Life In Technicolor

It feels like such a long time since I last wrote and yet it was only a week ago. This week’s activities were slightly less exciting and dangerous than the previous week’s but I hope it’s still exciting enough for you to read. I also realised that last week I wrote a ridiculous amount of words which effectively amounted to a Stranmillis assignment, so for all our sakes I try and be more concise this week.

I’ll begin with a funny incident which occurred last Wednesday and which I forgot to mention in last weeks blog. After our first class of the day I thought that we had a break before our next class. So, I decided to go out and lie on what I like to call ‘Madibaz Mound’ (Madibaz being the family name for Mandela, I think) and read. Me being me though it wasn’t long before I was sleeping on the grass until I was awoken by Marco, a German friend of mine. I quickly realised that it was time for me to go to class but as I arrived I noticed that everyone else was leaving. Turns out I had been looking at the wrong week on my timetable and so had slept through an entire class. Of course back home this might not have been a surprising event but I promise that this was an honest mistake and that I did actually intend to attend the class!

Now that that randomness is out of the way I’ll try and think of some of the things that I’ve been up to this week. I lost my rugby ball. I use lost in probably the loosest sense of the word. I was down at the beach on Friday with a few friends and I kicked the ball to a local guy in the water who it turns out can neither catch nor swim, so the ball started to float out from the shore. I chased after it but given my previous experience of open water I decided it was probably better to just let it go. It should be arriving with the penguins in Antarctica any day soon! My grief was short lived though as I went to Twenty20 cricket on Friday night. St. Georges Park is one of the oldest cricket grounds in the world and it certainly has a character of its own. The stadium was packed out with over 11,000 lively and enthusiastic cricket fans. I challenge anyone who thinks that cricket is boring to come and watch a 20/20 game here. We were sat beside the local supporters band comprising of drummers, trumpeters and maybe even a fiddler and so we were singing and dancing the whole way through the game in the stand. There were sixes, fours and wickets galore as the Warriors marched to victory of the Cobras much to the delight of the home supporters. I’m realising that words don’t really do this justice but I do have some video footage which I will try to upload to facebook sometime soon, the internet here doesn’t exactly lend itself to uploading!

 

Had a pretty chilled weekend in the city. Went to a nearby swimming complex on Saturday which is seriously sweet! You walk out to the pool and you see this massive blue pool and then just behind it the waves are crashing against the shoreline. This is the place to work on the tan that everyone at home keeps asking me about. There are also some water slides at the pool, which I think are designed for kids, but well we all know that I’m just a big kid anyway. I made my trademark chicken stir-fry on Saturday night, it’s not difficult I just through everything into a pan and hope for the best! Cooking here has been interesting as I’m so used at home to having everything provided for me. We all tend to cook for each other and with each other though which is nice. I’ve been able to broaden my culinary horizons and can now add tacos and pancakes to the list of things which I can now cook. I’m going to come home as the brand new Jamie Oliver!

Sunday was equally relaxed and I spent the morning at St. James Community Church and got a tour of the Jewish synagogue which they are buying and moving into in a couple of months time. I’d never been in a synagogue before and I have to say it was rather interesting. From having to cover my head when I entered to the curtain at the front, to the books of Moses and the arrangement of seats and things, I guess it made real some of the things which Jesus referred to when speaking about the temple and the Jewish leaders. In particular the reference to the curtain tearing in two when Jesus was crucified, there was a curtain similar to that in Jerusalem right before my eyes. I also hung out with some of the street guys who come along to the church that afternoon because they actually hang out right across the street from where I’m staying. It’s really cool to get an insight into how they live their lives and to gain an understanding of what it must be like to be truly poor. Sitting with them on the street and talking to them brings home that we are all brothers and the injustice that we should leave many of our brothers behind as we prosper.

