Today was the day we all have been waiting for, to get the chance to work with less fortunate South African boys and girls. We all were excited and anxious to meet and play with the children. We had to be up and ready by 8:30 am to depart for our various work sites. The work sites include Crossroads Community Health Center, St. Joseph’s Home, Heaven’s Nest, St. Anne’s Home, and Nyanga Orphanage. We were at our work sites from 9am until 3pm.
I was assigned to the St. Joseph’s Home for Chronically Ill Children. The home is divided into three different wards. The ward I was in was the boys’ ward also known as “Sweet Basil” along with Clarissa and Jackie. Allie, Hannah, and Diandra were in the Sunflower ward, which consisted of children with HIV/AIDS. The third ward was “Daisy” or the girl’s ward where Brigette and Paul decided to volunteer.
The boys in Basil were welcoming and excited to see us come into the room. They range in age from 2 years old and up. They were pulling us in every direction to play or to walk across the tires. No one could ever tell they were ill by the amount of energy they exhibit. They were jumping on our backs, playing with our hair, and sitting in our laps. After all the playing and jumping around they still managed to have time to flirt with the three of us. Most of the morning consisted of us playing outside on the playground and then we took them inside so they were out of the sun to play catch and watch movies. The cultural barrier of how race classification is established in the States shocked one boy. He asked me if I was coloured and when I told him no he was surprised. I explained to him that in America I am considered black and there is no classification for a mixed race. One of the boys wanted to know what languages we spoke beside English. We taught him and another boy some Spanish words and phrases and they taught us Xhosa. One word he taught us was “Ndzakubona ngomso” which means “See You Tomorrow”. The day was full and exhausting but exciting all at the same time. The boys were an amazing and awesome group to work with and I’m excited to see what they have planned for us tomorrow.
