Monday 18 February 2013

Escaping the Language Barrier

On Friday I was sitting under a small tree with a few boys from Siyathuthuka, I started writing my name in the dust because the boy sitting with me was either shy or didn't speak much English (and my Siswati isn't too good either). I wrote Joseph and he wrote his name (we'll call him Samuel), then he drew a car and I drew a bus; we carried on like this for a few minutes drawing animals and then each other and then he started to dig. He scooped a few handfulls of the softer, wet sand out and started to build little lines on the ground. I couldn't work out what he was doing for a while, I thought it might be a plan of a building but this seemed too complicated for his age, a few minutes later I was struggling to work it out so I asked him about it. He pointed to a corner of the shape he made and pointed to him, this was where he slept, he walked his fingers through the door towards the corner and put a rock there. Then he pushed his finger into the ground where the toilet was and he built a smaller building next to it to show a garage (I think he stays with his uncle because he is an orphan) he then walked his fingers from the garage to another corner and put a bigger rock there, this was where his Uncle slept. I wanted to ask him more but the communication between us was difficult. Even though we didnt speak the same language I still felt I had a personal insight into Samuel's life, I would love to meet him again at some point and maybe find out a little more of his story.

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