hardships and hard decisions

I've been thinking about the title I chose for this blog and I realize it's probably even more appropriate than I originally thought. Safari means journey and it has definitely been a journey from when we first started dreaming about Africa through all the months we've been here. But the limited sight of rhinos seems extraordinarily poignant today. Stephen and I did not know what lay ahead of us in this adventure to South Africa, but we sure were bold in our decision to completely uproot ourselves to live in a foreign country. There have been many challenges that we did not anticipate.

This week was a wonderful week with my kids. It's been horribly hot, temperatures over 100 and no air conditioning. Just imagine that for a minute. There is no air conditioning at the school in 100 degree weather. Only open windows. On Monday it was particularly sweltering. The sweat was just beading up on the kids' little faces. And I borrowed one of Stephen's handkerchiefs to wipe away the sweat that was literally running down my face. How can we think in this heat? But my third graders, apart from the occasional "It's hot!" comment worked like little warthogs for me. On Tuesday and Wednesday the home room teacher kept the lights off to avoid the extra heat generated by the bulbs. So now the kids are working in very dim light! Is there no end to the number of challenges Africans must face just to go about their daily lives?

In an early conversation I had with the principal of the school, she requested that I make recommendations to the children for books they could read that would be at their level. But I've searched the library and the one cabinet of books shared by the first and second grades. There are no more than a handful of books these children can read. Even with my help, let alone independently. There aren't even basal readers. Unless you want to count the ones evidently discarded by the California school district and was then donated to the school by some generous soul. The publish date is from the 1950's.

And it's not just books they lack; there are hardly any resources of any kind. There are no math manipulatives at all. No pattern blocks or units cubes. There are no individual white boards, or even chalk slates. The children have notebooks for each subject that they cover first with paper and then with plastic. There is a chalkboard and chalk for the teacher's use but no overhead projector and of course no document camera.

During my observations in November and December, I was overwhelmed by the lack of resources available. And not just in the school, but even to buy at office supply stores. Forget about a "teacher supply" store. I really had to recalibrate my teaching style; I was used to all that is provided by American schools and also what is available for purchase in teacher supply and office supply stores. Books are heavy and therefore expensive to ship. I only brought a few with me from the states. There really is a wealth of wonderful children's literature available in the states. But the bookstores here carry a fraction of what is common in every bookstore in America. The mission school library has a few books like the Narnia series, some Beverly Cleary, a whole classroom set of Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl, a couple of copies of The Cat in the Hat. There are some things to work with but they require a lot of creativity and a massive amount of work to turn them into a workable lesson.

And so far I have put innumerable hours into writing lessons and creating materials from scratch. My efforts are paying off with the children. They are enthusiastic and eager to come to group, always disappointed when it's not their turn. And several of the boys who knew very few letters and sounds and even fewer words are reading "ambulance" "computer" "bananas". One boy knew 1 letter and 1 word when I assessed him at the beginning of the term. And when I asked him questions, he looked at me with a defensive frown. This week, he was the first to read "elevator" after I had introduced it to his group and now smiles when I ask him to read for me. My one group of independent readers started a book about lions today and we will work on comprehension questions together next week in addition to learning about nonfiction features. Not one discipline problem have I had yet. They are starting to understand my English and my accent better every day. This week when I gave directions, they followed them immediately. And something I'm sure I'll never get over is how the children behave in the classroom while I take students for group work to another building next door. My original plan was for their homeroom teacher to stay in the room with them. But she has taken to leaving the classroom for the hour that I teach English. So no teacher is in the classroom that hour except when I drop off one group of students and pick up the next group. But every time I return, the children are quiet and working!

At the end of each group lesson, I read a story to the children. I've chosen books that have a repeating refrain so that the children can join in at those times. Last week I read, "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb" which is very rhythmic and has a repeating refrain of "dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum". The kids love it and copy my inflection and the motions I do: strumming a banjo, using a bow for the violin. On the last page the words start in a big font and go to small, like a decrescendo in music, going from loud to soft. This part is especially fun and the kids love to start LOUD and then get very soft. The book I read two weeks ago I now leave in the classroom for the children to read when they finish their seat work. And all the children want to take that book to their desk to read it. Even the non readers try to read it because, since I've read it to them, they know what it says.

All this makes me happy and I feel that what I am doing is good and matters to these children and potentially their future. So it was a bit frustrating when on Wednesday one of the British teachers spoke to me and said that "they" are concerned I'm not teaching "enough" English. I am a volunteer, donating all my time and a fair amount of resources. I spent months figuring out an appropriate curriculum for English second language and then wrote it along with all materials needed. I have been systematically laying a foundation for the development of English vocabulary from which to build proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking while at the same time instilling a love for reading and books by reading aloud to the children some of my favorites...and I'm not doing enough.

I believe there is a conflict of paradigms here. "They" believe that "more" must be better. But more whole group is not better, especially for primary level children. By using the hour to explicitly teach English in small groups, I can go at the students' pace. That's why I put them in groups in the first place. The children who have more English vocabulary grasp new words more quickly. The students who don't yet know all the letter sounds take more time learning and understanding words, since it's so foreign to them.

Stephen is experiencing his share of similar frustrations. Customs stopped a package sent to us because it contained "stomach tablets." Pepto-bismol is not available anywhere we've looked in stores here, but over the counter in plentiful supply in the states. We submitted the required paperwork with support documents, paid our fees and have been waiting for a month to have the package released. Stephen has eight different numbers he's found to contact the supposed appropriate office, but whenever he calls any one of them, the phone just rings and rings. If someone does answer he or she does not know the answers to his questions and tells him to call back. On Monday he finally spoke to someone who took his number, but his call has not yet been returned.

These past couple of weeks, Stephen contributed major portions to a grant application for innovative community detection of Tuberculosis (TB). This application was submitted last week to a sub-contractor of USAID in Pretoria. In a pre-submission meeting Stephen attended in Durban, he and 2 of his colleagues found out that their chances of receiving this grant were very good, since the group here has been spearheading detection and treatment of TB for a number of years now. Better detection of TB is needed to prevent the spread of this nasty disease.

In the movies we've seen about Africa, people suffered many hardships and challenges. And even though most of those stories that were made into film happened decades ago, Africa still holds many challenges for people who try to live here. Not the least of which is good medical care for a chronic disease such as Lupus. Doctors here are focused on infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. And rightly so. The most common chronic disease is diabetes. Obesity, strange as it might seems from all those stories we hear in America about starving children, is also a huge problem. So Lupus is fairly low on the list. My type of Lupus is treated with disease altering drugs along with good self care of good nutrition, enough exercise and sleep, and good stress management. South African rheumatologists prescribe an older drug, one that studies have shown causes eye damage. In the states there is a newer drug prescribed that is much safer, with less harmful side effects. That's what my rheumatologist in the US put me on and of course on which I'd prefer to stay. We were told we could submit a special application for a prescription here in South Africa but have been waiting over two months with no response.

There was a lot Stephen and I were prepared to endure in moving to South Africa, but we did not think we would have to sacrifice my health in order to work where we know there are great needs. So it seems we are going to have to make some hard decisions soon.