Merger update and other tidbits

Hey All,



I know that it's been a long time and that I sort of dropped a bombshell on the last post. Sorry about that. As it turns out, it is not the end of the world. The DoE is screwed up and said they made a mistake. The two primary schools that we work with are not going to merge. Oops! Instead of saying that Mafale PS, Mmatope PS, and Tsogwe PS are going to merge into one Primary School, they meant that Tsogwe was going to dissolve and the learners from that primary school were going to be divided among Mafale and Mmatope. So that explains that. Unfortunate for Makopye More MS, they are going forward with the restructuring of the grade levels. Maybe not in January, but probably by Jan 2009, the primary schools will be grades R through 7 and the high schools will be grades 8 through 12. This means that Makopye More is not in the long term plans of the DoE. Also, the merger of the high schools is still going to happen, but again, it may be in a year's time. (I still say that this is a good idea. One high school is very large and a great facility and certainly has enough room for all the learners.)



In other news, I wanted to talk about the tombstone unveiling. I don't remember what I have told you about it, so I'll start from the beginning....



Before Robi and I arrived in Jericho, we were told that our family was going to have an event, a tombstone unveiling, about a week after we arrived. Because of this event, the family was going to need to use some of the house where we would be staying. We figured that this would not be a problem, and for the most part it was nothing big. It was a little more complicated because there is no ceiling and any noise travels very well throughout the house. Additionally, the family needs to use the front room for the food supplies and for storing the traditional beer. The beginning of the week was calm and relaxing (as relaxing as a completely new place can be). Then the end of the week and the mad frenzy to finish everything for the unveiling. We slaughtered a cow. This is traditionally a man's job and women are not allowed to help out. Robi didn't want to partake in the slaughtering, but wanted to see how it was done, at least once. The slaughtering of the cow was an interesting experience that I don't know if I'd like to do again. I know that it is how we get beef, that I really enjoy eating, but is was a little much. I helped a little.



Samuel, the "Uncle" who works at the house most days and takes care of a great many things, got a lasso around the cow's neck. Then the cow, know that this was not good, started to try to get away. This is where I was able to help my little bit. About four men got on the rope and eventually were able to tie the cow to a tree stump in the corral (called kraal). The cow was immobilized and it's head put to the ground. It was slaughtered by simply cutting its neck. Unfortunately, the knife was not very sharp and it was not a quick kill. This was the part that I really did not like. I talk with people after the fact and asked about the process, saying that I know that Kosher cows are slaughtered humanely and quickly, as well as bulls in Spanish bullfights. I wondered if rural South Africa could learn something from them. (Sounds a little funny when I actually put in down on paper.) But I was told that they slaughter the cow in a ritual manner. Everything is done to make sure that the "ancestors" are not angered. A section from the cow's esophagus (I think specifically the Adam's apple) is taken out and hung in a nearby tree as a sacrifice to the "ancestors". (A little background: It is believed that when people die here, they go to heaven (or the sky). Then they are the link between the living and God. So the ancestors have the same faults that we do. Since we can't talk directly to God ourselves, we have to be nice to the ancestors so that they speak nicely of us to God.) After the cow was slaughtered, the blood had to be covered so that they other cows, who were watching the whole time, didn't go crazy at the smell and sight of blood, which they supposedly do. So we then had to drag the slaughtered cow through the fence, into the next section of yard, where we put the cow on to metal and skinned it. Very interesting to see how they used every part of the animal. I would have enjoyed the experience more if there was no killing in the middle. Well...I'm running out of time for now. I will pick this up later.



Next on the list....Brewing traditional beer and the actual event.

Department of Education News

This past week, we have gotten some interesting news. Last Monday, there was a memo sent out by the Provincial Director of the Department of Education stating that two of our school would be merged with a third school just outside of town. Our two schools, Mafale and Mmatope, have 339 and 440 students, respectively. While the DoE has been talking about combining schools for a little while, it was always about merging schools with under 300 students. To make things even more interesting, the merger is to take place in preparation for the new school year, January 1, 2008. That gives the schools 3 months to work out the logistics of the merger, and probably build a few new buildings at Mmatope to house the 900 students that they will have in Grades R through 7. At first, we were in shock, then can to believe that it was not a possibility on such short notice. Everything went back to normal.

Today, I was working at Mokopye More Middle School and came across the continuation of the story...It looks as if the DoE has only 280 students at Mafale, allowing it to be considered for absorption, and there are no less than 20 merger that will take place about our area. The two High Schools will be merged (which is actually a sound decision due to low enrollment in one school which has an enormous building with many used rooms) and they will add Grades 8 & 9. So, the primary schools will be Grades R through 7 and the high school will be Grades 8 through 12. Doing some quick math, I don't see much room for a middle school, do you? Again, this is to be implemented as of Jan 1, 2008. Being selfish, that means that I will be losing both of the schools I was supposed to help, within 4 months of arriving. Not such a great thing. Thinking beyond myself, both principals at Mafale and Mokopye More may be out of a job or relocated. For both of them, this is not good. They are well established members of the community. It would be a big loss for the community and not such a nice thing for them to go through.



With all this happening, the rumors are flying. One I heard was that the North West Provincial Director of Department of Education is getting back at the Principal of Mafale for speaking up in a meeting. Another is that the principal of Mmatope is in on the preparation and has been building new buildings in preparation. Both rumors seem to have no substance. We will see how this plays itself out, but I am worried that it is a big political mess.

