An African Thanksgiving: November 23

Although we weren’t officially celebrating Thanksgiving until the weekend it seemed as if our schools had decided to adopt the holiday, at least the not showing up to work part of it. Kelli’s back was bothering her, so she spent the morning resting while Joe went into school. After spending a few days researching the EMS (Economic Management Systems) curriculum, Joe was excited to run an informal workshop with teachers from two of our schools. The workshop was designed to give the teachers an opportunity to share ideas, methods, teaching aids and lesson plans with each other in preparation for the upcoming school year. All of the teachers are required by the Department of Education to submit phase, year, and individual lesson plans for each of their subjects. Because many teachers teach numerous subjects, the curriculum has been rewritten several times, and most educators have had no formal curriculum training, this task is extremely daunting for our teachers. It’s a little daunting for us as well, as Kelli put it, “How do you teach someone to do a triple toe loop when they’ve never put on ice skates before?” However, we are excited at this opportunity to use our experience and education – our master’s degrees in curriculum and instruction will be put to good use – and realize that it will take many baby steps to get the teachers comfortable writing their own lesson plans. Although many of the teachers chose not to attend, Joe was happy with the three teachers that showed up and they made plans to get together again the following week.

Our second workshop for the day, ‘Getting to Know Thabo and Thandeka’, was unfortunately cancelled since our schools were pretty much deserted by lunch time. Undeterred, we decided to spend the afternoon at The Project. No matter how frustrated or depressed we may be feeling about our school projects, spending time at The Project never fails to pick us up and remind us of how lucky we are to be spending the next two years living and working in this amazing community. Since Kelli’s back was still bothering her, she opted for passive activities and had a great time teaching the kids how to make their own graph (checkers) boards with cardboard, sharpies and bottle caps and drawing with Linky. Joe amused the active kids with Frisbee and soccer.

Although probably not a big deal to anyone else, we must take some space to congratulate Joe on his soccer victories- his first and potentially last. Although Joe had played soccer in his youth (the position BEHIND the goal) and he was almost as big as the playing field, he was a little intimidated by the small goals and the group of boys who had started playing in the womb. During the game the boys had a great time showing off their dribbling and passing skills, but Joe finally defeated them with a basketball standby: the fake. He delighted in faking a hard kick, waiting for the kids to flinch / duck and then taking a shot at the goal. Worked like a charm and Joe was feeling confident enough after the win to accept a one-on-one footwork challenge from one of the boys. The game consisted of trying to kick the soccer ball between the legs of your opponent. Joe likens the story to the scene in Indiana Jones when the villain swings his sword with great skill before Dr. Jones takes out a gun and shoots him. The young boy danced around Joe dribbling the ball up and back around his body like an elaborate dance. Always the jokester, Joe got a few laughs from the crowd by standing with his legs wide open. Taking advantage of Joe’s silliness, the young boy took a shot. Joe closed his legs just in time and fired the ball right back at the boy, which rocketed right through his legs. WINNER! We celebrated Joe’s victories that evening with some treats from our Thanksgiving package from the Petricks and a game of cards.