Our last week -- tearful goodbye's

"Don't be sad...just be thankful that we met" said by the wise-beyond-his-years Sydney


Some of the 10.2's and me

Tuesday
Taught the 10.2's again today – I realized on Friday that their exposure to essay writing is so limited – nonexistent really – and that I needed to back up and explain concepts more thoroughly and demonstrate what a body paragraph is. So I wrote a thesis statement on the board about how during my visit to SA I have met many kind, generous people and have had many interesting experiences, and then we brainstormed together to provide specific details. I also explained that this kind of essay was kinda like having a conversation or debate with someone about their topic. By the end of the class I felt pretty good about their level of understanding. I guess the difficulty comes in that they are so used to just writing stories – creative writing is how they are assessed in their tests which I think is not very helpful – it would seem that persuasive writing would develop the critical thinking skills that are so important to getting through life.

Tonight we changed our plans from having a barbeque with our musician friends (it’s really cold and windy so we thought it wouldn’t be much fun) to meeting them at Ko’spatong – but when we got there it was shut down (permanently?) so we went next door to Sophiatown. Tolo, Carla (Ruby), Tsepo, Gugu, Nagana, and Thubi, met us there, and we had such a wonderful time just hanging out with all of them. It was hard to say goodbye to them. They are such wonderful, creative, inspiring people – like I’ve never known before, and I’ll miss seeing them. Marc got all of their contact info though, so hopefully we can be facebook friends or email each other or something. I was able to talk for a while with Tsepo – who I had met briefly before but never had a chance to talk to, and he is such a sweetheart of a guy. Very thoughtful, articulate, kind, smart…and getting ready to raise some chickens on a farm he has about an hour outside of Joberg – so we talked about that for a little bit and promised to stay in contact. Hopefully we will see them all again someday, either here or over in the states…I just can’t accept that these people were brought into my life and then that’s it…
By the end of the evening, I was losing my voice – not sure why, but it was pretty much gone by the time we got home.

Wednesday
Did a very simple workshop with the kids on their essay. It’s taking quite a bit longer than I had anticipated because, as I've said, I’m having to explain everything about essay writing to them and I’m used to teaching students who have at least a basic understanding of an essay…it’s a good exercise for me! I was very happy with their work – they stayed focused and said at the end of class that it was helpful. My voice was completely shot at this point so I was having to get students to "translate" for me. I had thought I would see them later in the day so that we could continue our workshop, but the 10 and 11s went to various science field trips so I didn’t get to see them after all. This is a common occurrence and I would imagine a source of frustration for teachers here. It’s wonderful that there are so many opportunities for the students, but it’s often not communicated in a timely way – and as confusing as their schedule is anyway, this just adds to it. It’s difficult to plan and keep a project going when you never know when the students will be sent off somewhere else.
At lunch was our last staff meeting, where I worry that I may have inadvertently offended some of the staff– John and Marc shared their “what worked well, what didn’t” thoughts and I was last – I said something about how my experience was very different that John and Marc’s – that I had come into a very strong English Dept – which seems to be implying that the math science dept wasn’t strong – and that certainly wasn’t my intention. There are more new teachers in the math/science dept, and more teachers who haven’t been exposed to a more creative, project-based approach, as opposed to the more experienced, already creative English Dept, but they certainly aren't "weak" and care so deeply about their students. At the end of my sharing I complimented all the teachers for being so open to trying new things…so hopefully no one took my earlier comments in a negative way but I worry nonetheless. I hate when that happens -- and most often happens when I'm tired...
I’m so proud of Marc and John for the impact they’ve made on the kids and the school – I struggle with not being too hard on myself as I know my impact wasn’t nearly as much, though I learned a lot and enjoyed my time tremendously. Afterward, I had a nice conversation with Ingrid about possible projects we might do together, having students share stories, letters, etc. She said she would be my “person.” I love her!! After the meeting, I was free for the afternoon and was planning to nap and pack, but Ingrid came up back upstairs and invited me to go with her for ice cream for her daughter Kate's birthday. She also noticed that Sarah B wasn’t feeling so well, so she invited her over to her house to take a long bubble bath, which of course Sarah jumped at. So we picked up Kate, stopped by Ingrid’s house to pick up Emma and get Sarah situated, and then headed to a nearby tea house for coffee and cake instead, since it was still pretty cold and ice cream didn’t seem like a good idea for any of us. We had such a nice time chatting, sharing stories, and learning more about each others' lives. We got back to the apartment around 5 and then hung out there until it was time to go to Mapuleng’s house for dinner.