Classes this week have been interesting, particularly our class on educational thought which this week turned to the subject of stereotyping, racism and xenophobia. This is something which is obviously a major topic for debate in South Africa and which has historically been linked with this country. I heard in class countless examples of stereotypes and incidences of xenophobia but also suggestions for how these could be reconciled. The more I thought about it the more I realised that these weren’t just problems faced by South Africans but these were global issues and issues which are also still incredibly prevalent in Northern Ireland. What I was hearing was the same story of home, only within a different context. Where some South Africans have conflict with Zimbabweans entering their country, many at home have conflict with Eastern Europeans entering our country. Where some South Africans stereotype each other by race, many at home stereotype each other according to religion. Like homophobia, arachnophobia and countless other phobias, xenophobia is an irrational fear, a fear of the unknown. Everyone wishes to overcome their fears, no-one likes to be afraid of something, so people should be open to getting to know something which is foreign to them and gain an insight and understanding of other people so as to rid themselves of their fears. Big dream, but if one doesn’t dream then one can never achieve.

The more I spend time at Khwezi Lomso the more I feel a great sense of injustice for the kids that go there. They have to learn in English, whilst their first language is actually Xhosa. This creates an immediate barrier to learning as there is actually no knowing if the children actually fully understand what is being taught. As I’ve said before the resources are not available for the children to learn. This week I observed a PE lesson where they only equipment used a text book provided by each child. This was with a Year 12 class, which is the equivalent to an A Level class. The kids just had to jump back, forward and to the side of their book, an exercise which I’m sure would have the PE lecturers at Stran astounded! However, this is all that the PE teacher can do with them. I hope to be able to bring some of my own teaching ideas and philosophies to my teaching in this school but it is going to be very difficult with the class numbers, lack of resources amongst other barriers, but I’m sure going to give it my best shot!

This week I had a very international skype call which incorporated so many people in South Africa, Malta, Isle of Mann and Northern Ireland. It’s great to hear how everyone is getting on in different places. It seems like Malta is very much like here, go to class and go to the beach, it’s easy Ashlene, right? I’ve also been in touch with Holland, Uganda, Poland and Zambia! The internet is like a cat-flap to the rest of the world, all you have to do is log on and you can instantly be immersed in a different country and someone else’s experiences, it’s fantastic! Now I just need a plane, complete with phalanges, to take me to these places and to bring my friends to me so we could fully experience what each other is experiencing. I want to take this opportunity to encourage anyone back home who is considering applying for Erasmus or International study next year to do it…it’s an incredible experience!

Turns out I didn’t make it any shorter, for which I greatly apologise for making you read all my thoughts and ramblings. This blog is as much for my benefit I think as it is for yours because it truly allows me to reflect on everything that I’ve been doing and seeing. So until next time folks,

Peace

God Bless

“Give all your worries and cares to God for he cares about you” 1 Peter 5:7

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls

I realised this morning on my way to class that I have now been away from home for just about a month…four weeks to the day! It’s really strange because that feels like it’s not time at all but yet it also feels like I’ve been here for a long time. I guess that just shows how easy I’ve found it to settle in here and what an amazing time I’ve been having. The only place to start this week is with last weekend’s excursion to Jeffries Bay or as the cool kids call it, J-Bay!

A group of 15 of us comprising of Finns, Swedes, Dutch, Americans, Germans and Irish decided to pay a visit to the world’s premiere surf spot. We had originally intended to hire out three cars but after discovering the gearbox on one of the cars was faulty we ended up with one car and one vehicle which I can only describe as being like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo and it was mine for the weekend! This thing was so fun to drive I can’t even begin to explain driving through mountains and along expansive coastline in this thing with 9 passengers in the back! We pulled up to our hostel on Saturday morning not expecting much due to the measly £10 for the night cost but were amazed at how luxurious the place was! Yes, we were sleeping in rooms of 6 and 8 but our living area had a massive brand new kitchen, pool table, digital TV, internet and a braai area! Not only that it was also literally on the Super Tubes wave which is the undisputed best wave in the world. Needless to say I didn’t even get into the water at such a place but the surfers among our group certainly seemed to enjoy themselves!

I did however venture onto a surf board for the first time in my life though at J-Bay, further down from our hostel at the sand break! Instructed by a Finn who himself had only had one lesson it goes without saying that I didn’t have much success but I can now say that my first wave was at J-Bay. After a very fun afternoon I was super pumped to find out that I could watch the rugby at our hostel only to be super disappointed by the actual Irish performance! We did however have a braai which quickly dispelled any feelings of sorrow at the defeat. It’s funny how food does that! That night we hit the town with myself as the taxi driver because I was the only one who could drive on the left hand side of the road with a gearstick and also because I was one of the few to be sober! Had a fun night at a pub with possibly one of the worst names ever…’The Jolly Dolphin’. I mean if that doesn’t get you pumped up for a night out I don’t know what will!

