So I just realised that it has been a while since I last blogged and then I realised that this will be the last blog that I am actually officially required to write. That’s right, I am now writing as a free man for the summer as I have finished my teaching practise! Of course I’m still here for another month and will continue to keep you posted on all the happenings ‘Down Under’!
After writing last week I embarked on what were to be a crazy few days in terms of teaching and in terms of completing assignments for university. Time management has always been something that I have struggled with, often leaving things to the last minute, and my attitude has proven to be no different in South Africa. In terms of school I was somewhat surprised to be landed with the daunting task of having to teach South African law and constitution to a Grade 11 class…half an hour before I was due to teach it. This is something which I quickly became accustomed to in the school, knowing that things very rarely go according to plan and you have to be extremely flexible and be willing to adapt to all situations. So anyway, I told my class at the start of each lesson that they would actually be my teachers and that through discussion we would all learn, and so we discussed. The discussions that I had with my Grade 11 classes will probably stick with me for a long, long time. We discussed several things including corporal punishment (which is ‘illegal’ in SA), lack of equality at the school and their expectations for the World Cup. I won’t publish any of the content of the discussions for the confidentiality of the students but needless to say my eyes were opened and in some cases some of my thoughts were simply confirmed. I think one of the worst feelings anybody can have is knowing when something is wrong but not having the first notion of what to do to put it right.
I’ve actually come to really enjoy secondary teaching. The interaction between with the children has been great and I genuinely think I’ve learnt a lot more from them then they have from me. My Xhosa has certainly improved for one thing. Without having a teacher in any of my classes I used the opportunity to be much freer and open with the children so that as well as the main bulk of the lesson we would also learn about each others cultures. I’ve learnt how to say hello (molo) and how are you (kunjani) as well as other little words like peace (uxolo) and unity (umanyano). In return I’ve given some of my classes A-Z’s of Northern Ireland featuring highlights such as Kilkeel, July, Giants Causeway and (London)Derry. The kids really enjoyed learning about somewhere else and I really enjoyed hearing their ideas as they compiled their own A-Z of SA.
One thing that I found slightly frustrating about teaching was that I never ever had a class for more than two periods and most classes I only saw once. This meant that I was never able to properly build up a rapport with any of my classes and it also meant that I was usually teaching the same lesson over and over, which obviously cut down on the planning as well which was nice. I think I could probably do my lesson on religions and peace in my sleep by now. I did have a beautiful moment in one of my classes though when I was talking about Jesus dying on the cross. When I said that Jesus rose again from the grave one of the girls gave a resounding ‘yes’ to my statement to which I gave a resounding ‘Amen’ to which the whole class responded with an ‘Amen’! God truly does present himself everywhere! Of course not everything in the school was happy I as I have talked about in previous blogs and last week I had children asking me for money and food for the first time which shocked me, saddened me and brought back the realisation that as much as I thought I was getting used to teaching in a township I still wasn’t anywhere near prepared for the stark reality which that presented. These kids are disadvantaged and it is unfair.
I want to sum up my teaching experience and what I’ve learnt from it but I’m finding it incredibly difficult to do. Perhaps the best way of summing it up is that come last Friday morning I was happy to be finished but still wanting more. I feel that I could still learn so much more from the kids in Khwezi Lomso and I feel that I could do so much more for them. There are so many teaching stories that I haven’t even put in this blog but which I’m sure I will be telling you all at some course over the next goodness knows how many years. I just hope that I have made a positive impact on the people I have met and worked with and that in some small way I enhanced the education of the children and gave them the confidence they need in themselves to achieve success.
Speaking of learning, I, as a student, also had a hectic time of it after writing my last post. I had to undertake a group assignment for my inclusion module and for the same module, write up a case study on a learner. As I said earlier time management is not my strong point and with a deadline looming on Friday I found myself starting to write up both assignments at around 11.30pm on Thursday night. Always able to find a way through though I managed to get them both battered out by the close of play on the Friday and handed in at varsity. The group assignment was actually an interesting one as we had to video ourselves having a teacher meeting about a child who was having difficulties learning. I learnt during the completion of this assignment that sometimes I do take on to much as I found myself completing work for others in the group but at least we got it done in the end! Assignments completed it was time to head to the Wild Coast!
South Africa has a lot of public holidays and on the 27th April they celebrated Freedom Day, the day when South Africa had it’s first election after apartheid. To celebrate we were given a long weekend and so we decided to make the most of it by heading to the former republic of Transkei, an area of land which, quite interestingly, was separated from South Africa during apartheid but never internationally recognised as a country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transkei. Leaving PE in the late afternoon the ‘Party Car’ struggled through several mountainous roads and was soon driving in darkness. After a ‘quick’ (I was with four girls) stop in an East London shopping mall we made what seemed like good progress along the N2. That was until we had to come off the N2 and on to quite possibly the worst road I have ever had to drive on. Now I have driven off-road in Botswana, through an unpaved hillside village in Lesotho, yes, I’ve even driven in Lurgan but this was the worst road I have ever seen. This road had potholes that you could get lost in. This road had potholes that you could get lost in stretched across the road and for stretches of kilometres at a time. This road had all that plus animals and people walking randomly across and we were driving on this road at midnight in pitch darkness! Weaving through the craters was fun for the first 5 minutes but became very tiresome very quickly as I could never speed up as I never knew where the next hole was going to be. Eventually though we arrived in Coffee Bay and quickly got ourselves to bed for some much needed rest.
