Sept 30, 2010
Teacher’s Strike and Road Trips
We started out the third term at school with a pending teacher’s strike. We were at school for about 3 weeks and during that time it seemed that the major topic of discussion was if the teachers would strike or not. It seemed inevitable to me that they would because the main thing I heard was that they all deserved a pay increase because other sectors had received one. I didn’t hear anything about whether or not the work they did was improving or if the kids were better off now than they had been a year or two ago. Just that they deserved a pay increase because others had gotten one. Sure enough, the strike came and work ground to a halt.
I should say here that the Peace Corps wants us to remain uninvolved and say nothing despite the fact that we are working in the schools so my comments on this are my own opinions and have nothing to do with Peace Corps policy or the US government’s policies.
The terms are each usually about 50 days long. There are 4 school terms per year. This year, our second term was cut short because of the World Cup that was held in June/July. The government didn’t want extra transport on the roads during the games so that they could better facilitate the traffic to the venues. On the whole, I agree with this because SA traffic is horrendous at best. On the downside, there were no games within several hundred kilometers of where a lot of kids go to school and they were adversely affected by not being in school. Couple this now with a strike that wipes out the third term and kids have learned very little this year.
To be fair to the teachers, the government officials earn about R700, 000 per year. They are given a very generous housing allowance and a car allowance. I’ve heard them say “they must drive a Mercedes Benz because their position demands they have that type of status car”. I have yet to hear anyone suggest something like a company car to be driven on the rare occasions when they have to ferry someone who demands to be driven in a Mercedes. There is a fair amount of nepotism and in fact it appears that man can be and are corrupted by power at some point.
In contrast, the often better educated teachers with more experience can earn as little as R150, 000 per year, receive a R600 housing allowance per month, and have no car allowance. This also applies to nurses and most public officials. They often cannot afford to buy a house and sometimes live in poor conditions. Most of the teachers do a fantastic job, but there are many that need to be culled from the herd because of absenteeism, alcoholism, and abuse. Those give the majority a bad name. On strike, they were destroying property and injuring those who chose to go to school and teach.
The disparity provides perfect conditions for a strike. The unions do not solve the problems within their ranks and the government officials do not admit that what they are providing for themselves is unjust. In the end, the kids are not learning what they need to learn to succeed. It is a shame. Our kids went to school at about a 50% rate during this time…I went to one or the other of our schools everyday and did all sorts of things from painting the schools to playing math games. During this time is the first time in 14 months that I thought of going to Canada (it is hot in Texas this time of year!) and telling them all to call me when they get their shit together. I hate seeing the kids suffer because of grownups and their power struggles.
Once we did get back to school, it was time for me to get my mid-service dental and medical checkups. I went to the most advanced dental clinic to have my teeth cleaned. There was a machine there that would image your mouth for a crown, cap, veneers, etc. and it would make a mould that would be ready in an hour. It was really cool to see. The dental hygienist who cleaned my teeth really did a thorough job of it and it felt good to get the gunk off. I’ve got a generally clean bill of health and am glad that part is done. I don’t think anyone likes medical work except the doctors.
At school, I’ve been on three school road trips in 2 weeks. The volunteer before me said it best. I love her phrasing: “I think most Americans would fold on a South African road trip with the kids.” First of all, in 14 months I have yet to be on a school trip where the adults were not all drinking alcohol first thing in the morning on the bus—kids or no kids. It is irksome and dangerous and many volunteers can attest to the fact that the bus drivers will also indulge when they are waiting for the kids to show back up, usually all day. Second, the primary school kids will sing at the top of their lungs standing
in the aisles and anywhere else you can imagine—for the whole trip. If it is 16 hours, then there is 16 hours of singing. The buses are always overcrowded and you will not be in the lap of luxury. If you are going with older kids, they will expect a stereo system on the bus and will play music at really, really high volume. They will sing and dance along with the stereo. I used earplugs and my ears were still muffling sound more than 8 hours after I got off the bus. You must shout to be heard even by the person sitting immediately on top of you and you will be hoarse by the time you get where you are going. It is not restful. Third, in SA the gender roles are pretty strongly defined. Men are in charge of barbecues (they call it braai), some cooking (i.e., they will fry eggs), and making sure there is beer. The women do most everything else. There are exceptions, of course, but this is the general trend. It can be frustrating. But, if you are prepared, you can have a fantastic time.
