After a lot of time and work, teacher training finally arrived. And the teachers loved it! In the morning we picked them up and brought them to the community center that we were holding it at, except four of the elderly teachers walked 2 miles the first morning just to be there! See, in Swaziland the go-gos (the grandmothers that help with the care points) aren’t used to having anyone taking care of them.
All four care points that we’ve been working with showed up plus a couple of teachers from a fifth care point came. We taught them all kinds of different stuff from planning to disciplining to different subjects to teach the children to songs and games. (I got the fun job of teaching games and helping with songs!)
On the second day we had asked Esther who teaches at
Joyella (or what we’ve called School House) to speak to the teachers about her experiences. She is a retired school teacher so the children at her care point are lucky. There is several teachers and go-gos that can’t read, even more never finished school. They’ve had no training. They only come to help the kids. (Have I mentioned that none of these women get paid?)
Truly Esther and the other go-gos that work with her are all amazing women and love these kids. I’ve even seen them sneak some change to the orphaned kids so that they can have snack on certian days so they can fit in with the kids who have a parent and give their children a snack to bring. (Like I said before, these children are lucky, this is the only care point that we’ve seen anything like this at. The other care points don’t have snack time, they can’t. None of their kids would be able to bring it.)
Anyways, Esther agreed to speak. So she went up to share her experiences. Or that’s what we thought. Esther began to tell the story of us coming to her care point and how much it meant to her and what all we’ve done at her care point. As I listened to her speech, my eyes began to fill with tears. At the end she said that she hoped that we would never forget her or this area but even if we did, she would never forget us. To hear the most educated and sweetest go-go express her appreciation to us, was one of my favorite moments here.
See a lot of these women help with the care points and truly do want to see a difference made in this area. But they get so discouraged. They feel like they’ve been forgotten. Food doesn’t arrive when it should, kids in thier care go hungry and they can’t do anything about it. (All of this by the way is about to change, but I don’t think they really believe it.)
During the second day, we used part of the day just to pamper the go-gos and teachers. They never get pampered. So we decided to do mani-pedi day. (For all you guys out there, that means manicures and pedicures.)
It ended up being the funniest time of the training for both us and the teachers. They had no idea what a manicure or pedicure was. In the beginning some didn’t want either, and all but a couple wanted nothing to do with the pedicures. By the end, all had at least one of them done. (For those who know me, I only did manicures. Feet just aren’t my thing!)
At the end of our teacher training, each care point got supplies to help the teachers teach. They all got posters, flash cards, chalk, soap for the children to wash their hands, etc…Not much by American standards but it meant a lot to them. Now what we’ve taught them can be put into use. They have the supplies that they need.
This week as we’ve gone back for the last time to the care points, the posters are hanging on the walls, songs we taught are being sung and games they learned are being played. This is all continuing to happen even though there’s no food this week at the care points. (Side note: Food is scheduled to be delivered today to all of our care points.)
When we first came here, the kids were who I wanted to run up to. Now I want to run up to both the kids and the go-gos. These women are amazing.
