I arrived in Durban yesterday to the weather forecast of 100% chance of rain every day I am meant to be here. Come to Durban they say, don’t forget your shorts and sunscreen they say, yeah not so much this time around. When I got to where I was staying I was a bit concerned for my safety. It wasn’t so much the people ,but the place was more like the next location for a slasher flick than the B & B that I was looking for on my last few days in South Africa. My room is partially connected to the bathroom by a “door” but it might as well be a piece of paper. Honestly, I think some man died in there last night with the sounds he was making. My first day/night in Durban was kind of like that part in a movie after the montage of all the happy moments when one thing goes wrong and the happy ending feels doomed. But alas, my happy ending came in the form of my visit to the Ethembeni School today. It was quite honestly the perfect way to end my trip here in South Africa.
If you will entertain me for a bit, I will give you a quick description of the school and how I was blessed to get to know about it. The Ethembeni School is a boarding school for primarily Zulu children who are Visually Impaired (both partially and fully) and or have physical disabilities most commonly caused by Cerebral Palsy. There are a few other children who have been in accidents and have motor impairments or cognitive impairments as well. Many children at the school are albino. In some parts of African culture albino children are considered a curse and sometimes are tossed aside or locked up. Even the children that attend the school are still on high alert when they return home on holidays as their body parts are highly sought after by witch doctors. Seven or maybe it’s eight years ago when I started running with Fleet Feet, I found out about the Ethembeni School. Brett and Kim the owners who I’m now lucky to call my friends have been committed to supporting the school since 2006. Hearing about the school from them and being a part of some of the fundraising running events has always left a mark on my heart and I knew if I came to South Africa, I’d very much want to see the school.
The Ethembeni School staff and community welcomed me with open arms. And I mean that literally. Every room or office I went into I was greeted with a warm hug and smile. The positive attitude of the staff is radiating. I was lucky enough to be at school today for their Monday Morning Assembly. Today they were celebrating with Organization Jump Start on receiving the organization’s 16,000th wheelchair. Obviously not all 16,000 of Jump Start’s wheelchairs have gone to the school but many of them have. These wheelchairs have given the children of Ethembeni their independence.
At the assembly, there was the dance group, the choir, some prayer and some announcements. I will include my videos of the dancing and singing. But I wanted to tell you how the prayers began. It began with a teacher starting a quiet chant that turned into a louder chant and then subsequently into a song. She was chanting “You deserve the best.” And hearing the children all chanting and singing warmed me to my core. I truly believe after being at this school that that is what these children are getting. Their school is fully accessible, they have 3 OT’s, 2 PTs, 2 SLPs , 3 nurses and 1 social worker, they have a life skills group and most importantly they have each other. They are all Learners at a school.
Today I witness some of the most determined children getting their work done. Something like the printers are down or the Wi-Fi not working can totally throw my game off and I start to grumble. But here some of the children have no upper limbs or use of them and they are still doing the same exact work. They’ve just been taught or have figured out alternative ways to do it.
The respect the students have for their teachers was quite enchanting. When myself or another teacher entered the room, the students would stand right up and say “Good morning visitor/teacher.” And then ask how you were doing. I visited every class today and by the end I was able to say Hello, How are you, Good-bye and Thank you in isiZulu. The children were very excited to help me and I also think they thought it was equally as exciting when I messed up. Thankfully I had one student that would whisper the answers to me if I got stuck.
If you watch these videos* and look at these photos and your heart is not just filled with joy and pride for these students then I’d suggest going straight to your doctor because I think you might be broken. If at some point you’ve run with a Fleet Feet San Francisco event that has benefitted Ethembeni please know you’ve done a wonderful thing.
Last but not LEAST…HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! I know you are one of the few reading this so I know you’ll see this:) Cant wait to celebrate on the course with you!
XOXO
*videos will need to go up tomorrow when I get in better service.