Week 2 of teaching is in the books (we only teach Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) and we can say that things are still going well. The challenge we still face is that we haven’t yet worked out a schedule with the man who teaches 5th and 6th grades (combined classes). Our tentative plan with the principal is that we’ll teach for an hour or so on each of the three days. This week, however, we taught for two and a half hours on
Wow, 7 months. Sometimes it feels like forever, but usually we just wonder where the last 7 months have gone.
Monday and Thursday and on Tuesday we taught the 4th grade all day. So at least for this week we became more like substitute teachers. But we are more than happy to do it because the kids love us and it’s very rewarding.
On Monday we took a short break between subjects to field any questions the kids may have about America. Two highlights were whether there is Vaseline and carrots in America?
Word of our teaching has spread very quickly. Actually, word of pretty much anything we do spreads quickly. But with respect to our teaching, we’ve been approached by children from two other primary schools and one high school student to come teach at their schools. So it looks like our fan club is slowly building unbeknownst to us.
When we haven’t been teaching this week we’ve been at our NGO and things are also going well there. We are still in the process of starting an afterschool drop-in center for orphans and other vulnerable children. We have been “in the process” for some time but there is definitely movement and we should know in the next couple weeks when we will actually be able to open the doors, so to speak.
We will post again when we have more to say. And on a side note, it’s very difficult to make these posts humorous when life is going well, so I guess as readers you should be rooting for something bad to happen. Maybe a drunk lady will kiss us this weekend. Fingers crossed!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Things Are Good
Wow, we’ve been waiting a long time to be able to write those words. As most of you know, between being frustrated by not having much to do and having water drip on our heads while we try to sleep, our first few months here at site have been fairly challenging. This week, however, was actually great.
First of all, we’re now teachers. Or at least trying to be teachers. We visited the primary school in our village a couple of weeks ago, and the principal was very enthusiastic about having us help. We taught two Life Orientation (sort of health+life skills) classes this week, as well as a short math lesson. On our first day, we asked the 17 5th-6th graders which of them knew where we lived. All 17 of the students raised their hands, which made us laugh. The hope is that we’ll go to the school for a couple of hours three days a week. It’s definitely not going to be easy, and a number of the kids struggle with English. It is a national requirement, however, that classes past grade 3 be taught in English, and it is extremely unlikely that the kids will be able to pass high school (the Matric exam, which is an exam needed to pass high school, is in English) if they don’t learn the language, so hopefully our presence will be beneficial. Plus, the kids seem very excited to have us there, at least until our novelty wears off.
Secondly, our NGO co-hosted a community Women’s Day event this week, which was really fun. The majority of the people in attendance were kids from area schools. We watched kids play soccer and played with a number of kids from the school where we are teaching. There were performances by school choir groups, traditional dancers, gospel singers and way too many speakers. A man we are friendly with emceed the event and embarrassed us by making us stand up in front of everyone. We talked to tons of people and actually felt like part of the community for the first time.
Also, as we may have previously mentioned, the man who emceed the event works with Sports and Recreation and wants us to help develop a softball program for kids. He actually invited some members of the Eastern Cape Softball Association (or something like that) to the event. Our friend may have touted Matt as some softball expert, which of course meant the 20 year-old female softball player (who previously played on the under-19 national team) wanted to pitch to Matt. It was too late for Matt to explain that he played co-ed D-league slow pitch softball in Santa Monica. So Matt, wearing jeans stuffed with keys, wallet and cell phone, had to dig in against this South African softball whiz. The first pitch was inside and almost hit Matt in the kneecaps. When Matt swung at the next pitch it was the most pathetic imitation of softball, or athletics in general, these kids had ever seen. Matt was determined to make contact with the next pitch no matter what. And Matt certainly made solid contact, as he fouled the pitch off to the right …. directly into a boy’s forehead (luckily it bounced once). Fortunately, the boy is fine, though he may not be interested in softball anytime soon. The next day, our friend the emcee with a good sense of humor, told Matt that he had been fielding questions all morning from the police because the boy’s mother was angry. He said he was kidding, but only after Matt’s complexion turned ghostly white.
The good news, however, is that the kids showed a lot of interest in softball, and we’re thinking about buying a wiffle bat and ball to start playing with the kids in our village. And we will definitely be playing SLOW-pitch softball.
Finally, the other piece of news that has made our week good is that our NGO has funds again (after a huge delay from the gov’t), and our coworkers want to have a meeting on Monday to discuss putting a number of OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) program back in place (yay!). We are hoping to reinstate an afterschool drop-in center at the organization. Basically, kids would have a safe place to come for a couple of hours after school to do homework, play games and have a small meal/snack. Our NGO had such a program about a year ago, but the Department of Social Development (our primary funder) had them stop it for a number of reasons that we’ve never really been able to get to the bottom of. We are hoping to develop a proposal that will convince DSD of the value of the program and start having kids come next month. Fingers crossed.
Anyway, we realize that there will continue to be ups and downs, but we are more hopeful than we have been in a looong time about everything working out at our site. Plus, it was warm enough to sleep without our sleeping bags two days this week. That also helped morale.