For the last two days, we have been without power. After experiencing two months of no rain in Motswedi (and almost 7 months before that, according to the residents), we have been hit by storm after storm. Starting at the end of last week, we have had some incredible lightning shows, with quite a bit of rain. Very nice for a place that has been experiencing a drought, but difficult for us to get used to no power on a regular basis. When we first were accepted to Peace Corps, we thought that we would have no power or water. We then learned that everywhere in South Africa has electricity, a lot have water. So, our expectations changed. Now that there is no power, we are struggling to adapt, complaining about something that we didn't think that we would have in the first place. Kind of funny, me thinks. Anyway, I had written the following little bit for the blog, but I didn't have the chance to get onto the Internet. So, here it is. Enjoy!


“October 8, 2007
“I have been very negligent with my blog and I apologize about that. September 1...wow! I have written up a review of my time here in South Africa, going back to when we arrived, but I have not had the time to finish or post it yet. But I will at some point. Internet access is a little tricky and can be expensive. The purchase of a laptop will help matters greatly. I hope to be able to post once a week from here on out. At a later date, I will decide which day will be posting day.
“Robi and I are now in Jericho in the North West Province of South Africa. This will be our permanent placement for the next two years with Peace Corps. We were sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers on September 20 and after lunch, rode to Jericho with our principals. As our primary project, we will be working with four schools (3 primary and 1 middle) and with the Educational Development and Support Centre in town. Our secondary project will be something that we develop that suits our own interest. The names of the primary schools are Mafale, Mmatope, and Charles Mamogale. The middle school is Makopye More. The setup of the primary schools in South Africa are a little different. The primary school is divided into two parts; the foundation phase and the intermediate phase. The foundation phase is Grade R (kindergarten in the USA), Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3. The intermediate phase is Grades 4 – 6. The middle school is grades 7-9. So far, we have divided up the schools for ease. I will be working with Mafale and Makopye More, while Robi works with Mmatope and Charles Mamogale. It is interesting to already see the specialties of each principal.
“We live in a 3-bedroom house behind our host family's house. They are the Kgoathes. The eldest are William and Priscilla Kgoathe. Both retired from teaching. William was a principal and once on the parliament of Boputatswana, a region in South Africa that was governed by Chief Lucas Mangope. (Look him up for an interesting history of the end of Apartheid.) William and Priscilla have a granddaughter in the house, named Lefensi (we call her Fenji). She is almost 30 years old and has two daughters, Amolgelang (Amo for short) who is 13 years old and Tlho-tlho who is 3 years old. They are a wonderful family and have done a great job of making us feel like part of the family.
“The principal of Mafale Primary is JJ. He is a very outgoing and gregarious man. Some call him an entertainer. He has grand ideas on what needs to be done and goes after them. He seems to remember everything in his head and doesn't write much down. This makes it a little difficult for me to figure out what is going on, but I am going to work with him on organization. Very ironic, might I add, since my organization skills leave something to be desired. It certainly will be an adventure to work with him. So far I have only worked with him for two days. I will be returning to Mafale on Thursday and Friday of this week. I am excited to get some work done.
“The principal of Makopye More is Nnopa. He is a very smart and just person. The students come into his office throughout the day whenever they have a conflict that they need help with. He has encouraged the students to go to other teachers, but they continue to come to him, seemingly because they like the way that he deals with the problem. He has done a lot to get the school two computer labs with a total of 45 computers. In addition, he just put in a proposal for a new two-story building with new administration offices and a new lab on the second floor. He is really striving to get the computers involved in the learning process, but he doesn't know much about computers. He doesn't use one on a daily basis and doesn't ever go onto the Internet. Like JJ, he is not very organized and I will be working with him on integrating computers into classroom activities and organizational skills.
“South African schools are a little different from US schools. The students remain in the same classroom all day and the teachers move from class to class. The students only leave the classroom to work in the computer lab, during break time/lunch, and to use the restroom. Before 1994, all black schools were under was is called Bantu Education. The idea was for the black population to be taught that they were below the whites and that they did not have the mental ability to be at the same level as the whites. All learning was by rote and critical thinking was purposefully excluded. In 1994, with the end of apartheid, the Department of Education came up with the Outcome Based Education (OBE). It is very much like the education in the US. The main push of OBE is to build critical thinking. The only problem is that the teachers were taught under the Bantu Education and don't have the knowledge base or know-how to teach in the OBE style. So the teachers have been overwhelmed with workshops and two-day seminars to quickly learn how to think differently. OBE is a very good idea, but the essence of it is lost on the rural educators, particularly because the language used in the documents and books is very much legal vocabulary. I even found it complex and complicated and it is in my native language. So here we are, trying to decode the jargon so that the teachers can learn a new way to teach and make the classes more learner-centered. It is very much a difficult proposal, but I am very excited about it.
“The town where we live has about 30 thousand inhabitants within 7 kilometers, though you won't know it. It still feels like a village. When we arrived, there was no running water even though there were faucets, a bathtub, and a toilet in our house. We were very confused. Water was brought in by truck and put into a big green Jojo tub (10,000 litres?). Since we have been in South Africa, it had not rained. About a week ago, the rain started. At first it was wonderful, but it has rained at least once everyday since, and it is very damp here. Once the rain started, I guess the reservoir level got high enough that we know have running water. Well, it is getting late and I have work tomorrow. Talk to you soon.”