Teaching about South Africa

Yesterday and today I taught about 300 7th grade students (or learners, as they would be called in South Africa) a lesson on South Africa. I wore a traditional dress I bought in Greenmarket Square in Cape Town and showed lots of arts and crafts and currency and played South African marimba music for them. I gave a short summary of the history of South Africa and explained how race is viewed there and how that is different from views of race in the US. We learned what apartheid was and why Nelson Mandela is to SA what both Martin Luther King and George Washington are to the US. Then I showed them a slide presentation about my time there and answered lots of questions. The last two groups today (about 50 learners in each) were the best, with the kids very interested. One girl asked me if this experience had changed me and if so, how. Quite a perceptive question from a 7th grader. I told all the kids that rarely does a day go by that I don't hear from someone I met there.

This Saturday will be my last preparation class for the English as a Second Language Praxis exam, which I will take January 10. So now I will be on my own, studying phonology and morphology and all sort of things to be ready for the exam. Send me good thoughts.

Article for NCAE News Bulletin, December 2008

Sometime in the next couple of weeks the December issue of the NCAE News Bulletin, a full-color newspaper, will come out with an article I wrote about my experience in South Africa. It may be edited for space, but here is the article I submitted:

Inspired By a Hero
Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” With a long-standing interest in South Africa and how its people were bringing apartheid to an end, I believed universal education was a key to that new democracy’s success. About three years ago I began to ask, “How can I help?” That question eventually grew into a desire to volunteer in a school in South Africa—not because I had any answers for them but because of what I could learn from them.

Turning a Dream into Reality
I knew I couldn’t just show up there so I researched volunteer agencies, checking their mission statements and programs, as well as their reputation within South Africa and in the international community. The most impressive was Cross Cultural Solutions (http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org/). Their vision “is of a world where people value cultures different from their own, are aware of global issues, and are empowered to effect positive change.” CCS operates “volunteer programs around the world in partnership with sustainable community initiatives, bringing people together to work side-by-side while sharing perspectives and fostering cultural understanding.” I’d found my volunteer organization, but volunteers pay all their own expenses; I still needed to pay for it.
Then, NCAE announced the new Linda Rader Professional Opportunity Award. I applied and was thrilled to become its first recipient. I registered with CCS, continued to read and research, got inoculations, fund-raised for part of the remainder of expenses, started a blog (http://www.ncaelindaraderinsouthafrica.blogspot.com/), and packed my bags.

An Unexpected Africa
The word Africa conjures many images, but none prepared me for the spectacular scenery of the Western Cape Province or for the stark contrasts I would encounter. The most European of African cities, Cape Town is also third-world, its stately Cape Dutch architecture in juxtaposition with the heart-breaking poverty of the shanty towns that stretch for miles on the city outskirts. The economy is both formal and informal, with vendors in outdoor markets selling traditional crafts to tourists in high-rise hotels. The past exists alongside the future, and Robben Island, the notorious political prison where Nelson Mandela served eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison, is now a museum not far from where the 2010 World Cup stadium is under construction. Restaurants serve international cuisine, traditional African foods, local wild game and seafood, and the unique Cape Malay dishes that blend the best tastes of Europe, Africa, and southeast Asia. Table Mountain dominates the landscape, and from the city itself one can look up the slopes and see hikers or numerous species of wild antelope. Music is an integral part of all South Africa’s cultures, with street musicians everywhere. A short drive leads to resort beaches, game reserves, wine farms, some of the world’s best whale-watching, and a penguin colony. Anywhere in the hills a driver must be ready to brake for a troupe of baboons, and in the city’s Bo Kaap neighborhood, one can stand in a residential courtyard and hear the call to prayer from five different mosques. I tried not to miss any of these opportunities to experience South Africa.

A Volunteer’s Day
My day began at Homebase 2, where 20 of the 50 volunteers lived together. Volunteers came from Ireland, Britain, Canada, and the U.S., and included students, a massage therapist, a Congressional aide, attorneys, a laboratory technician, a former nurse, an actor, a business consultant, and several teachers. Living dormitory-style, volunteers of all ages bonded over breakfast cereal and late-night pizza and DVDs. Volunteer placements lasted 4 hours, followed by lunch at homebase and an afternoon of CCS perspective programming or free time. We either ate dinner at homebase or sampled local restaurant cuisine. Evenings included discussions about placement, which included schools, hospitals, hospice centers, orphanages, clinics, community centers, etc. Some worked in townships, and many in AIDS/HIV services. We needed each other to help us process all we were experiencing, and all of us found our worldviews changing in similar ways.
My placement was at Blossom Street Primary School, a government (we would say public) school serving 560 learners (we would say students) in kindergarten through seventh grade. Classes have about 50 learners. The school is located in an area called Athlone. Not technically a township, its homes are small and modest, often with outbuildings in the backyards, housing extended family. Two-thirds of the learners are coloured (mixed-race) and one-third are Africans (black). Many are being raised by grandparents. About half the learners are Muslim, the remainder either Christian or traditional African religions. The African learners come either from townships or the shanty towns while most of the coloured learners walk to school. School is taught in English, but nearly all the coloured children speak Afrikaans as their first language, while the African learners speak isiXhosa—an African click-language. I never met any South Africans who weren’t at least bilingual, and many people speak several of the 11 official languages. I began my volunteer placement assisting in a 6th grade class.

A Principal’s Dream
When the principal found out I was a trained media specialist, he asked if I would split my time between the classroom and the media center, a room piled with very dusty, outdated books, all of which were donated and most of which were discarded from other libraries. The school has no asssitants, special teachers or media specialist. A former teacher had begun organizing the books into a collection but was killed in a automobile accident five years earlier, and since then no one had time to take over. The media center also housed the school’s only television and DVD player. The principal and teachers longed for a place to bring students to read books and watch DVDs. By the time my four weeks were up three other CCS volunteers also split their time between classrooms and the media center. My last task was to develop a plan and instructions for subsequent volunteers so that this long-term project could continue. CCS South Africa’s program manager committed to keeping a volunteer working in the media center at all times so that a Blossom Street Primary media center would become a sustainable project. I hope to find schools in North Carolina that would be interested in raising money for Blossom Street Primary School to purchase new library books, DVDs and library supplies.

Conversations in the Teachers’ Lounge
The teachers at Blossom Street P.S. are as dedicated as any I have ever known. What do they talk about? The same things we do. Teachers in South Africa aren’t paid well. (The cost of living is lower there, but not low enough to justify the under $20K annual income of a 20-year-veteran teacher). Public education is underfunded. The education bureaucrats at the provincial level are out of touch with what goes on in a classroom. Too much emphasis is being put on testing, and schools are evaluated by how learners perform on standardized tests. Lots of conversation centered on a new idea there called pacing guides. Teachers wondered what they were supposed to do when some learners needed longer to master a concept and how they would handle teachable moments. More paperwork kept being added to their jobs. Sound familiar? They said that most of the new initiatives came from the U.S. and the U.K. and they asked that we in the U.S. please start coming up with some better ideas than we have in the past few years.

Changing Whose World?
Can I say that I changed the world? I was part of a continuum of volunteers that are essential to South Africa’s schools, and what I did made a positive impact. I made connections with local people such as the philosophical and wise van driver Shamiel who took me to volunteer placement and Natalie, the high school teacher who taught the volunteers Afrikaans lessons and the volunteers who will be friends for life. I still correspond with two of the Blossom Street teachers and with Shamiel. Natalie is on Facebook, as are most of the volunteers, including my roommate Pat from Canada and the four young women I came to think of as my “daughters.” There hasn’t been a day since returning home that I haven’t been in contact with at least one of them. Every one of us believes that we have been changed by our volunteer experience. And we like the changes in ourselves, even if they do make us feel a little uncomfortable at time. This experience made me realize how important it is to see my work through fresh eyes, to be truly present in the moment, to appreciate the people I connect with daily, and to continue to grow professionally and personally. I hope to bring that back to the learners in my school and to my colleagues in education in North Carolina. Finally, I hope that future winners of NCAE’s Linda Rader Award also find their own life-changing experience..

