a: Science is Everywhere!

Maitland Garden Village is the little community that has captured my heart! I have been doing my research project there on the water usage in a random house holds and it is also the village that I am working to put the library in. As part of my research proposal I vowed to have an educational afternoon with the children of MGV to promote education. Since the class I am taking is Eco Justice, it was only fitting to center the afternoon around science and our environment. We talked about being global citizens, the effects of humans on the environment and introduced the idea of chemical reactions (only so we could do the Diet Coke and Mentos!!) We also built a solar cooker out of card board boxes and “roasted” s’mores! (success!)

I planned everything out knowing that anything I planned would go the complete opposite... South Africa has done its best to rid of me of the “plan to make a plan” mentality. We were supposed to have forty kids but we only ended up with around 25. We played my favorite CentriKid Rec games and I planned “scientific debriefs” around them. The kids absolutely ate it up! About 15 of my friends from IES went with me and they all had a blast too.

The climatic moment was of course the coke and mentos. We sat it up by playing “Groups Of” and talking about how different elements react when they are combined. Then, TJ and Jenny set up the show! The expressions on the kids faces were priceless! They all LOVED it! To end of a high note, I ordered a bunch of pizzas and we all feasted and hung out.

I can not brag on the kids enough. They were so attentive and willing to learn. They were full of energy and enthusiasms and extremely optimistic! I’ve been working with Sheila and Ronell, the founders of the Green Light Project (a sustainable community development program in the village that offers programs for all ages of the community). Ronell had been telling me about a music class that they had started and were very excited about. Most of the kids in the music class came to the science afternoon and afterwards performed their mad trumpet skills for me. I had not really put to much thought into “musical class” and was completely blown away by what I saw. 20+ kids line up in one line and take turns blowing out of one trumpet. They are so eager and so excited. My heart melted. These kids do not “have it all”, most of them live in the back yards of other people and don’t even have the right size shoes. The joy that they had was insane though. They were just so happy and loving and that is what truly made the afternoon so worthwhile. I doubt they remember anything I said, or tried to say about being a “global citizen” but what I do hope they learned was that Maitland Garden and that way of life is not all there is. There is a world full of endless possibilities and they have the potential to be anything they want.

My wheels are already turning about how to continue investing in the lives of these precious kiddos in the short time I have left here.