Week 7

It was so hard to say goodbye and leave Bulembu. The town became my home for the summer and the people became my family. I hope that I was able to make a difference in their lives, as they were able to make a big difference in mine. I learned so much about myself this summer that I could not have anywhere else. I had to overcome fears, work outside of my comfort zone, and do things that I had never done before. What I learned in Bulembu I can take back with me for working with children back home, and teaching in the future. The teachers and principal were so helpful in providing tips and feedback for teaching. Those are things that you can only learn through experience. I hope I was able to teach the kids something new. Whether that was through the math lesson that I taught or just from our conversations about The United States and my life and theirs. Bulembu is such an incredible town and the people there are doing amazing things. I hope that one day I can return to Bulembu to continue making a difference there. 

Week 6

Overall I think that our team made a positive impact on Bulembu. The work projects that we were asked to complete were finished as well as other projects. We painted two houses, inside and out, and helped with some smaller projects such as painting crosswalks throughout town. At the school I was able to assist the teacher with everything from teaching lessons, to helping watch classes while teachers weren’t there, and grading tests. Although at times it felt like I wasn’t making that much of a difference, the teacher told me that even the small things did help, such as keep the kids quiet during a lesson which allowed the teacher to get just a little bit more time teaching the kids rather than stopping the lesson to discipline them. In the toddler homes we were able to give the Aunties, who work so hard, a break and play with the kids or help them do laundry. To us it seems like little things that don’t make much of a difference, but to the Aunties it shows them our appreciation for what they are doing. With the older kids that I worked with I helped them with chores, talked to them, and played with them. Hopefully I was able to relieve, even just for a little while, the stress that they have to deal with because of their pasts. I was even able to reassure one of the girls who is traveling with the choir to Canada in September, that traveling is fun and that she shouldn’t be worried about flying on an airplane. I feel like I was able to make a difference in the lives of the people in Bulembu through the different projects that we worked on. 

Week 5

This trip has been such a fantastic experience. I have learned so much about teaching, the people and their culture, and myself. Most people here have little compared to what people have back home, but to them they have more than enough. The children value everything that they have and take pride in everything, even the little things. When they come home from school they immediately change out of their uniforms so that they do not get them dirty while playing. The group of girls that I was working with received a few different card games from a volunteer, they loved to play with them but they made sure to take care of them. They were careful to not bend the cards and always put them carefully away in the box and in their Auntie’s closet when they were finished with them. I think that we can learn from the way that the children and people in Bulembu live, by taking pride in and valuing everything that we have, even the little things. The people here not only value their belongings, but they value the people around them. Everyone stops to say hello and to have a conversation with you when you see them. When you say hello in SiSwati, you aren’t just saying hello you are asking how they are and having a small conversation. Everyone cares about each other they show it. We can also learn from this. Since we are so busy back home we let some things go and most of the time that’s stopping to spend time with the people around us and showing that we care about them. The people in Bulembu taught me and reminded me about so many important life lessons that I can bring back home with me. 

Project Reflection

Organizing the rescue has been one of my goals and I can proudly say that it has been accomplished. We finally cleaned out the side room and have turned that into an alternative entrance for the rescue and an office. My supervisors live there and wanted to make the place feel more like a home and with the office the foot traffic would stay and stop there.

We are also in the process of installing a computer to keep all of the records. Thankfully one of the other volunteers is very tech savy and wanted to input the dog’s data of not only this year but past years since we found some old records.

My organization has also moved towards the lone cabin on the property which is filled to the brim with stuff. Thankfully, I had Audri and Logan to help me get the mess organized. Thanks guys! After a few days of constant rummaging, screaming in panic when a roach popped it’s head out of the box I was caring, and heaving heavy junk around I managed to make the room breathable and not something straight out of hoarders.

I found some cool stuff that my supervisors let me keep and also some stuff we could donate to other non-profit organizations. For the rest of the stuff I really want to do a yard sale and give needed profits for the rescue.

I’ve never planned to do this, but my supervisor had enough trust in me to look after the volunteers that came in during the summer and train them. They were great and actually hard working, which was appreciated since  a lot of the work would have taken days to finish by myself.

I even got to take a few of them out to the agility field to run their own dogs. It was loads of fun!

I’m also very satisfied with my progress with Kurt. He is an amazing dog, but secretly I would like to see him with a family since to me he is more of a cuddly family dog. Oh, well. He is so good that sometimes I don’t even need a leash with him. We just play ball and he knows to always bring it back to me.

Nanda, Rachael and I even took him to the beach to see how he would react and also to relax ourselves. Let's just say that Kurt is now a water dog. If I didn’t have a leash on him he would have swam out to sea.

