Ok now that I have your attention, I'll tell you the three things that come to mind when I reflect back on my last couple days at Emfundweni Primary.
* I meet Ms. Tumyiswe Elizabesth Nkosazawa at Emfundweni Primary. She works with Mrs. Verla Nosipho and called herself the Learner Support Agent or care giver. She helps children who have been orphaned because their parents both died from HIV or AIDS positive. Most of the children are also HIV or AIDS positive.
* A video of the kids dancing November 8th. Unfortunately I forgot to charge my battery.The video quality is not that great and it takes a really long time to upload videos so I'll show them to people if asked.
* I took the kids to the computer labs on Wednesday November 7th to show them this blog and help them set up email if they wanted too. They loved seeing pictures of themselves and places they recognized and knew more about navigating the internet then you would think considering they don't have internet access at home.
Things that need to be improved in the school:
NUMBER ONE PRIORITY: the LEARNERS' Bathroom!
I only lasted 15 seconds and two steps before the overwhelming smell of sewage had me out the door and trying my best not to cry or show the kids how upset I was by it. It was the only time I saw the students be ashamed to show me something in their school. The girl leading me had to stop 15 times to tell the other learners that I wasn't going to use the bathroom just take pictures of it and hopefully help get it fixed.
I didn't really think to go back there until I spoke with the principal about taking pictures about things that needed to be fixed and making an itemized budget proposal to find out how much it would cost for materials alone to renovate the school.
He then said take as many pictures as I wanted and he would get some local professionals to give various estimates for materials and for labor because he could give an estimate but it would not be accurate. Also he reminded me to take a picture of the kids bathrooms because I believe it is a major concern with him as well.
lights
doors/ door handles & locks
ceiling and windows
Kids uniforms: many have holes and tears. I was thinking a sewing workshop for the parents and older students to teach them how to sew and mend their clothes might be useful. We could teach them various stitches.
other safety structural issues:
Example missing/broken beam
Wishlist:
Better fencing and locks to keep vandals out at night.
(perhaps set up a community watch system with the parent association? Is that socially accepted?)
Playground
leveled soccer field
Some things I love about the school (so we don't end on a negative note)
1. The kids pride in being able to attend school at all. Especially the 7th graders because they were able to accomplish completing 8 years of schooling. I read in one of the students letters they are proud of their school and you can see it in their faces. I'm proud of them as well because most have risen above their surroundings and shine forth with hope for the future.
Whitty told me that you must keep pushing and pushing the learners to excel and think for themselves, and if you keep working at it you will be amazed at the results. Even though its only been a week, I see that he is right. I am amazed by the learners and their insight and thoughtfulness.
As you can see above the kids are more concerned about having another "card" taken then the broken windows I was trying to photograph.
I love the kitchen staff and told them one of these days they will have to teach me how to cook their meals. :) One of the first grade teachers is in charge of the food stores and she is the one who spent the time to teach me the Xhosa words the other day.
They have the basic storage above and some vegetables. I did not see a cooler and do not know if they have one or not. There was another room they stored food in but the food is stored in a totally separate building from the kitchen.
Above are newspaper articles of learners who made something of themselves. The principal said they were former or current students of Emfundweni Primary.
I taught the students to make paper airplanes to teach them about how there are other forces in addition to gravity acting upon objects.
They decided to test their airplanes by having a competition: Boys versus Girls. Every time a boy plane would win the boys would go WILD and every time a girl plane would win the girls would roar into life. It was wonderful to watch.
Whitty helped by naming three students to be my personal helpers and allowed one student to be elected discipline enforcer. He told the student (who I think was the head boy) that he would hold him personally responsible if anything went wrong.
Whitty told me that they try and teach the students personal responsibility. That when they decide to go on a class trip, the students elect who is responsible for collecting the money, recording who brings it and who has not, etc. He says he will ask someone how much it will cost for the class to go. Then calculate how much each students will need to pay. Then divide it by how many weeks they have before the trip and so the parents do not feel overwhelmed have the students bring in 5 rand or so over the period of 5 weeks if the trip will cost 25 rand per learner. He will make a chart and give it to the student elected to record who brought in how much money. He says if it will be a long period of time he collects the money at the end of the day from the learners elected.
Just some materials found around the school. they were helpful in making the balance the day before and can be used to demonstrate various science concepts.
The learners using the computers donated by the Ubuntu foundation. We are to be given a tour by a representative from the Ubuntu foundation today. I'll tell you how it goes.
So I've covered Nov. 7th, maybe when I come back I will be able to summarize yesterday and today and finish uploading pictures and videos.
It is currently 5:40 am November 9th and I really would like to see the ocean and spend some time in prayer before we head to the school today.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions about how to improve Emfundweni, please email me at clupt012@gmail.com
I plan on talking to a few people locally to see the resources available and brainstorming with Dr. Huber and our team at our next dinner meeting. Currently my top priority is to find out what needs to be done to fix the kids bathroom because some times it does not flush and it seems very difficult to clean if the toilet seats have cracks in them. In addition, I believe we should teach them the benefits of washing their hands before using their hands to eat their lunch. However that is hard if the sinks don't work and there is no soap or hand drying device in their bathroom. I'm not even sure there is any working lighting.
