Goodbye from East Bank High, Goodbye South Africa

A handful of memories from the final day...

Goodbye from my Star Pupils...

Jx

This is Africa...

Tonight is the night, my last night in Africa. I have one more day left at school, then its back home to pack my suitcase, and on to the airport. From when I open my eyes, it's a straight 32 hours until I'm back home in Coventry... maybe 38 hours until I sleep again. I never could sleep on a plane. I've clocked up many thousands of miles of airtime these last few years... I don't recall sleeping a wink.

This has been an amazing experience. It really has. More than I thought it would. Worth giving up my summer for. I'll be sad to go home... though it is about time I started my "real life"... as depressing as that may sound.

South Africa has been cold, but I've only ever seen the rain once. Consider this a soundtrack to my emotions:

I've lived in South Africa, I've taught in a township of Jo-burg, I've seen the Bafana Bafana, gazed upon the Big 5, stroked a lion, made new friends, taught many new people, hopefully made a difference to a few.

Even if I've only influenced a few pupils during my time here, I know I have influenced the teacher who was watching me. He has a wealth of experience in many countries in Africa, but with no formal training, he has also learned a few things from me. That was nice to hear. Although all I did was deliver lessons similar to how I was taught at school, I was lucky enough to be blessed with good teachers, a luxury not everyone will have. Now it is those simple ideas I learned that I have passed on that break down this challenging subject that he will now adopt in his future lessons. I may only have changed a few outlooks for the positive, but the teacher I leave behind will come in contact with thousands of other pupils. The transfer of knowledge will multiply exponentially. That is progress, that is the real difference I may have made.

I'd love to come back here and volunteer for another summer, but I don't think I'm going to get the chance. Real life may get in the way. I'm going home to a new house, a new town, a new job, and I'll probably need to buy a new car. It will be nice to see the the old friends, the family, and the girlfriend. She has been an Angel, tolerated my Wanderlust, and will hopefully be looking forward to seeing me again...! I could have bought a wife for two dozen cows, but Suzi Bee is worth all the cows in Africa...(I'm really hoping that came across as a compliment... because it was!)

Tomorrow I teach my final lessons, and say goodbye to the young minds I leave behind. They will be missed. I wish there was more I could do for them, but I'm in no position to help them all.

Like the monk who walked along the beach with his companion, stranded starfish washed upon the shore for as far as the eye could see, destined to die. He picked one up, tossed it back in the ocean, and moved along to the next one. His companion asked why he bothered, he could not possibly save all of them. "Maybe not" the monk replied, as he tossed another back into the sea..."but I made a difference to that one"...

That was a story I heard that was told at my friends memorial service in Borneo back in 2007. He died there on our expedition doing what he loved, and making a difference to all of those he came into contact with. He made a lasting difference to me. Since then, I've taken every opportunity life has presented me, grateful for the chances I was lucky enough to be given. You never know when it will all be taken away. You taught me a lot Toby, and if God blessed Heaven with Wifi, I hope you can read this and realise the difference you made to my life. I dedicate this one to you:

"For what its worth, it was worth all the while"...

For the rest of you, I'll see you when I get home.

Jx

The Curiosities of Teaching Abroad...

Well I’m now into my final week of teaching in South Africa, and I thought it was about time to highlight some of the contrasts between teaching at home and over here. Without going into too much detail, here are a couple of things I have observed:

The school doesn’t have a bell, just a siren that I would liken to an air-raid warning. It goes 7 minutes late every morning, making the first lesson of the day 7 minutes shorter than it should be. Nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care.

The air-raid siren does not signal the start of the day... it’s more of a suggestion that pupils (and often teachers) should probably go to their room to perhaps toy with the idea of teaching and learning. Never expect too much progress in period 1.

The classrooms rarely have glass in the windows, just the frames will do. It is much more accommodating to the howling winter winds. There is no ceiling, just wooden beams holding up the corrugated roof. It is like teaching in an attic.

Staff meetings are not unlike a pow-wow with the Ents (mythical tree-like creatures made famous in Lord of the Rings). Just like the Ents, it takes an eternity for anything to get said, or a decision to be made. Everybody seems to have something to say and takes a very long time to say it. Convoluted you might say.

The chair to bum ratio is not favourable for the learners. Seldom do they get a chair to themselves. I think I’ve seen 4 pupils share the same one. The mechanics of it are beyond my comprehension, though it seemed to work. The same can be said for the old wooden desks. A local Ikea wouldn’t go amiss.

