I’ve fallen behind w/ posts, but a few weeks ago we went to a local school to meet with the principal and other officials to tell/remind them about ASAP & Hlomelikusasa, and introduce us.
School in Mt. Frere
We arrived at the school and there was a huge pot over a fire in preparation for a big celebration at the school. Then a bunch of 12-16 year old boys started grabbing chickens from a car and taking them over toward the fire. Bye-bye chickens. But it got worse: next the kids pulled a hog-tied sheep out of the truck and dragged it around the side of the building. I won’t sugar coat it—they slaughtered Mr. Sheep. I could see the whole thing happening from the window during our meeting. Gross.
School kids: always ready for a photo!
The faculty at the school are lackluster at best. We were introduced to them by the assistant principal as “brilliant teachers who will show you how to do your job” so it’s no wonder they all hate us. Well, at first we thought they hated us, now it seems more like they just don’t care. Sometimes the teachers don’t even show up to teach their own classes. We have now been there a few times (Andy focuses on maths/sciences tutoring, and I am doing art and writing), and it’s been hard. Many of the orphans/vulnerable children don’t understand English at all—that wouldn’t be a problem if all their exams weren’t in English. It’s frustrating, and sad that they get so little help and attention.
The tech teacher is the only one who seems happy and enthusiastic to have us there. Andy’s been helping a lot in the computer lab. There are about 15 ancient computers. When we got there they were all broken, but Andy fixed them (and by “fixed” I mean “plugged them in”—yeah, he’s a genius). Every single computer has a virus, and even though they turn on, they hardly work. But they have put in an application to Dell for 30 computers, so maybe they’ll at least get a few. We’ll see.
The tech teacher is also the head gardener. They’ve got a pretty great garden that the kids work on every day after school. It’s in the beginning stages, but stay tuned, we’ll keep updating the pictures and show you the garden as it grows. It’s already showing improvement, which is really fun to watch:
Garden after 1 day
Garden after 1 week
Garden after 3 weeks