Yesterday the school was closed because the lack of water and the kids got sent home early.
* I meet Ms. Tumyiswe Elizabesth Nkosazawa at Emfundweni Primary. She works with Mrs. Verla Nosipho and called herself the Learner Support Agent or care giver. She helps children who have been orphaned because their parents both died from HIV or AIDS positive. Most of the children are also HIV or AIDS positive.
* A video of the kids dancing November 8th. Unfortunately I forgot to charge my battery.The video quality is not that great and it takes a really long time to upload videos so I'll show them to people if asked.
* I took the kids to the computer labs on Wednesday November 7th to show them this blog and help them set up email if they wanted too. They loved seeing pictures of themselves and places they recognized and knew more about navigating the internet then you would think considering they don't have internet access at home.
Things that need to be improved in the school:
NUMBER ONE PRIORITY: the LEARNERS' Bathroom!
I only lasted 15 seconds and two steps before the overwhelming smell of sewage had me out the door and trying my best not to cry or show the kids how upset I was by it. It was the only time I saw the students be ashamed to show me something in their school. The girl leading me had to stop 15 times to tell the other learners that I wasn't going to use the bathroom just take pictures of it and hopefully help get it fixed.
I didn't really think to go back there until I spoke with the principal about taking pictures about things that needed to be fixed and making an itemized budget proposal to find out how much it would cost for materials alone to renovate the school.
He then said take as many pictures as I wanted and he would get some local professionals to give various estimates for materials and for labor because he could give an estimate but it would not be accurate. Also he reminded me to take a picture of the kids bathrooms because I believe it is a major concern with him as well.
lights
doors/ door handles & locks
ceiling and windows
Kids uniforms: many have holes and tears. I was thinking a sewing workshop for the parents and older students to teach them how to sew and mend their clothes might be useful. We could teach them various stitches.
other safety structural issues:
Example missing/broken beam
Wishlist:
Better fencing and locks to keep vandals out at night.
(perhaps set up a community watch system with the parent association? Is that socially accepted?)
Playground
leveled soccer field
Some things I love about the school (so we don't end on a negative note)
1. The kids pride in being able to attend school at all. Especially the 7th graders because they were able to accomplish completing 8 years of schooling. I read in one of the students letters they are proud of their school and you can see it in their faces. I'm proud of them as well because most have risen above their surroundings and shine forth with hope for the future.
Whitty told me that you must keep pushing and pushing the learners to excel and think for themselves, and if you keep working at it you will be amazed at the results. Even though its only been a week, I see that he is right. I am amazed by the learners and their insight and thoughtfulness.
I love the kitchen staff and told them one of these days they will have to teach me how to cook their meals. :) One of the first grade teachers is in charge of the food stores and she is the one who spent the time to teach me the Xhosa words the other day.
They have the basic storage above and some vegetables. I did not see a cooler and do not know if they have one or not. There was another room they stored food in but the food is stored in a totally separate building from the kitchen.
They decided to test their airplanes by having a competition: Boys versus Girls. Every time a boy plane would win the boys would go WILD and every time a girl plane would win the girls would roar into life. It was wonderful to watch.
Whitty helped by naming three students to be my personal helpers and allowed one student to be elected discipline enforcer. He told the student (who I think was the head boy) that he would hold him personally responsible if anything went wrong.
Whitty told me that they try and teach the students personal responsibility. That when they decide to go on a class trip, the students elect who is responsible for collecting the money, recording who brings it and who has not, etc. He says he will ask someone how much it will cost for the class to go. Then calculate how much each students will need to pay. Then divide it by how many weeks they have before the trip and so the parents do not feel overwhelmed have the students bring in 5 rand or so over the period of 5 weeks if the trip will cost 25 rand per learner. He will make a chart and give it to the student elected to record who brought in how much money. He says if it will be a long period of time he collects the money at the end of the day from the learners elected.
The learners using the computers donated by the Ubuntu foundation. We are to be given a tour by a representative from the Ubuntu foundation today. I'll tell you how it goes.
So I've covered Nov. 7th, maybe when I come back I will be able to summarize yesterday and today and finish uploading pictures and videos.
It is currently 5:40 am November 9th and I really would like to see the ocean and spend some time in prayer before we head to the school today.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions about how to improve Emfundweni, please email me at clupt012@gmail.com
I plan on talking to a few people locally to see the resources available and brainstorming with Dr. Huber and our team at our next dinner meeting. Currently my top priority is to find out what needs to be done to fix the kids bathroom because some times it does not flush and it seems very difficult to clean if the toilet seats have cracks in them. In addition, I believe we should teach them the benefits of washing their hands before using their hands to eat their lunch. However that is hard if the sinks don't work and there is no soap or hand drying device in their bathroom. I'm not even sure there is any working lighting.
Yesterday the school was closed because the lack of water and the kids got sent home early.
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