"What is Hope, class?"

19 Mar 09

Song for this post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yXRGdZdonM

"We have not taken the final step of our journey but the first step on a longer & even more difficult road for to be free is not mearly to cast off chains, but to live in a way that respects & enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning." - Nelson Mandela wrote in his auto biography " A long walk to freedom".

We visited the Nelson mandela museum today in Mthatha. The modest but powerful museum gave Amy, Dorota, Jason and I a better sense of what life was like here just a short while ago (Apartied ended in 1994). I think we all found it exciting as well as interesting to visit and I could tell it got all of us thinking about the work we are doing and how far many South Africans have come. Also, in the case of the Malugeni community, how far they still have to go.

Being in Mthatha really made us realize that there is a world just 10 km away from Malugeni but they are too poor to access it. Mthatha has a bit of a hustle bustle feel to it and people who have seen the world, who have opportunity, determination and hope. In Malugeni there is less hope (which was one of the English words I taught my 4th, 5th and 6th grade combined over crowded classroom this week). Malugeni has no Internet, no land line phones, not running shops except for a run down convenience store filled with flour, sugar, cleaning supplies and of course some candies and chips for the school kids to spend their pennies on) It make us wonder how we can help and make an impact. As Jason and Dorota said this evening it is all about exposure and that is what we are providing them. Opening up a mind to think ... "what else is out there?" We saw this example today with the 7,8 and 9th grade class who leaped at a chance to work on a charades game demonstrating present continuous tense. (yes they were excited about learning sentence structure). I must say their enthusiasm for English is overwhelming. We also tutored "peels" today. She came to work on science home work even though it was her 18th birthday!! She was that excited to have help with her home work and to share her brilliant poetry which I posted in the last post. She has an amazing way of expressing herself. Tonight I went to bed knowing we are making a difference.