Olympic Size Woes

This is terrible. The hardest thing so far about South Africa is not being able to watch the Olympics. For many of you this would not be such a big deal, but I live for the Olympics. Every time they come around I start getting excited months in advance and obsess over them for 2 weeks. Last summer Olympics I went Beijing time for 2 weeks, sleeping during the day and staying up all night to make sure I saw everything live. Here the winter Olympics are not that big of a deal. Winter sports aren’t really South Africa’s thing and they only have 2 competing athletes. There are 15-30 minute recaps of the previous day’s events on TV, but it’s not the same and TV isn’t always accessible. Internet is the most annoying because every time you find a website with live events it tells you that you must be in a certain country in order to watch it.

However this hasn’t be good enough reason for Pablo and me to not obsess over the Olympics. He is constantly updating the results online and we will sit and watch people’s names and their flags alternate on a list. He, although a Mexican citizen, pretends to be from Norway or Sweden when rooting during events. It was horrible missing out on the big US hockey win over Canada, but I have mixed feelings over it anyways. Although I’m a USA hockey supporter, I have a soft spot for Canada because it means more to them and I hate seeing Brodeur lose. This is extremely disheartening because with his pull from net I fear that his legacy may have been affected, but at least I can now root for the US without having this fear. We refuse to miss the gold medal game and will hopefully be watching the US and Canada meeting for a rematch this coming Sunday.




Winter sports aren’t really of interest here, especially since its summer. This country is obsessed with other sports as those of you who have seen Invictus may know; the black people love football, the whites love rugby, and they both agree on cricket coming in behind them. This has been interesting getting to know some different sports while being here. I got a season pass to the rugby game and have gone to the 2 home games that they have had. These have been pretty cool experiences because they are the best college team in the country by far. The first game they won 72-0 and gave much to celebrate about. Although I’m not that into rugby, I tried to cheer and enjoy it like I was. Cricket has been an interest to me since I have come here and although I’ve only watch some on TV and had limited firsthand experience during recess at Lynedoch, I think I’ve gotten to understand it. It is actually very similar to baseball and yet still very different. One night I expressed my lack of knowledge to a South African and got an hour lesson on the rules of cricket and he even gave me a book on it. It makes a lot more sense when you see it played rather than drawn on a napkin.
















In conclusion, please people appreciate the massive amounts of coverage that you get because me and Pablo would kill to just be able to see some biathlon or speed skating! I can’t believe Sven blew it as much as that reporter who asked him who he was!

Week 4! 2/22- Medals!

Today was a wonderful day with the 2nd grade. Over the past couple of weeks we have definitely gotten a chance to know the learners pretty well and have started to get what works best. In physical education we went on an imaginary swim around the school, which really was just to tire them out a bit, but they definitely enjoyed it.

After seeing how well Mrs. Jephtha controlled the class last week, we took a page out of her book and made the format of our lesson similar to how she taught her lesson; they responded to this extremely well. For the first time they were able to understand, which then led to them being excited about the simple lesson and being able to participate in it. This was a gratifying moment because the participation signified that they were able to understand us and excited to show us how intelligent they were. This has been my goal from the beginning and made me feel pretty good in achieving it. Now that we know what works, it will be easier to build from there to make our lessons and teach them a lot of cool things.

Later on during our reading period, since we have been loosely focusing on the Olympics the past three weeks in our lessons, we made medals. This activity was fun because we told them that they all deserved medals and they could make the medal for anything that they thought they deserved it in. At first this was a little lost in translation and they just made their medals similar to the one we had made as an example, but eventually turned into what they wanted. After they finished making their medals we called them up one by one to the front to award them their medal. I was wary about this because I was worried that this might take a while and the class might get restless just watching. Although I was worried, we thought it would be cool to give it to them as if they really were winners. We decided to do it, so we called them up to the front, had them stand up on a chair, one of us put their medal around their neck while announcing what they had made their medal for, and everyone clapped. The class loved this. They all were sitting there so excited for their own moment in front of the class and even were respectful after they had received theirs. This was awesome seeing all of their huge smiles lighting up the room. It was also fun to see the learners the rest of the day wearing their medals around school. It was not hard to see the pride that they had taken in their medals and themselves when you saw them. This is an activity that I will definitely remember as something that was pretty cool and I hope their pride will last as long as the memory I will hold of it.

