School Days

I have just completed my first three days of school. I am at Turfhall Primary. I am in Grade 3 with my host mom/collaborating teacher. There are 42 students in the classroom and only one teacher! This is the average number of students to teacher. Generally, if you want a smaller ratio you have to go to a school that has higher fees. Everyone must pay to go to school here. Schooling is required for students up to grade 7 or 8. But the education is not free, or supplemented by the government, parents must pay school fees. The fee depends on the area and the quality of the school. Turfhall is 1,850 rands (about 240 dollars) for the year. Can you believe that? Farmington Public Schools budget has $9,892 per student. Turfhall is also one of the better schools in the area!!

The facility of the school is really nice. The classrooms are large, and cold, but they have space for every student and a blackboard. There is a computer lab on the grounds, a library, a staff room, and music room. There is also a printing room for the teachers use. School starts at 8:00 AM. The kids all file in and sit quietly. There are morning prayers done in English even though most of the student population is Muslim. There are exams for 3rd grade at the end of term 3, which will come up after I leave. This test focuses on Math and Literacy. These are the main focuses during the school day. Right now my students are working on long division. I really like the method my teacher, Mrs. Naidoo, uses. These are my notes that I typed up showing the process:

164÷4=41

100	20	20	20	20
20	5	5	5	5
60	10	10	10	10
20	5	5	5	5
4	1	1	1	1
	41

1. Start with columns for divisor

2. Share the 100s (100-80)

3. Share leftover 100s

4. Share 10s

5. Share 1s

6. Add columns

382÷3= 127 r1

300	100	100	100
80	20	20	20
20	5	5	5
5	1	1	1
2+2	1	1	1
	1

I think this is such a neat idea, to physically show the sharing, instead of the linear model I learned on. It allows you to actually see the equal sharing. It is similar to how division is introduced in the Montessori schools. Most of the kids really seem to understand the math this way. Of course, there are always students who do not learn in the same way so there are some struggling. One of the big differences I've noticed is with the group work. There are three groups for the class: Rubies, Sapphires, and Diamonds. Each group is associated with an intelligence level: Rubies-slow learners, Sapphires-middle learners, Diamonds-higher learners. This is so anti everything we have learned from MSU. The teachers are all very open about these differences and make sure to point out students' errors in front of the whole class. In the US that is not acceptable and rarely happens anymore. These students seem to be used to it and it either reinforces the label or motivates them to do better. More often, I believe, it reinforces.

The students are generally very respectful to the teachers. Most just call me Miss. Which is actually really adorable. Although most of the girls keep asking if "Miss is married?" The class has a really interesting mix of personalities. There is one boy who is 11 and has repeated grade 3 a few times. He is quiet and really sweet. On Friday, when Mrs. Naidoo, stepped out for planning, he came up to me with a book and asked me to read it. The girls are very sweet, but are much more timid which I believe comes from gender roles and their Muslim background. Not that this is necessarily true, but the boys are a lot more audacious and have more personality.

There are three student teachers at the school. They are from a university around Cape Town but not Cape Town University. Their program requires them to have 3 years of theory and 1 year of practice, so it is kind of similar to MSU's. They, along with all the other teachers, are curious about the differences between education. They seemed surprised when I told them that we really do face all of the same problems that their schools have. The girls are all really sweet and I we all have coffee together during interval.

Interval happens at 10 AM and 12:30 (?). This is when they eat lunch and take some time to play outside. It is like recess only much shorter. One of the hardest things for me to adapt to is the "bell". This bell is actually much more a siren. The siren sounds exactly like the Tornado Siren. Everytime I hear it I become panicked and start looking for a safe place. I did not realize how conditioned I was for the sound. Thanks Pavlov.

These are the big things about school. I have been having a hard time uploading pictures to the blog but I have been putting pictures up on facebook. Yesterday, we did the Contour Path around Lion's Head Mountain and walked over to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. I LOVED the gardens and wish I could have spent more time there, but it took about an hour for me to get my food. Also, I had to buy new socks because mine were so wet from the waterfalls and streams that we had to jump across.

I am starting to get sick which I am upset about so hopefully I can get to a pharmacy today before this becomes a sinus infection.

Moving on up

Our time at Deo Gratia is over for now. It had been real but I am ready for some privacy and a hot shower. I mentioned the Southern most point which was fun. Emily Arbour had the most spectacular time ever. It was adorable.

