Site visit cancelled the strike continues..

McGrath THE Country Director of South Africa arrived at the training site to explain to us in detail how training will be structured moving forward.
I was not surprised when she informed us that the site visit and supervisors workshop would be postponed.
The supervisors workshop – A 3-day event where our assigned principal, peace corps staff and us, the volunteers come together to discuss the roles and expectations of all three parties.
Example – The principal should understand that we are not paid staff, we will be involved in secondary projects.
Example – Americans for the most part are anal in regards to time. “when we say 10 o’clock we mean 10 o’clock”. From what I’ve heard that’s not the case in South African rural schools.
Before McGraph arrived, some of the trainee’s asked, “why cant we just do the site visit?” During our sit-down with her it became clear why that was not an option.

McGrath explained, “It’s your principals responsibility to introduce you to your host family, shop owners and police. This cannot be done without having this very important workshop. Your host family also needs to understand that as Americans we are vary independent, that you are not sick or sad if you decided to stay inside your house for a long period of time”. During the strike the principals, teachers and staff are discouraged from participating in any kind of school related activity.
She then switched gears and asked the group for suggestions regarding our last week of training since there was not going to be a site visit. At this point all important material had been covered. Here was the groups list.
1. Trip to Game Reserve
2. Mall Trip
3. Pizza/Pool Party
4. Cape Town…haha


After McGraph spoke I thanked her for taking the time to come out and thoroughly explain the situation. It is now that I completely understand how everything works and why things are organized in such a manor. Something like a strike was not planned for.
It has been an intense 6 weeks. Since the beginning of week 3 we have witnessed this Public Sector Strike that wont go away!!!! This was the week scheduled for our site visits, I have been looking forward to this since day one. I mean yeah the 8-week home stay is important but not like your permanent site, your new home for 2 years.

BLOG ON DRUGS!!

Since the beginning of training the medical staff has held many sessions. Today the topic was anti-malarial drugs. Some of us will be placed in malaria regions, all volunteers who are placed in Kwal-Zulu Natal, will take malaria meds.
Peace Corps currently prescribes two types of anti-malarial drugs, Mefloquine & Doxycycline. Medical explained how each drug should be administered, side effects and possible complications. If you are curious just google “Peace Corps Volunteers and Suicide from Lariam” The first hit really bothered me and other volunteers. Luckily, I have been prescribed Doxy. I can manage sun sensitivity and no milk, but vivid dreams and thoughts of suicide, not so much. As a default you are prescribed Doxy, but if you are taking other medications you maybe prescribed Mefloquine. After reading the reports on Mefloquine (Lariam), I don’t think I could bring myself to taking such a drug.
While we are in training we don't have to take anything.

Read this and form your own opinion..

http://www.levaquinadversesideeffect.com/2008/11/26/peace-corps-volunteers-and-suicide-from-lariam-a-quinolone-antibiotic/

Terri Shaved her head!!

Terri cut her hair!!! She shaved it.. look at the pics.. This was sooo funny.. I guess you had to be there.. Her host family enjoyed this very much..












PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO!!!

Apartheid Museum

This week nothing much has changed, the strike is still on, more informational sessions, and of course more language lessons. On Saturday, we were taken to Johannesburg to visit the Apartheid Museum.



This was a very moving and intense experience, similar to my experience in Amsterdam at the Anne Frank House. Apartheid ended in 1994, by 2001 the museum was up and running, this really threw me of.
When you enter the museum you are handed a card; the card reads either WHITES or NON-WHITES. When I was handed my card chills ran up and down my spine. The WHITES enter through a separate entrance than the NON-WHITES. Posted on the wall was an explanation of the racial classification system. This system was used as a basis for enforcing Apartheid.









I viewed numerous pictures videos and testimonies of victims, a lot of these videos were in color. Growing up I’ve watched many documentaries on the civil rights movement, as we all know those were in black & white. Now for those baby boomers reading this I’m sure you remember the civil rights movement. For me seeing people being discriminated against in color, in the 1990’s was just mind blowing. I do understand that things like this are currently going on in other countries, but im here, I’m in South Africa where 90% of the population is, for lack of a better word NON-WHITE.
My only questions is where was our all powerful military, I guess by that time all the gold was mined out of Johannesburg. AT the end of the day it was a great museum and an eye opening experience.
When I returned to Siyabuswa, I spoke with other South Africans and the overwhelming majority have never visited this museum. When I asked my friends host father why he replied, “Apartheid just ended in 1994, 16 years ago, I still have nightmares. I can still remember being beaten, turned away from shops and denied many things.” I felt so bad. Standing there breathless I began to weep.....

STRIKE!!!

