Free Teachers Work With Freewalkers

Thank God it is Friday. Where did this week go?

My roommates, Sarah and Brit, are both teachers at Herbert Hurd Primary School. Sarah and Brit are on holiday as well and we all discussed possible plans to make up our free time. The ladies and I decided to volunteer with a non-profit organization here in Port Elizabeth called Freewalker. Each day we would meet the organization leaders, Jordie and Murray, at their house in Newington and drive to the township located in New Brighton. Kwa-Ford Primary School has been in the careful hands of Jordie and Murray ever since they decided to help refurbish the classrooms and rejuvenate the school garden. The ladies and I helped paint two classrooms and build new hang racks for the students. One of the teachers was so delighted to see the improvements we were making in and around the school. 

I was happy to see we were making a small difference:

I was just happy in general quite frankly...

On the last day, we played soccer with some of the boys from the township and Kwa-Ford Primary students. Fun was an understatement. The match was not Freewalker volunteers against Kwa-Ford boys: it was us playing with them and we all enjoyed the game. 

                      

Photos provided by Freewalker.

Hopefully, we will be working with Freewalker again in the near future...

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" - Philippians 4:13

I monitored the students as they marched in for assembly this morning. After the line of mint green , white and black faded, I took my seat at the back of the stage. Mr. Bubb, the deputy chairman at PHS, took the place of Principal Van Staden. One of the teachers commenced the assembly with a short story and a bible verse taken from Philippians 4:13. He prayed and led the hymn in English. Athletics updates were reported and the Pearsonites bid Emma Oliver farewell.

/ˈbet.ər / and bet-er

Human Rights

Pearson High School staff and students are off for the day. South Africa commemorates the former Sharpeville Day. In 1960, police shot 69 black protesters in Sharpeville, Gauteng. 52 years later, the name of the day has changed to Human Rights Day but the subject of severe matter has not. Apartheid was amended, yet the existing tension among Blacks, Coloreds, Whites and Indians remains disturbing to outsiders, like me, as well as nationals.

An aftermath photo of the Sharpeville shootings in 1960.

According to the Washington Post, President Jacob Zuma encouraged South Africans to remember the blacks who were brutally gunned down for protesting against segregation. How exactly will South Africans do this today? I am tempted to ask the students what they or their families did for Human Rights Day tomorrow.


What am I doing? Learning and reeducating myself on the Sharpeville massacre and the foundations of a legal system which began the perpetuation of adverse conditions for South Africans.

A week ago..

... I was at Federal Hocking High School in Stewart, Ohio. On my second to last day, I taught a lesson on plagiarism. If I begin to tell you the disservice these students bring upon themselves, I might not go to sleep today. Yes. It is 3 in the morning, but I am not tired nor sleepy. However, I can always discuss that issue in the future and this is my first entry. Why waste space on a rant?

Today I am in South Africa and for the next 3 months I will be student teaching at Pearson High School in Port Elizabeth. Back to the motherland. Forward I press on..