Wednesday Afternoon South African Style!

Last Wednesday saw the school compete in a series of sporting fixtures against a neighbour school. When such events happen in England the opposition tends to rock up, play and leave…. Not here in South Africa. Instead of sombre looks, lots and general awkwardness as teams turn up and begin to attempt to psych their opponents out, an almost carnival atmosphere kicks in.
Whilst the learners sing and dance in excitement of the forthcoming festival of sport, the teachers from the opposition school are invited to share lunch with the learners of the host. This is a fairly informal affair, although much fun, with some good spirited banter about which sports each school thinks it will beat the other at.

My afternoon began with a couple of quick fire table-tennis matches against Bob and Sbu (educators at St. Matthews). I guess this is a fair representation of Chad’s sporting culture given that at its peak in the 2008-2009 season table-tennis was the Chad’s sport with most participation on a weekly basis! Sbu in particular put up a good fight but eventually succumbed to defeat as I managed to use my experience to overcome a tricky opponent- yes Sbu we can have a rematch one day!

The second XI football team opened the inter-school competition down on the sports field, deservedly winning an entertaining match 2-1. What was most notable here was how the boys in many ways abandoned the style of play that they normally adopt, a high tempo, short passing game for a style that would be more at home in the Premier League with long balls and crosses thrown in! You could still see the occasional bit of flair, but in general the play was a lot more rigid.

Following the victory of the football team the expectations were high when the second XV rugby team came out. The first half was very tense and I was asked to give a half time team talk to try to give us the edge. My main points were that in the scrums the props needed to get lower (and we could really attack their weak tight-head!) and that the defence needed to communicate a lot more and tighten up. There was a small improvement in the second half and we managed to scrape to a 3-0 victory courtesy of a penalty kick! I guess my little team talk may have influenced proceedings….!

Between the football and rugby came netball. Having never watched or played netball I was amazed at the speed of the game. In particular the ‘Centre’ from each team must have been exhausted at the end of the game. St. Matthew’s have a reputation for netball – being the best in the region and with the score line 14-3 at half time, even to the casual observer you could see why! The precision and pace of the girls was very impressive.

Next up came the first XI football team. The step up in terms of pace of the game from the second team was immediately noticeable. With the game locked at 0-0 at half time I was again called in to give a team talk… this time my advice was to try and get in behind the full backs a bit more and also for our defence to push up as by sitting as deep as they were there was a huge gap between them and the midfield giving the opposition plenty of space to play in. I did not catch the end of the game as I was called away to the first XV (to prepare to play – and then coach when they realised I did not have kit) to give them some advice before their match. The football ended in a 0-0 draw with other observers (Tim and Rachel) informing me either team could have taken the second half.

Finally came the big one – first XV rugby. When Miss Blom said that everyone would stop and come down for this event she certainly meant it – think floodlight cup crowd doubled (thanks to the locals it drew in as well!). I had been asked to give some advice to the team before the game – whether this got through or not I was not sure as I was asked to speak through a translator to ensure that all the boys (many of who struggle with English) fully understood. The spectacle before the game was amazing – after the team ran out each player was presented with their shirt by one the adoring grade 12 girls who were singing and dancing away – thanks to the vuvuzalas we missed out on all of this tradition at the World Cup! Once the boys were kitted up they themselves went through various dance routines and haka like routines (sadly cut short as it would get dark if they did not get a move on!) before the game finally kicked off. As with the football the intensity at first team level was significantly higher with far more aggression being shown by both teams. St. Matthews were certainly struggling and were in many ways lucky to only be 7-0 down at half time, especially given that our outside centre had been sent to the sin-bin when we were defending our line. Cue me being dragged on at half time – again a similar problem to the second XV, the defence was severely lacking organisation – a real shame given the natural attacking flair of the team. The second half was an exciting affair and St. Matthew’s nearly nicked it at the end with a nice little break by our scrum half from the 15m line. Sadly he lacked the support of the tiring forwards and a penalty was conceded, our best chance gone begging.

It was a shame that St. Matthew’s lost what they regarded as the most important fixture, but the number of teams that won stood 3-1 (with the netball team destroying the opposition) so the atmosphere was not too downbeat.

Following the conclusion of the sporting events was a meal for the educators and as always when Miss Blom is involved in organising anything, an after-party for the educators…..!

A small update on the teacher’s strike

Seven days of teaching have been missed now thanks to the strike. The exams have been postponed and no new timetable issued since no one knows how long this dispute over pay and allowances is going to last. One must feel sorry in particular for those Grade 12 learners whose exams have been disrupted.

