By Mieke Zuurman

"Beautiful car! Beautiful car! Where did you buy it?" The boy points exitedly to my brand new Kia Picanto, a rental car. I explain to him that the car isn't mine, but that I rented it. He looks at me, puzzled, and then repeats with the same enthusiasm: "Beautiful car! Where did you buy it?" "I rented it in Port Elizabeth", I reply. He doesn't understand. "Beautiful car! Where did you buy it?"
I have come to the Rainbow school in Humansdorp, South-Africa. A private school for children with a handicap like autism, ADHD, Down's syndrome or deafness. All children attending live in townships, also slum areas.
I am here to deliver a Symbol for Windows DVD with licences.

Mieliepap
The director, Ms. Rosa Nell, is busy. She's got a "situation" with a child for which she needs to go to the social worker. But first she gives me a tour of the school. There are four groups, with at the moment seven to nine children each; there is one teacher per group. There are other employees, who take care of meals, among others. The children are just about to have lunch: a slice of white bread with ham and an egg. The school also serves breakfast in the morning: "mieliepap", a thick porridge made of flour with a big pile of sugar on top. For some, the meals at the Rainbow school, are all they eat during the day.
In the groups, children with different handicaps are put together. The level of the children determines the placement in a group, Ms. Nell explaines. That level, as well as each child's diagnose, is hard to determine, because the children often come to the school untested. Testing costs money and that's just not there. Luckily, sometimes a sponsor is found or an organisation offers to do the test for free. One of the girls, who can't speak and is hearing-impaired, will be undergoing a free hearing test, which will have to determine the true extent of her hearing problems.

Influx of Dutch aid
While Ms. Nell visits with the social worker and the pupils play outside, I install Symbol for Windows on the only computer in the school, in the director's office. It works like a charm. There is a printer next to the computer. Good, that means the Paper Chart Maker can be put to use, too.
The computer has been donated from the Netherlands, as well as the school's furniture. The Rainbow school is part of the "Victory 4 all" project of the Victory Church in Jeffrey's Bay, which lies 15 kilometres further on the coast. The project includes a daycare centre for children under 6 years of age, an elementary school, and there are plans to set up a secondary school, too. The project was initiated by volunteers from the Netherlands, who make sure the necessary Dutch goods are sent here and Dutch volunteers find their way to the schools.

Verskriklik oulik
"One of the pupils turns out to be pregnant. She's thirteen. It's from her stepfather, she told us this morning. So I had to do something", Ms. Nell apologizes when she returns to her office.
I think about the twelve-year-old Dutch girl that gave birth to a baby girl during a school outing...and about the indignation it stirred in the entire country. Telling a social worker is the least you can do in a situation like this...
I am thankful that Ms. Nell now has an hour's time to look at some of the Symbol for Windows modules. She's surprised and enthusiastic. "Unbelievable! I didn't know this even existed, but this is exactly what we can use!" She thinks the programs are 'verskriklik oulik', which turns out to mean 'really great'.
We look into the Paper Chart Maker, Memory and Multiple Choice, as well as the Document Maker. Ms. Nell sees lots of possibilities; she already knows which pupils she will put to work with the programs. She also greatly likes the Arasaac symbols I installed along with the modules.
In the mean time, the hard-hearing girl Ms. Nell talked about earlier, is brought to the office because of bad behaviour. When she's picked up again, she's told in sign language to make her apologies to the teacher. Ms. Nell shows her the signs she should use. The girl copies them, giggling, looking sometimes at me, sometimes at the director. Do they understand each other?

Universal language
When it's time for me to leave, the pupils are outside, sitting on lined-up chairs, listening to songs sung to them by white children from a school in Jeffrey's Bay. They can sing along; that doesn't go so well, but one boy flawlessly drums the rythms on his djembe. That sounds good! Music, a universal language... One of the many languages spoken in South-Africa.
Symbol language, "language of images" usually is much more universal than spoken language. I hope that that language will get a place in the hectic of this school's daily life, with the Symbol for Windows software and improve the communication with and by the children, so they are given more ways to express themselves!

Click on one of the pictures to see an enlargement (in a new window).