This week, once again, I returned to Walmer Township to volunteer for a few hours at Sinethemba Children's Home, at the after school homework club. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera this time again, but if any of you are curious to see what Walmer Township looks like, or what Sinethemba looks like you can google map it, turn on "walking" mode, and you can literally walk the streets there.
I feel like this week there was a lot of progress made as far as relationships with the kids go. They recognized us, and were much more talkative. None of them seemed to have homework this week for some strange reason, so we spent most the time reading books, coloring and doing art projects. I helped one little boy read five books in a row. He just kept finding book after book that he wanted to read, and he seemed pretty advanced at reading for his age. At one point, he was reading a book about seasons, and I had to do a lot of explaining about what the different seasons meant, since they dont really have the same seasons in South Africa. Next, I sat next to a girl who was 11 and loved art. She literally colored the entire two and a half hours we were there. I showed her how to do different shading things with her crayons, and she showed me how to "color really dark with pink so it looks red" haha. She asked me a bunch of questions and we kind of got to know each other, it was nice! She asked me where I was from and when I told her, she wasnt sure where Minnesota was, so I got a globe and showed her. She was shocked to see how far away and how far north Minnesota was. It was very interesting to see the look on her face when I told her I spent 27 hours on a plane to get to Port Elizabeth. She then asked me about the weather, the seasons, and other things about where I was from. She was shocked to know about the snow, because she said she had never seen it before. I told her about ice fishing and snowmobiling (that one was hard to explain!), she got a good laugh about those and was slightly alarmed about the idea of ice fishing. It was also interesting when she asked me why it didnt snow in South Africa..it was hard to explain at first because the reasoning behind that was always just so second nature to me. I explained about the equator, and elevation and I hope that for the most part it made sense. I also asked her questions, like what they do here for Christmas, Easter and New Years. I was very careful not to ask about presents at Christmas, or Santa Clause, because I got the idea from her explanations that the kids didnt have either. She told me that on Christmas, they go to church, eat a nice lunch, clean and then pray. I asked her if they had Christmas trees, or anything that they decorated with and she said no to Christmas trees, but that they make decorations to hang up for the house and school room. When she asked me about my Christmas, I found myself leaving a lot of things out. I guess mostly out of guilt and not wanting to sound rude, like I had so much and she had so little, so I kept presents out of the picture.
Overall, being in Walmer Township and volunteering at the homework club, has given me a different perspective on life. How much I take for granted, how much I really do have and just how lucky I am, but it also makes me realize just how messed up Westernized society's values are. I have never been big on presents at Christmas, just because I think its pointless and not the real reason for the season, but being in Walmer, at this homework club, where the kids never have a Christmas with presents just makes it all the more obvious to me just how obsessed and backward people are about material things. When I sit down and think about it, I begin to realize how actually insane people get at Christmas time with gifts. Our Thanksgiving and the day after is basically a national shopping day for Christ sake, where instead of spending time with our families, we go out and spend money we dont have. On Christmas, kids rate the success of their Christmas Day with how many presents they got, how big they were and how much they think all of it cost. I love the United States, but I am ashamed to say I come from a culture so obsessed with money and things.
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