Africa The journal

They know what they are doing

 

Journaling has been fun and therapeutic.  These are journals that I sent while in Africa with my impressions and reactions to what I experienced.  I hope you enjoy them.

 

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Mollo  [hello]

Today was my third day at school.  In many ways this school is everything I expected but it much more as well. On the first day there was some confusion about what to do with me but eventually I was given a tour of the school by the marketing person Ms. Sharon.  That is the way they talk here.  It’s all  Ms & Mr using your first name.  Even good friends talk to each other using that way.   The school is based on the idea of raising kids out of poverty and it is dedicated to that goal.  I have to admit that if prejudice means to prejudge then I have been doing a lot of that.  I have imagined the poor  to all look like the pictures we see in the ‘Save the child’ ads.  Poor little waifs with few clothes, blank stares, hopeless, helpless, and in desperate need of a rescue.  If there were any parents at all they would look just as bad and would be virtually lost in the modern world.

That is not the case.  Poor yes.  But clean cloths.  Poor but cell phones.  Poor but aware of the greater world around them.  Poor but not without a certain level of dignity.  And it is dignity that this school teaches every chance it gets.  Kids wear uniforms given to them free, but the parents have to promise they will come to school neat and clean.  Kid are not allowed to sit on the floor in class, but must be in chairs.  It is the dignified thing to do.  Teachers are neatly dressed setting a standard of professionalism and pride.  They are dignified.  Kids learn to use a toilet.  They learn manners; learn to read; Yes Miss, no Sir, how are you today sir…  They learn to respect their environment, other people, and themselves.  They learn dignity.  This school was founded about 4-5 years after Nelson Mandela became president, the republic was founded and apartide was abolished.  Education was always seen as the measure of oppression because it was kept from the hands of the blacks and the colors.  But this school takes the lowest of the low and raises them up.  “We look at this school as a gift to our new democracy” Sharon said. “It is our opportunity to create the kind of citizen this country needs now and in the future.”

They know exactly what they are doing.

 

Here is the criteria for acceptance: To serve the poorest of the poor families must be in extreme poverty.  Families living in sever poverty generally have homes that are not solid, water tight structures and often will not have running water, solid floors, functioning toilets etc. These homes have little in the way of appliances, furnishings or decorations.  A family is defined as all those who eat from the same pot.  The schools intention is to raise them up.  And compared to public schools serving the poor where success might be measured in graduation rate- less than 60% of those who don’t drop out,  Christel house is 99%.  Compared to other private schools [mostly for the wealthy]  the average scores on the state exam are only 20 points lower that the average of those private schools.  A phenomenal score.

They know exactly what they are doing.

 

I talked to a student today who was able to transfer from Christel house to a vocational program at a college.  His dream is not about getting fed, it is to open a small music shop. He beams with excitement as he talked about passing his college exams.  Opening a shop.  How grateful he is to this school.  He has dignity.

They know exactly what they are doing.

 

Today we visited a father in one of the townships [very poor areas].  He runs a small vegetable stand selling bananas or onions for 2 Rand [26 cents].  His daughter won a scholarship at a local university worth 40,000 Rand for 4 years.  It is a full ride, but he doesn’t want her to go.  Why?  Because it is a black college.  Yes he is black, but he is afraid of the witchcraft.  Witchcraft.  Now before you judge this man keep his story in mind.  His wife left him when the girl was a baby and he has raised her alone these many years.  He looks like he is about 60, thin wrinkled from the sun and hard labor.  For most of his life his clan was the only thing protecting him from the shame of apartide.  Yet he sees the world changing for him and his daughter.  What is the best for her?  He has a foot in both worlds and wants to protect the only person he has loved for years.  Now it is easier to understand.  As staunch as he was… as patriarchal as his tradition is he listened… changed his mind and will now allow her to go.

They know exactly what they are doing.

 

I will see my first students in a few days.  There is a list of kids with emotional needs almost as long as the school roster.  You know the list, single parents, assaults, poverty, drugs at home, gang pressures, sex, abortions, witness to killings, suicide attempts.  It isn’t a new list but a very long list.  I will be working with a few kids to start.  They would also like me to put together an anger management group.  I feel so inadequate to the task.  It seems overwhelming, and what do I have to offer anyway… this white man from another planet  who pops in for a visit?  I’m not sure but I have to try. Sweet Jesus I have to do something!

 

They know exactly what they are doing & I have so much to learn from them.

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