42. If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!

Thursday 23 May

When we arrived at Prochorus in the morning, we had to wait an extra long time for everyone else to show up. We were starting to wonder what was going on when finally about twenty minutes late, the staff members started showing up. A taxi strike was going on and was blocking all the roads. We had arrived extra early so they were just beginning to organize the protest when we arrived in Kayamandi. During the daily morning meeting, we spent about twenty minutes strategizing on how to get everyone out of Kayamandi at the end of the day. The staff members from Kayamandi would be fine, but everyone who lived in Stellenbosch would need to somehow get through the barricade. They weren't really concerned about safety, just the logistics of how we'd get out. South Africa problems, eh?

I worked in one of Prochorus' two internally run creches that are operated and offered free of charge to the community so that children of unemployed parents don't have to be left behind by the early childhood development system and so that the toddlers don't have to be left out on the streets to fend for themselves in an area with one of the highest child rape rates in the world. The one I went to is operated in the first floor of the Prochorus building, that is shared with a foster home for five children who have no other home.

I was shocked at how well behaved the children in this creche were. They participated in creative play with blocks for a really long time. They had duplos, and I had a lot of fun building towers for them to knock down and then encouraging them to build structures with the duplos. Blocks are so educational! We then did a lesson about shapes and colors with the kids. There were 11 of them in the room and it was the first time I saw significant individualized attention on any of the kids. Each child was called upon to identify triangle, square, circle, and rectangle. And the teacher helped each one through the identification and then we all clapped and the child went up to the teacher to get a sticker on the forehead. It was really great to see how excited and eager they all were to learn and be rewarded.

We also had snack time with the kids and they got jelly sandwiches and milk. Unfortunately, because these kids come from parents who are unemployed and/or unable to care for the kids, this jelly bread sandwich is the only food the kids will eat until they come back to the playgroup the next day. I noticed a lot more malnourishment in this creche than in the others I've visited previously. Even within the township limits of Kayamandi there are economic disparities. In a zero-income, food suddenly becomes a luxury, an optional thing.

After some singing and dancing, the teacher asked me to take the kiddos outside and play on the playground which was sadly not in the best condition. There were loose boards and screws, sharp nail ends, torn ropes everywhere. But the kids knew very well how to negotiate this playground and work with what they had. I have to emphasize again how incredibly well the children in this creche were behaved. Maybe it's because I went from 45 children to 11 children in a week. But I have a feeling it has more to do with the very organized structure of the playgroups these kids go to. A strict lesson plan and schedule is adhered to. Individual attention is given and emphasized in a positive way.

I love playing with these kids. But I hate that I can't stay with them longterm. I hate that I only interact with kids once a week. I hate that I am not staying at the same crèche each week. I hate how I'm just a flash in the pan in these kids' lives. I know I'm here to study. And I know that this is service-learning. I know it's not a service trip and this is not my free time to choose what I want to do with it. But I wish I could get to know some of these kids really well, to have a chance to make a positive impact in their lives. To show them that they are special, that they are loved, that they have value, that they can bring beauty and joy and talent to the world just as much as any kid on the other side of town. It gets frustrating each week seeing these kids hungry for attention, struggling to learn things amidst noise and chaos, with scars of abuse and neglect, hungry for food, without clean clothes without holes in them, without shoes fitted to their feet and suited to the season or matching or sometimes shoes at all; and amidst all this to not really be able to do anything about it. I feel so insignificant. So helpless.

Since I can't spend significant amounts of time with any of these kids, I decided early on when I was here to make what difference I could and live in the moment. That is the true meaning of solidarity. It is something I learned this past December in Nicaragua. You have to live in the moment. You have to truly be with the people you are with. You have to love them and give them your heart and your attention for the time you are with them. One of my top three books of all time is The Help by Kathryn Stockett and one of my favorite quotes from that book is the message I hold onto in my head and try to convey through my eyes, my actions, and my love when I'm with these kids for however long: "You is kind. You is smart. You is important."