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Day 9
These are some of our older students enjoying a game of Uno with a brand new pack of cards before school starts. It was taken in October of last year. Nothing quite like a smooth shiny set of cards, pristine and crisp edged. The old set had furled edges and crumpled corners and was barely touched anymore.
Their classroom is our kitchen cum dining room. Our dining table, a sliced length of timber cut from a local tree, transforms into the classroom table after breakfast. This happened a couple of years ago, as our other classrooms are small and we needed the extra space. Often the house is empty so it has been a total win/win. Upstairs has a space that houses the senior library. You can spot the concrete steps going up in the background.
The whole house was built by my husband with an incredible amount of effort and dedication, interspersed with a lot of frustration, mostly around the purchase of the materials. Almost everyone builds out of concrete and this house is a timber and iron structure.
Bags of dahl and bottles of oil await the monthly distribution of staples to ten of our most needy families. On the left is our ‘cooking box’ a tiny oven that meets our needs.
As I looked back at this photo, it dawns on me that these students lack something that so many children have, that is actually of benefit to them. Material poverty and lack are ugly themes that surround us in different forms, depending on where we live. These students go home to houses without running water or indoor bathrooms. They carry their younger siblings on their backs, wash their own clothes and help to sweep the house and plant vegetables. Their life is tough and if they’re not well educated (not just academically but socially), they will grow up into a poverty that includes early pregnancy, alcohol and drugs, the struggle of day-to-day labour and working their small plots of land.
They also go home to no screens (some homes do have tiny TVs). As I watch them interact and hear them enjoy a game of Uno, it dawns on me that poverty of screentime is such a blessing.
A Time To Write 
Yes, it is a much different life than many in the US have.
I live in a rural area where children here also grow up in poverty “that includes early pregnancy, alcohol and drugs”. I think the difference is that we, in the US have access to more support. We (our local women’s club) collect coats and shoes to send home with school children. At our last meeting the school requested funds to support food being sent home with needy children.
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Yes, it is very hard for families to break out of the poverty cycle anywhere, but there is definitely very little support here.
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Thank you for giving us a glimpse of a life so different than the one we experience on a daily basis.
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Celia, your story pierces my heart. The lack, the need…yet in it, here and there, true blessings. Yesterday at church (I am writing this on Monday), my adult class was discussing our society’s utter distractedness and extreme anxiety, much of which seems to be linked to the continuous bombardment of messages in our high-speed, materially-cluttered lives. Many of these people were raised in big farm families that had little and can remember everyone taking turns bathing in galvanized washtubs. I know it doesn’t compare to the extreme conditions these beautiful children and their families face each day….but…my own grandfather said that people were happier and cared for each other more in the days when people had little. “The blessing of a poverty of screentime” brings it all to mind for me. What priceless work you are doing here, Celia…with the kids, with sharing the stories, with your heart for them and their tomorrows.
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Thank you, Fran. It is a privilege to be able to help them and also find the balance without allowing them to rely entirely on you. A bit like ‘teaching them to fish, rather than just feeding them fish’. I think like your grandfather said, that the less you have, the more you can appreciate it.!
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Ah! I know that fish proverb! And appreciate it.
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