Cultural Day

Today is designated on the schedule as Cultural Day and whenever I ask anyone about it they say it is a surprise and smile. Celeste dresses me up with a football hat, South African flag and a vuvzela so I am a part of the celebration too. Precious and Angela win the prize for the best dressed in my book, along with Mr. Mariti. They are dressed according to Basotho culture, and have a beautiful colored blanket wrapped around them secured with a safety pin. They also have a headwrap and matching skirt underneath. But what catches my eye are the fancy high heeled shoes they wear with their outfits! We are to gather in the hall for the assembly at 12:30, but for now there is a full day of classes to go to. I visit with the 12 grade Calculus class who are in the computer lab working with a program that allows them to self check their classwork. I notice right away that they like working in pairs and do not have to be grouped together but do it naturally. At about 15 minutes to go in the period I show them the Introduction video that Brad made for me and it is a huge hit, especially when they see the amount of snow we get during our winter. They are all amazed at the size of Cleveland? and ask me if that is New York, and I tell them just wait. When they see the size of the city and the footage of the subway they can’t even believe it. They also love the footage of my sister’s graduation from high school, and tell me that they only celebrate graduations from university. As soon as the video ends they cheer and they say they all want to come to America. By now it is time to make our way to the hall, and before I can even get inside a group comes up to me and wants to take their picture with me. Once inside, I sit in the front row of chairs that are set up and see the various dances that they have prepared for me to watch. There is a boy’s dance with rubber boots that reminds me of the step team in the US, but I’m positive I am watching its origin here. The girls do a beautiful dance with a white grass tutu that has bells underneath, next comes a poetry performance, and then some more traditional dances. The students are so excited they are chanting and singing along. Finally, I am called on stage and the class president presents me with a Unicom shirt and tie that is signed by the whole staff. I am overcome with emotion that they have planned this all for me, someone they have known for such a short time. We then meet as a staff for lunch and I eat, and I’m not kidding, a meat mixture that looks and tastes delicious but I find out later is the stomach and small intestines of some kind of animal, not sure whether a goat or sheep or cow. Then they tell me that there is another part of the animal that only the men eat, and I stare at the head of the nondescript animal, and later, watch one of the math teachers eat the eye! I am so thankful that that is a men’s tradition and I am not expected to eat any part of the head or legs with the feet still attached. Back in my room, my roommate Thamae gives me the best present of my trip so far, a FIFA World Cup blanket that has all the colors of the South African flag.

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.

Fabulous Food

I don’t think I have mentioned the food yet! I was so worried before I came that I would starve, but the exact opposite is true. My guest house is attached to the dining hall, so the ladies who prepare the breakfast in the morning walk through my house to get to the kitchen! Then I walk in through the kitchen to get breakfast at 7. Everyone says a prayer before and after eating the meal, and prayer starts when any teacher at the staff table rings the bell (the place goes silent in seconds). Ever present is “papa” a staple that reminds me of white momalega (polenta) or mashed potatoes but of a more grainy consistency. We ate it once at breakfast with milk, then at lunch (2:30 pm) with sausages. Yesterday’s lunch was white rice and curry minced meat that was delicious. But I am most amazed at the way the meal ends. After the second prayer bell the kids are working hard to clear their tables, putting all the dishes and leftovers on a cart in the middle of the room, wiping their tables clean! and pushing in their chairs – and all this takes a matter of minutes. Dinner is at 5:00 which for me is too close to lunch, so I am given a Tupperware and the ladies give me enough lunch meat to feed an army plus a whole package of bread for one night’s meal. Would you believe that some people noticed I was not at dinner and knocked at my door to bring me a huge thermos of chicken soup!

First Day of School!