Sunday morning brought about another trip to the beach where I preferred to body surf rather than board surf. The water is so salty here that you come out of the water and your throat is almost burning but it’s well worth it for the banter! On the way home from J-Bay we decided to stop at a waterfall that we had heard some friends talking about! So we took the Mystery Machine over some fairly bumpy terrain (proper African roads) and rolled up through some ladies yard and onto this ‘waterfall’. As I’ve said before we’re experiencing a drought around PE so the waterfall was actually just a rock with a trickle of water running down it. We were however able to jump into the big pool below the ‘waterfall’ from the top of the rock face and there was also a ropey looking zip line that ran from the top down to the water so without hesitation we went for it. It was really fun doing the zipline and even funnier watching other people dong it and falling off into the water. We were all set to head home and loading into the Space Wagon when suddenly it started rolling down the hill. I reached to grab the handbrake only to discover that it was on so I jumped out of the van to see it rolling towards a cliff face and with people still in it. Not really thinking, and I can’t really remember what happened, I think I ran to the back of the van and somehow managed to bring it to a stop. As I say, it all happened so quickly and I don’t really remember what I was thinking or doing but the picture of that thing rolling down the hill will stick with me forever…very scary stuff. I later discovered that the guys in the van were literally throwing themselves out of it whilst it was rolling away. After we composed ourselves we headed back for PE and taking the scenic route we drove through a bush fire, which I think lacked the drama deserved after the previous hour’s events!

On return to PE I witnessed a proper fist and kicks fights between two taxi conductors how were fighting over passengers. The most amusing part of this was that the driver of my taxi just sat in his taxi and watched hooting at his guy trying to tell him to hurry up and beat the guy. Livewire on Sunday night was at the Boardwalk which is this huge outdoor entertainment complex with a cinema, bowling, mini golf, a casino, amusements and lots of shops and restaurants. It also houses an outdoor amphitheatre which is where Livewire was and man was it off the hook on Sunday night! The place was mental! It was amazing to see so many people on fire for God and giving their all in praise and worship for him. People singing and dancing like there was no tomorrow. Incredible!

What else have I been doing? Looking through my journal and it’s all pretty routine stuff compared to the weekends antics! On Friday night I went to a young adult’s bring and braai (which is phonetically pronounced…bry…see I did learn something in literacy this year…b b b bry!). Was really good to get to meet some new locals and begin to feel part of a Christian community. After the eating of the meat we played this game 30 seconds which is basically like Taboo so there were plenty of laughs at some peoples explanation of things…one person even suggested that Mother Theresa was Gandhi’s wife! I’ve had a few more hockey practises which have been intense but fun, especially to do some proper goalkeeping again, I forgot how much fun that was! Monday night was varsity cup rugby night under the lights where our boys got another hammering and I got another free T-shirt for dancing…I’m good at this game. Yesterday was pancake Tuesday but apparently nowhere else in the world has pancake Tuesday apart from the UK and Ireland so I made pancakes for a few of the Americans who have now decide that this is actually a really good idea for a day!

I also had my second day of observation at Kwhezi Lomso yesterday. http://khwezilomso.co.za/ This involved getting up very early (6.00am) to catch a shuttle bus to the school, which I think is still making me tired now! I spent the morning  playing an indigenous game with a few classes which involved throwing a stone up into the air, moving other stones out of a circle and catching the thrown rock again. Then you have to throw the rock up again, catch it, but leave one stone outside the circle whilst the others are pushed in. If that sounds a little confusing, it’s pretty much similar to jacks! After a few free periods (seriously secondary teachers have it easy) I got a tour of the school from the PE teacher. On the opening of the PE store I saw what was basically an empty room. It had a few cones, boxes and hoops but the teacher explained that she had had to bye these herself. It really is shocking to see how a school can be so under resourced. What hope is there for these kids if they can’t even be provided with even the most basic of PE equipment. The school rugby field has no grass, is littered with glass and rubbish and is open to anyone walking across it whenever they like. It really is shocking. My teacher said that after 28 years at the school she still can’t get used to it but she just gets on and does what she can for the children. What an inspiration! I think it will be worth the early mornings to actually invest some time with theses kids and to do what I can for them. Classes at university are continuing to go well and I’m beginning to get an understanding of the South African Educational system. By admission of lecturers and classmates it is a long way of perfection but I think it is moving in the right direction. I’ve handed in my second assignment this week and presented to the class on collaborative teaching which I think have both gone well.

