You got to
love their vibrant unique personalities; they make one realize how different we
all are. As I kneeled down to draw with some of them, they got so comfortable
with me so quickly that it reminded me how hard it can be sometimes to just
introduce yourself to a stranger, but they did it with such ease. I drew some pictures of cars, houses and
flowers on piece of paper and instructed them to colour the pictures inside,
others understood immediately other took time to digest my instructions, it
made me appreciate the work of crèche teachers. The other boy was so small than
the others in one table but his intellect was amazing, he was like the mature
one amongst them, when one child was having problem answering a question, he
would jump in and say ‘his name is kgothatso’, so we would move on with our conversation.
He seemed so calm and quite, and he was the first one to finish my assignment successfully.
A cliché rang in my mind; don’t judge a book by its cover. I moved to the next
table the was one boy who had an interesting personality, he was the loud one
in the group, sure of himself even checking if others were doing the correct
thing while falling behind with his own colouring and the was this little
mistress who looked so tidy, the first question she asked me was when are we going
to eat, and I said only when you have finished the colouring and a few minutes
later I was hearing, ‘I’m done, I’m done’. Luckily for me it was already
lunchtime by then or I would have been a dead man. I would fill many pages just
explaining my wonderful experience with the little ones. These kids had tolerance,
they understood each other’s short comings, and they were happy. Personally I didn’t
see anything wrong with them, what was wrong was the environment they were in,
but it gave me peace to see the joy in their eyes. I believe they don’t even
think of themselves as poor, which too eased my mind.
My colleagues went about saying how poor the
people of the area were, asking themselves why does people living in such
poverty having so many kids and making jokes about how the only source of fun
for them was sex. It saddened me to hear people judging others, and making
their own conclusions about people’s lives. I believe if it was a choice nobody
could have chosen to be poor and nobody could have wished for his kids to live
in poverty stricken environment. But I believe every mother love her kids and would
go out of her way every day and make plans to see to it that her child doesn’t
go to bed with an empty stomach. I believe every parent would like to see her little
angel prosper and successful one day.
Where do we
get the nerve to judge the poor? If we could just take a few step back into the
past will see how our grandparents struggled so we can be where we are today, especially
us black people. If my grandmother didn’t wake up every day at four o’clock in
the morning to catch a bus to Lichtenburg to work in a kitchen of some white women,
I wouldn’t have graduated from university today. She swallowed her pride and
made sure her last born, who was fortunate to be born in an era that allowed a
black person better education, to concentrate on her studies and not worry
herself about where will the next plate of food come from. I would just imagine
what the gods; people who judge, of those days said about my family. But
because of a parent’s love, my mother got her nursing degree and she’s now a successful
career woman. Oh and thank to the powers above my grandmother lives to see the
success stories of her family.
Now same
thing about the parents at Rooigrond, we know nothing about where they come from.
We shouldn’t even begin to neither assume nor judge. But rather remain hopeful
that God will answer their prayers and do what we can to help, especially those
innocent souls.
I will
surely go back one day and help where I can if a Good Samaritan won’t overtake
me. I would help plant the lawn, install playing equipment such as swings, etc.
Make everything possible to make the crèche a pleasant place for my little
brothers and sisters. Oh God help me
that I can afford to do greater things for those inspiring souls ,not just at Rooigrond
but everywhere I come across a child in need.
I hope that
this is not my aspiration alone but that This
Generation will just be as eager and inspired to help the less fortunate.
No comments:
Post a Comment