Volunteer blog: “Millions of questions to Miss Caroline” by Caroline Winberg

It’s almost the end of my journey and I really don’t wanna go back home. The first thing that hits me when I arrive to work is how much I’m gonna miss everyone. Today I’m teaching my class for the girls and 3 boys in the ages between 8-12.

I join them in the dance hall where we play a little game while waiting for everyone to arrive. The girls tell me their names and the teacher explains what the meaning of the name is in Xhosa. There was some wonderful stories out there. A few girls were called Anathi, which means they are with us (everyone is together as a family) then there’s Phumla which means rest, and my all time favorite name is Sanele cause it means we are enough now (they don’t want any more children). Some girls and boys that are called Sanele still had younger siblings though. It’s not as easy deciding when you’ve had enough children when there’s not much education or protection in sexual health in the townships

When all the 60 girls have arrived we divide them into 2 groups. I take my 30 girls out on the grass where we make the same collages of all the things that are good about ourselves. It was a little trickier today since the children were younger and at points it got so noisy I almost lost my voice trying to keep everyone in order. Little voices asking me a million questions “miss Caroline I want a pink paper instead”, or “miss caroline it’s not fair that I only got one pencil” and “miss Caroline can you help me spell”. This is all while other kids pull my shirt and everyone wants just a little bit of attention.

The 2nd group of the day I teached inside cause it’s easier to keep track on them when I keep them in a room. My favorite little drummer boy was in the class, he has the most horrendous story, he got raped my a 70- year old man who gave him HIV when he was 8 years old. Just giving this little boy some love and hugs makes my day. Looking at the joy in his eyes when he plays the drums and when he makes his collage and see the nice things the other kids write about him is priceless. We are done with class and the kids go and have their dinner before they head home. I’m reluctantly heading home as well even though I would do anything to stay and be with the children.