Scene 1: Back to Langrug

Backstory:

After our group met with Scott and Lorraine on Monday morning, we decided that we would try to travel to Langrug twice a week for the rest of our time here. We plan to explore ways to connect with Nobathembu’s crèche and eventually focusing on WaSH in the crèche. In order to learn more about the crèche and to begin creating this connection, we trekked out to the settlement to meet with Nobathembu and observe the children at play in the crèche.

Cast Of Characters:

Nobathembu, Children of the Créche, and ECD Team

Setting:

As we pulled into the driveway of the WaSH facility, I looked up to see children everywhere. The children were filing out of the doorway, walking toward the van as we stepped out. “AMABHAULU” they chanted at us while giving us high fives and hugs. A small girl about 3 years old was holding a shoe in her hand which I thought was peculiar, seeing as I couldn’t seem to locate the other. As I approached the door of the facility I was happy to see a line of children about to use the bathroom and then washing their hands with the help of Nobathembu. Everyone had finished up and Nobathembu gathered them at the edge of the driveway. Holding the hands of two little boys, I walked with the group back to the crèche at the church.

Actions & Observations

After arriving at the crèche, Nobathembu informed us that she had to run to a meeting and then take an exam for the remainder of the afternoon. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t be able to speak with her today as we originally planned. We decided to stick around at the crèche to observe since we were already there.

Our group spent about an hour at the crèche observing and interacting with the sixty or so children. During this hour, most of the children were full of energy running around the room interacting with us and with each other. All of the children were eager to hold each of our group’s hands all at once and to latch onto our legs. We had to gesture to the children that everyone would get a turn to hold our hands since the children only speak Xhosa. This language barrier was eminent during our stay, but we also observed that the children do know simple English sayings like, “Dog,” “Cat,” and “What is your name?” Other than that our group stuck with making gestures to communicate with the children.

The children were doing many activities on and around the main rug of the crèche. Some boys were roughhousing together, while some of the girls were sitting playing with each other. A few of these girls were licking their hands or the bottoms of their shoes for no apparent reason to me. Other children were talking and playing with each other, which sometimes lead to a child crying and a teacher coming over to solve the problem between the children. Some of the other children were colouring peacefully at the red, green, yellow and blue tables while Julie was asking them to tell her what they were colouring. While all of this was going on, I observed a few children go up to the bucket in the corner of the room by the door, pull down their pants and go to the bathroom. When the bucket filled up, one of the teachers took it outside to dump it outside in their greywater channel. Some of these kids who went to the bathroom used the same hands to eat their chips that were given to them as a snack. The children were also given some water from a bucket to drink using the same two cups provided.

Reflection:

This visit to Nobathemu’s crèche has opened my eyes to the differences of education and day care between home and here in South Africa. All educators have the same goal to help the child grow into a meaningful person but each centre goes about this differently with the variable amounts of resources available to them. Nobathembu’s crèche is a great example of how to make the best out of the resources you have and to most importantly show the love you have for the children. There are lacks of WaSH resources available to the children, but Nobathembu brings the children down to the WaSH facility once a day to make use of that great resource. We are all excited to see where this relationship with Nobathembu and her crèche goes in the coming weeks.