Today was our third day in the township of Sir Lowry’s pass. We had a morning lesson and then boarded the bus at one o’clock. When we arrived at the township, there were children waiting outside of the bus excited to see us, just as they did yesterday and the day before. Our plan for the day was to have stations for the kids of arts and crafts, sports, and song and dance. However, we faced a bit of an obstacle when we realized that the main area that we usually use was being painted. This, along with the whipping winds and stormy clouds was a bit discouraging, but everything ended up working out in the end. We used the courtyard of the primary school for our activities, and even though the weather wasn’t ideal, the kids did not seem to notice and we all ended up having a great time.
I spent a lot of time today with a four year old little girl named Kimmy. The more boisterous kids seemed to overshadow her in the big group so she liked sitting on the sides with a few people in a quiet group. She did not have much to say but never seemed to want to let go of me, which is the case for a lot of the smaller children in the township. Kimmy was perfectly content to sit on my lap for an hour and play with her tiny beaded bracelet that she made at the arts and crafts station.
After about two hours of free time at the stations, we all broke off into our smaller groups and proceeded to the houses of our assigned “Moms”. These are all women in the community who take many people in and know almost all of the children by name. My “Mom”, Miss Veronica, has children of her own but also takes care of her grandchild, and works four days a week from nine a.m. to three p.m.. She takes a lot of pride in her home, and it is not what I expected to see in a township. She has many kitchen appliances, a refrigerator, oven and more. In her living room there are couches and even a television, computer, and a stereo. During the last hour of our visit at the township, my group spends time sitting in her living room talking, watching t.v., or having a dance party with her and her daughter Portia. I look forward to going back to see all of the kids tomorrow, and on Friday for field day!
-Lizzy Bracken
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