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content of this website is mine alone and does not necessarily reflect the
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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 8th and 9th 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!
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