Volunteering Changes Lives

It's been a long time since I posted but I want to share this news. What follows is an email I sent to several of my fellow volunteers, about half of whom were still in Africa, on September 27. Since then, I have had two classes and shifted my reading and research from South Africa to linguistics and second language acquisition. Please read on to find out what I am talking about:

September 27, 2008

Everybody keeps asking me if my volunteer experience in S. Africa was life-changing, and you know more than anyone else that the only answer is, "Yes!" But I want you to be among the first to know that I have made a big decision that really does change my life in terms of my profession. It used to be that a person in North Carolina had to get a Master's degree in ESL (English as a Second Language) to be licensed (some states call it certified) to teach that. Last year North Carolina changed the requirements. Now, a teacher who is licensed to teach a subject in NC (I'm licensed for 2 areas--library media grades K-12 and social studies grades 6-9) can add ESL licensure just by passing the PRAXIS exam (one of those Education Testing Service exams that are comprehensive, hard, and long) in teaching English as a second language. This is just about impossible still without a lot of coursework. However, there is a cohort of people in Charlotte taking a 12-week long ESL Praxis prep course on alternate Saturdays, meaning we meet 6 times, to telecope the whole master's program into these 12 weeks. If we succeed in learning everything, we can take the test in January. If we pass, we will be eligible to teach ESL next year. Anyway, over a hundred people and I applied for the cohort of 30 and I was accepted! I had my first class today, and I LOVED it. So now I have a couple of thousand pages to read and learn in a huge course notebook and 4 other oversize books, and I have to do this in time to take the exam in January.Now what does all this mean, you ask? My plan is to leave working in the library and next year I hope to teach English as a second language. Look, I don't know if this is something I want to do permanently and that I will never work as a school librarian again, but I feel like lots of experiences have all been leading me in this direction. Then, working in Blossom Street really made me reflect on what I am doing and how to keep living in the moment. And then I read about the cohort and it all fell into place. And next month I turn 57 and I plan to work until I am 65, so if I become an ESL teacher next year, I will have 7 years to do this, and I think I can make a valuable contribution in that time. And anyway I am not too old to learn something new. It is still teaching, after all.So, you were all there when this big idea started to develop and are probably just about the only people (Michelle and Pat, too, but for some reason I couldn't friend them on Facebook and maybe some of the other HB2 people) who would have a clue why I'm "suddenly" making such a big change. You can understand it leading to an epiphany, I think. Okay, what do you think?Can't wait to hear from you. I promise to get my head out of the books long enough to read your reply. :-)Glenda

Home again and beginning to reflect

I got home late Saturday after 33+ hours in transit. The flight from Dakar to Atlanta was cancelled, so I was able to get on a flight to JFK, where I had to wait over 7 hours until I could connect to Charlotte.

Expect more posts from me, though, as I continue to process all that I experienced and explore how it affected me. I already know that in Cape Town I was living in the present in an intentional way that I haven't done in a long time, and I want to make that the way I live here, too. That probably doesn't make much sense, but I will try to figure out how to explain it; I know the other volunteers in Cape Town will know what I mean, and maybe they can express it better.

Shamil, our driver to volunteer placement and now a friend, has a "grateful rock," a small stone he holds every night before bed and thinks about at least one thing during the day he is grateful for. Well, I have so much to be grateful for and I intend to think about it a lot more than I have in the past. Thanks, Shamil. My fellow volunteer (and friend) Scottie is also reflecting on this incredible experience. He writes in his blog that what is important and what he has learned is how alike we all are--black, white, coloured, South African, American, etc. Scottie is one of the wisest people I know.

I'm still recovering from jet lag, e.g., I woke up at 3:45 this morning and am now exhausted. Tomorrow is back to teaching in my school, with a renewed spirit and new attitude to life and what is important, even if I'm confused about whether to be awake or asleep.

My Last Weekend in Cape Town

Just a short note to say that my last weekend here was a fitting "ending." Saturday was spent in the largest township, Khayalitsha, working on a Habitat for Humanity house with a very large group from many of the area churches. We started seven houses, and in just about four hours times we dug the foundation, mixed the cement and laid the foundation. It's unbelievable what teamwork can get done!

On Sunday my friends Stacey and Jean and I spent the day with our driver Shamil, who took us about 3 hours outside Cape Town to Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of the continent. The rock formations there, though large, look more like huge pieces of driftwood--beautiful. We also waded, despite the cold, in the Indian Ocean near Cape Agulhas. We ate lunch, then drove through farmland and semi-desert to Hermanus, one of the few places in the world where you can stand on shore and see whales come very close. We saw them by the dozen, and I could have stood on that point and watched them all day.

Placement is still wonderful. I've learned so much about education in South Africa and gotten to know some wonderful teachers, staff, and learners. We really have made progress on the library, though I am leaving it with so much still to be done. . .

This Weekend in Cape Town

After a very busy week at placement, spending time with the other volunteers (including a late night yesterday of eating out, partying, and karaoke at the local pub because over half the volunteers are leaving this weekend), and cultural activities, I am looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow I am working all day on a Habitat for Humanity home in a township. On Sunday three of us have hired a car and driver for the day. We are going the coast to Hermanus to whale-watch and have lunch, then to Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa, and back to Cape Town over the mountains. The views are supposed to be spectacular, and Hermanus is one of the few places in the world where the whales come almost up to the shore. This is my last weekend here,and this one is sure to be memorable.

Exotic cultures, exotic cuisines

One of the best things about being here with CCS is conversation with the volunteers. We currently have 16 volunteers living in my homebase (though 5 will leave this weekend), ranging in age from 16 to 59. All have compelling life stories, and all have interesting perspectives. A discussion this afternoon with Kara (an attorney from Portland, Oregon, and Jean, a legislative aid in DC), for example, concerned the belief among Americans that the US is truly multi-cultural, but the realization that multiculturalism in America is minor compared to South Africa. Nowhere is this more evident than in language--SA has eleven official languages, and many more unofficial ones. Nearly everyone we meet is multilingual, usually speaking three or more fluently, and every time we are out we hear at least that many spoken around us within a few minutes' time.



A second way that these (to us) exotic cultures are evident is the food. The variety here is extensive, and I truly believe that if I lived here for decades, I would still have frequent opportunities to try something entirely new and outside my previous food experience. So here I will write about some of the foods I have tried lately.



Last week our placement director Tahira introduced us to Cape Malay culture and cuisine. Let me digress for a brief explanation of Cape Malay history and culture. Shortly after the Dutch East India Company set up a colony at the Cape of Good Hope in the 1650s as a provisioning station for ships sailing between the Netherlands and the East Indies, the governor decided there was a need for slaves to help work the land. Unable to subdue the indigenous Khoi-San (also known by the derogatory names Hottentots and Bushmen) population and deeming a good trade relationship necessary, Governor Riebeeck asked for slaves to be sent here. Some were brought in from other parts of Africa, principally Madagascar and East Africa, but most eventually came from what is now Indonesia. Malay was the lingua franca of trade in southeast Asia and was the predominant language of the slaves. Over time many of these slaves mixed with the local Khoi-San population, who were a "brown," rather than "black" population, and with both the white population and the black population, creating a mixed race known as "coloured." After the English came to the Cape of Good Hope and challenged the Dutch-descended settlers, many Dutch and some coloured moved inland in a migration known as the Great Trek to settle away from the English. Those coloured who remained became known as the Cape coloured. A large segment of the Cape coloured are Muslim, and these are known as the Cape Malay. The so-called coloured population speaks Afrikaans, as distinct language based on 17th century Dutch mixed with elements of African languages, as well as Indian languages and English.

So, last week Tahira spoke to those at our homebase about her culture--the Cape Malay culture, as we were served a lunch of traditional Cape Malay food. Then, on Monday night of this week, six people from our homebase had an oppotunity to eat dinner in a Cape Malay home, in Bo-Kaap, the area of Cape Town that was given to the former slaves when the British governor of the Cape Colony freed the slaves in the 1830s. This opportunity came about because one of our drivers who takes us to placement and on excursions has a sister-in-law who, for a small fee, invites tourist occasionally into her home to learn about Cape Malay cooking and eat a traditional Cape Malay meal. We arrived in time to help make the samoosas and the roti and to learn how she prepared the rest of the meal. We left the table during dinner once during call to prayer and went out into the courtyard behind the house. The house sits among five mosques--the largest concentration of mosques in South Africa--and we could hear the call to prayer coming from all of them. It was beautiful, haunting, and moving, all the more so for me because I had spent all afternoon with two other volunteers at the South African Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center. A multicultural day indeed.

