Monday
I’m learning that teaching about women and the importance of women’s education isn’t as easy/straightforward as it is in the States. During class, one of the boys was resistant and challenged the idea that educating women could lead to healthier communities. He seemed to think that men had taken care of it (perhaps referring to doctors?) and that women really didn’t contribute to a healthy community. So I tried, though Orel was more successful, at getting him to breakdown the argument and the topic, asking questions that helped him to see the role of women in a community (most often the caregivers) and how being educated could be helpful in keeping families and neighbors healthy. Later Sarah and I had an interesting conversation with Orel about the obstacles regarding men seeing women as partners/equals in many communities…that the psychological damage of apartheid creates an insecurity or a victim mentality that prevents men from supporting or accepting women as primary bread-earners or leaders in the community. If I heard Orel correctly, men often respond by either shutting down and doing nothing to support their family (if they can’t support them financially) or responding in an arrogant or violent or aggressive manner

Tuesday
Today Margery and Larry, founders of TWA came to the school to visit and sat in on my class. I always get nervous when I have visitors in my room and today was no exception. The class went well though as I was using a new graphic organizer for the essay that they’re writing and it really helped structure the class, though when I’m nervous I stumble over my words a bit. Later, we had a meeting with them about the future of TWA, some of the things they’re interested in developing, and their/our impressions about this experience.

Wednesday
Today I taught Orel’s 10.2 classes because he went home sick. We’re still working on the woman’s day celebration, especially the discussion panel – I’m an optimist so I think everything will come together, but so far we only have Bless and Mapulang as confirmed panelists, though hopefully Googoo will jump in and maybe one or two others. It wouldn’t be a very good panel if there were only 3 people.
Horrible, horrible news. Our little Olive, the little car who wanted to be a safari car, died yesterday while taking Margery and Larry back to their hotel. Poor little Olive – we never had a chance to say goodbye or even get a good picture with her. Sara was pretty quick to get a younger model, a flashy red (named Ruby) and didn’t seem upset in the least. Such callousness. I on the other hand am in mourning – I’m looking for a black armband I can wear. She was a good little car and did right by us. She made sure we got home safely on more than one occasion. She will be missed.

Thursday
More adjustments. Bless cancelled on us so it looks like we won’t be having a panel. But the program still looks pretty decent – though I need the internet to work if we’re going to pull this off and it’s been really spotty and slow lately. Instead of a panel discussion, we decided to print out some short biographies of women who have made an impact –I was able to find a website that listed about many women who had made significant contributions, though they were all from the US, so I searched a little more and found a few SA women that we could mention as well. Sara and I went shopping for the event tomorrow – muffins for the tea and sandwich supplies for the lunch. We had the kids practice their contributions during the second half of our block and they did well – as much as things have fallen through, these kids will make it something special – two different dance performances, two different choirs, poetry, biographies, and perhaps a discussion about how women are portrayed in the media.
Tonight we went to Ingrid’s house for dinner…it was one of the highlights of the trip for me. First we went to a yoga class she was teaching and then to her house for dinner. She has two beautiful daughters, Kate and Emma, and a wonderful, funny husband, Evan, and a dachshund, Honey, who John fell in love with and who wouldn’t leave his side. We had such a lovely time talking, laughing, eating, drinking.

Friday
Today we had our Women’s Day Celebration, and as might be expected, the kids did a wonderful job! The kids had been given invitations so that they could invite a special woman in their life to attend – mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, etc… there are kids at the school who have lost their mothers so we wanted to make sure that we didn’t limit the invitation to just mothers. We had about 12-15 women show up, which was wonderful. They had to wait a little as we got things together but we had tea/muffins for them as they waited. Once the program started though, I think everyone had fun – all the kids displayed their poems on a classroom window and Lebogang, Wisani, Mapule, Nomkhita, Rethabile, Tshepo (the other one) and few other students read their poems. Lebogang and Wisani were the MC’s and did a wonderful job of introducing, thanking, commenting on the presentations.

Mapuleng started the day with a wonderful explanation and reflection on Women’s Day, sharing the history and importance of standing up for what you believe in. She spoke of the bravery of the women who protested the requirement of carrying papers and the bravery of women who continue to fight against injustice and for what they believe in. She got choked up a few times, which of course choked me up as well.


The choir sang two songs, Mongezi and Johannes did a hip hop dance, the gumboots dancers performed, staff read about famous women from SA and the US, and later we had meat and cheese sandwiches. It was a wonderful celebration -- I was so proud of them – they were all so supportive and encouraging of each other – there was a lot of laughter and snapping and clapping.

Orel gave me a hug afterward and said it was a very nice day and that he was proud of me. That meant so much!
The only bummer came at the end when a group of visitors came who were potential donors…they came late, right at the end, and so the kids were expected to re-perform some of their stuff – gumboots and singing – I felt like like a really genuine event had turned into a show. Of course it’s wonderful that there are people who want to support the work of the school so I shouldn’t gripe, but I wish they had come during the actual performance so that it didn’t seem so contrived.


One of the highlights of the day came after the program when all of a sudden about a dozen boys ran to the pool, led of course by John, and jumped in -- though they just as quickly jumped out again because the water was so cold! But then they jumped back in again just as quickly, doing flips, whooping it up, laughing, and just having a wonderful time.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget that image. A couple of the boys didn’t have shorts to wear so John told them they could go up and borrow some of his shorts to wear – but when they came down, they were wearing John’s underwear!

This reminds me of something Jeanette said during the celebration. She was sharing about the accomplishments of Maya Angelou and mentioned something she had once said: "people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." It was obvious from watching those boys that they will never forget how John made them feel....what a special moment.
The matric dance was held at a very nice hotel conference room, with several courses of food, a DJ, and some really heartfelt speeches given by Mapuleng, Jeanette, and a few students. The learners all looked so beautiful and grown-up. It was a beautiful evening