Stanza Bopape Secondary School

Week 1 of our 3 at Stanza Bopape Secondary School is now done. In a lot of ways, I don't even know where to start or how to convey anything about this week.

Students, grades 0-12, desperate to learn and understand the information, dutifully listening and responding to their teachers' questions.
Students sharing seats because there aren't enough in the classrooms.
Students sharing pencils, textbooks, protractors, calculators, erasers...because they can't all afford them.
376 students in grades 10-12 staying after school to be tutored as they look towards their matric exams (at the end of grade 12) that determines whether or not they have the chance to move on to university.
Classrooms of students who sit at their desks trying to do work when a teacher doesn't come to class or isn't assigned to them because there aren't enough teachers.
Students hungry for attention and just a smile and a hug.
Students who only eat when they are at school and can be a part of the food programme there because they don't have food at home.
Students who are orphaned by AIDs and taking care of their siblings and households.
Students who are already parents themselves.
Students who dream of being doctors, pilots, social workers, nurses, graphic designers, lawyers, accountants...
Students who are so hungry for hope.

It has been a long week. I am so grateful for the two more we have with them. I can't believe that's all. The thought of leaving breaks my heart, especially as that thought comes with the memory of the 8th grade girls who implored me to let them come home with me to America when I leave.

These children deserve a future. And they deserve one on their own terms. They don't deserve a world that has made them think they aren't worth as much as someone else -one girl told me when I asked her what she wanted to be that she wants to be "a white person".

What are we - the world, the people who have the resources and the opportunities and the chances and the time - what are we teaching them about themselves? Because they deserve more.