Home and School

I’ve been living with my host family and student teaching in the school for a week now, so I thought I would write a little bit about my life in this environment. I live with my mentor teacher Sunet Kellerman, her younger sister Rika, and their friend Janci. All three of them are in their twenties and moved to Cape Town from Pretoria (the capital city of South Africa in the north west part of the country) about two years ago. They moved here basically to get a change of scenery and start careers in a different part of the country than where they grew up. All three of them are white Afrikaners, the cultural group that had very high privilege during apartheid. They have a very nice townhouse in Kenridge, another suburb of Cape Town, near to the city of Durbanville where our guest house was. They’re all very nice and we get along well. They have introduced me to a few of their friends in the Cape Town area also. Everyone I’ve met has been very nice, interested in hearing about life in the U.S., and willing to tell me all sorts of things about South African culture and society. The only slight difficulty is that all of them speak Afrikaans as they’re first language and often speak that language when they talk to each other. Everyone speaks English fluently so they have no problems talking to me, but they sometimes switch to Afrikaans in large group settings and I can’t really participate in the conversations. When that happens I find myself paying attention to changing tone of voice, body language, etc. I can actually guess a lot about emotions or context, even if I can’t understand the words. It’s kind of cool, actually.

They’ve also taken me to church and Bible study since I’ve been here, which I’ve liked a lot. Religion, especially Christianity, has a much stronger role in society here than it does in the U.S. Separation of church and state doesn’t really exist here. For example, every morning at the school we begin with a Bible reading and prayer. It’s also interesting to see young people close to my age speaking very openly about their faith. It’s something that I’ve found to be very rare in the U.S. You really have to know where to look to find people comfortable discussing their faith. People are much more open about it in South Africa. In other ways, living with these women is exactly like living with young professionals in the U.S. We go to the movies, go out to eat with friends, go dancing at clubs on weekends, and sit at home watching TV and talking.

In contrast to my home life, the school is a very different world. I work with Sunet in a 3rd grade class at Eikendal Primary School in the nearby suburb of Kraaifontein. The school has grades 1-7, which is typical for most South African primary schools. (Kindergarten is offered some places in South Africa but it’s not required.) Class sizes are larger here than they are in the U.S. and my class has 34 students in it. In the upper grades, classes can sometimes have more than 40 or 50 students! The students in the class are all coloured and black, as are most of the teachers. My mentor teacher is one of only two white teachers at the school. Most of the students come from poorer families and often come to school with not enough supplies and torn or dirty clothes because the families can’t afford to take care of things as well as they should. All South African schools require students to wear uniforms, but often in the poor schools kids only have one piece of each uniform item. Regardless, the kids are adorable and are truly grateful for everything their teachers do for them. They get so excited at even the smallest praise. They have so much enthusiasm and I love working with them.

The school building itself is also very interesting. It’s constructed kind of like a hotel with outdoor corridors. The classrooms all open to the outside and there are outdoor staircases leading up to the second floor. In front of the classrooms and connecting the different wings on the ground floor is a raised sidewalk called the “stoop.” Between the wings of the school is a large enclosed courtyard area and there are large open spaces in front and behind the school as well. There’s no playground, but during the break periods or “intervals,” the students run around and play in the open places around the school. There is no set lunch period at the school. There are two 15-20 minute intervals during the day that serve as a combined lunch/recess for the kids and staff.

The language difference can make things interesting sometimes when I’m teaching. The class is entirely taught in English, but most students in the class learned Afrikaans or Xhosa as their first language at home and really only started learning English when they came to school for the first time. Most of them speak English well enough to communicate in class, but many struggle to write in English. I always have to remind myself to speak slower and choose my words carefully when explaining things to them. When I talk to them I always have to make sure that I don’t use vocabulary that’s too difficult for them and speak slowly enough so they can understand my accent. Overall, I’m enjoying my home stay and school experience. Things aren’t always easy, especially at school, but I love the opportunity to learn and experience new things.