Community Service

I was blessed to have the chance to work with South African orphans and children from townships for four two-hour sessions.

I witnessed another side of impoverished kids on the other side of the world. We both learned and taught each other a lot. When my classmates and I first arrived, there was a social barrier between us. To ease this tension we started a pick up game of soccer, which created a common ground. I was surprised to see how well dressed the kids were. Some wore button down shirts, khakis and dress shoes. There were around 100 children; I was able to learn some first names when I started coaching soccer. I didn’t expect them to show me as much respect as they did. They listened to my instructions and followed through. They also called me coach. I established camaraderie with my team I was coaching. As a current player, I found their skill and knowledge of the game impressive. I told them specific tactics and they were able to comprehend the strategy.

The second day of community service the children remembered my face and were more open. The age group ranged from roughly 7 to 17 and it shocked me most of the younger children had not yet learned English. The older kids made my job easier by translating for me.

I learned that there were a lot more similarities among children here to those in the U.S. The first one that I observed was that they were just there to have fun and to be apart of a social community. The second way was they all need someone their age and an elder to talk and listen to. I took the approach of letting them talk more while giving some advice. They could tell that I was not there to force feed them and this created a deeper relationship. I found it refreshing that they didn’t have any preconceived notions of me as a Caucasian American.

The knowledge and experience I gained from community service with the orphans was rewarding. I held conversions with more kids and knew them on a first-name basis; it was a smaller group of children compared to the townships. I was proud of them because they didn’t seem to have any anger built up over not having parents. They appeared to be really satisfied with the attention my group of classmates and I showed them. One 15-year-old child had just gotten home from school and appeared frustrated. We consoled him about his studies and told him everything would be all right. I think we gave him confidence that he would make it through it.

The children were bright and picked new things up quickly. We taught them a form of handball and they were open-minded about trying it. By the end they were masters at the game. Working with these kids over the course of a week allowed us to mess around and joke around with them. Like American children, there was an adjustment period before they were able to warm up to us.

I came into this service hoping to develop relationships, learn and teach. And I feel I accomplished all of these things. This experience will always be memorable.