Sailing in Zululand by Lynn Maclachlan
A look at life in post-Apartheid South Africa –
The kids in the townships of South Africa run unsupervised in gangs, and when I say gangs, I mostly mean harmless gangs of naughty friends, bored, looking for something to do. They are great kids with keen senses of humor, wild, completely undisciplined, poorly educated and independent. If umama (mother) or gogo (grandmother) or the dog gets sick, there is no money for a good hospital and if mommy or gogo or the dog gets severely sick, chances are, they will die in pain and in their shack. These kids do not get many chances in life, but when they do, they are eagerly grasped….
At the beginning of this year, I started a job teaching Zulu* kids in a struggling rural school. I call myself a South African, but I had realised that I know nothing about how most South Africans live, and I wanted to understand why things are going so wrong in my country. As a white, privileged person, the life of the “other half ” is far removed and I wanted to change that. I decided to teach Zulu kids. It was an eye opener. The South African Education system is as broken as any other system in South Africa and after a stressful semester where I was completely overburdened and under-supported, I found myself in constant tears and quit. I had become one of the many good teachers exiting the teaching profession to find another job.
I found myself feeling like a real quitter and low, however, even though I had found the Zulu kids hard to teach, I had gained a huge insight into why this was so and had fallen in love with these strong, individual spirits. I also found myself unemployed in a terrible economy. I fell back onto an old trick I had learned: Think big, think bold. I moved to the best place in the country to follow my number one passion: kitesurfing. Then, I created my perfect job in my head. I knew that I wanted to teach children in a meaningful, relevant way and that I wanted to try and offer kids an opportunity to get out of oppressive poverty. I approached the Zululand Yacht Club, and hey presto! They created a job for me. I became the Sailing Development Officer and South African Sailing funded the whole enterprise.
I then set about pioneering my new job. For the first time ever I did a sailing instructor’s course then I jumped on a boat and started learning how to sail with my first intake of kids. Finding kids to sail was a challenge, until one day, I drove into the township, found a gang of children and started chatting to them, telling them what I did. Soon, I was surrounded by a bunch of eager kids and their parents. The next day I drove back armed with paperwork and my computer to show everyone photos, and signed them up.
It’s a job with a lot of challenges, but it’s a great job, because each day, up pulls the silver taxi and out leaps a bunch of kids from Mzingazi Township beaming and excited and ready to learn about the wind and the tides, knots and map reading, the English language and a different culture, good seamanship, swimming, manners, safety and of course: how to sail.
I have another job that I know nothing about. Although I can’t surf, I work at Freedom Surf Shop. This is by far the funkiest shop in town, and the owner is one of the coolest people I know and a South African champion surfer. I consider him my friend, and on the weekends when I work, I sit the shop, paint murals on the walls, chat like crazy to the clientele and feel happy and confident that my boss said, “Do what you like, you have the freedom to create your own job.”
He, like me, believes for and fights for his freedom and I am happy that I am free to teach children how I know children should be taught. My biggest wish is that all children in South Africa have the freedom to follow their dreams, just like I have had the freedom to follow mine.
* One of the many tribes indigenous to KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.
A note from the Editor : I have known the author of this article for close on 30 years. Lynn is a rare spirit, fearless and adventurous. She epitomizes someone who lives life completely on her own terms. I admire her greatly.