We have had a few teacher’s over for dinner this week – each one with a different opinion of when it is going to end. Hopefully today we should at least find out whether school will either resume on Monday or be out for the whole of next week. This will at least let us make some plans for redecorating the hostels as we will know how much time we have to play with…

It is fair to say that we are all finding the strike really frustrating. In many ways the fact we are just frustrated is lucky. Stories are starting to pour in about babies dying since hospitals have been barricaded. This is absolutely disgraceful in my opinion – the hospitals should be kept open at all costs with at least a skeleton staff running. I think the best bit of news about the strike that has come through this week was the news yesterday that the police have been blocked for striking for the moment. Lets hope they do not strike or the country will enter meltdown. I guess another good think is that at least the strikes have been postponed until after the Word Cup (when they were originally due to negotiate their pay and housing allowance increases).

Tom and Hadrian rose excruciatingly early on the Saturday morning to head to the UN debates being held at parliament in the political capital city, Bisho. The three of us that remained got up at a more sensible hour to help out at Book Club (an outreach program run in the two local primary schools every other Saturday in order to improve the English literacy of the younger generation. Volunteers from St Matthews run the sessions as activity leaders as part of their Presidents Award (think Duke of Edinburgh, South African edition). Jarvis and Emily, an American couple stationed at the school on behalf of the Calibar Foundation, help to oversee the initiative). I went with Jarvis to the school in the centre of Keiskammahouk, but arrived to find the school gates, the same school gates that the principle is supposed to leave open on Book Club weeks and the very same gates that had accidently been left locked a fortnight ago, locked and no sign of any kids or activity leaders. We asked around and found out that the principle lived in the ‘coloured’ part of town so Jarvis went on a retrieval mission whilst I began the club outside the gates with the small trickle of young children that were starting to appear. Forty minutes later, and by this time with a full set of keys, activity leaders and collection of learners (the South African term for students, teachers being referred to as ‘educators’), Book Club began in earnest. After the best part of an hour spent reading “A day at the beach”, “The boy who loved to sing” and other such classics, the focus of the club shifted to mathematics, much more my cup of educational beverage. It quickly became apparent that these young kids, ages from 4-10, were in possession of mental arithmetic capabilities far superior to those of the 12-18 year old learners of St Matthews, being happily obliged to perform mathematical feats such as 9 x 7 in front of the group that would have the oldest grade 12 classes in tears. Either this has been a recent development in the educational standards of rural primary schools, I thought, or there is a huge discontinuity in teaching from infant to junior/senior grades, allowing such vital skills as mental arithmetic to become buried in dusty boxes and placed at the back of the cerebral attic as a result of neglect.

The Saturday afternoon had been set aside for Miss Saints, the inaugural competition that occupies the highest plinth in the St Matthews social calendar, a gritty battle of beauty and fashion, with contestants grappling for the prestigious title of Miss/Mr Saint Matthews Junior/Senior, followed by a ‘bash’. Rachael had been scouted by the event organiser, Miss Blom, as a budding Simon Cowell, and had been asked to sit on the board of judges, alongside one of the female teachers and Jason, the token white teacher of the school, and at 18 years of age, barely out of school himself. Despite being the obvious first choice, I realised that they wished to respect my preference to act as a passive spectator.



On turning up at the glamorous venue, the assembly hall behind our house, we were tasked with newspapering up the windows. “Oh, to block out the light?” I enquired naively. “No, to stop the boys outside from looking in.” The date of the competition was well known in the village and every year locals, mostly older boys, try and gain entry for the spectacle, and after, dancing. I’d like to think it’s solely an indication of the lack of alternative entertainment available in Keiskammahoek, rather than due to the high percentage of vulnerable, young females and similarly low proportion of competing males. Barely hours after the event was due to start and minutes after the preparations were complete and the high-profile DJ’s from King William’s Town had arrived, Miss Saints 2010 began. Each category was to be decided by a single round – a walk along a pre-determined path, at times within close proximity to the judges table, allowing for a flare-moment (i.e. ridiculous flirting with the judges) in order to really stake a claim at the title. The junior category of the girls and boys passed by innocently enough, each contestant timidly pacing the floor to the general appreciation of the audience. It was during the senior categories that the knives came out and things livened up. The girls, all dressed up in their finest formal dresses, were first up. In stark contrast to the conservative regulations governing normal school dress-code, many of the contestants would have been considered indecently dressed by the girls found walking the streets of Newcastle on a Saturday night. “Tom [a.k.a. resident volunteer photographer], take some pictures!” demanded Miss Blom, thrusting him out into the catwalk, forcing him to tread the precarious line between accurately documenting the event and being prosecuted for inappropriate voyeurism. “This would not be legal in England,” whispered a blushing Tom. The girls having finished their parade, one golden-garmented girl among them having received a cacophony of boo’s and jeers by the on-looking girls (“She deserved it, her dress was ug-ly,” I was later informed by one of the learners. Talking to some of the elders, an evident shift in the interests of the young generation over the last decade has been the increased idolisation of Western idols, such as Beyonce and Jay-Z, bringing with it the associated values of fashion and vanity), the senior boys made their way out. Being a female-dominated school, this was obviously one of the more generally appreciated rounds, judging from the screams.



