By Catherine Buthelezi

Refalletse Primary School in Orange Farm, the host for the Camp I Am Spelling BeeHive Holiday Programme, was only an hour’s drive away from my home. But the journey between my world and the one I stepped into felt much greater than what the GPS showed. As we drove along the M1, we passed the Joburg City Centre, Gold Reef City, and a long stretch of industrial buildings, before finally turning onto the Golden Highway, which took us the rest of the way to the school. I left what I call my “Joburg private school bubble”, a comfortable place where struggle often feels far away and many of my peers and I have similar experiences.

When we arrived, learners were already gathered in the courtyard, chatting, laughing and playing together. My mom greeted a girl she met the previous day and asked her to remind her of her name. The girl’s face lit up as though it were Christmas morning. It was such a small moment, but it stayed with me.

I was assigned to help Coach Sibongile, one of Camp I Am’s Spelling Worker Bees (SWBs), and we began setting up her classroom. We arranged the desks facing each other to create a space where the learners felt more comfortable talking, and to change the usual schoolroom desk arrangement and atmosphere.

I had stepped into a reality that was unfamiliar to me. Everything felt unfamiliar. Here, more than 40 learners usually shared a classroom, surrounded by walls with peeling paint and windows that let the cold winter breeze drift through. I was in a new area with people I had never met before, and it almost felt as though we lived in different South Africas. I tried to focus completely on the task at hand without letting my emotions get involved.

Then, about twenty learners burst through the classroom doors, filling the room with laughter, chatter and excitement. It was at that moment that something shifted.

Instead of noticing the classroom, I started noticing the learners.

As the day went on, the bright yellow walls and blue window frames suddenly seemed warmer because of the energy in the room. The learners lit up when the SWBs called them by their names or recognised their work, like when they were finishing mind maps they started the day before to use for a creative writing assignment. They were happy to be at the camp, and even happier to learn. Every question SWB Sibongile asked was met with eager voices calling out the answers together.

Observing the learners made me realise just how much they enjoyed learning, how much the programme meant to them, and how much we had in common despite our different environments.

My teachers are invested in my education. So are theirs.

My parents push me to do everything I can to realise my potential. So do theirs.

My headmistress works to make my school better than it already is. So does theirs.

They might be more driven, more ambitious and more willing to learn than some of my friends and me.

The biggest difference isn’t our ambition or our willingness to learn. It is the opportunities available to us. Some of us have opportunities that others have to work much harder to reach.

That day at the Camp I Am, I saw how hope, determination and hard work keep these energetic, talented and intelligent learners, and their families, choosing to spend their holidays learning, having fun, and striving to realise their potential.