We arrived at around 7:30, had a wonderful time talking with 8 of us cozily sitting on her couch with a picture of Nelson Mandela smiling down on us. It made for a wonderful "family" photo later in the evening (Marc and I have been adopted as "cousins")which I will share as soon as I get a copy. Baki was sharing with us about his training at Old Mutual and how he has to cold-call people to try to sell insurance –sounds like it would be boring, but talking with Baki about anything at all is fun -- he has the most wonderful, contagious laugh!!! Kamo and Baki also shared some of SA history with us – I've learned a lot but realize that there is so much I don’t know! (For example, I had no idea that Liberia was basically started because freed American slaves were given land) A little later, we watched the Ghana/SA game (Bafana v Bagana they called it) where Bafana (surprisingly) won. We finally ate at around 9:30 – but it was definitely worth the wait!! John talked about what a wonderful cook Mapuleng was and he was so right! Pup, meat, veggies (lots of them), rolls, potato salad…it was a feast! We finally got home around 11:30. I’m exhausted. I’ve never had so little sleep for such a long time. I’ve been averaging 6 -6.5 hours a night for what seems like weeks. I’m hoping I sleep well on the plane.

Thursday
Woke up for the last time in this great little apartment. While I was getting ready, sweet little Kevin came in and delivered hand-written notes for all of us. Today is going to be ROUGH…I had to fight not to cry when I read that – I figure once I start I won’t be able to stop, so I’m trying to postpone it for as long as I can…
After lunch, we had a community meeting with the whole school, which was basically a farewell for us. Two students led the meeting, presenting us with cards, presents, songs. We were called up to the front and asked to share a few words. Marc went first and was so sweet and articulate about what this time has meant to us all. He got a little choked up at the end, which of course got everyone crying. John was next and was just as sweet and sincere in his comments -- and he also got choked up, and then it was my turn…I couldn’t even speak for a few minutes…I just had to stand there and compose myself. I was finally able to squeek out a few words about how full my heart was, how grateful we were for the love and kindness they had shown us, and how much we would miss them. After that, there was more singing; Pilate told me that the song was especially for us and that it was saying, “we’ve lost something, but we will search the whole world…” (or something like that).

Next sweet little Nomkhitha got up and read a poem. She started by saying that I had encouraged her to write again, that she had stopped writing and that now she was writing again and she’d written a poem for us. I honestly have no idea what the poem was about since I was a wreck at this point and trying so hard not to openly sob that I couldn’t focus on what she was saying.

I was able to compose myself after a little bit, but after the last song (the LEAP school song), Wisani sat down next to me and read me a poem that he had written for me. It started like this: “This American woman with an African soul…” Well, you can imagine what happened next…I put my face in my hands and DID openly sob. And then Nomkhitha came up and shared another poem she had written for me with the refrain “Every child is my child…” These were seriously the most beautiful poems I’ve ever heard in my life. I’ve never been so moved and I’ll never forget these special moments with these wonderful students. I cry again, even as I write this.

About an hour later, we were packed and ready to head to the train station, which would take us to the airport.

The school was let out ½ hour early, and we rode on the bus along with the entire school to the train station.

