Loko uhleketa mhelembe khandziya murhi.

The sign outside our lodge.

One of the first animals we saw on our safari trip

Mr. Chicken the Bateleur eagle
let us pet him at the rehabilitation center

The past weekend was spent at Kruger National Park on a safari experience, and it was an absolutely wonderful addition to the trip.  The flight up to Johannesburg was at 6:30am and took two hours so by 8:30 we were landed and the people who checked bags for the flight were picking them up.  We then met up with the new faculty advisor and his family who were joining us for the final two weeks of the trip.  Then we settled in for an incredibly long 6 and a half hour drive up to where our camp was.  The thirteen of us just fit into the bus chartered for the drive that I am still so grateful for, but boy was it a long drive.  When we finally arrived at the Viva Safari camp called Tremisana where we were booked to spend our first night it was already nearly 5:00pm.   

This older bull was born with a disease that
prevented one of his tusks from developing at all.

 

Two male elephants and older bull and his young protege.
Wes told us older bulls often adopt young males and teach them
"appropriate" behavior.

On our day-long safari Wes promised me a
dazzle of zebras and a journey of giraffes.

I think he pulled through beautifully.

The birds were stunningly beautiful throughout the region.

We dropped off our things and immediately went on a sunset drive through the surrounding area.  Though I didn’t expect to see too much we actually saw a lot!  We saw a giraffe, a whole herd of buffalo, two male elephants and a breeding herd of elephants.  There was a harrowing moment where our jeep almost wouldn’t start back up again, but our guide got the car running again and took us to a braai that the staff had planned out in the bush under the stars.  It was a truly amazing experience being out like that.  I live near the country but nowhere have I ever seen so many stars.  You could see the whole galaxy out there.  After the braai we went back to camp where we settled in for bed and finished the night. 

The Lilac-Breasted Roller. 
The most beautiful bird I have ever seen.

We were up early the next morning to have breakfast and pack our bags since we were moving out of the lodge area to their actual camp for our remaining nights.  We were then taken to an animal rehabilitation center, which was really quite interesting.  The organization aims to help animals trapped by snares or otherwise injured and those who cannot be released back into the wild for whatever reason (which was usually due to being bred in captivity and becoming too accustomed to humans).  Our guide at the center called these his “ambassador” animals since the center often does informational sessions with students and learners and having an animal representative along helps the students realize why helping these animals is so important.  After finishing our tour of the rehabilitation center we drove back to Tremisana where we all shed our hoodies (it was quite warm up at Kruger this weekend!) and then settled in for a guided afternoon drive. 
Our guide showed us around most of the bumpy roads in the camp and we were fortunate to see hippos and the same male elephants from the night before.  Our guide almost got us home too, but the jeep died on the side of the road due to a faulty fuel pump.  

This baby elephant was so intrigued by our car full of people.

 Soon enough though we were back at the lodge and they loaded us into a van to transport us to Marc’s Tree Camp where we spent the rest of our nights at Kruger.  At this camp we actually were sleeping in tents.  For some of us this was quite fun or at the very least not a big deal.  There were some other COE students for whom this was a real inconvenience and I feel very bad for them.  But we had dinner and then settled in for the night.

The Southern Ground Hornbill is currently very endangered due to habitat loss.
One issue that contributes to this is elephants destroying the trees they make their nests in.

The baboons are much less scary
when they're in their natural habitat.

The next morning we woke up early for our full day drive through Kruger National Park.  We saw the most animals this day and throughout the drive Wes, our guide, was incredibly knowledgeable and full of fun stories about his time as a guide.  It was a pretty wonderful day.  Back at the camp we had dinner together again and then went to bed.

The buffalo are so stolid. 
I find them very interesting.

Our hilarious guide Wes...
well he thought he was hilarious anyway.

We woke up the next morning before dawn to go on a one hour bush walk.  Our guide Louie spoke to us about walking softly and maybe being able to sneak up on some animals unnoticed, but with 14 of us on the walk I think his hopes were quickly dashed so we mostly saw some of the local fauna and some bones from animals that had died in the area.   

Our very knowledgeable guide Louie.

We saw some zebras and antelope from a distance, but they all moved quickly when it appeared we were coming closer.  After the walk we came back to camp for breakfast and then began our long drive back to the airport.  Along the way we were taken to the Blight Canyon, which is the third largest canyon in the world.  It was really lovely but I was so glad when we finally got back to our apartment late that night.  All in all this was a truly amazing experience.  

The Beautiful Blight Canyon

If not the best, then among the best.

The first thing I saw as I walked into Montevideo

The last week has been spent at Montevideo primary school.  I’m actually writing this post from the school since I have a little downtime.  I’ve been placed in the grade six block here at MVPS.  The grade sixers are split into three sections A, B, and C.  The school is considered to be one of the more prestigious in the area since they offer after school sports and some other activities for the students.  The school is still however located in a fairly poor area and many of the students seem to have difficult home lives.  The class sizes at Montevideo are ideally arranged at a 40:1 ratio, though each of the classes I’ve seen are slightly over that.  The method of instruction seems to be primarily lecture-based, or centered around taking notes.

The school itself doesn’t look like any schools I’ve seen back home.  There are three buildings each with bars covering the windows.  The younger students (Grade R (kindergarten) through grade 3) are in the back building while the older students (grade 4 through grade 7) are in the front building.  The final building is for administration.  There is also a small shack where they have a meal assistance program set up for students who are truly destitute.  There is no gym and no cafeteria.  In the two fifteen minute breaks the students are given they are allowed to play outside even in the winter and the rain.  They also eat their lunches outside and play there after school.  The school has a soccer field and a basketball court, though both are overgrown and don’t provide the facilities needed by the more than 950 students that attend Montevideo Primary School.

