The past couple weeks have been fairly uneventful. I've spent almost every day at the Haven because Aurora follows school holidays and this week has been spring break for the school kids. Because of that, all of the kids have been at the Haven all day, every day. It's bee a bit chaotic, but in the best way possible. I've gotten to spend more time with the older kids who are normally in school, but then I also have to make sure they aren't dominating over the smaller ones too much. It's so amazing to see how different each day can be. One day, they'll all behave well and be wonderful to be around and then the next, they won't listen, they'll hit you, and be really naughty. Of course, that change also happens within a few hours. Yesterday, there was one 8 year old boy named Akhona who got so upset when I started reading to or playing with another kid. He stopped talking to me, glared at me, and stomped off into a corner, where he stayed from almost an hour. All because I was reading to 2 other girls and said I couldn't read to just him right then. After he threw his little fit, he was fine, although he did try to monopolize my time for the rest of the morning.

It was 2 boys' birthdays the other day at the Haven, so they get a small toy each and all of the kids had cake, chips, an a piece of candy for their afternoon snack. They also told me the next morning they got to put on music and dance during the evening. It was all very bittersweet to witness. The staff try their hardest to make a kid's birthday special, but it is rather difficult to do with 30 other kids and a very limited budget.
Other than that, I've mostly just been bonding with all of the kids - reading to them, playing their little made-up games with them, chasing them around, and just loving all the time I get to spend with them.

The weekends here have been fairly quiet recently. A lot of the volunteers are leaving in a few days so most of them were gone last weekend - either in Cape Town or up the Wild Coast somewhere. It was also a holiday weekend - Heritage Day last Friday. I'm still not sure what that means exactly. From what I saw, it's a day to celebrate your own heritage and culture as well as the vast diversity among peoples in South Africa/ an excuse to not have work and to spend the weekend drinking with friends. But it was all good fun, especially since 2 new guys arrived then. It's nice to have new people around. And it will be very interesting to see what happens this weekend when about half the people leave and a new group arrives for the next 5 weeks.