Tears of a stranger

Tears. My tears come down my face when there are no words to express how I feel. I wish these were happy tears, but they are not. Today we had the opportunity to visit our students homes, it was heartbreaking. I never would have imagined that I would see what I did. All types of emotions came over. I started to question myself as a person. These students come to school everyday happy, and ready to learn. After seeing their homes, I don't know if I could be that happy everyday. The homes didn't have any stoves, refrigerators, water, showers or tubs. These are things that are just needed for everyday living, and they didn't have any of it. The toilets were on the outside of the home, they used the bucket system. They used water from a faucet, which they shared with the neighborhood. How do they eat? How do they bathe? How do they wake up with a smile on their face everyday? How are they motivated to want better? At such a young age, how do they handle that most of the people surrounding them are infected with HIV? Here I am crying over things that they aren't even complaining about. How can my tears, the tears of a stranger, help them? If they are not crying about their situation why should I? I should be more focused on ways to help them get out of the situation. There is a 30 million rand museum built right beside the slums. If there is enough money for the government to build museums I am certain that they could start helping people get out of poverty. One of the doctorate students here said "It seems like the less you have, the happier you are." I totally agree, we could have everything that we ever wanted, and still find one thing to complain about. We need to think before we act. There is someone who would be happy just to receive a glass of sanitized water, so just be grateful at all times, no matter what you are missing! We are going to figure out a way to help the families and students at our school...more info coming later.

Oh, testing..

This week has been all about testing. My students have taken a test everyday this week except Tuesday. They were tested in math, English, life skills, and reading comprehension. All of second grade at Emafini had the same testing, so to some extent you can say they were standardized. On all for of the tests the scores ranged from 2/25 to 25/25. After being there for a week, I immediately knew who would score low on the exams. In my mind I also felt like they could have done better because the classroom still had all the posters from the different subjects hanging up. Some of the students realized it, especially when they were taking their English exams. All the students who received the lower grades will still move on to the third grade.I was told it was because they are in the process of getting assigned to a special school. The problem with that is, it can take 5 years. How are they supposed to catch up when they go to the special school if they are already behind by some years? In second grade in the U.S. there is not any standardized testing, but I know they test at the end of the school year, either formally or informally. I know that teachers identify students who may need help early in the year. Most students are identified in kindergarten so that supplementary help is already provided for them. I believe this single aspect may affect the students in South Africa success rate when compared to other places. I understand that there are not enough teachers, and teachers here are not specialized in one area, but I believe something needs to be done. This is not beneficial for current or future students.

P.E.A.C.E.

Today we went to a ceremony called Peace Promoting Schools. This ceremony acknowledges different schools throughout South Africa that agrees to have different programs to promote peace. I believe there were at least 20 schools that participated in the program. The ceremony was full of speakers that were very big supporters of the Peace Program. All of the speakers were very good, but two caught my attention. One of the speakers had us play a game about colors, according to our table. This caught my attention because at the end of the game she played a song that gave directions to people that sat at tables with certain colors. It gave me an idea of how could introduce colors in my own future classroom. The other speaker caught my attention by using a Time magazine article that was written about education across the world. It basically said that instead of the U.S. being ahead of the world in education we are steadily getting behind. He also goes on to say that it may be because teaching is more than just teaching now. There are so many more things that teachers are responsible for outside of teaching the students. It is now 50% teaching and 50% testing and other things. I just thought it was very interesting that even educators outside of the U.S. has began to notice all the extracurricular things teachers are required to do. He also, goes on to say that one day he wants South Africa to even be in the rankings of having a well-educated system. I believe that the PEACE program is a great way to start building up South African schools.

Weekend!

Saturday, I went to my first soccer game EVER! From what I'm told, it was between two top rivals, Bufana Bufana, and the Ivory Coast. There were 22,000 people there, and they were so pumped up for their teams. So many people showed so much support for their country. They were all dressed in yellow and green, some even painted their hair the same color. It took me a little to get into the game, but it is actually interesting. The game ended in a tie which was shocking to me because in other sports they usually want to see who would be the winner. After the game, there were people singing in a circle and two of my friends joined them. It was quite hysterical especially after learning that they were singing about the Bafana team not having their best players on the field. The coach was afraid that they may get hurt and not be able to play in some big game that they have coming up.  The spirit of the game was still lingering a while after it was over. Soccer in Africa is like football in America, except the fans are very good sports. I didn’t see any arguing.

Today, I went to church at Lighthouse Family Church. I didn’t know what to expect by going to a church in a different country, but it actually reminded me of a church in Wilmington. I enjoyed the music a lot. It was hard for me to understand everything the Pastor was saying, but the message was about avoiding opposition. Afterwards, we found out that the church is involved with an orphanage and there is a possibility that we may be able to go and visit the children there. I’m very excited about this because one day I would love to adopt a child of my own. I just want to give them the love that no one else wanted to give to them. Every child deserves to be loved, and while I can’t personally take care of every child I meet, it is good to help in some way.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Respect is my word of the week. If someone was to ask me how the students’ manners are, I could proudly say that every student that I have come across has shown me respect. They are just impeccable when it comes to showing good manners. Not only does their level of respect show with their good manners, it also shows with their dedication to school. This is one of the ways that I can tell the environmental differences between the U.S. and South Africa. The students’ want to learn and they want to come to school. They do not take their education for granted, and they know that it is needed to make a difference when they get older. I think that every student that is in high school or below should have the same respect for their as they do here in any country. In the US the students know that education is free, so they don’t take as much pride in it. Half of the students probably don’t want to be in school. It is so refreshing to see students who are self-motivated and show genuine interest in school. I found this life cycle of respect and I can honestly say that every student at Emafini Primary completes this cycle on the daily basis.