As my days get more packed, blog entries seem to become shorter...
Monday, July 20th
First day of school. Woke up at 6 for another “shower.” Students arrived at 7:30, and everyone met at 8 in the back barn for a community meeting. Everyone was chilly, as the temperatures were in the upper 40s in the barn. Students talked about their winter break, after being admonished by the “head” boy, who wanted them to talk more about their feelings and reactions than the details. Students were most excited about the trip to Cape Town, as evidenced by the most students standing up to talk about their experiences. They were very grateful for their chance to meet and interact with the students from LEAP 1 and 2. One of the students got up and thanked me for lending her on my jacket while everyone was on top of table mountain. It was kind of surprising, because I didn't even remember lending her it. The rest of the day was spent interacting with the LEAP staff and planning out our workshops for the rest of the time period. Karly and I went for a run after school, which was hampered by the thin air, and a very smoky fire nearby, so we returned home very out of breath. Dinner was lentil burrritos.
Tuesday, July 21st
Second day of school. Finally found a shower elsewhere in the building, and took a hot shower for the first time in days. Sat in on several classes and listened to the way that the teachers and the students interact. Seems that, by and large, classes consist of some time going over homework, and the rest spent with the teacher lecturing, and the students taking notes. Was asked to give a lesson on a computer program called the Geometer's Sketch pad to the grade 11 math class. Haven't ever used the program before, so I spent some time acquainting myself with it. Excited and nervous to be giving my first lesson to high school kids. Dinner was soup with sausage and dumplings. Alarm went off twice during the night, which was really annoying. Not sure what set it off, but it went off at 1 and again around 2.
Wednesday, July 23rd
Sat in on a CAT class for grade 10, and later in the day, had to give that same lesson to the other grade 0 class. Tried to involve the students more in my lecture; had students come to the board to answer questions, and had the entire class discuss the responses. Trying to teach the students about databases and organizational thinking. Students had a little trouble coming up with the key attribute of an object. Will try more examples as the time goes on. Finished much more quickly than Tshontsho did, so the students tried to work a little with Microsoft Access. However, it wasnt installed correctly on all of the machines, so it didn't work for everyone. After lunch, we went to pick up our rental car, which will allow us to finally spend some time away from home/school. I feel bad for kids who go to homeschool, because we are getting such cabin fever, living and going to school in the same place. Picked up the car, and had quite a time driving back to the house, on the “wrong” side of the road. Karly has named the car, which is a Volkswagen Citi (a Rabbit), Dolores. The clutch is a bit loose, and I had quite the time finding reverse. Luckily, Sara had driven an old bug, and knew to push the gearshift knob down, so that problem sorted itself out. Jeanette invited us to dinner at her house, and we drove through Alex to visit with her and her family. Was a bit apprehensive about driving “through” a township at night, but we were actually on a main road at all times, and never actually went “through” the township, more like “by” it. Dinner was delicious, an Afrikaans style Malay dish of minced beef, curry and egg, topped with chutney, bananas, coconut flakes and sardines. Dessert was some sort of pudding, made from boiled milk and then refrigerated. Don't quite know what it was, but will have to get the recipe. The drive home was a bit more difficult, as we got just a little lost, and I ended up driving in circles for like 5 minutes. Went to bed exhausted, and woke up around 4am from the cold. Luckily, I have a snuggy now, which was much warmer than the blanket that was provided. Snuggy FTW.