Our Typical South African Morning #HogsAbroad

To call our daily lives in Kayamandi busy would be an extreme understatement.

Our lives are jam packed with activities from 9 am to 5 pm every week day and when we get home all we have the energy to do is eat our usual meal of Mama’s meat and potatoes and maybe a game of cards before we fall into our beds, utterly exhausted.

 

Every morning we are at the creches until 1 and then we race home to eat a quick lunch before we have to head to our afternoon projects at 2.

 

For my afternoon project, I’m working to help fundraise for a pool in Kayamandi, which is such an amazing project, but more on that later. 

A creche is essentially the equivalent of a pre-school/kindergarten in the US. The first day arriving at the creche was a bit of a shock. The first thing we noticed walking in were the buckets in a little wooden box with holes on top that were being used as toilets. To our right was a classroom around the size of my bedroom housing 35+ kids from ages 3 to 5, all chanting “oh teacher, oh teacher” over and over again and pulling at our sweaters, looking for fist bumps or thumbs up. 

It was completely apparent that these kids were nothing at all like the shy little ones from home I was used to dealing with who were often cautious to warm up to strangers. A little hesitant, Darby and I stepped inside and realized that the creche was actually the principal’s house and the youngest 14 kiddos (from age 1 to 2) spent their days in her living room playing with mismatched legos and broken pieces of old toys. My first reaction was of serious sadness for these kids and their surroundings, but that quickly faded when I was introduced to and got to know the amazing teachers that work at the Litelethu Creche.

Mama is the principal and spends most of her time with the older kids. She is the most incredible story teller, which was easy to tell, even when she was telling entire stories in Xhosa, of which I didn’t understand a word. Busi is the other teacher in charge of the older ones and she is the world’s most beautiful gospel singer. Seriously, I wish everyone had the chance to hear her sing with kids in their “morning ring” every morning. Next was sweet Asamanthe (spelling could be way wrong :/). She is around Darby and my age and although our communication struggles sometimes, you can tell how much she truly cares about all the crazy little kids running around in the creche on the daily. Last is the precious Lasetha, who has truly been OUR greatest caretaker while we’re there and spends her time asking us questions about more games and songs she can use to keep the littlest ones engaged throughout the day.

These women have made us feel so at home in the creche everyday. They are beyond busy with cooking, looking after the kids, and attempting to keeps some semblance of order within the classroom and yet they still treat us like one of their own, making sure we have a snack and sometimes even lunch when there are leftovers after the kids have been fed. They make everyday a good one with their jokes and questions about our lives and even invitations to dinner at their houses.
These women are incredible, but I can’t forget to mention the most exhausting and simultaneously incredible part of every morning, the sweet kiddos.

On a usual day, Darby and I walk in usually interrupting the morning ring to the same shouts of “oh teacher, oh teacher” that we experienced on our very first day. We spend most of our time with the youngest ones, because to the older kids we’ve basically turned into toys and therefore HUGE distractions. When I walk in the door, a tiny little girl named Acamille lets out one little yelp, rushes and grabs my water bottle out of my hand and sets it in it’s usual place on the counter. The little ones do a modified version of the morning ring the older kids do every day, singing a few songs that include Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Ba Ba Black Sheep, and even Twinkle Twinkle Little Star along with a lot of Xhosa songs that Darby and I try our best to keep up with, but unfortunately we’re usually pretty unsuccessful at pronunciation. Then it’s time for free play, which consists of lots of playing with legos and sadly lots of broken pieces of toys. But despite that, the kids can literally play with nothing and still spend hours and hours laughing with one another. Their resilience despite their lack of resources is truly amazing to watch.

I could list the name of every kid I spend my mornings with, but I know I would destroy the spelling. But, let me tell you, there are so many precious little ones with so much joy and light they bring to life, despite all the hard facts of life in Kayamandi that work against them. Whether they’re using us as their own personal jungle gyms, talking to us on the phone out of their makeshift lego iphones, singing random happy birthdays, randomly yelling out hallelujah and waiting for everyone to respond “AMEN”, or giggling away at their own inside jokes, they make our time here more than worth it.

Recently, I’ve felt a bit helpless  with so many different issues that I am not used to in my daily life, that sometimes I wonder if I’ll make even a tiny little change. I often wonder if I’m more of a burden on the people I am trying to help than an actual help. But, these kids (and my mom) remind me every day that doing small things with great love is the most important thing and if I can at least try to start making a change, someone will notice and attempt to continue my efforts after I’m gone. So praise for cute little kids and persistent, encouraging, and hard-working teachers who make it all worth it even on the days when I feel at my worst.
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Follow Sammy on her journey at https://sammyinsouthafrica.wordpress.com/
Find out more about service learning projects available through the Honors College at http://honorscollege.uark.edu/current-students/service-learning.php