If these past few weeks have taught me one thing, it’s to be flexible and ready to “go with the flow.” Similar to my experiences in the Solomons (the internet café would be closed because it was “too hot” or “too rainy” or the runway suddenly turned into a grazing pasture…), Africa operates on its own itinerary.
This realization started on Monday as the 25 LSCE students made our way to the train station for our morning commute to Lynedoch. We sat on the platform, eagerly discussing and running over last-minute plans for our lessons that day. We waited. And waited. And waited. Occasionally, we heard the announcer over the speaker system, but being in Afrikaans, it wasn’t all that helpful (my conversational Afrikaans is currently limited to greetings, items of clothing and occupations –none of which offer an explanation as to why the train was late). We finally arrived at the school with only 15 minutes left of our first teaching period –not enough time to run our lesson of bodily systems. However, Corie, Elyse and I took in stride and instead took the opportunity to begin planning our 7th grade sleepover with our girls. Once we started brainstorming ideas with them, their plans began to get crazier and crazier (we had to limit them at the idea of a full-blown prom…). I loved their enthusiasm and creativity, though it will be interesting to see what the final product looks like! When the boys joined us after break, we traveled to Brazil, where we wrote diary entries from the point of a slave in the African-Brazil slave trade. We also experimented with a short cha-cha lesson –although I think they were better at teaching us how to shake our hips than we were!
I’ve also had the opportunity to get involved in a little bit of the local student life here! Most students are either a member of a ‘res’ or PSO (private student organization), which are both similar to Greek organizations in the states. Marlize’s PSO, Aristea, held its annual fundraiser dance on Tuesday. The theme: “nerds love spiertiere” (‘spiertiere’ literally means ‘muscle tiger’ so if you use your imagination and picture a bunch of Jersey Shore cast members roaming the dance floor, you’ve got a pretty good image of what the costumes looked like!). I practiced my sokkie moves (goal is to be a pro upon returning home!) and found my new favorite song ever (how can you not love a song with a chorus singing about “baby chocolates?”):
Marlize and I had so much fun tearing up the dance floor here that we decided to crash one of her friend’s glow party dance Wednesday night –and found ourselves covered in glow paint and highlighter. As I write this, I am still picking pieces of blue paint out of my hair. Also, for all who are familiar with it, the “undesirable dance partner” move is now a huge hit here in South Africa! Stellenbosch student socials will never be the same…
I encountered another “go with the flow” lesson on Friday, when the LSCE learners returned to Lynedoch for a full day of class on community development theory. In addition to Grant’s usual lectures, he surprised us with a window washing activity for us to gain “clearer perspectives” of working in the school. It was comical to watch the energy build as we all danced around to Michael Jackson while scrubbing the windows (South African style, using newspapers and a bucket of water!) After a full day of discussion, generating ideas, and project planning, the exhausted group of facilitators made our way back to the train station. However, it seems like the week was fated to end the same way it began; we sat on the train, docked in the station, hearing rumors that the train destined for Cape Town, which ran on the same line, was broken down at the next station. Not wanting to wait for hours (as it was getting closer to evening), we followed the herd of people from the station and began the 8 km walk home. As we marched alongside the dirt road with “bokkies” packed full of people in the back whizzing by on one side and a farm of ostriches and wildebeest on the other, I thought, “Only in Africa!” It also gave me a new appreciation for the transportation available to us everyday and made me realize the challenges that some of our students must face with walking from their farms to school every day. I will never complain about walking from upper to lower campus at PC again!
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