Once there, the students stood outside and sang to us for about ½ hour with such joy and gratitude – dancing as they sang– I tried so hard to memorize every face in that group – Orel in the very back dancing and singing, Sarah over to the side, Nomkhitha in the front looking at me so seriously, Wisani, Lebogang, Sophia, Neo, Revelation, Chantal, Bradley, Shane, Mapule, Pleasure, Tabiso, Lerato, Pilate, Samkelo, Rorisang, Ayanda, etc, etc…When they were done singing, I walked over to give Nomkhitha and Wisani one last hug, but even as I was walking over to them, the students were rushing toward all of us, giving us hugs and saying thank you and don’t forget us. As if we could ever forget them...




A few more pictures...

Orel


The amazing Sara K

The Weekend -- hanging around Joberg

Saturday
Breakfast – Well, we’re getting down to it – just a few days left to empty the refrigerator, so I made a big egg bake and tried to get as much in there as I could – used all but five of the eggs, figuring I’d make another egg dish on Sun/Mon. After a little while, John and I took a chance and ventured out of the "compound," walking along the road to look for a license plate he had seen propped up along the side of the road. We walked for quite a while, almost to the Koi pond place, and then turned around without seeing the license plate, but on the way back he spotted it propped up next to a tree. It was just nice to get out and go for a long walk, talk, look at the houses, trees, birds, horses, said hi to some people walking by, one older man looking very dapper in his suit and briefcase. Once we got back, we all went out to the field and kicked goals with the deflated soccer balls that were available, Marc and John tried for the header goal, but not very successfully.
John had been in touch with his cousin Stephanie from France who had been in SA for an internship for her Phd in marine ecology. She’d been in Cape Town for 5 months – and was on her way back to France, stopping in Joberg just for the night, so we met her in Melville for dinner and drinks. We went to the Lucky Bean for dinner (the same place we’d seen Thubi play a few weeks earlier). It was such a nice dinner, with such a great group of people and John was nice enough to sneak over and pay the dinner/drinks bill without us knowing. Thubi was teaching us all about some of the tribal traditions and dances, and Sarah K made up her own little monkey dance, which included (obviously) a feces throwing part. Later we went to the same bar we’d watched the Guana game at, drank, danced,and ate pastries that Marc and Thubi had walked over to get at a nearby pastry shop. Included in the pastries were éclairs, which Stephanie just about fainted over, she was so excited. They weren’t anywhere near as good as the ones in Paris, but at least we could imagine…

Sunday
Sunday morning we got up and moseyed over to Sarah’s at about 10:00 to go to the African Market at the top of a mall in Joberg. It was like a combination open-air market/swap meet/antique road-show/farmers market, with crafts, food, performances, antiques...row after row. We'd learned after our trip to Durbin that the "unique" and "hand-crafted" items that we thought we'd never see again were everywhere! This market was no exception, though there were a few new additions, like some clothing, food, breads/cheeses, and even a booth selling not-so-good Mexican food (according to Sarah, who tried one of their burritos). I wandered around for a while, found the elephant hair bracelets I’d been looking for and some recycled earrings, and then ran into John – so we walked around together for the rest of the time. He'd found a little bicycle made out of old soda cans that I loved, so we walked over and I got a green one that reminded me of the bike I rode in Davis. After a few hours at the market, we headed to Newtown because Sarah was meeting the musicians about her arts project. While she was meeting with them, we headed over to the Market Theater at what used to be a Moyo and had lunch. The rest of the day was very relaxing -- had the bread/cheese I’d bought at the market for dinner, went for a walk around the property, where I was bit by a spider (think it was in a blossomed branch I had broken off) and watched movies.


Monday
Got up this morning and finished off the eggs and anything else I could use for breakfast and then we headed to Newtown again.


We started off by looking for a coffee shop but had no luck so we headed over to the Museum of Africa, where we walked into an exhibit by a sculptor named Pitika Ntali – who I found to be so imaginative and creative.


He uses all types of media to sculpt with – the normal/ expected wood and stone, but then also bones and old machine parts.


