August 30, 2010
It’s hard to believe it’s already the end of August. I know I write this with almost every post, but the time is flying – in some ways at least… in others, it couldn’t be going any slower!
Last week I gave my students their end of August exams. Since they’ve been re-divided based on performance on the June final exams, it’s interesting to see the difference in some individuals. There are some students who have moved up a tier and are absolutely (I don’t even remember the right word for it!) … in any case, they’re doing remarkably well. They try hard with all the homework and classwork I give them, and pester me until they’ve not only completed the work, but understood it as well. This is one of the things I absolutely love about being a teacher: seeing my students, who may have otherwise been unmotivated, work hard and achieve great things. It makes handing their exams back one of the best parts of my week. On the flip-side, naturally, there are those students who have been demoted, and appear very dejected by that fact. I don’t like to, but it is something that can be turned against them for motivation; “Don’t you want to be in the first class next year?”

The weather here is starting to feel like spring (or summer at some times). Remember those peach trees from February? Well, with the warmer weather, they all have beautiful pink blossoms that smell lovely. The ground in most places is still pretty brown and ugly, but the pink makes it ok. On a rather ironic note, my peach tree (aka the one on my plot in front of my house) is the only one without all the pretty pink blossoms. I think it’s dead.

Many teachers have started planting their gardens and I intend to begin mine very soon as well – I can’t wait for fresh vegetables to make a real garden salad, and real basil pesto! That is definitely one thing to be said for living here. I have learned to cook and bake things that I would have otherwise never even dreamed of making. For example, chocolate cake (from scratch, of course, Betty Crocker hasn’t quite reached Africa yet) is one of the easiest things in the world… and the recipe I use is good. A friend and I recently made calzones; again, everything was from scratch, even the dough. It’s an interesting way to really learn to cook, that’s for sure, because fast food doesn’t really exist here.

School continues to be school. Some students are absolutely the light of my day, and some the bane of my existence. One student in particular is almost more like a friend; she just happens to sit in on my classes and take the exams I write. I’m beyond proud to say she is one of the students for whom I managed to secure school fees this semester, and she had been absent for the first week of August. I got to chat a bit with her on Friday, and I asked if she was doing alright, if everything was alright at home, etc. This is always a difficult subject for me to bring up, since I’m not ever entirely sure about what’s happened. I get the impression the Basotho teachers know these things from local gossip, but they never tell me. I was aware that this student’s father had passed away within the last year, and that her family was struggling to make ends meet. She had mentioned (in a note I asked the students to write after they’d finished their exams back in February, I think) that she might have to go and search for a job somewhere, in order to help out her mother, but that she really wants to be a doctor, and she knows how important school is in order to be successful in life. Naturally, this tugged at the old heart-strings, and when I found out about the tuition assistance program, she was my number one candidate.
When we talked on Friday, she alluded to something that had happened and her mother being gone. I asked if her mother had passed away, and she responded something along the lines of, “No, she has just gone to search for a job, but now I have to look after my younger brothers and sisters.” Oh. My. Gosh. Not only does she have to attend school five days a week, she now also has to look after her siblings (which, as any mother knows, is a full-time job). To top it all off, her walk to and from school every day is probably at least an hour, each way.
Talking to her almost brought tears to my eyes. How could I, someone who has had almost every material comfort available to me as I was growing up, console this young woman, who has more on her plate than I will probably ever even know? I tried, feebly, but she sort of shrugged it off with the rationale that this is just how her life is. I want so much to tell her that things will be alright, but will they? Who knows when (if?) her mother will come back, and even then, what will happen. Wow.

In other news, the student who broke his leg right before school reopened in August is back. I think he only missed two weeks and maybe a day or two of school, and he did pretty well on his recent exams. He is a nice presence in class: a hard worker with a great sense of humor. He is also one of the very few boys in my class who does not try to run to the toilets every chance he gets, and for that, he earns big points in my book.

The highlight of every week for me is becoming my Life Skills Club. We had to split into two different days: the younger classes are on Tuesdays and the older classes on Thursdays. I don’t teach any of the older students, so these meetings are particularly interesting. Last week we couldn’t meet on Tuesday because all Form B students were writing an exam, so when the older students met on Thursday, we did only a small activity and I answered questions for a little while. The activity related to self-esteem, which was sort of a new concept for many of them. Each student had a piece of paper taped to his or her back, and a pen or pencil in hand. Then everyone was encouraged to move around and write (nice) things about each person on his or her back. Some of the things they wrote were really nice, like “Always happy” or “we love you” but some were just funny (to me at least), for example, “U have big hips” or “U R FAT.” Of course, it is a culture where wide hips (suitable for birthing many babies) may be admired, and excessive girth is a sign of wealth (it means there is plenty of food for even the children to eat), but those notes made me laugh. I was thrilled that the students seemed so pleased with the activity, but even happier that teachers were participating too!
To top it all off, the questions they’d written to put into the question jar were excellent. there were a few about me, how I liked Lesotho, what my challenges have been since I arrived here, etc. There were a few about Life Skills, how it can help students, etc. And then, there were the money questions. For example, “Is it bad to have more than 5 boyfriends?” and “How can I find a boyfriend who will love me and be good to me forever?” and “How can we avoid getting AIDS?” I was (and still am) SO pumped. First, this means that they are brave enough to ask these questions. Second, it means there is substantial potential for this club to help these kids and make a difference for them! I’m not sure what topic we’ll move to next, but I have a feeling we’ll be spending quite a few weeks with the tough topics like HIV/AIDS.

I hope to update more frequently as we’re approaching the “Mock Exam” period. This means the external classes (Forms C and E) will be writing big, comprehensive exams to help prepare them for the real exams they’ll write in October and November.
Hope all is well at home as students are getting ready to go back to school… those were the days!
Love from Africa,
-Katie