It can’t be easy for an adolescent girl growing up in Keiskammahoek. Even Rachael had difficulty suppressing her excitement, especially as each sun-shaded and suited young gentleman made their way over and sought her approval with an intimate wink. The results having been announced and disappointments thinly concealed by insincere congratulations, the DJ’s began blasting their music through the speakers and us volunteers, feeling awkward due to our purgatorial position between the roles of teacher and student, made a swift exit. Outside, we encountered the older boys queued eagerly at the door, attempting to gain entry by any means possible. On reviewing Tom’s photographs later on, we realised our newspapering had not been sufficient as a line of heads could be seen at the windows, above the blocked out sections, peering in.

The Latest on the teachers strike….

Yesterday (Thursday) saw the dreaded teachers strike become a reality. We were aware it was going to happen as we had Eman (the vice-principle) and Tony (a teacher on Senior Management) around for a curry the night before. They outlined the situation for us. Still the scene on Wednesday morning was worse than expected and to make matters worse the weather was atrocious (like a cold wet January day in England (the photo from our patio sums it up I think)! Clearly it would not be possible to run activities for the learners down on the sports field but it would be too dangerous to run activities in the school compound as people might think that we are teaching and so become aggressive towards us or the learners. Our hands are really tied and there is virtually nothing we can do – this is extremely frustrating). The learners (what the South African’s call their pupils) from the hostel were milling around the school at 8am unaware of the situation, but very aware of the fact that they had not even been given breakfast! (The hostel staffs’ response to the strikes). Eventually word got around that they were all meant to meet in the assembly hall where the principle would address them so off everyone went to assembly.

When we arrived in the assembly hall all the learners were singing and dancing away as they do every Friday – it is a truly amazing site to witness and I am not going to try to put a photograph or video up of it as nothing I have so far would do it justice. Eventually the Principle arrived to address the learners. He explained the situation to them. The school is not allowed to say to the learners “go home” - they themselves have to decide to do so. It was difficult for us to understand the situation since they had to speak in Xohsa to ensure all the learners understood everything. The Principle explained afterwards that the learners had decided they should all go home as they face the risk of violence or even arson attacks on the hostel should they stay! I do not think we sometimes realise how lucky we are that such a sorry state of affairs is virtually unheard of in the UK.

So off the learners have gone – they have made or are doing their best to make their way home. Some of them have very long journeys to make – for how long no-one knows…. The Grade 12 exams were meant to be starting next Thursday – whether they will now is anyone’s guess. Last night the situation in the country was really worrying – six teachers were shot in protests in Johannesburg yesterday when the police thought they had lost control of the progress. There have also been reports of hospitals being blocked by protestors. Whether the state hospitals even have a skeleton staff running is not clear since there were reports of 45 prematurely born babies having to be moved into privately run hospitals.

To say the situation is not good is an understatement. I can see both sides of the argument… The sooner the situation is sorted out though the better for everyone in South Africa.

UN Debating

Saturday saw St. Matthew’s send a team to take part in the mock UN Debate in Bisho. The debate was about human rights and the role that they believed the UN should play. The topic is announced two months before the actual debate and each school is randomly allocated a country they have to play in the debate. St. Matthew’s and their partner school had been allocated Switzerland, which it is fair to say was one of the more difficult countries they could have drawn.

The debate takes the format of a real UN debate, with each country giving an opening speech before formal and informal caucusing commences. Following this the working papers are present, read and voted on before each country is given the opportunity to make a closing speech about how they think the talks have gone.

This is part of a global competition with the winners from this regional round going on to compete in a national competition – the winners whom gets to represent South Africa and take part in an international competition held at the UN headquarters in New York!

