Passing the Light

Deyana and I visited five shack schools over Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. We also picked up yet more gummies and whizzed back to CDP for more workshops. The second group of children were more studious than the first and were  speedy when it came to making lanterns. We didn’t get any more adults but next year I think we will, because of the reactions to the event itself. Given that the children couldn’t cover  their lanterns because of the pesky tissue paper,  I took the opportunity to work with the children on the little ceremony that would begin the event.  The children were very taken with the idea that the light had been passed to them and needed to be passed on to all and sundry here. They suggested a song that they already knew and changed the words to:

Come and join the celebration
It’s a very special night
Come and join the celebration
Now it’s your turn to pass the light
See the light – pass it to community

They sang it with great gusto, only occasionally lapsing into singing its original words (For a new king is born today instead of Now it’s your turn to pass the light)!  The ceremony purposefully involved children – no adult speechifying at all.  Children would be leading the way. Literally and metaphorically. The plan formed was that all would gather at CDP for The Special Moment as the children christened it. Then the light would lead everyone to the site – the grounds of a social services building in the shadow of Ellis Park Stadium – one of the venues for the 2010 World Cup. There, all the lanterns would be laid out with luminaries (tea lights in sand in brown paper bags) creating pathways around and about them.  There would be a marimba band playing as children led their families and friends to find their lantern.

Meanwhile, Charlotte had designed a t-shirt for the participants. I had made a lantern for CDP to echo the one that the South Africans made at Chickenley. It served as a demonstration model but would also receive the light that had travelled all the way from England. Starting with a photograph of the lantern framework, Charlotte’s design added the names of African countries along the gummies, with the slogan Together Children Build the Future. Whilst we made the lanterns, the t-shirts were printed in CDP’s print shop.

Thursday and Friday felt like one long day. Dingani spent a lot of the time wearing a bandanna and hat to ladle the very dusty sand into paper bags. We made heart shaped signs of the children’s names to accompany their lanterns and invented new stands to display them as the ground was too hard to pierce with a stick. Sibongile and Valencia  joined us after their  office work was done on Thursday and stayed late to help cover  the remaining lanterns and then the next morning helped make doors in them to facilitate lighting the candles. There was a great atmosphere in the room. We made space to eat together on Friday lunchtime. It gave us a breather and the energy to carry on for the rest of the day. Best Bertrams fare – chicken, chips and a big bowl of fruit. Importantly, it marked a moment when we could all clock that we were part of that team. As we said at the time “The team that eats together, stays together”…

I recommend doing lanterns events in the sunshine. No wind or rain. No worrying that lanterns will be blown away. No concerns about what the heck Plan B might be.  The only perturbing news was that there was a big football match scheduled to start at 8.00pm on Friday. We could only hope that the stadium lights didn’t come on too early and swamp our candle-glow. Or that the world and her husband would be charging towards the stadium down Bertrams Road when our modest procession rounded the corner.

Deyana, Thando and Dingani ferried lanterns and sand-bags to the site whilst the rest of us cleared and cleaned the big room ready for the guests. By 3.15 we were all on site to set out the lanterns. It was so warm  that we borrowed hats from the children’s dressing-up corner to wear.  I looked like I was heading to church in a fetching red number complete with bow. Mercy looked stylish in a straw and Deyana majestic in wide-brimmed lilac. Valencia sat patiently digging the wicks out of the tea lights ready for lighting.
“I’m up-wicking”, she said
Some of the children turned up and followed us to the site, so excited about what was to come. 
“Please can we stay? We’re never bored when we are with you.”

By 4.30, Deyana and I were heading back to CDP. Mercy and Dingani and Thando were left in charge of the site and of lighting the 500 or so candles and tea-lights. The fuel lighters we had bought didn’t work but thankfully they had 9 boxes of matches as back-up. They used every match and had to start lighting candle to candle, Mercy told me later.
Some children turned up at the site and had to be re-directed to CDP.

At CDP, Sizwe (aged 10) was at the door, patiently recording all adults’ names in The Book.  A television crew from eTV  had turned up – he got their names as well. Lots of children turned up on their own,  sadly without parents, and excitedly played games in the courtyard. Those parents that did come waited patiently in the training room for events to start,  clearly baffled as to what they had come to.  I asked some children what their expectations of the night were:

“We’re going to see the lanterns. Our parents have to see what we have done. It is a special day for them.”
“And for us!”
“I just want my parents to be happy.”
“I want to enjoy this day.”
“I want to have fun, to have a better future”.

