A few little stories

I have decided that tonight I will update all my followers about the random things that have happened during my time here at training.  First of all, pubilc transportation in South Africa is probably the scariest thing I have ever seen. People here walk slower than you can possibly imagine, but they drive like they own the road, especially the taxis. When I say taxi I am refurring to a van that has seen better days, a lot of better days. most of the seats are broken, there are no seat belts, and cram so many people in that you couldn't wear a seatbelt even if it was there. My favorite taxi experiance so far has been traveling for our site visit. We went on a five day trip to the boarder of Swaziland to stay with a current Peace Corps Volunteer. Our director was kind enough to print us directions from Google Maps, as if we were driving straight there in a car, and it would only be a little over four hours. Unfortunately it is against Peace Corps rules for volunteers to even drive cars, so public transportation it was. Getting from our small town to Pretoria was fine and gave us all a very optomistic start to the trip, but that ended pretty soon. After shopping for two hours to get phones and groceries we made our way to the taxi ring. That was where we learned that if a taxi isn't full, it doesn't leave, possible ever. We were the first four people on a van that help 16 people, and we were going to a town that apparently isn't a very popular destination because three hours later we were still sitting there. In total is took us 13 hours on public transportation to make it to a site that was less than five hours from where we started. On the trip back to the college where we are staying we went a different route in the hopes it would be a little faster. That way it took only 11 hours, but it was actually more incomfortable than the previous trip. I was in the back bench seat that was designed for three people but contained four when I realized that the seat wasnt actually bolted to the floor. When the taxi sped up the seat would tip back about four inches until it hit the back wall, and when the breaks were used the seat would tip forward. It took me about two stop signs to realize that as the tallest person in the back seat, my knees were what was holding our seat upright when we braked. My knees crammed into the seat in front of us was the only thing between our faces and the back of the other passangers' heads. it was a super fun three hour drive until the next taxi point.

My absolute favorite story about Africa so far is about animals. Anyone who knows me knows that I love animals, and that I have dreamed of Africa being just like the Lion King, and that I could be like Mowgli in The Jungle Book since I can even rememeber. I was told by the vast majority of my friends and family that they really hoped I wouldn't get eaten by a wild animal because I was trying to play with it. To all of those worried about my safety in regards to animals you will be happy to know that I have finally accepted that Disney lied to me, and that the animals really dont want to cuddle and be my fiends. A few weekends ago our training group decided that we would use one of our few Sundays off to have a little get together. We wanted to have some real food that wasn't made from ground corn, and partake in the consumption of alcohol (which is totally not ok for women in the villages). So in order to maintain our impeckable village image we decided to have this little get together on a small animal reserve about 20 minutes from our current village. As we were driving in, a herd of wilder beasts trotted by the road and I thought all of my Disney animal dreams were about to come true, for where there are wilder beasts there will be other animals. Oh was I right about that. As we were unloading our things and walking to the BBQ area I heard one of my fellow trainines say "look monkeys!" and it was like music to my ears. What could be cuter than a bunch of little monkeys? Well let me tell you, monkeys are bitches!!! They might look super cute and innocent but they are the devil of all animals. First off, where there is one monkey there is a pack waiting somewhere in the back waiting for some secret signal to swoop in. One monkey distracts everyone with it's cuteness while the others sneak up to all your stuff you set down behind you so you could take pictures and they start jacking all of your stuff! Basically anything you own, the monkeys want. Food, backpacks, cameras, alcohol, you name it and they will steal it. It's all fun and games until some monkey takes your beer. At one point someone got a rake hoping that they could chase some of them away. He held the rake in the air and chased one moneky around the corner, five seconds later he came running back and was now the one being chased by four of the little devils. From there it went down hill, once we showed fear they became the dominant species. All the food and valuables had to be moved inside, and you only put something down if you were ok with the possibility of never seeing it again. As cute as monkeys are they would be the worst friends ever. Who would want a friend that would steal all of your stuff when you weren't looking. Thanks Disney for buliding up my hopes and dreams just so they could crash and burn.