So Cape Malay cuisine is a unique blend of Malay, Indian, and Dutch cuisines. Here are the fabulous Cape Malay foods that I have eaten: samoosas, filled with either a savoury minced beef or a spicy cheese and corn mixture; small meat pies; chevra and slangethies, which I can best describe as a Malay version of party mix; dhaltjies, also called chilli bites, spicy deep-fried puffs of bread; incredible chicken curry; breyani, a kind of curried layered stew; biscuits or cookies, similar to shortbread but spiced with anise or nutmeg; and koeksisters, doughnuts without the holes with cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, dipped in a sticky coating and coconut. It is all fabulous.

I've had two more major eating experiences in the past week. Nineteen of us went to a restaurant called the Africa Cafe, which serves foods from the length of Africa in a family-style setting. Wait staff explained everything we were served, including soup, appetizers, main dishes, starches and vegetables, and dessert. We were seved over 30 different foods and could ask for seconds on anything we wanted. The restaurant is huge (we ate in the Morocco room), and the presentation is perfect. Dinner lasted for nearly 3 hours. In addition to all the food, I had rooisbos tea, a glass of wine, and sparkling water, and my bill incudling tip was about $30. Google the Africa Cafe in Cape Town to see the incredible menu. Second, today the entire group of CCS volunteers went to a shebeen, a traditional restaurant in the township of Guguleto. We ate grilled meats, mealy pap (sort of like grits, but smoother and not gritty) with tomato gravy, African pot bread, and a mess of greens that would not seem unfamiliar to anyone from the South of the US. We ate outside under an awning, with an African band playing, and although all we had to do was look around to know we were right in the township, I never felt uncomfortable. I did notice that we had large male drivers and other CCS staff who seemed to stay on the outskirts of our group.

Just a note: we are having some problems with the internet connection in our homebase and that, along with being busy, has kept me from posting as often as I would like. I'll try to do better in future. Also, there are major email problems, and only last night a bunch of us realized that emails we had sent back home never got through. Some of you may think I haven't been keeping in touch, but I'm trying and it isn't always working. Be patient with me. It will get done, African time. Also, to everyone in CMS, I can't even access CMS email at all, so if you have emailed my CMS address, I won't see it until I am home.

Finally, I've bought the Cape Malay cookbook that was recommended to me, as well as the Africa Cafe cookbook. I hope to cook an African feast when I get home. Y'all come!

Cape of Good Hope and Rugby

Friday night I saw my first rugby match, sandwiched between stops at a pub near the Newlands Rugby Stadium. Newlands is South Africa's largest rugby stadium, and people here are passionate about rugby. We sat behind the visiting team, in the sixth row and couldn't have had better seats. Amazingly, they cost the equivalent of about US$6! We at at the stadium, and I had a boerewor and chips, that is, what I would call a South African version of a bratwurst and French fries. The people sitting around our group of 14 Americans were quite willing to explain the nuances of the sport. The game is a much faster sport than American football, and the players wear no protective equipment. It's exciting, and the fans cheered passionately. Unfortunately, Western Province (the home team) was soundly trounced by the Sharks (from Durban). I discovered to my surprise that I really enjoyed the match and would like to see rugby again.

Yesterday, six of us hired a driver and explored the Cape Peninsua, driving down the Atalantic side to Cape Point, where we ate lunch in a wonderful seafood restaurant. My seafood platter was so beautiful that I photographed it. Then we drove back up the Indian Ocean side. Because we stopped frequently in towns or to take advantage of the beautiful weather and breath-taking views, the trip lasted from about 8:30 am until 7:00 pm. We stopped at "World of Birds," an aviary in Hout Bay, as well as the Hout Bay waterfront, where I fed a seal weighing about 560 kilos. We saw a troop of wild baboons on the side of the road, including two babies, and all kindly posed for us. From atop Cape Point we watched four Southern Right whales swin across a bay. We also saw some kind of bok, probably gemsbok but it was too far away to be certain. We saw wild ostriche, and we stopped just outside Simonstown on the Indian Ocean side to see a penguin colony. We were able to walk right through their nesting area and stand with them all around us. Last night I rested but some went out to enjoy the nightlife.

This morning was lazy--I caught up on emails and rested a bit. This afternoon we shopped at Green Point Market, a flea market-style craft fair that runs along one side of the still-under-construction soccer stadium for the 2010 World Cup. I bargained and got some good buys, including a traditional African dress that I will have to alter to fit me. It will be great for teaching and making presentations on my trip.

Tomorrow is Monday, so I will be starting my second week at placement (Blossom Stree Primary School). I can't believe time is flying by so quickly, yet I have seen and done so much in this short time. I am afraid it will fly by.

Of National Anthems, Scary Stories, and Discarded Library Books

Just a short post on my placement today: the children in grade 6A "interviewed" me, which was funny, with questions as to whether or not I have met any celebrities, what my favorite sport is, favorite car, favorite country, etc. They asked me to sing the US national anthem. Being only somewhat brave, I offered to sing the first half of it because the last half has too many high notes. I don't remember the last time I sang a solo without going flat and even was applauded. Then, they all stood and sang the South African national anthem in such clear, beautiful voices, that I actually had chills. We talked about stories that we all like, and someone said he liked the Goosebumps stories. I asked if they believed I could tell them a story that would scare them. I told The Gunniwulf, one of my favorite jump tales, and they all jumped and screamed at the appropriate time and then laughed . I am ordered to tell more stories next week.

Kara and I worked in the library today. Nearly all the books are second-hand donations, many discarded from other libraries long ago. Back home, school librarians "weed" their libraries regularly. I couldn't help but think of the books I have weeded in the past five years: they would have been a treasure here. Kara and I are determined to organize book drives when we get home so that these children can have books that are up-to-date. One that I did throw away today was a book on modern aircraft published in the 1950s. Our task here is daunting, but we are convinced we can make a difference.

Tonight, I'm off to my first rugby match . . .

An amazing day in Cape Town

We all get tired sometimes, but there is a "good" tired and a just plain miserable tired. Every night I am feeling the good tired because my days are full and stimulating. Today was my second day at placement, and I couldn't be more excited about what I am doing. The school serves children in grades R (what we call kindergarten--I must ask what "R" stands for) through 7, with about 560 learners (what they say instead of students). They arrive at 8:30 in the morning, have class until 10:30, when they all eat outside in the "yard" (which we would call playground). Someone on staff supervises the children, but I believe it is only one or two people, and all the teachers go to the staff room for tea break.

What is striking is that we are all able to fit into the tiny staff room--there are not more than 16 or 18 people, including the principal, assistant principal, assistant principal, teachers, secretary, and 4 volunteers. That's because the classes are packed, and class size is something that is talked about by the teachers; one of their first questions was what our class sizes are. At Blossom Street, classes average over 50 learners, packed into the rooms like sardines. The school was built in 1962, is very clean and orderly, though there are not the modern conveniences and teaching resources that we have at home. They are rightly proud of a brand new computer lab, but the classrooms don't have any of the technology we are used to.

The 4 CCS volunteers at Blossom Street arrive at 8:30 and stay until 12:30 because most afternoons we have presentations such as yesterday's on HIV/Aids, or language lessons in Afrikaans and Xhosa. I am taking Afrikaans lessons because that is what about 2/3 of our learners, who are called coloured, speak. They live near the school in the suburb of Athlone. Now, it must be understood that suburb isn't what we generally think of but more what I would call neighborhood. Athlone is not strictly a township but rather a neighborhood of what appear to be modern homes. However, many children here live in poverty. Very often, behind the house in the back yard, there is one or more shacks, which house additional families, all extended family members of the modest home facing the street. The other third of our learners speak Xhosa and come from the shanty towns or informal settelements, as they are called here. These are the destitute people who have moved to Cape Town from rural areas of South Africa. The school is taught in English, with all learners attending an Afrikaans class.

I am assisting a 6th grade teacher until break, after which Kara and I are working to set up the library. I will devote a later blog just to that, but the most exciting thing I learned today is that schools here use the Dewey Decimal System--the same as at home.

After lunch at homebase, 12 other volunteers and I took a ferry to Robben Island. Think Alcatraz, but in Table Bay. This is the infamous former leper's colony that housed political prisoners, where Nelson Mandela spent most of his 27 years in prison. Our guide was a fomer political prisoner who spen 11 years years there with Mandela and has so many stories to share. Robben Island was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1999 and is one of the must-see attractions in Cape Town. The visit, including the ferry ride, lasted three and a half hours and was inspirational. You might want to visit the website.

Tired is good, but I am definitely tired tonight. Tomorrow is casual day at school, when learners don't have to wear uniforms (although I am told some will becuase that is all they have to wear), and teachers wear jeans. This is good for me because Kara and I anticipate a lot of cleaning in the library.

