SHAWCO

Today was my first time to volunteer with SHAWCO. All I really knew before going was that we would be doing drama, art, music, ect. with high school students from a township called Manenberg. I had a training session on Saturday, but it focused mainly on an Arts program that works with younger children, not the older kids. We had a man talk to us a little bit about the township of Mennenberg. Basically it’s a black, working class township. Most of the families are incredibly poor, and there is a high rate of unemployment.

When we got there, I found out that we would be working with about 13 girls who were 14 and 15 years old. We went into a classroom, and I was a little surprised by what I saw. The only thing in the classroom was a bunch of desks with chairs. There were no decorations, no books, nothing. In the back of the room there were shelves that were broken and had nothing on them. I’m not sure if this classroom is ever used as a classroom or not, but I’m guessing that it was a typical room. It was hard to imagine learning in such an environment.

We played a game where basically you have a card with a bunch of people, places, events, ect. on it and you have to explain it so the other people on your team will guess what it is. A lot of the questions were pop culture references - South African and American. I’m pretty sure most of the girls knew more about American pop culture than I did. Although I guess that’s not saying much, since I know less than most of my friends about pop culture. One of the girls gave the clue “She is on tv.” The girls immediately guessed the right answer - Oprah. They also knew many actors/actresses and singers.
One of the clues was also, “Who was the president before Barrack Obama?” All the girls knew it was George Bush. I had no idea that Thambo Mbecki was the SA president before I decided to come here. A lot of my classes here also reference America as much as they reference SA. My finance professor often uses American examples and facts during class. I don’t think my professors at BW hardly ever use examples from other countries, maybe somewhere in Europe, but certainly never in Africa.


Anways, the girls were so fun and hilarious! They were an absolute joy to be around. It’s funny because I really didn’t want to go volunteer that day for some reason. I was tired, trying to make spring break plans, and kept thinking I was going to get some other kind of outside internship set-up. But I went anyways, because I had made a commitment and I thought I owed it at least a week to see what I thought. Then I went, and those girls just brightened my day! They were so full of life. Part of the game included picking out an expression (happy, sad, tired) and acting that way while giving the clues. One of the girls got “sad” as her expression, but she kept laughing. She said she couldn’t be sad.

On the way out the door, the girls all started singing. I had no idea what they were singing, so I asked the girl next to me. High School Musical. I guess we really aren’t that different from each other after all.