The Weekend

It’s a long weekend, with Heritage Day on Sunday and a day off on Monday. I’m staying in town even though my car is officially fixed once again. Even now, I’m wearing my pajamas and treating myself to a cup of “Comfort and Joy” tea from Mary Lou. Yesterday, I received so many compliments on the pin that Mary Lou gave me It’s a long weekend, with Heritage Day on Sunday and a day off on Monday. I’m staying in town even though my car is officially fixed once again. Even now, I’m wearing my pajamas and treating myself to a cup of “Comfort and Joy” tea from Mary Lou. Yesterday, I received so many compliments on the pin that Mary Lou gave me before I left that I felt I just had to drink a cup of “her” tea in thanks. The shades and window are open, the sun is shining and there’s a cool breeze coming in the window. I’ve settled into my space and rearranged my artwork so that my paintings are in the corner of the rooms and I can see them as soon as I enter the flat. I treated myself to a bouquet of flowers from the local Pic ‘n Pay and my Zambian tea set is right in front of me with a “Crazy for U” Valentine lollipop staring me in the face. And now it’s time for my personal tea party with friends. Can you think of a better start to the weekend?

Since Ben left, I’ve become immersed in projects at work and I’m back to the days when I was up at 5:30 and at the office by 7. Then I work through the day until about 6 before heading home to collapse in front of my favorite shows before going to bed or finishing up something that needs to be out to a colleague before the next day. Of course, many of my colleagues are working far longer hours to juggle all their teaching and research activities as well as their personal lives while for me, it’s all personal and just about me so the stress level is very low.

One of the projects that has been so exciting is to work with Annalie on her field trip to the Pioneer Museum. I had the best time getting to see this home and farm with its 11 stations of activities and discussions that focused on life “back in the day”. Students took photographs as they went through the activities and I used my Flip camera to capture the action of the day. After the trip, we asked the students 3 reflection questions that Annalie and I analyzed for themes so that we could compare the students’ experiences on the field trip with the intended purposes of the trip. We put together our results in a research-style poster that is now on display in our campus library with other artifacts from our department. We’ll be able to use this in an article, but I think we may combine it with some other projects that Annalie incorporates into this class. We were fortunate to have a student who is very skilled in Photo Shop and poster creation actually take what I had set up on my office  walls (the photo has one "panel" as laid out on the wall) and put it into the poster. It’s just beautiful! You'll get to see it when I return next semester!

Then Miemsie, another friend and colleague, has invited me into some research that she and Cycil, our Head of Department (HOD) are doing around the question, “Why are so few Black students enrolling in teacher education?” She had already conducted one focus group when she asked if I would like to sit in on 2 more groups. Of course, I said yes! The first group I joined in on was with secondary (grades 8-10) and FET (grades 11-12) teacher education students. We had 6 young women and 3 young men. Of this group, only 1 young man chose teaching as his first choice major and he was incredibly passionate. I’d love to interview him one-on-one to find out more about his story. The second group I met with was only early childhood majors from first, second, and third years. They were clear that teaching young children was exactly what they wanted to do, but they also had wonderful ideas for recruitment. Next week, I’m following up with a few individual interviews with them to get more data on their personal stories and their recommendations for recruitment.

All that leads to the week of proposals. The department received a Call for Proposals from the Department of Education related to Foundation Phase (grades K-3) teacher education. So everyone moved into high gear to write up proposals for funding. I worked with Cycil and Miemsie on a proposal to address quality of Foundation Phase teacher education programs and the issue of recruitment and retention of Black students. Nkidi worked on a proposal for home language instruction; Marie on teacher identity; and Ina on citizenship education. Our colleagues from Information Communication Technology and Teacher Innovation also submitted a proposal. Between the emails and the meetings and the writing – it was a hectic week for all but now all the proposals are with the HOD. Please keep us all in your prayers that we actually get the money to do much of the research that people are already doing on a much smaller scale.

I ended the week with a trip to J’burg with Nkidi to meet with a potential funder for two of her projects. We got turned around and managed to drive in circles until Nkidi called her niece, who straightened out our directions, and then headed to Ed Con, a conglomerate corporate office for some of the major department stores in South Africa. We met with Innocentia from HR and she was lovely and appeared interested in what Nkidi had to share. We arrived back on campus in time for me to join Annalie’s class as she led them through her “Green Day” activities that integrate virtually everything in the national curriculum into an archeological expedition to Earth in the year 3010 to discover what we can about the planet. This time, I became a member of the team and the two of us had a wonderful time co-teaching (although she really took the lead and I just played along). We’re thinking about another poster or at least more data to go with our field trip article.

