Crazy Crazy Day

Africa » South Africa » Mpumalanga » Barberton
February 7th 2013

Published: February 7th 2013

I’m catching my breath at the end of a crazy week. Today was Sele School’s celebration for the last year’s Gr 12’s who did so well passing their tests and getting to matric (graduate). Because of the preparations for this..how do I say it......a totally African way of preparing for events; YESTERDAY was the “Crazy, Crazy Day”. Sometimes I feel like living at the cabin in Idaho helps me adjust to life here. But yesterday, I felt like working at Holden Village helped me survive. So here I am drinking wine and wishing for a good relaxing game of pinochle!!!

I should have known what the day would be like when I saw all these learners dragging dead branches of trees to school in the morning. They had been asked to bring wood for cooking for Friday’s celebration. They were also out of uniform. “Casual day” once a week is a way to raise funds by having learners pay 5 Rand ($.70) to not wear their uniforms. I never know anything until it happens..it could be because I don’t know the language, and I don’t ask about everything other people are saying...it could be because I am so busy in my classroom I miss conversations between staff (though I try to eat lunch in the staff room)....it could be because the principal (who is new to me, because he was on leave on another job assignment) hasn’t had a staff meeting in two weeks... But it really is that no one knows. Have I told you what TIA stands for? This Is Africa. It is a mantra for PCV’s when we sigh and moan about things beyond our understanding.

I asked a teacher that morning what our Friday would be like so I’d know which periods I would be teaching. She said she didn’t know. I had a plan for that Friday, before the celebration--to get learners to help move all the textbooks piled under desks (and falling over and spreading out over the floor). The principal had brought 4 old bookshelves to my room to put the books in because he didn’t want to invite rats in with all these old books. (And we are talking old,...sample copies, catalogues for school supplies, things I would try to sneak into the garbage..and we will come to that presently) But I got it done on the crazy, crazy day instead.

First period, no students came to class and I went searching and found out that half had to go back home because they had forgotten to bring their wood. 2^nd period went normally. 3^rd period was free and 4 Gr 11 boys came in to hang out...and I found out they weren’t having class because their teacher was out shopping for supplies for the celebration. (The two teachers on the Culture Committee were in charge of the fund-raising... selling ice pops at lunch, sending learners to the shopping town to ask for donations, etc. and everything else involved in this event...which was a lot!!! I do not believe they were able to teach half their classes this week.) So I got Gr 11 to come in and move half the books, using the fire brigade system that works so well at the Holden dock. Of course, it didn’t work quite so well with teenagers, but all in all they did a wonderful job.

Then a learner came and told me the principal wanted to talk to me. He had a visitor from the district. They had sent her to investigate into the call I’d asked my principal to make to remind them about the furniture and rent payments due. The contractual arrangement they make with the Peace Corps is to provide basic furniture and pay rent for the work volunteers do at their schools. My family gave me a bed, chair and small table, and my clothes hang on the window bars and collect bugs and grit. (the dirt is really grit). They should be receiving rent of R500 a month, ($65) which they haven’t. This happens every year. Shilpa received her furniture after a year...and her family was paid eventually. So, I told this woman what my principal had said on the phone, that I was still waiting for these items to arrive. Then she wanted to go see my room. No questions about whether I would be missing teaching my next class or anything. Most everything has priority over being with the learners here. We drove over to my place (one block away) and she had a good conversation with my host family. They are so nice, and I am glad that they can hope that their rent payments may be coming. The woman, who was also very nice, looks over my room and asks questions. Yes, I bought my refrigerator, stove, fan, etc. and look at my clothes hanging all around the room, and the stacks of math books because I don’t have a desk!!!!! Who knows when the furniture will arrive, but I feel like this means something’s on the move.

Back to the school, and I didn’t mention that before I drove off with the district lady, I had stopped by the Gr 12 classroom to tell them that I may be late returning to class, but we would still meet. The teacher in their room at the time told me that school was “knocking off” after lunch so that the learners could clean. They usually do this every other Fri. afternoon, but with Friday’s celebration they had rescheduled it. This was the teacher I’d asked that morning about what she knew about Friday’s schedule. Who knows when she found out about Thursday’s early closing..but I was never told.