Classrooms double up as bedrooms. There is always at least one pupil asleep. Even with me teaching at my entertaining best, I cannot keep everyone awake. I’m told this is the norm. Some learners only come to school to have something to eat and somewhere to sleep. Having to go to lessons is an inconvenience. Put yourself in their shoes and tell me that is wrong. If it is wrong, it is certainly understandable. When you are surrounded by desperation, it is hard to see a way out.

The school day is a transient concept... in theory it is 07:30 until 14:30... though here are my top 5 reasons why school has closed early:

1.       It was too cold. Hmm... I think it was more of a case of “because it is Friday and we want a long weekend”.

2.       “We’re having a sports day”.... there was no sports day. It was just a Wednesday.

3.       “We’ve run out of water”... Perhaps that one can be excused.

4.       “Tomorrow is a public holiday” so we close the day before also?

5.       “Time for a staff meeting”... yes, one of those infamous Entish meetings. Why not have it after school? Don’t be ridiculous.

The days are never dull over here, and you never quite know what is going to happen next. All I do know is, it has been worthwhile me coming over here.

The test results from my 4 classes were overall on the positive, though there were a couple of let-downs. The results ranged from 0% to 98%, with the class averages at 24% (hugely disappointing), 44%, 46%, and 51%. Now whilst those scores may seem rather low, it should be noted that a pupil only needs 30% to pass the academic year. In maths, the current whole school average for grade 11 is 18%. So, all of my averages were above that! As all the material I have taught has been completely knew to the learners (data handling has only now become mandatory in the curriculum apparently), I would say it has been quite successful. Indeed, seeing the joy on the faces of those pupils who were over the moon with their test results let me know my summer was not wasted. I even got hugs. I never got hugs in England (it would be deemed a Child Protection Issue), though it was nice to be appreciated. That also rarely happens in England.

Lately I’ve been teaching Trigonometry, and will be testing the classes again this week before I leave. I hope to see more progress made. This topic is harder, so maybe I can’t compare the statistics of the two topics, I’ll measure success in terms of smiles. If the learners are happy with their results, and they feel like they have learned something, then that is all that matters.

Those that want to learn, have every chance to succeed. Those that don’t... sadly won’t. That is the greater issue education in the townships is facing, though this is a struggle that needs longer than 5 weeks to solve.

3 days to go...

Jx

Ps, I stroked a lion this weekend...

The Week That Was...

Well another week has come and gone in South Africa, and I am now over half way through my teaching experience. Last week didn’t offer anything new in terms of my daily routine, teaching and planning was still dominating my time (as it will when I return home!) though I was able to have a couple of outings to break-away from the norm.

Tuesday was a public holiday, officially called “Ladies Day”, and as a consequence there was no school. Though before all you men get excited and quickly move to South Africa, “Ladies Day” offers no benefits to the men. Indeed it is a day where ladies are expected to do nothing, whilst the men do everything! It is not unlike Mother’s Day in England I suppose. Anyway, we ended up going to Gold Reef Theme Park. That was fun. Much more fun than I was expecting. It had it’s ‘Nemesis’ equivalent, it had it’s ‘Rip-Saw’, and probably the wettest rapids ride I’ve ever been on. It was a good day out, finished off with an all-you can eat buffet. Seriously, I’m getting fat.

Nothing too exciting happened at school last week, other than me writing a test to give all my year 11 classes to see what (if any) progress had been made. I’m nearly finished marking them, so will be able to evaluate my effectiveness as a teacher and see if there has been any point in me even being here! Fingers crossed for some positive results.

After school in Wednesday I went to another football match... this time it was to see the national side take on Burkina Faso (yes it is a real country). They are from West Africa, and they really weren’t very good. South Africa ran out 3-0 winners, but they never really had to try that hard. It took Burkina about 20 minutes to even touch the ball.

The biggest highlight (or lowlight) of the evening was going to the bar at half-time, it was the most outrageous trip to the bar I have ever had the displeasure of undertaking. I didn’t even get a drink. It was complete chaos. There was pushing fighting, drink spilling, and never have I seen so many pick-pockets in such a small space. I’ve had more hands in my pockets than a snooker table at the Crucibal

Luckily, I had prepared for such an eventuality, and had nothing in my pockets, and carried the exact change in my hand for the drinks. Some of my friends were not so lucky. One lost a phone and the other got no change from a tenner for a £1.50 drink. It was quite unpleasant, and honestly was enough to put me off going to a game again. People constantly walk into you, shake your hand to apologise and pick your pocket with the other. They are not even discreet! I’ve shook hands with one man, looked him right in the eye, looked down at his hand in my pocket, looked back up at him, he knows I know what he is trying to do, but he still smiles and tries to do it anyway. Ridiculous.

