Snot, Songs and Simplicity

I’ve had a great week on the community and HIV education project here in St. Lucia.  The accommodations are great.  There is actually water in the pool although it’s pretty chilly so I’m waiting for a hot day to be brave enough to get in.  Everyone is very nice, welcoming and great to work with.  And I’m anxious to see my first hippo in town at night (hopefully from a safe distance or from a vehicle as they can be very dangerous).

We spend each morning in a crèche which is basically a day care/preschool for kids whose parents work or kids that stay don’t have parents and stay with family members who work.  There are several crèches that our group visits regularly and have made lots of improvements for the kids and have taught them a lot of great new things with the goal of making their move into primary school an easier one.  Our project is currently looking into new crèches, accessing their needs and deciding which ones are needing African Impact’s regular time and support the most in the new year. 

This week’s new crèche is a home crèche.  So basically it is a Gogo (Zulu word for Grandmother) that has opened her home to looking after kids.  She hasn’t had any help in setting it up and doesn’t have any government funding.  She does have some help with the kids each day, but not much.  There are a lot of kids with a big age range so it is a lot for 1 lady.  The first day was a bit chaotic as the kids had never had any structure in their day before, just random playing.  The kids ranged in age from a few months to about 4 years old.  They didn’t have any chairs, no table or place to set the food, and only 1 bed which wasn’t big enough for all the babies so many of them just slept on the floor.  The kids don’t have many toys and they had no literature or anything for learning.  So the first day was pretty much just a free for all with singing some songs and playing with the kids.

The first little bit the kids just starred at us in awe and weren’t sure what to make of us whites (as the one kid called us) singing and dancing in front of them.  But after a while they warmed up and enjoyed interacting and cuddling with us.  One boy we feel as some level of autism and ends up disrupting most of the other kids.  One boy is severely over weight and can hardly walk.  They don’t have a bathroom (outhouse in these parts) so the kids just pee right outside the building.  But all of the kids are sweet, fun children who loved our individual time and attention….and toys.

We realized the need for a few things so we got them some chairs for the kids and a table for the food and to prepare bottles on.  We are also working on getting another bed for them.  Our first night after being at their crèche we made up the alphabet to be posted up on their walls and continue to sing the alphabet to them to help them learn English.  We’ve also taught them a few fun kids sing along songs that they are all quickly picking up on and enjoy singing.  We take little plastic bikes for them, or as they call them, toot-toots.  So a kid will come up to you chatting away in Zulu and you have no idea what they are talking about until you hear the word toot-toot, then you understand completely.

Many of the babies have beads around their waste which in their culture is believed to keep the babies safe .  Some of them have beads or a key on a string around their neck which is believed to help with teething. 

As we left on Thursday, knowing that we may or may not be back, the Gogo was very thankful for the time we had spent and the things we had done.  She gave us all big hugs and kisses to show her gratitude.  Although it is a lot of work, you can tell she loves and cares for those kids so it was great to get to help her out, even just a little bit.  The children were also sad to see us go.  I will be interested to find out if this becomes a regular crèche for African Impact to spend time with in the future.

Friday we went to one of the crèches that our group has been going to regularly and I was so impressed with the kids and the teacher and the whole set up.  African Impact and the teacher have worked well together.  The kids are all about 3 -5 years old and know all their alphabet, numbers, colors, days of the week and months of the year in English.  They love learning and interacting and singing along to all the fun songs.  It is all set up so well, other than the fact that it is still in a stick and mud shack.  So African Impact is working on building them a new building.

It was really great to get to see the difference that our group can make to a crèche over time.  From rundown buildings with no furniture, toys or literature and chaotic kids to an organized, scheduled, fun learning environment.  It really put into perspective and showed a clear image of what African Impact is doing.  Which makes me confident that when they are doing and what I am a part of is really amazing and helping in such a big way.