Pretoria Zoo

On Friday, Julia and I went up to Pretoria.  We are planning to stay here until Sunday, as we hope to do work here both today and tomorrow.  This morning, we went to Pastor Malwende's church.  We helped him with developing a flyer and a funding request for his church plant.  His church plant started about 1 1/2 months ago and his main focus is evangelism and this flyer and any money received will help with that.  

Afterwards, we travelled to the zoo.  It is so nice having Julia drive with me.  She reads google maps and tells me to turn left or right and all I have to do is ensure I stay on the correct side of the road and not stall the car.  Below are some pictures of the different animals that were at the zoo.  

Flamingo's

Scarlet Ibis

A rhino.  He came so close to us that we could have reached out and touched him. 

A hippo -sprawled in the hot sun.  

An okapi - a giraffe and zebra mixture.  

I can't remember the name of this animal.  

A pig of some sort - 

Mukhanyo Christian Academy

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Today was a day I have been looking forward too – going back to Mukhanyo Christian Academy.  This is the same school that I worked on two years ago and so I was really looking forward to seeing my same students again.

Mukhanyo Christian Academy:  It has grown by two grades and two buildings

We arrived at the school a little late as it is very hard getting up at 6:30!!  When we arrived, we were teased a bit about being late and asked if we got lost.  Julia was shown to one class where the plan was for her to observe the students for a bit.  I was shown to another class and told “This is Grade 5.  They are ready to do math.  Here is their textbook.  I will get you a copy of their schedule.  Thanks for helping.” !!!  In other words, I was put right back into teaching.  In a way, I was prepared for this, as last time, there were several instances where this happened as well. 

So, I put on my teaching hat, and started teaching.  I first asked the students to introduce themselves.  They all said their names and I promptly forget them.  Hopefully I can remember them over the next day or two.  We then started talking about fractions and number-lines.  I really enjoyed it, but struggled with knowing how much they were getting out of my fast-paced English.  However, by the end of the lesson, I think most of them understood it.  It then was time for breakfast.  Two students went out, picked up their breakfast and served the whole class. 

Gr. 5 students working hard. 

After breakfast, I was moved to the Grade 6 classroom.  There are 3 students in Grade 6 and I taught all three of them two years ago.  They all remembered me and we spent some time catching up.  I taught them math and through-out the math lesson, we had some interesting conversations.  According to them, their skin is black because the sun beats on them so hard that their skin turns black.  (They said this as a joke to me trying to get me to believe it).  Also, the one girl has hair extensions braided in two long braids down her back.  The other two students, boys, demonstrated how that she is like a donkey because they can use those braids as reins.  Students around the world are so similar!!'

Lunch time was around 12 and we were served some delicious pasta with meat and some orange vegetable (a type of squash maybe?) After lunch, I taught science.  It was on electricity and similar to the material I taught in Gr 5/6 Science previously so that was easy.  After Science was LA.  When I was given the teacher’s manual, I was told it was not the best with regards to usefulness.  I agree and so I did my own thing with the focus being the same, but the actual lesson being quite different.  We read a bit of a chapter from a novel they are reading as a class and then I had them draw a character of their choosing and write describing words around it.  It was amazing seeing their drawings.  By then it was the end of the school day. 

Malaleni

July 20, 2015 – Malaleni

The buildings

Today was our first real day of ‘work’ at Malaleni.  We were originally told to be there at 10:00, but once we found out that the students didn’t start arriving until 3:00, we decided to wait a bit.  We went to the Distance Ed office and spent a few hours checking emails, reading Facebook, catching up the news, looking for touristy things to do, etc.  It is amazing how much you depend on Internet.  We do not have access to it at all at Butjani and it can be very sporadic at the office.  It’s showing me how much I rely on it and proving that I can do without it J.  We arrived at the Achievement Center around lunch time.  One of the teachers, Mike, showed us Khan Academy.  I have used this program with my Gr. 7/8 students and they (for the most part) enjoyed it.  Here at the Center, the teachers have seen remarkable progress for the students.  They had to pay a large amount of money to put it on their server, but now they are able to access it without Internet.  After this, we just hang around for a bit, had our lunches and waited until the students came.   Once the students arrived, they were served lunch, which is part of their program.  It is interesting watching them while they are eating.  Teens in Africa are the same as teens in Canada.  They are loud, funny, and like to tease each other in both countries.   For most of these students, this lunch is the last meal that they will receive until breakfast time tomorrow, so they make sure they eat up.   

