Over the past week I’ve begun to feel a new and even stronger sense of community in my village. When I walk up to the store I rarely get a look of, “What the heck is this person doing here.” I feel like I’m beginning to not only be the “white woman”, but to also be “me”—an individual who happens to be white, but who is also a unique person. I feel like I’m living outside the box. And though this transition from “white person” to “person” has happened slowly over the course of the past few months with our host family, it’s been a painfully slow process within the village and within the schools that I work at.
But it’s happening at last. And it feels really, really good.
The village environment is changing in other ways as well. “The sun is becoming less” as the Swazis, say. The mornings are becoming a bit brisk. Beautiful clouds of fog float through the valleys and mounds of clouds hang upon the mountain caps, it makes for a majestic walk to school. I can comfortably wear a long dress, or pants, and have even put on a long sleeve shirt and sweater in the morning. Most of my students arrive in down jackets and hats—their little teeth chattering. On these mornings I laugh and say, “My Northern Michigan is showing”. By mid-morning break (around 10:30a.m.) the sun is out! In the afternoon it warms up to comfortable t-shirt weather. I’ve been told that the months of June and July actually do get quite cool, but I’m skeptical of my South African sources.
I’ve gathered that in the winter it actually doesn’t get too cold, but that there are very few heating sources. Even 40 degrees can seem quite cool if you have no heating sources! Most homes (like ours) have no insulation, no flooring, and a few millimeters of zinc protecting us from the elements.
Apparently in the “winter time” visitors move into the village as well... They are called Vervet Monkeys or tingobiyane in siSwati. The food sources in the mountains start to diminish during the winter months, and they come to the village in search of food. They arrive hungry and mischievous.
On Wednesday night Buddy and I heard something strange outside. We heard footsteps, and rustling around our house and the mango tree at our backdoor followed by a huge tin clamor, tons of dog barking, and lots of animal traffic. After making sure that no one was trying to break into our house, we went back to bed. In the morning Gogo wobbled over to our little house and started speaking in a crazy siSwati frenzy about the dog/monkey fight that was in the backyard. Apparently the monkey won, but our dogs are resilient so they only walked away with a few minor scratches. Many people are scared of these monkeys because they have killed small infants before (or so Gogo tells us). Having lost 9 children of her own (yes, nine), she takes these matters seriously. I think they are funny and cute, but I’m not going to get too closed to them.
This update can’t go without mentioning the latest Whitmer-Scarborough home project—the shower. A few weeks ago the Buddy’s parents sent us the solar shower we had back at the states. This is a must bring for PCVs, by the way. Anyway, this shower was enough inspiration for us to get our act together and finally make the shower we have dreamed about for so long!
Though we didn’t spend a single rand, the project turned out quite nice. We used spare boards from the family as well as a few random palms for the walls. The “shower floor” is composed of a bunch of flat stones I found around the neighborhood (you can see it in the areal view shot). The door opens and closes thanks to a nice collection of wires Morricie (our little brother) found in an old rusting toy car.
After our first shower we noticed that our feet got really dirty on the journey back to the house. Hence, the “walk way” was born. A few weeks ago we had a construction crew stay in the lot behind our house. They had some extra planks of wood from their project and they gave it to the neighborhood. Buddy took some of the planks and created a pathway from the shower, under our mango tree to the backdoor. It’s quite nice.
And now I understand my own parents on a whole new level… They used to do these crazy projects all the time when I was a kid, I never understood… But now I totally get it! Home improvement is like a FREAKING DRUG! Well, once we started we couldn’t stop… We found ourselves wanting to spend more time outside! So we went around the neighborhood looking for random bricks (which there are always tons of). We made a small patio for our backyard! It’s awesome! We bring chairs outside and sit and drink tea now. We frequently end our days with a cup of tea and conversation—all while watching the sun slip past the mountain range at our back door.
Not to get entirely sappy, but just to be honest… During these times I am overwhelmed with gratitude for Buddy. He is the most amazing man I’ve ever met, and sitting with him in the evening is the highlight of my day—everyday. Over the past few weeks we have both been reading books on religious philosophy and our evening conversations have been dynamic and rich. He is the only man I know who can make an event out of two chairs, and some air.
So, our place really feels like home. This is really it—our first home! Life is so damn cool.
Another really cool thing about having your own place is that when you get a care package in the mail filled with footballs (thanks Make and Babe Scarborough), no one can tell you NOT to play 2-person dodge ball in the office/ yoga room. Hypothetically, of course…
(This is a picture of our little sitting area outside where we share many cups of tea and coffee).
But with the good, sometimes comes the bad… On a completely different note, I had a really hard day on Monday. I arrived at school only to find that the garden net of our school garden had been destroyed by a huge storm that we had over the weekend. Not only had it been destroyed, but part of it was taken as well! I will never understand why people decide to steal from schools (or their future in my mind)… It breaks my heart.
Needless to say all the work I had done a month ago with many parents and community members was completely ruined. So disappointing. I can’t write much more about this, it just makes me angry and sad. But I’m at square one again, only this time there is a lot less moral in the community, and even some cynicism. Next week will be difficult one.
On a lighter note:
Last Wednesday was also the launch of my SMILE program for term 2 (in South Africa the school calendar is from January to December). So it’s term 2, and I have 30 new grade 4 learners who are participating in a Service Learning program at Uplands College. At Uplands College they do a 6-week after school program where grade 11 learners (from this extremely posh boarding school) teach (and reinforce) conversational English in an interactive and fun way. The grade 11 learners also reflect and process the experience of working with disadvantaged youth. We have group discussions at the end of each term about class, race, and peace—in a nutshell. I hope that these reflections are seeds that continue to grown in South Africa long after my service. The students at Uplands College are the next leaders in South Africa—and I hope this experience helps them to recognize how to lead with compassion, understanding, and peace. There is currently no other program of this nature at Uplands College (meaningful service), and some teachers have begun to ask questions about it. I take this as a good sign. We will see.