My Address!

People have been getting a lot of mail lately and it made me realize that i never gave anyone my address, so here it is:

(the first is for letters, the second's for packages):
Evan Dewey
P.O. Box 3271
MATIELAND
Stellenbosch, South Africa
7602

International Office - Wilcocks Building
Stellenbosch University
Victoria Street
Stellenbosch, South Africa
7600

Feel free to mail me love letters, but don't feel obligated.

Week 3! Feb. 15th- Skating!

Today went a lot better than last week with the 2nd grade. We have definitely gotten to know each other better over the past couple of weeks and we have been able to mold our lessons better and better to suit them. In gym we realized since they have so much energy to use it. We used their energy more constructively and worked to tire them out a little bit. We ran and we danced and they seemed to have a good time doing it.

We asked Mrs. Jephtha to teach the life orientation lesson today so that we could sit in and watch how she controls the class. She is amazing. Every single one of the learners sits quietly and patiently when she has control. It was such a relief to see them in this setting where they are able to understand the language better because they are so eager to learn and participate. I’m not sure if they don’t act this way with us because they don’t understand what we are saying or whether they are just too self conscious about their linguistic abilities to answer. I am once again motivated by seeing this to get that kind of response out of them by the time we are done; they are hungry for knowledge and I am determined to satisfy that hunger.

During the reading time, we talked a little bit about ice skating and then did a fun activity with them. We taped wax paper over their feet and showed them how it makes them able to glide on the carpet. This is very similar to how skating is, so we went on an imaginary ice skate. This seemed like a simple idea, all we needed were some feet, wax paper, tape, a carpet, and a little imagination. However, we didn’t stop to think of how many little feet we would have to cover and how long this would take. The three of us went to work ripping, cutting, and taping. Mrs. Jephtha helped control the class while we did this. The process took quite a while and by the time the final foot was done the first couple kids had lost theirs. We took the kids whose feet were covered to the teachers’ longue to skate and glide. The wax paper here is quite thinner than in America, so it consistently was ripping and falling off. Two of us had to stay in the classroom and do repairs. These repairs never stopped, so we never stopped. It was all worth the work though because when they were coming back for repairs they had the biggest smiles on their faces. I kept on asking them if they had fun and they would respond with a big smile and nod. This was extremely rewarding to find a way to offer them a new experience that they have never been able to experience before. Although I never got to see them play, we were all completely drenched in sweat by the end, and again I was exhausted, this day felt like a victory.

Facing Reality

In class last friday Friday, Grant took us on a little field trip to a nearby farm. The walk was about a mile and we took the route that many of the children walk to school. He wanted to bring us to see the conditions that the children and their families live in. The walk there was an eye opener on its own. The walk consisted of crossing train tracks that don’t have the crossing arms to signify the train is coming, crossing a very busy highway, and walking down a narrow road without sidewalks. This is a route that my mother wouldn’t want me walking now at 21 years old never mind the 6 or 7 year olds that do it every day.

When we arrived in the little area of about 5 or 6 houses, we met with an elderly woman named Kathleen who lived in one of the houses. Grant fosters one of her grandsons and pays the school fees for her other grandchildren as well, so he felt comfortable asking her if we could see her house. After she told us her story of her life living on the farm, she brought us inside. It was easy to see that she took a lot of pride in her house and family. She loved showing us pictures of her grandchildren and telling us how well they were doing in school. She was a lovely woman, but unfortunately the living situation wasn’t as great. Her house was made up of 3 rooms that were probably 15 by 15 for 3 people, which isn’t too bad. However in the past the house had had 10 people living in it and that definitely isn’t okay. The toilets are outside and she pointed out how she had asked many times for the farmer to put bathrooms in the house because of how terrible it is for an old lady to have to walk outside to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. This is how the workers live, making about $100 a month while the farm owner is a millionaire with 5 houses all over the world. This farmer was one that treated his workers better than most or he wouldn’t have allowed us to look around. Still better than most is does not translate into a comfortable living. We all thanked Kathleen and shared some hugs as we were leaving and we could tell that our visit had made her day and ours.