It looks like SADTU (South African Democratic Teachers Union) are going on strike. Our training director informed us that this is striking season, not only for education, but for many public sector unions. There was a teacher strike in 2007 that lasted 5 weeks. Now if history repeats itself this strike could outlast training.
The union is asking for more money. An 8% salary increase & a R1000 housing allowance
The department is offering a 6% increase & R600 allowance.
I Feel bad for the students, especially the seniors who are preparing to write their final exams. I hear the current pass rate in South Africa among seniors is 35%, this strike will not benefit ANYONE
Until the strike is over we will not be permitted to enter any educational facility, hold classes at our homestays or participate in any demonstrations. If this strike lasts for an extended period of time, we will not be able to travel to our permanent site to see our schools where we will be teaching for the next 2 years. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Funeral

On Sunday, My host Mother invited me to a funeral. I wanted to see how a South African funeral in a rural village differed from a funeral in the states. We walked about 2km to the house where the service was to be held. We arrived late, but even after being there 30min people were still arriving. During the service several guest were on their cell phones. On a side note, in South Africa incoming calls are free, maybe that’s why some people will pick up the phone in any situation. The funeral was held in the front yard, the family sat under a tent. I really wish I had pictures to show you, this image is really difficult to paint. Cars flooded the streets. Some spectators did not bother to enter the compound.
After the service my mom and I walked with the majority of the funeral party, the others, including the family of the deceased drove to a lot about 2k away. There the priest said a few words and lowered the casket. Immediately after the priest walked away men from the crowd began handing out shovels, ran to the mound of dirt and began burying the deceased. A line of men then formed, it looked as if everyone wanted to help bury this person. I chose not to participate in this, as I did not feel comfortable.

Week 3 Voortrekker Monument, school visit, and MALL!!

In my village there are three schools, Primary, Middle and Secondary. The 20 of us will attend Peace Corps training sessions at the Middle School. For activities such as following a learner, shadowing an instructor and leading a lesson, the 20 of us will split into smaller clusters and be divided evenly into each of the 3 schools.

Here is the morning assembly, this takes place daily. After song the principal and vice principal give announcements.






Aside from sessions on classroom management, which proved useful for some, I spent my time familiarizing myself with the schools time table “the daily schedule”. The majority of these training sessions were conducted by current PCV’s. I like this approach to training because not only were we receiving useful information, the PCV’s were a very good resource in regards to life in a South African village, school and traveling in SA.


Next week I will lead a lesson. So this week I spent about 1hr working with the science instructor, who’s class I will lead for a period. He gave me all the necessary resources to prepare. I cant wait to get some good practice in.
The reasoning for us entering the schools during training is exposure to the schools and, how the learners interact with their instructors, how lessons are planned and executed…ect This was something I deemed necessary and I took as many notes as possible.


We were first instructed to follow a learner for 2 periods. This consisted of the principal hand picking a learner for each of us. My learners name
"Sensation". I greeted her in my target language and then shrugged my shoulders saying, “That’s all I have right now”. She smiled and replied, “My science class is this way”. I was happy that her English was good.

Sensation and her friend




MORE LEARNERS!!




Hmm…. The observation was, for lack of a better word, different. The lesson consisted of the instructor copying his lesson plan from the book to the board. This lesson looked like it had been used for the past 4 years. The instructor was unable to answer any questions. When the instructor asked the class a question all the learners would reply with, “YES”. After about 3 times I realized that the students were programmed to say yes regardless of what came out the instructors mouth.

On Saturday the 52 of us jumped on a bus and headed for Pretoria, “The Capital” to visit the Voortrekker Monument. Situated on a nature reserve this monument commemorates the pioneer history of SA and the history of the Afrikaner.
Here are a few pictures of the monument.












Video!!





We then went to the mall. I went CRAZY!! I ate PIZZA, and McDonalds! I also bought spaghetti that I will make for my family. Imagine 52 American rushing the mall. I was so stressed because we only had 2 hours.

Food Drop

Every 2 weeks we receive food to bring back to out host families.. Let's eat!




I'll take those egg's!!!

MY HOST HOUSE AND FAMILY!!!

Yes!!! I am finally on my way to my new home.. I am soooo pumped up to see how I will be living for the next 8 weeks. I mean, I know what my mom told me but seeing is believing. After loading what seemed to be a 100kg bag, “I’m attempting to use the metric system” we drove a short distance to my new home. On the ride I really did not say much to my new mother, as I was more concerned with the house, my bed and what was for dinner.

We arrived at 914 Ga-Phaatha!! A 2 story flat!! “I’m moving into a 2 story flat in South Africa this is incredible. I cant believe this!!!” Ok, ok that’s enough, but who would have thought or even imagined that one would be staying in a 2 story house in South Africa. This goes to show that one should not assume anything but experience everything.
Here is a Picture of the house.





I was shown to my room, here is a picture of it.




Bathroom.. No PIT TOILET FOR ME!!!



I put my things down and helped my mother put away the food. She then gave me a grand tour of the house. Here are a few pictures of my house.













She also showed me the garden. It is very beautiful. She plants and eats her own carrots, spinach, beets, onions, lettuce and tomatoes. Here a picture of the garden. “ I cant wait to try fresh produce from SOUTH AFRICA!






I also met my sister Thabile.



Thats all for now…

Week 2

Nothing special going on here more language. It’s Women’s month here in South Africa. What a great concept, women have a whole month of August dedicated to them. I asked my mother what happens during this month, she replied with, “O, Nothing, it’s nice”. My host mother’s first name is Eln. She sells candy, chips and other sweets at one of the local schools.

Here is a picture of her and one of the students.

















Here is a picture of the candy she sells.




I help her package the candy so she can sell it the next day. Some nights she would stay up till 12am packaging candy, so I began helping her package candy, with my help she is done by 9:30.

Here is a picture of us working together.





We watch T.V. as a family. It seems that a lot of my peers spend a lot of time with their host families watching Soap Operas. The favorites are The Bold and the Beautiful, Generations and 7 De Laan. Most of these are either in English or Afrikaans. We watch the news as well. The news comes on 4 times a night, in a different language every time. If you are unaware South Africa has 11 official Languages, I guess the other 7 are not that important