Stories

Saturday morning I entered the world of faeries and magic. It was the end of my first week at work, a week that started off with a full day workshop on Distance Education, then visits to a private school and a government school to observe second year students teach their lessons, followed by car shopping and a reading/writing day that continued over to Friday and ended with a lovely college-wide braai and the chance to test drive the car from Thursday. In between all the activity, I had the opportunity to get to know Annalie and her husband, Nico just a little better and that’s where this story begins.

As introductions were made on Monday morning by the workshop staff, one of the members held up a book and congratulated Annalie on her recent publication. The title, Tales that Really Make a Difference, caught my eye right away and at the break we connected. She offered to take me out and I asked to see her book. At that point, she mentioned that she had been doing this kind of activity with her students for about five years and had stacks of data that she wanted to get published so we agreed to sit down to talk about her work.

On Tuesday we met so that I could hear about the project she’d begun long, long ago with her fourth year students. She wanted to create a way for students to connect with someone from a culture that was unfamiliar, have that person write a story in his or her mother tongue. The student would then translate the story into the language of instruction, either English or Afrikaans, write her own story based on the one she had heard, and then write out a complete learning activity and integrated it into the other learning areas. The cycle of story from one person to another, recreated and told to yet another group of people was fascinating to me. As Annalie told me about the story telling assignment the reflections, and the bonds that were built between storytellers and students, she became increasingly animated. Needless to say, I was chomping at the bit to get at the data to see more about what she was talking about. I left with the most recent edition of the volume she had edited and headed home to see what I could discover.

Of course, the story continues into chapter two: A night out. Following our talk and an evening with “the book”, Annalie called to invite me out. She thought it would be a good idea for me to see a mall that was close to both the Groenkloff campus and my flat at the main campus. She was careful to point out key features to watch for, like particular buildings or street names, so that when I started driving I would be able to get around on the main roads. She’d be telling me a story and then stop to say, “I just want to interrupt to point out that shopping mall on the right. It’s really close to our campus so if you need something in the middle of the day you can just run over there. It has really nice shops and I get my hair done there too.” The mall at Brooklyn circle was indeed a nice one, with lots more shops than in Hatfield where I live. There were a number of restaurants and two movie theaters there, showing “Skin”, a movie I want to see very much. We walked around, with Annalie as guide pointing out different shops for their value or their specific type of goods and then came back to select a little coffee shop. Over dinner we talked about her work and her thoughts for the paper we would write, and how she and her husband met as educators, their move to Namibia for several years, and then their return to Pretoria. She talked about her work with a center that Nico had bought for her and then her move into working with museums and then finally her arrival at Pretoria. I could see more clearly why she was the creative arts person in the group from all the stories that she shared with me!

Dinner with Annalie followed my day of car shopping with Nico. It’s always fun to think about the significant other might be for your friends and colleagues and I had no idea what to expect. Annalie and I are about the same height and age. Her son and my oldest daughter are the same age and quite the adventurers with Caroline sailing on pirate ships and living in Africa as a public health official and Annalie’s son working in photography and sailing on a cruise ship in Miami while planning travels around the world with his camera. When Nico pulled up, he was outgoing, welcoming, and talkative. He shared stories of how he and his wife had met, their travels in Nambia and across southern Africa, his involvement in the bakkie business and changes in life and work with the changes in the new government. The stories came in rapid fire succession, much like the energy he exuded. Within an hour we had visited several car lots in Centurion, selected a car, and he began making all the arrangements to having the car sent to his lot in Pretoria for his closer inspection and recommendation.

This story continues with my Saturday with Annalie and her students and with Nico and the car. Read on!