I’m sitting here with my greasy hair and I long for a
shower. It’s slightly on the
cloudy side today and I’m not brave enough to face the seawater just yet. I guess if by tomorrow there is still
no water that will be enough motivation for me to go and dive into the
sea… My boys haven’t had
water at their house for more than 6 days now…
I’m just reflecting on the kids at the Christian
school where I teach. Many of the
kids seem to have a lot of issues and I’m finding it really hard to deal with
it all. This morning I had a
serious session with them, reading from the Bible and praying and admonishing
them to walk in the light. It was
probably the closest I’ve ever come to giving a preaching ceremony. They all prayed fervently with me as
well, so I really pray a difference will come in their lives…
Everyday there are fights among them because this one
stole that one’s papers or pens or cell phone or whatever. Yesterday someone stole my eraser from
right under my nose. All that was
left was the little piece of cardboard that used to cover it. They steal each other’s notes, doesn’t
matter if that person wrote their name on it. They’ll just scratch out the name so that it’s unrecognizable
and replace it with their own name.
Other than that, some of the boys are cutting
themselves with blades and pouring ink into it, giving themselves home-made
tattoos of prison groups and wearing studs in their ears and trying to get away
with wearing as little as possible of their uniform, always armed with a
dictionary of excuses. It starts
with the older boys of about 16 years and then the younger ones of maybe 13
years then imitate them. Today we
had a long meeting discussing how to deal with these problems.
I think a lot of them also have learning disabilities
or perhaps just no discipline at all to even try and study for their
tests. With the results that some
of them do well, in the 70s and 80s, while others have an average of about
22.
(A bit later now, evening 7:43, the water is back on thank YOU!)
I feel a little bit uncertain of how exactly to deal
with these kids. I feel like I
need a place and time where I can see these kids individually and have sessions
with them like a psychologist.
Anyway, it’s weekend again in Coffee Bay and I
wouldn’t mind a rainy weekend (there is some wild thun-----DER!!!! at the moment…..shoooo that
one was dangerously close and scary…!), maybe then the hordes won’t pitch up
for their weekly beach party.
I walked on the beach earlier and there was a young
Australian couple walking on the beach, warning me of the broken bottle glass
that lies shattered on the beach.
I find that quite sad that DEAT (Department of environmental affairs)
don’t seem to care about all the drinking that goes on at the beach or about
all the illegal loads of sand that gets taken away here… Come on guys! Do something about it!
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