Home Visits

What is a home? Where I come from we call it a house and it means everyone having their own bedroom, having separate rooms to eat, bath, sleep, live. It often means having a structure separate from other people's homes. In the slum of West Point it is called a room because that is what it is, one room. It is either made out of aluminum or concrete but sometimes only cardboard for walls. It is connected to other family's dwellings. There a common area outside of the rooms that is used as a bathroom and a cooking area, oh yea and its also the walkway/alley for people passing by.

As social workers deal with children's safety we do many home-visits. Often these take place over an hour or two, involve extensive paperwork, and require things like smoke detectors outside every bedroom and a posted escape route. Lately, however, I have been conducting home-visits West Point style. This means asking the guardian and student questions while there are anywhere from 3 to 30 other people standing around. There is no privacy which at first worried me as I would be asking some personal questions, but then I realized there is no privacy with a lot of things in their lives due to living in such close quarters. Some of the adults don't know their real age. Some of them have no idea how much money they make because it is a very hand to mouth society. Some guardians only completed a few years of school and many never went at all. Some of these girls live in a room with 8 other people. Some sleep on the floor, or cardboard, or maybe a mattress. 

I sat with Mary's dad, a fisherman, who was cutting fish preparing his bait for the next day's work. He says the rainy season is hard because they can't work everyday. The following day it poured rain all day, and I sadly thought of him being unable to use the bait I watched him prepare.

I talked with a grandmother who was probably in her sixties (she is unsure of her age) ask me if we could stop in the middle of talking so she could dance to a song she liked that was being played (we definitely did some dancing and yes, its on video). On numerous days I sang praise and worship songs while walking with one of our oldest girls, Regina, who always seemed to find us. I was thanked many, many times and told God Bless more times then I can count. 

When I asked one grandmother what she wanted for her granddaughter's future she said "I want her to become somebody, to become something better." These guardians are so thankful for the opportunity their girls are being given to go to school and have big dreams for them. These girls have big dreams for themselves too; they want to be journalists, teachers, nurses, accountants, and many want to be doctors. When I asked Sietta, age 9, what she wants to be when she finishes school she said "A doctor because my grandma is sick and I'd be helping her."

 

As Patience, age 14, was asked if their was anything she wanted to say to those helping her go to school she smiled really big and said "Oh yes! Thank you for all you've done for me. I have nothing to give them but God will give them blessings."- Patience -age 14

I always ask the girls what they do when they are not in school and most of the time their answers are along the lines of "I can be washing dishes or helping my mom cook." Many of them mind their younger siblings (often you see a 10 year old with a baby sibling tied in a lappa on their back). When I ask them what their favorite food is the majority say rice, in reality its the food they eat basically every day (with variety being in what they put on top of the rice- palm butter, cassava leaf, beans, etc.)

Being able to see a glimpse of these families' lives, in the places they live, has been such an awesome privilege. I have met many people that I will never forget; many I have seen again on repeated visits remembering me and smiling widely when I stop to say "hi." I am so glad do to this work with Macintosh as he leads me through the alleys and streets, never getting lost, and serving as a "translator" anytime accents get too thick for either person. Every day we spend in West Point ends the same way, with a dozen kids walking with us; I'd say they are pretty good days!