The striking part of his sculptures is how he sees and brings out a human face in all of his sculptures. The bone sculptures are the most memorable for me – I’ve never heard of a person using bones to sculpt with. I tried to take pictures of the bone sculptures, but they just didn't come out. After that, we wandered around the museum but were shooed out since the museum part wasn’t open – there was actually a book fair that was going one and that was why the building was open. We were able to see just a little bit of an exhibit about gay/lesbian’s sharing their stories of living as a gay person in a society that is not accepting of that lifestyle.


Once we were done in the museum, we walked around, enjoying the street art that is everywhere in Newtown, still looking for a coffee shop, but still having no luck, so we ended up going to the restaurant right next to Ko’spatong called Sopiatown where we had some wonderful (compared to what we'd been drinking for the last 6 weeks) coffee, read the paper, listened to jazz, and ordered lunch. It was a nice way to spend the morning.


Next was Brightwater commons where John did a little skateboarding (making a young friend in the process and giving him some pointers on skateboarding), I did a little reading, and we went to a movie.

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

Pilanesberg "Safari" Weekend

After a late start, we (John,Marc, me and Mapulang, the LEAP principal and John's newly adopted mother) headed to Pilanesberg National Park, about 3 hours outside of Joberg, for about as close to a safari experience as we could afford. We drove the wonderful little Olive( a green, older model sedan), Sarah’s “rent-a-wreck,” and she was a trooper, putt-ing along with minimal shocks so that every bump or dip we went over we could feel in our butts – there were a few times that we thought we had left a part of her in the road behind us, but thankfully that never happened.

We finally arrived a little after 3, saw monkeys and baboons right away at the registration office, checked into our safari tents, and then walked over for a snack that turned into a pretty decent meal, and which of course took longer than I had hoped as I was anxious to see animals.

One thing I learned while sitting there, enjoying my meal is that monkeys like sugar…a bunch of them ran into the restaurant, stole a fistful or mouthful of sugar packets, and then sat on the wall or the roofs eating them, some ripping open the packets and trying to pour the sugar into their mouths or their hands, and some just eating the whole packet.

We finally made it to the entrance of the park at 5 and barely made it in before they closed the gates (the park closes at 6). We were able to see a few things before we were pushed out – first were zebras, which of course were amazing the first time we saw them, but became less interesting the more we saw them, some springbok, and then finally some elephants on the side of the road – two of whom were sparing and pushing each other into the road.
One of them got a little irritated with us – his ears let us know he was ready for us to go, so we did.
As we were driving in the park, a car waved at us to stop and when we did we realized it was Heather H from school and her husband Mike who had driven up to hang out with us for a little while. Once we left the park, we all met at the safari tents, built a nice little fire in the raised, smallish fire pits, dragging chairs and bedside tables around the fire so everyone had a place to sit, watched the guinea fowl and springbok wander around amongst the nearby trees and had a nice hour or so conversation. After that we headed over to the restaurant for our buffet dinner – it was pretty impressive – kabobs with all kinds of different meats, pup, veggies, potatoes, rolls, stir fry. John sneezed four times!(He has synesthesia -- which we renamed synesneezia -- he sneezes when he's full)
Sunday
We got up early so we could get into the park right when it opened. I’m trying to remember some of the highlights, but there were so many and they all blended together after a while, so I’ll just list them out as they come to me and in no particular order.