The weekend was much more pleasant. Saturday was spent with a living legend of the Apartheid struggle. One of the locals who works with Warwick in Africa took a group of us to his home-township where he grew up, and took us to several of his friends houses who were all teenagers during the fight for freedom from Apartheid, and dazzled us with their stories of fighting the regime. It was inspirational stuff, and truly brought the struggle to life. They never dared to dream of freedom in their lifetime, but thanks to Mandela and the collective spirit of the South African people, they now live the life they dared not to dream. It really puts the UK rioters to shame, it really does. What cause were they fighting for? I struggle to think. At risk of sounding like an old man, but some people just don’t know they are born.

I guess one thing teaching in Africa has reminded me, no matter how hard my life may get, there are millions in this world who will never be as lucky as I am.

Jx

Hakuna Matata...

This weekend provided my first opportunity to escape Johannesburg, escape the poverty stricken township of Alexandra and head north into the African sunset. This weekend was safari time (with a couple of other stops...).

It all started early Saturday morning, when we travelled north to Lesede Cultural Village. This is essentially a walking tour around different rural African tribal settlements recreated to give an informative overview of the history and culture of South Africa. It was pretty interesting. The cheapest woman I could have bought would have cost 13 cows, 20 was the most expensive. It was an option. The traditional tribal dancing at the end of the tour was very impressive... and a little scary!

We then continued north for a few more hours until we reached the National Park, a safe-haven for the wild animals of South Africa. As a little taster of what was to come tomorrow, we were allowed to do a mini self-drive tour around the park before the sun went down. To be honest we were not expecting to see much so close to the beginning, other than the scenery and maybe a few small animals. As it turns out, we got very lucky. Within 20 minutes we had seen Zebra’s and White Rhinos, a bit later we saw elephants! I had been told not to expect to see any of them, so that was a pleasant surprise. No less than 10 minutes later and the biggest find of the evening, a small pride of lions eating a bison/cow/bearded goat animal thingy! So that was already a few of the Big 5 before we had really started!

The sun went down and we retreated to our guesthouse for the night to get some sleep before the 5am wake-up Sunday morning. I would have been quite happy to just go back home, what else could we really hope to see!?

So it’s just gone 6am, it is freezing, and I am sitting on the jeep, completely exposed to the elements due to lack of windows and windshield, with nothing but a small threadbare blanket to share with my friend waiting for the tour to begin....

In a nutshell, we saw a Hippo, countless more elephants, Zebras, Buffalo, Rhinos...but for the life of me after nearly a 3 hour tour we had yet to see a Giraffe! Not a single one. There were meant to be hundreds! The gods eventually answered our prayers. On the way back to the gate, we see a car parked on the side of the trail, people unmoving inside, staring into space. What is that in the distance? Surely it can’t be a giraffe...? It was. More than one, there were loads of them! Where had they been hiding!? We couldn’t get very close to them, but it was nice to finally see them. I know a certain young lady who really wanted a picture of a giraffe.

The highlight of the tour was undoubtedly seeing another lion, a very big one! It must have just eaten something because its belly was looking ready to explode. We were fortunate enough to be able to track it for a little while, but the longer it went on the more and more jeeps and mini-vans seemed to join in the chase. At one point the lion boldly stepped into the main trial, and slowly sauntered along causing quite a traffic jam behind it. How I would have loved to be at the front of that queue!

I tried my best to take some nice pictures, though for a safari I think you really need a “proper” camera. I did my best with my well travelled little digital, but even well taken photographs cannot do justice to the experience.

I’d recommend an African Safari to anyone! I think when I get back home I’ll be taking the lady to West Midlands Safari Park... it’s the best that England can offer. Just hope the naughty monkeys do not destroy what is left of my clapped out car!

On the way home we paid a visit to Sun City, but that’s not really worth talking about. I guess it is like a Centre Parks/all in one package holiday centre, which could make a nice week away, but maybe no more than that. It is within range of the National Park, and has a crocodile farm and Water Park amongst other things, and also a very large sports screen! I managed to catch the second half of the Community Shield, not a bad half of football to catch! Nani’s first goal was particularly special. The only downside to the weekend was learning that Leeds lost their opening game of the season... things can only get better!

Jx

Ps, what on earth has happened to England this week!? I think I’m safer in South Africa!

"A Long Walk to Freedom..."

