From little things, big things grow

Monday, 11 February 2013

"The difference between school and life?

In school you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson."

- Tom Bodett (author, voice actor, radio host)

(Song choice for blog entry: "Paradise Circus" - Massive Attack [Gui Boratto remix])

This feeling at the pit of my stomach was horrible, and I couldn't seem to shake it. I clenched my fists tightly together as my throat closed in, and I fought back the distressed tears. I felt myself getting emotional. 

I hate feeling useless. 

Ash (volunteer co-ordinator) had fetched me from Buccs earlier this morning, and together we drove to the village in the Big Green E-Machine: this old Land Rover that has been converted to take on the form of a mobile computer literacy lab for school children. Approximately 10 laptops can fit in here. The Big Green E-Machine currently visits a school in the local village township of Chintsa East - about a 2 hour drive from East London.

I felt like a champion, ready to tackle pretty much anything that swung my way, up until now.

Today we were teaching grades 0 - 2; children between the ages of 3 to 8 years old. 

I have never been crazy about kids. I was never one of those females that melted when they saw a baby come past. Please don't let this information right-me-off as a 'potential mother' in your eyes. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be a phenomenal mother when it comes down to it in the future - a lioness and her cubs theory. I would kill for my babies. But up until now, I have always enjoyed children far more from a distance.

This was the first time I had interacted with children with a sense of 'conviction'. These kids from a little village in the middle of no where. Snot and food everywhere, climbing on top of you, desperately pushing for their turn to touch your umlungu (Xhosa for white person) hair.

And here I stood, hunched over this tiny pre-schooler in the Big Green E-Machine feeling so distressed, I was ready to sob. I didn't know what to do with myself.

We were teaching 13 kindergarteners how to fiddle around on Microsoft Paint. Ah readers, try bare in mind that we only have 10 computers, as well as the fact that toddlers as they are struggle to communicate with adults and have minimum attention span. Try adding a language barrier in on top of those factors and that is when my throat closes in. After a festive evening spent over at Buccs, here I was trying to teach these children computer literacy. Most of them have never heard of the concept of a 'mouse', a 'keyboard', the 'internet', let alone Facebook.

It is hard in the beginning. You begin to doubt whether you being here is worth anything. You feel as if no amount of hand signals or examples that you give them are being recognised.
But Ash is super supportive, and he is so patient with the kids. 
He is so reassuring at every turn (and I have no doubt in my mind that he will make an exceptional father one day).
With each grade that we taught today, I could see the difference in progress levels. The younger kids would fiddle on Paint and lose concentration along the way. The higher the grade, the more work they were able to cover in the 30 minutes each class was allocated. They had moved on to making Tally Charts and Spreadsheets on Microsoft Excel.
And you know what the best part was? Knowing that they had all started off fiddling on Paint  and losing focus, as Ash and I taught them about their theme for the week - "Birds and Trees".  

So today life was about lessons. Teaching and being taught in return. 
Even though my presence in the classroom might have felt futile and idle in the beginning, by the end of the day, I realised the profit gained through it...

One day, these children might graduate from school - and if they are lucky - they will apply for their turn in a tertiary level institution. And for those children living in Chintsa East village, maybe one day, they will think back to their computer lessons; they might think back to Ash and I, and the other volunteers who gave up their time to simply try; and they will be able to open up Internet Explorer, download a University application form, fill it out online, and with the greater hopes of humanity - become a university graduate. 

I suppose from little things, big things can grow.

Check out those faces! Chintsa East Primary School, Wild Coast, South Africa.

Learning about the birds and trees in the Big Green E-Machine with VA32'South, only smiles to offer. Too precious. 

Break time for this little girl. She taught me how to say umti, meaning tree in Xhosa.

Ash and I taught the kids a bit of English vocabulary. Ash figured that one of the simpler ways to encourage the link between the two languages (English and Xhosa) is through physical examples. Ash and I would fetch the kids from their classroom, and make them 'fly like birds (intaka in Xhosa)' all the way to the Big Green E-Machine. The kids love it, we got a great response each time - these children were excited to learn.

Eleven grade 1s are finding their wings on the way to the mobile computer lab on the Big Green E-Machine. with Ash's help. Chinsta East Primary School, Wild Coast, South Africa.

Ash, the volunteer co-ordinator quizzing the children on previous lessons content to gain admission to the Big Green E-Machine. Here he asks the learners what a birds tail is in English by signing it to them. First one who guesses correctly, gets on the bus first - and so on...

Ok, this picture is quite chaotic. As you can see depicted in front of you are Grades 1 to 3 all in the same classroom. It is quite an intense procedure trying to co-ordinate the children into different groups so that they each in turn get a certain amount of time on the computers each week. Often these classrooms go unsupervised, as teachers find it more stimulating to sit in the staffroom, while they get children from the older grades to supervise the classroom in their absence while they too should be learning. Ash and his volunteers often do this process on their own. As upsetting as this is to see and to process, there is nothing that we can do as the volunteer project except for try and give them the motivation to learn more in and out of the mobile computer lab.

The amazing Ash, so productive with his lessons through his interactive methods. 

The Big Green E-Machine with its mobile computer lab parked off in the school grounds in the middle of the village. When the kids see it in the morning they come running.

Here you can see Chintsa East Primary School with the big maroon corrugated-iron roof. There are 4 different classrooms, and there are 7 different grades to teach. You do the math. On the far left (the white building) is the small kindergarten classroom which  takes in 44 toddlers who are looked after by Mama Phumla and VA32'South volunteers.

Ash explaining to the kids in English the difference between a 'leaf' and a 'stick', before giving them their next assignment. The assignment? The kids were instructed to go into school garden, and count how many sticks and leaves they could find in 10 minutes. On their return, they are instructed to plug in their information into a tally chart, and then in the next lesson they will work on putting their information into a spreadsheet  on Microsoft Excel creating tables as well as graphs. From fiddling on Microsoft Paint  to this.

In the Big Green E-Machine :)

As you can see, this is what the computer lab looks like from the inside. Their are 10 laptops and one server that were donated to the Wild Coast School Project. Unfortunately, 3 of the laptops' chargers are not functioning at the moment. Poor Ash, who is doubled-over in a hunched up position trying to co-ordinate a lesson has to keep making sure that none of the laptops run out of power by alternating plugs every 30 minutes.

Hanging out. Break time, Chintsa East Primary School, Wild Coast, South Africa.

Bread for lunch. Chintsa East Primary School, Wild Coast, South Africa.

A little goes a long way. If you think you can help VA32'South out with anything, visit their website on www.volunteerafrica.co.za or contact them via their office number: +27(0)43 7385523. A woman with a big heart by the name of Karen will probably answer.