Giraffes. Saw a herd of giraffes by the road and watched as several of them crossed in front of us, one actually stopping as he was crossing and stood starring at us. We saw another giraffe by itself munching away on a tree and used the binos to really study him – his long black tongue, the shape of his neck, his tuft/mane, his markings. I must have spent a good 15-20 minutes just watching and being in awe of him. One of the highlights for me was watching that giraffe and also just watching them move – as big as they are, they are so graceful and fluid in their movements

Elephants. Saw a herd of elephants by the road, but one of them got pretty pissed and started going after a truck pulling a small trailer that was driving by, at which point the truck started trying to turn around, getting more and more panicky, ramming into its trailer, until it had finally turned around. We were about to turn around as well, but then the elephant moved off into the bush and we were able to pass. (Something new I noticed about myself -- I start laughing when I get nervous/scared.)
The birds! The birds were the most beautiful little birds I’ve ever seen! There was one red-breasted bird with black feathers called a Crimson-breasted Shrike that was so striking! But my favorite one was an almost neon/iridescently colored little bird called a Lilac-breasted Roller with the most beautiful colors on any animal I’ve ever seen – teal, crimson, yellow, green. On our way back, we saw a whole bunch of these guys flying around and feasting on bugs that a brush fire was churning up.

Rhinos – we saw a group of rhinos by the road along with a bunch of other cars, which was cool, but later that day when we were way out in the bush and seeing nothing, we stumbled upon two rhinos grazing right next to the road…We weren’t sure if it was a male/female or mother child pairing. We turned off the car and just sat and watched for a while until the bigger one got annoyed with us, turned toward us and stomped its foot. We got the message and left them in peace.
Leopard. As we were driving, I briefly saw a head pop us and asked John to stop and back up…sure enough it was a leopard hidden in the grass. We only saw it for a few seconds before it disappeared completely, but it was awesome nonetheless.
Hippos – we only saw these guys from a distance and they looked like rocks and perhaps could have been for all I knew, but John was sure they were hippos so I’ll take his word for it. That’s all I can say.

Wildebeests – these were much more beautiful and interesting than I had thought they would be. I don’t even have an appropriate adjective to describe them – Serious? Intimidating? Other-worldly? They kinda look like they’re all wearing masks as the longness of their faces seems disproportionate to the rest of them, and their bodies are kindof hunched and hulky. They’re just really interesting to watch…They were all over -- we had a herd pass right in front of and behind our car at one point

Warthogs – saw lots of “Pumbas.” They are such funny looking little things and though I know they’re aggressive and jerky, they were just funny-looking to me with their disproportionately long snouts, protruding horns and short little legs and feet.
Lions Sadly, we didn't see any. We learned later that there was an area of the park where they all hung out, but we didn't get there. I guess I'll have to save that for next time
We were making Mapulang nervous with our sitting on the window ledge and on top of the car to get a better look at some of the animals.
A lot of the road was paved, but many roads were just dirt and little Olive turned into an off-road vehicle. By the time we left the reserve, we and all our belongings were covered in dust – in our hair, our ears, nose, eyes, clothes, backpacks, fingernails…
We had planned to get on the road at around 1 so that we would have time to take Mapulang (which we learned means mother of the rain) home and get home to shower because we were going to a hip-hop/fashion show in Soweto, but we got started a little late since we were enjoying the scenery so much and then took a wrong turn, so we didn’t get home until around 6, which was when we supposed to pick Sarah up. After a quick turnaround, we were ready to go into Soweto. After a few more wrong turns, we made it to the venue – basically a clothes shop and parking lot that had been enclosed. We were the only white people there and receiving some stares, but thankfully having Thubi with us and with the arrival of Tolo and Phila, our circle didn’t look quite so out of place. The fashion show was either non-existent or had happened before we got there, but the music was great – though often in Zulu. I eventually got comfortable enough to move a little to the music, though trying not to move too much – I didn’t want to act too obviously “white” – but Thubi was nice enough to reassure me that as long as you’re moving, you’re a good dancer. What a great guy.

