkin, a “3 Legged Monster Race” and a “Pool Tournament of Doom”. These games along with the bake sale helped generate over R600!!! Thank you to all that participated in some sort of way.
The “Sisonke Stars of the Week” will kick off next week. This is the positive reinforcement program that the teachers agreed to try out. I am looking forward to seeing how this will go.
I have also proposed that we have a reading peer program. Not sure what we will call it but basically the Grade 4/5 children will go into Grade 1 and read to the children. The goal is to give the older kids a sense of responsibility and a sense of leadership. They will have the option of reading in Xhosa or in English and they get to pick the book that they read to the students. This will start next week.
For my own class, I we have set aside to work with the students that are struggling. This will give them some one on one time with me and the Grade 1 teacher that is training right now.
Also, I am doing some remedial work three days a week. That part is very rewarding.
The mother of one of the teachers here, whom of which is Xhosa, passed away yesterday. Prior to her passing, I offered the teacher help with anything that she needed. She told me “I would like for you to meet my mother.” I was extremely shocked and much honored. Unfortunately, her mother did not make it but, the teacher asked me to come to the wake. She wanted me to see a Xhosa wake. ..I was told that this is a very deep honor to be invited to a wake, especially since I am white. I accepted and I will be attending the wake this Saturday.
I am enjoying my time off of work. I have been in the jungle, swung in the trees, jumped off a cliff by a waterfall and got to see a river crab!
My heart is warm for this place and I look forward to going home and sharing that warmth with my children, my family and my friends. The best thing you can bring home from a lengthy absence is a smile and warm heart to share.

Sisonke school Work I have done thus far

I would first like to recognise a freind of mine Somer Goulet for all her efforts to help with the art projects here. She has rallied her friends and family and was able to get a ton of things for the children. Thank you so much Somer! The kids will love it!
Okay so here is what I have done for the school thus far. I just finished a teachers training session where I helped put together protocol for when a child is injured. I have updated the first aid kit and I have designed incidents reports to have record of the injuries. My mom, along with her employer, Kaiser, is going to help donate first aid kit supplies!!!
Next teachers training session I will be helping the teachers to come up with lesson plans that suit their goals for their students. It is a wonderful feeling to know that this school can come up with their own curriculum and the teachers can now have a solid foundation to be able to express themselves as a successful educator.
I have also suggested a positive reinforcement program where the children’s positive behavior will he recognized by a “Sisonke Star” throughout the week and then at the end of the week, during assembly, 4 Sisonke Stars will be drawn for a prize! These will generally be schools supplies, they love them 
I am helping out with a fundraiser here in town. It will be a Halloween party and there will be folks dressed up and bobbing for apples like in the good ole U.S of A!
Along with my main lesson, I assist the English teacher, do crafts for the students and every Friday I have a bake session with my class. Tomorrow we are baking chocolate chip cookies.
On a more personal note, I played with a band for the first time ever! I was lead guitar and it felt really good to hear my songs played fully out. Some times with a guitar you only get that level of the song and sometimes does not sound right, but when you get all the elements of the song going, its magic time 
I also had a bit of scare. I took a taxi bus from town back to the house and realized I had lost my phone. We called it and a woman answered and she only spoke Xhosa. So we went down to the woman that lives here on the property and had her call my number back . It was a woman and she found the phone and she said that she would give me the phone if I met her back in town. So Adam, one of the volunteers, walked with me and we got the phone back!!! I gave her R50. She said that she would have been happy with R10. She was more thankful for the money I think than I was for getting the phone back. I was very lucky.
This town is small and I already made friends with the owner of the only place to have your laundry done, the owner and workers at one of the local hostels, the folks at the internet café, the café to the right of the internet café and the curios shop to the left. As I was having a chat the owner of the curio place came up to me and said that she has a bracelet that matched my earrings and she thought of me when she got them in, I had to buy it 
Having fun feeling productive and missing my children!