Lunch time

After lunch was finished, the younger students headed to a classroom for Bible study and the older students went into the hall for their Bible study.  There were about 30 teenagers in the hall.  One of the teacher’s led the Bible study.  The topic was “Whenever you do something, you must put God first.”  He talked a bit about it, but then wanted input from the students.  No one wanted to say something first, so he had them each say something about what they thought about the topic and they had to do so in English.  Most of their responses were quite basic in that they said the same thing in that they pray to God all the time and when they wake up and when they go to sleep.  At the end of the talking, the teacher then said that some of them were lying.  The students laughed because they knew he was referring to the fact that although some of them had said they pray all the time, they knew that this wasn’t always true in their lives.  He recognized the fact that they knew that it was important and he encouraged to continue working on putting God first.  These questions had to be done in English and so it was interesting to see the difference between those who have a good grasp of the language and those that struggle.  Those that struggle would get very antsy and self-conscious, but all of them would try and say a few words. 

Bible study

The directors at Malaleni would really like to see the students become more comfortable with English and so that is one of their goals.  Much of the teaching is done in English and there is a lot of English help provided. 

After Bible study, time was up and so the students went home.  Julia and I also headed home. 

Travelling on the left side of the road with a stick-shift has been going well.  The only issue that I am having is that my car has a loud clanging sound under the steering wheel whenever the road is especially rough.  (Any ideas Dad?? J)

I was surprised at how quick I was able to get back into that routine.  Traffic is still busy here, especially in terms of pedestrians and animals moving all over the road.  We try to avoid travelling at night as it is hard to see everything that is around you.  The roads are in decent shape, although some of the shoulders can be quite rough.  On the way to Manaleni, there are huge speed bumps, and I’ve bottomed out a few times on them, so I have to make sure I am going very slow. 

Tomorrow we hope to go to Manaleni and do some tutoring with the students.  I am looking forward to this.  If you want to read more about Manaleni Achievement Center, just look for it on Facebook. 

Some pictures

Working in the office

Julia and I on a game drive.  Julia is from New Jersey and we are living together at Butjani and doing all the different activities together.  

A Nyala

Pictures

Reading with the students

Teen time

The pictures are still taking a time to upload, so I will do a few at a time.  These are some pictures from our first time at the Manaleni Achievement Center.  The younger students loved reading books with us and also loved having their picture taken.  The bottom picture shows a few of the teens that were seated in a circle waiting for teen time to begin.  

Game Drive

July 20, 2015 – Monday morning

This weekend was a nice relaxing weekend.  On Saturday, we had no plans and so we slept in and read for most of the day.  In the afternoon, we rent for a game drive with our hosts and so a lot of amazing animals.  The beauty in the creation here is awesome to see.   We saw giraffes,wildebeest, kudu, nyala and blesbook.   The last three are all a type of deer.   

Our game drive vehicle

Wildebeest

Beautiful zebras

Once again, supper was amazing.  We had some new friends come over and we spent some time learning more about the African culture and just about each other.  

The table set for us                     Some fresh fruit

 

A Chilly Day

July 17, 2015-Saturday

Today was an amazing day.  I was awake at 5:00 due to a bit of jet lag catching up on me, but that wasn’t too bad.  It was about 2 degrees outside this morning, so a little chilly, even by my standards.  We were served a wonderful breakfast once again and by 8:00, Julia and I were at John and Linda’s house, ready to head to the Malaleni Center.  The Malaleni Center was described to us as a day-care for students ages 5-18.  It assists them with school work and just offers them a safe and engaging place to be.  I was looking forward to this. 
The drive was 45 minutes long.  We attempted to memorize it as soon we would have to drive it on our own.  It seems pretty easy – left, right, left, right, left, right.  Now we just need to remember at what spot to make these turns.  At the Malaleni Center, we were greeted by all the staff members and shown around.  This center has a learning lab which consists of 10 computers – something everyone is very excited about.  It also has a kitchen to serve the students breakfast and lunch as well as some classrooms and a large open room.  After we were at the center for some time, the students started filtering in.  Today is the last day of their three-week winter holiday.  Many of them chose to come in on their holidays to have homework help, but many of the students did not come today as they were away for their last day or wanted to enjoy their last day of no school. 

The students then were served some breakfast (oatmeal) and then played soccer, netball or on the playground set for some time.  I attempted to play netball, but I had no idea what I was doing.  However, due to my height, I was very good at blocking the shots from going into the net.     

As well, I spent some time reading and reading and reading with some of the students.  They read most of the stories, and they are amazing readers.  Most of these students were in Grade 2, which means they only have been learning English for three years.  However, they were able to read through Gr. 2 level English readers with only a little bit of help.

We also spent some time doing flash-cards.  These students were excited to do the flash cards and were excited to spend time practicing their ‘maths’. 

After this was something called ‘Teen Talk’.  This was something that we had told would be one of the most interesting parts of the day – and it was. 

Before the teen talks started, we had an ice-breaker, which involved running to someone else’s chair before the teacher grabbed it away.  It was fun and it was a good way to start this way. 

