"We are the world, we are the children"

“We are the world, we are the children”. Today we were given the opportunity to go to RP Moodley School to have training by the OT’s at the school in order to inform our project at Kwadabeka, Clermont day centre. I did not know what to expect in this training but I was excited to be given this opportunity to learn. And today we had our first taste of what meetings are all about with community. Community really does involve a lot of planning, deliberation and meetings! We spent some time in the junior primary classrooms and were introduced to their routine which we hope to implement some aspects into Clermont. I had 6 pieces of exam pad covered in ideas and discussion that we had with the OT’s. It was so great to see and compare how structure at RP Moodley is so beneficial, in comparison to the lack of structure and amost chaos at Clermont day centre. The children at Clermont could benefit so much from the structure that was displayed by RP Moodley and the functional activity ideas could also be so beneficial to the learners. It is difficult because I have now seen how lack of resources in a community can be of detriment to the learners as at Clermont, there is limited space and there is a variety of levels of functioning in the school which makes it difficult to separate the classes according to function/age etc. AT RP Moodley, I was heartwarmed by the children singing “we are the world, we are the children” as part of their morning exercise regime (which would also be great to become a part of the structure, even though it is in the timetable at Clermont, I would be interested to see if it is being implemented and the structure of the exercises), the children all singing in unison was a beautiful site to see. Makes all the planning and hard work worth being part of this degree. Although we are only two days in, I think today we saw how we can slowly implement some changes into Clermont day centre that will be of great benefit for the children and the teachers. I get frustrated that things can’t happen immediately as you want them to happen due to lines of communication, financial strains and the amount of time we have in the community. I have to remember that we need to hold onto the small steps, and I think for short term aims that we have come up with as a group, they are realistic and achievable. We are at a great advantage that that Meghan has developed a good relationship with the RP Moodley OT’s as this allows for sustainability of the project in terms of training up the teachers, which will form part of medium term. The OT’s said that we are here to assist Meghan in the foundation of providing a structured programme for the school, and we will try our best to do so. This is an exciting project! We are excited by it. Still nervous about all the other things we need to focus on, I am hoping it will all come together in my mind soon as to how to handle the unpredictability and “unstructuredness” of community./ For months now, I have been working according to structure, and now not knowing what is happening day to day is quite overwhelming.