The unexpected treasure of a field trip

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I got to take the kids to the Mothong Heritage Nature Preserve today. It was a pretty surreal experience. I had been I this country for such a small amount of time, but somehow I had been blessed enough to make connections to get the kids in my photography workshop into the preserve for free. They seriously could not contain their joy. They were running around like they had never experienced the beauty of nature before. One of my students Precious told me that she did not know that there was anything about Mamelodi that was worth being proud of. Somehow I was lucky enough to get to show them something that was beautiful and interesting in their own community that they had never been aware of. As our guide lead us around the preserve, the kids got to see, experience and learn. At the end of the day, that’s what I had wanted, today wasn’t about taking pictures, it was about giving these kids an awesome experience.

Here the students explored the empty nests of African Bee Eaters, a bird that has black, yellow, blue, red, green and white feathers.

This photo might look like a guy pointing at some gourds, but for many of my students it was the first time they had made a visual connection to food that their parents purchased in a store and the earth that those plants grew out of.

Lastly, when we got up to the top of the mountain on the preserve, I found out some of my students had never been on top of a mountain before. This was a particularly emotional moment for me as I just got to watch kids running around in circles in hysterics over seeing the view of Mamelodi.

I could never have possibly known what this experience was going to be like for these kids. I had no clue that though they live in Africa they lacked a connection to nature. I had no clue some had never seen food growing out of the dirt. I had no clue some had never been on a mountain. One thing I do have a clue of though, is that everyone involved by the goodness of God had more of an experience than I could have ever planned for, including myself.

God bless and all the best,

Dylan Rollins