July 18, 2013 - Mandela Day

Yesterday, the students were given special instructions - don't wear your uniforms, bring plastic bags and tell your parents that they need to come.
Today is Mandela Day, a special holiday for all of South Africa.
Just a bit of history - Nelson Mandela was born July 18,1918.  He fought against apartheid (the separation between the black people and the white people) and as a result for jailed for 27 years.  After being released, he became Africa's first black prime minister and apartheid was officially stopped.  Today there definitely still is evidences of this separation between the black people and the white people, but it is not as extreme.

After our regular morning routine, all the kids walked to the Grade 3 classroom.  All of them crowded into the classroom and we started off our day with a prayer for Mandela and the singing of Happy Birthday.
Once Happy Birthday was enthusiastically sung, the kids pulled out their 'plastic' (plastic bags).  On this day, everyone volunteers and the students were going to pick up garbage outside of their school yard.

They wrapped and tied their plastic bag around their hand.

We didn't have any plastic gloves to provide them with, but these bags did just fine.  This process took an hour.  Here in South Africa, a lot of things are very laid back.  The teachers saw no rushing in hurrying this up and so we took our time.  (To a Canadian teacher, this is sometimes amazing) By the end of the hour, the kids were starting to get restless and we finally headed outside.
Outside, the weather was a little chillier than normal, but still not too bad.  We divided into groups and I was the teacher of the zebras (and it's not z 'ee' bras, but zebras, with a soft 'e' like in bed).  I had no idea how long we had to spend garbage picking (and I don't think anyone else did either).  We picked right along the fence line and soon filled up a bag of garbage and then another.

People just throw their garbage whereever, so it gets pretty messy looking.  By the time we had filled about two bags, my group found a dump site and started filling their bags using the garbage from that.

  After I bit though, we moved on from the dump and collected garbage from other areas.  The kids were loving every moment of this and were running here and there picking up garbage.  All of sudden "teacha, teache - look a truck!"  And there, without any one arranging it, the town garbage truck was stopping by in order to pick up our garbage.  My group ran with the bag to the garbage and all crowded around it.

Afterwards, the students clapped as the truck drove away.  I'm not sure if these men have ever had that sort of reception before.

We collected 15 bags of garbage, probably in the space of about 1/2 hour.  

The students still had not yet had their breakfast yet, so it was time to wash their hands and head inside for breakfast.

The students do not have official washrooms, just outhouses and so washing hands consists of them all lining up outside, turning on the outdoor tap, filling up the container and giving them a bar of soap.  Needless to say, this was a bit of a process and this probably took another 20 minutes.  

While we were cleaning garbage, the moms that came were sweeping the school yard.  Once they were done, the yard looked very neat and tidy.  

Finally it was time for breakfast.  By now, it was probably 10:00.  However, in spite of it being late, I never heard of one of the kids ask when it would be breakfast time.  They know that they will get breakfast and so that is all that matters to them.  

Breakfast this morning was a brown porridge.  The students (for the most part) eagerly dug into it.  

(The lady in the back is the teacher that I mainly work with - Teacher 'Angelina')

This was a bit of a chaotic breakfast as the Grade 4's had to eat with the Grade 2's and there weren't enough chairs and everyone had lots of energy and . . .  

After breakfast, it was time to get back to our regular routine - or so we thought.

"But teacher, we aren't supposed to learn today."  "I didn't bring my pencil."  "All my books are at home."  I couldn't help but start laughing - Canadian kids and South African kids are just the same.  

So, needless to say, we didn't do to much learning today - or so the kids thought.  They first coloured a picture of Nelson Mendala.  These students are quite artistic and love to colour and draw.

Then instead of them 'learning', they received a geography lesson on Canada (it has bears and wolves and everybody is sleeping right now and no, planes do not have swimming pools on them; and yea, bears can eat people, but not normally).  They also were taught new English words - canola, wheat, barley, calves,. . . (yes, we did talk about my parent's farm).  They also learned a new song - "Only a boy named David" and watched the song from youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tcMhEzbs2Q.   They also had a lesson on using a computer - moving the mouse and clicking.  All in all, I think they learned a lot.  While all of this was going on - a group of students arrived from the secondary school in the village.  They were here to do there volunteer service for Mandela Day.  

They painted the outside school walls

 and the tires that the line the driveway.

Doesn't that look colourful and clean. 

One of the grade 4 students watching the painting.  

After all of these mini-lessons, it was lunch time.  

At lunch time, I left for the college.  It is about a one minute walk away!  Lately at the college, I am editing a 180 page study guide called "Christianity and other Religions."  It was very long, but the content is interesting.  I am having to remind myself to edit it and not read it.  This study guide talks about Jehovah's Witnesses (very common around here), initiation ceremonies, a group called Zion Christian Church, Islam, the Prosperity Gospel, etc.  

I finished off the day by Skyping with mom and Jorden for while.

Another fun day.