Day One...or Day 129

Today was day one. Again! After much ado about logistics and a discouraging lack of communication, I began teaching at St. Paul’s Primary today. The school year of 2009 just began in the Western Cape and, fortunately, I made several trips last week to meet with the school principals and teachers who quickly warmed my enthusiasm for the project.

It is quite a large school, ranging from Grade “R” (our Kindergarten) to Grade 7, with 670 students to boot. Most grades are split into 2 so that often times the class sizes range from 35 to 50. St. Paul’s offers quite an interesting history. Located in the Bo-Kaap, nestled just below Signal Hill (aka. The Lion’s Rump as it is a continuation of Lion’s Head), it was once a mission school of the Anglican Church when built 150 years ago. During the Apartheid era it was one of the first “coloured” schools to allow black students to integrate into its population.

The Bo-Kaap is a very old colonial neighborhood made up originally of the “Cape Malay” people (aka known here as “coloured”), who were slaves at some point or another (Malay refers to Malaysia, though it is a misnomer seeing as less than 1% of slaves originated there. Bo-Kaap is also home to many mosques and a thriving Muslim population, as Islam was once a strong part of Cape Malay culture. As you can see, it is a very colorful neighborhood, a reaction of joy that spilled out when oppressed inhabitants were finally given permission to paint their homes any color of their choosing.

It is interesting that the Bo-Kaap has traditionally been a fusion of cultures, for St. Paul’s Primary is just another expression of its multi-culturalism. St. Paul’s reputation to include black students in the 70s, spread quickly to the black townships outside the city center and soon students were attending from all over the area. The Anglican Church no longer runs the school as it is a public institution and only 30% of its students come from the neighborhood. As an English teacher at the school this will create a very interesting dynamic - I have pupils who speak Portuguese from Angola, French from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Shona from Zimbabwe, Afrikaans/Xhosa/Zulu from South Africa…and a handful that speak English as their first language.

It remains to be seen exactly how I will fit into St. Paul’s Primary, but for now it appears I will be teaching reading, writing, and spelling to learners in grades 4 & 5, giving me almost 200 new names to learn. I will also be working with teachers in the lower grades to offer smaller teaching sessions to remedial learners and hopefully a few gifted children as well. With so many students in a class, it is obvious how one must teach to the middle and that both the exceptional and the slower students fall to the wayside in the process. I would love to incorporate some art into my lessons but I’m going to have to be thrifty as I don’t have the personal budget to tend to 200+ students…but we shall see - I think recyclables are going to provide the way.

So tomorrow, day two. Another start in another school, but I find that my time in the Free State prepared me well for this next venture.

p.s. as I haven't taken any photos at the school yet, I cannot take credit for the above-posted images.

ladies at kirstenbosch gardens

Well, well - here's a new show of pictures to give you an idea of my surroundings. Yesterday, I joined Georgia & lady Rebecca for tea at Kirstenbosch Gardens. A stunning place, as always, accompanied by calm weather and blue skies (Cape Town, on my side of the mountain, is VERY windy!).

Also, for you to see, are some views from around my flat. You'll see Lion's Head (which is located opposite the entrance to my building so I see it when I leave for the day.) There's Devil's Peak which pokes through my bedroom window. And then you can see a portion of Table Mountain through the shrubbery in my garden... Finally, a little hydrangea still life of my bedside table.

new home!

It seems these days I don’t have quite as much noteworthy news to report on the home front of Cape Town. Slowly, day by day, my new environment is soaking in. There are many changes to my life that have happened since coming here.

I spend the first 10 days or so with cousin Robyn in the suburb of Bothasig, which is about 30 min outside Cape Town proper. I spent a lot of time with little cat Lulu and drinking instant coffee as it’s a car-centric area that kept me feeling pretty couped up most days.

Last Friday I was able to move into distant cousin Margaret’s lovely, empty flat in Oranjezicht. It’s a sweet flat, perfectly suited to one. It’s part of a much larger complex, though luckily I have my own garden full of hydrangeas and lavender and a view of Table Mtn. I write, now, from a little sunporch that opens onto the garden (where I have recently connected with a couple resident lizards!!!). Table Mountain, which is bordered on either end by Devil’s Peak & Lion’s Head summit creates a crescent. In this crescent the area of City Bowl is nestled below the mountains and borders on the industrial waterfront. Oranjezicht is located within this city bowl.

I’m getting to know Cape Town, slowly but surely and finding it is a most difficult place to be without a car. There is about a 2.5 mile radius surrounding my current flat so that I can walk almost anywhere within the City Bowl. However, Kirstenbosch Gardens, Rondebosch, Observatory, Camps Bay, the beaches & the townships are all located on the other side of the mountains and are thus very difficult to reach on foot.