We had an event Tuesday night to meet our host families. I met my "mom" and then she had to leave because her brother-in-law was still in town from the World Cup. Instead, I bunked at Professor Jansen's guest house with our professional schlepper, Dayle, and Ally. We had good times. I have now lost incredibly in scrabble and in Wii Bowling. I can't be good at everything. Although, the scrabble loses have taken a toll on my confidence. I blame the fact that we have been playing at 11 pm or midnight. I cannot think that late.

I had my first day of school today. I observed for the majority of the school day, which is 8:00-2:00. The kids are hilarious. I was greatly amused at listening to them try to pronounce my last name. I am now officially, "Miss. S." It's pretty cute, and I may just stick with it. One girl asked me if I was married. I was also laughed at when repeated some of the kids' names.

The classroom has 42 students and one teacher, my host mom. She seems to easily control all of these kids, most of whom she has had for 2+ years. I have been in the classroom for only a few hours and I had to become somewhat of an enforce within the morning. I love the power that comes with being a teacher, as soon as I walk up to a "naughty" group of learners they quiet up immediately. Apparently, my authority is intimidating even though most of the kids come up to my shoulders. Speaking of tall things, door handles here are placed incredibly high up on the door. The other day I rammed my shoulder into the door handle. Another reason to hate doors.

My host family seems to be incredibly amazing. I am with an Indian family. I've only had one dinner and one lunch and it has been spectacular. I have had the most delicious foods here. In Hermanus I had the most fantastic lamb curry. The family has an amazing house with a beautiful view of Table Mountain from the back yard.

Everyone is asking me about differences between the classrooms here and in the US. It is hard to say at this point. One of the biggest things I've noticed is that the student to teacher ratio is much higher. There are 42 students in my class. The students are not given as much freedom as the students in the States. The students are also much more respectful here. They rarely use the teacher's last name. They just refer to my host mom/teacher as "Mrs." and I am "Miss." But, children are universal so of course there are similarities in how students act when the teacher goes out for a moment. Also, there is no cafeteria. Kids bring their lunch and eat in the classroom. Usually the teacher eats in the class with them but on Wednesdays there is a large staff lunch. I was able to join in on this and it was interesting to watch the interactions between everyone.

I think that is all for now, I have not been getting much sleep lately so I may go to bed early. How cool.

Quick update

Hi all,

I do not have much time as my computer has less than 20 percent of it's battery remaining and I am unable to find my converter to plug it in. Typical.

We have spent the last week at the University of Cape Town. It is a smallish campus situated in the middle of Table Mountain. What is Table Mountain? Well, it is a mountain shaped like a table. We took a cable car up on Thursday and then hiked/climbed/slid down. It was a 2 hour venture whichever way you went down, unless it was by cable car. The path was nothing like I thought it would be. The whole thing was rocks, shocking, I know. By the end we pretty much all died. The view from the top was amazing! Cape Town is an unbelievably beautiful city. I don't think I want to leave. There are funny little mountain animals called Dassies. Google it. They are adorable.

This weekend we went to Hermanus. It's a quiet little beach town. There are no people there because it is winter here and really, quite cold. We went to the Southern Most Point of Africa. Pretty fun. I'll try to upload a picture when I have battery. We went shark cage diving today which was insane. It was quite the experience but I don't think I need to do it again. I saw one shark and had to bail from the cage. Then I promptly ran to the other side of the boat and was sick for the remainder of the voyage. Good times. Sharks are pretty cool though, hopefully I'll be able to steal a copy of the DVD from someone (hint hint Jordan). Okay, my computer is going to die in 0.5 minutes.

Bye now. Host family tomorrow and teaching on Wednesday.

