It’s hard to believe that we are already halfway done tutoring the children. It has been a trying experience thus far as the program is not well run and is very unorganized. However, each day is more successful than the one before. All of us work with between 2 and 3 students in either grade 6 or grade 7, but we have had to tailor the curriculum to the abilities of our individual learners. This past week, we taught our learners English (Afrikaans is their first language) and quickly discovered that our learners were all at very different points in their level of understanding. Some were able to differentiate the difference between reported and directed speech, while others did not know the alphabet. My three learners, Klinsito, Shimone and Chanté, are relatively advanced, but still struggle with many basic concepts, such as differentiating parts of speech. Additionally, they all have individual strengths and weaknesses so it is difficult to move at a pace appropriate for all of them.
This demonstrates one of the primary problems with the South African education system. Students are passed on to the next grade without mastering the basic material appropriate for their age group because of overcrowding. For example, we learned in lecture that many classrooms in the poorer townships have just one teacher for up to 60 students. Struggling students do not receive the individual attention to successfully learn the material. Therefore, we all have individual goals for our students. For example, I hope that my students will have their multiplication tables memorized and be able to correctly punctuate a paragraph of text. We only have two weeks total, so the best goals are small, but specific, as these offer the greatest chance of success. Although the program has offered both frustrations and tribulations, we are all excited for the opportunities to teach our learners math in the week ahead and to get to know them better through more fun activities.
This weekend was very eventful. On Saturday morning, I went shark cage diving with six friends. Although this is usually very expensive, we managed to get a deal through Groupon that cut the price in half. It was an awesome experience. We went in the cage in groups of 4 and got to see numerous Great White Sharks up close. Although I’ve seen sharks at the aquarium, it was awesome seeing them in their natural habitat. It was definitely an experience that I’ll never forget.
On Saturday evening, we met up with the rest of the group and went to Camps Bay to relax on the beach. It was a beautiful spot, full of rock pools and crevices and many marine creatures. It was great to just relax after a hectic week and the sunset was truly breathtaking. The area around Camps Bay was very wealthy and offered a stark contrast to life in Manenberg.
Today, Sunday, we hiked on the top of Table Mountain. The weather was perfect, and it offered beautiful, clear views of the city. The abundance of beautiful hikes is definitely one of the best aspects of this city.
Although it was a great week, I wouldn’t be accurately depicting the trip without describing the tribulations of living in a house with 20 people. As one member of our group put it, “I thought the drama on The Real World was scripted, until I lived in this house.” Although we have all become good friends, there are too many strong personalities in the house to avoid conflict. I have managed to stay out of most of the tension and remain good friends with everyone, but I definitely have my frustrations. I have just had to train myself to let a lot of things go. After coming back from our work in Manenberg each day, we are all tired and hungry and often frustrated at the lack of organization within the program or progress that our learners are making. This creates a perfect storm for seemingly trivial disputes to get blown out of proportion within the house. I am hopeful, however, that we can put everything behind us and enjoy the rest of this tremendous opportunity.
Sunday 10 July 2011
Tuesday 5 July 2011
The Start of Week Three
Well we have officially finished our IT training and moved on to tutoring the children. On Friday, I reviewed all the programs that I taught to Pamela and Patricia. Although we did not get as far as many of the other groups, I was definitely impressed with how much they learned. They can now type and format documents in Word, make a budget in Excel, surf the web and send emails. I really hope they are able to put these skills to use both in their professional and personal lives. If nothing else, I am excited to continue to correspond with them through email. For the last hour of the program, we had a graduation ceremony in which all the participants received a certificate and I got to say a short spiel about how proud I was of their progress. She is truly an inspiration to me, showing me that you are never too old to learn. The leader of the program, Vince, also sang two completely unrelated songs, which made everyone slightly uncomfortable (one of his songs was about the woman he impregnated at 17…). They asked Pamela to give a short speech and I learned that Pamela is actually 76! I thought she was in her 60s. She is truly an inspiration to me, showing that you are never too old to learn. All in all, it was a nice end to a very rewarding two weeks.
On Saturday morning, we went to Robben Island, which is where political prisoners were sent during the apartheid regime. I was expecting that it would look similar to Alcatraz so I was very surprised when we arrived at a small town on an island. We took a bus tour of the island but I struggled to understand what the tour guide was saying. We then took a tour of the prison, led by a former prisoner and got a first hand account of life there. We got to see the cell where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years, which was really cool. It was really interesting to learn about the strong sense of community between the prisoners, which helped them through the long days of forced labor.
