Let's Set the World on Fire

Something rare happened today in Kloof.  The sun showed his big yellow Raisin Bran face!  I guess if you want to live in a tropical paradise, lush green jungley hills and brilliant flowers, rain is a necessary part of the package.  

 I went outside to sit in the sun with a little light reading, “How to Start a Business in South Africa”, when I noticed a bunch of school boys standing at the fence and pointing over at me.  Did I mention I was wearing a bikini?  I thought I’d work on being less scarily translucent.  You may have seen my photo in a biology book, you know the one showing the circulatory system, all the veins and arteries of the human body, that’s me.
 

So these boys keep ‘accidentally’ kicking their ball over to the fence and standing there staring.  Evidently I still look good from that distance – far enough away that you can just barely make out that I am female.  And I think to myself, some things are the same the world over.  Boys will be boys.  But then some things are definitely not the same.  The rustling in the trees overhead is the monkeys playing.  I focus on my book instead of watching their antics. 

Until something made me get up and take a closer look, beautiful children’s voices.  The choir from the primary school next door was outside singing.  At first I felt the sharp pang of missing the kids in my programs.  It reminded me of my days in the orphan center in Mansa, hearing the children singing all day long.  And then the sadness transitioned into happiness.  Nothing like the tinkling of a child’s laughter or children sweetly singing to make you happy. 

Then I listened to the words of the song, “We are young, so let’s set the world on fire.  We can burn brighter than the sun.” If you are familiar with this popular song by “Fun” you know they probably had to change the words to the verses but the chorus is awesome.  I could hear the innocence and hope in their voices.  

These children are growing up in a country with the highest HIV infection rate, a 25% unemployment rate, the highest rate of rape in the world (a girl born in South Africa is more likely to be raped than learn how to read), and union strikes that result in 34 miners being shot dead by the police.  But that’s not what they feel in this moment.  They feel the excitement of their future.  They are young and can BE anything, DO anything.  Of course this is a school situated in a posh mostly white neighborhood so these children do not know the despair of growing up in the township. 

That feeling that surged through me when I heard what they were singing, I am so eager to share that with children who come to PLAY.  To teach them to be leaders, to inspire them to make a difference, to instill hope.  For children in the township uniting with the children from the cities, all races singing together, “Let’s set the world on fire….” 
Guess I better get back to reading my book, ho humm.  Patience grasshoppa, you have taken another step in the labyrinth.