The computer lab

These students are taking a math exam but many didn't even finish

Montevideo also has a computer lab, which is where I’ve spent a fair amount of time this week.  The school has 25 computers running Windows 95 operating system.  Five of those computers don’t work at all, meaning I can bring half of the class down to complete the computerized assessments at a time.  Today for example I brought all the girls down from 6C to do their final quiz from the last term.  We entered the lab at a bit past 9am, and it was well past 9:30 before all of the girls had settled into their computers, logged on and the webpage for the test had loaded.  I found it incredibly frustrating, but also humbling.  Knowing that back home if the students need to do something online I can use the lab or bring in a cart of ThinkPad’s or even iPads really drove home the reality of education here.  In the classrooms the teachers are using chalkboards or strictly reading from texts.  The students aren’t allowed to take home the textbooks, so much of their time is spent writing notes or copying directly from the text in order to study.  In one classroom, the math classroom the teacher uses an overhead projector.  She even had a new projector, which she was so excited about since the old one was blurry and the students couldn’t read off it very well.  About five minutes after turning the new projector on it died however.  It was apparently defective and won’t run for more than 4-5 minutes consistently. 

Many of the students here don’t seem to eat lunch, or not much of one at least and the teachers aren’t too concerned with that fact.  I don’t know if the students choose not to eat or if they don’t have the resources available to eat a healthy lunch every day.  Most often I see them with a fishpaste sandwich wrapped in foil or a bag of chips, or sometimes a piece of fruit.  Some students have a lunch provided by the school and they gather in a corner of the courtyard to scarf their food before running to play.  Maybe it has more to do with the incredibly short breaks they’re given..  See, the students don’t really have a lunch break.  They have two fifteen-minute intervals when they are encouraged to play outside in the courtyard or the sports field regardless of temperature or weather.  The students then decide to eat what they’ve brought at either the 10am interval or the 12:20pm interval. 

A student's description of his holiday

I just don’t know.

Many students seem to walk to school, some coming from far away each morning.  They stay until school is over (2:00-2:30pm depending on the day) and then usually students can be seen playing in the school’s open spaces for hours after classes have ended before walking home.  I see children who appear to be siblings waiting for their brothers and sisters to finish classes or the school’s popular extracurricular activities before walking home together.  Usually the Grade R students are picked up by parents walking to the school and then home again, though some wait around on the school grounds until their siblings finish with their classes.

            Today I gave a lesson on primary and secondary energy sources, which went better than I anticipated at least.  The students had a different version of the book than the one I was given, so I’m glad that I gathered my own questions and information from the Internet.  Overall the students seemed to understand the differences, though I felt that my contributions were fairly pointless.  I kept a discussion-based model of teaching since that’s what I believe in and it went quite well.  The students were a bit confused I think because they were not used to this model of learning, but they adapted quite well I think.  It was difficult to get everyone involved in learning due to the class size, but at least everyone was paying attention.  Possibly only to hear my accent, but I’ll take that and call it a victory if I have to.

            The week we’ve spent here has been trying and stressful, but also so rewarding and a true benefit to my future as an educator.  I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunities I’ve had in my life.  The students I’ve spoken to have such high hopes for their futures, as all students that age do.  I really want to believe that they can achieve everything they dream about whether it’s being a soccer star or a doctor or a globetrotting journalist.  I really want those things for them.

"It always seems impossible until its done" - Nelson Mandela

Please understand that the next sentence contains little to no exaggeration.  I have never in all my life been this sore, tired, or satisfied with myself.  Today I climbed Table Mountain.  In total it took me 3 hours and 10 minutes and along the way a rugby team, four dogs, and a 5 year old passed me but by god I climbed it.  And it was worth absolutely every sore muscle I’ll have tomorrow.  Shared below are the fruits of my labor.  Trust me when I say they are precious to me, and should be equally as precious to you.

Ukuhamba kukufunda

The title is a Xhosa proverb for "traveling is learning" which couldn't be more appropriate.

I literally don't have the words to describe today, and the pictures I've taken cant even begin to capture the beauty of Cape Town and South Africa, but maybe they can begin to show you how truly incredible this place is.

Nelson Mandela Day

All the COE study abroad students on Mandela Day

Today is Nelson Mandela day, which is a day where people are encouraged to set aside 67 minutes of their time to make the world a better place.  Mr. Mandela himself encouraged the world to make every day a Mandela day, but this day in particular is set aside worldwide, but especially in South Africa as a day of service.  

Distributing sandwiches.

Working that jam.

 

Impromptu Sandwich assembly line.

For our act of service we teamed with the Big Sock Story to hand out sandwiches and warm winter socks to people in need.  We spent our morning first making jam sandwiches and fish paste sandwiches (a local favorite).  All told we made more than 80 sandwiches to distribute. We then spent the next two hours handing out sandwiches to people in need.  It was a really wonderful experience, and the Big Sock Story was very much in need of volunteers so our efforts felt meaningful.

Lenny has a popcorn problem...

 






 




After doing our 67 minutes we went to UWC where we met with the College of Education faculty once again for an informational movie screening.  Dean Desai showed us two films, one on the Matric exam taken here in grade 12, and the other on the issue of gender equality specifically in education in South Africa.  Both films were really interesting and stimulated some wonderful and productive conversations amongst our little group.

Later that evening Levi, Lenny and I went to see The Fault in Our Stars at the local cinema, and though the differences are subtle some of the movie-going practices are not the same here as they are back home!  It was a wonderful movie, and almost surprisingly the experience was culturally informative as well.

Unfortunately the Wi-Fi in our rooms is once again on the fritz.  I’ll try to stay as up to date as possible!