Sister Leona provides crèche teaching courses in Tembisa (teaching the teachers how to teach) and needed to check in on the crèches themselves while in operation to deliver donations of teaching tools, blankets, and clothes in some cases and hand out graduation photos to the teachers who had completed her crèche teaching course. At the same time, Megan and I gave bible lessons and played educational games with the children teaching them how to count, days of the week, months of the year, etc.
Tembisa is one of the three largest townships around Johannesburg. It is a zoo, to put it bluntly, where you never know what you’ll see, from public urination to livestock roaming the streets. People live in abject poverty with the best quality homes there in the form of 2-3 tiny rooms with a kitchen and running water all the way down to metal shacks in the shantytown areas where illegal immigrants from other African countries live until the government bulldozes down their temporary structures.
Megan and I were happy to discover that not only would we be allowed to teach bible lessons in all of the crèches, but that it’s openly welcome (a far cry from the U.S. separation of church and state). Megan read the children the story of Jesus and the fishes and the loaves miracle to teach not only the bible story itself, but counting skills (5 loaves, 2 fish, 5,000 people). Many of the crèches were metal shacks behind the principal’s small house, and potties for the children were small plastic buckets that were dumped afterward (you learn to use the restroom ahead of time before going into Tembisa and try not to drink anything there).
The teachers were happy to have visitors and our help, and the children all found it a novelty to get to see a white person. When kneeling down at their level, they liked to touch my hair because it was soft (in contrast to their coarse hair). A typical crèche has 50-70 children with 30 of them in the 5-6 year old range, which Megan and I mainly teach. We visited 8 crèches in one day earlier this week and will get into a regular routine soon doing hour-long course blocks at multiple crèches weekly with Megan and I teaching as a team.
Megan reading the story of Jesus and the miracle of the fishes and the loaves to the children, teaching a bible story, but also math skills (5 loaves, 2 fish, 5,000 people, etc.).
This was the smallest crèche we visited that day with only 7 children (most have thirty 5-6 year olds), so because it was so small we got to know them all by name.
Megan teaching the children the animated song “Frog on a Log” which teaches counting skills. Many of the crèches are just glorified daycare and don’t teach the children much in the way of education as a preschool should.
After a few lessons requiring the children to listen attentively while seated, we were up doing a Zulu version of “Ring-Around-The-Rosy” to keep them motivated and active.
Megan teaching the children the Sunday School song “Jesus’ Love is Bubbling Over.” They picked up on it fairly quickly and liked acting out the hand motions.
Like many crèches, this particular one was situated behind the principal’s house. You can see the crèche on the right side in the back yard behind the laundry hanging out to dry.
This crèche is typical of many in Tembisa, a small, one-room shack in the backyard behind the principal’s house.
A principal and teacher pose with a few of their children in the door of their crèche. All of the teachers were very polite and very happy to have us as visitors teaching their students.
The children are singing us a Zulu version of the days of the week and months of the year (I took their word for it that they got it all correct).
It was nap time in this particular crèche we visited and Leona handed the teacher her crèche course graduation photograph. The teacher here uses what was an old garage attached to her home as the crèche area.
Goats! You never know what you’ll see when driving through Tembisa. These goats were roaming the streets. They won’t have too long of a lifespan between a lot of hungry people around plus the prevalence of ritualistic sacrifices using livestock.
One of the quieter streets in Tembisa near the outskirts of the township.
A typical home in Tembisa: 2-3 tiny rooms with an exposed tin roof. Brick is actually about as economical as wood for construction here and is traditionally used in even low-quality housing.
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