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By Skye Matula, YES Abroad 2013-2014

Last Tuesday, I had the wonderful experience of visiting a rural Zulu preschool. My host mother's friend is in charge of the preschool section of the school, which is actually for preschool-aged children and up. There is a Zulu village in the valley of a boys' boarding school called Hilton College's estate. The village was there when the school got the land, and they have been working to help the people buy homes in the town. However, many people still live in the village and need a school. The school is different than anywhere I have ever been. The kids have to walk a long way to school every day. There are several small buildings, including for older kids who often have multiple grades in the same class. 

It is sad that just because of where they were born they don't have much of a chance to receive a good education. Even though we don't speak
the same language, I still bonded with these kids over games, animals, candy that we shared, and chasing monkeys out of the classrooms. After the field trip, the kids hugged me goodbye and walked home. 

The woman I spent the day with also has a program called Ixoxo or frog in Zulu. This program uses donations to send a few of the exceptional kids from the village to a school in town. She picks them up and drops them off every day. I helped these kids with their homework and had a great time getting to know them. I am very glad I was able to go to this school and meet the kids. They are so happy about everything. They are probably more content with the little they have than most people that have a lot more.