Life in Ladybrand

Where do I begin? I missed yesterday’s post because it was such a busy day! After visiting eleventh graders and co-teaching a lesson on exchange rates of the South African Rand to the dollar, with the students suggesting traditional gifts that I could bring back to the US (beads, a Lesotho grass hat, a vuvuzela, of course). I went to my tenth graders again to check on their progress with their stained glass window project. They are my favorite class because I saw them first and have been spending the most time with them. I explained to them how to find the slope of a line using rise over run, not just the slope formula, and it was the first time in my teaching career that the students said “wow!” actually meaning wow not being sarcastic – they are so eager to learn! That afternoon I run a workshop for the staff on the technology resources they can use to lesson plan. The time is short and the lab has some Internet connection problems as well as computers that are not working, but overall they are excited to see the programs I am showing them and are committed to using the lab more. Directly from the workshop I go with Celeste, a math teacher who has invited me to her home for dinner and to spend the night in her town Ladybrand, on the border of Lesotho, and while driving she tells me that the King of Lesotho is behind us, and I think she is joking until I see an entourage of three black Mercedes that pass us very quickly with dark tinted windows. She has a doctor’s appointment first and I have fun exploring the shops in town while I wait. I go into a coffee shop, supermarket, and something equivalent to a dollar store called “Crazy” to buy some souvenirs. We then go pick up Celeste’s daughter Gizelle from her grandmother’s house, and they are surprised and happy to meet me. I meet Robert Celeste’s husband, who shows me something I have never seen before, a barbeque grill inside the home. The grill warms the house while the lamb cooks and the smoke goes directly up the flue. When I tell them we only barbecue in the summer and outside, they can’t believe it. After dinner we talk a lot about the situation in South Africa after apartheid. I am amazed to hear that people think that conditions were much better before, in terms of basic infrastructure and employment and opportunities for advancement for both blacks and whites. For example, the train system used to be very good, and now the trains are hardly used, and cargo has to be transported using trucks, which are too heavy for the roads and damage them, so all of the people that used to be employed by the railroad are out of work. I go to bed, thinking that there are so many sides to any one story, and the only way to find out about a situation is to speak to people who are living through the experience.