Week 10- Education and Kruger Park “The earth has music for those who listen.” ― George Santayana

March 10^th- My guesthouse mates made me “real” South African cuisine:  Vetkoek…basically deep fried dough with minced meat mixture inside. I have to say it was delicious. They also made another one that was baked in the oven with honey. Yum! Meanwhile, I helped them study for their test the next day (it was in restaurant management). I learned about the process for making bear, brandy, and whisky and helped them make flashcards for drinks. 

Amelda and Benedict (my chefs)

Vetkoek and study materials

March 11^th- Another debriefing with the 4^th year preservice teachers. This week we focused on what is going right in the classroom- strengths and interventions. It is so easy to put the energy on what is going wrong, especially for the students who are working at a struggling schools or with students with diverse needs. The preservice teachers broke up into groups and worked on two questions: 1) What are some strengths at your school site? and 2) what are some challenges? What is being done (interventions that work)? The discussion was lively and all of the students seemed to be engaged while they were talking about what was going on in their classrooms. Next, we had the teachers share out. During this time, the students were able to ask questions and have discussions about their observations while the class and lecturers gave feedback. Some major issues that were raised included discipline, differing rates of learning, and interpersonal challenges with staff.

March 13^th- I was asked to visit a school in Soweto’s area called Jabulani. I came to the school with my blurb about who I am and what I can offer. I asked questions about their school and then asked if they felt there was anything I could do to support them at this time. The principal and teachers in the meeting were very pleased I was at their school and asked if I could do some professional development, work with teachers and oversee individual students who they have concerns about in the classroom.  

Next, I taught an English Literacy class for the third year students. This was part II of examining the Harry Potter book. Because I noticed some issues from the teachers the week before, I decided to begin the class with an exercise. I had them answer 4 questions:  1) Who was their favorite teacher? Why? 2) What does good teaching look like? 3) What does good learning look like? and 4) Write a teaching pledge. I had the class share out how they answered and we talked about what they were doing in the classroom to show up for learning. Then, I broke them into groups to work on their Harry Potter Activities.  A few groups came up to ask for help and I asked where their missing group members were and they said they left. For the ones who stayed, they asked questions about how they could relate the story to their lives. I asked them if they ever felt connected to how Harry was feeling in the book or maybe a different character…they told me they needed to read closer. Some groups were not sure how they could relate the story to a historical event. I asked them what the major idea of the book was, they said good versus evil with a hero involved. I asked them if that had ever happened in history before…some groups said Jesus, others said Mandela. When they figured out an answer the look on their faces reminded me why I love teaching- when people finally get it.

March 14^th- I went to a cocktail hour hosted by “Small World” with my Italian guesthouse mate, Agata. Small World is one of those websites for ex-patriots…it is very exclusive, so exclusive they cut off the list at 1 million, so I am not an official member, I am just allowed to be a guest of a real member. At this event I met a few interesting people, mostly working in finance and mining.

March 15-17^th- Kruger Park- Nelly and I left for Kruger Park around noon. It took almost 6 hours of driving before we made it to our guesthouse in Marloth Park. We had some dinner and wine and headed to bed for a 4am wake up…we heard the lions roaring throughout the night- and they were not that close (life in the bush). It is recommended to get to the park by 5:30 to see the animals waking up and looking for food. We reserved an open top jeep and a driver/guide for the day, her name is Kellie. 

Drive to Kruger- smoke and traffic

We saw porcupine (they are nocturnal), hippos, elephants, impalas, zebras, a white rhino, lions, and giraffe all before 8am. Then, the sightings became less frequent although we ended up seeing the buffalo, warthogs, a jumping spider, kudu, vervet monkey, green mamba snake, crocodile, spring bok, leopard, wildebeest, steenbok, bateleur eagles, vultures, storks, lilac-breasted roller, and cheetah before leaving the park.  

I wasn’t sure if a drive through a game park was my kind of thing, but I have to say seeing the animals was such an amazing experience that everyone should try to do at some point in their life.

Feeding zebras at Marloth Park (guest house)

Lilac-breasted roller

Kudu

White Rhino

Wildebeast

Fever Tree

Here are some of the interesting facts I learned:

• ·      Rhino horns are made from hair and can grow back when they are cut off
• ·      The fever tree was named that because the hunters tended to get malaria after being near it (because they grow near water=mosquitos)
• ·      Kruger park is the size of Israel or Wales (2,000,000 hectacres)
• ·      When people talk about the “big 5” that means- elephant, buffalo, rhino, leopard, and lion. The term big 5 came from the difficulty hunting these five animals.
• ·      Leopards are built for stealth and preys or stalks animals, then kills and stores what it has killed (leisurely eating), whereas the cheetahs are built for speed- they attack and eat their prey immediately (mostly because they use all of their energy in short burst).
• ·      The African elephant is bigger than the Asian elephant
• ·      Some of the birds migrate from Europe to the park
• ·      The park holds more elephants than it can sustain
• ·      Giraffes struggle to walk on pavement (go figure)

We only had one day to go into the park, the next morning we began the 6-hour drive back to Jo’burg (I did a good job stopping and resting when I was tired). It was tiring and a whirl wind trip to the park, but worth every minute and ounce of energy!