OK, seriously enough talking! I’m going to see Valentine’s Day tonight and knowing how I love a good chick flick it’s sure to be fun…plus Taylor Swift is in it so it can’t be bad. Before that though I must go for a run along the beach and take a dip in the ocean. Keep me updated on all the happenings back home and all the inevitable TP stories. Love you all,

Peace

God Bless

“Never stop praying” 1 Thessalonians 5:17

It's Getting Hot Out Here

Who knew carrying the groceries could be such a good workout? Well a lot has happened since the last time I wrote to you! The past week has seen elephants, communion around a table, varsity hockey practise, a heat wave, a lightning storm and as I speak it’s just threatening to rain! So where to begin? I think I’ll start with last Thursday, a day when things started to really come together…

I finally got my registration finalised which was huge relief as it had dragged out for over a week of coming and going, seeing one person then seeing another. Even the final stages were a bit like this between getting a picture taken for my student card beside the health clinic, to getting a barcode put on it at the library, to getting login details at the computer lab and then getting print credits in the main building. I suppose this is just the life of a large university. The NMMU has over 20,000 students as opposed to Stranmillis which has about 1000 students. Also on Thursday we had our first ‘international Bible study following a series by Mark Driscoll entitled ‘Praying like Jesus’. It is so good to have fellowship with fellow Christians and to have a place where we can talk about our struggles with each other and pray with and support one another.

 

I still haven’t settled in a church yet so having this group is going to prove really helpful to me. On Sunday I attended St.James Community Church and ate communion around a table with 7 other people. The whole hall was set out in little groups like this and the whole service was based around the communion. It was a really nice concept where we broke the bread and drank the juice (it wasn’t wine) together. Livewire on Sunday night was yet again lively and next week we’re having it in an outdoor auditorium so I’ll make sure to keep you posted on how that goes!

 

The highlight of the week though came on Saturday when we went with Les Meiring to Addo Elephant Park, about an hour north of Port Elizabeth. Now, I’ve been on safari before so I sort of had an idea of what to expect, drive around, see some animals, take some pictures but after the first 15 minutes we still hadn’t seen anything apart from some elephant dung and the occasional warthog! Nothing, however, could have prepared me for what we were about to see! We had heard there were some elephants at a particular waterhole and on our way there we had encountered a few. However, at the waterhole there were literally hundreds of elephants of different shapes sizes and colours. Some were dark some were light, some were big some were small, some had tusks some didn’t but there were just so many! Hopefully I’ll be able to upload some photos to this for you to see. The best part of it was that we got into the park for 30 Rand which is the equivalent of about 3 quid…so less than it would cost to go to the zoo plus you don’t have to walk up that wretched hill! There were also hides in the park where we could get out of the van and see the elephants up close and these moments were the most surreal because you could see and hear the elephants splashing water and mud onto themselves…it’s hard to describe how cool it was! Saturday evening I also got to watch some Six Nations rugby, go ten pin bowling (they let you do it barefoot), and have the most incredible crepe ever…it was a crepe in a tub with ice cream bananas and chocolate inside it…don’t even want to think about the calories!