That same day we also saw a baboon, and it was maybe the scariest animal I have ever seen. One it was huge, like really huge, two it was super ugly, and three it would totally win in a fight againts like anything. If I ever saw Simba go up against Rafiki my money would totally be on Rafiki. Especailly if Rafiki had his big stick think, then Simba wouldn't stand a chance.

Me and 40 Learners

Now that you have some depressing insight on what learners have to deal with in the South African school system, I want to cheer everyone up a little by talking about my experience as a teacher so far. First off, for those of you who don't know I just graduated college with degrees that have nothing to do with teaching. So the idea of walking into a classroom with 40 learners who had never seen a white person and having to teach for an hour actually made me wish I had the "runny tummy" so that I had an excuss to not go in. I'm pretty sure kids can smell fear and I was convinved that they would be ready to attack the minute that I set foot in the door. Although I am still sure that they knew I was scared out of my mind, no one attacked me on my first day, or any day for that matter.

Overall, my teaching experiences have been pretty amazing. For as bad as the school system and school facilities are, the students here really want to learn, or maybe it's just because I'm new. Either way, the minute I walked into the room I had the full attention of the class, and the learners never got out of hand. My teacher told me multiple times that she was so shocked with how well behaved the class was when I was teaching. I doubt that will convince her to stop walking around with a stick, but I am hoping that maybe someday she will realize that fear is not the only motivator.

So day one; for my first lesson plan I was asked to teach prepositions. The learners all have English workbooks, but they are not allowed to write in them, so they are basically worthless. However, that doesnt stop teachers from using them as a way to get kids to "read" and "answer questions", and by those two things I really mean the teach will read it to them and write the answers to the questions on the board. I was assigned a story about a fair ( which none of my learners have ever been to) that had prepositions in the story. Fortunately for my learners I dont really have a problem not following directions. So I scrapped that story before I really even looked at it because I'm pretty sure that I owuld never be able to explain to them what a clown was or why a seal would try to balance a ball on it's nose. Instead I went for the basics. I picked five common prepositions: in, on, under, in front of, and next to. I decided that in order to get kids to participate I would make them act out the terms by moving themselves around their desk. I thought it was such a great idea and that the learners would totally love it and it would be a great lesson. Unfortunately it took me about two minutes to realize these learners were just not having it. After going over the terms, and showing the learners different examples by moving myself around a chair I thought they were ready to start participating. I asked one volunteer to come to the front of the class and show me how to stand in front of the chair. That part went well, but then I asked all of the learners to stand in front of their chairs and I was met with total blank stares. After some encouragement they finally all got up and did what I asked, so I figured they just didnt understand when I asked. However, once I got to the part where I asked them to get under their desks I realized all of the learners were looking at me like I totally lost my mind. I'm pretty sure they were all thinking "hell no white lady, I am not getting under my desk right now", and they didnt. At that point I had a minor panick attack, I still had 45 mintues left and my whole lesson plan just went out the window. Fortunately, rather than just walking out, which I totally considered, I decided we were just gonna try again but with out getting the learners out of their seats. I had them all take out their books, hold them high in the air, and then use their books to show me the prepositions. They loved it (thank god)!!!! After a few trial runs it became a speed game that they couldn't get enough of. I would call at a preposition and they would basically throw their books under the desk to be the first one. It saved my whole lesson, and made me realize that if you make something a compition these learners will do anything to win, including stealing the book of the learner next to them.

As scared as I was to go into that classroom, it was an amazing experience to have 40 learners look at you like you are the greatest thing they have ever seen. Now when I walk down the street in my village I can hear kids yelling out "hello Ms. Kelsey" even from learners who weren't in my class. It is heart warming to know that just by showing up I am giving these kids something they may never have had before, a teacher that cares.

