Mural Making At Thelelulwazi Creche

Diane Schnoor
Sep 17
6 min read

I'm going to be sharing excerpts from the experience in South Africa with CBCC (Children's Book Creators for Conservation) and Wild Tomorrow for weeks to come. For this post, journey through a day that included snare patrols, mural making and read alouds at a Zululand creche or preschool, and an evening commute with giraffes and zebras.

Snare Patrol With The Rangers

We started the day bright and early on snare patrol with the Wild Tomorrow Rangers. The morning commute was amazing, with hippo tracks in the sand outside our rooms (makes me a bit more cautious venturing out at night for my kitchen mouse runs). Our guide, Paul, pointed out fascinating things on the morning commute, including Zebra tracks on the dirt path, a purple crested turaco with a gorgeous crest and red tipped wings, the trumpeted hornbill (think Zazu in The Lion King), and a brown headed kingfisher. There is a row of beehives along the fence in the sand forest. The beehives serve a role as a secondary bio barrier to elephants (elephants don't like bees). The hope is eventually to open the entire corridor so that elephants can make their way to the ocean for the first time in more than a century. We also saw white breasted cormorants, which have an even more interesting commute than ours. They roost in the river we drove over, but commute daily to the lakes to feed before coming home to the river to sleep.

Working with the rangers was humbling and no joke. At least 3 times a week, they patrol the lands along different parts of the Wild Tomorrow corridor, searching for and disabling snares. Why snares? Often, people are looking to catch food or try to snag a leopard (you can get up to 20000 Rand for a pelt), but the snares often grab and injure other animals. I suspect there are many gradations of need and greed along the spectrum of poaching, from those who do it to feed their families to those who wantonly take life and kill the entire animal (rhinos for instance) for big payouts. The Rangers make their way with machetes along paths that can hardly be called paths, looking for evidence of human tampering. We crouched low to avoid thorns, making our way through narrow passages, following the faintest of trails through the bush. The trees in the deep bush are alive. At first it felt faintly sinister and threatening, vines crowding in on all sides, not being sure of where to put your feet, feeling that snakes might be just out of your peripheral vision. At one point when we stood still waiting for the others to join us, I looked down and the vines had twisted around my boot, as if the forest was sending out warnings. And yet, as I breathed with the forest, I felt it easing and letting down its suspicious guard (or perhaps that was me becoming more comfortable in unfamiliar surroundings). I relaxed and began to notice the signs of friendly life all around, the birds calling in the trees above, the light breezes, the warmth of the day. Our duck walking and path following lasted less than 45 minutes as we lacked the knees and stamina to keep up with the rangers who keep the land poacher free to allow nature to do its rewilding.

We walked back to the ranger vehicle through the river path. I keep pinching myself that I'm in South Africa and having these experiences. We heard (and briefly saw) the Twinkle Toe Bird (a blue waxbill -- has bright yellow breast, an iridescent green back, and a long bill), a flamingo on the edge of the field, blue commelina flowers (look a little like ink blue mouse ears with two larger petals and one smaller petal, can be an invasive weed, sometimes used for medicinal treatments for infertility, high blood pressure, and skin irritations), crested guinea fowl snuffling along the path (they make the funniest squawking noises), and eagle pairs hunting along the river. We also saw a baby nyala (probably born yesterday) leaping through the open grasslands with its mom.

Read Alouds and the Impact of Early Childhood Education

The afternoon was the kind of day I love. We visited the Thelelulwazi Creche (a preschool that WIld Tomorrow supports). It's two cinderblock buildings and a donated playground serving kids between the ages of 2 and 5. The authors read their books to the kids and Aphiwe and Jenny interpreted in isizulu. The children laughed and engaged, chanting Pangolin when Hayley Rocco read her book. The storytelling interpretations were engaging and captivating. It reminded me that education is less about the resources or the curriculum, it's about the connections we build between teacher, learning, and engagement. Perhaps that should be the real focus for teacher colleges, how to trust yourself to build connections and engagement, to observe closely, to offer play invitations, and to cultivate opportunities to build empathy, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and real world connections.

A fun side note for the day -- soccer is a universal language. A little boy approached me with a mostly inflated soccer ball and we started passing the ball back and forth to each other. Before long another little boy and girl joined us with so many peals of laughter. I was completely in my happy place. Later in the day, older children arrived from primary school. John explained the STEM connection of creating a mural, the gridding that happens once the design is made and the way the artists use math to transfer the design from paper to wall. One of the girls, Londi, watched quietly from the steps as I painted light green highlight swirls into the grass in the corner of the wall. I invited her to help me and we finished our corner of the mural together. We then sat on the steps and I read Juana, Kayla, and Brenda's books with her. She was so excited about Zunia's rainforest, especially when I pointed out the author/illustrator on a ladder painting the rhinoceros. I introduced her to Juana, then asked if she wanted to meet the other authors. Leah Henderson graciously read her book, The Courage of the Little Hummingbird, to Londi, whose eyes were wide with wonder. It was a magical moment where story, timing, and experience connected.

What Do You Get When You Take 4 Talented Illustrators and a Host of Willing Writers? A Magical Mural

Making Mural Magic

How many murals in the world have been created by 3 Caldecott medalists (and an illustrator I'm convinced is a future medalist)? My guess is none. Juana Martinez-Neal, Molly Idle, John Rocco, and Kayla Harren collaborated to plan the design for the side wall of the creche (a whimsical mom and baby rhino). They outlined it and did the major artistic work, creating opportunities for the rest of us to add whimsy with circles and grasses, and dots. While they were prepping the mural, we discovered how many writers it takes to put together a five stack shelf with directions worse than Ikea's (the answer is four -- Leah, Ann, Diane, and Brenda). Under Molly's guidance, Hayley, Meg, Leah, Ann, Brenda, and Diane helped paint the tall giraffes and trees that surround the tall shelf we built and will eventually frame a bookshelf to house all of the books the authors and illustrators dontated).

Many hands make light work. We finished the mural in just under four hours, which was something no one anticipated. Paul treated us to a surprise late afternoon game drive around the Wild Tomorrow reserve, where we found giraffes, zebra, nyala, and a female kudu in the late golden light.

We went back to the creche yesterday so that the illustrators could do finishing touchups and lettering to the mural. We all pitched in to paint the playground in vibrant colors. The squeals and delight of the kids at the art brightening the creche made the hard work feel fulfilling and worth it. The care, compassion, and connection of the teachers and staff at the creche reminded me yet again why we need to cherish and honor those women and men who labor daily to provide safe, nurturing, and enriching environments for our youngest learners. So much rich learning and growth happens in the first five years -- anything we can do to support that growth, as family members, teachers, community, and yes, authors and illustrators, helps to nurture a more empathetic generation ready to solve problems and embrace possibilities.