The Spare Oom

"What will our children do in the morning? Will they wake with their hearts wanting to play, the way wings should? What will our children do in the morning if they do not see us fly?"

Jalaludin Rumi (1207-1273)

I never meant to care about the children here. Pictures on television and glossy brochures distributed by NGOs annoyed me with their heart-string-tugging clichedness. Little kids with pot bellies covered in flies staring listlessly. Or sometimes having a great time playing around the water pump. There was enough people to care about that, right? I had to find something different. (Those of you familiar with the enneagram will recognise some 4ness emerging here.)

But as I spend more time sitting on our front step watching our kids play with kids whose day includes playing around a water pump, through no fault of my own, I'm starting to care. It's apparent the lack of supervison and stimulation can really affect these kids. Actually, it's not all bad. The other day, some of them got a plastic bag, filled it with leaves and called it a football. Cool, Games still include nothing but imagination and a bunch of friends. Our kids won't know what an x-box, game cube, nintendo DS or playstation is for a very long time.

Recently a family moved into a little thatch room next to ours. Functionally, they consist of mum and two boys aged 6 and 2 (Dad works a lot). Their room is about 4 x 6 metres and is their bedroom, dining room, kitchen, laundry and living room. They are from another state so immediately face a language barrier. The boys, particularly when Mum is cooking in that small space, have nowhere else to go except wander between our house and our front step. It's pretty boring. And with such an expanse of waste water canal right in front of you, why wouldn't you throw things in? Aunty's cup and plate, and the toys from the white kids next door make great splashes! But now, the boys are in trouble. Not only from Mum, but from every Aunty within earshot. And this becomes the most interaction from adults for most of the day. Everyone says their piece and goes back to work. Mum goes back to cooking, now feeling condemned because not even a language barrier can hide the fact that all the women are talking about how naughty her boys are and that they should go back to where they came from. 



We rent two rooms here. One is our bedroom and dining room. The other is a playspace and 'school room' for our 2 and 3 year old. With a waste water canal and 2 railway tracks the prominent feature of our community, this space has been a blessing for us. There are number and alphabet posters hanging on the wall, and stars and moons made from cereal boxes and alfoil hanging from the ceiling.

Lately, it has also become a playspace for the other children in our community, who being kids, naturally gravitate there! It can be noisy, calm, creative and chaotic and (usually) we love it! It's nice to be able to provide a safe place for the kids to be allowed to play as well as provide a rest for the mums, who work so hard just to do everyday tasks of living in a slum. It's becoming one of the many little communities within our community and we are grateful for the privilege.