On the way back we stopped in a little chapel on the farm that the families worship in. Grant wanted us to know how integral religion is to their lives because it gives them hope of earning something better in the end. He told us how this is a place where the families who live on this farm come to pray for miracles like food for dinner or for sick family members to get better. Sitting in this place made me feel stupid for 90% of my prayers that have to do with my favorite sports teams winning or their not being traffic on the highway. We all just sat there and reflected on what we have seen and learned over the past month. This for many was a pretty emotional time, but nice to compose all our thoughts and emotions in this peaceful place.

Our spirits were lifted a little bit when we returned back to find the entire student body in the gym watching a Valentine’s Day fashion show. The children were all dressing in red and pink and had lined the walls of the gym. Music was playing and everyone was dancing. Then some of the littlest learners would do their little catwalk down the middle of the gym and the entire school would cheer. It was adorable seeing all the little guys trying to act sassy and put on a show for everyone. You could see how much their face would light up when the cheers would come from the whole student body. It was just the pick me up we needed.

Saturday was a little bit of a different story however. 2 of the students at Lynedoch’s mother had been drunk and been hit by a car and died a week ago, so there was a funeral being held. Alcoholism is a huge problem in this area ranking among the highest in the world and 2nd highest amount of fetal alcohol syndrome in the world. Grant had mentioned that he would like it if some of us would take some time out to go and arranged a ride for us. We met around 7:30 and headed for one of the farms. The funerals here are held in their home because of the lack of financial resources to pay for something better. When we arrived, we quickly realized that Grant hadn’t lied the day before when he said that Kathleen’s farm had a nicer living situation than most. The first thing we noticed before even reaching their house was that the group of 8 or 10 houses dumped their garbage in a ditch right next to their houses. This created a very strong stench and also attracted a lot of flies. I had never experienced anything like it before. The flies were 100 times worse than anything I’ve ever endured and there was never a moment that I was there and I couldn’t feel at least 5 flies crawling on me somewhere. We walked up to the house, were invited inside, and were surprised to see the open casket sitting right there in front of us. We walked up showing our respect and could tell that they had worked to put her face back together after the accident she had been in. We stood right outside the door during the service because there wasn’t room inside for us. The principal of Lynedoch went in at some point and explained in Afrikaans who we were and why we were there because we could tell people were confused what the group of white people was doing there. They were honored that people from across the world would come to show their respect and we were told it made her life seem more valuable because of our presence. This was a little uncomfortable for us getting attention when we were supposed to be honoring the life of this woman. Something interesting that Mr. Janssen pointed out to us was her son, Jonathan’s, reluctance to be a part of the service and stayed distant from it. He explained that this is a survival tactic that people here use because pain is such a frequent occurrence in their lives. They distance their emotions, so that they don’t have to feel the pain, but unfortunately also end up losing out on feelings of happiness as well. When they were processing out they asked us to lead the casket and then the hearse to the end of the road. This again was an uncomfortable moment, but we honored their wishes and did as they asked. This was quite an experience and something that I don’t think any of us will soon forget.

Culture Shock at Its Finest

So last night we went to a bar to watch the Arsenal/Liverpool game. It was a big football game so the bar was packed. I was a little hungry, so I ordered nachos with cheese. I was really excited about this because we haven’t been able to find nachos anywhere. They came and we all dug in. Immediately we realized something wasn’t quite right. Under the pile of melted cheese, salsa, jalepenos, and other nacho goodness were cheese Doritos. I like Doritos, but not under salsa and cheese. The salsa was sweeter than ours as well, so that wasn’t very good either. A disappointing experience to say the least.

