I’m not six years old anymore, but I still do six-year-old things. Recently, I walked along a seaside road on vacation and came upon a tree swing. I reminded myself that no one in the area knew me and then went for a swing, grateful for an unexpected Whee! in the day. I still throw the occasional “When I grow up…” into conversation, though mainly just to test whether a friend is listening. (Usually, it seems, he isn’t.) This morning, I had a problem getting dressed. My t-shirt was wrong. It’s not that it was inside out or that my head was sticking out of an armhole; rather, I put on the wrong one. I’d reached for one of my plain blue tees and it was only after poking my head and arms through the proper spots that I realized I’d pulled on my Super Grover shirt.
I do like my Super Grover shirt. Generally, however, I refrain from going out in public while wearing it.[1] One time I wore it to a café and someone said, “Your Elmo looks sick.” Yeah, yeah, blue in the face. Got it. But not amused. Elmo is no Grover. Elmo gets the giggles; Super Grover is on a lifelong mission to save children. Most of the time though, people just look at me weirdly, as if a Muppet-loving man should viewed with more concern than someone donning a MAGA hat.
Today, I decided not to correct my wardrobe mistake. I’ve already stepped out twice while sporting SG and any looks of consternation are masked by, well, masks. (Sometimes there’s a cup half full side to COVID.) More to the point, Super Grover is pushing me to write a Muppet post for the blog, one that, despite this lengthy foreword, has nothing to do with the furry blue monster.
I’m forever clipping articles, filing them away as future writing ideas or letting them add to my desk clutter, such as is the case for a yellowing New York Times article I’d cut out from December 20, 2020. The title is “Sesame Street Creates Two Rohingya Muppets” which, at first glance, puzzled me when I noticed it again last weekend. I saved this article because…? I confess I couldn’t even recall what Rohingya Muppets represented.[2] The reason I’d saved the article, however, was highlighted in yellow by me at the bottom of the second column: “The Sesame Workshop has long sought to champion diversity and social justice.” The next sentence mentioned, inter alia, that there was a Muppet with H.I.V. Clearly, I was intrigued, but it’s taken me this long to give it a Google.
First appearing in 2002 at a time when one of out nine people in South Africa was HIV+, the yellow muppet with golden hair is Kami, a five-year-old who became HIV+ after a blood transfusion when she was an infant. Her name comes from the word kamogelo which means acceptance or “a welcoming” in the Bantu language Setswana, spoken by eight million people in Southern Africa. We are told that her mother died of AIDS as well. Kami appears on Takalani Sesame which is the South African version of Sesame Street. Here’s a video about Kami which doesn’t mention HIV but focuses on her interests as a child and here’s one with her talking to Archbishop Desmond Tutu about heroes and HIV. That’s probably plenty to familiarize yourself with Kami but, as a bonus, you can watch this clip if you wish to see her getting ready to attend an HIV street party.
While certain American politicians get in a tizzy over Muppets teaching understanding and compassion for a diverse population, Kami is doing her own super-heroic deeds by just being a regular Muppet to South African viewers.
Had I known, I’d have gotten a Kami t-shirt for Superhero Day. I’d like to think Super Grover would have approved.
[1] The background on my SG tee: I used to be an elementary school principal. The student council liked to have “spirit days” throughout the year (e.g., sports jersey day, future career day) and they announced an upcoming Superhero Day. Ugh. As a clearly “cool” principal, known for his colorful Converse shoe collection and his annual Yellow Crayola costume worn every Halloween, I knew I had to partake in Superhero Day. Still, I have never understood, much less been invested in any super-hyped superhero. Ironman, Aquaman, Jolly Green Giant…all yawners. Robin’s recent outing is too little, too late for me. I fretted about who to be for a week before Super Grover saved the day. I went to a t-shirt company and had them custom design my shirt, copyright be damned. When I wore it on the big day, half the kids asked, “Why do you have Elmo on your shirt?” while the others were too busy bouncing off the walls, thinking they really were Spiderman. (About three kids got it: “Yes! Super Grover!” Forty bucks on a t-shirt well spent.) Now I have this silly shirt that’s basically banished to my closet.
[2] The two Muppets, twins named Noor and Aziz, are portrayed as living in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, having escaped from the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. In 2017, 750,000 Rohingya fled the country. The characters speak Rohingya and are used to support Sesame Workshop’s early education curriculum in the camps. Okay, cool.
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