So, here I am with a weekend of reading and writing ahead of me. I got the laundry done last night and I’ve already made the bed. The dishes from supper need to be washed so I’ll do that soon. I’ll head over to the bookstore and later in the day, there’s a set of shops that are tucked away in a little corner that I want to check out. Sunday, there’s a flea market and festival that Annalie is taking me to see and I know that Ina and I are taking an evening walk on the university sports grounds at some point. Monday is back to reading and writing with a walk or two just to take a break before returning for another week in academia. I hope that you, too, can enjoy a bit of a break as well to do just what you enjoy doing. And whether it’s a tea party or a coffee break or a trip to Barnes & Noble or Greenberry’s – know that I’m thinking of you over my cup of tea!

The Kiss

It’s the end of the week (March 4, 2010) and the end of Ben’s visit to Africa.  We’ve tried to plan some special things to do in celebration of this time with Caroline and Mom.  The Cape Town trip was certainly special and then back to reality while the car had to be repaired and I went back to work.  Ben spent Tuesday sleeping in and then hanging around until I got home.  Wednesday, after visiting Annalie’s 4^th year students to explain our documentation project, we headed to Child Academy to meet my friend Maggie and tour the classrooms and talk with the preschool teachers. Then there was some shopping that Ben wanted to do so we went to Bruma Market, one of my favorite shopping places.  After getting turned around several times and then a frantic call to Themba for directions, we got onto the right road and made it home in our borrowed car.

For people who know me well, I love my family, shopping, and work so the day was pretty satisfying for me.  I got to talk with students who are so much like the JMU students I teach and they were so helpful with the project that Annalie and I are trying out together.  Annalie is not only a wonderful colleague with whom I am working on 2 major projects, but she is also a good friend. She’s the one who makes sure that I have a vehicle that works, she draws all kinds of maps to get me around the area, and she’s always recommending fun places to go.  She also sends those encouraging emails that remind me to smile or laugh or enjoy my weekend.

Then, I spent the afternoon at Child Academy with another dear friend.  Maggie, and teacher in a child care center in Alexandra, is an expert in early childhood development and preschool education.  She and her late husband, Isaac Mahlatsi, started Child Academy as a model early childhood center and the school has grown to serve children from 2 years of age through grade 7.  She and I talked with Isaiah Modiba, the current director, and the teachers, identifying areas of professional development for the teachers and resources for the school to maintain the vision of a high quality learning environment in the middle of Tembisa township.

Even more important than our conversations about work, though, is our history together.  Isaac was the reason I first came to South Africa.  I met him years ago when he visited Harrisonburg and wanted to see a model early childhood program.  Of course, I took him to see our Young Children’s Program.  Isaac was impressed with what he saw and as I got to know him better during that visit, he shared his story of moving from Youth Development to Early Childhood. He became a dear friend and his home became a base for members of Trinity and for me as well.  Of course, once in his home, there was Maggie.

Maggie has 3 children whose ages match 3 of my children.  Karabelo, her eldest son, is about Suzy’s age; Tclapi is about Abbey’s age; and Tsidio is Ben’s age.  On the days that I lived with the Mahlatsi family, Maggie and I would talk about rearing children and dealing with the challenges of being wives, mothers, and teachers – all over cups of % Roses and rooibos tea. She laughs when I tell her I think her cooking is “yummy” (which it is) and she thinks my lasagna is delicious (mostly because it’s a quick and easy recipe). 

After our time at Child Academy, Ben was eager to get to Bruma Market to do some shopping for his friends.  I had a sense of where it was, but wasn’t exactly following the directions that Isaiah and Maggie were giving so Maggie led the way and we followed.  Once at Bruma, an area of J’burg, we waved goodbye and made our way to the market for about an hour of intense shopping.  Shopping at markets is more than just running in, making selections, and then paying for goods.  It’s being invited into small stalls to look because, “looking is free. It doesn’t cost anything to look.”  Once you start looking, then the sales person makes many recommendations of items that will be sure to fall into your price range.  If you find something you actually want to buy, then the haggling begins.  Remember that to determine the cost of any given item or set of items, you must divide by 7.5 (or by 7 if you have trouble mentally calculating with a decimal) to see if you’re willing to spend that amount of money.  Of course, the shopkeeper starts his price high, then you have to figure out how far you are willing to negotiate for what you want and be willing to walk away.  It’s unusual that you won’t find almost the exact same thing somewhere else along the way and the shopkeepers never sell for less than what they are happy with.  Once you buy something, several shopkeepers from nearby stalls grab you by the arm to invite you into their spaces “to buy some small thing to help me out as well”.  Ben did well with his purchases and I succumbed to a couple of necklaces and we started for home.

