Back to School!

“Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books, But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.”


Forgive the Shakespeare, I just saw A Midsummer Night's Dream on Monday and am still on a Shakespeare kick.

School’s back in session! The kids were more than excited to get their break back in December and it’s sad for all of us to say goodbye to the summer holidays. Overall, I feel pretty darn lucky to get TWO summer breaks in one year. Sounds almost too good to be true, eh?

The last class started out the year in their old classroom which meant getting TONS of hugs from the kids I grew to love over three long months working hard and playing hard with them. When the newest bunch came in there was a weird feeling of “I’m going to love these children soon.” At that point I couldn’t even pronounce all their names (give Sibusiso, Umulo Kiara, Luqmaan, and Kuhle a try) and they were already getting pretty riley with first-day jitters.

By now it’s the third week of school and we’ve already started with the reading assessments and funny songs. Already I’m getting hugs and excited “Jen!”s when I come to the classroom. Handing out all the stickers in class and play with them at breaks has that side effect, it isn’t hard to win kids’ affection.

Here’s a picture of the teacher I work with, Mrs. Tshivhase! She’s a truly inspiring, strong woman single handedly raising her own family of four girls. Working with her has been a true inspiration in the dedication she shows to her students inside and outside of the classroom. Mrs. Tshivhase is a phenomenal teacher and already has me half convinced to become a teacher myself. This photo was taken by me for a book about South African teachers.

A Second Look at Unemployment

Walking laps around the house for no reason, watching an entire 3 seasons of a TV show, resorting to watching terribly made (yet terribly entertaining) Bollywood movies…. With December summer holidays came a LOT of free time, almost more than I felt like I knew what to do with. In sitting around the house, having little money to go anywhere, going through all the stages of not know what to do with myself set in. I’m “employed” but mandatorily on break during school holiday.

In getting frustrated with all the free time, it got me to thinking about what it is like to be unemployed and to have that much time free on a regular basis. Feeling ready and able to help but having nowhere to go was frustrating. Going through that on a small, temporary scale, it’s hard to even imagine the depth of frustration in having a family to feed/being properly educated/having ambition and simply not being able to get a job.

Unemployment is a rising issue, especially with the economic downturn of the last few years, but it never became personal until coming here. The rates are staggering, reaching almost 80% in some areas. Cape Town hovers between 25-40% which is better but still crushing when you think of its scale. The youth without jobs too often find themselves in trouble which is partly why my neighborhood isn’t safe. Without other means of getting money gangsterism thrives in Cape Flats and feeds off the drug use happening in lower income areas.

The perceptions too often of the “laziness” of people in other countries is also tied up with unemployment. Yes, it’s true that a large percentage of people here don’t have jobs. Yes, they do often sit at home because of that or find themselves sitting in the streets for lack of better things to do. But it’s sobering to realize that it’s not cultural “laziness” but a lack of a place to go and work. It has nothing with lack of desire to work. Hearing the stories of people wanting to work but stuck in unemployment brings a whole new face to the issue.

Disturb Us, O Lord

A powerful prayer from South African priest and freedom fighter, Desmond Tutu:
Disturb us, O Lord
when we are too well-pleased with ourselves
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little,
because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, O Lord
when with the abundance of things we possess,
we have lost our thirst for the water of life
when, having fallen in love with time,
we have ceased to dream of eternity
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.

Stir us, O Lord
to dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas
where storms show Thy mastery,
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes
and invited the brave to follow.
Amen