This morning marks the start of the third term and I think what a lucky time it is to visit the school as everyone is making a new start and so am I. After eating breakfast in the dining hall with the staff and students that are living at the hostel, we go to the admin block to have a morning meeting and to be addressed by the principal. The first thing I notice is how tightly knit the staff is, as we are directed by the principal to “know our neighbor,” and to “give a hug on both sides” of us, and I am amazed at how everyone quickly springs to life, embracing each other and additionally for me, introducing themselves. In South Africa it seems the word principal is synonymous with preacher, and he reads us a psalm he has selected about the contract of work we enter into and being rewarded for the quality of our work. He then introduces me and I say a few words after which I get applause?! and the principal tells me it takes “great courage to address those one does not know.” He says that I should feel at home, which of course I already do. We then go to an assembly to mark the start of the term. Students, wearing uniforms of light blue button up shirts, dark blue sweaters and dark blue pants for the boys and skirts and knee socks for the girls, file into the hall, (that has no chairs by the way), and listen to a chorus group on stage. As the group is singing, the rest of the students join in at the refrain. The principal again goes on stage addressing the students and reading and interpreting for them Psalm 33, the Lord is my Shepherd. He asks me and another new secretary to come up on stage. As he is introducing me, the students start whispering and giggling among themselves, and he tells me they are very curious to hear my accent! I then start to say a sentence about how happy I am to be at the school and they listen for a couple of seconds and are then overcome with wild laughter and just excitement. When they finally quiet down again, I say a few more words and when I leave the stage they are all cheering me as I exit – I feel like a celebrity! I am so excited now to see them in smaller groups and interact with them in the classroom. Next Victor tells me we are going to see his grade ten math class and we walk into the room and see around 32 students sitting on stools at high tables. After introducing me again, Victor says that this will be the class that is exchanging the letters that I had my students in Ohio and my mother’s students in New York write and they seem very eager to be pen pals. Victor then starts the lesson on graphing and I circulate to help them and also take pictures. Some students stop to ask me questions and are so warm to someone they just met. I am very impressed by their behavior and work ethic. I know that I am really going to enjoy working with the students here. One last thing, all teachers spent the day wearing their coats because it was so cold: one teacher had a colorful blanket wrapped around her attached with a safety pin; is it wrong to say I was very jealous? I wish I brought a winter hat too!

Visiting the Department of Education

This morning we visited Simon, one of Victor’s friends in the Department of Education in Bloemfontein. Simon spent a semester in Montana, while Victor went to South Carolina, and both went through the same program that I am in but for International Fellows. After they tease each other about the fact that Simon had to freeze while Victor got the nice weather, Simon tells me more about the school system and how it operates. He is an expert in his field (Science) and is in charge of visiting several schools in the district and seeing that they implement the standards of the country. His responsibilities could be anything from running a workshop to teaching a sample lesson and he tells me he misses being in the classroom, because he is now “office-based”. We also meet other experts in their fields, from math, Afrikaans, Technology (but what we would consider engineering), and History. After a quick stop at the Bloemfontein mall to have lunch and exchange money, we head back to school, but stop along the way so I can take pictures of some ostriches I see on a farm. I expect them to run and show off their quickness but they are lazily picking their way through the field. We also make a stop at a small town called Black Mountain, named after a spectacular mountain that is, you guessed it, black, to buy “airtime” (Internet minutes) for me. Right before we reach the shops in town I see the township, consisting mainly of temporary structures that unfortunately have become permanent residences for some. Others are waiting for permission to move into the much nicer government houses, but all of the applications take time to be processed Victor tells me. Later that evening I meet my roommate, Matheko, another math teacher at the school and I am so happy to have company. We share the homemade bread she brought from her home in Lesotho (nearby mountainous kingdom) and drink Rooibos tea (think South Africa’s Lipton tea) which I find I am addicted to.

Watching the World Cup Final in South Africa

If you had told me four years ago that at the next World Cup I would be watching the final in the host country I would not have believed it. Yet here I am sitting with Victor (my host), Neo (Victor's oldest son), Palesa, (middle daughter), Tankiso, (youngest daughter) and Tefo (Victor's nephew) watching the match. So that must mean I am destined for Brazil in 2014 right? Tomorrow is a full day where I travel into town to tour the Department of Education in Bloemfontein. Also, all of the students and teachers are returning in preparation for school on Tuesday. By the way, be careful what you wish for. It is cold here and the winter coat I bought is a necessity and Victor gave me a space heater and offered extra blankets. One last thing, the stars of the Southern Hemisphere are so beautiful! There are no lights for miles because the school is so rural, so you can see everything, even the Milky Way.

Touring the School

Right now there are no students; they come back on Tuesday to resume school after the excitement of the World Cup and the winter session. We drive past the dining hall, classrooms, administration building, and Victor's house. We see the new computer lab that has about 30 computers, a teacher station and a SMART board, though the manufacturer is different. As I play around with the technology Victor tells me that he wants me to help other teachers at the school become more comfortable using the technology (mainly the SMART Board) and I make a mental note of this for my presentations. Next we see Victor's house, right on the campus and I meet his son, the oldest. Victor's two daughters disappear for a moment and then come back in beaming and wearing I Love NY t-shirts that I gave them earlier. (When I gave Victor his Ohio State hat, and when I asked him if he knew what it was he replied "O for O.J. Simpson?" to which we all got a big laugh.) Soon after, the principal comes in (Mr. Mariti) and says "You look like Caroline, you must be Caroline" to which I replied, yes I am. He is very charismatic and I can see why he is the leader of the school. He tells me the "anxiety for my visit is very high," but in a good way, he assures me. After this Victor suggests that I get an early night to catch up on the sleep I have missed for the past few days and to kick the jet lag, to which I quickly agree.