Safety is a definite concern here. I could bike, but it would need to be in a group setting since bike-jacking is a major issue. There is a whole system of trains, but apparently only one of them is safe enough to ride on a regular basis - and the station itself is a 25 minute walk away. The buses…well, they exist and for those that know the routes they’re accessible and affordable but they don’t really cater to people like me who have no clue! And then there are taxis, which are big minibuses usually packed with 10-15 people at a time - cheap to get around in, safe-ish to ride within the city, but not safe if going to the townships and other outlying areas.

With all these transport concerns…it seems inevitable that I need to buy a cheapo car. I’m definitely not minding the walking, but it is limiting at the end of the day in terms of what I want to do while here. Almost all non-profit agencies are based in the townships where the need is.

While it feels no less safe than Chicago to be traveling about on foot during the day, the night brings me into my flat and here I meet myself! It is good to be living alone as I’ve been living in other people’s homes for a year and half now. I have the freedom to play music, leave dishes unwashed for a night (if I wish), to bathe with the bathroom door open, etc! Nice independence to be granted, but it is at the price of not knowing anyone else!

Lucky for me, I do have a rally group of cousins who have all sweetly taken me in. Let me give you an intro: there is Robyn, who is my age and the one cousin I have consistently seen every trip to South Africa. She manages a beautiful boutique hotel that overlooks the sea. A nice perk is that it’s quite close to where I live so I anticipate we’ll be seeing a lot of each other while here. Just today I had her over for lunch - I adapted a Jamie Oliver recipe for crostini with parma ham, fresh figs, and mint. Couldn’t find any figs and have tons of oregano in my garden, so instead we did rye bread toast with parma ham, fresh litchis, fresh oregano & a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil on top. YUM! None of you, my readers, must ever die before tasting a fresh litchi, they are absolutely divine!!!

After Robyn, there is Georgia, who’s a good 6 years older than me and was always an idle to me growing up. Georgia is the daughter of my mom’s beloved sister Lynne and lives close by in a suburb called Table View. When I first arrived you may have seen postings of baby Rebecca on my blog - this is Georgia’s first daughter. Georgia has a background in graphic design and is a very creative spirit so we get along quite nicely.

And then there’s long-lost Genneth, who I’ve just recently met for the first time since I was four! Gen is a stylist for an interior design magazine in SA and she lives about a 20 minute walk away. Already she’s introduced me to some friends in the art crowd here and it seems evident that we’ll get to see a lot of each other.

My teaching gig is a bit up in the air, but as schools open on Wednesday, I am gearing up to start my work then, even if it is only temporary. I have found a couple of possible opportunities to do work elsewhere and am seriously interested in a economic-development papermaking project located in the Khayelitsha township which sounds right up my alley. So, yet again, trying to stay flexible and see where it will all go!

To wrap up, I will be staying here probably at least til June, so pencil in this address:
xxxx Please email me for address details.
My cell is 011-27-76-373-5773

Photos from December

Photos from my trip to a gave reserve with my dad back in December. Also, pictures from a brief trip to Sani Pass in the Drakensburg Mtns and to the family farm over Christmas.

Safari to Christmas

Blog for a New Day

One night of many mojitos and a sunny afternoon later, I sit on the cusp of the new year in yet another cousin’s apartment: this time in Cape Town. For the couple of days I’ve been here, I’ve been mostly housebound as I am without a car in an area that requires such transport. But last night I caught a glimpse of the cultural palimpsest of which I am soon to witness on daily occasion. Similar to the Obama victory party in Troyeville, Johannesburg I caught wind of a similar mixture of people on the beaches of Table View (a beach opposite Cape Town central and Table Mtn) - old and young, a spectrum of colors and nationalities. It seems a cultural haven for the misfits of an old regime gone sour and where individuals are often squashed by the overwhelming context of this nation’s issues, though I’m sure I’m baring my naïveté. With my cousin Robyn and her friends, we watched fireworks stretch across the bay, crackling just below the well-illuminated Table Mountain. There was a group of Indian people marching along the beach with bells, tambourines, and hand drums. A small paper balloon with a candle inside was released delicately into the air, making for a sweet exclamation as it bobbed gracefully into the night. And of course there were the age old celebratory markings of drunken screaming and horns blowing - all a part of the spectacle.

Resolutions? Not centering my own calendar on notions of January 1st, I still find myself keen to make the typical health and exercise vows (I’ve gained weight since being here!). The Cape Argus is a huge cycling race that takes place in Cape Town every March - a 100 km tour of the coastline. I saw a brief documentary on it and think it would be amazingly fun to participate - but I have several barriers ahead of me! First, a bike - secondly I will have to master shifting gears, tackle San Fran-steep hills, conquer long distance, and I will have to kick myself into shape FAST! But IF I can find a training group, I think it will slot me nicely into an entrée of new people…we shall see. Also, I’m having other half-crazed ideas of forcing myself to start running - getting over the heart in my throat feeling will be the hard part!

And the picture? I just wanted to let you all know, that even in the bush, I make a point of brushing my teeth! Hallelu! Happy New Years all and for those of you who find it a mid-point in a narrative of other things, enjoy!