A Rougher Day- Week #2 February 8th

Today the second grade was a little bit rougher than last week was. I came in very excited to work with the learners again. I had felt like we had used what we had learned from experiencing them the first week to better prepare for our day and fix it to work better with them. When physical education started, they all circled up and listened well when we were doing stretches. Then when we moved on to our activities they started to become a little difficult to contain. We tried to explain what we were doing and they seemed to get it. However, there were a couple of learners that were determined not going to pay attention or follow directions. This week again, I was not sure whether this was because they were overly excited, did not understand us, or were just trying to take advantage of the situation. These few kids then distracted the other children and drew them out of the activities as well. Eventually, no one was following directions and it seemed like chaos that we were trying to contain.

Pumle was involved in pretty much all the trouble that happened during this period and was getting on my nerves. I don’t think that he was the instigator, but was constantly being harassed. I noticed that he was slightly disadvantage from the other learners because of the condition of his foot (seemed like it had been burned badly in the past and hadn’t healed properly. A couple of other boys would taunt him until he got angry, run away, and then since his foot was in bad shape he would not be able to catch up. I tried to discipline these boys, but I’m not really quite sure how I am supposed to discipline them. They seemed to be aware of this and continued to take advantage of the situation. I tried to have a chat with Pumle about this, but he was not willing to talk very much. Although he wasn’t talking to me, he was unable to hide the fact that he was upset by this. I’m not completely sure of what is going on, but am pretty sure that he is not completely innocent in all of this either. I have come to realize that it’s not usually coincidence when one person is constantly involved in all the trouble that is around.

Later in their reading time, we made up a lesson on the Olympics and, more specifically, skiing and snowboarding in the Winter Olympics. I learned from last week that I was not sure whether they were able to understand what I was trying to explain to them, so I made a PowerPoint presentation with a lot of cool pictures to keep their attention. For this lesson we moved to Grant’s classroom to use the projector, this change of scenery along with the use of the projector caused them to be very excited. By the time they sat down, they were already being pretty loud. We quieted them a little bit, but weren’t able to find silence. I started with my presentation and they seemed to think it was pretty cool; I was right when I thought the pictures would interest them. I felt pretty satisfied because I had spent a very long time looking for interesting pictures to include. Even though they were into it, they would get very excited by every new slide and erupt in yelling and screaming. This was a bitter sweet moment: they liked it, but it was causing them to once again be out of control. I then showed them some YouTube videos of skiing and snowboarding tricks. This was the only time that I had silence all day from them. They were mesmerized by these videos and were amazed. This was an extremely satisfying moment. Then when it was over, we took them on an imaginary ski trip. They enjoyed this, but when we started skiing it made a whole lot of noise and we needed to end it very quickly. After, we did a coloring project and as it went on they again spiraled out of control. The three of us then just worked the whole time to keep them in some kind of order and prayed for the period to end soon. By the time they left, we were completely exhausted and we all basically collapsed in the teacher’s lounge. As we worked there, everyone kept on telling us that they could hear our class from all different places in the school. We were a little embarrassed and hoped we hadn’t ruined anyone’s classes with our noise. We felt like we were defeated and were a little disappointed in our efforts. We did not really know what went wrong and for the rest of the day discussed how we would be able to get them excited in a more constructive way.

These feeling of exhaustion and defeat carried on for the rest of the day. As other people headed outside during our lunch, we hid inside because of our embarrassment. Then with about 10 minutes left until yoga, I decided to go outside. I saw one of the girls in my class and went over to talk to her. She was very cute and we all joked around, laughing at my expense. A couple other girls in my class joined in and I was having a good time. This moment caused all of those feelings I had been feeling to drift away and again remember how lucky I am to be able to work with these kids and, even through chaos, how much fun it really is being here. I went back inside for yoga with a big smile on my face and one in my soul as well. This was the feeling that I tried to take with me when I left. Then when I saw Pumle at the train station, I wanted to go over and experience him without the other boys bothering him and with me in a better mood. Although he had frustrated me all day, I was able to laugh, enjoy this time, and remember that all of these children really are special, even when they are annoying.

Jeff took a picture while I was changing for yoga.

I then went home, collapsed into my bed, and fell asleep for a few hours.

Note: None of these pictures depict by any means the chaos that went on. Hard to believe all these cute little kids could be so crazy.