My nearest volunteer is Sonja. She’s a lovely young lady and we share an engineering background as well as work in the semiconductor industry. She and I both lived in Austin prior to joining the Peace Corps and we both grew
up in Pennsylvania. Her two schools are huge compared to mine and two of our principals are very good friends. She has invited me to go on several of her school trips and I’ve always enjoyed myself. Her teachers are a lot of fun and I enjoy learning different things with them. This time it was a sports trip to Ottosdal about 2 hours away on a Saturday.
Last year, this trip was Sonja’s introduction to life in the village and she had the best stories
hands down when we all rejoined to talk about our experiences—drunk bus drivers, trips to the hospital for injuries, a principal who was freaked out by the hospital, extremely overcrowded 
buses, alcohol, more alcohol…I’m pretty sure we all wondered what it was exactly that we had just gotten ourselves into. This year, the trip wasn’t quite as exciting (thank goodness!). The boys lost both soccer matches and the girls won both netball matches. 
One note about the village matches…soccer is played often with no shoes on rough ground. The “grass” is usually just brown dirt with nettles, stickers, and glass about so it is amazing that there aren’t more injuries. Kids don’t always have a pair of shoes…
NET BALL CHAMPS
bus officially carried 60. Mr. Segatle and the sports committee who organized the trip made the right call and got another little mini-bus to carry all the kids. The bus driver was not accustomed to driving in the big city so several times I thought we were going to die. He would just stop in the middle of the motorway in Joburg while he tried to change lanes.
One huge plus was that after a year of listening to me gripe about alcohol on school trips and being a responsible role model, the principal got the adults together and banned alcohol. I didn’t know if it would work, but it did and I think the trip was much better without it. The bus drivers were also told of the rule and they didn’t run off and buy their beer while we were at the amusement park.
It was a first and I hope it will continue in this vein for future kids’ trips. Maybe that will be one of my Peace Corps accomplishments along with banning the beatings at the middle school!
We also went to the planetarium. The guy operating the show started out asking everyone if they had looked at the sky and talked 
about Venus, Mars, and Jupiter being in the sky right now. He handed out copies of a star chart and showed them how to use it and then told the kids to look for Venus that very evening right after the sun went down. The minute he turned out the lights, there were loud oohs and ahhs as the show began. The kids learned about the planets, but all 6 of us adults had been up cooking the breakfast that we took with us since 2:30am. (We left the school at 4am.) Naturally, we all dozed from Jupiter to Neptune and laughed about it afterwards.
We then took the kids to Gold Reef City. It is an amusement park that is built around the old
gold mines upon which Johannesburg was founded. The 
tour of the mine had them all donning hard hats, going down the mine elevator to a depth of 225 meters, and then touring the mine tunnels. It was fun, but I don’t think I could be a miner. It was and still is a hard job. In the mine elevator, the kids were all singing Shosholoza that is a song about a steam trains that is used for marches, football matches, and sort of motivational. It is a bit like The Little Engine That Could for inspiration. The kids all rode the rides until we left. It was getting dark as we pulled out of the parking lot, handed them KFC, and braved the big motorway again. We got home after midnight and again the kids stood, danced, and sang the whole way. I was exhausted.
