children, children everywhere

Any suggestions on how to quickly become an authority figure?

As of now, we are seen as playthings to the children. They love to climb on every limb, sit in our laps and laugh when we tell them not to do things. We love them, all 16 of them, but they are completely crazy. It is what is to be expected from young children, but we are struggling to have any sort of power over their actions. We're praying hard for the children at the centre, and that God would give us patience with them and allow us to love them even while they are causing trouble.

Nonetheless, their smiling faces are enough to make your heart melt and their excitement for life is enough to make us realize in the end, it's all good. We are so desperately trying to remember names and pronounce them correctly. We are working very hard on mastering the different clicks in the Xhosa language (said "kosa") so as to pronounce words as best as our Midwestern North American accents will allow. The kids love trying to make us say difficult Xhosa words and laughing at our poor attempts. One day, we will be fluent. Mark my word ;)

The kids have such strong personalities which shine in all that they do. Without even looking at them I bet we could tell who was who based solely on their chosen activites, actions and the sound of their laughter.
Kanya is the trouble-maker.
Solani likes to pretend he's playing piano and singing gospel music.
Ace is the caretaker. He's sensitive, and helps out the younger children.
Shatty is the crier. He is a lot smaller than the rest of the children and doesn't like not getting what he wants.

We love them, we really do. And we can't promise that our suitcases won't be full of them when we return. Or they might just cling to our legs for the duration of the trip home. Yeah, I could see them doing that. They are very hard to peel off once they have latched on.