Impressions of Cape Town

This is the most difficult post for me to write so far because at the moment I am overwhelmed. There are so many experiences coming my way and so many utterly new sights and sounds that there is no time to process anything before something else I see or hear knocks me over. Let me try to give you some ideas.

I reported to homebase (the place where I live while volunteering here) on Saturday. Ours is the largest group of volunteers CCS South Africa has placed, so instead everyone living in the regular homebase, that is for this summer called homebase 1, with 31 volunteers living there. I am in homebase 2, housing 21 volunteers in a rental house. We are in a suburb called Rondebosch, home to the University of Cape Town. My roommate Pat is my age (we are the oldest of all the volunteers) from Saskatchewan, Canada. The people in our house are fantastic--interesting, engaged, and open, and it is truly like an extended family. The only downside so far is that our room had a mold infestation, and I am allergic to mold and became very sick yesterday. This is rainy season, and everything turns to mold or mildew. The workmen were here for a good part of the day cleaning and painting with an anti-fungal paint, so we shall see if that improves things.

Sunday and Monday were orientation days, with meetings and presentations and do's and don'ts, as well as tours. Cape Town is the crime capital of the world, so the don'ts were extensive and at times frightening. Many people in the townships travel in informal mini-van taxis, many of which are not road-worthy. Foreigners trying to travel in them could well end up anywhere and be subject to the actions of opportunistic--and often desperate--people. We are advised to take taxis from only one company. We are never to go anywhere alone, and preferably in groups of three or more. At night we are not allowed to walk anywhere but must take a taxi. The staff here definitely impressed us, and we are taking precautions as advised. We have also had presentations on HIV/Aids, the history of South Africa, and township life. We toured Cape Town and along a coastline reminiscent of the Pacific Coast Highway. We went to the top of a mountain called Lion's Head, just next to the famous Table Mountain, where the views were breathtaking (so was the ride up the mountain along hairpin turns on a crowded narrow road with no guardrails). We also went on a township tour, but that deserves a post all its own. I have seen houses of people who are extremely wealthy, middle class and comfortabel homes, modest suburbs, townships with what I thought the worst abject poverty imagineable until I saw the shanty towns with shacks that I could blow down with my breath.

Yesterday was the first day of our placement. I will be helping in a class of 6th graders and also helping to set up a library in the school. They have a room set aside with the only television and VCR/DVD player in the school, but the room is full of furniture stored there, and the books on the shelves are old donated books just thrown on the shelves in no particular order. Another volunteer, Kara, an attorney from Oregon and I are going to try to figure out what they have and get it organized so that it can be used. The head of the school, Mr. Davids, is very happy to have us do that.

No one went to placement today because Cosatu (the Congress of South African Trade Unions) was on strike, and there were marches in all South African cities against rises in prices of electricity, oil, and food. The teachers in my school were planning to march, so I am eager to hear about it tomorrow. Several of us spent the afternoon at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, rated as one of the top five botanical gardens in the world. It was even more beautiful than I thought it would be.

Must sleep so that I am ready for tomorrow.

Safely arrived and soggy in Cape Town

Just a short note to let all know that I arrived on Wednesday night, have been seeing sights these two days, and report to CCS tomorrow to begin my program. It is rainy season here--cold, hard rain, but the city is beautiful and the people extremely friendly. I've already eaten some new foods--samp, kudu, and malva pudding (find a recipe and make this dessert--it is fabulous!)--and hope not to weigh a ton when I return. I'll write a real post for you early next week.

Blossom Primary School and Departing Thoughts

This will probably be my last post until the weekend. In almost exactly 24 hours my plane will be taking off from Atlanta to Dakar, Senegal, where I change planes and fly on to Cape Town. I am so excited, and even more so for having just learned what my volunteer placement is. It will be at a school called Blossom Street Primary, described as follows:

Blossom Street Primary a primary (junior) school for approx 600 - 1000 children from the age of 5 and 14yrs. The school has 30:1 student teacher ratio and classes are over-crowded. Blossom Street Primary is a public school and lacks resources and manpower. The children are a mixture of Coloured and Black and come from the surrounding areas and the nearby townships. They are all from previously disadvantaged areas and are all living in crime infested, violent communities. Many of their parents are unemployed and live below the breadline. They generally speak Afrikaans and Xhosa but English and is widely understood.

I will be working in the computer lab, a reading class, or with the physcial education teacher, but I don't know which one yet or what age the students will be. Whatever I am doing, I am so privileged to have this opportunity.

My first few nights in Cape Town will be spent at a bed and breakfast called Little Scotia, and the days spent sight-seeing and recovering from jet lag. I report to the Cross Cultural Solutions homebase on Saturday, have orientation on Sunday and Monday, and start my placement next Tuesday. Can't wait to tell you what my adventure brings!

What's Playing in My Ear

South Africa is known for its musical traditions, and the CDs I purchased this spring give me an idea what some of it sounds like. They are:

Ancient Civilisations of Southern Africa 2: Tribal Dums of the Venda People, ARC Music, 2006. From the notes: "The Venda live in a remote region in northern South Africa. Their rituals and singing are accompanied by massive sacred and numerous secular drums, various percussion, clapping and ululations." By far the most exotic of the CDs I have, this is primal music with compelling rhythms and melodies that are almost chants.

Gift of the Tortoise: A Musical Journey through Southern Africa, by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Music for Little People (distributed by Warner Brothers), 1994.
From the notes: " Join an enchanted journey through the rich land of the Zulu people. South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo--known worldwide for their stunning vocal work on Paul Simon's Grammy award-winning Graceland album--bring their full choruses and majestic harmonies to this captivating collection of 13 South African children's song, including the classic The Lion Sleeps Tonight. With Gcina Mhlophe's sparkling narration as the minstrel tortoise and a contribution from acclaimed guitarist Johhny Clegg, this is an exciting and educational adventure designed for the whole family's listening pleasure." This is uplifting and will leave you humming.

The ROUGH GUIDE to the Music of South Africa, compiled by Phil Stanton, World Music Network, 2006.
From the notes: "South Africa is one of the great powerhouses of African music with a recording industry that stretches back to the early 20th century. From the lilting violins of the Soweto String Quartet to the African reggae of Lucky Dube, this all new secondd edition . . . is a perfect introduction to the music of the rainbow nation." The notes really say it all.

Sounds of South Africa, ARC Music, 2001.
Each track on this compilation CD comes from albums of the various artists, including Ladysmith Black Mambzo, Mzikayifani Buthelezi, Kingstar Brothers, Miriam Makeba, Boyoyo Boys, and others. The musicianship is top-notch, as is the variety of styles. This is a great CD.

Tales of South African Jazz: Styles & Influences, Sheer Sound, 2005.
From the notes: An accessible musical journey across time, representing those major artists, songs, lead instruments and styles of jazz that have had massive local and international impact within this very popular genre." None of these artists was known to me, but since hearing this CD, I have learned that many are well-known and highly-accomplished artists. Many of the tracks would sound at home at any jazz venue in the U.S., but underlying it all is something (oftnen subtle) that declares the infuences of traditional African music.

Gumboot Guitar: Zulu Street Guitar Music from South Africa, recordings by Janet Topp Fargion & Albert Nene, text by Janet Topp Fargion, Topic Records, 2003.
From the notes: "The guitar probably arrived in South Africa with Portugeuse or Arab sailors back in the 16th century, but it only started to enter vernacular African traditions in the late 19th century. The discovery of gold and diamonds in South Africa at that time brought large numbers of African workers from all parts of the country--all looking for new forms of expression and relaxation. Music previously played on Zulu musical bows was transferred in the neew urban environment to the guitar and often concertina and violin too. The music was called maskanda. Musicians played for their own enjoyment, but they also joined miners' gumboot dance teams to accompany this exhilarating genre. Often lacking in formal performance arenas, most of this music-making traditionally takes place on the streets of single-sex hostel compounds. These recordings feature musicians and gumboot players who live in one such hostel outside Durban." This CD has quite unexpectedly become one of my favorites lately. The music is clearly folk music and would not be out of place at such Americana music festivals as Merlefest. Particularly outstanding is a guitarist called Blanket Mkhize.

I'll write more about live South African music in Cape Town.

Getting in touch with fellow volunteers

A couple of weeks ago Cross Cultural Solutions sent out an email to Cape Town volunteers who would be starting their volunteer activities in July and August, giving us information and encouraging us to contact each other. Mad flurries of emails followed. Katie, from the UK, is already there and volunteering in a school, assisting a 5th grade teacher. I'm reading her blog and have recieved a couple of emails answering my questions.