 

School this week has been good. After three years I finally understand what Vygotsky and his Zone of Proximal Development are all about and all it took was one simple explanation…fancy that! Now my education essays back home can be filled with educational theory! We also had a monkey in one of our classes this week which was definitely a first. He just kept walking in and out of the windows and climbing along the roof. The campus is situated on a nature reserve and so the monkeys are a constant visitor. They love to raid the litter bins around campus and chew on anything they can get their claws on! I also had my first day of observation this week in the school which I will be doing my teaching practise in and it was certainly interesting. We were sent to Khwezi Lomso Comprehensive School, a township school which has 1500 pupils and not enough room to teach them all. The classes are overcrowded with many of them having 40+ pupils and the furniture has not been upgraded or replaced since the school first opened. So teaching in an overcrowded classroom is going to be a new experience and so is teaching in a secondary school. I think it might be tricky adjusting from teaching 5 year olds how to say a word phonetically to teaching 18 year olds how to create a vision and goals for their lives. This is a challenge though which I am really looking forward to. I will be teaching Life Orientation and PE, which I’m really looking forward to as I have always wanted to gain experience of teaching this particular subject in a secondary school.  I know I’m going to have to adopt different teaching practises to adapt to the number of children in the classroom and the under resourcement of these classrooms. Whereas at home there may be enough resources in a school to do each child two or three times over, in Khwazi Lomso there aren’t even enough chairs or desks for each child, never mind textbooks.

After visiting the school yesterday I went to my first hockey practise at the NMMU. It was good to get back into the swing of hockey although I have to say pre season training in 35 degrees wasn’t the most pleasant experience! I also realised during the course of the session that I would have to do pre season twice in one year due to the differing seasons between the northern and southern hemisphere so I’ll either be super fit or lying in a heap at Edenvilla in the middle of July…I’d vote for the latter! It will be good though to get involved and see how hockey works here and more than anything it’s good to get back into the keeping pads again after over a year of playing outfield…I definitely couldn’t last the pace out here! I’ve also been playing a bit of basketball on one of the courts down by the beach but the only problem is that two of the American guys I play with can slam dunk so there isn’t much competition!

The heat has been crazy the last couple of days to and it doesn’t really show much sign of breaking either. It’s been hitting 35 most days and it’s also been really humid with very little of that Port Elizabeth breeze so the sea always looks very inviting. Last night we had a thunder and lightning storm but only a very little bit of rain. The people here really need rain is the region is currently experiencing drought conditions but it just doesn’t seem to be coming.

The last week has also seen some low points as well as all of the above highs. Some of the girls in our apartment building were robbed at knifepoint, a very real reminder of the threat of crime in the city. This also led to my first and hopefully last experience of a South African police station to find the girls. Thankfully they’re all OK minus a few phones and some cash! It was also with deepest regret that I last night found out that my PE classmate Nicole McGrath had sadly passed away. I just would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Nicole who was an enthusiastic, caring and supportive individual who was destined to be a fantastic teacher. It is indeed tragic that her life was cut so short and she will be sorely missed not only by our PE class but by all who knew her and my deepest sympathises go out to her family at this time.

I think that’s just about me for this week. I had intended to write more regularly to keep the length of each post down but that grand idea spectacularly failed! I’ve got some potatoes roasting in the oven that I should probably go and check on. So until next time,

Peace

God Bless

Kings Beach

Connected

Gee, I’ve been looking through my journal, which surprisingly I have actually kept, to see what I’ve been doing since my last post, and it seems like soooooo much! I guess the easiest way to record it is in chronological order as boring and as uninventive as that might be. You’ll also forgive me of course if I seem a little rushed but the beach is calling!

After our initial orientation day I had a few days off to relax and gather up a few things so I finalised the set up of my phone and signed up for internet which finally arrived yesterday much to the delight of many of the folk in the Bantry! I also got to play some guitar which was such a good thing…we even set up an improvised drum set to accompany, comprising of a pan, a beer bottle, a wooden spoon and a knife! I love the spontaneous things like that which happen here. Everyone has their own unique style which makes this place so fun to be in, for example, yesterday I watched a Swedish guy doing the most amazing skipping I’ve ever seen and there are American guys who can slam dunk! It’s so fun to be a part of.