So the weekend has come and nearly gone, and what an interesting weekend it has been. Though before I get into that, you may be wondering what happened to Friday...?

Well, Friday was a bit of a non-event. I departed my guesthouse at the usual time of 07:00, arrived at school around 07:40, and about 10 minutes before the end of my first lesson (about 08:20) my classroom suddenly erupted into a chorus of cheers. School is closed for the day. Apparently it was too cold. I know you may be thinking “how can it ever be too cold in South Africa?” It is currently winter here, morning temperatures between 2 and 5’c, so it is admittedly a bit chilly. What makes it worse is the wind, hitting you like an iced dagger through the heart; it was not what I had expected. What compounds the misery is that almost all of my teaching is on the top floor of the block, and the classrooms seldom have glass in the windows, so the wind whips right through them. For those of you that know me well, you will know I’ve not worn (or indeed owned) a jumper since 2003. My last jumper became somebody else’s pj’s. Well I now own a new jumper, and I wear it almost every day.

So back to this weekend; and my true welcome to South Africa. Saturday morning was spent at Constitution Hill, which is now the location of the High Court, but was previously a prison where, amongst others, anti-apartheid political prisoners were kept. Mandela and Ghandi were 2 of the more notable guests. This was quite an informative morning, though if I’m honest it was pretty hard to really get a feel for the suffering or the anti-apartheid cause Mandela was fighting. It did not have the impact of Auschwitz in Poland, or the Killing Fields of Cambodia, but it was still worth a visit.

It was Saturday afternoon that will always be the most memorable, an afternoon spent at Soccer City to watch a fiercely contested local derby between the Kaiser Chiefs and Orlando Pirates (yes, these are both South African football teams!). I suppose it was the equivalent of Chairty Shield in England, a one-off game of which there had to be a winner. So, equipped with my South African football shirt (I had to stay neutral), and a vuvuzela, I was ready for the action!!

The atmosphere was amazing! I can only imagine how awesome it would have been to watch the world cup here, the vuvuzela’s didn’t sound as annoying as on the tv (and are fairly hard to play!). Opposing fans were all mixed together in a melting pot of orange shirts, black shirts, white smiles, and crazy dance moves, and it all created a most memorable experience.

 

It is a shame the same cannot be said about the actual football... it was a fairly dire 0-0 draw, with only a disallowed goal for a Maradonna-esque handball from the Chiefs and an offside flag denying the Pirates (the ref got both decisions correct). Other than those 2 incidents, I counted maybe only one other shot on target from the Chiefs and a blazing miss over the bar from about 3 yards from the Pirates. As this game had to have a winner, it went straight to penalties. The Pirates winning 4-3, with the Chiefs goalie blazing over their 5^th penalty. A worse pen than Baggio in USA 94? You decide.

  

Ultimately the result didn’t matter, the opposing players still hugged each other after missing a penalty, everyone was still smiling, and opposing fans still walked out the stadium arm in arm. It was just a great afternoon of entertainment.

Sunday was a completely different story, as this was spent at the Apartheid Museum in Jo’burg. Possibly one of the best museum’s I have been to, which really painted a very detailed picture of what Apartheid was all about, the social context in which it was spawned, and the struggle spearheaded by Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) to bring freedom to all of South Africa.

If I’m honest, I didn’t really know much about what happened in South Africa during Apartheid until I was prompted to read Nelson Mandela’s memoirs “A Long Walk to Freedom” (thank you Suzi B) a few years ago. I was only 5 when Mandela was released from Prison on Robben island after nearly 30 years in captivity, and growing up I assumed he must have been a criminal if he was in prison... the notion of a political prisoner was a concept I had never really thought about until I was much older.

So Apartheid was fundamentally a political system that promoted complete segregation between whites and blacks, with whites reigning superior over their black counterparts. I won’t lecture you on the details, but it was appalling the way the black people of South Africa were treated. This was the political system that Mandela dedicated his life to overcome, and after much suffering by himself and the nation of blacks, he eventually succeeded. He became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, with 63% of the vote. A far cry from our hung parliament!

I spent 4 hours in this museum, and could probably have spent longer. It really isn’t possible to absorb all of the information given, but when it was supported by vivid videos of the violence and protests that occurred, the message was really hammered home. Understanding what happened in South Africa over the last 70 years really helps put into context the problems my pupils are facing in the black townships of Jo’burg. These segregated townships still exist, but at least now the residents have equal rights to everyone else. They have their political freedom, but now they need their freedom from poverty, and this is an altogether different struggle.

Back to school tomorrow...!

Jx