The third trip was with my middle school to Durban on the coast, some 16 hours away. The kids
here are all in grades 7-9 so they are aged 12-20. Many of 
them had never even been out of the village, not even to some of the smaller towns around here, 60 km away. Durban is on the coast and is the center of the Indian population in South Africa. It is the place where Mahatma Gandhi made his first forays into passive and non-violent resistance. Although the kids didn’t sing their own songs the entire way, they did make good use of the stereo system on the bus which was cranked up to concert volume the entire 16 hours—yes, even at night. I used earplugs and my hearing was still muffled 8 hours after I got off the bus. I shudder to think of what will happen when I’m 70.
There were 38 kids, the principal and me. I thought we needed another adult, but when I raised the issue I heard that it was 20 kids each to mind, which is far less than 1 classroom full. Still, I had a sneaking suspicion that I would be minding 38 kids and 1 principal. Turns out I was right. I did ban the principal from drinking alcohol in front of the kids and at least we didn’t have that problem.
Several groups of friends from Austin & Canada sponsored kids for this trip and I can’t tell you
all the ways in which the kids’ lives have been changed. One example is Jeff, an orphan in grade 7.
We were walking along the beach when they asked questions about things that were far off at sea. I had my binoculars that I showed them how to use to see those things. They noticed oil tankers, cargo ships, oilrigs, buoys, and closer in some surfers. One kid was so mesmerized by what he was seeing that he failed to notice the waves coming in and got his tennis shoes and trousers wet up to the knees. 
A few days later, Jeff found a pair of small binoculars for R60 in a shop. He came running up to me to see if I’d buy them for him, which I did. He looked at EVERYTHING through those binoculars for the rest of the trip.
The grade 9 boys, some of whom I’ve been hounding to get to school on time and show some responsibility, asked to go off one afternoon to look at other stuff instead of going on the boat. There were 5 of them and they were all really
behaving well so I said yes and that I’d see them later at the hotel. The rest of us went off to the harbor to take a little cruise and eat at a burger place. There was a big soccer match on that everyone wanted to see so they watched that.
We got back to the hotel later than I wanted so I was a little worried what my older kids had gotten themselves into while we were gone. When I got back, they were all there waiting and when I asked them how their afternoon was, I was told, “They saw prostitutes, but didn’t touch them as they didn’t want any diseases”. I had already had a talk with all the kids about boys being in girls’ rooms and vice versa saying that I was sure they’d keep the door open when someone was in there. I also said I was not going to explain it to their parents when they were caught pregnant from the Durban trip, but after the snickering died down, they all knew exactly what I was talking about.
The principal and I had several disagreements, all mainly centered on responsibility. After I refused to hold the room keys (including the principal’s), I said that they all looked after all sorts of things at home. Many were orphans and/or took care of younger siblings at home. They are good kids and they can keep track of their stuff. I asked him if they weren’t going to learn this now while they are this age, when are they supposed to learn it? In the end, we didn’t have any lost keys, any lost wallets, or any pregnancies that I know of. The kids were great.
We did have forgotten toothbrushes, one case of seasickness, a discussion about why toy guns aren’t a good idea, a strained muscle, a headache, countless requests for R5 to buy X or to play video games, one kid who needed different food because “hamburgers make me vomit”, kids who were cold, kids who needed an apple or an ice cream to tide them over, a principal who was bored/tired/hungry etc. on the bus (and who got busted for smoking in the back of the bus)…you name it. We had all those normal road trip things. Mainly I doled out hugs, a lap to sleep on, R5 for whatever, explanations from evolution to AIDS and sex, and anything else you can imagine. It was great fun, but I’m so glad to be home!
Teacher’s Strike and Road Trips
We started out the third term at school with a pending teacher’s strike. We were at school for about 3 weeks and during that time it seemed that the major topic of discussion was if the teachers would strike or not. It seemed inevitable to me that they would because the main thing I heard was that they all deserved a pay increase because other sectors had received one. I didn’t hear anything about whether or not the work they did was improving or if the kids were better off now than they had been a year or two ago. Just that they deserved a pay increase because others had gotten one. Sure enough, the strike came and work ground to a halt.
