Today we were back at Emifini Primary School and I was in a new grade 1 class. This was Ms. Manzantsi she has been teaching for many years in grade one and was amazing. Her enthusiasm was catching and I could not help myself but get caught up in what she was teaching and doing. In fact, while she was teaching her xhosa language lesson (which I could not help with) I decided to make myself useful to her and sharpen her pencils with her hand held little pencil sharpener. I was concentrating on her so much that I did not realize until way too late that I had sharpened so many I got a blister. Now that my friends is a great teacher! During math she did a lesson on halves so I was able to help with this lesson from cutting up food, to separating children, to coloring half of items. My phone died half way through the lesson so I only have one picture. :(
We left Emifini at 12:00 and headed to an NMMU (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University) and school collaboration meeting with Mr. McKay, the principal of Emifini. It was funny to me to see how excited they were to have the "Americans" at this meeting. While in this meeting they took opinions on how the student teaching program at the university could help the primary schools. The principals spoke on being overcrowded, needing help to be more prepared for exceptional students, etc. They did all say they thought the university was doing a good job training their student teachers.
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| Ms. Manzantsi teaching on half. |
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| Xhosa language reading lesson. This is a reading passage about a girl that eats unhealthy and is getting fat. |
Today we had a very busy day prepping for the rest of the week. We walked about a mile down to the local Pic N Pay grocery store and post office. We purchased items for friends back home and for lessons we need to teach at school this week. We then went to the Boardwalk to a Home Expo which was highly recommended by our "house mom" Christine. It was neat to see the different items for sale in the expo for people to use in their houses.
Day 16 - Sunday
Ok... so today I am feeling the 8,148 miles and 16 days that I have been away from my family and church family. I woke up with the sniffles and congestion. I decided instead of feeling sorry for myself though I would go spend some rand. :) I went back to the open market that we went to last Sunday and purchased a few items for my classroom and other people. I do love the local people and purchasing from them instead of the stores. We then had lattes in a little restaurant open to the ocean. It was beautiful.
This evening we had a group meeting to discuss the book Cry, The Bloved Country by Alan Paton. This book was a long, hard, sad read. It is a fiction story (unlike Kaffir Boy) but gives details that could very easily be true depictions of life in that time and in our time now. It is hard for me to read how people (mostly white people in this time) used religion to get what they wanted from other people (mostly black people). I know this is not how Christianity is suppose to be. We should all love and care for each other no matter the color of our skin or where we live and I will end on that note.
Tomorrow we are back at Emifini and I will experience another Grade 1 primary teachers class.
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| View of the ocean. They say it is whale and dolphin sighting season but I am sad to say we haven't seen any yet. |
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| Coffee after shopping in the market. |
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