Happy Valentine’s Day! I can’t believe I haven’t written anything since Christmas Eve. It has been so busy, but that is no excuse for a lack of updates. I’ll try to be better in the New Year. I won’t call it a resolution…
School started with a bang. My thought was at the end of the year (we came in September for the 4th term) not a lot of teaching took place. The kids all sat for exams and then were mostly free. Think of taking your English finals in grade 7 and then being done for the day by 10am. You can hang out at school, but you can also go do whatever you want. I think in the end the US/Europe/Asia kids do actually get significantly more teaching time than our kids here do.
The more I see here of the system, the more questions it raises. The Minister of Education here (Zuma’s cabinet) said that the grade 12 exam, called Matric, wasn’t important. I couldn’t help but think that if any of our presidents’ Secretaries of Education, no matter what party, said that a high school education wasn’t important, they would be fired or asked to resign within the week. It seemed a very strange message to send to the public and not be held accountable for.
In January, all our group of volunteers (SA20) were brought together for a week of training. We were given some statistics that I thought were frightening. First let me say that the drop out rate in the US is 30% (someone Googled it when we were in training for comparison.). Having said that, the SA budget for education is R122 Billion.
School started with a bang. My thought was at the end of the year (we came in September for the 4th term) not a lot of teaching took place. The kids all sat for exams and then were mostly free. Think of taking your English finals in grade 7 and then being done for the day by 10am. You can hang out at school, but you can also go do whatever you want. I think in the end the US/Europe/Asia kids do actually get significantly more teaching time than our kids here do.
The more I see here of the system, the more questions it raises. The Minister of Education here (Zuma’s cabinet) said that the grade 12 exam, called Matric, wasn’t important. I couldn’t help but think that if any of our presidents’ Secretaries of Education, no matter what party, said that a high school education wasn’t important, they would be fired or asked to resign within the week. It seemed a very strange message to send to the public and not be held accountable for.
In January, all our group of volunteers (SA20) were brought together for a week of training. We were given some statistics that I thought were frightening. First let me say that the drop out rate in the US is 30% (someone Googled it when we were in training for comparison.). Having said that, the SA budget for education is R122 Billion.
It is reputedly the highest per capita spend in the world. Most of the money is spent on salaries. I think we’ve all seen poor financial management in our schools. In my case, 40% of both my schools’ budgets is spent on transportation reimbursement and catering. Teachers in SA have a good enough salary scale that most can afford to buy a house and a car.In 1998, the kids entering schools were tracked. These are the kids that would have graduated in 2009 if they were on track. There were 1,550,790 who entered Grade 1 in 1998. In 2009, 551,940 sat for the Matric exam (high school diploma test equivalent). So 1M kids either dropped out or are still in the system in a lower grade (i.e., not one grade per year). Of the 552K who sat for the exam, 334,609 passed the exam, but 109,697 passed the exam with high enough marks to enter university level education/tertiary education.
The main reasons given for kids falling behind or dropping out are: pregnancy, repeating grades, having only a primary school in the area and no funds for boarding school, transferring to a trade school, HIV/AIDS or caring for the rest of the family, and corporal punishment (fear of school). I know that if parents can afford it, kids are sent to boarding school in a large city. There they do seem to get a good education. All the principals’ kids I know and many of the teachers’ kids travel every weekend either home or to another extended family member who lives nearer their schools. I still notice weak math fundamentals, but they are challenged. I admit that some of the most promising kids that I’ve worked with who get to go to Rustenburg or Jo-burg or Klerksdorp to school seem to be progressing along better than those that stay in the village.
To that end, there are 3 or 4 of us who are working on strengthening the math fundamentals of the kids. We’ve developed a program that uses some of the previously developed math exercises/exams and incorporated it into a licensing program that one of the SA NGOs is helping us to fund. The kids get money for becoming licensed or knowing the material well enough to teach it to others, and then they can move up. We have been working on it now for about a month and I don’t know yet if it will work, but it is something. I guess the end of year test results will be the telling factor.
I’ve also been over to the local high school to see what resources are available there. It turns out there is a computer lab at the high school with 20 computers that were not working due to a crashed operating system on the server. Naturally, there is no backup. I made a few phone calls and we got the server back at the end of last week so we’ll start with 20 kids on Monday, 20 on Tuesday, and 20 more on Thursday to keep a rotating group of kids learning something about computers. Who would ever have guessed that I’d be learning about servers and such?
Speaking of And Such…the primary school has got some computers that I’m trying to network so they can share files and printers. They’ve got an operating system on them called Windows XP Starter Edition. After working with my brother-in-law and Katherine for about 6 weeks trying to get them talking to each other, Katherine figured out that my problem is the operating system itself. The system is a stripped down version of XP—some of the things that are stripped are the ability to share printers and PC-to-PC networking. For every step forward here, there are about 5 steps backwards. Now I’m trying to get an upgraded operating system. Easier said than done.
Some local success stories though, I created a large excel spreadsheet with all the kids grades and made a bunch of progress using Mail Merge to create a report card…no more last minute stuff as long as I can get some teachers trained on how to use this. Much improved and thanks to Lorry Arvelo and Karan Brown for details on how to use Mail Merge. And Gerald Benard is critical to this successful skill too—or at least he will be when he helps me put national codes into the report card. He doesn’t know he’s doing this, but he is!
Katherine sent me some software called Crazy Machines. I’ve got it loaded on my computer and the kids come over and play this for hours on end. It is something like learning how different things work (like gears, steam, solar panels, etc.) and then creating your own rube Goldberg machine in the end. I can’t get the boys to do any of the old games anymore…they just want Crazy Machines. I’ve been told that this game needs to go to school too. Luckily the software is compatible with both Macs and PCs.
