Township time

So I taught a class yesterday...Poetry/Free Expression Class.
I used India Arie, Mya Angelou, Lauren Hill and Myself to convey how to share your story hurts and ways to deal with Anger...

I have done this kind of class a few times but this one here was so special...
I wish I could share the videos of the kids reading what they wrote...but Not in the states so I don't have High Speed....this is what I wrote while they spoke...and below are some of the kids poems and writings...
Pain
Scars, can they heal
Pain that I feel, will it ever go away…
So much pain, help me bare it

I again sit with those who are stronger than they know
They are strength and power, wisdom beyond their years
Can I wish it away can you take it away…
Can I erase what they have seen
Pain…
That they carry and shed no tears
And they trust in God in ways only they can explain
Raped by their fathers…
Losing their mother
Suffering from disease
Jesus Help them please
Pain…
Take it away…
Wash it away…
Will they ever know life without it…
It’s too hard for me to see
Lord take it away…their pain…

Some of the kids writings...

Struggle for Freedom
Viva Africka, Viva Freedom
These were the words our grandparents and great grandparents
Screamed as they were urgently ramping thru the streets
With iron fist and lieges of police after them like angry dogs
The day Father Mandela was released everybody was happy
Screaming freedom at last!
And it was the end of Whites killing blacks
But the start of Blacks killing Blacks
Now we are living like mice in a cage full if cats
Being killed in cold blood being scared of going out at night
Is this freedom because I am still struggling after freedom
-Sbongiseni Skeyi

My Life
The worlds up side down
I lost my mother when I was 7 yrs. Old
I thought my life was finished
I felt miserable
I felt guilty of my mother’s death
I wanted to kill myself
It was like life was going down the drain
But By God’s Wonderful Mercies
He gave me a mum, who loves me, the way I am, for who I am
God has wonderful mercies all the time
-Nosiphiwo Vonto


I am a loser
I lost my mother
I lost my father
I lost my home
I lost my family
I lost my sister
I lost my brother
I lost my friends
I think I am going to lose at school because I am a loser

My first time when I lose my mother
I lost my mother when I was born
I didn’t even see here but I know that only God nows everything
And God is my shepherd now I see the people say Life is difficult
But I say not to me life is easy because I except God.
-Ayanda Cithi

After the Poems they shares their stories, most orphaned it was hard to hear. Kid who have been raped by their fathers, losing parents and famil members, mistreated, abused and even living with HIV. But they have joy that ignites my faith. They have strength of men. They have courage and determination that I dream of. I am so inspired...I felt my river rising...from within sumthin leaped in me...

Its experiences like this that remind me of Mary greeting Martha and the babe leaping in her womb...I love having people around me that make sumthin leap in me! Make my destiny leap..the dream I have been carrying leap...the things that I know God wants to birth in me leap. I pray that I be that for someone.

River Rise! Rise!