Tuesday, January 26, 2010

My First Weekend

Hello friends!
It’s Monday afternoon now so I thought I’d recap my first weekend. I’ll start with Friday’s seven hour lecture. It was actually a lot more enjoyable then I ever would have thought. A woman named Karen Smith who teaches political science at the university gave my service-learning group a crash course in South African History. Obviously it was an extremely condensed version, but afterwards I had several pages of notes and a much better understanding of this country’s past and present. It was a really interactive lecture and it was especially interesting because Grant, my service learning professor, sat in on the class. Karen is a white Afrikaner and Grant is a black Afrikaner, and they’re roughly the same age, so it was amazing to hear how their childhoods were vastly different. Growing up during apartheid, the only black people that Karen knew were the ones that worked for her parents, cleaning her house and whatnot. Karen, her family, and all of the white Afrikaners obviously knew about apartheid, but they were only exposed to one side of it. The government and the media portrayed black people as a violent group and never publicized any of the atrocities that were being committed by the army and the police force. On the other hand, Grant was constantly seeing his friends and family members abused by white people. He grew up with a mother, father, and 3 siblings, but they had to pair off anytime they were in public because if three or more black people were seen together they could be arrested. As a result of all this, the whites were oblivious to the seriousness of apartheid and the blacks felt as though every white person was at fault for not stepping in to stop the government.

I don’t want to bore any readers by repeating the whole lecture, but it was very interesting. The new South Africa is just now approaching its 16th birthday so learning about this country is incredible. There’s still a great deal of forgiveness that needs to be granted and a lot of healing amongst all South Africans must occur in order for progress to be made here. Oh and here’s another interesting but saddening piece of information…Karen told us that the man who came up with many of the ideas behind apartheid was the head of the psychology department at Stellenbosch University. To this day the university is seen as the most racist in the country.

On Saturday morning about eight of us walked to the center of campus where the first-year dorms were having a parade. This was the big finale of orientation week where each dorm builds a massive float that’s attached to a pick up truck and they parade around town. The floats were really awesome and, once again, the enthusiasm of the students was palpable. There was also a small carnival going on downtown with live bands and vendors so we stopped by that for a bit. Across the street was a market where people were selling tons of cool African inspired things. I wanted to get gifts for people but I couldn’t decide on anything so I’m going to go back in a couple weeks. After going home and making dinner, a bunch of us went out to an Irish bar for the night. The only thing Irish about it was the flag hanging in the back, but it’s a big place and there’s always a bunch of international students hanging out there.

I spent Sunday sleeping in, reading, and grocery shopping so it was a pretty relaxing day. After making tacos for the third night in a row I watched the second half of the Colts/Jets game. We decided not watch the Saints/Vikings game because it wasn’t starting until 1:30am our time, but now I’m wishing we stayed up for it.

Ok so lastly I’ll talk about today’s events. I went with the 23 other service-learning students to the Sustainability Institute for our first real day of class. In the morning we went around the room and each person shared what they think is their best quality. It was really interesting to get to know everyone a little bit better and it set a nice mood for the day. The energy in this group is incredible and I believe that every single person is excited about this opportunity that we’ve been given. Then we came up with some questions to ask the principal (they call it a school manager here) about the needs of the school. He then joined us in class and we created a needs assessment. Afterwards we got to play with the kids during their fifteen minute break. I spent most of the time giving a couple younger boys piggy back rides and dancing with some of the older girls. They were even more excited to see us than last week and everyone wanted to hug us. After recess we broke up into the groups of three that we’ll be with for the duration of the semester. I decided I wanted to work with the 6th grade class, but it was a tough decision. The younger kids are adorable and are so easy to play with, but with the older kids I’m able to come up with lesson plans and hopefully form strong relationships. After breaking into groups we had to meet with the teacher than we’ll be working with for the semester. Unfortunately ours was sick today, so we met with the principal and he went over some basic ideas about the themes that they want incorporated into the 6th graders education. We all stopped for a quick lunch then went back to the classroom to do a skills audit. We shared with the group which skills we each bring to the table so we better understand how to meet the needs of the school.

Lastly we went over what our schedule will be like on the days that we are in the classroom. So each Monday I’ll be working with two other AIFS students named Jeff and Andie in the 6th grade class. We’ll arrive at the school at 9:00, and then between 9:15 and 10:30 we’ll lead the kids in a physical activity and teach a small lesson related to exercise or health. At 10:30 we’ll leave the kids and work with nine other service-learning students on building some equipment for a new playground outside. Then the three of us will return to the classroom to read in English with the 6th graders. We’re pretty much given free reign here and are encouraged to incorporate art, music, sports, and the world into our reading lessons. Then, as a way of reflecting and transitioning out of the school, Grant has arranged for us to do yoga every Monday at 1pm before we debrief and head back home. Needless to say, I’m very excited about all of this and I think it’s going to be an absolutely amazing experience. There’s so much more I want to share with you about the Sustainability Institute and Grant and the children at the school and the other service-learning students, but I’ll save some of it for future entries. Until then, here's a short video made by one of the school's sponsors.