Giving a little something

I know that at home right now things are a little tight with the economy. However, if anyone ever wants to get some good karma for the year and give a little of anything to the schools that I will be teaching in for the next two years ever little bit counts. If at any point my friends and family, or really anyone reading this blog wants to send me a letter or a small package I encourage you to make a quick trip to the Dollar Tree first. A small book of stickers goes a long way for learners that have never gotten a gold star before. Really anything you send to these children will make their year. None of them have markers or crayons or even colored paper, so if at any point anyone wants to send a few things (or a lot of things) you would brighten a lot of learner's days.

If you do decide to mail anything in a package, put it in a padded envelope and write religious material on it. It is going to be a lot cheaper for you and a lot more likely to make it to me. Also, at the post office tell them that the package isn't worth anything. It gets really expensive coming through customs on my end if you say the package is worth more than $10.

To all my friends and family, I love you and miss you, but I hope you are enjoying my take on my adventures in Africa!!!

South African Schools

Well today was my first solo teaching experience, so I think it is fitting to give a some insight into life in South African schools. I think the best way to describe my experience sa far is by saying that it is shocking. Every aspect of it has been shocking and basically heartbreaking. It is pretty obvious the extent to which the aparthied era has touched the black South African schools. So far I have been able to spend quality time in both a primary and secondary setting. To be honest there isn't much difference in them, in the states I'm pretty sure both schools would be condemed.

So first off every buliting in rural South Africa has burgular bars on all of the doors and windows. Schools mainly consist of four or five long cement bulidings with some sheltered walkways but mainly just dirt paths between them. Upon entering the gated school grounds that are surrounded by barbed wire you feel like you are entering a prison yard. I would say 90% of the windows and doors are broken in each classroom, and combining that with the iron burgular bars its not a very welcoming place. Once inside the classroom things just get worse. Learners (they dont use the word students in SA) sit at old wooden desks that are big enough for two people. There are so many of these desks crammed into such a small place that there are no longer isles between the desks. The only way for learners to get to their desks is by climbing over those in front of them. The majority of the classrooms have few decorations, and the ones that do are so old they are falling off the walls and are missing pieces. There are also no shelves or storage areas so things are just stacked in random places throughout the rooms. Its really disheartening walking into these rooms. It makes you realize how good we had it in America. I remember getting ready for a new year at school and would always be sooo excited about going to OfficeMax to buy school supplies. I never thought twice about throwing in two packs of penciles because it was only $1 for a pack of 20. Here students are using pencils that are smaller than their pinky because they cant afford to by a new one. The majority of school supplies within the class are shared. If one learner is lucky enough to have half a broken ruler another is the only one who has a pencil sharpener, so they all share. I've never seen a group of young kids so willing to let another person borrow their things, but it makes me realize that when everyone around you has nothing you have to rely on eachother to do anything.

Aside from the heartbreaking conditions that these learners have to get through everyday, the South African school system makes it extremely hard for black students to be successful. The school system is broken down into four phases. Phase 1 is the foundation phase which makes up grade R (kindergarden) to grade 3. This phase is taught almost completely in their home language. Monday to Thursday they have 30 minutes of English, that is usually taught in their home language because the teachers dont speak English, and then the rest of their subjects are in the different home languages. The foundation phase is also where learners are taught how to behave in the classroom. Although it is illigal here in South Africa corpral punishment is a huge part of the disapline structure. We have seen teachers walking around with sticks, belts, and rulers that are meant to keep learners in line. We have also seen kids have to kneel for hours on cement floors without moving. The schools that we are working in right now for training have been told by different personel that they need to not beat the children in front of Peace Corps volunteers, but that hasn't even detered some teachers and staff members. Growing up in a society where you never hit a child it is heartbreaking seeing the amount of fear learners hold for teachers. Aside from corporal punishment, students are taught to never make eye contact with teachers, it is seen as a very rude gesture. So when a teacher is in front of the room talking children are looking anywhere but the front of the room, which to me makes it really hard to copy what the teacher is writing on the board. Learners are also taught not to ask questions, ever. Admitting you don't understand means that you were either not paying attention to the teacher, or that the learner is saying the teacher didn't do a good enough job explaining the content. Either of these options are not ok, so learners always answer yes to the question do you understand.