the work week -- planning for the Women's day celebration

Wednesday, July, 28, 2010
This morning I started the day filling in for Sarah – she was out with a stomach bug – sounds like there might be something going around! After that, I led a quick workshop on curriculum planning during the staff meeting. I had put together a handout (with John’s help) about the importance of planning and came up with 7 “C’s” (content familiarity, current information, coherence, connection, collaboration, creativity, classroom management—I was proud of the alliteration!) outlining the benefits of thorough planning, while acknowledging that it does take a little extra forethought and energy. The tricky part was that there are many teachers here who do plan well, so I didn’t want to insult their intelligence, or sound condescending, but perhaps just present it as a reminder or affirmation of their planning. And I also recognize that some of the teacher may feel that they plan sufficiently, but in reality, a lot of their planning is coming the day before or even just before class, so I just want to introduce the idea of planning at least a few days before their class (preferably a week), doing multiple levels of planning, and how good planning fosters creativity. There were a lot of other items that needed to be addressed during the meeting so I didn’t get to be as thorough as I would have liked and felt that I rushed the presentation, but we at least were able to talk together and reflect about this topic for a little while and hopefully it was helpful on some level. In the afternoon I met with Orel about the Woman’s Day project and celebration, and we started putting together what we want the program to look like.
Thursday, July 29, 2010

In the morning today I was given the opportunity to tag along with the 10th and 11th grades as they went to a career fair – I originally thought it was a college fair, and though there were a few colleges represented, most of the booths were about trade schools/careers – police, lab techs, etc.

It was a nice event, but I really wish there had been more emphasis on college. I guess it’s different here since the financial support isn’t as extensive as in the US – but it seems like it should still be a big part of the expectation.

The best part was just hanging out with the kids, on the bus and at the fair. We had gotten there a little early so we were put into a big auditorium as a waiting area and ate our snacks of apples and crispy bars. I had a great conversation with Tumi, one of the 10th grade girls in Orel’s class who is so bright and so sweet, about religion, what it’s like being a PK (her mom and dad are both pastors), and about life in general. We were there until lunch and then headed back

The afternoon was spent working on the Women’s day project. I met with Orel, Faith, and Sarah about what the day should look like, how to structure the research paper, etc. I really like how this is shaping up! We will hold the celebration on Saturday, Aug 7. and invite the student’s families to come and share in our celebration. The program includes a look at the contributions of women from the past, inspiring women and men of the present, and how education for girls is key to the future. Here’s how the program is looking right now : Choir, poetry, contributions by women, more poetry, inspiring women, more poetry, panel discussion about education (people from the community being invited to be on the panel), gumboots dance, choir. We also decided to have a potluck (sidenote: they don’t know the term “potluck” here – when I first mentioned it to Orel he gave me the funniest look –so I quickly explained the concept). We will also have a few booths set up, one to get interested parents to start some kind of a PTA and be more involved, and another to hopefully have info about continuing education opportunities for anyone interested. I spent the rest of the day planning for the project – creating topic ideas for their research papers, finding a good article that they can use for their paper.
Tonight we went to see Bucky (Mapolang’s son/John’s new brother) play in an indoor soccer game – for the gold medal of his league. This type of soccer is so much more interesting than regular soccer – much faster paced. It’s played in a huge gym divided into 4 netted off sections -- in two of the sections, soccer is played and in two of the sections indoor cricket is played. The teams are 3 on 3 with a goalie for each team (the goalie for the other team was a beast! He was huge, taking up most of the goal space, and fearless). Unfortunately Bucky’s team lost, so the mood was a little more subdued than it might have been, but we all went to the adjoining bar, had a few drinks, and the mood started to lift. I was so tired at this point, I don’t think I was much fun, though I did have a great conversation with Mapoolang’s other son Camo about South African literature and politics.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Here’s one thing I’ve learned from teaching – how to be flexible.
Orel and I had just talked to the 12th grade about the celebration, as it falls on the Saturday after the Matric Dance (the equivalent to our prom), so we wanted to see what their feelings were regarding whether or not they would be able to attend. The overwhelming response (as might be imagined) was that they would be too tired – that they would be up late, so we told them they did not have to attend, but they were more than welcome if they decided to. The words were barely out of our mouths, when Tabia told us that there had been a mix-up – that all of the 10th and 11th grade girls would be gone on that Saturday at a woman’s conference. That certainly took all of the air out of our little balloon! But we adjusted. We said we would move it to Friday morning, since the Matrics had the day off to prepare for their dance. But then Nialugwa said that the whole 11th grade would be gone at a science event that morning…so we just made it a 10th grade event. It changes a lot of what we had hoped to accomplish, but I think it will still be a nice event – if only for the 10th grade -- and maybe it can be built on for next year. We will still have a panel discussion, poetry reading, music – but no booths, dance, and maybe no sharing of women’s accomplishments since the 11th grade was going to be working on that. Perhaps we could get something together for that since it seems like an important message.
The rest of the day was spent adjusting, and I got to teach part of Orel’s class. The students chose their research topics and then they shared some of their poetry. I realized a few poems into it that most of the boys wrote poems about their girlfriends, really just looking for a reaction from the class. I talked to Orel about it later as I was trying to figure out how to address this, but I decided that I should just talk about the positive and respectful way they talked about their girlfriends and why it’s important to show respect and some of the qualities they admire and if it heads toward the physical, perhaps just challenge them on this a little, try to get them to see the person behind the physical part. I’ll think about this more and see what I can do next week.
We’re going to Pilansburg tomorrow for a little safari overnighter, though there was some back and forth on this leading up to today. Tubi was nice enough to invite us to attend a traditional African ceremony tomorrow and we initially jumped on it, thinking we could go to Pilansberg the following weekend, but they were sold out, and since this is the one big thing we all wanted to do, we decided to skip the ceremony and go to Pilansberg this weekend. We will spend the night in safari tents…I’m so excited!!

