40 Days 40 Gifts Day 21

Today is Dikwankwetla day. That means that I get to give a little time and a little skill in making a library an inviting place for young children at Sikwankwetla school in Soweto. Giving this time is in many ways easy for me since I love reading, and I love books and I love the idea of making those things available to young children who would otherwise have little opportunity to develop a love of reading.

So today I roped Beert in and we went to fetch a whole lot of broken down cupboard doors that will now be turned into shelves for the library.

What struck me about this moment – and this is a lesson in simplicity – is the resourcefulness of the school we are working with. If I had pulled those cupboards out I probably would have simply chucked the wood out. After all it was a little warped, they were uneven lengths, the rats had been living in it and it had so many nails in it that it was going to take ages to get it looking halfway decent. And yet the school had insisted on keeping the wood in case they needed it, which is just as well because we don’t have the budget to buy new shelves for the school.

Somehow every time I visit the school I am overwhelmed by a sense of warmth. The school grows its own veggies with which it feeds the children daily, it makes do with the few classrooms it has – many of them are missing windows and desks, and the teachers are so dedicated and are so excited about meeting us on a Saturday to help with upgrading the library. It is truly inspiring and something we could all learn a lot from.

Perhaps this is why Jesus tells us that the poor shall inherit the earth, because they really know how to care for it.

Lesson 21: We don’t know the value of stuff until we place ourselves in a situation where there is very little stuff.