Bottome line--this is going to be a great group to volunteer with!

This definitely falls into the "small world" category

Have you ever been to summer camp? You know, one of those places where nobody knows anybody else when you first arrive, everyone is a long way from home, and you are going to be together for what seems like a long time. If you have been in this or a similar situation, you know how strong the bonds are that you forge with the others in your group.

The same thing happens when you study abroad, except that you know it will be for longer than those few weeks at summer camp. For me this was in September 1972, when I arrived in Heidelberg to study for my college junior year abroad. I didn't know anyone on that side of the Atlantic, and I loved every bit of the unfamiliarity and the anticipation of all the new, but as yet unimaginable, experiences my year abroad would bring.

I loved it so much I stayed four years.

Now, it is 36 years later (can it be so long), and in spite of losing track of some of my Heidelberg friends, I still am in contact with some of those people I bonded with so long ago. One of them lives in Cape Town. We haven't seen each other in over 30 years, and I've never met his wife and three sons, but I have a feeling that 5 minutes into the meeting, we will be talking like our time in Heidelberg was only yesterday.

That's how is was when I visited Germany in 2004 for the first time since I had returned to the the States in 1976. My husband Mark and I flew into Frankfurt and took a train to Koblenz, where my very good friend Uschi (German nickname for Ursula) and her husband Peter met us and took us back to their house. Uschi and I had become fast friends during our student days. I had visited her hometown of Daun in the Eifel Mountains and stayed with her family; she and her husband still lived there, but we were meeting each other's husbands for the first time. Uschi and I had kept in touch for years, lost touch for more than that, and then I had found her again (hooray for the Internet!) a couple of months before our trip to Germany. And within 5 minutes we were talking and laughing and hugging and time slipped away. And our husbands hit it off, too!

When my daughter Caitlin left last August for her junior year abroad in Heidelberg, it was Uschi and Peter who picked her up at the airport, took her home to Daun with them for a week, introduced her to their son and daughter who were also studying at university (but not in Heidelberg), gave her kitchen items and bedding for her student apartment, and drove her to Heidelberg and made sure she was settled in. (Did I tell you that Uschi was a good friend?) And Caitlin has made the same kind of fast friends in her time there. She will miss them when she comes home next week.

Now to the "small world" part. Uschi and I hadn't written in a couple of months, but I heard from her recently. She shared the news that her son Martin is finishing up his studies in urban planning and is starting a three-month internship this week for the city of--are you ready?--Cape Town!! Uschi didn't know about my plans until I wrote her back, and neither of us could believe it. Of course I won't be able to return all the kindness she and Peter showed Caitlin, but Martin and I are already in touch and I plan to at least take him out for a nice dinner.

And I know I will meet wonderful people volunteering through Cross-Cultural Solutions and even more locals at my placement--more friendships that I hope stand the test of time, more people to visit in various parts of the world, and more people to visit me.

And it is, indeed, a small world.

Recent news from Cape Town

Here is an excerpt from the latest email from my friend Hugh in Cape Town (received Tuesday, July 8). Notice the last paragraph, which relates to some of the problems that make the work of Cross-Cultural Solutions and its volunteers so important.

I have just returned from Grahamstown so I am putting things in order again. The festival was a hoot. The National Arts Festival is the biggest one of its kind in Africa, There are over 100 venues offering everything from theatre (main and fringe) to dance, music, comedy, visual arts, and literature. The action starts at 10am and finishes at midnight. The entire town is used including all the university facilities, theatres, concert halls residences, lecture theatres and parkes. The schools all provide their halls, gymnasiums as well as scout halls and drill halls. Theatre seating is improvised using scaffolding to create raked seating. The students union is turned into a nightclub and the townspeople get in on the action by creating street stalls, improvised restaurants, and taking space at the village green which is turned into a fair selling all kinds of crafts, trinkets, souveniers and junk as well as food.

The people of Grahamstown built a monument to the 1820 settlers about 25 years ago. Instead of a statue or a tower they opted for a cultural complex consisting of a concert hall, theatres and exhibition spaces and this forms the core of the festival. We saw two concerts here, one a formal programme of classical music and singing and the other a gala concert featuring the Cape Town Symphony doing an eclectic choice of pieces.

We saw an average of 4 shows a day, many of them one man productions usually lasting an hour or so. We also saw a fair amount of stand-up comedy, which the 2 boys loved ( the third, Tristan, is doing community work with a bunch of kids from around the world in something called Global Leadership Adventures). We stayed in a university residence which was spartan but for sleeping only because we were out on the town every day.

Highlights were a condensed version of Midsummernights Dream - only Puck's story and the thespians - played out in a large garden where the audience moved from scene to scene as the actors used different parts of the garden as backdrops - and the jazz festival which is a mini festival within the main festival. There were a number of international players so it was interesting to hear the different types of jazz being played.

Meanwhile back in Cape Town a cold front had set in and it came bucketing down. Yesterday the City announced that 16,000 people had been displaced due to flooding. The problem is that for the last 14 years the city has received about 45,000 immigrants per annum and there is no way that the city infrastructure has been able to keep up. So every year disaster management goes on high alert to try and help the indigent. Today the forecast is for more rain.

Barbecue, Baseball, Beer, and Fireworks--the perfect National Holiday

Although Independence Day commemorates the establishment of democracy in our country--a serious event--the Fourth of July has become a day of patriotic fun. For me this means barbecue, baseball, beer, and of course, fireworks. We live near Kannapolis, North Carolina, home of the single-A baseball team and Chicago White Sox farm team, the Kannapolis Intimidators (the team was once owned by hometown hero Dale Earnhardt). This year luck was with us, as the Intimidators were in the midst of a home series, with games (all followed by fireworks) scheduled for July 3, 4, and 5. On the third we saw homeruns, double-plays, a grand slam by first baseman Mark Fleisher, and a much rarer treat when second-baseman Dale Mollenhauer hit for the cycle. And we had fireworks. And we won the game. But sadly, Independence Day itself brought thunderstorms with torrential rains and a rained out game. The next day, though, did make up for some of the disappointment as we had a double-header.
For South Africa a national holiday celebrating the establishment of democracy in their country only recently became possible. I hope that 232 years after South Africa's first democratic election it is still celebrated there.

Three weeks and five days to go

There is so much to catch everyone up on! First, I am out of the orthopedic boot and the ankle is healing very nicely. I am wearing an ankle brace and doing physical therapy excercises to strengthen the muscles, so I should be ready for all the walking I plan on doing in South Africa.

Second, all the shots and innoculations are done. Although the Western Cape is malaria-free, I'll be taking anti-malarials so that if an opportunity comes along to travel, the chance of encountering mosquitos won't preclude a great experience in a different part of the country.

Third, I keep finding more books to read. Below is a list of what I have read so far, not in any particular order.

Fiction:
Beethoven was One-Sixteenth Black, Nadine Gordimer
July's People, by Nadine Gordimer
The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay
Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton

Non-fiction:
Tomorrow is Another Country, by Allister Sparks
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiograpahy of Nelson Mandela
Africa & Africans, by Paul Bohannan and Phillip Curlin
South Africa, A Case Study, edited by Rita M. Byrnes
A History of South Africa, by Leonard Thompson
Culture Smart! South Africa: A Quick Guide to Customs & Etiquette, by David Holt-Biddle
Cape Town, by Simon Richmond (Lonely Planet guide)
South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland, by Mary Fitzpatrick et al (Lonely Planet guide)
Insight Guides: South Africa

Travel Maps by Globetrotter:
Cape Town
South Africa

Books I have on my bedside table but haven't read yet:
Bitter Fruit, by Achmat Dangor
None to Accompany Me, by Nadine Gordimer
Life & Times of Michael K, by J. M. Coetzee
My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face his Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience, by Rian Malan
Disgrace, by J. M. Coetzee
Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography, by Mark Mathabane
The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence, by Martin Meredith

So it looks like I'll be reading really fast on those long plane rides, while I am there, and a good long while after I come back!

Sprained ankles, fractures, big boots, and a plane ticket to Cape Town

Okay, so Wednesday while I was walking Scout, I twisted my ankle (don't ask how--it's humiliating). And Mark made me call the doctor, who made me have an x-ray, and not only do I have an ugly sprain, but I chipped a bone in my foot, and now I have this huge heavy boot thing and I can't do anything for the next 48 hours except lie on my back and keep my foot elevated.Arrrgggghhhh. If I am compliant, though, I will still be able to go to South Africa and probably not even have to wear the boot, just a good ankle brace. This sucks.