Once you move to grade 4 you enter phase 2 which is the intermediate phase. Learners go from basically no English at all to having 5 subjects taught completely in English. All of the sudden learners are doing math and science 100% in English. It's basically the equivalent of me all of the sudden trying to learn philosophy in Zulu. It's not going to happen. In 6th grade, which is the last grade of the intermediate phase, learners are on average only reading at a 2nd grade level. My host sister who is in 4th grade cant tell me what 1 divided by 2 is because she doesnt understand the English, and because her teachers that are teaching only in English also cant speak English. Grades 7-9 are in the senior phase, which is basically equivalent to the intermediate phase, but the learners just to 9 subjects taught only in English. The final phase is the FET phase which is grades 10-12. At the end of grade 12 learners have to pass the national exam called the Metric, and it is completely in English. Out of 100 students going into grade 1 only 36 will even make it to grade 12, and only 22 will pass the final exam in rural areas. Only 22% of black rural students will graduate high school, and only 1% will go onto university.

It's a pretty hard situation to come into, but what is amazing is that even in a classroom where 40 to 60 learners are literally stacked on top of eachother, most of them really want to learn. This is especially true when we stand in front of the classroom. If your class isnt behaving they will quite down in a heartbeat if they think you will leave, but my teaching experiences so far are a story for another day. I will let the conditions that I am teaching in settle in for a day and tomorrow I will let everyone know how my first experiences teaching ever have gone.

The Village Experience

Before I get into life in the village, I have one more strange difference I forgot to add in yesterday. So strange difference number four; they dont use toilet seat here. I have a flush toilet in my house, which is just like any toilet in America, expect it is missing the seat part. It has the lid and then just the porcalin rim. For the first day or so we all thought we were just supposed to squat over the seat, but after that we all basically said screw it and now everyone sits on the rim. You just need to make sure you don't sit too far back and fall right in.

Ok, now on to life in the village. It's pretty strange. Right now I am about two hours from Pretoria, which has a huge population of white people. However, said white people never ever come into the villages, which I find to be pretty sad. So given that, we are the first white people most of the villagers have ever seen. The majority of them can't afford to go to Pretoria or any of the other Africaaner cities so having a white person living in their village is pretty shocking. Eveen after three weeks here everyone stares at us when we walk by. I am the only person in my village with long blond hair and when I walk by people they point to my hair and then start whispering to each other. In South African culture you have to greet everyone you see on the street. There is a joke about how long it takes you to get to school or work depends on how many people you pass before you get there. It is extremely rude not to greet someone here, and the majority of the time a greeting turns into them telling you their life story. The Zulu greeting actaully translates to "I see you", so if you don't say hello to them you are litterally saying I don't see you which to them is not ok. So you spend a lot of time saying hi to people. The children are the most fun. When you pass them they will say hi and then start yelling "how are you". It is the one phrase that every kid knows. Most of the time before you can even answer they will respond with "I am fine", or even after you respond they will continue yelling "how are you" until you get far enough away they stop caring. With men it is about 50/50 whether it is going to be awkward or not after you say hello. You often say hi, and then as you continue walking you get the "I love you" or "marry me" cat calls that are uncomfortable for Americans. In this culture that is actually a pick up line. Men are very outspoken here to the point that most local females will end up giving their phone numbers to guys just to get them to shut up. In the not so distant past it was a common Zulu tradition for a man to kidnap a female that he was interested in until she agreed to marry him. Luckely that is now frowned upon, but they are still extremely presistant to everyone, not just then new white people in town. For the most part they are extremely nice and funny but every now and then you run into a guy who is just coming out of the tavern and then it is somewhat uncomfortable. Fortunately one of my good friends Andrea lives across the street from me so we never walk anywhere alone.

