Saphumelela Junior Primary School
Today was the point in the trip where I have one of those moving experiences. I went to visit the Saphumelela Junior Primary School and its library as a half day tour. I really don’t know if I have words to describe…the school is in a very rural area outside Durban maybe about 1/2 hour 45 mins. The children who attend this school are poor and do not have much and neither does the school. But what they do with what they have is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.
As a welcome to us - international visitors - the children, in unison (a few hundred of them), sing their welcome song. Then they perform a task which they perform every day - kids of different grades get up in front of the whole school to recite stories, dramas, sing songs or even just recite the alphabet as proof they are learning. So we got to see them do their stuff. All the while they are catching glimpses at us, waving at us, smiling at us. It was amazing.
Then the library! For a school such as this the library was absoultely incredible. Of course they rely mostly on donations but the librarian there has done such a fantastic job, I imagine there are few school libraries in the US which are better! They fed us lunch, the kids did some traditional Zulu dancing and they were just having a ball with their visitors.
I have to say, I was moved to tears. The description above does nothing to describe the experience and I will in the next few days see if I can do it justice. I am not entirely sure I can…