So now it is lunch, and I am going to get the rest of those books moved, and the floor swept, and all this good stuff. Learners know their job is to clean their own rooms...each grade has their own classroom where teachers go to them; instead of the learners going to rooms that belong to teachers as it is in the States. Now that Sele has two tracks for Science and Math, they have separate classrooms so that half the learners come to my room for Math Lits and the rest remain in their classroom for the Pure Maths teacher to come to them. (except for a schedule change they made so that I could teach Gr 12 Pure Maths and Gr 12 Math Lits on different periods) So that is why I have my own classroom and I have to find a way to schedule some learners from each grade to help clean my room. I managed to track down Gr 10 learners after lunch, so that before they started cleaning their own room they helped move the rest of the books. They also did some cleaning too.

Now, the garbage dilemma. Two weeks ago, I sent learners out with two cardboard boxes to dump out garbage to be burned. Household garbage is burned in piles out in the yard, including plastic and aluminum cans. (There is no garbage pick-up) And I knew the primary school had a burn pile and a burn barrel, because I had cleaned out the art supply room over there. I assumed that Sele had a burning area somewhere. But the principal saw these boys and sent them back to me with the garbage. He said that they couldn’t throw it out on the ground because it would attract rats. Now I wondered what was done with the dust bins (cardboard boxes for garbage) in all the classrooms...and since I am getting so much cleaning done today, I asked Mama B, our maintenance/groundskeeper person. She thinks and thinks, and says my garbage should go in recycling. (I have plastic chip bags, plastic bottles, lots of paper, etc. but none of it is sorted...and sorting is way beyond what would ever happen here) So we get more learners to carry the boxes, which of course are very full by now. She leads them into a small room off the Science lab where we leave them on the table. I can’t get my boxes back to use again for garbage and have to find another one now. This has got to be wrinkling your brows (I have never been able to write this phrase before)..but it’s true. Is every classroom going to dispose of their garbage by carrying their dust bin boxes into this small room and leaving them there? It is like the textbooks in my classroom that should be thrown away. You see they didn’t all fit on the shelves. I got the loose books out from under the desks, but the rest are in boxes in a corner. And I’m starting to look longingly at those boxes, because I’ll be needing them to throw my garbage in so that I can bring those boxes to the “recycling room.” And what if the rats discover the “recycling room?”

So, what’s next? Well, Gr 12 Pure Maths was supposed to meet after lunch AND have an after-school session. They are under pressure to work, work, work, so that they can keep up the standard set by last year’s class which raised the matric (graduation) rate from 12.5%!t(MISSING)o 92.9%! (MISSING)So I find them and tell them they can do a little cleaning in my room and then we will have an hour lesson. They are respectful, etc. but there is a problem. I want to start very soon because one boy doesn’t live in Kameelpoort. He lives in KwamHlanga and takes the taxi or catches a ride with a teacher. And he can get a ride home with a teacher today if we start class soon. (He had missed class last Sunday because he didn’t have money for a taxi...I know he was telling the truth) So he and 2 other boys are finishing up the sweeping, and worrying about when the rest of their class is coming. I find the other Gr 12 boys gabbing outside their room while the girls are sweeping, because “in their culture, boys don’t sweep, but they will clean windows” So they are waiting for the girls to finish before cleaning the windows. They are doing what typical teenage groups do. Taking four times as long to do the work because they can stretch it out and make it into a social activity. Watching the girls cleaning...three girls have brooms while the rest stand around talking...I decide there is no way all these learners need to hang out here. I say “I’m sorry but I’m going to take my 13 Gr 12 Pure Maths learners now and let the other 16 Gr 12’s finish cleaning their room....and I’m sure they will do just fine.”

Finally I start my class, which goes fine. Then these cute little kids come to stand outside my door during the lesson. I keep going, because they are quiet, and I just don’t want any more interruptions. And they stayed quiet, and one of my girl learners goes over and lets them sit down on chairs in the corner by the door. So, I’m thinking that they are a group of brothers and sisters of one of my Gr 12’s. In about 10 minutes I hand out homework, and my class tells me that these Gr 1’s came over from Ndayi School to see ME. Apparently they used to drop in on Shilpa sometimes. They are as cute as can be, but they don’t speak isiNdebele. Up until Gr 3, learners are divided into Sepedi or isiNdebele classrooms, because they only know their home language. Then they start learning English and are really thrown into English in Gr 4. And they pick up the other African language as they go. By secondary school they are speaking Sepedi, isiNdebele and English in varying degrees of fluency. So these little ones don’t understand anything I try to say, and they don’t know Thandeke who is Zanele, my host sister’s daughter and is in Gr 1. Thandeke is in the isiNdebele classroom. One of the learners helps me talk to them. And another learner brought a pomegranate which is a “Harnaat” in Sepedi and I told her the Greek myth of Persephone and the pomegranate seeds. And that was the end of my crazy, crazy day!!!!!!!

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