Migrating

Safiyya (7) was initially -and confusingly- telling people she was going to Saudi Arabia. Asim (4) has been proudly showing off his many plasters covering up different parts of his arms where he has been vaccinated, explaining – also confusingly - that they are needed for America. Amaani (2) just wants to see the lions and is happy to go to whatever country she needs to in order to find them.

The children did not seem to be much affected by the initial plans, apart from when my husband and I tried to have quick discussions on where to live and how to manage our life and deal with the incredible amount of paperwork, and the kids have interjected with their view on the colour of their lunch plate and what the squirrel is doing in the garden. Asim is clearly listening to our conversations though: when trying to teach him ‘c is for cat’, he said ‘yes, and added ‘and ‘c’ is for car insurance’. I was so convinced I had misheard, I had to get him to repeat it.

The children have been affected by some early tangible signs, such as the medical they were all required to have to declare them free of mental and physical defects (amazingly, everyone passed!) and the numerous visits to the vaccination nurse. Surprisingly, the oral cholera vaccine has been a huge success, with the kids literally begging for more – if only they were that positive about some of the meals I cook! They also had to swap their clothes about between themselves so they would comply with the clothing requirements for the new stringent passport photograph laws; and Amaani was most put out to be told she could not chew apricots and be photographed at the same time.

The pre-school children have not been exactly an asset to the house moving process despite – or probably because of- their keenness to get fully involved in every activity. However they certainly inject a lighter note into the whole event – for example, while I made sure everyone (including myself) had a final dental check up, Amaani stood on the button that whizzes the dentist chair down to the floor and was amazed (and rather delighted) to see her mother suddenly so much nearer her eye-level. They have also enjoyed getting to know the succession of people who have come to the house to carry out various key jobs like gas checks, asking them all kinds of intrusive and inappropriate questions.

The children are each making preparations in their own ways. Amaani is preparing to be nappy-free in South Africa through a series of experiments in the UK, which have met with rather mixed results. Asim is preparing the seating plan for our family on the aeroplane and carrying his torch around everywhere in case we need it in South Africa. (I am not sure why he thinks it will be so dark there, I really must talk to him about this…). And Safiyya has painstakingly prepared a note for each of her friends explaining how desperately she will miss that person.

This leaving process has made me realise how much of a community our neighbourhood is. Many people here do not have much family support around, and so a network has sprung up to offer each other as much support and friendship as possible, comprising mothers with young children from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. Lots of local people are bravely volunteering to look after and feed a selection of our children for varying lengths of time while I try to make arrangements. One local Muslim woman has dropped off meals to our home; a Christian neighbour prepared and packed up a complete roast dinner for us. One day, somebody just knocked on the door and dropped off a chocolate cake. Moving certainly has its perks!

Leaving has also made me savour the moments of freedom with the children that will probably be difficult to replicate in Johannesburg due to the security issues there– in our UK town, we can have the car windows fully open with the kids relishing the fresh breeze without fear of being harrassed; the children can spill out happily into the public playground after the end of the Fitra Muslim after-school club session; we can make family trips into the local woods for the children to build dens; and I can walk to school with the kids running a little way ahead on the public footpaths. I am sure there will be unique positive experiences in Johannesburg too, I just have little idea what is in store! I do know that the children will all be learning the Zulu language once they start school, which will be interesting, although I may get a little suspicious if they start to chat away in Zulu in front of me, particularly if they realise I am unlikely to understand what they are saying.

And so soon we are off to get to know an entirely new community and culture, with nothing but Asim’s seating plan, a torch, and lots of prayers to the God of all of us to assist us in our journey.

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