I should say here that the Peace Corps wants us to remain uninvolved and say nothing despite the fact that we are working in the schools so my comments on this are my own opinions and have nothing to do with Peace Corps policy or the US government’s policies.
The terms are each usually about 50 days long. There are 4 school terms per year. This year, our second term was cut short because of the World Cup that was held in June/July. The government didn’t want extra transport on the roads during the games so that they could better facilitate the traffic to the venues. On the whole, I agree with this because SA traffic is horrendous at best. On the downside, there were no games within several hundred kilometers of where a lot of kids go to school and they were adversely affected by not being in school. Couple this now with a strike that wipes out the third term and kids have learned very little this year.
To be fair to the teachers, the government officials earn about R700, 000 per year. They are given a very generous housing allowance and a car allowance. I’ve heard them say “they must drive a Mercedes Benz because their position demands they have that type of status car”. I have yet to hear anyone suggest something like a company car to be driven on the rare occasions when they have to ferry someone who demands to be driven in a Mercedes. There is a fair amount of nepotism and in fact it appears that man can be and are corrupted by power at some point.
In contrast, the often better educated teachers with more experience can earn as little as R150, 000 per year, receive a R600 housing allowance per month, and have no car allowance. This also applies to nurses and most public officials. They often cannot afford to buy a house and sometimes live in poor conditions. Most of the teachers do a fantastic job, but there are many that need to be culled from the herd because of absenteeism, alcoholism, and abuse. Those give the majority a bad name. On strike, they were destroying property and injuring those who chose to go to school and teach.
The disparity provides perfect conditions for a strike. The unions do not solve the problems within their ranks and the government officials do not admit that what they are providing for themselves is unjust. In the end, the kids are not learning what they need to learn to succeed. It is a shame. Our kids went to school at about a 50% rate during this time…I went to one or the other of our schools everyday and did all sorts of things from painting the schools to playing math games. During this time is the first time in 14 months that I thought of going to Canada (it is hot in Texas this time of year!) and telling them all to call me when they get their shit together. I hate seeing the kids suffer because of grownups and their power struggles.
Once we did get back to school, it was time for me to get my mid-service dental and medical checkups. I went to the most advanced dental clinic to have my teeth cleaned. There was a machine there that would image your mouth for a crown, cap, veneers, etc. and it would make a mould that would be ready in an hour. It was really cool to see. The dental hygienist who cleaned my teeth really did a thorough job of it and it felt good to get the gunk off. I’ve got a generally clean bill of health and am glad that part is done. I don’t think anyone likes medical work except the doctors.
At school, I’ve been on three school road trips in 2 weeks. The volunteer before me said it best. I love her phrasing: “I think most Americans would fold on a South African road trip with the kids.” First of all, in 14 months I have yet to be on a school trip where the adults were not all drinking alcohol first thing in the morning on the bus—kids or no kids. It is irksome and dangerous and many volunteers can attest to the fact that the bus drivers will also indulge when they are waiting for the kids to show back up, usually all day. Second, the primary school kids will sing at the top of their lungs standing
in the aisles and anywhere else you can imagine—for the whole trip. If it is 16 hours, then there is 16 hours of singing. The buses are always overcrowded and you will not be in the lap of luxury. If you are going with older kids, they will expect a stereo system on the bus and will play music at really, really high volume. They will sing and dance along with the stereo. I used earplugs and my ears were still muffling sound more than 8 hours after I got off the bus. You must shout to be heard even by the person sitting immediately on top of you and you will be hoarse by the time you get where you are going. It is not restful. Third, in SA the gender roles are pretty strongly defined. Men are in charge of barbecues (they call it braai), some cooking (i.e., they will fry eggs), and making sure there is beer. The women do most everything else. There are exceptions, of course, but this is the general trend. It can be frustrating. But, if you are prepared, you can have a fantastic time.My nearest volunteer is Sonja. She’s a lovely young lady and we share an engineering background as well as work in the semiconductor industry. She and I both lived in Austin prior to joining the Peace Corps and we both grew
up in Pennsylvania. Her two schools are huge compared to mine and two of our principals are very good friends. She has invited me to go on several of her school trips and I’ve always enjoyed myself. Her teachers are a lot of fun and I enjoy learning different things with them. This time it was a sports trip to Ottosdal about 2 hours away on a Saturday.Last year, this trip was Sonja’s introduction to life in the village and she had the best stories
hands down when we all rejoined to talk about our experiences—drunk bus drivers, trips to the hospital for injuries, a principal who was freaked out by the hospital, extremely overcrowded 
buses, alcohol, more alcohol…I’m pretty sure we all wondered what it was exactly that we had just gotten ourselves into. This year, the trip wasn’t quite as exciting (thank goodness!). The boys lost both soccer matches and the girls won both netball matches. 
