Hämmäauteensuo

Today we went camping for the afternoon. We had heard about a swamp that is on nature reserve. It's called Hämmäauteensuo. There is also a place to make fire or even stay over night. Not a cabin but a little shelter. Swamps are very common in Finland. As a child we visited them rather often while there are lots and lots of swamps in Ilomantsi where I grew up. I've always loved walking on duckboard! I don't know why but I do. So we get to walk on those.

I also love the fire. It's also a sign of summer when you get to eat sausages made on open fire. So that's what we did.

Spring

On Friday morning when I was walking to school I noticed that it had rained during the night. It ment green coming out of the trees. What a feeling! I love the spring and it's strength to make new. It gives us power to believe in renewing.

I was little out of my schedule but I couldn't resist stop and wonder many little things on my way to work. Here is one of them:

Mostly I enjoyed the little hint of green and the idea of summer getting closer...

The feeling that summer is almost here made us start our balcony season. Saturday night we lit candles on the balcony and stayed out couple of hours even tough we had to be dressed is winter jackets... Crazy Finns! Enjoy the candles with me.

Arethabeng School

The best moments of our trip were at the Arethabeng School. I really enjoyed those moments and will treasure them in my heart. Arethabeng school is situated in Soshanguve, the township of Pretoria.





This is how the school look likes. It has two long buildings opposite each other were the class rooms are. In the middle of those buildings you see the shelter/roof under which the morning assemblies and other events that involve the whole school occurs. It's also a place were food is distributed for the poorest who have right for the free meal at school. On the other end of the school yard that is between the class room buildings is the administrational building and on the other end of the school yard there's a building wiht computer class and bathrooms. Outside of this complex there is still one building were the pre school and aid class are and a little library.


The school starts at 7 o'clock. first thing that happens then is cleaning. Children take brooms and sweepers and start wiping the dust away from the yard. Some has to do school patroling and others arrange classrooms for the days work. It was amazing how this all happened very independently without strict supervision and it all got to be done. Maybe they wanted to please us visitors but anyway that impressed me.

After the cleaning session the schhol gathered under the roof for the morning assembly. They do that every morning at the first quarter of the school year and after that only on Mondays and Fridays. The whole school assemblies every morning at the beginnig of the school year are important for the first graders who need to get into the school's habbits, songs etc. Music, sports, arts or handcrafts are not taught at school. All the songs they sing they learn at the assembly and all the dances they dance too. Sports and music can be taught at the clubs after school but they don't belong to the curriculum.

The assemblies were awesome! It could last from 15 minutes to half on our and children stood still the whole time. First they did some simple excersizes. Orders were given in English and the first graders learned that way some words of English. The language of the school is Northern Sotho but while it's a small language the school language changes into English gradually because there isn't any materials in Sotho. After excersizes it's time to sing and pray. Oh boy, those songs! I loved them! I even tried to learn one dance. Children laughed so probably I wasn't very good.

By the way those who don't have their school uniforms on have their birthday. It's the day when you get to were your normal clothes. The birthday girls and boys were asked to come forward every morning and then they were sang happy birthday. It was a nice tradition. I enjoyed those extra verses they had saying: How old are you now, how old are you now... (the whole school asked that), I am twelve years old now, I am twelve years old now... (the person had to answer her/his age) and She is twelve years old now, she is twelve years old now... And of course they now sing one verse in Finnish too.

One other song they learned to sing in Finnish is part of their national anthem. That part is called Nkosi sikelelel' iAfrika. It means God bless Africa. We have it in our hymn books on a name Kuule Isä Taivaan. It's a very popular children's hymn here in Finland. Every child in here knows it. That song was very important for the black while they were fighting against the Apartheid. Since from the year 1997 the national anthem of The South Africa has been the combination of the former apartheid time anthem and this Nkosi sikelel' iAfrica. It's sang in four different languages. South Africa has 11 official languages.


Well, here some pictures from the assembly:

As you can see some of the dances were rather living!

