The Butterfly World Fieldtrip

The program I volunteer at Kayamandi through takes the children on a field trip each semester. This time, we went to Butterfly World. I was really nervous to see how the children would act outside of the classroom, but I was happy because I knew this was probably the first time a lot of them had ever gone outside of the township.

About half of our class didn't show up for school that day, because they couldn't afford the field trip $price$. It made me really sad. I wanted them all to experience leaving the township for the day. Some of my favorite students weren't there! Papama (pa-pah-ma), who is the sweetest little girl in my class, and Anthini (an-ti-ni), who looks like Nelson Mandela and eats his boogers, didn't come! I was disappointed. Even with only half the class there, the kids were a lot to handle. Bukiwe disappeared for a while. I guess she was collecting the field trip money and permission slips from all the other classes. While she was gone, the children were acting a fool like usual. Then, she came back, made them stand outside while we waited for the second round of transportation to come pick us up, and disappeared again. This time she disappeared for about an hour. The children were acting a fool. Akhona (ah-ko-na), who is usually one of my favorites because she is really smart and is the singer of the class, was getting into fights with all the boys. Finally, she hit a boy, he kicked her and she fell down, and I just let her cry.

Akhona before she started acting a fool.

A few children were behaving, but most of them were either fighting or trying to get a hold of a puppy that wandered up to the school. Children are naturally too rough with animals. Cassandra, another teacher's assistant from Missouri, USA, and I saved the puppy and tried to teach the children how to be gentle with it. We named the puppy Obama (hahaha) and Cassandra hid it in her purse while it took a nap. Finally, it was time for our group to go to Butterfly World. As soon as the bus began to move, the children began to sing songs. Africa really is a musical place!

Butterfly World is nothing like I thought it would be. I thought it would be just butterflies... but we saw spiders, lizards, monkeys, exotic birds, chickens, roosters, and ducks! The butterflies and the more exotic animals were kept inside this huge green room that had been kept at a tropical temperature. It looked like we were walking through a forest! When we first went in, there was one little girl who cried and screamed! She DID NOT want to go in there. She was so afraid. There was a group of white children there too. I noticed that they were more curious than our children, who were curious and yet nervous and cautious. It made me happy that we were taking them out of there comfort zones. There were absolutely no problems with the children either. They were so quiet and well behaved the entire field trip.

The butterflies flew EVERYWHERE! They were so big and brightly colored... they were kind of scary. After seeing a huge iguana, a little monkey jump on someone, and having butterflies flurrying around my head, I decided that it was time to relax. While the kids explored a bit more and ate their snacks, I went into the cafe and had a cup of tea, chips (fries), and a cheeseburger.

To see more pictures of our field trip and see more pictures of the children I work with, click here!