School Updates

Khotsong koafela! Peace everyone! It’s been a busy couple of weeks here in school. There were a few special days we had, and I have some exciting updates about our library and computer lab. Also there are some fun stories at the end of the post I wanted to share with y’all:)

Back to School

Monday, January 30th, was Back to School Day. The teachers came to school dressed as students, like we were going back to school, except for the shaved heads that all students are required to have…I’m not ready for that haircut. The students came to school dressed as teachers. (This really just meant they wore normal clothes, which they call dressing private.) It was so fun! The students loved seeing teachers dressed like them, and it was nice seeing them all dressed so colorfully. The uniform at my school is black, but the teachers just wear any color uniform they have access to. I have a neighbor who just finished high school so I was able to borrow her old uniform, and a student at my school lent me her shoes. The goal of the day is to raise funds for students, and raise awareness for their needs; each school does it differently. Some donate parts of a uniform to students, some donate school supplies, and some raise money. My school raised money, since there are too many students and too few teachers to feasibly have us give gifts. Another fun tradition is having the students teach the class for the day. Apparently it doesn’t happen much anymore, though my host nephew, who is in 9th grade, told me his class got to teach some. They just reviewed basic concepts. At my school, I don’t think any students taught, but we called them teachers which they thought was funny. Overall, it was a fun day and I think it’s a great way to raise funds to support education.

Below are some of the teachers and I! Mohapi, my counterpart, is in the white shirt with the tie. My supervisor, Makhemi, is in the black shirt and blue skirt in the far left picture.

Spring Cleaning

This Friday we had a spring cleaning day. The teachers told me this happens once a month or so, depending on how much needs to be done. It’s another day that grades 4-7 got to wear normal clothes, so their uniform doesn’t get too dirty. We had class from 8:00-10:00 as usual, then the rest of the day was dedicated to grades 4-7 cutting the grass, picking up trash, and generally making sure the grounds of the school look nice. It’s cool to see everyone putting in effort to help! We definitely have a large space to take care of, so it did take all of them. Grades 1-3 still had class in the afternoon, but they helped pick up trash in the morning.

Computer Lab

My school is extremely lucky to have a computer lab! We have 9 desktop computers, and a printer (which we can only use to copy so far). This past week, the students rotated through to learn about the parts of a computer and how to turn it on and off. Everyone was so happy! Some classes even cheered in excitement to see the screens turn on and others started clapping. There was a lot of laughter too. Even though I taught or helped teach the same lesson about 40 times, I loved seeing the excitement on all the student’s faces each time. It never got old, and we’re only going up from here! Computer literacy is actually in the curriculum, and I’m so grateful these students can learn it. The computers were donated by an Australian organization a while ago, and they haven’t had the opportunity to start a lab and keep it going. We are looking forward to the teachers learning to type, and in turn learning how to help their students improve their computer skills. Here are some pictures of the lab, and of students learning the basics! I also made some temporary mouse pads, pictured on the top left, by taping a material similar to felt onto cardboard.

Library

My school is also very lucky to have a library! As you can see from the pictures, it’ll take a good amount of work to get it organized, but it’ll be extremely worth it. The books have been sitting in these boxes for a while, and the librarian teachers and I are excited to finally start creating a working library. We are also grateful to be able to apply for the African

Library Project, which I talked about in a previous post. One part of the application is counting all our current books though…so stay tuned. There’s a lot of counting in our futures. Again though, so worth it! Books are so essential to education, and we can’t wait for the students to be able to hold and read real books every day. They currently only have textbooks, which are good, and the library will add so much more. I’ll keep posting updates as we work on it!

Fun stories

One day this past week, the school board came to visit the school. They come every month or so. The teachers have a cooking rotation, so a different group cooks food for them each time. This past week was my groups turn, and pictured left is me helping cook the papa! The stick I'm using, called a lesokoana (leh-so-KWAH-nah), is the traditional method used to stir. Mohapi was happy to see I already knew how to use it. We also cooked chicken and mixed vegetables.

I've had a lot of time to read while being here. I have a lot of books on the Kindle app on my phone, which is nice because I can get as many as I want and they don't take up space. I definitely prefer paper books though, and it's nice to sit on the porch of my host family's house and read while enjoying the view.

I've posted my host family's cat before, and I’ve now named her Reeses (after my favorite candy that they unfortunately don’t have anywhere here; there are lots of other chocolate options though). She has gotten more comfortable with me, probably because I give her the drained tuna juice when I eat canned tuna, so she always cries outside my door to be let in. I let her in sometimes. She’s super cute though, and likes to be pet on the back of her neck and will sometimes lick my toes. I’d say we’ve gotten pretty close:) The picture above in the middle was from a few days ago, I walked into my host family's house and found her sleeping like that. Whatever makes her comfortable, I guess. I got a good laugh out of it.

It's also been very rainy the past week. Since we're in the southern hemisphere, it's currently summer, though the rain cooled things off a lot. The highs have only been in the 60s or low 70s! It's been a nice change, because it also can get up into the 90s. I'm glad I'm used to big weather changes from growing up in Texas:) The picture above on the right is one of many little streams that were created from the almost constant rain. This particular one is close to my house, and I saw it on my way back from school.

Thanks for reading! As always, let me know if you have any questions that I can answer in a post. Or if you want more pictures of something, I'm happy to include more! I love hearing from y'all, so keep the comments coming:) Salang hantle (sah-LAHNG HAN-tleh)!