Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Behind the sunshine... things are becoming real


Things are starting to become more routine. We are pretty much going to Tlamelo daily now. Some of us will probably be going to Mokolodi Game Reserve (I will) at least once a week, but Tlamelo Feeding Project is seeming to be out main focus. Also since the Old Naledi Education Centre is right by Tlamelo we were helping / teaching in the classrooms on some mornings. I will start help in standard 5 (close to our grade 4 – but some of the kids are older) on Mondays and Wednesdays. Today we all went in the morning to help out in the school. Some helped in the preschool – since one of the teachers was gone – and I helped, along with Jayne and Marinda, to put covers on all of the books for Old Naledi.
I am excited to start helping in the classroom. However, those who have already started helping the classrooms say that everything sort of becomes more real – and some things sort of lose their sunshine and rainbows. I guess you just get to learn more about the kids besides the few hours a day that we see them for lunch. We get to learn more about their home lives and challenges and I think because we do only see the kids for a small amount of time and they are all happy then, that we are sometimes naive to all that the kids have to deal with and live with.
Today we got a big reality check. Champ – the coordinator for the Tlamelo feeding project – took us all around Old Naledi today for a tour of the village, to meet some families that live there, and see where some of the kids live. We were shocked. We see the village when we ride through it on the combis to get to Tlamelo / Old Naledi Education Centre, but walking around and taking it all in is quite different. To sort of paint a picture of it… there is dust and dirt everywhere, that is all that the roads / pathways are. As you walk around you see make shift fences made out of car hoods, pallets, wire, sticks… anything, and then the house looks like crumbling brick / stone. The houses are about the size of a small bedroom.

These are some pics of the little shops in Old Naledi - not much different from the houses. You see most people outside – hand washing laundry, cooking over a fire, or just passing the time. The kids that you see outside are often shoeless – and there is glass shards and dirt everywhere – in raggedy clothes, and many make up games with there surroundings – which consist of trash, old aluminum cans, broken glass… anything really. There is also no clear definition of area or streets in Old Naledi – at least not to me. It is sort of hard to see where some property begins and ends, and also how many families live in a house – because many houses have several doors – as if there are multiple houses.
It was also hard to see where some of the kids that eat at Tlamelo live. It just makes it much more real. They are now much more than just a smiley face wanting to play while they eat lunch. Before coming to Botswana – we were informed that it is estimated that in Old Naledi about 90% of the population is HIV positive. I think I am just sometimes naïve to the real struggles that are going on in this village, and a lot came to reality today.
Champ also took us on a house visit. A group of about 11 of us all were on the walk around Old Naledi and we all crammed in this small one room house – that was maybe 7feet by 10feet (I am bad with measurements). And inside there was one small love seat couch and a bed made of just blankets (not even a mattress) on the floor with on women there. We learned about her – she had four little children who she was supporting, and her mentally challenged sister was taking care of her. This woman had been lying here – on these blankets on the concrete floor in this one room house since 2006 because she was paralyzed from the waist down. We couldn’t find out why because she spoke mostly in Setswana. She is also HIV positive, her husband left her a few year back, and the government is kicking her out of the one room that she rented. She had to be out in 6 months. They don’t know where they will go; her, her sister and her 4 little children. This was a lot for us to take in. Even though this woman had all of this going on in her life, she still smiled at us and she was so beautiful. It was amazing to still the hope in her. How could you still hold on to hope after all that? I think that is truly amazing. Champ and his friends come and pray with her a couple times weekly. He asked if we had any words of encouragement to say to her. Jack and Marinda tired to say something nice, but for the most part we were just speechless. Seeing this as we were all sitting on the floor in this tiny room was a lot to take in. We are still taking it all in and reflecting. The thing is, this is just one family. Many if not all of the families in Old Naledi have challenges just like her.
My throat hurts right now… like many of us. It is so dry and dusty walking around in Old Naledi and it is just hard to breathe in.
On a little bit of a happier note... I have really come to love this little girl Charity. She is about 2 or 3 and so beautiful with her big eyes. She is a bit hard to get to smile, but when she does it is wonderful. When she gets out of her preschool and sees me she runs with both arms open into me - and smiles. She makes my day. I don't understand her, but I don't need to - she still makes my day.
Things are still going well, and we are still having a good time – things are just more real now. We expected before we came here that we would have different levels of depth and feelings with the service – and it is just part of the experience.
Miss you all – I hope you are all doing well – there are thoughts of you from Africa!
Wish I could show more pics of Old Naledi or the people we met, but it just wasn’t an appropriate time.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I bet it is hard to see people having to live their life like that. It really makes you think how much we take for granted and can be mad at stupid little stuff. I am glad that you have found a routine. Dont chop your fingers off.