January 30, 2010

Greetings!

I had a pretty good second week of school, though there was much less teaching than I had expected. Turns out when it rains too hard, we don't teach. When there is something going on, we don't teach. Basically, teaching is... well, secondary? to a lot of these people? It's been frustrating, but I'm still trying to learn my surroundings.

My Wednesday was very interesting... After the students' assembly in the morning, the principal went to the podium and told all of the students who were not wearing the correct uniform to go home and change. Within moments, half of the school (if not more) had walked back out through the gates to change their clothes. Ridiculous. I was pretty upset as I had just lost half of my first period class. I cooled down just fine and taught a good lesson, and then with three hours of free time, I had a lovely run.

On Wednesday evening, my counterpart (Abiola) and I played soccer with some of the guys from the community. African soccer is something else. It's so much about control, so the field we used was incredibly small, not to mention rocky, uneven and not very grassy. I was winded after moments, and thankful when Abiola gracefully bowed out and invited me to dinner. It was very nice to chat with him about school, America and life in general.

Thursday morning brought news of the External Examination results from last year, and cause for huge celebration -- all of the students from last year passed, and one achieved one of the top ten positions in the nation! So Thursday we had no school. The day was meant initially to celebrate one teacher leaving Sekameng, but it turned into a combined celebration of exam results and Ntate Khaile's career. There was a very nice ceremony with speeches, poems and even some dances by students, teachers and the principal... followed, of course, by a feast.

Thursday evening, as I was coming back from my run, several children came sprinting out of their house to run with me. We ran up and down the road a little bit, and eventually stopped (I was exhausted). I dashed into my house, grabbed crayons and paper, and soon the crowd had grown to almost a dozen little kids, all writing their names and surnames, and cute little sentences about themselves; "My name is Thabo. My surname is Khalele. I am a boy." Very, very cute. I know at least four of their names, though they all expect me to know their names since they know mine.

It was hard to get the focus back on Friday morning, since Thursday had essentially been a free-for-all, but my students did pretty well. My last class of the day was cancelled because all of the teachers had to go pay a visit to one of the women who cooks for the school, who lost a son. This was one of the most difficult things I have experienced here so far. We arrived at her home, were let in by her daughter or other family member, sister perhaps? And ushered into a smallish room where 'M'e Maalina was laying on a bed, covered in heaps of blankets, and absolutely weeping. She did not speak much, and I couldn't understand all of what her sister and the principal were saying (as it was all in Sesotho), but there was a lot of "We're sorry, very much 'M'e." Not the most positive way to end my day, and I'm not sure about all the mourning/funeral traditions here (yet) but I'll pass that along once I get the chance.

For now, it's time to grocery shop and head back to my school. We had a great sleepover at Melissa's (who lives in the camptown with electricity and running water!) but I should get home to get some actual sleep (sleepovers don't really change as we age).

Happy almost February...

All my love from Africa!