So far, I love it here at Blossom! The kids are all so adorable and love having a volunteer in their classroom. The first day during the sloted geography lesson time, I just talked to them about the states for an hour and answered a bunch of their questions. One of the boys asked me if I knew the actor from Home Alone, our very own McCullay Culkin. It's really really fun to be in a classroom where all the kids speak English so they really understand you and I am able to understand them.
The second day, instead of hanging around the classroom in the morning, I went down to the fields with a few of the teachers running the athletics program. Right now, they are doing "elimations" of the "learners" for the track team. On February 17th, there is huge track meet between some other elementary schools in the area. The teachers really give me a lot of freedom here, and I got to lead stretches for a hundred kids. Then I helped time them and teach them starts for the sprints. I also had an opportunity to talk to a few of the older kids who couldn't participate because of their birth year, and learned a lot about their lives in Athlone. They were pointing out different gang signs around the area spray painted on the walls. Most gangs are somehow tied to the states by name- "Ugly Americans", "Young Americans", etc.- but are not actually run by people in the states. Their is a lot of violence in Cape Town. Both of the girls' fathers used to be in gangs and one of them had an uncle killed in gang violence. They also pointed out places where kids as young as them, 13, could buy drugs and alcohol.
Mrs. Abhrams is a hoot. She talks my ear off all day, and loves learning about my experience growing up in the states. She has a daughter and son-in-law that are both getting their doctorate at Columbia in New York. She runs a pretty strict class. I think it's partially because she's been a teacher for 38 years and has a pretty old style mentality when it comes to teaching. The kids are all quite obedient, except for a few stinkers. During the natural science lesson on Friday, they learned all about the planets and I taught them the acronym to remember the order. My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. Apparently, Pluto is still a planet in South Africa. Actually, I think the worksheets the teacher was using are outdated, but I didn't really want to start a fuss and confuse them. They spent pretty much the entire day coloring the planets and later during art class, coloring another worksheet. It seems like they are doing a definitely below the 5th grade level here in the US. But it is the beginning of their year, and Mrs. Abhrams was explaining to me that she is trying to gauge their different levels off of some simple exercises.
I also learned about a bunch of the kids from Mrs. Abhrams and some other teachers. There are two 5th grade classes and the two teachers split their time up between the classes, teaching them different subjects. Mrs. Abhrams teaches Natural Science, Geography, Arts and Culture, and Afrikaans. The other teacher teaches English and Math, and a couple of other things too. So about the kids- a lot of them come from very poor areas. I think this was also the case with Silvertown but I didn't really ever get the chance to ask specifically. But Mrs. Abhrams loves to chat. There is still a very distinct seperate between where black and colored people live. Athlone, a historically colored township, is more of a suburb. The houses are small and close together, and many times multiple families live in them. However, the black children in the class all live in other historically black townships, and those communities are filled with shacks. The kids all where uniforms of grey and maroon, but many of the children can't afford the dress shoes. The government provides 8 loaves of bread to the school each day (for over 500 children mind you) to distribute to the kids who may not have enough to eat at home. Mrs. Abrhams knows which ones these are, but she said as the kids get older, they start having more issues with pride and don't like taking the bread. Many times, the younger siblings in the family will take a few slices and share them with their older brothers and sisters after school. 3 kids in my class suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrom. You can tell in their faces although its not as pronounced as I would have expected. However, I was helping them with some of their work, and they were definitely struggling.
I am just so excited about having the opportunity to teach these kids. I have so many ideas for fun science experiments and different activities I can bring in to teach them. If any of you have any great and cheap ideas for a fifth grade class let me know. I want to offer them as much as possible. I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks here and I only have another 4 weeks left. Time really flies!
This weekend has been pretty boring to report on. I finally got sick, I feel like everyone has caught the bug at somepoint. Friday night we went out to an authentic African restaurant and listened to some awesome steel drum music. We were having a farewell dinner for about half the group here (15 of 30 left yesterday). I had crocodile and thought it was pretty good, but yesterday I was in bed all day feeling awful so I'm not what went wrong. I feel a lot better this morning, and might go meet up with some friends at the beach this afternoon. It's strange now that our house size just got cut in half and I will really miss the volunteers that left. A new group comes in next Saturday which we are all excited about!
Natalie, Jamie, and I at the farewell dinner at Mama AfricaKeep in touch!
Jackie
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