Only some of the children who were to speak had turned up and so a few children and I had to quickly rearrange everything. That was a mite stressful. I introduced the children and we were off…

One of the girls, who wanted to be known as Brandy (Who’s Brandy? Asked the others?) had the line

“There is a place in England called Chickenley.”

Which she delivered with great aplomb, giving me goosebumps. They mentioned that Beijing was also having an event that involved a flame that day and that Bertrams had its own special light. They invited Deyana and Sibongile to bring the light that had travelled all the way from England. The lantern was lit. Phineas and Beauty lifyed it into the air with the line

“The light has passed to Bertrams!”

and Marlo added his own words

“It is the light that is inside all of us!”

They then launched into the song and headed for the door at a rate of knots. We had to stop at the gate so that adults could catch up. Deyana gave a short, sensible brief asking adults to be mindful of the children and we  turned right and never looked back. Bertrams didn’t know what hit it. It is an inner city area that you just don’t walk around after nightfall. Here we were at dusk and groups of men were gathered on the pavements. Phineus and Beauty with their lantern between them, surrounded by a large collection of children singing at the top of their voices and waving hearts on sticks, just carried on through. The men had to move. One football supporter, somewhat the worse for wear, wanted to join the parade but was dissuaded by Deyana ‘lioness’Thomas.

We turned in to a more residential street and every dog in the neighbourhood woke up. Dogs were leaping, their drooling heads appearing over gates. The children were unperturbed and carried on singing. People from the houses appeared, slack-jawed, never having seen the like. The children carried on singing and waved.  Deyana came up to me, tears streaming down her face and that was me gone.
“I can’t believe it’s happening. We’ve done it” she said.

We turned the corner and the procession had to filter, single file, through the pathway created by the construction work. From there, we could see the lanterns winking at us from the park. The children were beside themselves with excitement but then hushed when they heard the marimba band play. It was truly magical, the sight of the children leaping into the world they had created. Theyhad no notion of what it would look like and were entranced. I thought
“it’ll never be like this again because now we have all seen it.”

I had my sound recorder with me and captured some reactions on the spot:

“Am I dreaming? It is so beautiful. My eyes are open?! For the first time I see the lantern magic. I can’t believe my eyes.” Yvette

“It is very beautiful.”
“It’s fantastic”
“Amazing. So creative. Wonderful.”
“I’m so shocked. I’ve got photos to show the school. The question is – is this the end of it? This is for the whole community. We must keep the light on and on and on. This is more than…I don’t know what to say. It is for me a new thing. We are learning. Now we are learning. I nearly cried. Just imagine, in my house this week (referring to the lantern) I’ll be burning this candle all week.” Parents.

It seemed like a long time, but it was only an hour or so. Families asked for their photographs to be taken next to the great Zimbabwean lantern. The band played on. The children swarmed – one moment hanging on every beat of the band, the next swerving through the lanterns, whooping with delight. There were a few gatecrashers – boys who really wanted to be part of it and so parted with a lantern in tow.  Some children sat quietly in the glow of their lantern, chatting.  Lanterns were taken home, passing the light along.

The lights of Ellis Park did come on – perfectly in time for us to pack everything up. They were the bright lights “but ours were nicer” said one child. We cleared the site to the roars and hoots from the stadium crowd. Everyone helped ferry lanterns, bags and buckets of sand. We made an arrangement with the site security team to stash it all in the social services hall until Monday. Quintin fell asleep on my shoulder. He woke up in the car and sang Twinkle twinkle little star to great effect.

Deyana and I dropped Dingani and Quintin at home. We stopped at a takeaway  for supper and marvelled at the day. I can honestly say that it was one of the happiest of my life. From the very early start of the day, driving in to work with Deyana and Sibongile, through the graft of the morning, the laughter of lunchtime, the setting up of the site and the event itself.  I just kept grinning, with only the occasional tear and that stemmed from joy.

Comments

[dawn williams]

Fantastic! Those lightsreally shone! How I wish I could have been with you to pass the light from Chickenley to Bertrams. Lanterns in the sunshine and no plan B? What a marvelous thought! Brilliant photos.
Love to all xxx

[mike]

Always knew you'd be up a tree someday - but what a nice end to a truly transformative experience. You have excelled yourself, and the photos are cherishable. (Mercy, what a hat! ) The day I finish me book revisions you're reporting back from the bushveld, and the Cloughs are heading into the desert of Western Australia. Links are being created between communities in the literal corners of the globe. How fantastic is this..?!

Mike