Dec Update

Dec. 13, 2009

I can’t believe how busy December has been. The school year finished on Friday so there were grades to complete and school planning for 2010 to do. The middle school principal wanted this all done before the teachers left for the break so he scheduled a workshop at a nearby conference center. It was fun, but it was scheduled right in the middle of the primary school trying to complete their report cards. I was torn about going to the workshop and not helping with the primary school grades. In both places, my primary talent is typing fast. I ended up trying to do both—as you all knew I would! It was mostly successful.

Monday the grade 6 kids went on their trip to a local swimming hole. It was closer than the place Sonja’s school chose and I thought it was equally nice. Sonja went with our kids too and she commented that with less than half the kids of her school, it was much more controlled. I have to agree with her. The chaos is fun after you get used to it, but it certainly was easier to control the kids with fewer of them.

In going, I can’t say that the planning was a big improvement over Sonja’s class trip. On hers we sat in Vryburg for 2 hours while the teachers went shopping. For ours, we sat in Stella for 2 hours while the teachers went shopping. The kids were allowed off the bus as Stella is a much smaller town than Vryburg, but still there were kids everywhere. Sonja and I ventured into the local store there in Stella and I managed to find something that I’ve been searching in Mafikeng and Delareyville for now for two months. I think I’ve checked at least 4 stores in Mafikeng and 2 in Delareyville—both much bigger towns than Stella. So I can move onward now to baking with my newly found digestive biscuits.

Last weekend Sonja and I went to Mafikeng for a little shopping. We went to Mega City mall and I managed to buy a fan AND a little refrigerator. I’m still waiting for the refrigerator to be delivered, but I own it. They said they would deliver and that Thutlwane isn’t very far. That is easy for them to say, but a refrigerator is not something that I can carry on the taxi no matter how small it is. The taxi ride is a good hour long so not far is relative. They also didn’t charge me for the delivery, yet anyway. Since it is the holiday season here, the store is very busy so there is no telling when I’ll get the refrigerator. I can be patient because I’ve got a fan!

I decided to stay close to home for Christmas this year, as I want to go back to the Serengeti in March to see the migration. I’ve heard it is awesome and knowing the number of animals there in the dry season, I’d like to see it when there is water too. My host family has 12 kids ranging in age fro 43 to 15. They and their families will all be here. I keep joking that I’m the oldest kid and we need to take a big family picture. If it happens, I’ll send it along.

I do plan to go to Kimberly for a couple of days. Connie and I stopped there for a couple of hours when we took the Blue Train in 2002. I was disappointed that I spent about 30 minutes in the diamond museum. Anyone who knows me knows that I need about 2 days for any museum. So I plan to go back to see it. I can get there pretty easily by taxi and there is a youth hostel there for sleeping. That will do me for traveling and getting away.

Some of the young people have talked about planning a New Year’s party and my house is big enough for several people to stay easily. Another advantage to my house is that it is easy (relatively compared to some other places) to get transportation in and out of Thutlwane. I said plan away and let me know what you decide. My host family, Kgosi and Mma, seem to love having all of us around so that is yet another plus. They join right in the fun.

During the school break, I’ll be teaching some computer classes, networking the computers at the primary school, setting up some programs for 2010 preparation, and putting together a math fundamentals class. We are going to focus on building the math foundations as even the best kids do poorly in math here. I will use the computers to do more math and English learning—in other words, they will have to learn something before they can play the shooting games. I really hope in two year’s time that we can say there has been some improvement in math and science literacy. The grade data that I put together from last year shows that the poor math skills eventually affects the science literacy. That is not surprising, but it is something that must be improved before South Africa can generate large numbers or engineers and scientists to fill the employment gaps. So it will be a busy break for me even if the kids are not at school. They still come to my house for all kinds of things…