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.
Term two is off and running…sort of. I decided to take a break from leading Zazi
at the secondary school this term so that I could focus my efforts on the
drop-in centre and the various programs I wished to help the caregivers to
implement. We worked together to develop
a calendar which detailed our activities for each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
for the term. We had plans to divide the
children according to age so that we could focus age-appropriate activities on
the correct group, and because it is much easier to engage two groups of 25
children than it is to keep the attention of one group of 50-60. It was all so well-planned - I even made up
flipcharts with maps of the drop-in centre and a weekly calendar so everyone
knew exactly where they should go on a given day. I went to the centre the first day of the
term energetic and so excited for the day, the week, the month, but things have
a way of not quite going according to plan here.
I heard somewhere that it is advisable to write down all
that you would like to accomplish in two months as a volunteer, then to make
that your plan for the two years of your service, and as I began to work in the
community that advice really resonated with me.
This is not due to a lack of community support; in my community I not only
have a great amount of freedom to implement various programs, but I also enjoy
the full support of project managers, school principals, traditional leadership,
and many others. For some reason things in South Africa
just never seem to go as smoothly or as quickly as we westerners might hope. This could be for any number of reasons:
cultural differences, misunderstandings of expectations, miscommunications, and
any number of other factors. Plans
failing to go smoothly may be an annoyance to some, but to a perfectionist with
a touch of OCD this can be beyond frustrating.
There were a few challenges that were beyond our control at the
beginning of the term. Prior to the end
of term one the drop-in centre had been burglarized by someone who stole the
food that would have been used to make meals for the children. Once the food was gone many of the children
stopped coming, as a nutritious meal is one of the main reasons for the
children to come each day because many receive only their school meal and their
drop-in centre meal each day. It took us
about one week to spread the word to the children that the food was back, at
which point they began to return, but there went one week of planning. Another challenge was getting everyone on the
same page with separating the children according to age and determining who
would lead each activity. One day I was
left alone in a room with 75 children and a laptop. I decided to teach about two countries from
the Explorers Club, but many of the children were completely lost as teaching
in English does not begin until standard 3 (grade 3).
We now seem to be heading toward the same path, which is
remarkable just two weeks into the term.
One unexpected blessing was that the caregivers asked me to facilitate
the Zazi curriculum for them, which has enabled us to interact one morning each
week for about two hours before the children arrive. This has allowed us to enjoy open discussions
and many laughs together, often followed by a chance to discuss our goals for
the day or week with our programs. We
have even been able to practice with the SOUNS blocks, which promote literacy
and can be used to teach both English and XiTsonga, and I have been able to
begin teaching them about different countries and about the earth in general. We are currently working together on what constitutes
evidence-based interventions and how to document results so that they can be
reported in a quantifiable way, and how such programming can be of great
benefit when applying for funding through grants.
Despite the frustrations that have accompanied the start of
our term two programming, I have to say that there are brief shining moments that
really show the value of what we are working toward. One such moment was the day that I brought
books that had been donated and a bookshelf that I was able to purchase using
fund from the Let Girls Learn grant that I was awarded in January to use for
both Zazi and the Explorers Club. The
caregivers watched curiously as I tried to build the shelf (no easy task with
the humidity that comes with living on top of the Tropic of Capricorn), and began
loading it up with books. The children
arrived slowly that day, but as they arrived they were drawn to the books like
little moths to a flame. I thought they
would grow bored quickly and want to go outside to play a game, but they did
not. They sat down on the floor in
groups and began reading the books and looking at the pictures, stopping only
when it was time to return the items to the shelves and line up for their meal. Another highlight was when I suggested to the
project manager, Masingita, that we appoint students to care for and monitor our
library items. She suggested Promise,
one of the older girls who I already had in mind for the responsibility. She readily agreed to assist us, and even
suggested a counterpart from among the older boys. I am hopeful that their leadership will encourage
the children to take ownership of the books in such a way that they want to
care for and preserve them for future use.
Our student librarian, Promise |
By far my greatest moment of the term so far was when I was
inside with one of my counterparts, Mavis, administering a pre-test for
Grassroots Soccer, an evidence-based curriculum that uses soccer to teach
children about HIV and TB, to the children ages 10 through 13. We were having a pretty good time with the
pre-test, they got a kick out of some of my XiTsonga pronunciations and we all
had a good laugh at some of the English pronunciations. There was one moment when I looked outside
and saw one of the caregivers, Grace, who was leading the children ages
5-9. Grace had taken the SOUNS blocks
and had the children sitting in a circle around the blocks and was encouraging
them to spell their names out with the blocks.
Watching the small children become so engaged in a learning activity and
listening to their little giggles as they tried to spell things out with sounds
the letters make was incredibly heart-warming.
I would be a fool to think that I will not experience more challenges
this year, but I have very high hopes for the children and for the caregivers. I doubt I will get to witness them fully tap
into their intellectual potential in the few months I have remaining in my
service, but what a privilege to be able to help plant the seeds that may
enable them to grow into free thinkers and change-makers.
She's got the whole world in her hands |
Every day you are making a difference! Such a joy to see little lives changing because of your work.
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