Although I had always planned to write this piece my mum had made a special request that I write about the Junior Youth group we established at Kuyga school so that she could send it in to the monthly Australian Baha’i newsletter. I have been mentally formatting how I would write about it, what I would emphasise and how I wanted it to feel and I was planning on writing it in the next few days but today I saw something that inspired me so much that I feel like it deserves to be written about first.
About an hour out of Port Elizabeth is an area called Addo. Addo is mostly known for its nature reserves mainly Addo Elephant Sanctuary which is popular with the tourists. Addo is very much a rural area, the type where you can drive for kilometres and only come across one house, a small petrol station and a general store. Addo also has a township and like all townships the environment is the same, the roads are the same, the houses are the same, the social and economic issues are the same and so you can imagine the opportunities for service that there are in this community. Now in the whole of Addo including all the farm houses and the township there is only one Baha’i. One girl named Asanda. I had heard of Asanda a few times but only met her a couple of months ago when she came to P.E to attend our Baha’i Society function. Today Asanda held an end of the year ceremony for the kids in her Baha’i Children’s Classes and she had invited the Baha’is of Port Elizabeth to come as well. Lunathi and I decided to go down to Addo and help her out with running the function.
We set up the chairs in the hall, Asanda had invited the parents of the kids to attend and she had estimated about 100 participants in total. We had drinks, hot dogs and desert enough for 100 people but saying a number like 100 and then actually seeing it are two very different things. Into the hall walked 50 kids, they sat on one side of the hall, the youngest in the front, the older kids in the back, all dressed up in their pretty dresses or their nice pants. Asanda stood in front of all the kids, owning their attention as we awaited the parents to arrive. I stood there in shock, standing behind the seats of the last row of kids, witnessing one girl conducting 50 kids. Each child sat patiently in obedience to the request of their teacher. Asanda would request a song that they had learnt and a choir of children’s voices would fill the hall.
Completely alone in this community what Asanda has achieved is a testament to the power of the individual. Asanda works full time, she lives at the Elephant Sanctuary where she works which is a 15min drive away and she does not have a car and yet she has still found the time to run two children’s classes with more than 50 kids in total. I was truly amazed.
One portion of the program saw one of the parents stand up to talk about how they felt having their child in the class. This woman stood up and said that she was so proud of what Asanda was doing that at her church she would request all the other church goers to send their kids to Asanda’s class. I was really inspired by what Asanda has achieved there in Addo. The support she receives from the parents and the adoration that you see in the eyes of the children for their teacher goes to show that even if you are the only one standing your single light can penetrate so far that it can illumine a whole town.
It was so wonderful to be part of that day and to spend time with these beautiful children who were not only exceptionally well behaved but also amazing dancers. At the end of the program a dj came and you should have seen these kids. It was funny because at first I went around recording the kids dancing and then when I joined in the mothers started recording me dancing on their phones. They were so impressed with my moves.
The program ended with the children reciting 3 prayers which they had learnt and Asanda finished with the following prayer. What she has achieved in Addo is helping guarantee that these kids receive exactly what this prayer requests.
O God! Educate these children. These children are the plants of Thine orchard, the flowers of Thy meadow, the roses of Thy garden. Let Thy rain fall upon them; let the Sun of Reality shine upon them with Thy love. Let Thy breeze refresh them in order that they may be trained, grow and develop, and appear in the utmost beauty. Thou art the Giver. Thou art the Compassionate.
- 'Abdu'l-Bahá
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