When you think of different culture you may think: It's the color you are. But it's not just that. Culture for me is how you grow up. We in South Africa are privilege to be part of a land who has 11 official languages . Each language with their own culture. For instants when you look at the Afrikaans speaking people their is a certain way you grow up, the way food is prepared. Its not to say that this is the way to go and our way is 100% correct.
Here in our town there is some of our Afrikaans speaking families that has adopted a black child. The way that they teach this child is the way they taught there own children. So they learn on another culture. The sad part of this is that the this child's own color people will not mingle with him because of the way he has learned to speak, eat and think. I think if you teach your child that everyone is unique that they will see the world different than some of us grew up with. I can see in our schools that they don't mingle with each other because we had this weird idea that if you look different you are not worthy to be talked to.
I know to teach your child to see different is not easy. My two daughters grows up in a house were we love people, we love to learn how the different cultures work. My youngest daughter who is now almost 5 years old, has curly hair. In her class all her friends has strait hair except for one boy. He is a colored boy but so so sweet. The two of them has become very good friends and they will always do everything together. The one day my husband took our girls to go and shop for a toy. My little one got so existed because she had found a doll that looks like her friend. The doll is a black doll with curly hair. So he bought it for her. Boy o boy does this doll rattle a few peoples cages. They all asked why this doll and not a white doll? I've explained that this doll reminds her that she is not alone with curly hair and of her friend, small kids doesn't see color. We can learn from this.
I am working at a High School. O and what a lot of fun this is. Our school has Afrikaans speaking children and also Sepedi and Asian children. In our small town this is huge. Not everyone can get along well, but you try to make it work. I'm working in the office so I see a lot of our students and the one thing I released is that they are still children no matter the culture or the background. They want attention, love and the sense of belonging. Everyone has hard times but it doesn't give us permission to treat each other badly or let them feel unwanted. Sometimes their is rivalry between the kids but then when something happens they will stand together. The other day their was one of our Sepedi girls that had fainted and they brought her to the office. It was 4 young Afrikaans speaking boys, they were so concerned for her. Wow this was so special to me. If we can care for each other like this just think of the impact it will have.
The children is so sensitive for racism that you have to think twice before you say something. In the classes and also in the office. With the past few years my husband really worked hard to earn the students respect and trust. Its now on a place that they will just go and sit with him and talk because he doesn't treat them differently.
The one main thing is : treat others the way you want to be treated. We don't stay small forever, life has seasons and we grow up. We have to study with each other and later work with each other. So why not try to help our children to respect their class mates and their culture, their might be something in someone else's culture that can teach us something.
Yesterday before our school came out one of our Sepedi daughters had to come and say a prayer before everyone left. While she was standing next to me in the office there came a Afrikaans speaking lady in to deliver something. The fist question she asked me was: "What is this child doing here?" I replied with a smile that she is waiting to say the last prayer for the day before everyone left. This sadden me because we see color and not the person. This child did so well with her prayer that this lady felt ashamed. Most of the times we look at the outside, we have our opinion about someone but don't even realize that it is a human being.
It's time for us to start see peoples hearts and their needs than their culture. God made us all uniquely. Our children is soon to be adults . Lets help them see the world as an opportunity to be different and loving it.