NEA Native American and Alaska Natives Issues Conference

Just got back from Raleigh, NC, where I presented 2 sessions giving an overview of the NEA program Cuture, Abilities, Resilience, Effort: Strategies to Close the Achievement Gaps. I really enjoyed the people attending the conference and found them to be engaged, insightful, and dedicated. Several discussions about cultural preconceptions and assumptions fit so well into the reading and thinking I've been doing about my upcoming trip to South Africa. "Cultural competency" sounds like a buzzword, but it is at the core of all that I believe as an educator. What a privilege it was to present at this conference!

Xenophobia and violence in Cape Town

Many of my family members are concerned about the violence that has been taking place in South Africa against foreigners, so I wrote to my friend Hugh von Zahn to ask about it. He has written twice to explain what has been happening. The first email was on May 26 and is reproduced below:
Your family is quite right to ask these questions and I will try to give you an explanation of what is going on here
For many years now SA has been the goal for millions of displaced people from other parts of Africa. I once spoke to a gentleman who worked for our Dept of Foreign Affairs who told me that they had evidence taken from satellite photos that showed some 50 million people in Africa moving southwards. These were victims of wars, internecine conflicts and economic hardship. Since 1994 we have had a steady influx of Africans from Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe crossing our borders. Turmoil in other parts of Africa over the last 5 years has seen ad additional influx of refugees from places like Ruwanda, Somalia, DRC and Nigeria.
The exact numbers of migrants are hard to come by because our borders are long and porous, our border controls extremely slack, especially outside of the international airports, and our Dept. of Home Affairs riddled with corruption. To make matters worse, the meltdown in Zimbabwe starting in 2002 has resulted in anywhere betweeen 5 and 7 million Zimbabweans living in SA.
What all this has meant is that for many South Africans these people have become very visible. Because almost all of these economic migrants are destitute, they end up living in squatter settlements, check by jowl with our urban poor. The net result is a type of competition for resources such as jobs, opportunities and living space. What has exacerbated the situation is that many illegals come with skills and flair so they end up being seen to be more successful than their South African counterparts.
The real failure has been one of government policy. Everyone has known for years that unrestricted immigration would lead to social unrest. The warning signs have been there but the government chosen to ignore it in the hope that things would sort themselves out. Goernment has made very little effort to improve our border control, in fact they disbanded our border police and gave the duty to our overstretched police force. Decisions like these beggar belief and are often motivated by erroneous thinking and personal greed. For example, a few government ministers have an interest in a repatriation centre in Johannesburg where illegal immigrants are deported to Mozambique every day. It is a lucrative government contract.
The biggest policy failure was Thabo Mbeki's reluctance to consure Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe when the insanity started. By adopting what he called 'quiet diplomacy' he aided and abetted the violence and the economic meltdown. The reasons are complex and varied, not least being Mbeki's misreading of public sentiment in SA. As thinks got worse in Zimbabwe, so many fled looking for better opportunities in SA. Those who fled were often the breadwinners who would look for work in SA and repatriate funds back home. What has not helped the situation has been the failure to record all these people and to put policies in place for dealing with them. Our response has been only to process 'refugees' and then to only give them temporary residence permits. Many fall through the cracks and resort to buying false ID documents from corrupt Home Affairs officials. What this means is that these people can now apply for hoursing get jobs, and state aid. The corruption has been exposed by the media but we have a curious way of dealing withe this type of behaviour: we either deny it or institute protracted investigations that are buried as soon as the spotlight is off.
The violence started about 2 weeks ago in a township in Johanessburg called Alexandra. The police were caught unawares and it soon escalated into random acts of violence and looting. At first the government was quick to blame it on criminal elements but as things progressed it became apparent that it was fueled by longstanding grievances and that the foreign Africans had become a convenient scapegoat.
To date some 42 people have lost their lives and thousands have been displaced across the country. Here in the Western Cape the authorities estimate that 30,000 people have been uprooted. For a while last week we thought that we had escaped the conflagration but last week-end riots broke out in a northern settlement called Du Noon and so we also have a crisis on our hands.
The response from government has been abysmal - a lot of hand wringing and speculation as everyone ducks for cover. On the other hand civil society has stepped into the breach with hundreds of NGO's, churches, charities and aid organizations providing shelter and food Many immigrants have started returning to their countries. Some 20,000Mozambiqueans have pitched up in Maputo which has put a strain on that city's reosources.
The reaction from ordinary South Africans has been shock and horror. Yesterday's Sunday Times had a scathing article on the failure of government to heed the warning signs and the need for Thabo Mbeki to step down. The ANC has tried sending out the leadership to talk to people in affected areas. Mostly this has been surprisingly ineffective. The great moral leaders like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu are too old to have a real impact and we simply do not have others to take their place. The criticism form political commentators, editors and opinion makers has been damning and there is a real fear in the ANC that the schism in the party will only widen as head towards elections next year. There is much speculation as what will happen but the next 2 weeks will be pivotal.
How all this will affect you is difficult to say. Like in the years leading up to 1994, most of the violence is contained in the townships and then only in certain ones. Much of the violence is being perpetrated by disaffected youths and is unlikely to continue for too much longer as the security forces have been beefed up by the military. I think that the effects will be long term. This is a situation that will have to be addressed in a different way. Our policy makers are going to have to apply their minds to the problem of urban poverty and find sustainable solutions. This has been a big wake up call for the government as well as ordinary South Africans. We can no longer rely on business as usual, we have to find mechanisms to transfer wealth to the poor faster and more effectively.
How will your safety be affected? I don't think that your personal safety will be compromised. Cross Cutural ?? [Solutions] will obviously be keeping an ear to the ground and will take all precautions to ensure that the volunteers are in no way put into harms way. This not like teaching in Kabul. What you have to remember is that what you see is not generalized. Cape Town is still working, the kids are at school, I'm sill delivering juice to thirsty guests in hotels. Life goes on.
I hope that this goes some way to assuaging your fears, however I appreciate that there will be many other questions and concerns so please don't hesitate to ask the hard questions. I will always do my best to anser them, both from you and your family.

On May 29, Hugh wrote again:
Thought I'd drop you a note to keep you posted on what has been happening here. As expected, the violence has died down completely but we are now saddled with a huge refugee problem. Most of the displaced people have now been housed in 6 makeshift camps dotted around the city. As it has started raining again this is proving to be a challenge for the city health authorities. Our Mayoress has called on the UNHCR to lend a hand but they are waiting for government to give the go ahead (shades of Myanmar). In fact the UN commissioner in Pretoria was highly critical of the facilities saying that government should have left it to them because we have no expertise when it comes to dealing with humanitarian crises - which is true. Medcin sans Frontieres has also been voicing their misgivings about housing people in camps, something they regard as an absolute last resort.
Currently it is still the civil society organizations that are carrying out the bulk of the relief work. There has been an unbelieveable response form across the social spectrum; everywhere there are collections donations and volunteers helping. Both our schools have launched appeals for blankets, food, toiletries, etc. There was interesting development in an informal settlement in the Noordhoek Valley called Masipumelele a few days ago when community leaders apologized to the representatives of the Somali community who were3 driven out when the troubles started. The community of Masipumelele even went to the houses of known looters and demanded the return of goods that were stolen. Whether the Somalis will respond remains to be seen. At the moment there is still too much fear and trepidation for a return, although there has been talk of trying to reintegrate these people into the various communities - something I think amounts to wishful thinking. In other SADC countries there has been a flurry of activitiy.
To date some 1,300 people have been arrested in connection with the violence and the government is thinking of setting up special courts to deal with these cases. We are trying to get back to normal but it will still be some time before we can put this all behind us. In the meantime we have to deal with the global food and energy crisis. Like everywhere else we are seeing massive incresase in all commodities and it is having a severe impact on our inflation rate. Our prime lending rate is at 14 1/2% and there is talk in the marketplace that this may bo up by 2 points in July. Unfortunately we import a lot of our inflation so there is onbly a limited amount that our reserve bank can do.

