August 3, 2009

Yesterday my interview at Kiddies never happened. The principal didn’t show up because she was doing some kind of teacher training. She has teacher training for the rest of the week… At the beginning of my internship, showing up to find that the principal had forgotten about the interview was frustrating, now it happens so regularly that it doesn’t faze me… Today I went to Sackhingomso, the very first crèche I ever visited, and the one where I am most familiar with the children and staff. It was actually really stressful. Now that I have gone to most of the crèches I have something to compare Sackhingomso with. The same three little boys that fought over seats at specific place at the lunch table my first day visiting, were still at there old habits today. I could see even clearer the habits of the children after visiting so many times. The children were extremely difficult today. I underestimated the severity of the rock incident with the boy who wanted my water bottle. The same boy who was throwing rocks at me over the water bottle that I wouldn’t share with him tried to attack me again today. I was sitting in the chair just observing the kids and he came up to me and tried to rip my sweater off. Then when I told him to stop, he proceeded by biting my leg really intensely with his teeth. That’s when I got loud and grabbed him and asked him what he was doing. He obviously did not understand me but Constance, the teacher, knew exactly what was going on because he is one of the regular troublemakers. The later on a girl with down syndrome bit me in the leg again. I can still feel the bite marks in my legs as I am writing this. She is really crazy sometimes. Every time someone walks in the door she runs up to them screaming and she is often really aggressive with everyone else. Sometimes she will ask me to feed her and then she will throw her lunch on me. Everything I touch or do at the crèche, she must mimic, and if it is not the way she likes it, she flips out. The kids were just overall really violent today. There were other instances where kids were literally fist fighting over toys… It was a crazy afternoon.