Allow me to introduce you ...

The children are individuals to me now, no longer a mass of orange and black uniforms but separate faces and personalities. Particularly the kids in the Social club:

Rufus - so eager to please, one of the older boys who likes to take control, I was told he had terrible concentration which is true, during the drumming lesson i'd
arranged for them, he kept looking at me, waiting to catch my eye for a
grin, but he'd totally miss an instruction and be stupidly out of
rhythm with the rest. Yesterday he gathered the boys together to call a
meeting of their own - without me!!! What a milestone, I've been
pushing and pushing for them to work, think and create independently and with a week to go they're getting it. I said "what's the meeting about?", "Oh, we'll tell you after we've had it". Fabulous.

Yessou - a very tall stoic girl, voted as Chair for the Girls' Club, she immediately comprehends a situation and acts, most you have to repeat an instruction twice or three times, for the slower ones four or five, for those living on another planet, six or seven times, after that 'figure it out or copy her' times. Yessou can always be relied upon which is such a help, i'm guessing she has a lot of responsibility at home. At the moment she's suffering from
large sores on her body which could be due to infection or poor diet
and malnutrition, or both. the rare moments she breaks into a smile are
wonderful.

Gege - a handsome, camp boy who seems to be the butt of jokes sometimes, but he gives as good as he gets and has a warm sunny personality. although he tries and tries, he's totally usless at all the pratical things we've done - no rhythm on the instruments, usless with a saw but he's popular and kind. I saw him with his baby brother out of school and he approached with an unusual confidence that not all of the students have.

Meme - one of my favourites, I find it impossible to understand her verbally, she talks in a wild explosion of consonants and gestures but I think she finds it difficult to understand me too, so initially we clashed a little. But then a shared twinkle came into our eyes as i realised that she is a natural comic - the class clown. she mimics other kids and teachers hilariously, gurning her lithe, strong
body into odd shapes for emphasis. she's bossy but in a jokey way so
the girls love her. During their music session, like me, she has to
sing an octave lower in the high bits and does it with gusto, less to get a laugh but just to make herself giggle. We recognise the comedy in each other and she lets me
take the mickey out of her, for example one of the girls said, "Meezz
Dee!, take a pitchore!!", I said I couldn't because I took a picture of
Meme and it broke the camera. Realising, that it's a joke, Meme laughs
loudly first, well before the others who take quite some time to see i'm not serious.

A boy whose name i can't remember now - he reminds me of my friend Dale
back home, tiny and light skinned, a real charmer. His body is lazy to hit puberty but when it does, watch out girls! Again a joker, his size has made him so. One of the girls told me not to bother talking to him, with a dismissive flick of her wrist she said, "Meezz Dee, he's SO short!"

Josephine - a petite little thing with a protruding under bite giving her face a comic look. Apparently, she's the cleverest
girl in the school and I know it's true, she told me how to spell 'hygiene'.
Her smile is beautiful and she's always interested; her mother had to
be persuaded to let her attend Social Club because she, like many, has work at home. It'll be a travesty if she can't afford to go to high school.

Phillip - a gangley teenager, odd looking, steady and shy smiling. He wrote a letter to miss Pen (the boys have taken a shine to her! she gets gifts and long looks, not jealous at all...)in the letter he wrote his story, long
and detailed, perfect, painstaking hand writing. He told of his
father's death and his move to the camp with his mother and sister, of
how his mother fell out with her own sister and then his mother became
ill. after a year she agreed to 'wed' a man so he would get her well
and when she was better she had to 'wed' other men to feed Phillip and
his sister - she became pregnant and was turned out by the man. How she
finally reconciled with her sister and had a baby boy, but this aunt
believes that Phillip is a witch and has taken her 'travel key' that
she hasn't been anywhere because of him. that this aunt is spreading it
around that he is a witch and that he is desperate for help. of course
he is looking for the holy grail everyone here is 'SPONSORSHIP' - the elixir
of contentment; regular money from someone, somewhere. Phillip finishes
Grade 6 this year and will then have to find money for school fees to
go to high school - every child in the school, every child on camp is
in the same position, just maybe on different rungs of the ladder.

These are just seven of the 400 plus. The children of the Carolyn Miller School make me smile everyday, they are giving me so much, to say it's rewarding is an understatement. As I've said before, the adults are incredibly complex an difficult to fathom, the children are complex too, but they have an honesty and directness that is comforting. I'm at my happiest here when with them. yesterday a
new volunteer asked me what i felt about leaving - of course i want to
go home, I am not a natural at basic living and hot climates - but when
she asked me that question, for the first time I felt a huge sense of
guilt. These kids have come so far in such a short time, from not being
able to arrange themselves into a circle to planning private meetings
without me! They've responded so quickly to the team / confidence
building what could be achieved in a year? What could be achieved if I was here permanently. Don't worry folks, it ain't gonna happen, but that's where the guilt kicks in. I appeal to all the workshop leaders out there reading this, any playworkers, arts teacher's, actor's with corporate training experience to sign up and carry on this work - these kids need You!!