Volunteer blog: The happiest day so far by Caroline Winberg

Day 4 “The happiest day so far”

I started my fourth day at Project Playground in dance class. I truly believe that anyone in the world that would walk in to Project Playgrounds dance classes wouldn’t be able to leave without a big smile on their face. The teacher started with dividing the girls into groups with around 8-10 girls in each group. After that they had 5 minutes to come up with a dance routine to the Shakira Shakira song. You can tell quickly that these girls have rhythm in their blood. They were all very organized and worked well together, even though it was easy to spot the little “leader” in each group.

The first group had to perform their dance in front of everyone with the music blasting. I was so impressed, not just by the way they moved but also how brave they were doing their dance in front of a group of adults and all the other kids.

A little 2 year old sat on the stage sucking a lollipop. She moved along to the dance and kept saying “big mama” which is one of the moves the girls does. One of the teacher told me she comes every week just sitting there quietly on stage watching the older girls dance and enjoying herself. I called her the little dance groupie.

Meanwhile the girls rehearse and come up with different dances 5 boys were practicing drums behind the curtain at the same stage. They got a little bit impatient cause they were waiting for the girls to finish their dance so they could all show me a performance they do together. I went behind the curtain, and one of the little boys who got terribly sexually abused by a old man asked me to play the drums. They all laughed cause I was ofcourse terrible at it, but this little boy did’t laugh. He just took my wrists and held my hands and helped my drum to the rhythm of the other drums. He’s truly an amazing boy with amazing spirits especially after he has gone through such trauma.

In the end of the class they put up a fantastic performance in african dance. The boys had a dance were it almost looked like they were talking or arguing with each other by doing different moves and dances.

After that I wen’t to bmx class. They have a group with little older boys from the ages 16-19. Their trainer, who learnt biking from the streets in Langa told me that none of them even knew how to bike when they joined the class. Now they were crusing around, doing tricks like they’ve never done anything else in their lives. Some of the bikes tires were broken so the boys that didn’t bike helped with sorting out their equipment and fixing tires. One of the greatest things I see in Project Playground is not the classes themselves, it’s how the teachers make sure the kids learns the whole process of things. From getting the clothes and gear ready, to making sure they know how to clean up after themselves and make sure to take good care of the things they get to use, from soccer clets to bmx bikes.