Thursday September 19 2013
I just got back from the Jabez HIV/AIDs clinic. As you may
or may not know, Thursdays are my volunteer days. Lauren, Katie and I go to
Jabez, a small clinic tucked away in the township, for about an hour each week
to play with the kids. By now we’ve gotten into a routine. We arrive, set up
the chairs, say a quick prayer with the kids (aka stand silently while the kids
pray in Xhosa), serve food, clean up the meal, then play some kind of
educational game. When the bus arrives to pick us up, we give high fives and
hugs all around, then board the bus with big smiles on our faces.
Today when we arrived, the sweet barely 3 year old boy who
lives next door to the clinic came running out of his yard. He paused for a
second at the gate, and when I waved at him, he sprinted towards us, thwacked
into me and buried his face in my legs. He held onto my hand as we walked into
the center and danced all over the floor while we set up chairs.
When all the other kids had arrived and eaten (we never quite
know who is going to show up. Some days there aren’t enough chairs, other days
there’s about 10 of us), we played a hot potato/ musical chairs game. A purple
Frisbee was passed around the circle. Whoever had the Frisbee when the music
stopped (provided by Katie’s phone) had to either jive (dance), sing, or rap.
These kids are so self-conscious but so talented too! It was really cool to
hear some Xhosa rapping. By the end of the hour some of them were holding onto
the Frisbee in order to get the chance to dance or sing. Each time the music
stopped, whoever was holding the Frisbee looked up, their eyes wide like, “Who?
Me!?”, and then they would smile these huge smiles. At some point, Katie played
Wavin’ Flag by K’naan, and every single person in the room sang along. (FYI:
Wavin’ Flag was a major song of the FIFA world cup that took place in 2010 in
South Africa).
During the game, the sweet little boy who hurtled himself
into my thighs when we first arrived, floated between me Katie and Lauren, each
of us playing our own made up game with him. He ended up on my lap and started
falling asleep near the end of the game. I miss him already. Strange side note,
his head, I kid you not, smelled a bit like Play-Doh and it made me think of
home in the most sentimental and nostalgic way possible.
Some days I wake up exhausted and know that my volunteer
hour is just one more thing I have to do that day, but without fail, I always
leave Jabez with a healthy dose of perspective and a little more love in my
heart. I can’t pronounce their names. I don’t speak their language. But for an
hour every week they let me into their world and we just smile at one another
and something somewhere seems right.