I also wrote a report about the SMILE program from term 1, commenting on the highlights, analyzing the data from the pre and post-tests given to the grade 4 learners, and proposing goals for the future. It was meant as an internal document to help us improve the program (at Uplands Outreach the non-profit I within Uplands College that I work at—confusing I know). However, my fantastic supervisor Nicky re-vamped it (in a donor friendly way) and sent it to the headmaster (Austin, who is actually quite a visionary). He looked it over and immediately sent it to every single Uplands College parent, as well as the Board of Directors, and the Uplands College teaching staff… He told me this casually in passing. He said, “Your approach is dead-on. I just really wanted to spread awareness… Hope you don’t mind.” Hahaha! Hopefully this means more funding in the future. I have some wild ideas about what one could do in South Africa with Service Learning. I’ll include the report below:
SMILE UPDATE
April 2011
The SMILE literacy programme at Uplands focuses on conversational English among fourth-graders
from partner schools in Mpumalanga. SMILE works to build bridges between the Uplands learners
and their counterparts in rural government schools. By facilitating English language acquisition,
pupils at Uplands are joining hands with rural schoolchildren to build a stronger South Africa –
creating a community-mindset where issues can be solved together.
In 2011, Uplands redesigned and re-launched the SMILE programme, thanks to Em Whitmer, our
talented and energetic US Peace Corps Volunteer who is based in the Clau-Clau community for two
years. Em has a passion for meaningful service learning programmes and has provided invaluable
input and direction to the SMILE programme. It gives Outreach great pleasure to present Em’s
report on the first term of the SMILE programme.
Participating Uplands Pupils:
Every Wednesday afternoon, the following Uplands pupils meet and host thirty Grade 4 learners
from Maqamela Primary School: Georgina Betton, Robyn Boucher, Christy Hagelthorn, Sinentokozo
Matsebula, Khanyisile Ndlhovu, Erica Nkini, Shannon Pearson, Lerato Rambau, Sesenele Sukati,
Nicole Theledi and Lané van der Merwe.
Maqamela Learner Feedback:
"My favourite part of the SMILE programme was my teacher. She was very nice, and wanted
me to speak English well. I love her." - Sithembiso Mhlanga (referring to Shannon)
Many learners commented on how much they loved their teacher (Uplands pupils)
"I like to colour pictures, and to practice writing English." - Thabo Thwala
“I feel good when I speak English now. It makes me happy to know English." -Xoliswa
Nkosi
General Observations:
Maqamela Grade 4 Educator J.J. Mashego says that, "I can tell a difference! The students
who go to the SMILE programme have much more confidence in English language. They are
excited to speak in class, and they are starting to express themselves in English too. I think
this programme is very beneficial for Maqamela Primary School."
The learners who entered the SMILE programme speaking a low level of English came back
to class showing great motivation to learn more English, and actively seek English learning
opportunities now. It’s not uncommon now to hear these learners speak English to each
other outside of class, without a teacher present – a good sign!
Results of SMILE from Term 1:
After the baseline tests and the post tests were analysed, we found that learners who
scored the lowest on our baseline test showed the greatest amount of improvement.
On average the students of Maqamela scored 45% on the baseline test before the SMILE
programme. At the conclusion of the SMILE programme, the average score on the post-test
was 80%, which is fantastic!
New Developments and Plans:
This past Wednesday 12 April, a new group of 30 grade 4 Maqamela learners went to
Uplands College for their first SMILE session. They were warmly greeted by 10 returning
Uplands College pupil volunteers as well as 1 new volunteer.
This term each SMILE Uplands pupil volunteer has received a facilitator binder, which
includes all of their lesson plans and worksheet copies for the entire term. Uplands pupils
gave extremely positive feedback about these binders and are very excited to teach a new
group of 30 Maqamela learners.
Uplands Outreach is making plans to measure the learning experiences of the Uplands
College pupil volunteers, along with measuring the Maqamela learners’ progress.
An end-of-the-year celebration at Maqamela Primary School will take place during term 3.
During this celebration Uplands students will receive a tour of Maqamela given by their
previous and current SMILE students.
A Very Special Thanks To:
The amazing Madds Warrener and the Dugga Boys who make this all possible!
Sharon van Reenen for her boxes of coloured pencils and her organisational skills!
The Maqamela learners, for their enthusiastic participation
The Uplands pupils, for their kindness and dedication, and for making a tangible difference
in the lives of little kids
The KKS team for the mounds of jam sandwiches and their jolly demeanor
And everyone else who contributes to the success of the programme: the teachers and
management at Maqamela, Bridget Gibson, Erna Krause, Beauty Mashego and Vicky Nkosi
for her warm patience with needy Americans!
(The version she sent out was much for colorful and nice... Don't know what happened here... I'll try to add a few pictures from SMILE for you to see :) Below you will find some of my kids holding a "Thank-you" sign that they made for their teachers. This picture is taken at Maqamela Primary School before we went to Uplands.
So those were just bits of my week for you all. Hope you enjoy ☺. If not, I want feedback! I would also not be opposed to answering any questions you may pose/ topics you would enjoy hearing more about!!! Please send me a little message!
