Gaining Perspective

After my second day at the creches, there was a glorious sunset over the mountain today which seemed to capture the overall greatm\ness of the past two days. Despite the wretched weather for most of the time I've been here, the skies have parted for the setting of the sun the past couple days and today I could even see Table Mountain! I was beginning to wonder if a mountain really existed behind all of those clouds - much like it's difficult to believe that such extensive poverty can exist behind such a clean and modernized city center. And especially with the weather it's been such a blessing to be able to share a ride to and from Rondebosch (the suburb 15 mins outside city center where the org has it's headquarters) Yesterday, I was picked up at 8:30 after a good breakfast of scrambled egg on toast which they serve right downstairs from my room here in the hostel (costs 14 rand which roughly equals $1.75). When I arrived at SAEP, I found out I would be heading to one of the creches that SAEP has been helping the longest which turned out to be very good since its a bit overwhelming with some of the more needy care centers. We all hopped in a chartered van - about 10 or 11 in all (there are around 25 volunteers at any one time at SAEP doing two-month to one-year commitments but they split between the three programs, Early Childhood Development, High School After-school Program, and Gap Year Interns Program). My creche, Zamukhanyo, was one of the last so I got a sneak peak at about six other creches, all in varying conditions. Luckily, I was there for the day with another volunteer who had spent last summer (their winter) really getting the building renovations underway and could speak to the incredible changes that have been made in just the past year. Kathleen had been drawn to SAEP through her environmental interests but through her time here she gained a passion for education and is now pursuing a masters at Steinhardt (go NYU!!)
My meeting with Nambantu, the school's principle, can hardly be dexcribed in words but it was a lot like a warm blanket and joyous song on the coldest day. She welcomed me into the creche with a hug that felt like we'd went back for decades and she proceeded to show us around with the greatest sense of pride and joy, pointing out each spacious clean room while pointing out her plans for more children's furniture she could get with a grant from the local Council (Kathleen had actually helped Nambantu write this and several other proposals but the principle pursued them in order to see that they came through - it's a good example of the partnership between SAEP and the creche to help the school leadership how to better take care of their own needs). She also would slap the walls, gleaming at how sturdy they are and explained to us that they are a special material that stays warm in winter and cool in summer. There were four teachers at the school for about 50 kids but Nambantu explained that usually she has 125 kids but because the schools are out for winter break, the young ones stay home to be looked after by their siblings (which creates a problem with the fees since parents will then say they shouldn't pay for July but the teachers rely on parents to pay their fees though many parents cannot regularly pay their fees (about $12 per month). Nambantu says she thinks some parents may take advantage of her because they know that she will take care of the children anyway so that they get the care and early education they deserve). She says she would like to raise funds so that her teachers could get paid better and the teachers are so sweet and dedicated I have to agree they deserve whatever it takes for them to be able to continue taking care of these children. The whole day, they kept the kids to a pretty strict schedule, moving from lesson time, to play time, to lunch, to story time, to nap time quite fluidly. We did a lot of counting with the kids and also named different body parts (the principle has a sort of curriculum set up on themes and this month is body parts). The children repeated the English very enthusiastically though the language barrier did make the interactions difficult at times (one little boy kept coming to me for help with his clothing, it took me a little while to figure out what he was trying to point out). By naptime, I felt I needed a nap but that's when we help clean the kids dishes from lunch and pick up the toys. When we went back to the office late in the afternoon, I worked with Jane on beginning a donor database and a system for tracking when reports would need to be drafted for certain donors.
THough after a full day I was ready to go home, one of the volunteers invited me to their house for dinner. I couldn't turn down an invite for Chicken Parm so we headed to get a minibus over to the area called Observatory. We got into the crammed van and I was immediately taken back to all our times in Ghana hopping on and off the tro tro (minibuses in SA are actually much less traveled by visitors than in Ghana but since we were a group of three and not going very far, this time it was fine). The fare is pretty standard and is 5.50 Rand like the train but of course the guy upcharged us to 8 Rand. This is barely a 30 cent upcharge but on principle I handed him the correct amount. He tried to push for eight but he was laughing and most of the people on the minibus were giggling at him trying to get more out of us. The only person who wasn't laughing was the other foreigner on the bus who tried to tell us it was 8 and was really not amused when the guy said 5.50 was fine and she realized she'd been had. The guy let us out fine, still giggling.
After a really fun night of food, wine and sharing public service stories in Observatory, I woke up this morning looking forward to another day. While waiting to get out to the creches, I prepared for the distribution of a load of donated books we just recieved for the ECD program. about half are in Xhosa and half in English and a couple stories were in both (which the teachers and students really enjoy). When we were ready to go, we drove about a couple hundred feet when we realized the car had a flat tire. Isabel - the car's owner - got it back to the house but not without a couple of BLOODY HELL!s. The three of us girls figured out how to change the tire (no better place to learn than in Africa!) and got on our way again surprisingly quickly. When we got to Kiddies Creche whish was where I was originally planned to stay, We discovered that the main building had been flooded and the principal, Margaret, was focused on damage control. This is a creche SAEP has recently taken on and while SAEP has been able to get Kiddies a whole new roof, it will be a little while before there are funds to replace the whole structure so water can still get in through the floor when it's been raining for as long as it has over the past week. Margaret was in great spirits despite the challenges and looked at the upside that at least the creche had relatively few children at this time (again, becuase of Winter Break) so they could cram into the adjacent structure. I offered to stay and help clean up the mess which Margaret appreciated but she asked that I come back when they are up and running and I can get to see more of the children (I could tell that she was proud of her place and wanted it to be seen in its normal conditions and not like this, even if I was tempting her with a helping hand in the clean up of it). After a cheerful parting with Margaret and her head teacher, we headed to Sakhingomso where SAEP has two volunteers. This is another one of the creches that was taken on more recently and the difference is immediately apparent. The kids are cheerful and the staff is attentive but the facility is dreadful and they are very wanting in supplies. Like Kiddies, they have a leaky roof that doesn't allow the kids to use paper or books in the winter so SAEP is getting them a new roof (also, like Kiddies) and then will work on the rest of the structure (the roof supplies are being donated by Wharton business school but we'll still need funds for labor which can be hard to obtain since it's difficult to get receipts for work done and donors prefer to donate materials rather than donate the funds that will help put the funds to use). THough there is quite some work to be done at these creches - some obvious like facilities work and some less apparent like administrative and staff trainings - it was so incredible to be able to put the work of SAEP in context by witnessing the stark differences between the conditions in which these creches begin and where SAEP can take them to.
From here I was able to get to visit a bunch of the other creches, Noluthando, Ruth First, Nkosi and Noncedo (the 'c' is pronounced with a click through the front teeth - not to be confused with the 'q' which is a click on the bottom of the mouth or the 'x' that is a click more to the side of the mouth). There is a striking difference between all of the creches but especially between those with less and fewer years working with SAEP. Yes, I will have pictures but really it's more in the sort of confidence and professionalism that exudes from the creches SAEP has been helping longer. After today, I really feel like I have a better grasp on the context of these projects and of the tasks at hand.

The remarkable improvements that the original creche projects have enjoyed and the coming improvements that the newer creche projects can look forward to are truly awe-inspiring!!