On Friday, my group checked into the University of Pretoria High Performance Center’s Rugby House. I was really excited to be staying here, because it’s a really sporty place. Also, Argentina’s soccer team stayed here during the World Cup last year. So far, though, I haven’t been the least bit impressed. (Beyond the excitement of being here, and the fun of being amongst sports teams of every age from all over the world.) Melissa and I both got room keys, but only hers works. When I brought this to the front desk’s attention, they said they could get me a new key by Tuesday or Wednesday. Which will be really helpful, of course, because I’ll be back in America. Then my plug adapters went missing from the room. I actually just spent the last hour fighting with room service because 4 of my plugs went missing (the SA adapter I borrowed from the front desk, the European plug it’s meant for, and my US adapter and converter.) They seemed to think I was crazy – why would anyone take my plugs? Surprise, surprise, the maids did take it, claiming they thought it was from previous guests. So I’m not crazy after all. The food here is free, but usually pretty terrible. By “free,” I mean that it’s probably included in our price, but we could technically have 3 meals a day here plus snacks: if our stomachs could handle it. If there’s anything worse than the aforementioned about the Rugby House, it’s their internet service, so hopefully I will be able to post this before I get home. Anyway, I’m summing up three days of experiences at the Rugby House, but I should go back to Friday and explain what we have been doing here.
Friday was slow because we were in transition from Joburg to Pretoria. These cities are really close together, and we’ve been going between them the whole time we have been on this side of the country, but we did not have too much planned. For a late lunch, we met up with a group from NYU who are doing a similar program to ours. I was excited for this, since I’m starting NYU next month, but I really shouldn’t have been. Aside from a few students who I had decent conversation with, most of my colleagues were vapid and uninteresting. Once again, I had a swell of Rutgers pride, even though I belong to both schools. Our trip was half the time as the NYU group’s and we definitely did something more meaningful with our time. Anyway, we met them for a Braai, which is a traditional South African barbeque. We went to a restaurant that had outdoor grilling pits, and we were all summoned to take turns flipping the meat and setting up the tables. I somehow got stuck halfheartedly flipping a few steaks with a poker rod (they ran out of decent spatulas.) I warned the crew not to eat any steak that I took part in making. Turns out, all the food was crummy, and it wasn’t even my fault! The point of the event was not the food, though. We had a seminar on HIV/AIDS. One speaker runs a hospice center for those infected with the virus and another runs a charity that collects bikes for mobile doctors who otherwise travel by foot to see HIV patients. I enjoyed their talks, but they did not actually say too much. We were more or less left to mingle with the NYU crowd, which, as I mentioned, was no interesting endeavor. It was also bitterly cold outside, and our fifteen layers of clothing were just not enough for the outdoor setting. Though it’s winter here, we haven’t gotten any NJ-like cold beyond the mornings and late nights. Since arriving in this area, however, it has pretty much been freezing the entire time, all day every day.
Yesterday we headed out to Teboho Trust, an organization in Soweto (South West Township.) It is a type of alternative schooling project that invites learners of all primary and secondary grades to cultivate their potential. This school has a 100% rate of college/ university acceptance and 100% rate of zero pregnancy with young adults in the program. The program also reaches out to senior “grannies” to teach them marketable skills to sustain a living, like craftwork. Teboho Trust runs a Saturday program where all students are encouraged to come to the school and take part in all kinds of activities. The day consists of tutoring and some structured classes, but is mostly a time for playing sports, games, and interacting with other learners. I feel like it is intentionally made to get kids off the streets for one more day and give them a few more meals during the week. I got a chance to interact with learners of all ages there yesterday. I played basketball with a group of young boys for about an hour and a half, read to a primary level class for another hour or so, talked to some 18 year old girls about their university plans, and helped out my group. We helped the whole program make homemade coloring books, which was a lot more work than really necessary, but it kept everyone busy and happy. We also played several games outside as a whole group: the whole Teboho Trust school and the whole Rutgers group, professors and all! It was really fun to see everyone engage in some silliness, especially since we have been constantly on the move and working hard with our lessons. Any of us who started out the day tired, freezing, and irritated immediately warmed up from being outside in the sun and good company. Working with so many kids makes us all realize how important it is to have fun when you are trying to learn new things. While playing basketball or monkey in the middle doesn’t help any kid get into university, I am finding that the individualized attention and personal engagement is just as important to their development. A lot of the learners that I have encountered in South Africa are absolutely brilliant, and just need people to talk to, hug, and read to them in order to succeed.
After a long day at Teboho Trust, we went to the Hector Pieterson Museum. Hector Pieterson was a 13 year old boy who was the first to be killed by police during protests against apartheid actions like compulsory Afrikaans in schools. The museum explained the events of the protests, marches, and riots while paying tribute to the students who were killed in the action. Thinking about all of the young people (high school/ university age, mainly) who were killed in these events was especially powerful after spending so much time with young learners who have such bright hopes for their futures.
After the museum, we went back to Dr. Edwin Smith’s house for dinner. We now are staying within walking distance of his place, because he works at U. Pretoria. I love how open his family is with all of us: he has his own students plus any groups he encounters and is proud to entertain us all. It was especially nice to go have a group family party-style dinner when our other option was probably the Rugby House. Last night, we were also with a group from Nottingham. They are a fresh bunch of students/teachers from the UK who are going to be at some of the same schools in this area that we worked with. I met so many great people, it was almost impossible for me to leave dinner. Where the NYU kids were driving me insane after 10 minutes of conversation, the Nottingham bunch was extremely engaging and fun. It’s a shame that we won’t be interacting with them any more. I made several contacts and I will now have new buddies to email about SA, which makes me absurdly happy. (I’m telling you, within minutes, I wanted these kids to be my best friends.)
Today we have a free day. Kind of. We have some sort of surprise dinner tonight that we are absolutely not allowed to miss, so I feel like it’s going to be really important and exciting. (Best surprise dinner? Oprah and the Nottingham students. If it’s anyone else, I may be disappointed.) A few of the people on my group left super early this morning to go on a safari. I originally thought that I might tag along, especially since I do not really have anything else in mind for today. But for some reason I just got this really anxious bad feeling about it. I didn’t like the thought of getting in late last night and either waking up super early or not going to sleep, going to this huge safari 2 ½ hours away from our hotel, and trying to both be back on time and awake enough for our big surprise tonight. Since a large group was not going, I skipped it. If I’m not excited about it, why bother? We are all going to the National Zoo tomorrow, as part of our trip, and I’m more excited about that. For now, I’m perfectly content with not going on the safari. It is not what we came here to do, and the day is not really available in the right way for it. I was a bit angry this morning, considering I spent my morning fighting over getting my plugs back and keys fixed (“Tuesday, we promise!” bah.) instead of seeing lions and stuff. But I know it will be an okay day. I should go wake up the rest of my friends now, actually. In case I don’t get a chance to update this about the next few days, you’ll be hearing from me back at home!
