Dedication
For Betty Maponde
My Boss, My Buddy, My Vamwene, My Friend
Without whom, most of these adventures would not have
occurred.
Week One
I am working at Simukai Street Youth Program. The program’s mission is to get kids off the street. The Center houses young boys who will soon be going home, runs an afternoon activity program for boys currently living on the street, and runs a support program for former street children. I’ve working most with the Sakubva Support program. It takes place in SakubvaTownship -a high density suburb just outside Mutare. We work with 25-30 children aged 7-16 who were street children and are now back in school. We are based at a primary school in the township and meet the children everyday when they are finished school. We provide school remediation, activities and games, Bible Study (it’s a Christian organization) and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education.
In Sakubva, families live very close together. Some live in concrete or concrete block houses with tin roofing. These houses are approximately 10 by 20feet. Most families have created “houses” from wood from pallets and metal from containers-these are approximately 8 by 10 feet. I would estimate that 4-6 families are living in the space of an average U.S. or Canadian yard. Approximately people 20,000 live in Sakubva with the population of that area having doubled due to migration from rural areas. The streets of Sakubva are dirt with many potholes due to rain. Soon the rainy season will begin and the roads will become very muddy. I am living in another high density area called Chikanga. Conditions there are not quite as crowded as in Sakubva.
I’m choosing to walk each morning to work, about 50minutes, rather than catch a “combi”- a commuter van into town. Riding the combi is something akin to the game of seeing how many people will fit inside a phone booth or VW beetle. Except that it is now a small mini van. I take combis home from Sakubva since we frequently finish as darkness is falling. If we finish early, Mrs. Maponde (the education worker) and I can walk home from Sakubva to Chikanga via the river valley-a route that I am not allowed walking by me.
One of the main reasons children end up on the streets here is that their family is not able to provide enough or any food. Each day during the program, the children are provided with a nutritious drink and a meal. Last week, I experienced many traditional Zimbabwe meals with the children such as vegetables and sadza, ground maize and ground nuts, sausage and sadza. I really like sadza, which is good, because it is the staple food of Zimbabwe. It can be prepared in a number of consistencies ranging from porridge to mashed potato like. Some of the children help prepare the meal that is cooked over an open fire in the school’s yard. The organization is hoping to construct a cooking shelter soon. Last week we met with some of the children’s parents and asked them to assist with the preparation of the meal.
It was a delight to be greeted by the children each day as we arrived. They seem to really enjoy the program. I did a session of cooperative games each day. The children were patient as I tried to explain the games. My six words of Shona do not go nearly far enough. Near the end of the week some of the older children took pity on me and were willing to translate and as well, more of the children became comfortable enough to speak English with me. I now know the words for sun, rain, clouds, you, stop, elephant, lion, and giraffe. Not a very large vocabulary for describing the game red light, green light. We have one volleyball and one basketball. I’m hoping to find a ball needle so I can blow up the soccer ball that was recently donated. I have had to be creative in designing activities for 30 children using one ball. The Memorial University basketball coach would have been proud of me last week-I ran an excellent basketball practice for a group of boys who want to form a team. I haven’t played much basketball since high school but I just adapted some ice hockey drills. I wish we had some more sports equipment. The other day, some children were playing netball with a ball made out of plastic bags. I’d had a soccer ball ready to bring but I ran out of room in my bag. Creativity is the order of the day as I change activities to fit a mixed age group from 7-16.
I’m hoping to develop an adventure program called ABLE (adventure based leadership experience) (love those acronyms) for the older children to build self-confidence and self-leadership. I think I’ll keep coaching the boy’s basketball team (those in the know please send drills) and try to develop a girl’s volleyball team. Simukai has also asked me to train their staff in adventure based counseling. They take street kids to camps and do some rappelling and camping but would like the children to get more out of these kids of activities. I’ve been doing some informal recreation programming with the boys who live at the center as well.
We “take tea” at the center each morning. We usually have a snack of tea, bread and margarine, sometimes peanut butter. I got some jam so I can introduce everyone to PB and J (peanut butter and jelly) sandwiches. As much as I have been learning from being here, people have also taken an interest in some of my “strange” habits. Sunscreen is not commonly seen here so it has sparked many conversations when I have put it on-as my skin. Tanning and having my skin change colour is also garnering lots of attention. Since it is quite warm here, I carry a water bottle everywhere (hydration is the key to life). Zimbabweans don’t tend to drink plain water so this behaviour is quite unusual-though a few people at the center are experimenting with the “skill” of drinking water.
The other day I looked into the fruit bowl at home and saw what I thought was an orange and decided to have it with my breakfast. I quartered it and looked forward to the first bite. It was very sour and I thought “must be a new kind of orange.” I dipped it in sugar and choked it down since I didn’t want it to go to waste and left it at that. Then last night, Molly (my host mother) said she would like lemon in her tea and got one out of the fruit bowl. It suddenly hit me that I’d eaten a lemon the other morning and a good laugh was had by all when I explained what had transpired and how lemons look different in Canada. It was a good reminder of how things aren’t always as they appear and that assumptions can be wrong.
I have had many conversations with many Zimbabweans about how the media portrays their country abroad. They are happy that I have come and are saddened by the image of Zimbabwe in the rest of the world. They explain that the incidences of violence are infrequent and limited but are what the media focuses on. I am feeling quite secure here and I suspect it would be much more likely for me to be injured by a car (by looking the wrong way before crossing the street as they drive on the left side) than by political violence. It has been enlightening to watch how the Zimbabwean news reports on events in the rest of the world.
I attended a church service at St. John United Methodist church yesterday. It is the church that Molly is the pastor for and she was preaching yesterday. They found a young man to translate for me who was greatly appreciated since the entire 3 hour service was in Shona. There was much singing with many voices combining into a melodious tapestry of sound and rhythm. I declined the opportunity to attend a wedding after the service because my brain and ears were quite full. Evening life is quite quiet since it’s hard to go out at night without car transport. Lots of writing letters, journaling, reading, and the ZBC evening newsat 8. I usually get home from work around 6:30 or7:00 pm. For those of you following the electronics debate, I’m currently very sad that I left the laptop and video camera behind. I’ve asked a friend to look into the shipping costs since I could do much good work with them here.
