We found out late Thursday night that our group was cordially invited to a meeting with the Director of Education for the entire city of Port Elizabeth! What an opportunity! We felt honored and nervous when we arrived at the District of Education building early Friday morning. Mr. Ntsiko greeted us warmly and soon all of our nervousness had subsided. We spent the next hour discussing what we had experienced thus far in South Africa. We shared what we have learned from the teachers at Emafini, the differences between our education system and South Africa's, and what we hoped to gain from our visit here. He even took us into his personal office afterwards!
On the way back to Emafini, Mr. January surprised us with a visit to another primary school here in Port Elizabeth. I fought back tears as we pulled up to Sunridge Primary School. Although Emafini and Sunridge are only a few miles apart from each other, it seemed like I was in a different world. The campus was well-kept and spacious. Trimmed shrubbery and exotic flowers colored the perimeters of the school. Everything was polished and spotless. Students moved in single-file lines down the hallway. As I peeped my head into a Grade 2 classroom, I noticed the same model of a LD television that I had seen in the lobby of the school. We were lead to the music room, computer lab (there are 2), and past classrooms filled with books and art supplies. It took me a moment to remind myself of where I was. I felt nauseous and uncomfortable. My thoughts raced to my precious students at Emafini. Just as bright, just as special, and just as deserving of a school like Sunridge. Unfortunately, they would never set foot in this school, nor would they have easy access to half of the materials and opportunity that this school. Sunridge has a 100% graduation rate, in-school remediation specialists, and an advanced music program led by a renowned musician. The tuition of Sunridge is 700 rand a month, and it costs 85 rand for a child to attend Emafini for an entire school year. Only 40% of families of Emafini students are able to pay tuition. I wanted to get back to the dusty chalkboards of Emafini, where I had to stretch myself as a teacher to explain concepts with limited paper, few books, and no Internet. As our bus driver, Neil, pulled away from Sunridge I noticed a similarity between the two schools. Actually, I heard it. I heard the sound of children singing. Something I heard everyday at Emafini. These schools are so different, yet both are full of young students who are eager to learn. What a sound. Beautiful singing coming from the mouths of the beautiful learners of South Africa. 
Lindsey and I could hardly contain our excitement as we hustled to room 34 at Emafini Primary. We decided to record a video of our entrance, hoping the students were finished with their Life Skills exam. (I attempted to upload this video, but the internet connection has been unreliable this evening. I will try again tomorrow!) We were in the classroom for twenty minutes before our plans changed again. We were heading on some home visits. Home visits to where over 60% of our students live. We had passed townships every morning on the way to Emafini, but we had never truly seen them. We had not walked in them, shook hands with the people who lived there, we had not entered their homes. Soon we were off in cars with our partnership teachers heading towards the slums surrounding Emafini. We were going to experience first hand what our sweet children know as home. Children who walk to school each morning, with joyful smiles on their faces and sacrificial gifts in their hands for their teachers.
I will let the following pictures speak for themselves, because honestly, I do not have the words.
Our hearts were heavy as we pulled back into Emafini. Heavy with the reality of the struggle and injustice in South Africa, and the injustice that is so prevalent in our own country as well. So many questions filled my mind. What can I do? How much longer would these people have to wait for adequate housing? If these children can be thankful and joyful in the circumstances that they are in, why do I complain about a minor inconvenience? We were soon surrounded by the children whose homes we had just seen amongst the wreckage.
I am a singer. NOT a good one, but if you know me well you can attest to the fact that if you catch me at the right time, I burst out in spontaneous song. It may be an entire song, or just a brief line from one. I may sing it once, I may repeat it over and over. I sing alone, and with dear friends. I sing when I'm excited, sad, thankful, nostalgic, energetic, showering, driving, and when I am bored. Although I had no stamina left to sing on the car ride home on Friday, I remembered something I had heard at one point during our overwhelming morning on Friday. I remembered Mr. January describing the singing habits South Africans:
"We sing when we are happy, we sing when we are sad. We always sing."
This is true. I have heard more singing and seen more dancing during these two weeks in South Africa than I have seen in a long time. Singing is part of human nature. It can be found in every country, and people of all ages respond to it. If you're like me, you may not be good at it - but I bet you do it anyway. It is one way to express emotion. So much can be expressed through song and music. To end on a lighter note, I encourage you to wait for my next blog post. I am anxious to describe our evening filled with more singing, music, and dancing with our dear South African friends!
Stay tuned...
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