Workshops: Getting to Know Thabo and Thandeka: November 14 - 27

In an effort to dispel rumors of Thabo being a spy for the South African government and to help us plan for the following school year, we created and implemented the ‘Getting to Know Thabo & Thandeka Workshop’ series at each of our six schools. Although we had to exercise our patience as far as late arrivals, cancellations and no-shows, we ended up completing all of the workshops before the end of the school year. Not only were the workshops lots of fun, they were also a huge success! We began each workshop with a brief description of our personal and educational backgrounds, accompanied by a map of the United States and personal pictures. Then using a world map, we explained the mission, goals, and history of the Peace Corps. Next it was the teachers’ turn to help us. At each school we divided the staff into small groups and had them brainstorm answers to the following questions:
- What trainings/workshops would you like to see Thabo & Thandeka offer next year?
- What would you like to see improved at your school?
- What school projects can Thabo & Thandeka help with?
- What are the greatest strengths of your school?
The teachers enjoyed discussing these questions and we all got very excited by the ideas for upcoming projects and workshops. We are constantly amazed by how proud our teachers are of their schools and the unique and creative ideas for continual improvement. We then opened the floor for any questions that the teachers had for us. This was our favorite part, as we got to answer questions such as, “Why don’t you have children? What possessed you to leave your jobs, move across the world, and work for free? Who do you send your ‘reports’ to? Are you doing this instead of the military? Are you sure you’re not getting paid? Don’t you miss your families? Are you going to have kids in South Africa? How old are you? and Why are you REALLY here?” The biggest hit, however was when we pulled out our digital camera to take pictures of all the teachers. After weeks of struggling to learn everyone’s name, we thought that having individual pictures that we could study each night would help us learn the names of the 100 or so staff at our schools by the beginning of the next school year. Plus, it would give us something to do over summer break. We shared many laughs as the teachers posed for their pictures, immediately running over to Joe to see how they looked in the viewfinder. Many of the teachers wanted to pose by our maps to look more ‘scholarly’. Kelli’s biggest compliment over the past few months was when her Deputy Principal wanted her picture taken with Kelli. Slowly but surely, we are integrating ourselves into the schools and community.