Saturday afternoon we went to the Cape Town Stormers versus the New Zealand Crusaders rugby game. It was called the “sporting event of the decade” in the Cape Town newspapers so we were obviously pretty pumped. We got second row standing room seats and were surrounded by some really hardcore fans. The energy was electric, but that quickly died as we fell behind by a lot. I didn’t really understand the rules, but the scoreboard and the chorus of boos informed me that we lost badly. Still an awesome experience though!
On Sunday, we went for another three mile hike, this time to Kirstenbosch Gardens. First we got brunch at the Rhodes Memorial Café, which has stunning views of Cape Town. The hike itself took us through a trail on the side of Table Mountain, which included several waterfalls and interesting rock formations. It was very peaceful, just what I needed to unwind after a long week.
Last night, we decided to celebrate the 4th of July by renting out a club called Voom Voom and inviting a bunch of people we knew. We charged a cover for all the guests with the hope of donating any extra money to SHAWCO, the organization we’re working with. We only broke even money wise but still had a great night, as the DJ played lots of American classics. The most memorable moment was when our whole group got on stage for a rendition of “Wagon Wheel.”
On Monday, we began tutoring the kids. This week, we are focusing on tutoring English (we will work on math next week). I am working primarily with a student named Klinsito. He is 12 years old and in the 7th grade. He is very quick and definitely has a passion for learning. We have definitely bonded a lot already and I look forward to getting to know him better over the coming weeks. Today (Tuesday) a bunch more students joined the program so I tutored Klinsito and 2 ten year old girls. They were very enthusiastic, but were not as academically strong and it was difficult to tailor a lesson to learners at such different levels. A lot of the other people experienced similar frustrations in their groups so we plan to re-organize the groups by level tomorrow, although I’m determined to still be able to work with Klinsito.
Ok well, I should go to bed now. I haven’t been sleeping a whole lot lately. Living in a house with 20 people is pretty noisy….I sometimes feel like I’m in a social experiment. We got the morning off of lecture tomorrow so I plan to sleep in and then go for a run before going for brunch for one of our group member’s birthday. Hopefully that will rejuvenate me for a successful tutoring session in the afternoon and the rest of the week.
Hope all is well with you all! Thanks for reading!
On Saturday morning, we went to Robben Island, which is where political prisoners were sent during the apartheid regime. I was expecting that it would look similar to Alcatraz so I was very surprised when we arrived at a small town on an island. We took a bus tour of the island but I struggled to understand what the tour guide was saying. We then took a tour of the prison, led by a former prisoner and got a first hand account of life there. We got to see the cell where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years, which was really cool. It was really interesting to learn about the strong sense of community between the prisoners, which helped them through the long days of forced labor.
Saturday afternoon we went to the Cape Town Stormers versus the New Zealand Crusaders rugby game. It was called the “sporting event of the decade” in the Cape Town newspapers so we were obviously pretty pumped. We got second row standing room seats and were surrounded by some really hardcore fans. The energy was electric, but that quickly died as we fell behind by a lot. I didn’t really understand the rules, but the scoreboard and the chorus of boos informed me that we lost badly. Still an awesome experience though!
On Sunday, we went for another three mile hike, this time to Kirstenbosch Gardens. First we got brunch at the Rhodes Memorial Café, which has stunning views of Cape Town. The hike itself took us through a trail on the side of Table Mountain, which included several waterfalls and interesting rock formations. It was very peaceful, just what I needed to unwind after a long week.
Last night, we decided to celebrate the 4th of July by renting out a club called Voom Voom and inviting a bunch of people we knew. We charged a cover for all the guests with the hope of donating any extra money to SHAWCO, the organization we’re working with. We only broke even money wise but still had a great night, as the DJ played lots of American classics. The most memorable moment was when our whole group got on stage for a rendition of “Wagon Wheel.”
On Monday, we began tutoring the kids. This week, we are focusing on tutoring English (we will work on math next week). I am working primarily with a student named Klinsito. He is 12 years old and in the 7th grade. He is very quick and definitely has a passion for learning. We have definitely bonded a lot already and I look forward to getting to know him better over the coming weeks. Today (Tuesday) a bunch more students joined the program so I tutored Klinsito and 2 ten year old girls. They were very enthusiastic, but were not as academically strong and it was difficult to tailor a lesson to learners at such different levels. A lot of the other people experienced similar frustrations in their groups so we plan to re-organize the groups by level tomorrow, although I’m determined to still be able to work with Klinsito.
Ok well, I should go to bed now. I haven’t been sleeping a whole lot lately. Living in a house with 20 people is pretty noisy….I sometimes feel like I’m in a social experiment. We got the morning off of lecture tomorrow so I plan to sleep in and then go for a run before going for brunch for one of our group member’s birthday. Hopefully that will rejuvenate me for a successful tutoring session in the afternoon and the rest of the week.
Hope all is well with you all! Thanks for reading!
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