First of all, we’re now teachers. Or at least trying to be teachers. We visited the primary school in our village a couple of weeks ago, and the principal was very enthusiastic about having us help. We taught two Life Orientation (sort of health+life skills) classes this week, as well as a short math lesson. On our first day, we asked the 17 5th-6th graders which of them knew where we lived. All 17 of the students raised their hands, which made us laugh. The hope is that we’ll go to the school for a couple of hours three days a week. It’s definitely not going to be easy, and a number of the kids struggle with English. It is a national requirement, however, that classes past grade 3 be taught in English, and it is extremely unlikely that the kids will be able to pass high school (the Matric exam, which is an exam needed to pass high school, is in English) if they don’t learn the language, so hopefully our presence will be beneficial. Plus, the kids seem very excited to have us there, at least until our novelty wears off.
Secondly, our NGO co-hosted a community Women’s Day event this week, which was really fun. The majority of the people in attendance were kids from area schools. We watched kids play soccer and played with a number of kids from the school where we are teaching. There were performances by school choir groups, traditional dancers, gospel singers and way too many speakers. A man we are friendly with emceed the event and embarrassed us by making us stand up in front of everyone. We talked to tons of people and actually felt like part of the community for the first time.
Also, as we may have previously mentioned, the man who emceed the event works with Sports and Recreation and wants us to help develop a softball program for kids. He actually invited some members of the Eastern Cape Softball Association (or something like that) to the event. Our friend may have touted Matt as some softball expert, which of course meant the 20 year-old female softball player (who previously played on the under-19 national team) wanted to pitch to Matt. It was too late for Matt to explain that he played co-ed D-league slow pitch softball in Santa Monica. So Matt, wearing jeans stuffed with keys, wallet and cell phone, had to dig in against this South African softball whiz. The first pitch was inside and almost hit Matt in the kneecaps. When Matt swung at the next pitch it was the most pathetic imitation of softball, or athletics in general, these kids had ever seen. Matt was determined to make contact with the next pitch no matter what. And Matt certainly made solid contact, as he fouled the pitch off to the right …. directly into a boy’s forehead (luckily it bounced once). Fortunately, the boy is fine, though he may not be interested in softball anytime soon. The next day, our friend the emcee with a good sense of humor, told Matt that he had been fielding questions all morning from the police because the boy’s mother was angry. He said he was kidding, but only after Matt’s complexion turned ghostly white.
The good news, however, is that the kids showed a lot of interest in softball, and we’re thinking about buying a wiffle bat and ball to start playing with the kids in our village. And we will definitely be playing SLOW-pitch softball.
Finally, the other piece of news that has made our week good is that our NGO has funds again (after a huge delay from the gov’t), and our coworkers want to have a meeting on Monday to discuss putting a number of OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) program back in place (yay!). We are hoping to reinstate an afterschool drop-in center at the organization. Basically, kids would have a safe place to come for a couple of hours after school to do homework, play games and have a small meal/snack. Our NGO had such a program about a year ago, but the Department of Social Development (our primary funder) had them stop it for a number of reasons that we’ve never really been able to get to the bottom of. We are hoping to develop a proposal that will convince DSD of the value of the program and start having kids come next month. Fingers crossed.
Anyway, we realize that there will continue to be ups and downs, but we are more hopeful than we have been in a looong time about everything working out at our site. Plus, it was warm enough to sleep without our sleeping bags two days this week. That also helped morale.
All Volunteer Meeting
As mentioned in the last blog post, all South Africa PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) were invited to Pretoria for a meeting concerning the arrest of a former S.A. PCV last weekend. Peace Corps put us all up in a lovely four star hotel (showers!!) and held debriefing and counseling sessions. Many volunteers expressed the same feelings: anger that a PCV would do such a thing, embarrassment that Peace Corps was receiving such bad press based on the actions of one individual and sadness for the victims. A lot of time was spent talking about our feelings (we are In the Peace Corps after all!), listening to and supporting each other and reviewing how to report any improper behavior that we may witness. (No volunteer knew what was happening with the former PCV, but Peace Corps is required to give us all training in reporting anyway.)
Our main concern was that our community would find out about the accusations and associate us with them. After all, when our community hears “Peace Corps,” they think Sara and Matt, and we’re not sure they realize that there are about 170 PCVs in South Africa. Luckily, we haven’t heard anything from community members about the news. Either they didn’t hear about it or they didn’t make the connection, which has been a big relief to us. 99.9% of PCVs are good people who genuinely want to help others. We would hate for people to think that we have anything but the best intentions. Anyway, so far, so good.
Besides the awful circumstances that necessitated the meeting, it was really cool to have so many volunteers in the same place. We not only got to catch up with friends from our training class, but we were able to meet a number of PCVs from other classes as well. It ended up being a fun weekend.
Our main concern was that our community would find out about the accusations and associate us with them. After all, when our community hears “Peace Corps,” they think Sara and Matt, and we’re not sure they realize that there are about 170 PCVs in South Africa. Luckily, we haven’t heard anything from community members about the news. Either they didn’t hear about it or they didn’t make the connection, which has been a big relief to us. 99.9% of PCVs are good people who genuinely want to help others. We would hate for people to think that we have anything but the best intentions. Anyway, so far, so good.
