Stellenzicht

Cold and rainy again! This morning the other volunteers for the Stellenzicht school did not come (one was sick, one was taking an exam, and one I think was a no-show). For some reason none of the Stellenbosch volunteers from my school wanted to go to Stellenzicht, so I went today. There were 12 learners there and three volunteers (another woman named Celine also came with us), and my school had the three volunteers with the same five learners. I swear, they really should change the ratios of teachers to learners after the second day, if not the first, and not make it optional. I was really pretty disappointed not to be able to go back to my school with my learners, but at the same time I was interested to see another school.

Stellenzicht is in a more wealthy part of Stellenbosch – the classrooms here have real door handles and it looks not too unlike an American high school. When you walk in at first there are some stairs to the second floor and a big hallway rather than a large central courtyard.

Jacky quickly reviewed the income statement with the learners, then we split them into groups of four to work with us on their business plans. My group had a would-be hairdresser, restaurant owner, pharmacy owner (and later doctor), and general store owner. I found the contrast to Hector Peterson pretty striking – the kids were similar (shy at first, and spoke Afrikaans rather than Xhosa when they wanted to talk amongst themselves) but the similarities pretty well stopped there. These students were having trouble with some of the basic concepts that I know they were taught the day before, around cost per unit, the difference between fixed and variable costs, and between variable costs and startup costs. I was trying to explain but I’m not sure how much was sinking in, which was a little frustrating. But these children also I think do not need the class so much – one’s father was clearly well-to-do because he has a car and she said he would lend her R15,000 (about $2000) to start her pharmacy. So I suspect they were not as motivated.

On the plus side, the school did serve us hot coffee! At the lunch break we took lots of pictures of the learners who absolutely loved hamming it up for the camera, it was great.

We had a quick debrief session back at Stellenbosch. Apparently my students at Hector Peterson missed me! I felt so badly. But I will see them tomorrow!

Four of us went out for a run/hike; we ran to the foot of the mountain behind the gym and the rugby fields then walked up the steep parts of the hill and ran on the lesser grades, until we got to the steep trail. It was like a 55 degree slope, I’m not kidding. So we scaled that, letting the boys run ahead. The view was AMAZING – you could see all of Stellenbosch, and the wineries, and over to the Kayamundi township. At one point the university was lit up with sunbeams and was absolutely gorgeous, and the intensity of the green was amazing, especially for winter.

About ¾ of the way up Jacky heard thunder and we saw some ominous clouds and thought better of being on a steep slope in a flash flood, so we headed back down to the road, ran down the mountain, and then continued along the path I found a few days ago. When we got back, nearly 2 hours after we headed out, the gate to the apartment block was locked, neither of us had our keys, and the only people in the apartments were asleep. Luckily I had some experience climbing fences (and honestly this one was not even that hard), so after resting for a bit I scaled the fence and let Jacky in.

I’m still mulling over the racial/social/political reality on the ground here – more on this when it’s not so late at night. I will say that so far, it has not been what I expected in a number of ways, and it worries me talking to people. Many people (save those with their heads in the sand) seem to think that South Africa is on a bubble at the moment and it’s not clear what will happen next – Zulu/Xhosa civil war, political upheaval, economic improvement, a combination of the above, or something else entirely. I haven’t asked everyone but I think I have yet to meet an ANC supporter (let along a strong ANC supporter), at least in the ANC’s *current* form as a political party, yet the party keeps being voted into office. But perhaps this is a reflection of populist politics – I was having this conversation with Archie yesterday about Zimbabwe, and we were talking also about Bolivia, Venezuela, and potentially even Iran although I’m still not clear what exactly happened in Iran. In any event this is certainly going to be an interesting area of the world for a good many years to come – I certainly hope the best for the people here but there are so many factors at play and such a very difficult, very recent past – it’s a bit hard to fathom fully, not coming from here. And if you do come from here, you don’t necessarily reflect on it because things are the way they are or the way you see them, and without traveling to other places you tend not to question where you live very much. I know I didn’t until I started traveling certainly internationally but even within the U.S.

Can’t seem to get the internet working so I’ll post this entry when I can. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Here is a picture of the fence I climbed: