Emily A's Reflection #2

I wasn’t planning on writing about my internship again but this story got me thinking…
This morning at Thandokhulu, Faina, Julie, and I arrived just in time to catch the end of the staff meeting that occurs every Tuesday. The meeting had the usual themes of making sure to take attendance, how to deal with latecomers, and the constant problem of how to properly distribute the lunch food. As we were getting ready to go to the morning assembly, one of the teachers brought up the issue of having to address students with special needs. She pointed out a few students with extenuating circumstances and called for the teachers to simply be aware and understanding of their conditions (such as epilepsy). She then began telling us a story of a boy in one of the 9th grade classes.

Apparently someone came into his home with a gun and shot at him and his entire family. Only four survived, himself included. Both of his parents were murdered right in front of his eyes. He received two bullets to the head and multiple wounds to his torso. Doctors tried to their best but could not remove two of the bullets lodged in his brain which ultimately causes him to have difficulty with his short term memory. We were shocked.

As she got further into the story, I realized that this boy was in my 9A class and I had been working with him regularly. On one of the first days that I was working with the students, I was teaching how to do long division. I gave the students practice problems to try on their own while I walked around to help them. This boy raised his hand for help and we worked through a problem together. He quickly understood everything so I gave him an additional question and asked him to do it on his own. A few steps into the process he started shaking his head and apologizing profusely. He said that he had a problem where he often times couldn’t remember things that have been just said to him. He continued to apologize and all I could suggest was that I could help him write down the process step by step. Little did I know that this student had been through so much or what caused his short-term memory loss.

The fact that this fourteen-year-old has been through so much trauma is beyond me. I cannot believe that in his short life he has experienced so much that a person should never have to go through. Yet, despite all of his hardship, this boy still has it in him to attend a school miles from his home. He goes to class in order to get an education knowing how much harder it is for him because of how hard it is for him to remember lessons. In spite of all the difficulties he has faced and all of the odds against him, this boy is still fighting to succeed.

I found his story to be inspirational and I feel it shows the general attitude of the students at Thandokhulu and the people I have met in Cape Town. People here make the best of what they’ve got and keep going when they seemingly have nothing. The students attend a school where there is a ratio of over sixty students to each teacher and there are never enough chairs for each student let alone books, art supplies, or sporting equipment. However, these students keep coming to school every single day with a positive attitude. Whenever a student works through a hard problem or understands a concept enough to explain it to the class, you can see their excitement and can feel their passion for learning. It is with this passion that they approach life; a passion we could all use in our own lives.