Early this morning we went next door (like literally, down the road) to a Zulu village cultural tour. It seemed a little more set up and rehearsed than I expected but it was still cool. Seemed a lot more traditional/old school. Got to practice some Zulu words—See-a-bon-a (Hello) and See-a-bonga (Thank you)…pretty good huh? I think it was more “old school” because they had a system of how to tell if a young lady is taken or not. If you’re single then you don’t wear a shirt and a very short swishy bead skirt, if you have a boyfriend you wear a bra, if you’re engaged then you get to cover your top & you wear a shorter knee-length black skirt and if you’re married then you wear a shirt, longer black skirt, and a red hat. Also, if you’re married you don’t have to do as much work because of the hat—you can’t put a pot on your head if you have a hat there! That was interesting, especially since I wasn’t expecting to see a shirtless girl not too much older than myself.
After touring the village we went and sat to watch their Zulu dance. But first we had to drink Zulu beer. I will never be doing that again, that’s for sure. The dancing was cool, a little different than the other Zulu dances we saw: the men danced mostly and the women were the ones chanting and playing the drums. This one little boy (probably 3-4 years old) was sooo cute, he had a few solos and stole my heart; his Zulu kicks were fantastic. So good times at the Zulu village…and yet it still boggles my mind that people live that way every day.
Next we were off to Nkomo Primary School, a school associated with NOAH (Nuturing Orphans of AIDS for Humanity). Many of the children at the school are orphaned due to parents that have died of AIDS and they are able to receive meals and uniforms from the school with the help of NOAH. The school has a total of 900 students and they can only afford to give meals to the kids that qualified for meals, even though most students are also in need of a good meal. It’s so great that we went and Morg, Linds, and I were just talking to DFitz at dinner about how awesome of an opportunity it was. We were only there for a couple of hours but we were able to plant some vegetables, sit in classrooms & participate in activities, play with the kids after school got out, and we left some donations that some of our group brought from home. Soon after we arrived, we met the assistant principal and she told us about the school, its history, and what they were doing. She told us all about the grades, the lessons they have, how NOAH helps. Then someone asked how far kids had to travel to come to school (we were in a very rural area). She said the longest some have to walk is 10 km—that is SIX MILES! To walk to and from school. To add onto that, she told us about a program she started with the older kids called “Soul Buddyz” to teach the kids about the dangers of rape and to form protective groups because sometimes the kids will get raped on their way home from school, especially if they hang around school for a little bit to play and leave later. So terrible. Some of these things are so unreal and heartbreaking. It is incredible.
After our talk we went to the kitchen area where the gardening stuff was stored and there was a big group of kids SINGING for us! It was beautiful and I wanted to cry, especially after hearing the terrible stories about children getting raped. So lucky to get it on video. Not to mention actually witnessing it.
We gardened and then had the opportunity to go into classrooms to watch/play activities. The classroom I went into had a great teacher—really energetic, enthusiastic, and so pumped that we were there. It was a 3rd grade class and we did an activity where the kids drew wild animals, wrote the names in Zulu, and then we told them the English word, wrote it out, and helped them practice. It was a little confusing at first because the kids don’t know that much English at that age but once we got into the swing of things it wasn’t as hard. We even went over their names too, had them write it and then Paige and I got to try our best Zulu pronunciation of their names. Except the kid next to me was easy, his name was Freedom and I thought it was the coolest name ever. As time went by the kids became less shy and the teacher had us do a competition “Home vs. Visitors” and we practiced the wild animal vocab…the kids won. And they rubbed it in our faces. They even had this song/chant that they were yelling at us after we lost…a little intimidating but still hilarious. After class was dismissed, a ton of kids stayed and played…it was chaotic and awesome all at the same time. All of us wished we could have been at the school for more than just one day. But even as we met up with the vice principal before we left and gave them our donations and thanks, she couldn’t express how much we made an impact in those few hours. It totally brought me back to my ASB Honduras trip. So little can go such a long way and just playing for an hour with one of those kids can make all the difference. Again, I am so glad we visited Nkomo today. Yay small children! :)
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