South Africa:
We took a crowded minibus taxi on unpaved bumpy towards Bizana. Of course we were the only white people far and wide, and each of us looked more like twice as we walked through the village. For the first time we were with "umlungu", a term of abuse coming from the Arpartheit against whites, which translates as much as' privileged means insulted. I did the first time felt very unwelcome and had a bad feeling under my skin with white. It seemed as if we would have been the first white men ever to have passed through this village. Us children ran behind her in droves and elderly people are looked after in disbelief from their traditional round Zuluhütten. One of us asked anxiously, wondering if we were social workers and what we would do here in this area actually.
was in the cabin is not only part of the family, but also studied cats and chickens that provide protection against rain and cold. What I immediately noticed was, that men and women sat separately. Laws, the men sat on benches, next to the women on the ground. The women suckled the children while the men just sat there, she talked, drank beer and Zulu, a product derived from corn meal drink. Everything was affected very patriarchal. The men were served by the women, while women had their hands full around children and food to care.
One teacher mentioned casually that Lungile from Grade 1 was HIV positive. I was shocked completely. I knew that was the province of KwaZulu-Natal, with almost 30% of the highest HIV rate in South Africa and, accordingly, approximately 50 children at the school would have to be HIV positive, but it was the first time that I have as close to the subject came in contact. The whole evening was very depressed our spirits. The happy little Lungile HIV positive? That was just hard to endure. How old would he be well? Will someone take care of him if it so far? Does he understand what the infection in his life? All these questions were not me that night out of my head, and when I had the next day Lungile smiling face in front of me, me, this made it even sadder.
Since the summer is upon us and the last two weeks have been very hot, we could use the swimming pool and Some classes go swimming. The kids could not wait for it all and were happy to cool off. As already mentioned, a large proportion of teachers and caregivers is more afraid of water. This is now no excuse invented! Many Zulus avoided for cultural reasons, the water, since in it evil spirits, so-called "bad spirits" should live. It is really interesting, so they still belong to the Christian faith, their culture is still present and affects them in their everyday lives. Thus, we were swimming down gratefully in his hands, and we were almost every day in the water. First, it is a pleasant change and, second, it's just nice to see, how much a child says, sitting in a wheelchair all day and finally can let off steam. We keep them in the water and forget, at least for a few moments, her disability. Since there may be able to swim a total of only three children, we care for each case, only one child in order to preserve the big picture! We constantly hold and fire them for "swimming" on. The others are sitting with big eyes on the pool deck and cool before their feet in the water. I've set myself a target of at least three kids to teach swimming!
The project
not only the different skin color, no, my leg and Armbehaarung make me a very rare species. With big eyes and open mouths I will like the zoo and stroked my blond hair bewundert.Auch is touched by the very brave and carefully examined. Some even pull on my leg hair, to verify their authenticity.
side game and support partners during the afternoon, we are always the great friend of the kids when they come with their concerns, and (family) problems to us or are just looking for something close. Recently we Spusiso, a senior from the PD Hostel anything asked about HIV: how it can get infected, do what he can know if he wants, whether he or his future girlfriend have AIDS and so on. Of the farm workers, we will always exemplified how comfortable are dealing with a lot of the issue of AIDS, although in this region over a quarter of the population is HIV infected. Since it a really happy if they make some kids even worry about it. Some time later, when we have talked about their Christmas holiday plans with the kids, then tells us Spusiso that he lives with his grandmother because his parents both died of AIDS. Many of the kids have lost parents, siblings or other relatives, and so it's entirely possible that some of them might be infected.
The Gewatlbereitschaft
Many of the children have a high level of violence. The children are not fundamentally aggressive and it's not too brutal (there are no serious injuries), but the threshold of verbal dispute with a punch is very small and is quickly exceeded. Often responds to an insult or a stupid remark with physical violence. I see mainly two reasons: the one can not defend many of the project to the extent verbal children, as would be necessary and therefore see physical defense, the only way to prove their strength. On the other, and that is I think the Hauptgrung, the children live in an environment where violence is common in much.
0 comments:
Post a Comment