Time flies, and I am still here

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted. In April I finished the renewal process for National Board certification and got that sent off. It pretty much consumed my time for quite a while. I then took a break and tried to get my sanity back. This month is, of course, crazy at school, and today our students started the NC standardized End of Course Testing.
Preparations for South Africa continue. It was a wonderful discovery to learn that there is now an oral typhoid vaccine, and it even lasts longer than the inoculation. I finished the series of tablets yesterday and have all the immunizations I need for the trip. I am counting down the weeks until July 29. I am also continuing to read, currently A History of South Africa, by Leonard Thompson. This was written post-apartheid and shows a real effort to discover facts and truth and move beyond bias and prejudice. It is somewhat scholarly in style (Thompson is, I believe, an Oxford don) but provides a solid basic history of the country. I understand that historians are researching oral histories to fill in the gaps about the country before Europeans arrived with written language, but this will certainly take some time to accomplish. I look forward to learning more as those written accounts become available.

Dancing in Protest

A great place to read about what is going on in education in South Africa is the website of the South African national newspaper, The Mail and Guardian Online (search education or teacher). After reading an article last week, I asked my friend Hugh the following:

Definition, please. I am reading about education in SA and ran across another term I don't know. Here's the sentence: An army of teachers toyi-toyied last year for better wages.

March? Demonstrate? Lobby?

On March 29 he replied:

Lawd Ms Glenda, the things you come up with!

Toyi-toyi is a type of combative dance, really skipping from one foot to the other. It probably originated in Zimbabwe but has since become a symbol of protest in SA and is usually carried out on protest marches and at gatherings. It has a useful function in that instead of walkng, the assembled crowd shows a lot more movement which makes the police a lot more edgy. It is ultimately a form of active protest.

Not everyone is in agreement about the efficacy of toyi-toying. The other day our education mnister, Naledi Pandor, told a crowd of students at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal that they should spend a lot less time toyi-toying and a lot more time hitting the books as taking ten years to pass the first year of any course was unacceptable. Needless to say she was vociferously attacked by the Young Communists and the ANC Youth League who took up the cudgels on behalf of the said students and issued some truly fatuous press statements.

A book that you might find interesting, all about how SA used to be, is Allen Drury's 'A Very Strange Society'. It was published in the late sixties after Drury had spent some time in SA interviewing a number of people. It will give you a flavour of what things were like back then. Try finding it in your local library. Drury was of course famous for his novel 'Advise and Consent'.

Another book that you might like to look at is Hermann Giliomee's The Afrikaners, one of the definative books on the history of the Afrikaners and hence SA. It is a weighty tome because Giliomee is a Professor Emeritus at Stellenbosch U. and one of our foremost historians so expect lots of notes. Still, it is a fascinating work.

FAQs about South Africa

Okay, so these might not be frequently asked, but they are questions I asked my old friend from college days in Germany Hugh von Zahn, who lives in Cape Town. I’ve been planning this trip for two years, and as I have read, I have often asked Hugh via email for explanations or clarifications. I’d like to include some of my questions and his answers in a few posts. Here’s a start:

(February 2006) Is Cape Town as beautiful as the pictures?

Yes, Cape Town is a very beautiful city. It is often referred to as the Mother City, being the oldest city in SA. It is a city of huge contrasts, enormous extremes of poverty and privilege, degradation and conservation. The Table Mountain National Park is a world heritage site, as is Robben Island, with one of the highest concentrations of plant biodiversity in the world. Culturally it is a mix of African, European, and the East, spicy food and high tea, all mixed up together. It is also the least African city in SA, possibly because of the proportion of white and coloured people living here. All worth a visit.

(February 2006) I'm reading a book called Africa and Africans . . . that is actually a pretty decent sociological introduction to the continent, although I suspect it is written for an undergraduate introductory course in African studies. Tell me about kinship among the Xhosa and Zulu. How much has it remained traditional? Is polygyny practiced, and if so, how does that affect laws and court systems there? Also, are there areas with traditional relationships to the land, or did the economics of apartheid change that? It is mind-boggling to me how such varying cultural traditions could work in one state. These are complicated questions, I know, without simple answers, but try to explain if you have the time.

In answer to your question about African traditions in the modern world let me start by saying that we are a developing country so you still have a fair amount of traditional practices among the black population. We have a chamber called the Council of Traditional Leaders who are paid by government to be just that. This includes everyone from royalty like the Zulu king, Goodwill Zweletini, through to tribal chiefs and other notables. Many of these people preside over tribal lands that are held in trust for the respective tribal groupings. As you can imagine, it is a system fraught with difficulties as well as . . . practices such as patronage and nepotism. Also, it is totally out of step with the modern world and is a great contributer to the flood of rural people to the urban areas. Cape Town gets approximately 50,000 rural immigrants into the metropole per annum, most of them indigent. The resultant demand on local infrastructure is
immense.

Tribal kinship is still very prevalent in SA. Polygamy is recognised in Common Law
and every attempt is made to accommodate tribal rites, rituals, and mores. It is an
extremely complex issue that would take a dissertation to unravel fully. Suffice it
to say that the SA constitution recognises and respects that we live in a multi-
cultural society and upholds cultural rights.

(February 2006) What languages do you speak?

I speak Afrikaans and very rusty German, which I am sure will return if I was immersed in the language for a while. No, I do not speak any indigenous African languages. but like most South Africans I have a smattering of words that are used in everyday situations. Up until 1994 it was not common for white children to do a black language at school. However, in the new dispensation it has become compulsory, especially in primary school. My kids are all doing Xhosa and Tristan, the eldest, will be doing it for his school leaving certificate. Afrikaans is treated as an African language as well but is slowly falling from favour amongst English speaking students who feel that a black language might be more useful in later life. However, Afrikaans is still widely spoken especially here in the Western Cape.

(February 2006) What is mealie pap? Is it anything like the US southern dish called "grits?

Afrikaans word meaning maize meal porridge. The word 'pap' means slack or soft hence,
the word for ground up corn, usually white (popular) or yellow (Italians call it
polenta)  cooked with water to make a porridge. The consistency can be either 'slap'
(loose) or 'styf' (firm). In Zulu or Xhosa it is called 'phutu' (pronounced as in
Tutu) and is cooked to a stiff consistency and often even to a crumbly texture
(called krummelpap)which is then eaten with soured milk called 'amazi'. Staple
African diet, eaten all over the continent.

(February 2006) Fundi? Local expert? Teacher? Revered-Omniscient-One?

Fundi, common South African word meaning 'expert'. Corruption of the Xhosa word 'fundisa' to learn. A student is 'umfundi' but don't quote meas I will deny all. My children are the ones learning Xhosa at school, all I do is smile and look intelligent.

(March 2006) Mark and I have been reading about SA wines lately. We just bought two SA wines this weekend at a chain wine store called, Total Wine. There were not too many wines offered, and all were from Stellenbosch/Paarl region. We got a red table wine by Spier, and a pinotage (which sounds interesting, based on our reading) from Graham Beck. I don't know if either of those wine producers is any good, but only a few were available.

SA wines are not always available in the USA. Part of the reason is that every state has its own alcohol laws that prescribe how, what, when, where and why drink can be sold. Importers have to apply individually to every state to bring wines into the US. Tough for a small country such as ours.

The SA wine industry is a very old one, approximately 400 years old. We are currently
the 6th or 7th largest producing country in the world. Having said that, the wines
produced by E & J Gallo amount to our total annual wine production. Graham Beck is
a large wine producer with farms mainly in the Robertson district. They make some
excellent wines there. Spier is more of a tourist attraction with a huge African
restaurant, a cheetah and raptor conservation programme and an amphitheatre that
has shows all summer.

Pinotage is a South African hybrid varietal developed at the University
of Stellenbosch in the 1930's. It is a clone of Pinot Noir (an essential
ingredient of champagne) and the old Hermitage or Cinsault. If handled correctly
it can produce lovely quaffing wines, if handled poorly it tends to be jammy with
a slightly bitter undertow. The Graham Beck Pinotage scores 3 1/2 out of 5 stars
in our latest wine guide and is described thus: ...perfectly ripe red berry fruit
& good appetite appeal - 3 year aging potential. Hope you enjoy it. Best drunk
with some roast meat and potatoes.

Soon you will know more than the average South African about our country.

(March 2006) I've been reading about the local elections in Cape Town and am
thoroughly confused about the results. There are so many political parties with
similar names, and of course, I have no point of reference for each party's platform. Could you interpret the election results?

 The elections were for local government i.e. city and town councils as well as
rural administration. We have 3 tiers of govt. in SA. National, Provincial and Local.
These elections are hard fought affairs and can be quite lively as evidenced this
past week. I realize that reading about these elections can be quite confusing if
you are standing on the outside, so here is a potted pen picture of SA politics.