There are over 400 pupils (or learners, the way they call pupils in South Africa) in Arethabeng School. Many of them come from the unformal settlement areas living in shaks. The amount of pupils in one class varies from 40 to 80. Even the first grades are huge with 40 pupils and they start school at the age of six! It's hard to imagine how those teachers survive. Discipline has to be tight. Otherwise it just doesn't work. The children don't have school books. In stead they do their work on booklets. I wish we would have had more time to just observe the teaching there. I know we could have learned a lot! I learned to appreciate those teachers. It's easy to get good PISA results with such a good resources as we do have here in Finland. These teachers do excellent work with their loving hearts in conditions where I wouldn't survive as a teacher.

Here's the sixth grade with 80 learners (all don't even fit to the picture):

The other one of the first grades (40 learners all together):


This looks familiar. The only difference is that older pupils weren't allowed to use a carry (do you call "memory number" that in English - my dictionary said so).
On an English lesson.
Lunch time. The needy ones get a free meal at school, others eat their own sandwiches etc.
I hope you enjoyed my photographic tour to Arethabeng School. It's impossible to provide the real picture with the hot sun, smiling and interested leaners, relaxed athmosphere, loving and welcoming attitude towards us etc. I left a big part of my heart to Arethebeng!

Visiting South Africa

About a month ago I returned from my unforgettable trip to South Africa. I visited our friendship school there with four other teachers. We stayed in South Africa 8 days. We saw so much that it felt much longer time. The local teachers took us so well that it also felt like we belonged there. We all experienced so much that it will take me more than one post to unload.

I start with the landscapes. Half of our trip we stayed in Pretoria area where the friendship school Arethabeng situated. Then we took a bus all across South Africa to Cape Town and stayed there for the rest of our trip. The views were beautiful and it definately was worth taken the 22-hour bus ride. The picture above is taken on the bus route. I love the mountains. We don't have them in Finland. Seeing mountains makes me aldo miss Colorado and the Rocky Mountains.

Here are landscapes from the Pretoria area:

This is Pretoria, the capital of South Africa:

We also visited Soweto and the former house of president Nelson Mandela. That area is the only one in the world from where has come two Nobel Peace Prize winners: Desmond Tutu in year 1984 and Nelson Mandela year 1993. There is nothing special in that area. It's a common township (area were blacks were inhabited) as you can see. Nowadays there are lot of turist there - of course.

On our way back from Soweto we also saw some strange huge shapes of land every now and then. We kept wondering what they are and finally heard the explanation. Those things were made out of the waste land from the gold mines! I figured that there must be many gold mines near by while those things were huge and there wasn't only one of them. One of the teachers told also that those waste land hills were made on purpose in between the townships and Johannesburg so that it would be even harder for blacks to get in there. How cruel can a human being be?

The bus took us through the Hex Valley which produces 60% of South Africas grapes. It was a very very beautiful valley and you could see miles and miles of those grape plantations.

The sad thing was that right beside those plantations you would see informal settlements like this and you realize that the poorest of the South Africa are those who pick the grapes. They sell South African grapes at the grocery store closest to us. Every time I buy them I feel bad. I get them so cheap because someone is picking them up with too little salary. Made me want to buy fair trade products even more! Afterwards I even read one blog that told about the HIV problem in that area:
The Hex Valley is a wine growing region – every year, more than 23,000 seasonal workers, largely from the Eastern Cape, migrate to the region to become grape pickers. 28 per cent of pregnant women in the Eastern Cape have HIV, which means that as people spread across the country desperate to find work, so too does the HIV virus.

Well, the landscapes on the bus route continued to be beautiful.



And in Cape Town we continued to enjoy the beauty of South Africa. Escpesially the Table Mountain was worth seeing!

This is the tourist harbour area. It was a huge contrast to be there after those days in Soshanguve township. The poor children from shacks had changed into the rich tourists from all over the world, sandy roads with fruit sellers on the roadsides had changed into fancy restaurants and shiny corridors of the mall. I didn't feel at home any more...