First trip to Nyanga

This afternoon I followed Jane, Seychelle and a few of the Gap Year interns (Thobela, Sivuyile, and Luyanda) out to the Nyanga township for the afters-school program. The weather probably has a lot to do with it, but this township seems much more active and city-like than Philippi. There are cars everywhere, along with huge areas filled with small businesses: cobblers, fish markets, clothes, fruit, and even livestock. I've always wanted to use the word cobbler in a sentence.

Anyway, this is where Luyanda and Sivuyile live, and both seemed noticeably more comfortable once we were in the townships. Typically two of the quieter men in the class, they were striking up conversations with us and laughing much more freely than they ever do at the office. Unfortunately, they were helping other volunteers while I had to teach the first few minutes of an environmental class by myself...

the teaching didn't go so well today. The 11th grade students at this school are the farthest behind of any we teach - any age, any school - and most of them wouldn't speak to me at all. I had been instructed by Jane and the teacher to line a bunch of them up in front of the class and ask questions about global warming. But we never got that far, because when I asked the second boy in line to introduce himself to the class, he started crying, a combined fear, I was told later, of both speaking in front of a group and of having a relatively large white man talk to him in English. Then the other boys crowded around him and faced me as if for confrontation, and I had nothing to do but walk right out the doorway (which has no door). This, I'll restate, after asking for the boy's name only. Crazy stuff over here.

So, they'll be calling me Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in the office for a little while, but it was an eye-opener for me. I'm going back to the same place next week, and hopefully things will go a little better.

ps - you can see the Gap Year Interns here:
http://www.saep.org/GapYear/2008%20Intern%20Profiles/2008%20profiles.htm