One note about the village matches…soccer is played often with no shoes on rough ground. The “grass” is usually just brown dirt with nettles, stickers, and glass about so it is amazing that there aren’t more injuries. Kids don’t always have a pair of shoes… NET BALL CHAMPSI can say that every new place we visit, Sonja and I are the unusual ones in the crowd and generate a lot of questions and curious looks. This trip was no exception and by the end of the day, I had three new marriage proposals. Usually I say my conditions are that I won’t do your laundry, if I cook you clean and vice versa, and I am not having your babies for any reason. That generally is enough to persuade men that I’m not the woman of their dreams. By now, most of the teachers we know get a good laugh out of us. The new people get let down easily and everyone is happy.
The second trip was with my primary school to Gold Reef City in Johannesburg. Joburg is about 5 hours away. These kids are all from grades 1-6 so the little ones are 6 or 7 and the bigger ones are 10 or 11. We had 85 people and I think the
The second trip was with my primary school to Gold Reef City in Johannesburg. Joburg is about 5 hours away. These kids are all from grades 1-6 so the little ones are 6 or 7 and the bigger ones are 10 or 11. We had 85 people and I think the
bus officially carried 60. Mr. Segatle and the sports committee who organized the trip made the right call and got another little mini-bus to carry all the kids. The bus driver was not accustomed to driving in the big city so several times I thought we were going to die. He would just stop in the middle of the motorway in Joburg while he tried to change lanes.One huge plus was that after a year of listening to me gripe about alcohol on school trips and being a responsible role model, the principal got the adults together and banned alcohol. I didn’t know if it would work, but it did and I think the trip was much better without it. The bus drivers were also told of the rule and they didn’t run off and buy their beer while we were at the amusement park.
It was a first and I hope it will continue in this vein for future kids’ trips. Maybe that will be one of my Peace Corps accomplishments along with banning the beatings at the middle school!