Now, I had been trying to follow Maggie to the market in heavy traffic, so I wasn’t exactly sure how to get back to the highway to get home.   This time there were a series of wrong starts and stops, followed by a phone call to Themba, and Ben’s good eye sight to get us homeward bound.  Thank goodness for leftovers for supper!

Thursday was Ben’s day.  I packed up my map book, Ben’s flip camera, a sweatshirt and we headed off early for our morning with the elephants, eager to see what would really be in store for us.  We had been past the entrance to the sanctuary before so we found it without getting lost (again thanks to Nico’s map from our first adventure to the dam).  A small group of us, 3 people from Denmark, a couple, a set of grandparents, son, daughter, and grandchild, and the two of us made up the 10:00 group.  We were led to an area with some wooden benches arranged in a semi circle around a small corral.  Three of the five elephants were led into the corral from the barns where they sleep at night. People were getting their cameras ready when Ben leaned over to ask where his flip was.  I had said I brought it along, but it was still in the car.  We were stuck without a camera and I could see the disappointment on Ben’s face.

Simba, our guide introduced us to the elephants and their trainers, giving us some background on how the animals are cared for, some basic behaviors they display in the wild, and information on the particulars of each animal.  Then one by one, a trainer would have his elephant perform a behavior such as kneeling down and then Simba would explain that the elephants typically bend when trying to reach down into the water.  After our “lecture and demonstration” on the elephants, we had the opportunity to actually go up to have our own individual time with an elephant and trainer.  Talk about a memorable moment!  Finally it dawned on me that my cell phone from Themba had a camera and video capability, so I pulled it out to capture our magic time with the elephants.  Each of us had the opportunity to check out the elephant’s mouth to see those big molars and the tongue, we rubbed the face and brushed our hands against the long eyelashes.  We compared the skin texture of the ear from the front and the back, felt the toenails and foot pads, checked out the nipples, rubbed the side of the elephant and examined the tail.  After our inspection, we held the elephant’s tusk, posed for a photo, and received an elephant kiss.  It had been so long since I’d had a great big kiss, that I gladly accepted the vacuum cleaner-like smooch from my elephant.

Once we finished our visit with the elephants we were led to a huge ring area to meet the elephants for an elephant walk.  As the trainers led the elephants, we let them hold onto our hands with their trunks as we walked around the ring.  Their warm breath on our hands as we walked was special.  Then we walked over to a display area to learn more about elephant anatomy and comparisons between Asian and African elephants.  Our time at the sanctuary ended with tea and a chance to get some directions to the Lion Cub Park.

We decided to do some shopping since we were at Hartbespoort Dam.  We had been shopping there before when I spent way too much money on paintings, chairs, and a table.  This time was for Ben, since it didn’t look like we’d make it back to Bruma to pick up the few things he had forgotten on Wednesday.  We tried out a couple of new places, but didn’t see much so we went back to the bigger area and once again, we spent all our cash and had to make a withdrawal at the ATM to take care of all our wants and the upcoming stop.  Between Ben’s thoughtful gifts for friends and my insatiable need for earrings, we contributed once again to the South African economy.

With our economic investment complete, we headed off in the wrong direction once and drove past the unmarked entrance to the park, but all in all, did OK in getting to the park.  We purchased our tickets, even though all we wanted to do was see the cubs and weren’t too interested in driving through the bigger part of the park to see the older lions.  As we were about to enter the gate, Ben realized that the flip camera was still in the car so he made a quick trip to grab the camera and we headed for the cubs.  Lion cubs are separated by ages into large cages where they can run around and people can pet them.  We were among 6 people who were in the cage with one of the volunteers who supervises the visits to protect the cubs and the people from one another.  The cubs that we saw were between 3-4 months of age.  One was a darker color and the rest were whiter.  Ben and I roamed around, petting the cubs, watching them play, and generally have fun just being around them.  After 15 minutes or so, we left the cage to look at the other animals in that area.  There were two beautiful cheetahs, some wild dogs, a couple of meerkats, zebras, and ostriches. We were really disappointed that the giraffes that are usually around had decided to take a VERY LONG walk and we never got to see them.  So, because we hadn’t eaten since our 9:00 egg MacMuffins, we decided to eat at the restaurant at the park before heading home (without getting lost).  Once home, we turned on the tube, started the laundry, and got ready to pack.

