Many of my friends here were already in the E Pap group and hearing that volunteers were always welcome and needed I asked Shelley to keep me in mind if she needed any help. I started off in the Methodist church at Concordia where there was a soup kitchen and a newly formed crèche for children in that area. I took E pap up to this crèche for a year or 2  but this closed, so Shelley took me on a tour of several crèches to see how they were functioning. In 2013 a request had come in to supply pap to a teacher called Cynthia Malamlela who had just started a small crèche with about 8 to 10 children in a simple lean to at the back of her newly built RDP house. Cynthia had obtained her teachers diploma through E Pap and what a dynamic young women she has proved to be. A go getter of note in her endeavour to do the best for the children she is caring for. She has proved to be so consistent in her journey and is an example to other young women in never giving up in her quest to secure a proper place to care for our little ones in this area. Her reply to me on asking how she is doing is normally ‘God is good’. This is still her attitude despite the covid pandemic and all the disruptions it has caused. Falling numbers, closures, reopenings and ongoing new cases being detected.

This one room provided a place to introduce the little ones to the fun of learning. To colour in and paint, sing with great gusto as well as dance with their inbuilt natural rhythm and enjoy a daily sleep. The pre school children were introduced to numbers and letters and were taught the skills to use scissors, pencils and crayons and by so doing were familiar with these skills as they carried onto grade one. How she managed under the conditions that existed then, was amazing to witness.

With her husband Michael Mkohla’s full support she decided to build a shack for them to live in, on some land they could secure and gave up her house to start the next part of her plan to turn the house with a big addition, into a proper crèche. Creche numbers were increasing rapidly and it was necessary to think ‘bigger’. In the background E pap played a huge part in feeding the children as well as supplying chairs and tables, mattresses, equipment for art and books, puzzles plus toys were received from donors.  Through E Pap contacts the crèche was given some playground equipment.

The money for the planned extension was secured through an Oakhill School project and this was erected. Then the building sat for well over a year and a half until money for roof trusses was obtained. The patience required for this period finally got to me and after imploring Shelley to wave a magic wand, the money for the roof magically was found. Hallelujah! Cynthia remained calm and with her strong faith and ‘carried on regardless’.

I collected forms from KET and persuaded Cynthia to fill them in and submit them so that Maranatha could join this worthwhile organisation. From then on things began to happen. Funding was finally secured through an Irish donor representing a group willing to sponsor the money needed to complete the project. How wonderful to attend the official ‘opening’  in August 2016.  Sadly this was during Shelley’s prolonged stay in ICU, but E Pap as well as the huge role Shelly, Peter and Lally played in getting this creche up and running was highlighted and Cynthia’s sincere thanks were recorded in her opening speech.

From a personal point of view I have experienced moments of great joy as well as at the other end of the scale, extreme frustration and despair. The joy when little chubby faces light up as they recognise ‘goko’ [granny] arriving to entertain them by showing off in front of them. I usually have my car keys and mime the starting of my car, driving around and then getting in and out of ‘my car’, hooting, and generally amusing them. I do all sorts of movements with arms, hands and feet to occupy them while the teacher is busy with a crying toddler. To be able to hear the joyful rendition of ‘Nkosisilela’ or the Lords prayer being recited pulls at the heart strings. To cuddle a baby again and see a shy smile appear is reward enough after the drive getting to the crèche. I am  delighted to observe that when a runny nose is detected my favourite thing which I used in my teaching days, a roll of toilet paper appears. I have taken two of our 6 granddaughters during their visit to us, up to Maranatha where they shared all the cakes and food they had baked and prepared for the children. Izzy who like me is a ‘show off’ and loves little ones, took over feeding some of the children while Maddi, far more retiring was happy to draw with them. Sadly the crèche is closed when our other children visit but they have all heard about Goko’s little ones. Even the songs sung by the children have permeated their lives over the years ‘telephone to Jesus’ which is one I taught them from my farm crèche, being a favourite, as it has a catchy tune with actions included.  

On my drive to the crèche I go from despair and frustration seeing the litter clogging up every pavement, the skinny dogs in pup, the workless men hanging around with nothing to occupy their days, the shacks clinging onto the edges of hill or pavement, the cows with ribs protruding trying to find a scrap of green to eat, the hair raising driving where the rules of the road do not exist and so much more to horrify one. I want to turn around and drive home quickly, so escaping the reality that people have to endure in our country just to  survive on a daily basis. I witnessed on one occasion how a car in front of me drove over a smallish pig , it rolled over and then calmly got up on the other side and walked off, while I would like to have covered my eyes to not see it, as I was expecting a squashed pig at the other end!

BUT to see a little garden planted with sweetpeas on one occasion and a scrappy rose flowering through the rubbish and weeds, a little child trying to keep up with mama who is off to shop or visit with toddler tagging on behind, a women in her dressing gown and slippers at 10am on a winters morning chatting with a neighbour and smilingly acknowledging a wave, smartly turned out students coming and going at all times of the day in their tunics and shiny uniforms, a group of the death defying taxi drivers using a puddle of water to shine up their vehicles and chatting to mates and I know I will reach my crèche and feel different after receiving the loving warmth of the children who are the reason we will try our best to deliver our sustaining food......   E Pap!