Max and Isaac
The week started off on a lighter and more picturesque note with us having the opportunity to spend Monday and Tuesday in Valley of a Thousand Hills. We got a fairly genuine rural South African experience and were also privileged to play soccer with the local kids who are taking part in a sports programme.
The volunteering began on Wednesday at Umthombo street children project. We went along a bit early to prepare the session with former Zwelibanzi learner and now Umthombo worker Sihle. The task will be to record a hip-hop track by the end of the month. Sihle will organise the studio time and lead the sessions with Max. The general outlook of the sessions will be practically preparing the track (i.e. writing lyrics and music) with ice breakers, sharing of free expression and other fun music based exercises weaved in.
Wednesday's session was an introduction and based around developing the concept. We (Max, Isaac and Sihle) had some ideas ourselves about what the song could be about but though this should be part of the exercise for the children. Only three children attended but it is a start.
We brainstormed key words together and the resulting words on the flip chart were an interesting read; words such as positivity, whoonga (a new and intense drug on the streets of Durban), love and even "I don't know what to say". A worrying one that came up however was "street kings" (as opposed to "street kids"). One the one hand it could be seen as a positive take on their situation and an expression making the most of their life on the streets. However that it exactly where it's problem lies. Some organisations empower children too much on the streets leaving the kids with no reason to go to their own home or another safe accommodation away from the streets. They essentially encourage street life. We do not encourage this.
On Thursday, we ventured into Umlazi to work in a local creche, where the children were overjoyed to see us. They showed this by essentially piling up on us, before proceeding to run around with our cameras, laughing and singing as they did so. The creche, run by a few women from the local area, provides an excellent place for the young children, ranging from two to four years old, to begin education in a very relaxed format. They showed great pride in reciting the months of the year and days of the week, conveying a very promising start to their lives in Umlazi.
Following this, on Friday we went to Umthombo once again, to continue work on the hip hop project. However, all of the kids were at a previously planned surfing excursion, which we had not been informed about. Unfortunately, this is not unusual in this line of work and we have to learn to deal with it. At the end of the day, patience is key, and as the weeks go on these sessions will become far more efficient, working towards what should be a very promising project in Umthombo.
The week started off on a lighter and more picturesque note with us having the opportunity to spend Monday and Tuesday in Valley of a Thousand Hills. We got a fairly genuine rural South African experience and were also privileged to play soccer with the local kids who are taking part in a sports programme.
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| Local soccer programme in a Thousand Hills Village |
Wednesday's session was an introduction and based around developing the concept. We (Max, Isaac and Sihle) had some ideas ourselves about what the song could be about but though this should be part of the exercise for the children. Only three children attended but it is a start.
We brainstormed key words together and the resulting words on the flip chart were an interesting read; words such as positivity, whoonga (a new and intense drug on the streets of Durban), love and even "I don't know what to say". A worrying one that came up however was "street kings" (as opposed to "street kids"). One the one hand it could be seen as a positive take on their situation and an expression making the most of their life on the streets. However that it exactly where it's problem lies. Some organisations empower children too much on the streets leaving the kids with no reason to go to their own home or another safe accommodation away from the streets. They essentially encourage street life. We do not encourage this.
On Thursday, we ventured into Umlazi to work in a local creche, where the children were overjoyed to see us. They showed this by essentially piling up on us, before proceeding to run around with our cameras, laughing and singing as they did so. The creche, run by a few women from the local area, provides an excellent place for the young children, ranging from two to four years old, to begin education in a very relaxed format. They showed great pride in reciting the months of the year and days of the week, conveying a very promising start to their lives in Umlazi.
Following this, on Friday we went to Umthombo once again, to continue work on the hip hop project. However, all of the kids were at a previously planned surfing excursion, which we had not been informed about. Unfortunately, this is not unusual in this line of work and we have to learn to deal with it. At the end of the day, patience is key, and as the weeks go on these sessions will become far more efficient, working towards what should be a very promising project in Umthombo.
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