Besides the awful circumstances that necessitated the meeting, it was really cool to have so many volunteers in the same place. We not only got to catch up with friends from our training class, but we were able to meet a number of PCVs from other classes as well. It ended up being a fun weekend.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Bad Publicity for Peace Corps
Peace Corps has unfortunately been thrust into the news here in South Africa thanks to the abhorrent acts of a former volunteer. Last week a volunteer who began his service one year before us (and resigned early last May for reasons now obvious) was arrested at his home in Connecticutt for child molestation. While serving at an AIDS center for young children he molested at least five girls under the age of six, one of them over the course of five months. Here's a link to a cnn.com article, and if you google his name you'll find countless more news stories: http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-05/justice/peace.corps.sexual.abuse_1_peace-corps-volunteer-sexual-abuse-sexual-conduct?_s=PM:CRIME
In response to this mess, Peace Corps has called for an all-volunteer meeting this Saturday in Pretoria. These meetings NEVER happen, so it's going to be interested to see what happens with some 150 volunteers.
Sara is currently in Pretoria this week because she is on the Volunteer Support Network and they had training this week. Essentially, Sara is going to be a mentor to a group of new volunteers who are currently training near Pretoria. So the meeting doesn't inconvenience her in any significant way. I (Matt) on the other hand am disappointed. I had grand plans for Dorkfest 2011 (Star Wars and Lord of the Rings marathons) but, alas, they must remain on hold. . . .
In response to this mess, Peace Corps has called for an all-volunteer meeting this Saturday in Pretoria. These meetings NEVER happen, so it's going to be interested to see what happens with some 150 volunteers.
Sara is currently in Pretoria this week because she is on the Volunteer Support Network and they had training this week. Essentially, Sara is going to be a mentor to a group of new volunteers who are currently training near Pretoria. So the meeting doesn't inconvenience her in any significant way. I (Matt) on the other hand am disappointed. I had grand plans for Dorkfest 2011 (Star Wars and Lord of the Rings marathons) but, alas, they must remain on hold. . . .
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Back in SA
Our trip to Los Angeles was fabulous. It was warm and sunny, and we had such a great time with our family and friends. Courtney and Nathan had a beautiful (and fun!) wedding, and we were so happy to be there for it. Needless to say, it was pretty difficult to get on the plane to come back here. Somehow, we managed to force ourselves to leave paradise. After 30+ hours of travel, we were in East London. Unfortunately, our bags were not.
Our plane was about an hour late into Joberg, so there was wasn't a lot of time once we cleared South African customs and rechecked our bags before our next flight left. While we weren't completely surprised that our bags didn't make it, we were absolutely exhausted and not up to dealing with the issue. We were told in East London that our bags would arrive on the 4:30 flight from Joberg that afternoon. Since we wouldn't be able to make it back to site before dark with our bags, we decided to stay at a backpackers in East London. We were called around 5:00 and told that Matt's bag had arrived on the flight, but Sara's had not. At that point, the guy we had been working with told us that he was going to call Joberg about Sara's bag. Seriously? He was just now going to call Joberg and let them know that bags were missing? I'm pretty sure that bags are scanned now once they enter and leave an airport, so you'd think it would be fairly easily to locate lost luggage. This isn't 1991. Anyway, Sara's bag eventually arrived on the 8:30 flight. We were able to have cheeseburgers (2 for 1) at the restaurant next to the backpackers, so the lost bags were ultimately worth the hassle. Food makes everything better.
Now we've been back at our site for a week, and already we are looking forward to our next trip!
On a sidenote, we had a pretty humorous interaction last weekend. Someone asked us where in America we were from. When we replied Los Angeles, the young woman got excited and said “LA! The Big Apple!” And no we didn't correct her because it was too good.
Our plane was about an hour late into Joberg, so there was wasn't a lot of time once we cleared South African customs and rechecked our bags before our next flight left. While we weren't completely surprised that our bags didn't make it, we were absolutely exhausted and not up to dealing with the issue. We were told in East London that our bags would arrive on the 4:30 flight from Joberg that afternoon. Since we wouldn't be able to make it back to site before dark with our bags, we decided to stay at a backpackers in East London. We were called around 5:00 and told that Matt's bag had arrived on the flight, but Sara's had not. At that point, the guy we had been working with told us that he was going to call Joberg about Sara's bag. Seriously? He was just now going to call Joberg and let them know that bags were missing? I'm pretty sure that bags are scanned now once they enter and leave an airport, so you'd think it would be fairly easily to locate lost luggage. This isn't 1991. Anyway, Sara's bag eventually arrived on the 8:30 flight. We were able to have cheeseburgers (2 for 1) at the restaurant next to the backpackers, so the lost bags were ultimately worth the hassle. Food makes everything better.
Now we've been back at our site for a week, and already we are looking forward to our next trip!
On a sidenote, we had a pretty humorous interaction last weekend. Someone asked us where in America we were from. When we replied Los Angeles, the young woman got excited and said “LA! The Big Apple!” And no we didn't correct her because it was too good.
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