Amawus School

A sleep is as good as a rest - Amawus School - Tuesday

Well, today is much more positive. Over dinner the group did so much planning to try and get ready for today. There was much conversation about whether we should do the same things - but I was really impressed by how proactive everyone was. The other group from the other school were just the same, discussing their sessions late into the night and very early this morning. There's a real sense that they want to get this right, to really be valuable while we are here.

It would be easy to sit back and just observe - the learners love having us here, as do the teachers so we could rest on our laurels. But it is amazing how quickly you connect to these pupils and want the best for them. 

Today I started by observing a lesson with Sarah. Observation quickly turned into teaching and Sarah was very good at working with the students at their level. As we moved into teaching metre, centimetre and millimetre my 30 year old brain was starting to show. The teacher was impressed, although worried when Katy said we don't have kilometres in England and tend to use miles in travel, she quickly realised we would try our best. 

Over in the reception class Sophie L, Emilie and Holly watched some class before helping them with their writing and spelling. The teacher was very impressed by how Sophie used 'join the dots' to help them write their own names - 'This is a great strategy' she said, 'I will use this always'.

Today we were given even more freedom, and although the group seemed a little smaller than normal we were managing the work much mor easily. The balance of students to learners seemed to be working really well. 

So, a really great start and we're hoping to do more Drama today too with some of the older groups who seem really interested in taking part.

Meeting the Chief - Amawus School - Monday

After class we didn't get collected until 4.30 so we went for a walk in the township. Mr Dlamini introduced us to the head boy who took us for the walk along with the choir leader.

We began by walking some of the children back to their houses. Lots of the children wanted to follow us and hold our hands - many of them talking animatedly about our skin colour and the difference with their own. This is the kind of work we can't plan but is so fascinating. Many of the children have never seen a white person other than on television so to touch our skin and hair was hugely intriguing for them. 

The head boy walked with us up to the Chief's house of the township - we didn't really know what to expect but asked lots of questions about what he did and how you became Chief. It turned out you had to contact the chief in order to build on the land, and the chief is a position passed through relatives - we also met his son, the next chief. 

When we arrived at his home filled with cattle and geese our chaperones were asking us a lot about London - did we have cows at home? What is our house like? What's the weather like?

We tried to answer their questions as best as we could although it was difficult to do it without trying to compare to what they have. Someone asked if London was as big as Harding (the nearest town).

The men took us to the Chief's graveyard (pictures to follow) - it's clearly an area they're really proud of and it was strangely peaceful. It had the most beautiful backdrop of the green hills and fields and you could instantly see why this was a perfect place for a 'holy' spot.

On each grave there was  a bible transcription on each tomb in English -  "so that everyone can read it". The graves of the chief's family were also there, totalling around 6.

It was so lovely to have been invited into this precious place and be shown this area that so few people visit. Moments like these are what have made this trip special. 

On our way back we met a girl who came to say hello. We could tell from her dress that she attended a different school and her level of English and confidence speaking the language made her stand out - As I approached her with the traditional Zulu greeting Saobona she replied 'I can speak very good English'. 

We asked her about her school and when we discussed the school we were at she looked less than impressed. It was the first encounter we had had with anyone who suggested class or poverty within the community. She was fascinated by how much our trip had cost and who had paid for it - this was a different kind of learner we met and was so interesting to see the difference between this girl and the others we'd met. 

When we finally got onto the bus the bus was filled with conversations between the two groups of students. The experiences are so different - particular in what the schools have expected of our students. In comparison to our school the students at the other school were asked to teach straight away and asked to plan lessons, but the group sizes were much smaller. 

What's great is that because their two experiences have been so different we all feel like we've experienced both. Listening to people's stories and how they overcame challenges or what worked meant we all learnt the techniques. 

A long day with a lot to think about!

After a great start the groups started to break up. Sarah, Hollie, Hev, Sophie and Katy helped the children make masks of their favourite animals that they can wear for the performance tomorrow. I thought it was a really great idea - even if the children couldn't perform something completely, they could be apart of it with what they made. It reminded me of the Ham House birthday a few years ago when we allowed participants to make puppets and costumes. By working like this the participants had real investment in the work, and that's the thinking here. After a very chaotic 10 minutes as the youngest learners (around 50 of them) piled into one classroom before being escorted into two the children really enjoyed drawing and showing off their masks to each other and to their teacher. 

In the other groups the games had moved indoors and were working on some really strong images and freeze frames - exploring 'happy' and 'angry' as well as community, future self and how they can make these things happen. Natalie and Tom managed to get some good work out of a pretty rowdy group of boys - the picture above showing what makes them happy. In Jordan and Emilie's group there was a group of girls who really knew how to make an angry face and started to understand the Drama games much more quickly that yesterday.

However, the biggest difficulty today has been momentum - every time you start to build something something happens to change it. Either lunch, or choir practise, or the heat and so building the Drama work into something this afternoon has been difficult. However, the learners are all engaged and enjoying what they're doing all the time. 

The most interesting development are a few children who love to write and so this afternoon Natalie and Sarah have been working with 2 girls who like to rap and have been helping them write lyrics in English. The appreciation those girls have is vast. This morning one of them brought guava for Sarah and Nat to try and they gave reciprocal gifts - a packet of skittles and 2 chocolate eclairs. Such a small thing but the young girl was clearly overwhelmed at the generosity.