When holding hands hurts

Disclaimer: the content of this website is mine alone and does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. government, the Peace Corps, or the South African Government.

About once per week I visit the drop-in centre that is connected with the organization with which I work in the village.  The drop-in centre is a place, funded by the Department of Social Development, where orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) can go for help with homework, a meal, and fun and games after school.  The drop-in centre that I visit assists over 100 children, ages 5-18, and there are eight caregivers there to provide the care they need in the afternoons.

When I first started going to the drop-in centre last October I had no idea what to do with the children…keep in mind that most of them do not speak much (if any) English, and my xiTsonga is nowhere near conversational.  The only thing I could think to do was to teach them some of the games I used to play as a child in America.  Two games caught on big time: duck, duck, goose and red rover.  I know that we were pretty rough when I was a kid, but I don’t remember these games being quite the blood sport they are fast turning into here.

Let’s begin with duck, duck, goose, a sweet enough game.  In this game participants sit in a circle while the ducker goes around and gently taps the heads of those sitting, saying “duck” with each tap.  When the ducker identifies the person he wishes to chase him, he pats the person’s head and says “goose,” at which point the goose gets up and chases the ducker around the circle.  Should the ducker sit back in the goose’s spot before being tagged he is safe, if he is tagged he goes into the mush pot in the middle of the circle.  The game goes a little differently here.  The children have thrown out the word “goose” altogether and just play duck, duck, duck…ironic since I have yet to see a duck but have seen plenty of geese.  The ducker goes around the circle, slamming people on the head, saying “duck” with each hit.  When the person identifies the participant he wants to chase him he slams the head extra hard and yells “duck” extra loud, then runs away.  This has provided both entertainment and near heart attacks for me.

Now let’s talk about red rover.  I am sure you remember the game from childhood.  Participants are divided into two teams which face one another some distance apart.  The teammates hold hands and call out to the other team “red rover, red rover, send (person’s name) right over.”  At this point the person who has been called will run toward the team that has called him, selecting a pair of hands to attempt to break through by running into them.  If the runner breaks the hands he is free to return to his team and may take a participant from the team that has called him to join his team.  If the runner fails to break the hands he becomes a member of the team who has called him.  When teaching this game there were some things I didn’t realize I would have to explain, such as we are not trying to injure our friends with this game.  Within a week the kids had figured out that a great way to overcome your opponent was by throwing your entire body in front of him just before he reached the hands he would try to go through (body checking), or by raising your arms just before he reached your hands (clotheslining).  I quickly outlawed those two moves and emphasized the importance of just running through the hands.  Then the kids figured out that if they jump and karate kick the hands they will break more easily than if you just run through them.  Definitely terrifying each time we play, but the children just love it!

The drop-in centre is a great organization that provides social support to many of the children in the community, and I enjoy my visit there each week.  The games have been a great way to break the ice with the children and allow them to get to know me, but I definitely am hoping to do more with them.  This week I will begin a female empowerment program called Zazi with 8^th and 9^th grade girls at the secondary school.  I am hoping to identify leaders within that program that I might teach to research countries of the world so that we might start providing small geography lessons in xiTsonga one afternoon each week at the drop-in centre.  I am hoping that learning about other countries and cultures will inspire both curiosity and critical thinking in the children.  Fingers crossed that they don’t figure out a way to use world geography to do bodily harm to one another!

Watching the butterflies dance

Disclaimer: the content of this website is mine alone and does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. government, the Peace Corps, or the South African Government.

It has been a very busy couple of months.  I was able to go home for Christmas to see the most important new addition to our family, sweet baby Holland James.  I could not get enough of her.  It was also very nice to catch up with family and friends in the two short weeks that I was home, but of course there is never quite enough time to see everyone and to do everything one wants on such a trip.  If Facetime and Whatsapp had caused me to forget that I am on the other side of the world, the 20+ hour flight brought that reality screeching to the forefront of my brain.  Being so far away is a major challenge, but I have only 14 more months until I can be close to everyone again.

One of the most amazing things I returned to was a land that has been completely transformed.  When I first arrived in my village it was dry and brown, the cows were dying and the people were worried and frustrated.  In November we began to see rain here and there and things began to turn a bit green, but people kept telling me that it was not yet raining.  I thought they were crazy, but what did I know?  I lived in a dessert for years, so any rain seemed like a lot to me.

Apparently the rains came while I was gone.  The village is now green and lush, the cows are getting fatter, and people here have told me that while I was gone it rained almost every day.  My walk to work now requires a different path, as the dirt path I used to walk is now covered with grass and purple flowers.  As I walked throughout the village this morning I was struck by how many butterflies there are, dancing from flower to flower.   

A friend told me that now that the rains have come both the land and the people seem happier.  I thought about how wrapped up I can get in the problems that are directly in front of me, and how stressed and angry I can get when there is no end in sight, but the rains seem come at just the right time.  Hope springs eternal, and there is nothing better than watching the butterflies dance.