Ready to set out with our friends... (We are headed to the top of the left peak in the distance--yes the left nipple--Li-'Mele means breasts. It's a lovely maternal mountain. As we got closer, we could see that this left peak also looks like a mother with a baby on her back--the way babies are carried here.)
Me, Mokletsi (He's a brilliant and 'heart-smart' midwife at B.G.), Bokang and Sarah
It would be a good challenge and I was hoping to take some of the IB students along on that trip; however, my comment to one, after looking down at the school ‘dress’ shoes he’d worn for our short hike was that he’d need better footwear!
* * *
Ah, life’s ironies. Unfortunately I was unable to get the school mini-bus, so I didn’t take any students along when we climbed Thabana Li-‘Mele last weekend.
Instead, we took some friends, and a whole troop of village kids ended up traveling along with us. It’s still weird for me, but white people are some strange oddity here, so the kids wanted to tag along, for whatever purpose.
Tagging along on a seven-hour hike doesn’t sound like something one would just decide to do on the spur of the moment, but then for one thing, I didn’t realize the kids were planning to come all the way. For another thing, it wasn’t really my call. Finally, when I did ask about it I was informed that they do this trip often. Yes, well, this is their turf!
So off we went, and about half way I suddenly looked at the kids—I mean really noticed them—and one of the things that struck me was the crazy irony of their footwear. As I glanced down at their feet I noticed the worn and dusty ‘school shoes’ and began to think about how they’d take them home and clean them off to look neat and as tidy as possible with their school uniforms. I thought of my student with the school shoes… Then I looked further and noticed a pair of rubber boots. Rubber boots for a seven-hour hour hike? Ouch! Then I noticed the little lad—the smallest one (nine years old) with bare feet. Bigger ouch! Ouch in more ways than one. For him--of course! For me, psychically as I thought about my soft First World sensibilities, my soft and easy life, my supportive, expensive hiking boots, my soft expectations of physical and spiritual endurance.
So much for my concerns about students not being able to handle a seven-hour hike, or them not having the ‘correct’ footwear! One look at those little bare feet changed my world view!
How does the human spirit get strong? Maybe the spirit rises and grows from the soles of such feet. Perhaps the spirit blossoms from the blisters on little feet.
When I looked in the shining eyes of this little boy I saw the eyes of some of my brightest students shining back. It is ironic to me that some of my brightest students are those who have come from the distant rural areas, from villages where they might be the first or the second person who has ever gone past Primary school. Some come from families so poor that their families could not afford to keep them; rather, Social Welfare provided their school fees, food and a place to live. Now, here they are at Machabeng! So much depends on their ability to succeed academically that they commit body, mind and soul to achieving academic success for themselves, for their families and for their villages. A lot rests on the strong soles of small children with bare feet.
Our beautiful friend, Bokang. The village we started the journey at--the place all the children who came with us are from--is her home village. These kids are her, minus a few years!
Our wonderful friend, Sarah. She's the midwife who got me in to the delivery room for the birth of our friend's baby!
A stop for sustenance with the village kids enjoying our offerings.
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