I saw a few street children playing on the field in front of the church. So I and my friend Lucinda decided to go out and have a play with them! We rallied everybody and had all of us sit down in a circle on the grass. Thinking on my feet, I thought we’d get everyone’s attention by playing a clapping and imitation game! At first there were only a few of the younger kids, but then several boys bolted over when they heard us clapping, and soon we were having a jolly time. I used the game to help all of us learn each others’ names! It was quite a tough one, trying to decipher the sounds and spelling (most of the kids knew little English and were either illiterate or had very little schooling). At the top of my memory, I can recall there was Tanya, Tawrai, Nelson, Gift (what a brilliant name, hey!), Myaraag (don’t even know if I got the spelling right, but that’s how it sounds), Nydreeah (same thing), Tinashe, Sandre, Lisa (phew, finally an easy one!) and there were a few others. Now I just remember their faces, but tomorrow I hope they come back again for a class, a hot meal, and some music and games in the afternoon!

After that, I taught them one of my favourite African children songs – Funga Alafia! (I learnt it from the other teaching artist while teaching with The Song Room and working with predominantly Sudanese children). Amazingly, they caught on so quickly with Funga Alafia. Before that, when I we tried to sing We Will Rock You while slapping our thighs and clapping each others’ hands on either side of the circle, they had a lot more trouble getting the words even though to my mind ‘we will, we will, rock you’ sounded a lot simpler! Anyhow, the clapping and singing games brought about a good dose of laughter and smiles. And it helped us all learn each others’ names!

When it got too hot, we moved into the shade of a hut-like structure where there was sand underneath it. Lucinda suggested we play a drawing and guessing game. And whenever anyone guessed the drawing with an English word, they also had to educate us (the clueless Australians) about what the Shona equivalent was! It worked quite well. The only two words I remember are zuvah, which means sun. And katz, with means cat – easily enough. Hahaha.

[To be continued…]