This summer has been very productive and amazing. I can honestly say that this has been one of the best summers I’ve had besides that one time I went to Disney.

That’s all for now! Stay tune. Same Bat Channel. Same Bat Time!  

Relationships in the Community

While working at the rescue I was able to attend a few service dog demos and take the service dogs I’m training out into the town. The first one was awesome even though they failed to mention that it was at a church.

Oops. Well, at least the shirt they gave me was appropriate!

The padre, father, pastor, or whaever other non-catholic religious leaders are called, told me and my other two supervisors that we were going to do a special trick with each of our dogs. Luckily my friend Annie taught Kurt how to hug for the laughs.

The padre practically melted when Kurt hugged him. I just pumped my fist in the air in victory, in my head of course and gave a large piece of hotdog for Kurt.

Now to perform this in front of a large number of people. Yeah, no pressure. These are church people. Church people are nice right?

Yes, they were. Once Kurt hugged the father, everyone wanted a piece of this ham.

And who could blame them with a face like that.

My favorite part about this whole thing was the kids. I’ve never seen so many kids so excited during a sermon. They practically ganged up on Kurt, but he didn’t care.

One of the kids even stuck to his side for most of the sermon and just played with him. I had to learn to try and be patient with this kid especially when my supervisors were advising me that Kurt being belly up and being played with was a huge no-no when he had the vest on.

The kid was cute, and a total sass mistress.

My second experience was with a deaf girl named Amanda. She was visiting from around the Miami area to receive one of our service dogs. She and I bonded for our mutual love of Pokemon and she started to show off all of her level 100 pokemon. Oh, and guess what? She actually caught them all.

Exhibit A: Nerds Nerding Out.

She really started to open up with me and her mom helped me understand what she was saying when the signing got complicated. She wanted to be a Veterinarian and asked me a bunch of questions about college and Pokemon. She even taught me some signing words, but of course my short attention span only caught ‘Me Too’.

When I’m not handling Kurt, I’m handling my favorite little terror CJ.

Dennis the Menace in his dog persona.

I took him to WalMart whenever we needed to make a run to the store and walked him around certain obstacles like kids or people in wheelchairs. Especially kids, he is sometimes wary of them.

We’ve also had a couple of adoptions seven overall. I’m just glad these dogs find themselves with people they could love on. Good old Summer is gone with her new owners, which means my sandwiches live to see another day! Now we don’t have to keep fixing the door too!

Double win!

That is all that I need to share! Aniarka out!

Week 4

While working in the school I was able to plan and teach my own math lesson for the grade two class that I had been working with. They were just starting a new unit at the time about volume. I picked a day to do my lesson and the teacher gave me the topic, ironically they were learning about liters and milliliters, a measurement system that we don’t use in the United States. I used the format for lesson plans that I am used to using and discussed it with the teacher beforehand. When the morning came to teach the lesson I was a little nervous because the behavior of the children is unpredictable and I have never taught a whole lesson by myself to children before. A few things had to change last minute because of the materials available at the school, but the teacher reassured me that it would be fine. The lesson ended up going very well, the children were on their best behavior and I think the children had a great time. We used different sized bottles to measure how many liters and milliliters of water would fit into each one. After class the teacher pulled one of the kids aside to show me that they really did learn something from my lesson. It was great to know that I could teach them something and make a difference in their education. 

Week 3

Everyone here in Bulembu is amazing! The kids are incredible. I have enjoyed working with them so much, especially the toddlers. At school the kids can be a bit of a handful at times, but that can be expected due to their pasts. They also can be some of the most fun and energetic kids to be around. During snack time and lunch time I sit with some of the younger kids and they love to hear about life back home as well as tell me all about their weekends, but I think that their favorite things are teaching me SiSwati words and playing soccer. Everyday they would beg me to get my notebook so that they could write down more words for me. The toddlers are so much fun to be around and love to sing. We taught them so many new songs from our childhoods. After a long day at the school or doing work projects, the toddlers would always bring a smile to my face and brighten my day, especially when they would yell “Jess-ee-kuh” when I got to their house after school. The Aunties are just as amazing as the children. They give up three weeks of each month to live full time with the children. Many of them leave their own children and families to work in Bulembu. They are such welcoming women and have such big hearts. They are doing amazing work with the children. Everyone else in Bulembu is also so welcoming and always say hello and stop whatever they are doing to talk to you when they see you. The whole community is working towards one goal, becoming self- sustainable in order to provide the necessary love and care to orphaned children so that they can lead long and successful lives. This one goal brings everyone in the community together, which you can see whenever you talk to or work with anyone from Bulemebu.