Rikki Watts at her internship with Economic Justice Network.

Alexandra Potter (math) and Connor Maguire (english) are doing teaching internships at Thandokulu High School.

 Lauren Kells and Megan Distler are doing their internships in the Physical Therapy department at Maitland Cottage orthopedic hospital.

On Tuesday evening, we enjoyed a discussion about the South African health care system, and some of the most critical public health issues, with Priscilla Magadzire, a doctoral candidate in Public Health at the University of the Western Cape.

Student Reflection on Church Hopping in Cape Town - Shelby Hewerdine

From its jazz to its cuisine to its people, we’ve seen that Capetownian culture is built on the blending of many distinct cultures and histories, and you can pretty much find any experience you’re looking for within walking distance of our guesthouse. This has been especially true in our few Sunday ventures out to various local churches. Our first Sunday here we stuck together and attended the Sivuyile National Baptist Church in the Guguletu township, a primarily Xhosa service. I’ve been to a number of Baptist churches in my day, and this was quite a different experience than any of my previous encounters. As I look back, what sticks out most is the music; they sang and swayed and beat their Bibles, dancing up and down the aisles to songs they all mainly knew by heart. They even sang a new song Vernon taught them and an older hymn in English for us.  This church also had a sense of deep community—the children were running around and the older kids were watching after the younger ones, everyone greeted warmly as they walked in, and they even had candy to offer to some of the more adventurous in our group. It seemed like service was a free-form all-day affair and the only place to find someone on a Sunday morning (and afternoon, maybe even evening), and the congregation seemed to like it that way. I would be interested to see if this service was typical of most smaller township churches; perhaps we will have the chance to visit another before we head back to the states.

The next Sunday a few of us attended St. George’s Cathedral, a historic Anglican church in the center of downtown Capetown. I can hardly imagine a starker contrast. This was a highly liturgical (mainly Latin) service complete with a 20 page booklet of lyrics and call-and-response cues. The 40 piece choir sang semi-familiar old hymns and the Reverend carefully blessed communion and led confession. While this service was all in English, they offered Xhosa and Afrikkans translations. Despite all the formality, the Reverend delivered a sermon about social action and the parishioners around us were extremely friendly (one, oddly enough, even told us dated a girl from St. Louis). Music and scripture were key parts of this service as well, but in a quite different way than the week before at the Guguletu church.

This past Sunday we attended a Zimbabwean Catholic mass, which was almost a blend of both previous services. After a taxi in the rain and first thinking that we had missed the mass entirely, we were excited that a service was even taking place. The music was all in Shona and sounded similar to the Guguletu music, with flutes and drums and careful harmonies. The service was a very typical Catholic mass though (I was told by our Catholic housemates), despite being long because of the singing, and was mainly in English. Occasionally, the crowd would respond to the priest in Shona and our housemates who knew the format of a mass would respond in English, and this blend easily became my favorite part of the whole service. It was fascinating to think that while the 3 churches I had attended in Capetown were all worshiping in different ways, Catholic churches across the globe were worshiping in a similar way worldwide on that given Sunday.

Going back over each service in my head they are clearly distinct, but (in perhaps the most important ways) are also strikingly similar. Each was inviting and glad to have visitors, each shared a commitment to worshiping God and bringing the congregation into that worship, and each brought a message to the congregations about how to live out faith in daily life in South Africa. Ultimately, despite denominational boundaries, I’ve learned that churches in Capetown wrestle with similar issues and seem to provide a place for people to come in their own way (and generally in their own language) to worship, even though it looks completely different depending on where you walk in on a Sunday morning.

The sun came out between showers for our wine-tasting adventure on Saturday, June 1!  First to Beyerskloof near Stellenbosch - a vineyard which specializes in Pinotage grapes and makes excellent wines.  After sampling a variety of Pinotage varieties, we were back on the N1 and drove across Sir Lowry's pass in a high mountain range to the Thandi winery and farm kitchen, where we enjoyed a delicious lunch and another wine tasting.  In 2003, Thandi became the first winery in the world to achieve Fair Trade certification. Thandi’s aim is to empower previously disadvantaged farming communities. With support and mentorship from leading players in the fruit and wine industries, these communities export top-class produce to countries all over the world.  Their love and passion (Thandi means "nurturing love" in Xhosa) has quickly given Thandi a reputation for exceptional quality and the project is now being applied to wine and fruit farms in other provinces around South Africa.  Our last stop was Muratie, the second oldest winery in South Africa, and the oldest in the Stellenbosch region. Overall, an enjoyable and interesting day!

Student Reflection - Thandokulu High School - Alexandra Potter

Every once in a while - when I'm sitting in a classroom at Thandokulu High School or when I'm stuck somewhere between sleeping and waking - I can't escape the thought, "What am I even doing here?"

Here, in Cape Town, South Africa.  Am I kidding myself that I have something to offer high school students who come from an entirely different background than I do?  Students who speak Xhosa or another African language at home, which is usually in an impoverished township ridden with crime, violence, and heartache.  What does a middle-class white girl from the midwestern United States have to offer in this situation?

Two weeks ago I offered a lesson on optimization (an application of calculus) to several classes of Grade 12 students.  Whenever I asked if something made sense, they would respond and ask further questions, which was a dream come true for a pre-service teacher like me.  Exams started last week for students at Thandokulu, and I think it is reasonable to say that several Grade 12 students will at least know how to start an optimization problem on their math exam next week.  I hope that many will feel comfortable completing the process as well.

Did I bring anything special or beneficial in my optimization lesson?  Several of the teachers I have observed at Thandokulu have a more authoritarian style than I am comfortable with, so perhaps I brought some variety to the school day.  However, I'm not sure that presenting something special or unique is really the point of me working at Thandokulu.  Closer to the point might be providing students with another person in their life who cares about their learning and, even more importantly, who cares about them as a person. 

I hope I've had some success in carrying that point across, and that I can continue to do so.  It's a little challenging with exams going on all through last week, this coming week, and the following week.  Some days I just supervise students taking a test, while other days I get to interact with the few students who come to school when they don't have any exams to write. Last week the principal of Thandokulu was really excited about a free online resource in math and science, but students cannot take advantage of it without an email address and a device (computer, smartphone, tablet, etc.) to download materials onto. It's hard to say whether the students Connor and I helped set up email addresses for will get any use out of their free materials. Fortunately there's a lot of math that can be done with only chalk and a chalkboard. Even then it is hard to tell how much is really sinking in - one 8th grade girl said that the problem on the board with ratios made sense, but her classmate said, "No, sister, you are lost." It wasn't derogatory in any way - she was a shy girl, and hesitant to ask for help, so I tried to explain it in different ways, but it's hard to know if I really helped her understand. I wish I could speak fluent Xhosa, but as that isn't the case I'll just keep trying variations in English. The language barrier is challenging to cross at times, but worth the effort even with the frustration it produces. As much as I am learning from this experience, I hope the students at Thandokulu are benefiting as well.