At the Distribution SiteDoug Cumming — Owen Sound, ON
At each of the distribution sites we would begin the day with a walk-about. Several of our group would take a demonstration bedkit and approach the area where the parents and caregivers were waiting; usually behind a roped-off zone, sometimes outside a walled area of the school. Our morning routine would start with an explanation of who we were and why we had come to Togo. Then we would show these people item by item all the contents of the bedkit. Either Helene from our team or Laurent from our Overseas Volunteer Organisation [OVO] would do the explanation in French. Following this, we did the same thing for the children who, dressed in their new clothes, were waiting patiently in classrooms off a school courtyard. With the parents we talked about the Sleeping Children organization while with the children we tried to make it more razzle-dazzle to impart a sense of excitement and anticipation as well as knowledge about what they were actually going to receive – and hopefully set up the scene for some great smiles for the camera! There was nothing as dynamic as the close contact with our eager and grateful recipients. I observed lots of details in the crowd. One day, it was a mother whose child was receiving a bedkit. She arrived on a makeshift low to the ground bicycle with a small platform and seat for her. She moved on crutches and dragged both feet, handicapped, as I later learned, in an accident that left her with a broken back. Yet, she smiled from ear to ear for a casual photo.
I will always remember the children who clapped with infectious exuberance like a cheerleading squad as we displayed each item in the bedkit. Equally etched in my mind were the longing resigned looks of other children outside the open block windows in the classrooms. These faces betrayed the disappointment and acceptance at not being included, at least, not this year. That is the proof of why this project so desperately needs to continue in Togo. At another site a pre-school teacher, an energetic, middle-aged, petite woman showed us her classroom where she worked with up to 55 children, aged three to five years old. Her resources were desks, benches, a very old blackboard, and one notebook for each child. As a teacher, I was totally humbled by the reality of meager resources for schools. And so, I believe it is the close contact with the children, their parents, caregivers and teachers that has imprinted in my mind so many details about the beautiful people of Togo. |
