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