Political Parties: There are about 10 political parties in Parliament, although
there are quite a few more who contest elections. At Local Govt. level here in Cape
Town there were 17 parties on the ballot.

The major party is the African National Congress (ANC) who have about 67% of the
seats in Parliament. The next biggest is the Democratic Alliance - a liberal mainly
white party - with about 11% and who form the Official Opposition. Then comes a new
party called the Independent Democrats who have about 3% but who did very well in
these elections and have emerged as kingmakers in quite a few councils here in the
Western Cape where there were no absolute majorities. Next is the Inkatha Freedom
Party who are basically a conservative Zulu political grouping.

Other parties include the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), the Freedom
Front (VV)- a conservative white Afrikaner party, the United Democratic Movement
(UDM) - a Xhosa splinter group, the Pan Africanist Party (PAC) - a black nationalist
movement, the Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO) - once a liberation movement
given to violent rhetoric like 'one settler, one bullet' and violent acts performed
under the banner of the Azanian Liberation Army. Then there are numerous special
interest groupings such as a Muslim Party, Greens etc. All these parties are small
and inconsequential, although they can be quite vocal sometimes.

In these elections the ANC emerged victorious with about 67% of the votes cast
and about 143 councils. The DA only managed about 11 councils and the rest to the
others. What is of interest though is that the DA got about 44% of the vote4 in
the Cape metro as against 37% for the ANC. Cape Town tends to go against the trend
for the rest of the country. So, here in Cape Town the parties have a week to decide
who will rule the city.

City Government: For the last 2 years we have been governed by the ANC who came to
power with he help of a rump group from the now defunct New Nationalist Party -
really a reworking of the old National Party who ruled SA through the Apartheid
years. We have a curious rule, one that I vehemently disagree with, called
'floor crossing' whereby every 2 years there is a 2 week window where members of
Parliament, Provincial Legislatures and Local Councils can switch allegiances
without losing their seats. This leads to a lot of ugly deal-making but our
Constitutional Court ruled that it was in fact constitutional. People who cross
over are known in the vernacular as crosstitutes.

The interesting thing in Cape Town is that the power alignments are all in the
hands of women and, as befits the Rainbow Nation, one black, onewhite and one
coloured/brown. 

Linda Rader Award Acceptance Speech

March 13, 2008, NCAE Annual Awards Banquet, Fayetteville, NC:
They said you would want to know what I am doing with this award.

I teach at Ranson Middle School--a high-needs middle school in the inner-city in Charlotte. North Carolina has a lot of high-needs schools, and I don't have to tell you that they are often hard places to work. I have been involved in the work to bring more highly-accomplished teachers to high-needs schools in North Carolina.

Thanks to Linda Rader and NCAE, I now have an opportunity to fulfill a long-standing dream to travel to South Africa. I want to see how this country is overcoming its apartheid history without civil war. I want to study the role of public education in this unique emerging democracy. And I want to extend my understanding of the challenges facing high-needs students in schools beyond North Carolina and the United States. I will do this by volunteering as a teacher one month this summer in a high-needs school--I hope in a township--in Cape Town, South Africa.

I also want to thank my husband Mark, who after more than 28 years of marriage has many times heard me say, "What if. . . " followed by some far-fetched and often pretty crazy ideas. So when I said to him last summer, "What if I apply for the Linda Rader Award and teach in South Africa next summer," he replied, as usual, "Well Hon, if that is what you really want to do, go for it." Thank you, Mark.

So here I go. You can follow my planning and adventures on my blog, which you can link to from the NCAE homepage. (Thank you, Christy.) And next year I'll tell you all about it at the winter instructional issues conference when I present about my experiences.

And yes, Elic, to answer your question--"I am soooo excited!"

So everybody, please consider teaching in a high-needs school. Better yet, come teach with me at Ranson next year--we have some openings and I know there will be a lot of collaboration going on for a school-wide project on South Africa.

Thank you.

How do you teach something beyond your own ability to understand?

An accomplished teacher knows her subject and how to teach it. But what does the teacher do when what she wants to teach is beyond the human capacity to understand? The North Carolina 7th grade standard course of study focuses on a regional geography of Africa and Asia. That means that sometime during the year-long course the teacher must teach the complex topic of South Africa and apartheid. How can this be done when it is something any rational human being would find incomprehensible?
When I taught this course several years ago I used a simulation in which I divided the class into two groups. The smaller groups got nearly all the supplies, desks, and books, and the larger group got hardly any. Working through a series of tasks, both groups found that they were deeply affected by their situation: those with little were more likely to give up than be angry, while those with everything acted as if they thought they were entitled to all they had been given. As you might imagine, the real learning took place after the simulation ended when we de-constructed the students' experiences. The discussion was rich, and everyone came away with an inkling of how this could have happened in South Africa.
I've been reading a lot about South Africa for the past two years, and from time to time I will write here about the books I'm reading. Last week I read a book that finally might make the task of teaching South Africa and apartheid in a meaningful way possible. It is by award-winning young adult author Beverley Naidoo (The Other Side of Truth and Journey to Jo-burg), a native South African exiled during apartheid and now living in the United Kingdom. It is called Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hope. In this accessible and evocative collection Naidoo tells one story set in each decade of apartheid and the decade after it ended, the first story set in 1948 and the final story in 2000. Each story features a protagonist who is an early adolescent, and all so-called racial groups are represented--black, colored, white, and Indian. Suitable for students in grades six to ten, these stories don't sugar-coat the circumstances and events of this troubled country during those nearly incomprehensible times. There is sadness and love, conflict and hope. As the protagonists come of age, they face challenges both similar to and a world apart from early adolescents in the United States, no matter where in the US and in what circumstances they may live. A valuable tool is provided by the timeline of apartheid that follows the stories. Important laws and events are explained and correlated with the story titles.
In June 2008 this book will be available in paperback, at a list price of $5.95. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this topic and country, but especially to adolescents and those who work with them.

The Opposite of February

My mother claimed February was the month that members of her family died. Having lost both parents, several uncles, and a niece in February, my mother always got the blues as February approached. Looking back I think she might have had an inclination to seasonal affective disorder, but she did have an unhappy history with the month. So it did not take me by surprise when a teaching colleague told me early in my career that February was the longest month of the school year. Number of days on the calendar notwithstanding, she said, February would drag on and I would count the slowly-passing days until March. Though for most of the month we are actually closer to the the spring equinox than the winter solstice, spring is a fleeting image from a dream, a vision of mythic proportions. Only on March 1 does spring (and for teachers, spring break) become a promise that we can anticipate with a conviction that it is real.
Turn the earth upside down and February becomes August. Cape Town, with its climate that is variously described in travel books as "Mediterranean" or "much like Southern California," won't see snow. But it is winter. Unlike the rest of South Africa, this is the rainy season along the coastal plain at the foot of Africa's great escarpments. Days can occasionally be as warm as the 70s or 80s F, though average temperatures are usually in the 50s, and I am told nights are always cool. But when the prevailing winds come from the south and Antarctica, there can be spectacular rain and wind storms, and it can be cold.
August in Cape Town is the opposite of February, and instead of dreading its beginning, I can't wait. I hope the days pass slowly, although I expect for me it will be the opposite in that regard, too, and fly by.

The big plan

This summer I will achieve a long-standing dream to travel to South Africa and see how this country is overcoming its apartheid history without civil war; study the role of public education in this unique emerging democracy; and extend my understanding of challenges facing high-needs schools and students beyond North Carolina and the United States by volunteering for a month in a high-needs school in Cape Town, South Africa. As a volunteer, I'll work through Cross-Cultural Solutions (www.crossculturalsolutions.org), a well-established and highly-regarded non-governmental international aid agency. Volunteers are expected to pay all costs, including inoculations and visas; travel to and from the volunteer site; room and board, and incidental expenses. I'll also travel on weekends to experience the region around Cape Town. Without the NCAE Linda Rader Award I wouldn't be able to do this--I do still have a daughter in college. I also will purchase music CDs and cultural items and artifacts to use in teaching about South Africa. I won't know what my volunteer placement will be until about a month before I leave, but it will likely be in a township school or a school for street children. I leave Charlotte about noon on July 29, fly to Atlanta, then to Dakar, Senegal, and finally arrive in Cape Town late in the afternoon of July 30. I'll have a few days to "recover" from jet lag and explore the city before reporting to the my homebase on Saturday, August 2. On Friday night, August 29, I begin the over 25-hour-long trip back to Charlotte.