a sociology lesson.

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the itsy bitsy spider.

Back in early March, Becca and I spent a whole Wednesday teaching Grade 4 our fantastic repertoire of three songs... "Old MacDonald Had A Farm", "This Little Light Of Mine", and.... "The Itsy Bitsy Spider".

Enjoy.






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worth 1000 words...

Here are a few snapshots of life as it's happened lately...

Back in July, our community took a trip to a game farm with our friends Brian, Matt, and Martin... lots of giraffe viewing and quart drinking ensued.

We reaped the many benefits of the Durban International Film Festival, and might have gone on a top-secret poster-stealing mission on the streets of Durban one night... as the organizer of said mission, I was elated.

One of my favourite books we've got in the library (along with The Gruffalo), Room on the Broom led to a really great creative art project with Grade 5.


Sanele wore his pants up to his neck one morning.  Gosh I love that face.

And then Becky came to visit!!

We met in Cape Town, and toured Stellenbosch to taste some delicious South African wine...

... and drove around the coast in style in our little red Kia (free upgrade, no big deal).

Even though school was closed due to the strike, she got to meet and consequently fall in love with our St. Theresa's boys.

We spent a day touring Durbs-- complete with a formal introduction to the Indian Ocean.

And then we celebrated Becca's (far left) 24th birthday with a Mexican fiesta at home.

I bought some gorgeous Indian silk at Essenwood Market (6 metres for R100... that's about $15!) and got to try it on as a sari, but I don't think I could pass for Indian.

Then we introduced Becky and Meg, Mary-Kate's friend from home, to the joy that is the Durban Sharks playing a rugby match in the Currie Cup.

On her last day, Beck and I took a short drive towards Pietermaritzburg to a game reserve called Tala, which was small, but we got to hang out with lots of wildebeest (yes like the ones that killed Mufasa) and giraffes... cue Becky doing lots of animal impressions, all day.

Then our guests left, and we were left to celebrate St. Augustine Day with the Augustinian sisters next door and our three friars/friends-- Fr. Frank, Baba Benji, and Fr. Jack.  I made mum's poached pears as a little tribute to St. Augustine, and they went down a treat.

Unfortunately, my digital camera bit the dust two weeks ago; keeping it safe in a case was to no avail, and the screen cracked and would cost about $350 to fix.  But, luckily, I'm really excited to announce that after some hefty discussion with my parents, this little baby is on her way to me as we speak.

Our coordinator April is on her way for our last site visit, and she arrives tomorrow night.  We'll have two days here with her, then on Friday morning, we'll be driving up to Mosetlha Bush Camp, in Madikwe Game Reserve, up on the border of Botswana, for a weekend of safari adventures.  We'll finish our trip with an overnight in Johannesburg on Sunday.  We mainly want to see the famed apartheid museum in Jozi, but I'm really looking forward to spending a small amount of time in the city where my parents spent two years before I existed.  Even though much has changed since the early 80s, I'm excited to see it nonetheless.

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status quo.

I've been thinking a lot about how important the idea of status is to the Zulu people I've encountered.  This covers everything, from the latest technological possessions to cars to even which students have the sharpest pencils in the classroom.
One of the hardest things that I've realized about teaching is how easy it can be to pick favourites.  This isn't even restricted to St. Leo's-- at the boys' home, too, there are certain kids that I get along with and who feel more comfortable around me than others.  There's Sanele, in Grade 4, who cannot sit still and has been known to steal food from kindergartners at break time.  But he calls me "Mrs. Sinead" and it makes my heart melt.  Then there's Bheki at St. Theresa's; he may drool when he gets overexcited and eat chicken liver pate straight from the container with a spoon, but I just love that Kanye West face of his.
But playing favourites doesn't even mean that kids feel left out if I feel the need to pay special attention to one or the other.  It's all about having things.  Children here are more concerned about having the sharpest pencil in the class, or being able to buy unhealthy snacks at breaktime instead of eating the prepared samp, finding an old Bluetooth on the ground and wearing it around the schoolyard, with more pride than the most successful investor on Wall Street.
And this phenomenon isn't restricted to children either.  Mary-Kate told me last week about a Zulu man who had asked the nun sponsoring him through nursing school if he could get a car.  She agreed to help him, but then made a very good point: this guy didn't have a drivers' license.  He seemed completely unperturbed by this.  He just wanted a car.
It's easy to say that this all comes from people who don't have much taking pride in what they can get their hands on, but when a hefty paycheck goes towards purchasing the latest flat-screen TV in a rundown tinroof house with no running water, I feel very confused at the logic.
It's also easy to expand these scenarios and take a look at the government of this country (and elsewhere).  Government officials spend big bucks on flashy cars, expensive suits, and family vacations, while in the same city, someone even related to them might be suffering from treatbale TB with no money for medicine.
I never mean to express political criticism, but I can't help noticing how even the microcosm of St. Leo's is a small-scale model for how things operate on a national level in South Africa.
Mum has been faithfully clipping articles from the Financial Times that might pique my interest, and when a package arrived the other day with two books from my sister (who is studying abroad in Paris at the moment; read her blog here), it also had a giant stack of articles with it.
One of them, written back in July, is an interview with six different South Africans post-World Cup.  It is a really interesting piece, with many points I've been reflecting on, but in a much more succinct and articulate manner.  You can find the article here, and I'd highly recommend taking the time to read it.


Oh, and school is open again, much to my relief.  More on that later...


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overheard in south africa.

We often find ourselves playing "hairdresser" at St. Theresa's when the boys have finished their homework and all the soccer balls are in use.

Volunteer: So I think I'll probably chop all my hair off when I get home.
Philani: You should relax it, that would look nice.
Volunteer:  I actually don't need to relax it, it's sort of "naturally relaxed", you know what I mean?
Philani: So who relaxes y'all's hair then?  God?



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