The standard of debating was extremely high, I know I am speaking for both myself and Hadrian when I say that we were very impressed. The judges were made up of a panel of three containing a UN delegate from Pretoria and a South African finalist who got to go to New York last year…….. St. Matthew’s sadly did not come in the top three out of the twenty schools in attendance, but they certainly did themselves proud. What was incredible is how much they knew about what was going on worldwide – especially given the lack of internet access they have. It was obvious to the casual observer which schools had internet and which did not and this certainly counted against St. Matthew’s. The mock debate was an amazing event and I wish that my school had taken part in the UK’s equivalent event – if it was anything like this it would have been a very worthwhile experience.

Following the UN debate we had to rush back to school for the infamous Mr and Miss St. Matthew’s – I will let Tim fill you in on these events…….

A busy week and a farewell!

The weekends are usually a busy time for all of us as it is a great opportunity to run clubs and societies, the last one was no different with film club plenty of football and rugby!

Monday saw Women’s Day 2010! This is the South Africa and follows on from when women marched against oppression in Pretoria in the 1950’s. Being a bank holiday Monday the school was closed and with many of the girls left in the hostel we organised some activities to keep them all occupied….

We spent the morning getting the children to make news reports to explain what Women’s Day is about / why it is important etc. Some of the news reports that people came up with were extremely good and taught us more about what Women’s Day in South Africa is about. The only problem was trying to overcome stage fright whilst getting them to perform in front of the camera. To add to the difficulty it was extremely windy meaning it was important to make sure that the girls spoke loudly and confidently so that it was clear what they were saying on camera. One group did a play, which we all found quite amusing although we have to say we are not quite sure about its relevance to Women’s Day!

After grabbing a quick bite to eat for lunch we took the girls for a hike up one of the hills next to the school. This was good fun and we had to work hard as the girls got cold (yes it gets cold in SA, it was like hiking in Scotland – most the girls were wearing hats and gloves…!) and tired! Still the vast majority made it to the top and the smiles on their faces showed it was worthwhile!



On Tuesday the dreaded teacher’s strike actually started – we all covered as many classes as possible in the morning, before the school was actually locked up and closed for the day at 10am. It was a real shame that the school was locked as it meant that we could not carry on covering the lessons for the teacher’s on strike. To make matters worse it was the worse day of weather we have had since we have been out here. This meant that it was not possible to run other sporting activities etc. for the girls – many of whom just went back to the dorms and slept most the day. Additionally all the boys (who do not live in the dorms) had to go home so I had to cancel rugby practise. Still we made the most of the day, sorting out various pieces of admin that needed doing. I managed to edit down the video’s the girls made on Women’s Day which hopefully those involved will enjoy watching.

Yesterday and today saw the school back to normal although this may be temporary measure as unless the teachers’ demands are met they will be striking again tomorrow. We are still waiting to hear any news...

Sadly it has come to the time for Kara to leave so that she can prepare for her teacher training course. I think it is fair to say that she will be greatly missed by the pupils and staff at St Matthew’s along with the rest of the volunteers out here. The house will certainly be a lot quieter without her endless and mostly interesting chat! Kara has done a great job out here and will certainly go on to make an excellent teacher. There is one plus point though… spicy food is back on the menu and so we are having a massive curry tonight!!!

Arrival....

I have arrived in South Africa at last!

My first steps on South African soil were not as I expected, cold and wet! Still the weather has picked up and is now amazing! Everyone has made me feel so welcome - the most worrying thing is that a week has already gone by!

On Friday we went to the Grade 12's Matriculation Ceremony - this is in effect their school graduation / leaver's party. It was a great occasion, thoroughly enjoyed by all.

The highlight so far must have been the bonfire we had on Sunday night - the girls in the hostels absolutely loved this and it was such a rewarding and fun experience. Seeing them all go crazy when Shakira's 'Waka Waka' came on over the speakers was amazing and could not possibly be caught on camera.... still I gave it a try and I hope you enjoy the picture!

This week has been really busy getting various things started up. Playing football and rugby has been exhausting in the heat, but well worth the effort. I am currently in the process of organising a match for the near future. I have been busy going along to lessons to get up to speed with the school's syllabus, some of which is incredibly advanced!

Sadly the internet at the school is virtually non-existent, so I will only be able to post a weekly update. Still I will aim to do this whenever possible. This post has been a bit rushed since I have 8 minutes remaining on the clock in the internet cafe as I started typing - in future I will be more organised!