Zamokuhle Early Learning Center

Today I was with Auntie Babs again to go to the ELC in Pata [where I did home visits with Agnes last Thursday], called Zambuhle. This ELC was in a tin can... no, really. Look at the picture. They had a small esthini [brick] building, but the consulate for the region said he needed the building back to use as an office [that was in May, and they have yet to use the building]. So instead they have been in what they are hoping is a temporary structure, a small room made almost entirely out of sheet metal. The heavy morning rains proved to be a problem today, not only making it so most of the kids did not come to the ELC today, but also a leaking problem that they were trying to fix by placing bowls and buckets around the floor. The walls were adorned with homemade alphabet, number, weather, and colors chart, including a crayon picture that broke my heart: "HIV/AIDS: Please hug me, I won't make you sick."

I love these kids. They loved me [especially the babies]. There was a wise guy [you can tell which one I am talking about in some of the pictures] who after hearing my name said "Brittan! I have never heard a name like that before!" Then he took all the kids and introduced them to me [in Zulu, of course]. They practiced their colors and the alphabet, and before playing outside they ate lunch. Because the building for the ELC has no cooking facilities, the parents are asked to pack a lunch for their children-- most of them had a lunch of bread and butter sandwiches because that is all their families could afford. They ate on the floor, which was made with a mixture of plastic flooring, rugs, and newspapers.We played "ring around the rosies" and other games, then sang them lullabies to go to sleep for their naps.
I am always so impressed at how well-behaved these children are. They still run around and act crazy, but as soon as you tell them to do something, they do it. I feel that things such as "time out" are weird American inventions for child-rearing. Even when it was time to take a nap, they took out the nap mats and everyone jumped onto them and closed their eyes as we sang [even those who were not sleepy still laid there]. From this experience, these kids have taught me a few valuable lessons:
1. Babies and small children are also like cabbage, carrots, and beets... they too do not care what language you speak. I was helping them with their ABCs today and they just thought it was funny that I didn't know how to say the animals pictured in Zulu. [I even had to help the adults with the ABC book because it had obscure things like Iguana, Walrus, Seal, Quail, and Yak...] If you love a child, it will love you back.

2. Children are not made of glass. In fact, they can run around, fall, roll down a hill of dirt into a bed of rocks, and then have another child trip over them... and they will get up, think about it, smile and continue playing. I fear that Americans over-parent their children, running to them whenever they fall... but then that must teach them that it is time to cry because the parents are so fussy about them falling. These kids never cry. They fall down, wimper for about two seconds, get back up and continue playing. The kids here run all up and down streets, hills, into muddy ravines... and they are fine.
3. Sharing is caring... and it is cute. Today two of the youngest toddlers sat down and were sharing a naartije [like a mandarin orange] and a bottle. Didn't think anything of it. One baby had food and the other didn't, so she just gave him some. She even put it in his mouth for him.
4. Even children in Africa know that if someone takes a picture of you, you should be able to see the picture on their camera's viewing screen the next second. Digital cameras have ruined people and promoted vanity [just ask teenage girls who take pictures over and over again until they feel they look good]. When I have kids, I am going to raise them like it is the 1990s, before the digital camera boom [when we used to use film... remember that?] so they don't know you can see the picture on the screen. Life was simpler in the '90s.

And that's all for today. It was cold enough that I wore long underwear under my pants today, haha [because my jeans are still wet from the wash so I had to wear thinner pants]. Winter temperatures are still here, but it should warm up since it is officially spring.