The Outskirts of JoBurg

Day 2

We all woke up and I whipped us up some breakfast of bacon and eggs with a bit of toast. John was a wonderful instant coffee maker and dish washer, while Pam started the grocery list. It seems like she will be our resident chef….which I am ok with.

After breakfast, we walked through the school and around the grounds of the school. Let me start by saying we are living in the school…right above the math classroom I will be teaching in which is barren and stale...I will change that. Talk about an easy commute home for lunch…but I digress. As I walk out of the school I step onto the beautiful African soil I have only seen in pictures and it makes me think of the millions of African who step on the same soil. This is the birthplace of humanity and I am walking on the same red soil man was born from millions of years ago. I think of all the struggle and strife South Africans have gone through and how far they have come over the years. I am overcome with joy, excitement, honor and pride to be able to be a part of this amazing and intense experience.

As we all walk through the grounds, projects keep popping in our minds or what amazing things we will be able to do with the students when they come back from vacation. There are big fields that they play soccer on with goals made from old wooden posts nailed together to make the rectangle and painted white. In the middle of the field is a old popped soccer ball left alone waiting to be revived.

We met Obed today. He’s the grounds keeper at school and he lives on campus. I am still trying to catch the accent which is tough to understand. I also forgot to shake his hand the appropriate way, he shook my hand with correct etiquette and I felt like an ass afterward and apologized. He didn’t seem to care as he has met many Americans throughout the years during the program who all are bad at the handshake at first. He just laughed at me.

We also met Oral today. He is actually going to be Pam’s teaching partner, but is an amazing individual nonetheless. He teaches geography and has been teaching for 14 years all over Johannesburg. We had a chance to kick a soccer ball around for a little bit and talk to him about Apartheid and british imperialism and colonialism around Africa. It was a very interesting conversation, one that will be continued tomorrow.

South Africa is made up of many malls. In these malls are all you could ever ask for. You have South African clothing designers, budget clothing outlet stores, grocery stores, food courts, high scale restaurants, and people on strike in the parking lot. If this is the new South Africa, I am disappointed. I really hope to see the real SA and not westernized SA.

Today went to the township of Alexandra, where our students live. It was interesting. “Shanty Town” is the best words to describe what was there. It was a 3^rd world country with in a major world city. Just to think that a several billion dollar soccer stadium was several kilometers to the west while people were struggling to put bread on the table is quite disgusting. I expected to see a lot of depressed people begging for money or food (what an ignorant ass I am,) but instead I saw so much happiness in them and pride for their country. Not the kind of “pride” Americans have that “we are better than you”, but the pride that they know how far they have come and the progress they are making. We were welcomed by all the community members and shook hands like we were part of the community. It was one of the most moving experiences of my life.

One of my new students (Partson, pronounced Patson…the “r” is very soft) gave us the tour of Alexendra and he invited John, Pam, Oral Paul, Thandanani (meaning “Love Everyone” who is another student we have from Alexendra) and I to have coffee and biscuits in his home. It was a small home/ shanty where power flickered in and out and the only TV they had was the France v. South Africa game from a few weeks ago. They were one of the few houses with a TV at all, let alone electricity. Even with their living circumstances there was so much pride in the eyes of his mother and father. She was so happy that he was a LEAP student and not hanging around the streets of Alexendra, which would be easy to do. Drugs, Alcohol, and rape are big issues in the townships and it is getting worse.

Tomorrow we are off to Soweto, another township just outside of JoBurg. Hopefully it’s as inspiring as this was today.

And so it begins with a LEAP..

Preface:

I am working at a school called LEAP Science and Math School in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is a charter school that focuses on students from the Alexendra township. Alexandra was one of the oldest South African townships and is now sandwiched between two major freeways on the edge of Sandton. All the learners of LEAP attended the township schools of Alexandra before being selected to join LEAP. The history of low achievement in Math and Science in these township schools has meant that very few learners from Alexandra have been able to study tertiary courses which require math and science. LEAP 3 is an intervention to help change this pattern.

Day 1

We arrived at the airport a day and a half after we left. Talking about the Brazil game we saw on the plane, everyone kept commenting and asking if I had seen the game yesterday…it was an odd thought that it still felt like the same day for me.

We left SD on the 28^th at about 7am. I slept maybe for an hour and a half that night, so I was a delirious mess to say the least, at the airport. My vision was blurry and processing any questions from TSA and customs made me seem like a mumbling terrorist….or maybe it was my disheveled hair, unshaved face and uneasy look I had to me.

The Tambo airport was beautiful and the accents were amazing. I am a sucker for anyone with accents and the South African accent is beautiful. I want to come back with a SA accent.

We were picked up by 2 LEAP staff members and 2 LEAP students. One woman named Sara is a permanent staff member at LEAP and is from San Francisco. Janette is another staff member who hailed from Johannesburg. Then there were two students who came too. They are both 11^th grade boys named something and something. I really couldn’t understand their names. They have Zulu names, but one of their names translates to “Love everyone.” Anyways, both boys were amazing and helpful and I cannot wait to actually talk to them and remember their names.

We went to a steak house and I had a burger….nothing special but one interesting custom I learned is that it is proper etiquette when shaking someone’s hand is that when you extend your hand to shake, your other hand grabs your shaking hand’s wrist. If you are wearing a long sleeve shirt, you should pull it up a bit so you can touch your skin. It is interesting and it will be hard to get used to that.

I love travelling and learning these small things. It really opens your eyes to how different cultures are and how similar they can be at the same time.