In January, we spent a day in Pretoria before going to our training class. I must say that this was like landing on another planet. If you were to see what happens in Pretoria, you would never believe there are millions of people living in rural areas with electricity, but no running water, very few amenities, no readily available grocery stores, washing clothes by hand, no entertainment, etc. Within a 6-hour taxi ride (or 3), we were happily showered, fed Indian food at a restaurant, and ensconced in the middle of a movie theater watching Sherlock Holmes eating popcorn. It was glorious really. We walked to a place for breakfast and I had French Toast with cinnamon and Early Grey tea. Then we all went over the Peace Corps office and raided the library for good books.
When we were at training some of the volunteers put together some fun things to do. One of the 
things was a talent show. David, representing the seniors among us, won the show with a
blues rendition. Very funny. The other thing that I thought was funny was a prom. I spent the evening, not as a wall flower per se, but explaining the prom to the South Africans among us.
The 
costumes were funny--especially the guys who dressed up as girls. The girls were creative wearing shower curtains, curtain curtains, and plastic garbage bags among other things. I must say
I've never seen a garbage bag look so good on someone as it did on Kristen!
The training was the first time I had seen most of the volunteers since September. I regularly see Sonja who lives closest to me. Kathy and Emily were here with Sonja for the long New Years weekend. But others I hadn’t seen or talked to although most of us are on Facebook so we keep in touch that way. A lot of us have lost weight. In fact, anyone who had it to spare lost it. Most stayed the same, but a few have gained some weight. I heard a few people commiserating with each other over that issue. I have officially lost 30 pounds according to the scale in the office. I wonder what the next 6 months wlll bring? It was nice to reconnect with some people and see how they are doing in their villages. Many of us have the same issues, but there are a few who are really facing an uphill battle—even more so than we all are. I still feel very, very lucky to have landed in Thutlwane and to have been able to make so many good friends here. They have truly been my lifesavers when I needed them.
On the return, I spent 4 days with my first host family from Marapyane. The mother and the kids all stay in Pretoria so I really enjoyed visiting with them for that time. My host sisters and brothers were all there. We shared lots of laughs and hugs. Tumiso and I went to see The Princess and The Frog (my kind of movie) AND Avatar (weak plot, long, not 3D). I made meat loaf and mashed potatoes with salad and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. That seemed like a pretty American meal to me. Mma, her friend Eunice, and I went to one of the biggest malls I have ever seen and I found a spatula! It seems like a small thing, but try to find one in Mafikeng. Then I caught the taxi back to the village on the Sunday. It was a great weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with them. I didn’t see Rra this time because he wasn’t able to come to Pretoria and it is a long taxi ride to Marapyane and back. Maybe next time.
So, to sum it all up, I’ve been doing some project management, some computer IT work, some maths fundamental work (grade 7 and they aren’t quite sure what 3X9 is), some Excel spreadsheets, some homework help, some funerals, some family stuff, and all sorts of things to keep me occupied in a village. As usual, I’m always busy!
Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you and I think about you often. Thanks for all the packages, all the cards and letters, emails & Facebook messages, prayers, and warm wishes. I appreciate them all. Below are pics of our Valentine's activities.
things was a talent show. David, representing the seniors among us, won the show with a blues rendition. Very funny. The other thing that I thought was funny was a prom. I spent the evening, not as a wall flower per se, but explaining the prom to the South Africans among us.
The 
costumes were funny--especially the guys who dressed up as girls. The girls were creative wearing shower curtains, curtain curtains, and plastic garbage bags among other things. I must say I've never seen a garbage bag look so good on someone as it did on Kristen!The training was the first time I had seen most of the volunteers since September. I regularly see Sonja who lives closest to me. Kathy and Emily were here with Sonja for the long New Years weekend. But others I hadn’t seen or talked to although most of us are on Facebook so we keep in touch that way. A lot of us have lost weight. In fact, anyone who had it to spare lost it. Most stayed the same, but a few have gained some weight. I heard a few people commiserating with each other over that issue. I have officially lost 30 pounds according to the scale in the office. I wonder what the next 6 months wlll bring? It was nice to reconnect with some people and see how they are doing in their villages. Many of us have the same issues, but there are a few who are really facing an uphill battle—even more so than we all are. I still feel very, very lucky to have landed in Thutlwane and to have been able to make so many good friends here. They have truly been my lifesavers when I needed them.
On the return, I spent 4 days with my first host family from Marapyane. The mother and the kids all stay in Pretoria so I really enjoyed visiting with them for that time. My host sisters and brothers were all there. We shared lots of laughs and hugs. Tumiso and I went to see The Princess and The Frog (my kind of movie) AND Avatar (weak plot, long, not 3D). I made meat loaf and mashed potatoes with salad and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. That seemed like a pretty American meal to me. Mma, her friend Eunice, and I went to one of the biggest malls I have ever seen and I found a spatula! It seems like a small thing, but try to find one in Mafikeng. Then I caught the taxi back to the village on the Sunday. It was a great weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with them. I didn’t see Rra this time because he wasn’t able to come to Pretoria and it is a long taxi ride to Marapyane and back. Maybe next time.
So, to sum it all up, I’ve been doing some project management, some computer IT work, some maths fundamental work (grade 7 and they aren’t quite sure what 3X9 is), some Excel spreadsheets, some homework help, some funerals, some family stuff, and all sorts of things to keep me occupied in a village. As usual, I’m always busy!
Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you and I think about you often. Thanks for all the packages, all the cards and letters, emails & Facebook messages, prayers, and warm wishes. I appreciate them all. Below are pics of our Valentine's activities.