Once this was over, the 18 students gathered their chairs and sat in a circle.  The topic for their discussion was ‘School drop-out’. We were invited to join them and listen in.  The purpose of these topics was so that teens can speak out and discuss items that are important to them.  In this area, school dropout is quite high and so this is quite a relevant issue.  Well, after listening to their stories and concerns, our students have it easy.  Some issues were teen pregnancy (one year there were 7 girls in a Gr. 10 class that were pregnant), drug and alcohol abuse, peer pressure, bullying and corruption by school officials.  In the last instance, one student talked about how even though the government subsidized the schools, yet each student was required to pay a ‘donation’ fee and bring 2 packages of paper.  If they did not bring this, they were not allowed to come to school.  Other issues that students talked about were prostitution and teacher manipulation.  The students were quite honest and open about the struggles they faced.  Afterwards, I was asked to say something.  All I could really tell them was that the fact that they were at this center and willing to ask for extra help was a huge and that if they continued on with this perseverance and determination and they would go a long ways with that.    We then headed home and had a nice relaxing evening sitting around. 

John and Penny and their son joined us for supper and we had an interesting conversation regarding the struggles that are in South Africa.  They feel as if the struggles are worse than before and are continuing to get worse.  There is a lot of corruption in the government which leads to an aggravation of the problem.  Also, many of the people only want free stuff, so instead of buying water or electricity, they will join up to a neighbour’s line illegally. Another issue is that in Johannesburg, there are office buildings that are empty for some reason and a random person will come along and start selling these office spaces as housing for the poor people.  They will pay their money; this guy will leave after a few months with millions of dollars and after a time these people will be evicted because it is someone else’s office space.  These issues are not a result of all the poor people doing something that they need to change, but in the end, they are the ones that are affected. 

July 16, 2015

Day #4 in South Africa.  Some things have changed a lot since I was here two years ago, and some things have not changed.   Yesterday and today, I worked in the Distance Office from Mukhanyo Theological College.  This is part of what I did last year as well and it involves proof-reading the distance ed material that is to be sent out to students of the college who are completing courses off site.  Most of the same wonderful and fun people work at the office and it was awesome to see them again. 

            After working at the office yesterday, Jane brought us (‘us’ includes myself and an American – Julia- who is doing the same things that I am) to Butjani Lodge.  Butjani Lodge is a beautiful game reserve that is about 10 minutes from the college.  Before we stopped at Butjani Lodge, we stopped at John and Linda’s place.  John and Linda are from the States and moved here a few years ago to work at a children’s dayhome called Malaleni(we hope to work here as well, so more will be coming about this later).  John and Linda have an amazing home that is not fenced in.  This means that giraffes and kudus and zebras and wildebeests come right to their back yard.  In fact, they had a man-made watering hole built to encourage the animals to come closer.  We sat on the back porch for a while, saw an amazing sunset and watched some of the animals meander over.  The words “O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder; consider all the worlds thy hands have made. . .Then sings my soul my Saviour God to Thee, How Great Thou Art.” came to my mind seeing this. 

After visiting with John and Linda for a bit, we carried on to Butjani Lodge.  Butjani Lodge is a lodge for tourists to come and stay for as long as they want.  It is another beautiful area.  It is fenced in, so the animals can’t come as close, but they are able to have some amazing plants as a result.  We are served breakfast and supper, lunches are packed if needed and our rooms are cleaned daily.  It is just amazing. I won’t know what to do when I arrive back home 

Today, I worked at the office all day.  We stopped work earlier in the afternoon and headed to Pretoria.  It was time to get a car.  I was a bit apprehensive about it, as I would need to get used to a stick shift again and to driving on the left side of the road.  Jane drove us to the car rental agency, I signed the forms, inspected the vehicle and started to drive.  The plan was to follow Jane out of the city, but we lost her at the second stop light.  We quickly phoned Jane and with her help, we were able to make it out of the city.  (I think I only stalled three times).  We then headed home and arrived at Butjani in time for another wonderful meal

I'm Back!!

Wednesday - July 15, 2015

Well, I’m back here in South Africa sitting in the Distance Office once again. It is great being back here and meeting everyone and being involved with the work that is being done here. 

On Monday, I left mom and dad’s at 8:00.  The original plan was for me to take Red Arrow as my family was going to go camping that day as well.  However, due to some issues with my passport (which basically means that I did not submit it in time), I had to stop at the passport office first in order to pick it up.  As a result, my parents drove me to the office first, picked up my passport (which thankfully was in) and then dropped me off at the airport.  My plane left Calgary in the middle of the afternoon and I landed in Frankfurt 9 hours later.  In Frankfurt, I had a 12 hour layover and so I was able to explore the city for a bit.

By the end of the day, I was extremely tired.  I boarded the plane and slept most of the way to Johannesburg.  In Johannesburg, I was picked up by Jane – the lady who arranged the trip.  It was 8:00 in the morning and time for the fun to begin.  

(Pictures will hopefully posted later - Internet is very unreliable)