Thanks for reading!
Sarah

Introduction to my service learning placement

It’s Thursday afternoon and I just got back from the Sustainability Institute / Lynedoch Primary School where I’ll be completing my 9 service learning credits. There are 14 AIFS students and 10 other internationals that will be working together at this school, which serves one of the poorest communities in the country. It’s a primary school so there are kids from kindergarten up to 8th grade, but all of them are physically much smaller than you would expect because of malnutrition. We got a chance to play with them during their 15 minute recess today and it was incredible. They were so eager to talk to us and to have us take an interest in them. Our teacher, who I’ll talk more about later, explained to us that they have very little exposure to white people and love the attention we give them. For most of them, the only white people they know are their parents’ bosses and they live in much nicer houses in wealthier parts of town. Because of this, I expected them to shy away from us and be weary of our role at their school, but they were so excited to entertain us and to have us simply recognize their presence. I spent my time watching a dance off between several young boys and posing for pictures with many children. They loved taking pictures with our cameras as well as having their own picture taken. They also enjoyed writing their names on our hands and arms and having us do the same to them. The primary language used in the school is Afrikaans but most of the older kids can speak enough English to converse with us, and even thought the younger kids can’t say much they understand most of what we say.

Our teacher and supervisor for this course is a man named Grant, who seems to be nothing short of brilliant. Our resident director had told us ahead of time that Grant has a very unique style of teaching and that he’s incredible at it, but to experience it was really something else. It seems like his life is one continuous motivational speech. Hopefully I’ll become better at describing him over the course of the semester so that this makes more sense. But to put it simply, I feel as though there are so many valuable skills and important pieces of knowledge that I can learn from him, and I’m very eager for all of it. His life has been an amazing journey and he’s so eager to share himself with us. Today Grant spent part of the morning helping us develop a mental picture of the fabric of South Africa. He showed us a video of the Drakensburg Boys Choir singing what he termed “the unofficial national anthem.” We were so struck by the boys’ enthusiasm, energy, and pride, so Grant had about 10 young students come into our class in order to bring some more energy to the room. Two of the boys sat down to drum on the desks and as soon as they saw the video projected on the wall they began tapping to the beat. Grant then told a few of the kids that they could get up on the table and dance for us. It was amazing to see their faces light up when they heard the song and to see them smile and laugh, especially since we all knew that each one of them has plenty of obstacles in their life that could keep them from being happy. And it was obvious right away that these students have a great amount of respect for Grant and vice versa. Grant’s mini-lessons today definitely reinforced my notion that South Africans are among the proudest and most resilient people in the world.

As for the format of the course, we’ll be taking to a train to the school two days a week. Every Monday from 9am to 3pm we’ll be teaching lessons in the classroom, leading PE exercises, reading books to the students, helping to maintain an organic garden, and constructing a small library in the school. On Fridays we go back to the school from 9am to 3pm for our theory class (here they call it lecture). After today’s orientation I’m very excited about all of this and I know that this is the perfect program for me. The 23 other internationals are great and getting to know them more closely is going to be a lot of fun. And this will provide all of us with an experience vastly different from the one we’ll get at the university. We’ll witness one of the biggest contradictions of South Africa by taking two courses at Stellenbosch University with other privileged, white students and by working fifteen minutes down the road with an extremely impoverished group of black children. Grant warned us that it will become mentally and emotionally draining, but we’re all really excited about the course.

Check back next week for an update on my weekend!
Sarah

Welcome to SA!

Hello Everyone!
After 25 hours of travel I’m finally in Stellenbosch! We left Boston on Sunday afternoon and flew to Washington, D.C. where we waited for our South African Airways plane. The flight to Johannesburg was about 17 hours total, but we stopped in Dakar, Senegal to refuel. We were there for probably an hour but weren’t allowed to get off the plane. Once in Jo’burg we waited for a couple hours then took a small plane to Cape Town. Eventually we landed and took a 30 minute bus ride to school. We arrived very late on Monday and by the time I was assigned a flat it was technically Tuesday. I’m living with a Stonehill student name Casey who seems really awesome. We unpacked a bit upon arriving and got a few hours of sleep. Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with informational meetings, presentations from the international office, tours of campus, computer registration, grocery shopping, and some initial group bonding. There are 47 of us here with AIFS and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them. Hestea, our resident director, and Angelo, our assistant resident director, are absolutely amazing. They’ve taken care of everything for us and definitely made the transition a smooth one.

As for the school itself, Stellenbosch University is beautiful. It looks a bit like Florida because of the palm trees and the types of buildings, but it’s surrounded by mountains. The people of South Africa are warm and welcoming. All of them are good looking and no one here is overweight. Most students are tall, many have blond hair and blue eyes, and quite a few of them go everywhere barefoot. What I didn’t realize before coming here is that the student body is among the wealthiest in the nation and the university is the least diverse (70% of the students are white, but it seems like even more than that). Besides the lack of diversity, Stellenbosch University is very different from St. Mike’s. There are 18,000 undergrads, the campus is huge, there’s a student center with tons of stores and restaurants in it, and rugby is the most popular activity. Also, first year orientation has been going on this week and I’ve never seen anything like it. There is more enthusiasm and school pride here than anywhere I’ve ever been. Oh and they students love American music so we got to hear Party in the U.S.A. within 24 hours of arriving. You can’t escape Miley.

After being here for a couple days it’s easy to see that some things will take some time to get used to. The first is definitely the currency. One U.S. dollar equals roughly 7 or 8 Rand right now, so everything looks like it’s more expensive than in the states even though it’s usually cheaper. Drinks and food are a lot cheaper, but sunscreen is expensive. Aside from the money, it will take a little while to become accustomed to the hot sun (though I’m really glad I’m not in Vermont right now). Drivers in South Africa never stop for pedestrians and they use the left side of the road, so we’ve had to make a few adjustments while walking around campus. Going grocery shopping was also an interesting event, but I think it will be much easier the second time.

Alright that’s all for now, thanks for reading!
Sarah