After a 7 hour flight from Heathrow to Dubai, then a 8 hour flight to Johannesburg, then a two day stay in Johannesburg visiting Soweto, the Hector Pieterson and Apartheid museums, last minute training and finally a 1 ½ hour flight on a rattling 27 seater plane into Mthatha airport. The plane journey was beautiful, soaring over the mountains of Lesotho and down into the outlying areas of Mthatha. The so called “airport” is just one small building in the middle of miles of just space and a few small buildings with corrugated iron roofs. Our host met us at the airport to drive us to our project. The open rural space quickly descended into a heavily overcrowded bustling town. First impressions of Mthatha: it is crazy. There are people absolutely everywhere, always on the roads walking alongside and in-between cars, there are no lanes and cars just weave in and out of imaginary ones, densely packed pavements, noise, traffic lights (or ‘robots’) that don’t work or are ignored and dilapidated buildings that stand beside structured colonial style buildings.
Once we arrived, our host did everything to make us feel at home. The children also had painted beautiful welcome posters that were displayed in the room that I share with my partner Maya. We decorated our room with loads of pictures and cards and it already feels more like home. We met the children briefly during their dinner, all 28 of them announced their names, I have no idea how I am going to remember them all! I’ve been trying to write them down phonetically. They are all Xhosa names, which have clicking sounds as some of the letters which to us white westerners is alien but to them is completely normal!
Our first morning we were woken up at 6am by the lovely, but loud, sounds of the children singing and screaming in the courtyard outside our door. We went outside for a reading from the Xhosa bible, prayers and singing. Then we had 2 ¼ hours to fill with games to get to know the children, we played all sorts, but it has been a while since playing children’s games, so I am a little rusty in trying to remember them! The children are beautiful and so happy, eager to please and catch your attention. They also have incredible voices, even the small ones sing in perfect harmony! I’m very jealous. Later on they played outside in the paddling pool, as it was 31 degrees (and it is supposed to be spring!) and taught us clapping games and songs. It is inspiring to see how despite their tragic backgrounds they are able to be so friendly, happy and inviting to newcomers and each other. Although, most do not speak English and those that do, do not speak it well. This was quite a shock we believed that they all could speak at least basic English! It means that teaching all subjects in English is going to be a struggle for them.
The next day we had a go at teaching a lesson, I taught the older children (11-16 years ish) which are in group 2. They made posters of their names and information about themselves such as how old they are and what they like to do in their spare time. I then taught them a game to assess their English skills by splitting them into teams (tigers versus angels), each team picks a letter, I then look up a word starting with this letter from a dictionary and read them the definition, and they then had to guess the word. They seemed to enjoy it!
Unfortunately when trying to cook dinner that night the light went off in the kitchen, so we proceeded to make our pasta in the pitch black with only two small torches! Also cutting garlic and onion with a blunt knife with no handle was an experience!
We spent most of today planning our lessons (which start formally on Monday) using some books we found in the classroom. Unfortunately the work they have already done this year has gone astray, so we have no idea what their ability is or what content has already been covered. We have to set them exams in November on everything they have learnt from January, but we have no indication of what they know! This has been quite stressful and I hope the children will help us work out what has and hasn’t been covered. Our afternoon was spent out in the field with the children opposite Thembelihle playing and making bracelets out of thread that I brought from home. They love them and can’t wait to make more. I hope to do more arts and crafts with them in the afternoons as all ages seem to enjoy it. The Bethany volunteers from the other side of Mthatha had a day off today so came to visit us from dinner, but we forgot how it gets dark at 6pm and it is too dangerous to go outside after this time. But thankfully our host was able to take them back on her way home. It is very disorientating how dark it is!
I am looking forward to more lesson planning and starting properly on Monday! We are also already planning and looking forward to our weekend off in September where we plan to travel to Coffee Bay on the Wild Coast and explore.
