At the Orphanage in Soweto-A Moment for learning....

When we first arrived at the orphanage, as we prepared to get off the bus, I noticed there was a feeling of unease as we pulled up to the dirt clay trailers with the hundreds of children playing outside. Entering into a place where the majority of the children played day in and day out in the red clay dust of Soweto, I zipped my jacket to my chin as we got off the bus. This was the part of the trip I looked forward to the most. As I stepped off the bus, I was ready to give all of my energy and spend my time with a group of beautiful black children, some of whose names I could remember, and others I could not. When my first little sister came up to me I struggled to learn to enunciate the proper way to say her name. Having to ask the children to repeat their names more than three times, a point at which they were so frustrated they simply told me to call them by their English names, exposes why  scholars who study Africa MUST learn the language of the people they study. With every “What is your name?’ “Say it again?” I felt my American-ness surface as the dissimilarity between my African little brothers and sisters. Naming is a huge part of African and African American culture. but how can I even begin to connect with people when I cannot call them by their name? The fact that I, was there to help but lacked the linguistic understanding to communicate directly with the children became a real concern for me. At the same time, this absence of language also provided an opportunity for me to witness all the other ways our bodies and spirits may communicate when language is a barrier. We played, danced and sang songs, and it was this moment as a community that really inspired me to see the potential of humanity. Of what can happen when people are self-less and take the time with one another, for one another to simply spend time.