I just had The. Best. Day. Ever. I’m not even bothered by the 99-degree heat wave that has swept through South Africa (and into the non-air conditioned, fan-lacking dorms) because I am trying to make sense of a swirling sea of thoughts and emotions. These next thoughts are not going to come out quite as eloquently as I could hope for, but I need to try and find some way to put the experiences today into words.
Also, please note that I am currently running on 2 hours of sleep as I spent half the night cheering on the Big Blue wrecking crew in the mini TV lounge with fellow Giant fans, a few gloomy Pats fans and a handful of Frenchmen who tagged along and who had a pretty difficult time trying to understand the concept of a safety. Sorry –that was the last bit of shameless smack-talk for all you Boston fans!
Today I started orientation at Lyndoch Primary School where I will be doing my practicum/internship for the semester, working in the classrooms with 20-something other international students. Arriving at the small, isolated campus about a 15-minute drive outside of Stellenbosch, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Would I be thrown into a teaching position similar to the Solomon Islands, armed with some textbooks and only a limited vocabulary of Afrikaans? What would the kids be like? What was I supposed to teach them?
Our instructor, Grant Demas, was there to meet us with morning tea, coffee and muffins, already putting everyone at ease. Grant is brilliant. There is no other word to describe him. He has a true gift to make everyone comfortable and I was pleasantly surprised at how fast the class developed a strong sense of community –I even found myself chatting with students from Germany and Austria on the bus ride home as though I had known them for months. I want to record everything he says –he doesn’t necessarily teach, but rather adds to the discussion with tidbits of quotes, riddles and stories and is fascinating to listen to. Taking us on a tour of the school, Grant introduced us to the students and teachers, grades 1-8, and it was a truly beautiful community of people. The kids stared at us wide-eyed and smiling as we filed into all the different classrooms and we were treated to a special welcoming song by each class.
After orientation, I decided that I wpould be working with the 7th graders this semester along with Corie and Elyse, two other American students! We will be responsible for planning weekly lesson plans in arts/culture and life skills for the 7th grade students. I am super excited to work with this age group because they are at the point where they have developed their own unique personalities and can participate and engage in more complex and interesting projects over the semester. (I’m also very curious to observe the similarities and differences in working with the Lyndoch students and my kids at YouthRAP at PC for the past year…) The three of us will start our introduction lesson next Monday and I can’t wait to get started!
All of the LSCE students enjoyed a fabulous home-cooked meal by Grant’s mother and who will give us a taste of traditional African-style meals throughout the course of the semester (not a bad way to slip in a lesson in culture into the course!) We also got time to play outside with the students during recess and I was surprised to find how readily we were accepted into the various playgroups dispersed around the playground. This was actually a bit shocking compared to the shyness and reserved nature of the Aligegeo students in the Solomons, who took much longer to warm up to newcomers. I can only venture a guess that this may be due in part to the differences in culture and probably the fact that Lyndoch as been a part of the LSCE program for a few years now and therefore the students are used to new faces each semester. Because of this I was surprised to feel small fingers playing with the braid in my hair as soon as I sat down in the grass and found myself surrounded by a flock of 2nd and 3rd graders finding amusement in using me as a human pincushion for bobby pins…
I was also very surprised by something I heard one of the older students say: “I feel privileged to live in South Africa because people are rich in their own culture.” Many times the words associated with Africa include “poor,” “underdeveloped,” and “violent,” and I have listened to family and friends voice these concerns when I told them where I was studying abroad. This quote from the student, however, reminded me of how relative these observations are and I find it amazing that there are kids as young as 10 and 11 who are able to recognize that wealth and poverty do not apply to material things. In fact, Grant stressed a similar thought throughout the course of the day, saying, “You are working with people, not things.”
Overwhelmed with many expectations, hopes, and a few anxieties, Grant left us with a quote as we packed up for the day. “Remember,” he said, “the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.” I am going to have to try to follow this advice over the next couple of months as I try and digest the awesome experiences here at Lyndoch, learn how to sort through the thoughts and feelings that right now are on the back burner of my mind.
I’ll let those simmer for now as I head off to the first rugby game of the season –hopefully they’re as successful as the Giants last night (ok, I lied, that was the last piece of gloating :P) Go Maties!
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