PST part 2

Training, where to begin explaining training. It is basically like I am back in college but longer days and harder classes. The first week of training pretty much consisted of sitting in a classroom from 8am to 5pm. There we learned to great in five different languages, got like six more shots, and spent hours going over the different aspects of our assignments and why we are here in South Africa. We would get up, eat, go to classes, eat, and go to bed. You basically were too jetlaged and tired to do anything else. It was very overwhelming at times. So over whelming that we have already had three volunteers leave.
At the end of the first week of training the instructors announced our target language, and intorduced us to our host families that we would be living with for the next six weeks. I was very excited to find out that I would be learning isiZulu because it only has three clicks in it. It has yet to seem like that makes it any easier, but I have an amazing language group and language instructor. I am part of the youngest language group in SA26 (South Africa group 26), but it has turned out to be a lot of fun. My language partners Andrea and Ted are super fun and we all get along really well, and Samke is a fabulous language instructor. We are actually doing great as a group.

After languages were ancounced the first week, all of the host families came to meet their new American children. It was sureal. As the host families started showing up they would all line up on one side of the parking lot while we stayed on the other side. It seemed like they were all whispering to eachother about which one of us they wanted in languages that we didnt understand. Then once everyone arrived we were ushered inside and called one by one to come up to the front of the room to be introduced to your new South African families. I'm pretty sure I was shaking as I walked to the front to give my host mom a hug, but I was extremely releaved when she greeted me in English. Now I love my host family. My mom speaks English which is super helpful for everyday things, and then I have two sisters who are 9 and 6. They don't really speak English, but they love to play with me, especially with my hair. They think my long hair is fake, but that doesnt stop them from always wanting to touch it and braid it.

In this area people live in cement houses with in roofs. There is no insulation in the walls or the ceilings, so at night it gets pretty cold. My family has a pretty nice three bedroom place with an attached kitchen. We have a flushing toilet, which is kind of a big deal, and running water. Most likely I will have neither of these when I actually get to my site, but for now it is a nice thing to have. So strange difference number one; to get to the bathroom you have to go outside, which at night is not really safe. So when we got to our families everyone was given a small bucket, this is our night pee bucket. If you have to go to the bathroom after all the doors have been locked you get to pee in your bucket in your room. I try to time my last bathroom run right before the family goes to bed so that I dont have to do that and so far I have been fortunate enough not to wake up in the middle of the night with the overwhelming urge to pee. It starts to get a little more complicated when someone has a runny tummy, but I'm sure you can guess how that works out. Strange difference number two; even though we are in a relatively large village showers do not exist. Even if you have running water there is no such thing has hot running water, so when you need to wash, you get to do it in a bucket.

This is my bucket bath. In the morning I wake up and boil two kettles of water, add some cold water until the water is a good temp, then take it back to my room. I put it on my chair and stand on a towel. You then take your washcloth and start to scrub. When it is time to rinse I move my bucket to the floor, get in it, and take my little cup that is used to pour water down myself. It basically sucks and is super cold even though the water is warm. For the next two years my back is basically never going to be clean because none of us have yet to figure out how to scrub our whole backs and to pour water down them without it getting all over the entire bedroom. However, the really fun part happens when you need to wash your hair. Turns out a lot of female Peace Corps volunteers end up shaving their heads because washing your hair sucks so bad. You basically put your bucket on the chair, flip your hair and head upside down and put it in your bucket. You then take your cup and pour water down your head, which also ends up going all down your face, in order to get all of your hair wet. Then you shampoo upside down, attempt to rinse all of it out, and if your feeling super motivated you repeat that process with conditioner. I have stopped conditioning my hair because it is impossible to get it all out. You are rinsing your hair with the water that is now full of shampoo, so basically conditioning is a huge waste of time and just prolongs that amount of time that you are freezing in your room. 

