Exhaustion

So, things are good... but this has been the most exhausting weekend.

I started my internship with the Salvation Army on Friday. Originally, I was thinking that I would double my hours just because I wanted to. That is definitely not happening. It's going to be an awesome experience, but draining in the extreme.

Many of the kids are HIV-positive and all come from very at-risk backgrounds, which is evident in the way that they act and interact with one another. I worked with the toddlers for over 3 hours, and I have never seen so much hitting, slapping, biting and throwing. It is clear that they are used to aggression as one of their only forms of gaining attention. It's really hard too because they don't respond very well to "no" or "stop," and it can get a little concerning when a child is wailing on another with a hard plastic object. The house mothers seem quite unfazed by all of it (most likely because they see it all the time) but it's frustrating because they'll watch kids hurting each other and they won't do anything about it.

Even so, I know that my being there is going to really help out, and I'm sure that I will grow a lot from it too. They can clearly use just a lot of love and attention. I walked in with 3 other interns, and though the kids had never seen us before we were immediately attacked with hugs and pleas to be picked up. From that point on, I had at least one child in my arms the entire time. I have some serious dead-arm right now, let me tell you! It's awesome though... apparently I sound out the "mellow vibe" because two little girls fell asleep in my arms. That was awesome considering that the other interns were throwing kids in the air and twirling them for about 3 hours straight. I probably would have dropped dead if that was me. 

Next time I think I'm going to try working with the older kids. I'm going to need to switch off between the two age groups because twice a week with the little ones would run me into the ground. 

Yesterday I went hiking at the Fercliffe Nature Reserve just outside Pietermaritzburg with a couple friends. It was beautiful. The plants and trees are so unique to South Africa, which was just awesome. We went to a bluff and could look out over the entire city as well, which was great. Along the trails there were hundreds of huge porcupine quills! I had never seen those before, much less in the wild just laying around. We also ran into several monkeys, which is always my favorite. They're so cute! 

Today's been a bit of a rough day. I woke up feeling so homesick for absolutely no reason at all. I guess that comes with the territory when you're 8,000 miles away from home. One day at a time.