Disabled bodies but not disabled minds

Upon returning from an incredible 10 day road trip along the coast of South Africa, I realized that not only have I not updated in awhile but I have mentioned very little about my service site that I spend 2 days a week at. In short, I am a teaching assistant at Tembaletu, a school for kids with physical disabilities. I work in a grade 4 classroom with 30 kids of which only 5 speak English and the rest in their mother tongue, Xhosa (1 of SA's 11 official language - the "X" is pronounced with a click but can also be said as a "K" sound, e.g. Kosa). This is in an important detail because my third day there neither of the 2 grade 4 teachers showed up so I had to entertain the class for a full day. But that's for another entry :) Rather than me telling you about Tembaletu I will attempt at illustrating my first day experience...Oh and just a heads up, Dan is one of my housemates that also works at Tembaletu and Pearnel is our awesome driver and second father :)

Day 1 - 7 February 2011

To say that I am overwhelmed with emotion would be an understatement: fear, nerves, excitement, confusion, wonder, appreciation, passion, uncertainty. It's only 9:30 and I already have seen more than I could have imagined. Dan and I were dropped off at 7:45, found the principal, and then taken to what will be regular Monday assemblies. We waited as the kids and teachers filed in. And that's when I was reminded. Reminded of how precious a child is, especially one who is physically disabled but mentally determined. They came in waves. some with walking-arm crutches, others with a tilted walk and still others helping those in wheelchairs. Soon the room was filled with bodies of young ones. Visually they struggled to move but you could see it in their eyes that they were just as normal as any other child. Their independence when walking begged for acceptance as "normal." Then the most incredible thing happened. Without warning the room echoed with the voices of what seemed like a thousand children. I had absolutely no idea what they were saying or what their words meant. But it didn't matter.

To some, the jumbled sounds and syllables could have easily been tuned out but not for me. What I heard was not just a mess of words but one voice. A voice of hope, passion and determination. My mind drifted to yesterday's church service at Jubilee where the minister said after a Xhosa song, "It's not about getting the words right but rather about the passion behind your sound." And that's what I heard in that room: passion. Not all of them could sing because their body disabled them to but that didn't stop them from trying. The sight of 300 physically disabled but mentally determined kids almost brought me to tears. A fiery passion stirred within me to fight whomever dared to call these kids anything but "normal." They may not be able to throw a baseball in a straight line but put them in a choir and their passion could outdo any athlete. 

Joy emanated from all of their faces as they sang songs in their native tongue. It is my goal to be able to sing along with them by the time I'm done here. After the songs ended there was a brief demonstration on recycling and how recycled items can be used to make other materials. This humbled me because I was reminded what kind of environment these kids lived in. Of course recycling isn't a priority or even an option when your family struggles to get fresh food and water everyday. The townships came alive this morning as we drove through them. Poverty was walking around before my eyes as Pearnel weaved in and out of the narrow roads. As much as I would love to live here one day I don't know if I could ever A) get used to driving on the left side or B) having such a narrow space to manuvere such a large van. Dan asked him if there was any running water in the townships to which his response of "no" surprised me. What I so easily take for granted...

...and that was my morning experience, which almost 2 months later I still cannot put into words. As of now I assist in teaching English (taught them the ABC song last week) and working on Life Orientation projects. I started a "Who am I?" project idea that I had borrowed from a friend where the kids cut out pictures from magazines that they think resembles them and then put all the pictures into a collage. It took a few attempts to explain the concept and some translating from the teachers but in the end every kid had a pair of scissors in one hand, a glue stick in the other and a smile on their face. In an environment where they are mostly lectured to all day with very little group work interaction, I could tell they welcomed the break of the usual classroom routine. I don't know if all of them totally understood what I was trying to convey but it didn't matter. Their joy was satisfying enough for me, especially this one girl, Lisa*. She's about 15 (the ages in grade 4 range from 10-15), in a wheel chair, is paralyzed in her legs and right arm in addition to having a condition where she can't keep her head up without it being elastically banded to her chair. Oh and she's non-verbal too. Needless to say she has a difficult time, especially since she has been placed in the back of the classroom where she is easily neglected and ignored. So, when all the other kids were cutting and pasting I went over and had her point to which pictures she wanted me to point out. Words cannot convey how heart-warming and rewarding it was to see her become giddy and smiley as I cut out pictures that she liked. Again, I'm not sure if she fully understood what was going on because sometimes she'd point to an entire page of pictures but I didn't care. I could feel the tears welling up as the bell rang to go to lunch.

The kids in Monday morning assembly

Me and some of the kids at their Sports Day (to be blogged about later)

Needless to say, I have slowly fallen in love with these kids each day I'm there. And the more fond of them I become the more upsetting it is to realize how tilted the education system is towards disabled children. Here are some of the problems I have witnessed:

• the learners (which is what they call them instead of students) do not have individual learning plans (ILPs) because there is no way to sit down one-on-one to create such a plan with 30 other students in a class. Because of this problem, there is such a range of ability with usually only a handful (3-5) of learners are actually capable of doing the work the grade demands while the majority is left in the dark
• Thus, come the end of the year they are "pushed" into the next grade, even though they can barely do the work of their current grade. They are "pushed" because of their age and what's expected of that "age" is to progress
• Therefore each year teachers receive unprepared learns for the new grade and are required to give an assessment in February on that level (keep in mind the school year is all year round and starts in January). For example, these grade 4 learners recently finished grade 3 work in December but since they are now "in grade 4" they are expected to do grade 4 work on the assessment! The learners struggle to do the assessment and Tembaletu never receives the results of how the individual students scored except hearing through the media "such and such a school is doing poorly because not meeting their marks" which is totally unfair. The school image is reflected poorly and doesn't get the funding it needs to fix the initial issue (which is making time to create ILPs). If they must do an assessment in February, I believe they should do one in December as well to truly assess the progress of the learners and school and identify gaps in the system.
• to top things off, the mainstream schools get grade 3 packets to prepare the grade 4 assessment but not here at Tembaletu. Thus the system is setting up the school for failure. Also, if Tembaletu identifies a learner with a mental disability and recommends that learner to Nompumolelu (school for mentally disabled children) the parents can refuse the recommendation and therefore the kids stay here and do nothing which adds to the problem of poor test results in addition to the child getting left in the dark.
• Some kids get dropped off here as early as 4:30 am and don't get home until 18:00 therefore only having a short time at home and struggle to stay awake at school during the day. 

In spite of such unfortunate situations, there is hope that blossomed from my last bullet point. In brief, Hillsong Church has become a global activist and is working with Tembaletu to build accommodation for these learners that need it. Please check out the powerful video at the following link: Tembaletu Project.

Hopefully now you have a better idea and a little taste of my experiences at Tembaletu. While many of the challenges are deeply rooted in the system and some days are more of a struggle than others, I am determined to make a difference in any way I can. I'm not looking to save the world but rather spread joy and compassion one child and one smile at a time. 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope

Jeremiah 29:11

Compassionately yours,

Janelle

*name changed to protect her identity