Deadlines are coming close

Hi there! Here’s another blog after three weeks. Time has flown by. I’ve been to Stellenbosch three weeks ago for a food market and a wine tasting, I’ve seen rugby, netball and the Laslappie Konsert of the children of St. Michaels Primary School and I’ve done the Night Nation Run in Cape Town. Also, Roxane and I did the first Health Promotion lesson for the children, we went out with our friends from CPUT and I went to Robben Island.
In my last blog I promised you to tell you something about the outcomes of our thesis and our Health Promotion assignment, so that’s what I’m going to do. First: our thesis. I assume that you all have read that Roxane and I measured the weight and height of the children of St. Michaels. We’ve been busy with literature research and data analysis and I can tell you that our report is almost finished now! However, I can’t really tell you something about the outcomes, because our report isn’t published yet so our initiators don’t even have the outcomes. As soon as the report is published, I’ll tell you about it.
Secondly: Health Promotion. From the beginning that we came here we could see that nutrition is a problem. When we walked around at the playground, we could immediately see that there were children who were too small for their age or were too thin or on the other hand too heavy. We did food and exercise questionnaires and we did several games to see which factors were responsible for the underweight and the overweight at the school. We did interviews with the school coordinator and the kitchen staff. Also, we did some home visits to see how the children live at home. It was quite interesting (and shocking sometimes) to see where the children live, but on the other hand, it was also very awkward. When we drove there, I felt that all eyes were at us and I heard the people thinking: what are those rich, white girls doing here?! Even though this might be a prejudgement, I didn’t feel very comfortable in the neighbourhoods. This changed when we arrived at the houses we were going to visit. All the Africans were very nice and open and answered all our (sometimes quite personal!) questions. Based on all of above mentioned, we made our first Health Promotion lesson about the South African food-based dietary guidelines. We did this lesson with grade four, five and six and the children, and teachers also, were enthusiastic. At first, we played hangman with the word ‘health’ and after the children had guessed the word, we made a mind map with them. We gave them some information about the guidelines and after that we played a song called ‘food groups are rocking tonight’. And now the children are rocking this song. They loved it! (If you want to hear the song, just YouTube it). In the last 30 minutes of the lesson, we played a memory game with them to see if they had paid attention during the lesson. We also made an hand-out for them, which they could take home.
Now, I’m going to tell you the best part. The children are the best part. They are sooooo cute. During the lessons, they were very enthusiastic! They get to know us better and better and therefore become more and more open to us. One girl asked me after the lesson: Ilse, when are you going back to your home? When I answered, she asked me: can you take us with you? Then I get that aaaaaaaaahhhwwwwwwwwwwwwwww *hearteyes* -feeling. Every day when we come to the school, children call our names, wave at us and they spontaneous hug us. And as you saw on Snapchat, they also feel free to grab our hair now and braid it. They make me smile every day, even when I’m (h)angry.

So, just to be short, we’re very busy with writing our thesis and planning our Health Promotion lessons. We're also going to set up tuckshops, where we will sell homemade products and spread recipes. Deadlines are coming close! And we’re also having fun in between. Soooooo many things to do.. I feel like I’ve just written my most boring blog ever. If so, then sorry for that, but I got some requests from people who wanted to know more about the things I’m doing at my internship (ALMOST GRADUATED OMG!!!). Oh yes, I also forgot to tell you that I have a new phone and that I’m also using a different number, so if I’ve been ignoring you for the last couple of weeks: this is the reason why. Hope to talk to you all soon!