Rocky Block

Recess Time

I want to find myself living in the difficult but positive tension in the valley. Because it is always 10:15 am [recess time] in the valley.

10: 15 am. Its recess time at Cato Crest Primary School in Durban, South Africa and hundreds of kids flood the cement school yard to play. Plastic slides and shiny steel monkey bars don’t present themselves for children to play here. Still, the children run, play and sing in beautiful angelic circles.  These tiny vocal chords vibrate the ear drums of the world in a rhythmic motion that causes our hearts to spin.

We spent less than a week teaching 4th through 7th graders the HIV module and it was superb. I love working with children more than any other audience. They are honest in their questions and for the most part eager to learn. These children hold a special place in my heart. I have never seen smiles so genuine directed toward me. Even though we only had a few days to work with them they respected my partner Danielle and I by giving us their undivided attention. They fully participated and engaged with the module, becoming teachers, as is the idea of the module. They taught their peers. 7th graders teaching? A few of the students, now teachers, took on the courageous act to teach the entire school of over 900 students. Education doesn’t work this way, does it? They are only kids right? They don’t have the resources do they? Maybe we should treat the young and the marginalized as whole, intellectual beings. They are brilliant and add immeasurable beauty to the world. Perhaps it is those who do not trust the young and who do not trust those on the margins that are one of the largest road blocks to the growth of humanity.

Paulo Freire says, “The radical…is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled.” That is what we did and what we are doing on this trip. Many who see the often unfavorable conditions of the townships cry and their hearts break. Maybe this breakdown is not just that I have more and they have less, but something else. Maybe it is my soul realizing that the community of Cato Crest can display a triumphant humanity despite not having excess material possessions. Maybe it is my soul discovering humanity’s  unquenchable thirst for life and the ability to find wholeness in a shattered world. This is the world the students at Cato Crest made me see.

The geography of Durban is striking to those who enter it. Steep rolling hills cause residents to build their homes on the sides of the earth. The gap between the rich and the poor is excruciatingly visible and cannot be ignored. As you travel around town, rich homes sparkle in the sunlight.  The reflection of the light shows plywood townships on the other side of the hill.  What lies between hills? Valleys. Perhaps valleys are the places where the oppressed and the oppressor meet together and engage in a way of living where all of humanity benefits. Where the rich and the poor disappear and become people. I want to find myself living in the difficult but positive tension in the valley. Because it is always 10:15 am in the valley.

Signing off, Rocky Block, Co-assistant/teammate of Pedagogy of Action