Strange difference number three; washing your laundry in the middle of your lawn which is also right next to the road is weird. I used to complain when I had to sit at the laundromat for two hours while my 3 to 4 loads of laundry washed themselves in the washer machines, but I will never complain about that again. Laundry here consists of four phases. Phase 1, wash. You fill a giant tub with freezing cold water, add the soap, add your clothes, and then hand scrub all of them. Today was my third experience washing my clothes and I still rubbed the majority of the skin off of my hands. So once you give up on trying to srub your clothes and end up just duncking then around a bunch, you toss them into another bucket of freezing water to rinse, which is Phase 2. After swishing them around a little there, you throw them into the final bucket of water to rinse again. Phase 3 is then to hang all of your clothes, including your nice Victoria Secret bras and undies up on the clothes line that is parallel to the public road outside your house. I have realized I'm not a fan of letting everyone in the neighborhood see my undies. Unfortunately there is no other option so I guess I will get used to it. Once they are dry you have reached Phase 4, ironing. South Africa takes appearence very seriously. If you look dirty they will tell you. So everything you own has to be clean and looking freshly ironed whenever you walk out of the house. I cant remember the last time I ironed anything in the states, but I am a pro now.

Speaking of phase 4 my clothes are probably dried by now, so I will finish my update on life in a South African village and school tomorrow!

Pre-Service Training

Hello everyone from Africa!!!
It is so great to finally get the chance to update everyone on how the last few weeks have been going. I finally got a phone here in South Africa, and figured out how to get online and upload new stuff to my blog.

So this update might come in multiple posts, a lot has happened over the last few weeks so it might take a while to get everything out.
First off, getting to South Africa sucks. 16 hours on a plane is not fun by any means, and then getting on a bus for three hours right after sucks even more. We got here right as the sun was going down, and by the time we got our bags and made it through customs it was completely dark. So after seeing the inside of the Johannesburg airport, we got on a bus and headed out into the unknown. We spent about 20 minutes driving through a city area, that looked a lot like a city in the states, and then all of the sudden we were driving through complete darkness. Occasionally we would pass through a small area that had lights, but then there was nothing again. It was kind of creepy to be honest. So after being up for about 28 hours, and traveling for 20 we finally made it to the college that we would be staying at for the next week.

As the bus pulled through the gates we started to hear soft singing coming from somewhere. As we got closer to the main halls the singing got louder and louder until we were finally able to see where it was coming from. The entire host country Peace Corps staff was lined up in native South African clothing singing to us as we pulled in and got off the bus. It was amazing. Song and dance are such a huge part of this culture, and you can tell by the way a random group of people can come together and sing in perfect harmony. They all seem to just know what part of the song is theirs and it flows so beautifully. After a few songs we were introduced to some of the key members of the staff before we were ushered into the dinning area to eat our first South African meal.

Lets just say that the food is interesting. The main part of the diet here is called pap. It is made from corn meal and looks like really thick mashed potatoes and had basically no flavor. You then have some kind of cooked vegetable, and when I say cooked, I really mean cooked. Everything is boiled down in water or oil until it is pretty much mush. Then there is some kind of meat that is usually a mystery. You then take chunks of pap with your hand, scoop up some veggie mush, and take some mystery meat and plop it in your mouth. It is slowly growing on me, but I would kill for a big fresh salad right now, or some real cheese. So far I have yet to get the "runny tummy" but I know it will come eventually.

After a short nights sleep, we were up the next day at 7am to begin our training. As unexciting as that seemed we were greeted bright and early by some pretty cool guests.

 In the tree is a peacock. Its hard to see, but they are everywhere on campus. The staff here makes fun of us because we get so excited about the animals. But after spending some quality time chasing after the birds we finally got to work, which I will tell you about it my next post, hopefully tomorrow. We all go to bed here really early because at night it gets really cold and no house here, or building for that matter has heating.

So good night to everyone in the states, and I will update everyone again sometime tomorrow on how training has been and about moving in with my host family.