A Massive Post about my past week in South Africa

This is the past several days all rolled up into one massively large document. Enjoy.
Blog Posts
Flight 6/29-30
Flying procures a mix of emotions for me. Usually, I am excited. Recently, I’ve been plagued with a nasty case of nerves. Sometimes this is caused by not knowing members of mmy traveling group but more often than not t is from knowing what could happen. Although, today’s experiences have been altogether different. I have identified two new panic inducing situations as a result of flying.
Due to the increased security threats every item packed is under sever scrutiny. My first security check point in Detroit was fine. Once in Amsterdam I encountered an entirely new scenario. As I am gathering my many dispersed items from the conveyor belt, a very polite TSA agent asked about a pair of “tweezers” that appeared to be in my bag. I never assumed a pair of aluminum tweezers would became a security threat, and so in the last moment I decided to toss the tweezers into my carry on backpack. Because really, every girl needs a pair of tweezers that are readily accessible and trusthworthy. The agent is patiently waiting for me to instantly locate this dastardly small tool. I begin to frantically search pockets of my backpack. “Please sir”, I beg, “I know I have them, but this is like searching for a needle in a haystack.” The man looks gentle enough but shows no sign of empathy, “It looks as if it is in a small bag”. Of course! The toiletry bag! I begin the search with newfound hope that I may have placed something logically where it could be located in an instant. Those nasty buggers aren’t there. I stare dumbfounded at the agent who is now obviously questioning my intentions. Then I recall packing my back up toiletry bug which was scrunched way down at the bottom of my bag. Alas, I find the tweezers.
I never would have guessed that a simple pair of forceps could transformed from a trustworthy tool into a betraying piece of scrap metal wanna-be. I sadly hold up the perpetrator when the agent states, almost jokingly, “Okay, now we know.”
My second anxiety inducting interaction came with attempting to connect to the internet. Upon settling in our new base for the next five hours in Amsterdam I sit down to use the wi-fi connection. It doesn’t work. Okay, now it’s time to find a hot spot. Some friends and I relocated to a wi-fi hotspot. The search is on. Target acquired: lounge below the food court. Denied. Apparently, there is an access code which we do not have.
In a situation like this a group of intelligent college students turns into a rabid pack of wolves on the brink of starvation. Facebook. Gmail. We need these things to live. If a college student could choose facebook over shelter we would opt for facebook. We cannot survive without these things. The airport is started to wake up, it is just about seven in the morning, so I find a cashier in a News shop. She has no idea but directs us to a different lounge area. We grab our bags and haul up the dizzying spiral staircase to a new lounge. A man comes by, and mumbles something to us that is later translated into “No. We no open til 7.” Like dejected puppies we walk back down the dizzying, spiral staircase. Then, the glimmer of hope. We spy a small group of men happily browsing the internet. I boldly walk up to a friendly looking African man and ask how he got the access code to this crazy network. He sharply replies “It is today’s date.” Easy enough.
We had been flying for 7 hours already so we knew that It was June 30th. This tidbit turned out to be not so helpful. This was like the first smell of food after not eating for a few days, or hours, depending on your eating habits. It wet our appetite but was unmistakably not susbstantial enough. New questions arose: What format do we use, date month year? Or month date year? Is the year shortened? Should we spell the month entirely? Stumped I am back to the hands that fed me. Dejected, I ask the man for more help with the format. He seems embarrassed that these young American adults could figure out something so simple as the access code. How could the general public be so naïve? He looks over at his friends with a face that read those two questions and reluctantly types in the password: klm30062010.

7/1
- breakfast: there is vegemite, or miramite, or termite. Something –mite
- mall: computer that looks like darth vader. Picture to follow
- Park: pet a cheetah and drank wine. Dad, I’m doing my research to bring you back the best bottle possible.
- Dinner: mall food court, tried to call home, failed miserably. Will rely on slow computers at the main building of the guest house.
- Tomorrow: Robben Island & district 6 museum & SOCCER//er FOOTBALL
- Weather report: beautiful during the day, mid 60s. Once the sun goes away the cold comes out to play. It is pretty cool at night, my fingers are not moving very quickly to type.
7/2 Robben Island
Robben Island, in case you are unaware, is a former leper colony/military base/political prison. This is where Nelson Mandela was jailed for 18+ years. Our tour guide was a former prisoner there for seven years. It is always eerie to be touring a place where people experienced the worst possible situations. We were told about the founder of PNC, whose name I cannot remember, who was in the medium security prison. He was not allowed to talk to anyone but had free range of the prison. After he was released the man was psychologically deranged and died of a heart attack at age 56. It is amazing to me that someone like Nelson Mandela could survive 18 years of abuse, near starvation, freezing, public humiliation, etc. He did all this, then became president of the country. The most inspiring part of this is that he, and the other prisoners, were capable of forgiving and reconciling with his captors. This act is so powerful. Just knowing that there are people out there who can do this is encouraging as a person and future educator.
There was also the “Robben Island University”. The prisoners would hide out in a cave while working at the limestone quarry (which was a pointless humiliating task as the Island would not and could not use limestone for anything) and teach each other to read, write, professional things, etc. Their slogan, “Each one teach one” Is truly inspiring.
It is crazy to learn about how these men banded together to help survive. Each prisoner would go through hell including extended periods of no food, solitary confinement, etc. I suppose that if you truly believe in your cause and if it is just then no amount of physical or mental roadblocks will keep that goal from being achieved.
As a total 180 we spent the remainder of the afternoon watching “football” with all of the South Africans. The atmosphere was AMAZING. There is such an evident sense of pride and nationalism. No one was being rude or mean to any other person.

