South Arica, Cape Town Day 2

The first day of classes at the Arts Camp. The center where the classes are being held is great. Guguletu is a township - a mixture of small cinder block houses and shanty-town tin houses. Kids from this township walked in to the JLZwane center. Kids from EVEY township in Cape Town are attending these classes. They are being bussed in by volunteers from everywhere! There were 57 kids there this morning at 9:00 am. Clearly from all walks of life here in Cape Town. We've been told that there are three levels of education here. Private, middle, and government. Some kids are from middle but most are from government - which only goes to a certain grade.
The kids eagerly grabbed their bright blue BSA t-shirts and their orange juice and cereal bars. Then we gathered as a group and introduced ourselves. Some of the kids are only 7 years old! We split everyone in to four groups and seperated into four rooms.
We had the most amazing assistant S'bo --- who promised to help us if there were any behavior issues or any translation issues. Almost all of the kids speak Xhosa (the language with three different kind of mouth clicks). I tried desperately to learn and pronounce each kids' name correctly - but my eagerness didn't translate well.
They all also speak english very well - and perhaps are confused when I can't click their names correctly.
We played all of the improv and acting games we had planned... and then some.
The kids threw away their inhibitions and played with ambandon! It was A BLAST!
They high-fived us! and hugged us when we all got something right! Some of the kids were so excited that they took the games and began to lead them themselves! Suggesting ideas and ways to improvise!
During the final hour of the day Courtney (my co-teacher) and I were leaading the hardest game of all. The game in which everyone closes their eyes and collectively tries to count to ten without having two people say the same number. It is VERY difficult for ADULTS to do. And no class all say had reached ten. Then finally in the last five minutes of the day... TEN. The class went wild.
Exausted we are now headed home to bed. 11:45pm.