Isaac
This week included: a pleasent surprise visit from Mava, a former South African half of the Gillespie's-Umlazi student exchange and a good friend to many of us; a valuable meeting with Rejoice Ngcongo who will be launching her charitlable business, "Dor LeDor", shortly with support form the Jabulani Project on the website; St Raphael's special school classroom session and parent workshop on the topic of communication; a meeting with Makhosi Buthelesi of Mangosuthu University resulting in her promise to take the Zwelibanzi and Dloko gardening project proposal to her next meeting with likelihood that she will take it on; work on appeals for a visa refual for two of our friends who hope to come to Scotland in August; and some valuable SISCO meetings with the Municipality and Linda of WeAreDurban.
Surely the most significant even of the week however involved Benjamin. Benjamin was a thirteen year old boy who came into contact with SISCO. After some hard work on a lot of parts he was reunited with his mother and family after around three months on the street.
Early this week one of the part time SISCO volunteers, Soso, mentioned that she had seen him back on the street. So on Thursday we, Soso, Abdul, Mava and I, went to look for him. There was no plan of action; only to find him, speak to him and go from there.
Soso said she had seen him at the South Beach area so that is where we began. We went around for a fair while asking local street youth if they had seen him. It is remarkable how we could guaruntee honest answers from anyone we would ask due to SISCO's genuine relationship with the streets of Durban.
Most had not seen him but some had seen him pass by this way or that so we continued to walk around, looking and asking.
As we were stationed speaking to one young man we saw in the distance two of the first boys we asked for help walking towards us, in the middle of them the familiar swagger of the boy we had been searching for.
When we realised we had found him it was clear that the rest of the day's appointments had to be cancelled. As I said we did not know exactly what we were to do but we knew it couldn't be rushed.
We each had a small chat to him individually on the beachfront where he was brought to us. It is becoming more apparent to me as I go along that the language barrier is more significant than I thought. For the situation in hand, my role simply couldn't be to get him to tell me why he came back or what was wrong, however tight our relationship has been; his limited understanding of the questions and mine of the answers was a little too much, not to mention his language limitations for answering any questions. I decided I had to be there to support Benjamin and ourselves if little else.
The other boys who had ben around us left eventually which allowed us the time alone with Benjamin we needed. It allowed us to take him to a cafe and make things easier and informal. We sat around a table eating a loaf of bread and a drink of "IRON BREW", making sure he got some down him. It was unclear why he had returned but it only made us realise we had known no more about why he came to the streets in the first place. The answer had changed each time we had asked him about it. The only common theme was that he was unhappy at home and that he was awfully young and naive, and the latter should be expected of a child.
Fortunately we still had his mother's contact details and we could call her to come and pick him up the same day.
We took him back to the centre and his mother arrived a few hours later. When she arrived she was so perplexed you could hardly see the relief on her face. She had a long conversation in Zulu with some of the SISCO staff and seemed quite angry and upset. The only Englishism I picked up was, "I just don't understand", and it was recurrent.
When it was time to leave, it wasn't quite the walk off into the sunset a mother and a son may have in the movies. I felt I should try and say something to soothe the mood in the room. To play it safe, I said to Benjamin's mother that we are at the beginning of a long journey but we are in it together. I promised to visit their home next Sunday.
So that is our next milestone.
This week included: a pleasent surprise visit from Mava, a former South African half of the Gillespie's-Umlazi student exchange and a good friend to many of us; a valuable meeting with Rejoice Ngcongo who will be launching her charitlable business, "Dor LeDor", shortly with support form the Jabulani Project on the website; St Raphael's special school classroom session and parent workshop on the topic of communication; a meeting with Makhosi Buthelesi of Mangosuthu University resulting in her promise to take the Zwelibanzi and Dloko gardening project proposal to her next meeting with likelihood that she will take it on; work on appeals for a visa refual for two of our friends who hope to come to Scotland in August; and some valuable SISCO meetings with the Municipality and Linda of WeAreDurban.
Surely the most significant even of the week however involved Benjamin. Benjamin was a thirteen year old boy who came into contact with SISCO. After some hard work on a lot of parts he was reunited with his mother and family after around three months on the street.
Early this week one of the part time SISCO volunteers, Soso, mentioned that she had seen him back on the street. So on Thursday we, Soso, Abdul, Mava and I, went to look for him. There was no plan of action; only to find him, speak to him and go from there.
Soso said she had seen him at the South Beach area so that is where we began. We went around for a fair while asking local street youth if they had seen him. It is remarkable how we could guaruntee honest answers from anyone we would ask due to SISCO's genuine relationship with the streets of Durban.
Most had not seen him but some had seen him pass by this way or that so we continued to walk around, looking and asking.
As we were stationed speaking to one young man we saw in the distance two of the first boys we asked for help walking towards us, in the middle of them the familiar swagger of the boy we had been searching for.
When we realised we had found him it was clear that the rest of the day's appointments had to be cancelled. As I said we did not know exactly what we were to do but we knew it couldn't be rushed.
We each had a small chat to him individually on the beachfront where he was brought to us. It is becoming more apparent to me as I go along that the language barrier is more significant than I thought. For the situation in hand, my role simply couldn't be to get him to tell me why he came back or what was wrong, however tight our relationship has been; his limited understanding of the questions and mine of the answers was a little too much, not to mention his language limitations for answering any questions. I decided I had to be there to support Benjamin and ourselves if little else.
The other boys who had ben around us left eventually which allowed us the time alone with Benjamin we needed. It allowed us to take him to a cafe and make things easier and informal. We sat around a table eating a loaf of bread and a drink of "IRON BREW", making sure he got some down him. It was unclear why he had returned but it only made us realise we had known no more about why he came to the streets in the first place. The answer had changed each time we had asked him about it. The only common theme was that he was unhappy at home and that he was awfully young and naive, and the latter should be expected of a child.
Fortunately we still had his mother's contact details and we could call her to come and pick him up the same day.
We took him back to the centre and his mother arrived a few hours later. When she arrived she was so perplexed you could hardly see the relief on her face. She had a long conversation in Zulu with some of the SISCO staff and seemed quite angry and upset. The only Englishism I picked up was, "I just don't understand", and it was recurrent.
When it was time to leave, it wasn't quite the walk off into the sunset a mother and a son may have in the movies. I felt I should try and say something to soothe the mood in the room. To play it safe, I said to Benjamin's mother that we are at the beginning of a long journey but we are in it together. I promised to visit their home next Sunday.
So that is our next milestone.
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