SAF - Blog 5

Tuesday 

6/11/2024 

Morning – walk about through Mooiplass: 

Today we took a “walk about” through the Informal Township of Mooiplaas. Families live in shacks made of anything and everything they find in the landfill: wood, metal, wire, barbed-wire, fencing, carpet scraps, and some have build brick walls. No one has electricity or running water. They cook on wood or some use gas burners. One of the dangers in the the winter (right now) is shack fires. They bring the metal cylinder where they burn the wood into their homes at night to keep warm. Wind or an accidental bump could start a fire and it spreads rapidly.  

Lunch – We ate a very nice lunch at the Plot with some of the staff consisting of chicken legs and wings, beet salad, pop (kind of like really sticky rice), and cabbage.  

Afternoon – Plot tour, Khuluma presentation, moon lessons.  

 The afternoon was packed with activity!   

We walked the grounds and buildings of the Plot which is where the older children go to school. We saw where several of the children in protective services stay, the kitchen, the storerooms, the office of the social workers from Khuluma. We walked to where the children play soccer, the garden, library, refrigerator, and other areas of the grounds. It is a place where children know they are safe.  

The we listened to a presentation from Khuluma staff to the student and The Plot’s staff. They did a small play on how Khuluma staff work with victims and the police. They help creat a safe room for victims to come to at the police stations (4 of them).  

After the presentation, we did a lesson. On the motions of the earth moon and sun and the phases of the moon. We had so much fun and the students likely thought we were a bit silly. We modeled earth rotating, with the moon revolving around the earth, and both of those revolving around the sun. It was dizzying!   

We were trying to explain that the moons light is a reflection of the suns. A staff member was translating but the point wasn’t getting to them. So we used a phone flashlight as the suns light and put it close to the staff members cheek and their cheek glowed. (Light bulb went off in their minds!) 

 Then we used ping pong balls on a board to look at how the moons phases work around the earth. We had the little ones come up and place them on the board (velcro). Then we had some older ones come up and be the earth in the middle and they could see the phases from their perspective (even though half of the moon is always light – just like the earth).  

And after that, they did some craft activities to focus more on the phases of the moon. AND, the real moon cooperated by being right there in the sky during that time. It was a waxing crescent (upside down and backwards to us from the northern hemisphere).  

Evening–Dinner and fellowship at Westview Church 

We rushed back to our lodging to clean up and get to the church by 6pm. There we were introduced to some of the congregation, and we had soup and bread with tea. It was a lovely time sharing our experiences and impressions.  

Once we returned to our lodging, we did our daily devotions and went to bed as it was a long day.