Tuesday, July 16, 2013 – “Now class, what is a paragraph?”

At 6:30 AM, I bolted awake.  Some sort of alarm was blaring throughout the grounds.  I looked out the window and could see nothing wrong.  I decided that I could do nothing about it and so I started getting ready for the morning.  The alarm soon went off.  It must have been a false alarm. 

By 7:45, I heard the sounds of children coming to school.  Whether here or in South Africa, a school morning sounds the same, with the voices of children eagerly talking to each other.  

At 8:00, the bell was rung and students lined up to begin their day.  Slower students were still sauntering in – they were not too concerned about being a few minutes late.  

I started off in the Grade 4 classroom, listening to both a Bible lesson and a Math lesson being taught.  It is really interesting observing the students – there is one who struggles, there is one who can’t sit still, there is another who rushes through his work to get done first, there is a perfectionist – students are the same everywhere. 

On their timetable, there is the word ‘break’.  However, this does not mean recess, instead it means breakfast.  Two of the students did not like their breakfast and so another student ate all of his and both of theirs!  He is known for his big appetite.  They do not receive a recess until lunch time.

 

After breakfast, I was going to teach history and English.  However, the caretaker of Mukhanyo came to get me and instead I went to pick up some groceries for my new place.  The teacher had no problem with a change in schedule.  When I arrived back from the Crossroads, I dropped off my groceries.  I also had bought a soccer ball for the students to play with and so I brought that along to the school . 

At school, the students were just finishing up with Social Studies.  It is amazing how much these students learn and they are doing it all in a second language.  It was then my turn to teach them Roman history.  They love learning about this and have to be told to sit down when they jump out of their seats in order to answer a question.  Their eyes just seem to sparkle with an eagerness to learn. 

Once Roman history was done, I started on English.  I will be taking over English 4 for the rest of the time that I am here.  For today, I went over paragraphs with them.  They had to write a paragraph for homework and they all did well on that.  Last night I had created a basic powerpoint on Nelson Mandela.  Nelson Mandela was South Africa’s first black prime minister and he removed apartheid (separation between black and white) from the country.  It is his birthday on Thursday, and everyone is expected to contribute 67 minutes of volunteerism to their community in honour of that.  So I showed the Grade 4 students a powerpoint they had made.  They loved the idea of seeing it on the computer as nothing is done with technology here.  (So if anyone has extra money to contribute to buying of five laptops to teach these students about technology, that would be awesome).  Once I had gone over the facts of Mandela with them, they wrote a paragraph about him.  Most of the students did very well, except one student.  She seems to be missing many of the basic sounds and I would love to spend some extra time with her to get her caught up. 

At 12:30, lunch arrived.  

I then showed them the soccer ball which I had bought for them.  They loved it and were eager to play with it.  Since there next subject was going to be home languages, I went to the college to do work there.  At the same time, I also needed to do laundery.  In this dusty country, my white coat did not stay clean long.  I was told I could use the wash machine in the dorms.  So I quickly went there, threw my clothes into the wash machine, added detergent, turned the dials and assumed that it would be done in ½ hour.  Well, I assumed wrong – I went back in ½ hour and it hadn’t even started.  I fiddled with some dials, but nothing seemed to work.  Eventually one of the students came in and told me that there was very little pressure and so I just had to make sure that I was only using cold water and that I would need patience.  So, I reset the dials and tried it again.  In ½ hour, I came back.  It still wasn’t done.  The tank was still being filled up slowly.  The caretaker noticed my dilemma.  He turned off the sprinkler, fed the hose through the window and filled up the tank that way!!  I wish I had my camera to take a picture.  Well that worked and ½ hour later my clothes were clean.  Now they are hanging in my bathroom on a line that is above the toilet.   

During this time, I was also working on study guides.  As I was working on study guides, one of the ladies there mentioned that there was a rat in the office yesterday.  That kinda grossed me out, but since this was the first time in years, I thought nothing of it.  A little while later, one of the guys from  the office walks in with a trap.  I just had to laugh when I saw it.  However, I thought they were kidding.  When I was just ready to live, I went to the back where there was a bit of kitchen.  And much to my dismay, the caretaker was actually setting the rat trap.  I am going to make sure that I am not the first person there tomorrow morning!!