7/3 Wine Tasting
We went to Vrede en Lust Winery. Cape Town is famous for their wines. This winery in particular is well decorated with awards for Best Wines. We tried a Rose, which was yummy, but tasted mostly like Franzia. Then we had some white wines which were flavorful but kind of strange, mostly because it tasted like licking the bark on a tree. The red wines were definitely the best. We tried one which was recently awarded the Best Red Wine EVER. The actual title is more professional but I can’t remember it. This wine was best enjoyed with some yummy dark chocolates. I bought a bottle. It’ll be a great present for Dad who is trying his best to become a wine snob. After eating some delicious cheese and wines we made our way to an Afrikaans monument. It was interesting but I could not hear the curator very well.
That evening was spent at another Fan Park. These are places that have jumbo TVs for everyone to watch the games. This was insane. It was for the quarter final game which was being played in Nelson Mandela Bay in Cape Town. This meant that the whole city was crazed with football fever. There is just an in describable energy in the air. The walk up to the stadium is filled with merchant stands, where I bought a vuvuzela, musicians, and just so many people. I have to say it now, and probably a thousand more times: Vuvuzelas are amazing. I do not know how I ever lived without one. It is basically a shofar on steroids, and made of plastic. These need to be incorporated into everything. The great thing about these is that people start vuvuzela wars with one another on the street. Also, there was a vuvuzela band but that comes in later and I do not want to jump ahead.
The walkway to the fan park was so crowded that a bunch of us left and explored the city on our own. We walked around trying to find somewhere to eat, watch the game, or both. We went to one place which was packed full of people just watching the game. The bouncer-guy was super friendly although could not make space for the 7 of us. We ended up walking back to the fan parade area. There we found a mall which was transformed into a party. There were bands in the atrium area, TVs on everywhere, and people just having fun. We ended up sitting on the patio of a hair salon where we met Hugh, which is actually pronounced like “you”. He was so nice, and drunk. He introduced us to his entire family/neighborhood. He just chatted with us for a while until we had to meet our group. I love the atmosphere that comes with the World Cup. Afterwards we had a late dinner where I tried ostrich! It was very yummy. Then we got home around 1 or so.

Getting Started

I wanted to establish my blog and give everyone, specifically my family members, some time to figure out how to maneuver this blog and website. I suppose this is where I will summarize the details of this amazing trip for my family and friends. Through the College of Education, which I am always in a love-hate relationship with, and Michigan State University, we are traveling to Cape Town for 6 weeks. The duration of the trip includes intensive touring and several near-death experiences which I plan to partake in. We will be in classrooms with mentor teachers (who just so happen to also be part of our host family) for 4 weeks of the trip.

Most importantly, we are going to be in Cape Town for the World Cup. I am by no means a soccer (or is it football?) fan. Although, I am prepared to be an uber fair weather fan. This is going to be such an exciting time for everyone there.

I have been warned about safety issues in Cape Town. While it is not the safest place on Earth we will always be with group members, group leaders, or our host family, so there is no reason to worry.

I have been doing a very informal comparative study (mostly because I am a huge science freak) between the weather in Cape Town and East Lansing. I've been trying to figure out how the weather will be for my Winter Reprise for this adventure. What I have learned is that we seem to have very similar weather which I attribute to a fairly similar distance from the equator. East Lansing, MI is located at 43°N and Cape Town, SA is at 33°S. I will try to continue this comparison as the trip continues.

One of my goals for this blog is to set up some sort of interactive itinerary. I don't know if this is possible but will welcome any advice or thoughts.

I leave in 20 days and in that time have to move out of my apartment, pack, and work on 2 assignments that are due before we depart (so much for being graduated).

Future updates will probably include a list of books I'm reading and taking with me in South Africa, and of course, I will probably focus mostly on the foods I eat along the way.