The camp was at a school where Kosi’s mom teaches. This post is about the area and the school itself. The best way to tell the story is in pictures.
Getting to the school was a bit of adventure in our caravan of 3 large vans carrying about 40 folks. The road (about 3 km or 1.8 miles was quite bad with ruts, bumps, and occasional water crossings. Left: We stopped to measure the depth of one of the crossings. There were several of these crossings, none of them deep but all of them tricky to cross. In the foreground are 2 cows which were using the road just as we were. In the background you can see some of the houses. The houses were spread out so that each one had a large garden and other land around them. Right: The road is pretty good right here, but you get the idea. Cows and goats were all over.
The school teaches pre-school through grade 7. There are over 200 students and the principal hopes that with the new building they will get even more students next year. The staff of the school were very professional. Left: The principal. She was clearly in charge. When she spoke, the kids listened. Right: One of the teachers. I believe there are 2 men and 5 women teachers (plus the principal).
Within the last two months the school moved into their new buildings. Left: A portion of the old school. Right: A classroom were Kosi’s mom taught. There were 46 students in that room sitting 4 at a desk.
The new school is a set of buildings (pre-fab) in a U shaped configuration (4 building on the 2 sides of the U and 2 buildings in the bottom of the U. They are a huge improvement over the old school. Left: The outside of the buildings. Between the buildings there is small passage way. Right: A classroom. The rooms are plain, but functional. There is no technology in the school. The teachers had laptops or tablets, but the students have little access to technology of any kind.
Left: The school has a mission and vision statement. This is the vision statement. Right: It was nearly exam time and the schedule was posted in one of the classrooms. It appears that this schedule comes from a central authority. Home language is what we would call first language. First Additional Language is why we call second language.
Many of the classrooms had posters of what they were working on (phonics, sight words, mathematics, etc.). Left: They are teaching cursive writing. Notice the 2 languages on the page title (I think the bottom language is Afrikaans). Right: I thought the spelling bee words were interesting. I am sure I could not even pronounce the words, much less spell them.
I believe I speak for the team when I say we were impressed with the school, the students, the staff, and the job they appear to be doing to what we consider tough conditions. For example, there is no running water (anywhere in the community). At the moment there are several outhouses but only one is useable. The boys (and some of the young girls) would run into the fields surrounding the school and relieve themselves. As I said earlier, there was very little technology (computers, projectors, internet access, laboratories, etc.). Below: The students are lining up (youngest in front) for their first interaction with us.