We also went to the planetarium. The guy operating the show started out asking everyone if they had looked at the sky and talked 
about Venus, Mars, and Jupiter being in the sky right now. He handed out copies of a star chart and showed them how to use it and then told the kids to look for Venus that very evening right after the sun went down. The minute he turned out the lights, there were loud oohs and ahhs as the show began. The kids learned about the planets, but all 6 of us adults had been up cooking the breakfast that we took with us since 2:30am. (We left the school at 4am.) Naturally, we all dozed from Jupiter to Neptune and laughed about it afterwards.We then took the kids to Gold Reef City. It is an amusement park that is built around the old
gold mines upon which Johannesburg was founded. The 
tour of the mine had them all donning hard hats, going down the mine elevator to a depth of 225 meters, and then touring the mine tunnels. It was fun, but I don’t think I could be a miner. It was and still is a hard job. In the mine elevator, the kids were all singing Shosholoza that is a song about a steam trains that is used for marches, football matches, and sort of motivational. It is a bit like The Little Engine That Could for inspiration. The kids all rode the rides until we left. It was getting dark as we pulled out of the parking lot, handed them KFC, and braved the big motorway again. We got home after midnight and again the kids stood, danced, and sang the whole way. I was exhausted.The third trip was with my middle school to Durban on the coast, some 16 hours away. The kids
here are all in grades 7-9 so they are aged 12-20. Many of 
them had never even been out of the village, not even to some of the smaller towns around here, 60 km away. Durban is on the coast and is the center of the Indian population in South Africa. It is the place where Mahatma Gandhi made his first forays into passive and non-violent resistance. Although the kids didn’t sing their own songs the entire way, they did make good use of the stereo system on the bus which was cranked up to concert volume the entire 16 hours—yes, even at night. I used earplugs and my hearing was still muffled 8 hours after I got off the bus. I shudder to think of what will happen when I’m 70.There were 38 kids, the principal and me. I thought we needed another adult, but when I raised the issue I heard that it was 20 kids each to mind, which is far less than 1 classroom full. Still, I had a sneaking suspicion that I would be minding 38 kids and 1 principal. Turns out I was right. I did ban the principal from drinking alcohol in front of the kids and at least we didn’t have that problem.
Several groups of friends from Austin & Canada sponsored kids for this trip and I can’t tell you
all the ways in which the kids’ lives have been changed. One example is Jeff, an orphan in grade 7.
We were walking along the beach when they asked questions about things that were far off at sea. I had my binoculars that I showed them how to use to see those things. They noticed oil tankers, cargo ships, oilrigs, buoys, and closer in some surfers. One kid was so mesmerized by what he was seeing that he failed to notice the waves coming in and got his tennis shoes and trousers wet up to the knees. A few days later, Jeff found a pair of small binoculars for R60 in a shop. He came running up to me to see if I’d buy them for him, which I did. He looked at EVERYTHING through those binoculars for the rest of the trip.The grade 9 boys, some of whom I’ve been hounding to get to school on time and show some responsibility, asked to go off one afternoon to look at other stuff instead of going on the boat. There were 5 of them and they were all really
behaving well so I said yes and that I’d see them later at the hotel. The rest of us went off to the harbor to take a little cruise and eat at a burger place. There was a big soccer match on that everyone wanted to see so they watched that.We got back to the hotel later than I wanted so I was a little worried what my older kids had gotten themselves into while we were gone. When I got back, they were all there waiting and when I asked them how their afternoon was, I was told, “They saw prostitutes, but didn’t touch them as they didn’t want any diseases”. I had already had a talk with all the kids about boys being in girls’ rooms and vice versa saying that I was sure they’d keep the door open when someone was in there. I also said I was not going to explain it to their parents when they were caught pregnant from the Durban trip, but after the snickering died down, they all knew exactly what I was talking about.
The principal and I had several disagreements, all mainly centered on responsibility. After I refused to hold the room keys (including the principal’s), I said that they all looked after all sorts of things at home. Many were orphans and/or took care of younger siblings at home. They are good kids and they can keep track of their stuff. I asked him if they weren’t going to learn this now while they are this age, when are they supposed to learn it? In the end, we didn’t have any lost keys, any lost wallets, or any pregnancies that I know of. The kids were great.
We did have forgotten toothbrushes, one case of seasickness, a discussion about why toy guns aren’t a good idea, a strained muscle, a headache, countless requests for R5 to buy X or to play video games, one kid who needed different food because “hamburgers make me vomit”, kids who were cold, kids who needed an apple or an ice cream to tide them over, a principal who was bored/tired/hungry etc. on the bus (and who got busted for smoking in the back of the bus)…you name it. We had all those normal road trip things. Mainly I doled out hugs, a lap to sleep on, R5 for whatever, explanations from evolution to AIDS and sex, and anything else you can imagine. It was great fun, but I’m so glad to be home!
The kids had the time of their lives and THANKS to everyone at home who helped me out and sent a kid or three! You are my heroes.