Cape Town and LEAP 1 and 2

Saturday, July 24, 2010
Cape Town – Got up early this morning to fly into Cape Town – it was beautiful even on the approach – so green with the mountains and ocean. We were picked up by the LEAP van and taken to the Beulah Lodge where John Gilmore met us and took us to LEAP for a quick tour …two very sweet learners gave us a very thorough tour. It was wonderful and yet difficult at the same time because we were so hungry, but this gave me an insight into what it must be like for those students who come to school hungry and how difficult it must be to concentrate on anything other than the fact that they are hungry, because toward the end, that was all I could concentrate on. LEAP 1 and 2 is much bigger with more students than LEAP 3. The school is housed in a three story building, with LEAP 1 on the first two floors and LEAP 2 on the third floor. The TWAs here are on a bonding weekend, at the farm, as they call it, so unfortunately we won’t get to see much of them until Monday.
After the LEAP tour, John could see that we were struggling a bit and was nice enough to take us to lunch and then up to where the penguins were. It’s really beautiful country here.

We spent an hour or so looking at the penguins, watching them swim and some of their other interesting behaviors – we watched two males vie for the attention of a female by walking in circles around her and then facing off with each other. Another interesting observation -- they bray like donkeys (they were called jackass penguins for a while because of this).

After we left the penguins, we went for a nice walk along a footpath and then up to the road, and walked to the bus station so that we could eventually catch a train up to Cape Town. I think the town was called Scott’s Bay? We stopped during our walk to have a cup of coffee and a milk shake at a really nice little place on the ocean, and then caught a bus to Kalk bai and then had a nice train ride along the coast until we got to Cape Town. Once in Cape Town we walked to Long Street (with the assistance of a very sweet young woman on the way to meet her husband at his work), where we had dinner at the Long Street Café. We had a great seat right by the window, in nice over sized leather chairs, so that we were very content eating, drinking, and people-watching for a good part of the evening. A little later we walked to a few different music venues – one of which was a great little duo playing 80’s/90’s music, so we stayed there for at an hour (maybe two), and had a great time singing along.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
We got up around 8, had a wonderful breakfast that Monica, one of the TWA fellows, had made and then headed over to Table Mountain to take the cable car to the top. We really lucked out as it was a spectacular day. We walked all the way to the other side, really taking our time and looking at the plants, bugs, birds, views, rocks, etc.
After Table Mountain (which took 3-4 hours) we went back to Cape Town and had a Falafel (my first and I loved it!), browsed some of the markets, and then headed back so that we could recover a little before we headed out for dinner.
Monday, July 26, 2010 – Cape Town
We got up, walked over for coffee, ran into TWA fellow Heather at the coffee place, and then headed over to LEAP. I was able to sit in on a few classes and had a few interesting conversations around teacher voice, planning, and LO. It’s interesting in seeing another model, to see how many things I take for granted – things I assume every school must do because I think they make sense, but that just goes to show how many different paths there are and how much we can learn from each other– and if I can share some of the lessons I learned along the way, then great! I know I’ve certainly learned a lot since I’ve been here!