Being part of such a diverse group of people means that there’s always something happening. We’ve been to a South African cinema where the audience don’t sit in silence but get really involved in the film, shouting at the screen, clapping their hands, screaming and rolling around in laughter. It was definitely experience and we’re going back again tonight, I guess it’s the equivalent of Crazy Tuesday only it’s on a Wednesday, it only costs like £1.50! We also went on a city tour on Friday to see a bit more of Port Elizabeth and to find out where everything is situated. We went to the harbour and the fortress but the most moving and striking part of the tour was the visit to New Brighton township. After driving past the newly built Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium which cost millions we were hit with houses that would barely represent a shed at home…and they were everywhere! I’ve seen some pretty poor areas in the past, especially in Kenya, but this was particularly striking I think because it was set in contrast to the relative wealth of other parts of the city. And amongst the open sewers and the litter strewn streets was the Red Location Museum. This part of the trip was equally as moving as it tracked part of the history of apartheid South Africa, in particular the massacre at Uitenhage which you should google and be amazed and appalled. I guess it only hit home on Friday that this is actually a country not so dissimilar to our own in terms of its past.

On a brighter note the rest of the weekend was very enjoyable. We enjoyed the beach day organised by the university with several team games and some beach soccer which for once didn’t get over competitive! We also discovered one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen on a beach and it’s going to be hard to explain but I’ll try. So it’s like a deep pool on the beach but at one side of it there’s an ocean wall which the waves crash over, so you can lean on this wall and let the waves break over your head, it’s pretty sweet! We also got fed a traditional Afrikaans stew, not much unlike the Irish version, so needless to say I had seconds! The downside to this was that the back of my legs got an absolute torching and I spent the next few days looking like a lobster. That night we had a traditional South African braai or inother words a barbeque…the sheep liver was particularly interesting! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgH4ktFr9TQ

Sunday brought about it’s early start as I headed to church for eight. I’m beginning to like this little venture though as it always entails a walk back along the beach…and who can argue with a Sunday morning stroll along the beach! I spent the afternoon just chilling and napping before heading to the Livewire church on campus. This was amazing! Anybody who has been to Summer Madness or likewise event will have an idea of what this was like…only it was African! Everyone was so free and open in their praise and worship and their was a real sense of God’s presence amongst the congregation. I think you can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISrQr4EKgiU

Spent that evening having the traditional Sunday night spread only with pizza and dancing the rest of the night away at the jazz club! Sundays are my absolute favourite day here! Actually on that note I want to share a short story with you. We were walking home from the beach on Saturday when we were approached by a man who claimed he needed money for his kids. We’ve been told to try and ignore these people which is extremely difficult but we had no cash on us anyways. The man kept persisting though and following us so I told him we had no money but that I would pray with him. From the man’s instant reaction I could tell that this meant more to him than any money could, and so we prayed in the middle of that Port Elizabeth street. It was so humbling to see how this man who seemingly had nothing put so much faith in God to provide over any circumstances!

And school? Last week we went on a PGCE orientation event which was good to meet our classmates and to get an idea of what we would be studying over the course of our stay in PE. The venue for this event though was absolutely spectacular! Situated about 8km west of Port Elizabeth the conference centre was situated on a rocky coastline with rolling waves and shimmering sunshine. Here it was so evident to see God’s creation in action! Was strange to think though that the next point of contact from South Africa is Antarctica…you wouldn’t think it from the weather! I’ll be studying modules in inclusive education, educational thought and life orientation, which is basically a combination of PDMU and LLW. So far the classes have been great with the lecturers really engaging with the students and the students contributing to lively discussion. Maybe this is because they are post graduate students or perhaps it is the South African way of education that students are more willing to contribute to their own education. My classes start at 8.30am every day but this isn’t too much of an issue as I’m finished by lunch time so I can go home and enjoy the rest of my day on the beach, as I did half way through the writing of this. The waves are so powerful here. Yesterday we enjoyed 6-7ft waves and some nice body surfing. The beach is also a great place to meet some of the local people and to kick some rugby ball with them or have a go at skim boarding.

I think that’s all for now! No wait I forgot the varsity cup rugby and how could I? The stadium on campus was very lively on Monday afternoon as the college rugby team, the Madibaz (Dolphins) took on the Matties and got hammered 68-20! But the atmosphere, the colour and the banter made it an experience to be enjoyed. I think varsity sport should be like this at home where everybody gets involved and above all has a bit of banter! Now I think that’s it. I got elected to deputy president of the exec yesterday without a single vote being cast and I look forward to fulfilling my duties in that role during the incoming year. So until the next time,

God bless

Peace

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