February 02, 2012

I thought that celebrating my birthday outside the US for the first time would be the most exciting thing that happened this week, but that turned out to be far from the truth. I did have a wonderful, relaxing birthday on Sunday (23 feels like a good, prime age to be). I spent most of the day cooking with my co-fellow – we made a delicious feast of falafel with tomato & cucumber, hummus, pitas, chocolate cupcakes, and popcorn. But it didn’t feel much like my birthday due to the warm air and sunshine outside instead of the deep drifts of snow that usually accompany my birthday.

However, if my birthday was subdued, the past few days have been anything but. Monday’s classes went as planned, and after school we visited the priest (he gave us some freshly picked apples from the convent’s orchard!). But in my first class on Tuesday (B1 agric) I was sitting quietly as my team-teacher wrote notes on the board for the students to copy (classes at St. Rodrigue are not always terribly interactive) when I began to hear girls whooping and shouting in distant classrooms. Some teachers have been known to punish classes by making them run laps around the school buildings.

(Although sometimes I wonder if the girls aren’t relieved to get some fresh air and a break from their classrooms – I neglected to mention in my last post that it’s the teachers who move between classrooms when the bell rings, not the students).

So when I saw a few students sprint by our door I thought it was discipline for a rowdy class. But the commotion continued, seemingly from different parts of the school, and as the numbers of girls running around outside grew, the B1s became increasingly restless. Finally, when the business-like head of the science department paraded past our door with her arms in the air and a gaggle of girls behind her my team-teacher and I released our students (who were visibly squirming in their seats at that point) to go see what all the excitement was.

Soon the corridor outside the main building was filled with a throng of students singing and dancing (video here), and after a few minutes’ bewilderment I learned that test results of last year’s Form Es had come in, and the results were excellent. The Form had produced 3 first classes, 3 second classes, 18 3^rd classes, and an overall pass rate of 85%. Apparently it’s the best results the school has had since 1996. This was cause for jubilation among students, teachers, and nuns alike, and there was really no way anyone could return to class, so the rest of the day was reserved for celebration. As one teacher exclaimed, “The most disadvantaged students in the most rural area had three first classes! Let them play!”

Everyone soon made their way to the steps of the church, where the students who practice in a drum and dance line (known as ‘cadets’) performed, with a wide periphery of other students dancing alongside them. After awhile the teachers convened in the priest’s office, where we snacked on suckers (not just for little kids in Lesotho) and apples, and the Sesotho-speakers sang some joyful songs. A strong, confident singing voice seems to be the birthright of everyone around here. The priest gave a general blessing over the school and the work accomplished and took a picture of the staff. Then we were off for the rest of the day.

Naturally, this gives me a lot of motivation to prepare my own classes as thoroughly as I can before they take their exams in November. The principal has mentioned several times, in both speeches to the students and private conversation, then need to maintain a positive trend and continually improve our results. It’s a good aspiration and I hope I can meet the challenge.

In the evening I made my first real attempt to hike up the mountains to the north of St. Rodrigue (check out the map and you’ll see what I mean). I haven’t felt the high altitude here (~6,000 ft compared to southern Iowa’s 1200 ft) much on a daily basis, but as soon as I start walking uphill I become breathless very quickly. All the more reason to keep hiking so my body can adjust. I made it at least halfway up the mountain, high enough to get a beautiful view of St. Rodrigue and a peek of the sky to the west, but a thunderstorm rolling in forced me to turn around sooner than I would have liked.

My co-fellow and I think we need to start from a different point anyway, to avoid some steep rock outcroppings, so we’ve been watching the path some students take to cross the mountains on their way home. (Their bright white hats make them easy to spot on the green slopes.) If we’re quick enough after school we might as them to show us the way.

Classes weren’t quite back to usual on Wednesday – we had a staff meeting in the afternoon, so classes were shortened to half an hour so they would finish by 1:30. My first staff meeting was enlightening, if a little long at 3 hours. I learned that no matter what country you’re in, no one wants to be on a committee. One of the concerns we discussed was that the teacher of the Bs and Ds maths won’t arrive for at least another month or two, and it’s difficult to find a substitute for that short of a time. Currently they have no teacher at all, so I volunteered to take on the Ds where my schedule would allow, which unfortunately looks like only about 3 classes per week. But it’s better than nothing and I’m happy to do it – especially because I enjoy teaching the Es so much.

The other main topic of discussion at the meeting (besides my welcome party, haha – coming in a few weeks and may involve braai) was orientation for the students on Thursday afternoon. My co-fellow and I don’t have any responsibilities related to this – it looks like all the instruction is in Sesotho to ensure the youngest students understand everything. As far as I could tell the orientation covered things like uniform specifics, dorm rules, expected behavior in class, etc. So classes on Thursday were also only half an hour each.

Despite that the morning was pretty productive. I made my first announcement at assembly to notify students about the first meeting of the Theater Club (which my co-fellow and I are leading)! A student approached me a few days prior anxious to know if I could start a drama extracurricular, much to my delight. It’ll be fun to see what I can remember from my high school forays into drama. The student I mentioned would want me to explain to you that the name is ‘theater’ club to encompass both girls who want to perform and those who would like to stay in the writers’ room.

There was a good turnout at the meeting – 15 girls, all in Forms D and E. We’ll start next week meeting after school twice a week for an hour and see where it goes from there. I think it should be a lot of fun, and the girls are already excited about the prospect of performing/publishing their work – which are wonderful goals to have from the beginning.

Believe it or not, classes are also short on Friday, this time the reason being that the first Friday of every month the students and teachers attend church at 11:00. However, my co-fellow and I won’t be there because the principal is taking us to Maseru to get my residence permit (I currently have a one-month visa). Uncle ahs gone back to India for the month, so we’ll be checking out the Maseru Foothills Guesthouse. It probably won’t be as luxurious as staying at Uncle’s house, but I’m sure it will suffice. There will be showers, and that’s reason enough to be excited!

Hopefully next week will be a little more predictable, schedule-wise, and I’ll report on the progress of the Theater Club, as well as all the other news from St. Rodrigue!

Stray thoughts:

• The soil is SO red here – it must be iron oxide, right? Agronomists, let me know.
• There are more trees here than I expected but I’ve yet to seen one that’s not within spitting distance of another that’s been chopped down.
• All my skirts passed the giggle test! (Western fashions are quickly taking hold in St. Rodrigue, but women still usually wear long skirts – knee length or longer. Short skirts are seen as little girls’ wear. So we’re free to wear them to work, but they may cause the students to giggle uncontrollably.)
• On the van ride into Maseru I noticed “Humped Zebra Crossing” signs and became very excited, expecting to see some bizarre camel-zebra hybrid. I was a little disappointed when I realized the signs were just indicating bumps in the road painted with white diagonal stripes.