The Mamelodi Initiative: Final Week
Its too bad that I did not have the time to process all of
this information and experiences in the moment but we really did have to give
it our all the last week of program to make it work. I'm going to blog about
things that I observed during our groups final hours on the trip as well as the
three most formative final experiences for me.
Observation #2: Why “Help” is a Funny Word
To say that I went to South Africa and helped some kids
would be a very shortsighted statement. I was challenged on this trip to
question the notion of the word help. After a month worth of processing this I
think it has finally become clear to me why that word is bothersome. To say
that I went to South Africa and helped some kids implies that I am the one that
primarily has something to give and the kids in The Mamelodi Initiative program
don’t. We need each other. I can promise you, that for every time I spoke words
or acted out of love towards those kids it was something that I needed just as
much as they did. For every kid that I left a positive impact on, there is a
part of me that is being satisfied by that. I think in many ways, my love for
mentoring and seeing positive change happen in the lives of kids comes from all
the times I felt like I needed someone older to talk to and get advice and love
from. While I can’t fix the way my life was when I was younger, I can help fix
the lives of kids who needed the same things that I did. But oh so very
importantly, those kids are simultaneously helping me by receiving that advice
and letting it impact them for the better.
I’ll offer an example that I was given today. One of the
precious girls that had been in my class found me on Facebook and messaged me
today. In many ways while I had liked this student I wondered if the things I
said were getting through to her because she was often soft spoken around me. I
thought she was a good student and I loved reading her journal entries but she
was quiet when it came to conversation. So I wrote back to her in her journal,
not ever sure if my words of encouragement were reaching her.
Her message was this,
“Hello Dylan I just want to tell you how much I missed you
because you made me feel proud of myself and I’m proud of you too. May God be
with you and keep you safe for me until we meet again.”
In a nutshell this encompasses everything that I am talking
about. While she may have needed to have someone to tell her they made her
proud, I just as badly needed to know that I was able to do that for someone else
for all the times I have not been proud of myself in my own life. That my
friends is the joy God gives us in serving him, because no matter how old we
get we still have something to learn and we still can grow. No matter where we
are in life we are never so high and mighty that we are the only ones with
anything to offer to someone else, no matter how we may view them.
God bless and all the best,
Dylan Rollins.
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