Hey Everybody,
I hope everyone is having a great day today. As always, it was an exciting week. I’ll start off by giving you all the Pendla update. This week was hectic at the primary school. The teacher we work with has done a good job of allowing us an opportunity to teach them English and read to the students. During this time, she usually leaves us alone with the students. The problem with this is that she leaves us alone with the students for way too long. We do not have enough activities to keep them entertained and focused for the entire time, so after a while it is very hectic in the room. The kids don’t respect us as an enforcer like they do their teacher. They think we are there to play with them, and speaking Xhosa gives them a tool against us. I did make a seating chart with the names of the students. I know a good amount of the students, but not quite all of them. Each trip to the school brings a full day of energy and excitement which is great to see.
Some of the students in my class.
(The girls wear the yellow dresses while the boys wear the tan)
In music class we learned the history of the national anthem Nkosi Sikelel ‘iAfrika along with how to sing the song. The song includes 5 of the official languages of the country (Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Afrikaans, English). It is truly a beautiful song with the first verse a Xhosa/Zulu hymn which is where the song gets its name. Certain groups will only sing the part of the song that they know. If any of you have seen the movie Invictus which is based on the Rugby World Cup shortly after Mandela was elected president, this can be seen. At the rugby game we noticed that the fans would at least mumble or hum the parts that they did not know. They are teaching the entire version to kids now-a-days as part of the unifying goal of the country. We also learned the unofficial national anthem of the country Shosholoza. This song comes from the sound of a train (SHO-SHO-SHO-SHO), and is about the train picking up workers to work in the mines which has been the biggest business for the country the past century. We sang the song to the NMMU choir and in turn they sang for us. I will try and post the video tomorrow. Unfortunately, it will use up too much of my internet here at my flat, so I will use the school’s internet.
The South African countryside.
Many of you read my post from last week where I commented on the government. The government here is doing a great job. One thing that shows this is its spending. 1/5 of government spending goes to education. That is 20% for those of you not great at math. Now if you know anything about the US spending, that is quite a bit higher of a percentage. It really shows that the government realizes that education is the key to a better life, and is backing it up. Also, there was a very large strike last Wednesday. It was supposedly the biggest strike since the free era of ’94. It was going to just be a Johannesburg strike dealing with some toll booths that are being built, but it spread nationwide. We were notified on Tuesday that we might not have class on Wednesday because the university might have to shut down if there weren’t enough employees. Don’t worry; we still had class as it was not quite as big as expected. During the day there were about 10,000 people that marched around downtown. Port Elizabeth is similar to Detroit, but they are quick to point out that the industry is growing here. The car industry was hit worst as the GM plant reported 85% of hourly employees did not show up for work that day. One thing that I am impressed with in South Africa is the way they deal with problems. They are great at really talking things out and taking a very open mind into the conversations. Sometimes this can drag out a process which would cause a go-go American to become impatient, but I am sure that this will be worked out just fine.
This past weekend I travelled with a small group to Hogsback. It is a little town North of PE and slightly East. The town is situated in the mountains which look like a hog’s back at the various peaks. We stayed at a backpackers hostile and hiked through the mountains on Friday afternoon and Saturday. We were able to see some really great mountains along with a few pretty neat waterfalls. There was also a swimming hole at the bottom of one of the waterfalls that we stopped and swam in. We were literally walking around in the jungle and there were multiple monkeys that would be swinging on vines above us. On the way there, we made a 3 hour car ride into a 7 hour ride on the way there because we took a wrong turn. We were not discouraged, and that is probably why we went so far before realizing that we were not going the right way. The landscape was so nice. We would be driving on the side of a rocky mountain one minute, and be looking over a stretch of open savannah the next. We also made a few stops. One particular stop was in the town of Alice shortly before we arrived at Hogsback. The reason for this stop was because that is where the University of Fort Hare is located. In reading Mandela’s autobiography, we learned that this is where Mandela went to college for the first time. It was very cool to walk around a place that we read about and where Mandela really grew as a person so much.
Some pictures from Hogsback.
Thanks for reading! I appreciate all the support from everyone. If you have any comments, please feel free to leave them. Also, if there is something that you would like for me to post about that you read about or have heard is going on, just send me or my parents an e-mail. I would love to give my observations about the matter. Today is Selection Sunday for college basketball. March Madness is my favorite time of the year for sports, but it is worth it to be experiencing all that I am here in South Africa. I will still be completing a bracket, but I haven’t watched a game in well over a month. I want to wish Sam and Gonzaga good luck along with Michael and the Osseo basketball team as they head into their respective post-seasons.
Cheers,
Bobby
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