The Stepping Stone |
On March 19, Southwestern College students will travel from San Diego to an illegal township outside Cape Town, South Africa. The trip will last 13 days and the mission is simple: Bring as many books and teaching supplies as possible; give the township’s fledgling pre-school a boost; see life from a different perspective; and tell as many people about it as possible. This blog is for that last part. Enjoy. |
You cannot patch a soccer ball with duct tape. I’ve learned this twice over the course of my service trip to South Africa. Today the situation came up again as we played a game with the school children of Red Hill Township called soccer/keep-the-ball-away-from-the-stray-dog.
I lugged 47.5 pounds of books across the Atlantic Ocean only to find out that the township was most in need of a two-pound soccer ball. If only I had known. Next year students will make the same trip and here are some things they should bring:
Stickers: To preschooler’s, stickers equal power. It’s the little sticky stars and shiny circles with the words “Wow!” and “Bang!” that grease the wheels of any successful art project.
Baby Wipes: “We should have just brought a whole suitcase of baby wipes.”
Antibiotics: You will be working with kids, which is synonymous with, you will be getting coughed on. Go to www.CDC.org and the California State Department for health tips.
Candy: If stickers are power, MMs are gold (yes, we were shameless…and desperate).
Preparedness: I remember singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” five times in a row because we didn’t know what to do. Have a list of at least 20 songs and arts-and-craft projects. When you arrive it’s sink or swim and many of us sank.
Pictures: The children loved being photographed. They always wanted to see themselves in the viewfinder. It would have been nice to have brought a color-photo printer.
Puzzles: They loved puzzles and nothing was worse than watching a five-year-old struggle through a puzzle only to have pieces missing (ages 1-8).
Books: The program director told us they were totally saturated with books. Bring only the best ones.
Supplies: The children mulched through arts-and-craft supplies, bring as much as you can.
Hygiene: The preschool has a teeth-cleaning break everyday for the children and is in need of toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss.
Look for future updates to this list.
