Last night we met John Gilmore (Founder of LEAP) for dinner at the Thunder Gun restaurant right next to a place called the Pleasure Dome (I thought this sounded a bit like a bad Mel Gibson movie). The restaurant was pretty much a meat house – and once again Marc had the most interesting gastronomic experience, having order a rack of ribs. What the waiter came out with was a humongous platter of meat -- we were waiting for the rest of the cow to walk in. It looked more disgusting than it really was though, since it was ribs and there was a lot of bone and space underneath what looked like a solid slab of meat. After a nice dinner with John, we all went to our respective homestays. It was fairly late by the time we got to the apartment so I just went to bed.
In the morning Faith and I had a great conversation about her story and the current state of things in SA and Africa in general.
Faith and her cousin Xolile are both from Zimbabwe, having fled a country where the government has mishandled its resources and there is little food and few jobs. This is the same country where whites were forced to give up their farms and flee a few years back– but Faith says unfortunately the land was mishandled so that there is no longer a viable agricultural industry and people therefore go hungry. However, the government did do a good job of educating its people, so there is a large population of qualified workers in Zim but no jobs, so they are fleeing to find work. Faith has left behind her 6 year old son – only able to get back to see him every other month or so. I can’t imagine how difficult this must be. She must be an incredibly strong woman to be able to make such a sacrifice. She plans to bring him out to be with her in about a month, but is also worried about the xenophobia and the inadequate school system in SA.
The rest of the day was spent with various things: meetings, planning, teaching one class. I think I’ve narrowed the focus of the project -- education for girls, and how that can help to alleviate some of the issues that women and the larger communities are facing. So we will talk about the importance of education and then help students make the connection to why education for girls helps eliminate poverty, HIV, some violence, children’s health, etc.
Some observations: SA TV is really interesting because there are many soap operas on at night (called “soapies”) and characters on the shows (or at least one I saw) will use 4-5 languages interchangeably, often changing languages in the middle of the sentence and/or there will be English subtitles, even when the characters are speaking English.
Day 23 – Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Today I taught two of Orel’s classes, running a writing workshop for their poem, which went pretty well. It’s fun seeing the creative side of them come out – and they are so creative. At lunch, John (with a little help from Marc and me) ran the staff meeting and it went so well. The best staff meeting we’ve had. He started out with appreciations, which started out slow but then picked up until when John decided to move on, he was interrupted by Trevor who also wanted to offer an appreciation. This set such a positive tone for the meeting, and it continued that way as John had everyone reflect about a significant moment they had with a teacher, either positive or negative – which got everyone in the mindset of recognizing the impact that teachers have on their students, not just academically, but socially and emotionally as well – which was the perfect lead into a discussion about teaching practice, and how we can help each other to improve our practice through collegial coaching. John and I had worked together to make a collegial coaching document that he then passed out and went over. He did such a great job of setting the tone, starting the reflection , and then moving into collegial coaching.
After the meeting I had a really long and wonderful conversation with Lebogang (one of the students from my poetry workshop a few weeks back)– just about stuff in general, poetry in particular. I had watched the soapies Generations and Foreplay the previous night so we compared notes on that and then we talked about what a talented poet she is and how she should continue writing. She shared a few more poems with me, which were wonderful, and then she told me how her grandmother used to tell her stories – I would love to sit down with her with a video camera and capture some of those stories. As we were talking Nomkhitha showed up and joined in the conversation and after Lebo left, Nomkhitha and I continued talking. She also shared some poetry with me which I won’t soon forget. One poem in particular was called “I forgive you” and it was written to the father she has never known – it talked about the milestones he had missed and the abandonment she felt, but always ending with “but I forgive you.” I had to work hard not to cry. She shared some other ones with me as well – she was so sweet – she would tell me about a poem she had written and then ask, “Would you like to hear it?” Which of course I was eager to—and told her so, told her any time she wanted to share a poem with me I would love it. I also told her I would help her make a book of her poems – if she typed them up, I would submit them to blurb and help to make her a book. And I will.
The evening spent at Faith’s house this evening was so fun. Xolile had invited an old college friend, a IT guy and entrepreneur named Ace who was so funny and charming. We started talking about custard and how good it was (Xolile had made it for dessert) and then started talking about all kinds of desserts and that was it – we somehow were all laughing and joking, I don’t even remember about what, but everything was hilarious at this point and it all seemed to come back to Xolile, her love of fresh cream, how she put it on everything, even spinach.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
I taught Orel’s class again today but I don’t feel so good about how it went. I’m trying to figure out if I was unclear in my explanations or if they just weren’t paying attention. I think I will have them repeat the instructions before I let them loose next time just to make sure things are clear, though I’m realizing that they weren’t quite clear in my own mind, so I need to work on that as well, to take the time to walk through the lesson and anticipate confusion before I walk into class.
The night at Faith’s was very relaxing and girlie – we watched a movie called “Where the heart is” for “Chick-flick Thursdays” on one of the stations. Their new couch was delivered that evening, so we all flopped on the couch and ooohed and aawwed and clicked our tongues in sympathy or disgust as we watched the movie. I’m sad that this is my last night with these two wonderful women. I feel like I gained two new sisters. They were so funny because I asked at one point if I could get the butter out of the fridge and Xolile said, “Stop acting like you’re a guest – you’re part of the family” to which I replied, “Well then you need to let me help more” (I’ve been helping to dry the dishes but that’s all they let me do). I will miss Xolile’s cooking too– she and Faith truly spoiled me.
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