More Firsts

Molweni,

As always, there has been something new and different every day since my last blog post.  My greeting to you in this post by the way is a Xhosa word for greeting a group.  Xhosa is one of the tribes that are present in South Africa, and it is where most of the black people in Port Elizabeth call their mother tongue. 

On Friday we were at a leadership session to top off orientation week at NMMU.  It was a Nelson Mandela “The Champion Within” conference and we were there from 8am to 5pm learning to be like Madiba(Mandela’s clan name, used as a term of respect) himself.  The entire day was very long and boring at times, but the locals at my table agreed with me.  We learned some great facts about Mandela, but overall it was a difficult at times to really focus.  The main speaker tried to keep us going in the later hours by saying “If Madiba could spend 27 years in jail, you can last another hour.”  I thought it was funny that he compared his conference to jail.  We did receive Nelson Mandela: Conversations with Myself for our participation in the activities.  A great book that follows up on Madiba’s autobiography A Long Walk To Freedom which I read before my travels.  Now, Nelson Mandela gave PE exclusive rights to use his name, so PE is also referred to as the Nelson Mandela Bay.  I feel though that the area, and groups such as the one we were with last Friday, are abusing his name.  The area throws Mandela on anything for either publicity or just recognition.  Now Madiba was obviously a great man, but I have talked with Anga, a chap that lives a few blocks away and our group has come to enjoy and hang out with in our free time, about this ongoing overuse; he agrees as well.  Just something interesting I have noticed around here.

During the weekend we had a couple group meetings as we are still figuring out logistics for our time here.  Sunday night was very cool.  I went to a nearby bar/café with Chris, Britt, Kelsey, and Trang.  There was a great group called Mojazz.  After we had eaten and watched for a while, they took a break for a while.  Chris and I decided to go compliment and talk to the group that was sitting nearby.  They were a group that grew up together and play all around the country.  They are waiting to hear back on whether they will be at the International Jazz Festival that our group will be going to in early April.  That should be great as Cape Town is full of life and certainly should be buzzing during the festival.

This week was the first day of our volunteering.  I will be going to Pendla Primary School.  The first two days were an adventure.  The school has students from grade R (like kindergarten) up to grade 7.  There are about 25-30 students in each class with usually two classes per grade.  The faculty is composed of a principle along with one teacher per class.  The teachers are responsible for everything, which includes doing their own books, supervising recess, and organizing everything at the school.  On Monday I was in a 3^rd grade class where I taught Math and English along with joining them for some soccer at recess.  I was accompanied by Shaz in the room as well.  The teacher just left after we had been there shortly, so we went through an English lesson.  Talk about getting thrown into the fire.  Also, when a teacher is sick or gone for whatever reason, that class has to join another class.  A different room was filled with close to 60 students as this was the case that day.  On Tuesday I worked with Ryan and we were able to mix and match different parts of old computers to get two working computers for them.  They run Windows 98, and are in no way useful as they have no internet access or the capacity to stay up to date.  It will be huge for the students however to just get a feel for using a computer.  This way they will be able to get comfortable turning a computer on, logging on, and opening a program.  This will be the extent of their knowledge, but it will go a long way if they are to run across a computer in the future.

The pictures below are of me on my first day of school, the library(Mom and Dad), and then just a few pics from around campus.

We have also begun classes this week as well.  Yeah, I am here for school.  I have one class a day for three hours Monday through Thursday.  I have South African Music and Jazz on Monday, Ethics Seminar on Tuesday, South African Literature on Wednesday, and South African Politics on Thursday.  I have had music, ethics, and literature thus far.  Three hours in a hot room can be a lot, but the format allows for some great discussions with really no time limit.  I also will be working with the Mpendulo Savings Project at Jeffrey’s Bay.  Here is a link to their website if anyone wants to check it out http://mpendulosavings.co.za/.  I have a management class where I will be reporting my finding there amongst my accounting background.  My first experience with that will be Friday.  Jeffrey’s Bay is about an hour away, so I will leave Friday morning and get introduced and check things out.  I will then stay at a backpackers hostile nearby.  I will then work on Saturday as well before returning.  From there I will have to coordinate with them things I will do from my computer along with my return visits.

Friday is also my grandpa Robert Fischer’s birthday.  He is the II and he turns 80, so happy birthday to him.  I was also able to see a picture of Mike’s baseball picture.  Good luck to him as the season approaches.  Steven keeps me updated on his basketball, and I am also hearing that he is playing with a little bit of fire and some D.  I like that. 

Thanks for reading.  Cheers.

Bobby