Emma's Year in South Africa: One month has passed

So, a lot has happened since my first blog entry. I have been in South Africa a whole month now and have experienced a whole host of things, some good and some bad. Where do I start?

Teaching. Teaching is a challenge, mainly because the children’s first language is Xhosa and few understand basic English. Another challenge is that there are three lessons being taught simultaneously in the same small classroom, creating obvious distractions. For example, my English lesson involved the class repeating animal noises, much to the amusement of everyone in the classroom. The class sizes can also be quite large especially with new children coming in. The biggest number of children that we’ve had so far was 34, with the capacity for Thembelihle usually being 20-25. But now it is back to a smaller number, a lot more manageable! I have begun to really enjoy teaching certain subjects. I am really enjoying teaching maths! It sounds crazy but I have missed maths after not choosing it as a subject to carry onto A-level. I also find that the children are more understanding of mathematical concepts, perhaps because it requires less English. I have been teaching group 2 (the oldest group of children) about 2D and 3D shapes, including making some very good 3D models of prisms out of strips of cardboard from an old cornflakes box!

Our afternoons are spent with the children doing activities. When it is hot we take them to the field and play netball, rounders, football... sometimes a mixture of all three. We also found an old parachute behind some boxes in the classroom that we dug out and the children had hours of fun playing games with it (despite the fact that there are huge holes in it, obviously the work of the classroom rats). When it is cold, the children watch movies in the classroom, unfortunately for us the most requested film is High School Musical – I may have to invest in some ear plugs. Although, today was Heritage Day so we had a traditional meal of dumplings and Xhosa bread made outside on the stove and we painted our faces and the children danced to Xhosa music. It was a great day, the children come alive when they dance, I’ve never seen them so happy.

We had a lovely weekend off... we travelled to Coffee Bay with some other volunteers working at Bethany Home on the other side of Mthatha. Coffee Bay is astonishingly beautiful, just white sand and blue ocean. We came home relaxed and rested after a well needed weekend off from the daily wake-up call at 6am, and with our first surf lesson under our belts! Plus, no pap for a whole three days! Yes! We’re already planning our next trip.

Mthatha is as crazy as ever. Unfortunately experienced the negative side of living here when we were attacked by some men trying to steal from us, but thankfully another man stopped his car and scared them off – there are many good people here. Now we know what the locals are talking about when they say Norwood (the area we are living in) is dangerous! I’m sure it was just a one off occurrence though. But we are more confident going into town now that we’ve explored and know where we are going/not going. Also I am getting more and more used to the staring, pointing, picture taking and constant hellos. I’ve even mastered driving in Mthatha! It’s really quite fun, the potholes make it like off-roading!

Overall, the work is exhausting but never boring! The children always keep us on our toes and seem to enjoy our company. I also know that teaching will become more natural with time, and the children will learn to respect us more as their teachers as well as their sisters. Mostly, I’m just enjoying them as much as I can, I know how lucky I am to be here and be a part of their lives... I just hope I can be a useful one!