Next morning I woke up and realised that I was in a simply beautiful place. Our hostel sat overlooking the beach and the sea with it’s enormous waves tossing themselves against the rocks. After a morning game of scrabble and a quick round of pancakes we set off in pursuit of ‘The Hole In the Wall’, sounds exciting, eh? Our first task was to cross a tidal river that surged every now and again but once that task was completed we beginning hiking along the cliff line. It truly was a beautiful hike in an incredibly remote place that was largely untouched by human hands, certainly not too many touristy hands. We hiked up and down hills, across bays and over rocks. Whilst crossing one bay we were caught out by a somewhat freakish surge of the sea which through a rock into my shin via Bitsy’s ankle and which also ended up destroying both our phones. Be warned the ocean is destructive! After several hours walking we eventually made it to ‘Hole in the Wall’ which was a hole in a wall. It was actually a bit more beautiful than that as waves came crashing through a hole that was cut through a rocky island just off the shore. We spent some time admiring the scenery and I managed to trade my T-shirt for a necklace from one of the local kids, so if you’re ever in Coffee Bay look out for the ridiculously stylish girl walking about. Instead of walking back we managed to hitch a lift in the back of a small van. Thirteen of us in all cramped into the small space did not make for a comfortable ride back to base but it was yet another experience to add to the T.I.A list.
We spent the evening in a local Xhosa village eating food with the locals which was surprisingly nice and learning more about their culture and traditions. We got to try traditional African beer which was horribly thick and actually just not nice at all. We also watched traditional dances and songs and of course engaged in them ourselves. We failed in our attempts to offload some of our girls in exchange for cows so we returned to the hostel with exactly the same number as we left with. As a side note, in Coffee Bay I was offered weed and mushrooms for the first time in my life and in remarkably quick succession. This place has a drug problem and it’s something which I’ve never really been exposed to before and something which I don’t really want to be exposed to again. The drug culture of the place did put a bit of a dampener on my trip but I was able to have fun without being high so I was happy.
The next day we spent the morning playing football on the beach with some local kids and then headed on for Port St. Johns. This meant having to drive through the urban chaos that is Mthatha. In Mthatha the traffic lights don’t work, people just walk drunkenly across the road in front of cars and livestock have right of way on the streets…crazy town. After successfully avoiding all the pot holes but not all the speed bumps I pulled our car up at our hostel for the night. Port St. Johns was much more developed than Coffee Bay but still held some beauty in its remoteness. Our night in Port St. Johns will be remembered solely for the music we created. It began with us jamming in the room with the old piano, marimba and djembe. Chance should have it though that the guy I met in Storm’s River so many weeks ago was also at our hostel this weekend and he soon had us talked into performing on the main stage at the hostel. I was amped up with bass, we had Alex and Valentine on drum kit and various others providing vocals and djembe beats. It was so much fun to create a fusion of music with people from across the world and I realised that I’ve really missed playing music since I’ve been here.
Before leaving we decided to spend the morning at the inventively named second beach where we splashed in the water, ran down sand dunes and played with local kids. I had to grab a little boy out of the waves at one point as he started to panic and I remember him clinging to me for all that he had. I actually had so much fun just being an idiot with the kids who we couldn’t really talk to due to language differences but who needs word when you have the language of FUN!!! After a relatively easy 8 hour drive we were back in PE recharged and refreshed for another week.
When I don’t blog for so long it means I have to write so much and you have to read so much. I’ll just very quickly fill you in on other things I’ve been doing without going in to any great detail, after all I’ll be home soon so you can just ask me what I was up to. Spent a lot of time of the last two weeks watching football in the sports bar which has become something of a second home. I’ve also been playing quite a bit of hockey with the ‘Black Label Bangers’ and picked up a knee injury on Friday night when an opponent decided to play my knee rather than the ball during our 3-2 defeat. The Green Machine has broken down but is up and running again for now and I am currently embarking on a challenge to myself to see something new everyday for the rest of my time here. Yesterday I went to Schoemakerskop and this morning I was at Cape Recife Nature Reserve. Two places very close to PE but which I had never seen before. I hope I haven’t bored you too much. I truly wish I could write in more detail but it’s simply impossible so you’ll just have to hear all my stories when I get home. Enjoy the pictures. Yes, the Wild Coast is that stunning!
Peace
God Bless
“Do everything with love”
1 Corinthians 16:14
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