While we were at the school, we watched as one by one, the TWA fellows turned an interesting shade of grey/green and then walked out the door back to the Beulah Lodge. Turns out their time at the farm had made them all sick – the guess was that it was the water. By the time we’d gotten back to the Lodge, almost everyone was sick, sick, sick. What a bummer…that’s the worst!
That afternoon, we were given a tour of the nearby township Langa – which is the township that LEAP originally served, and still does (LEAP stands for Langa Educational Assistance Program). We stayed in the van for most of the tour, which was different than our walking tour of Alex.

I was so impressed with the positive impact LEAP has made on the town – we saw trailers set up for after-school tutoring and in the town, LEAP was a well-known and respected institution.


Toward the end of the tour we stopped at a roadside stand where cooked sheep’s heads (called “smiley”) were being sold. John and Marc decided that they just couldn’t live another day without some of that, so the van pulled over and they bought a sheep’s head to share.

This poor vegetarian was coerced by my two “roomies” into trying just a tiny bite (of the tongue) – I figured I was in South Africa and when would I ever have a chance again, so I did it. It actually tasted pretty good -- if I didn’t think about what I was eating or focus on the texture. But I can safely say I will never ever have “smiley” again.
After school, we went to dinner with Sarah Diefendorf – seriously one of the coolest people I’ve met. She works at Dominican University in San Francisco but travels all over the world helping in various ways with environmental projects and education. We went to this great loungey place that John had found and stayed there for a while ordering all kinds of interesting drinks -- and then we went a few doors down to a great hamburger place where I had (seriously) the best vegetarian burger of my life – as Marc says, I had a burg-asm. The burger was soy, but the rest was brie, carmelized onions, and some other stuff I can’t remember, but so, so good. Heaven! I so enjoyed our time with Sarah and am confident that our paths will cross again some day!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Today we had a tour scheduled of Robben Island. This was the one thing I wanted to do in Cape Town, but as luck would have it, the tour was canceled because it was too windy. We stayed for a little while at the museum at the ferry landing, and I learned about the soccer team that was formed at the prison – (I had no idea!) as well as some of the key people in Mandela’s life and work. I really wish we could have gone over to the island to get better sense of his struggles and his life.
So instead, we had breakfast and then caught a cab to Long street to quickly see if we could find the vendor who was selling horns from a few days previous and see if we could bargain our way into affordability. John and I were both successful in finding horns that we liked and were able to bargain the price down. This was the first time I had actually bargained and it was out of necessity more than anything else – I only had 200 rand. I don’t like bargaining – I’m not a very confrontational person and I figure I want to support someone trying to make a living, so just usually pay what they’re asking. But this time I only had 200 rand so the nice lady in the shop let me have a beautiful Oryx horn for that price. I was stoked! Now I just have to find a way to get it home! (It’s pretty long)
After that, we headed back to LEAP to say goodbye to John and thank him for his wonderful hospitality and then flew back to Joberg.

The work week w/ homestays

Day 22 -- Tuesday, July 20, 2010
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.