Friday, the big goodbye, started early for me.  I was a guest speaker in two sections of Nkidi’s First Additional Language (FAL) class.  I had prepared to talk about diversity from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory perspective.  When she introduced me to the class, she told them that I was talking about diversity and second language acquisition.  I was a little surprised that I had misunderstood, but after she explained the assignment that the students would be doing next for class, I picked up on what she might like and modified my approach.  Her literacy assignment was for her students to identify a concept (e.g., tall and long or time) that FAL learners would need to learn, develop a story activity and supporting learning materials.  As she explained the assignment with examples and more detail, I started thinking about the many ways that teachers could create language based activities, and that became the starting point for my conversation with the students.  The 8:30 class had almost 50 students and the 10:30 class had almost 40 students, but the time flew by.  Nkidi seemed pleased and the students were gracious so I got ready to leave the office to get Ben.

Friday traffic starts early and continues late.  When I got home, Ben was on the computer with most of his things packed.  We did our final checks through the flat, almost missing the flip camera, loaded up the car and headed to Soweto for final goodbyes to his homestay mom, the children, and his friends.  After a two-hour trip in stop and go traffic and a major storm complete with rain, thunder, and lightening, we got to Cena’s house for a visit and fond farewell.  Then back into traffic for a ride to the airport, supper at Ben’s favorite restaurant, Ocean Basket, time to walk around, and then a final goodbye hug at the security gate.

In mourning, I left the airport for Themba’s and Thembela’s house for the weekend with my adopted “family”.  I managed to make a wrong turn and Themba figured out exactly where I was, coming to rescue me from the Best Burger Roadhouse and lead the way to his house.  As I write this, Ben should have landed in Atlanta and be changing planes for Washington DC soon.  I’m not really anxious to hear from him -  more like eager to hear that he’s made it through customs.  In the meantime, I’m trying to get some work done while Themba grills all kinds of meat for a bar-be-que this afternoon, 2 lab puppies run around, and Lisha and I read through “Spot Sleeps Over” until she can read it for herself.

The Agenda

It seemed so simple when we started planning our trip to Cape Town. We had done a favor for a colleague and that  led to an opportunity to meet the people we had assisted and then we added a little side trip to Cape Town as the grand finale of Ben’s trip to South Africa. A few days away to learn a little more about the history and culture of the country in a beautiful area seemed like a great idea at the time so I proceeded to plan.




After checking the prices on Kulula Air, a modestly priced, no frills airline, I decided that leaving early on Saturday morning for the Cape would save us some money without missing out on the time to explore. The times worked out for Dave and Renee Smit, our hosts, even though they were going to be busy with a Saturday training session at their church, two Sunday services, and their daughter Nikki’s 22nd birthday. I booked the airline tickets, getting us back home on Monday in time to avoid the 5:00 rush hour traffic. Then I booked a red bus city tour so we could spend all day Saturday touring the area and visiting some museums, the aquarium, and Table Mountain while reserving Sunday for church and Robben Island. Then we could all take our time on Monday to sleep in, go our for breakfast, and then catch the flight home. The agenda was set!


When I learned that the Soweto Gospel Choir was performing in the area, I decided that would be too good to miss so I also bought tickets for Dave and Renee and Renee prepared a light picnic supper for us all to enjoy while listening to the choir at the park. What a great plan, especially since Ben had lived in Soweto for a week and a half.



Friday night before we were to leave, my colleague Linda invited Ben and me to meet her and her family at a local shopping center for supper and a movie for her son and daughter, her daughter’s friend, and Ben. We found the place with only a momentary pause when Ben and I stopped at the wrong mall. We had a lively visit over some wine, good food, and the beginning of the weekend. Just as we were leaving, a storm began and Ben and I managed to get home with no wrong turns and just a few scary moments when I really couldn’t quite see which lane was which. Arriving home after 10:00 was definitely past my bedtime, but we got our packing finished up and started the search for passports. Ben’s was exactly where I put it when he returned from Lusaka. Mine was NOT in my pocketbook where I was sure I had left it. Instead of going to bed at an almost reasonable hour, I tore the apartment apart twice looking for that passport. With no sign of the critical document, I gave up and decided I must have left it in the office. We decided to get up early, shower, stop off at the office to search, and then head to the airport in J’burg, an hour away from Pretoria. Only a slight deviation from our agenda, so only minimal worries.



At 3:30 Saturday morning, the alarm went off and I headed to the shower. Ben was up at 4:00 and we were out the door by 4:30. Arriving at the office just before 4:45, we checked in with the guards at the gate who informed us that they could not let us into Aldoel, my building, because the doors to all the buildings were controlled by  the university’s security and those folks would not be around until 6 since it was the weekend. It was dawning on me that we would miss our 7:00 flight so we headed home. Ben went to sleep while I tried to take care of the flight via phone calls, only reaching a pleasant answering message that let me know that they were closed for the evening. It was clear there would be a significant change in starting our agenda on time.



At 6:00 Ben and I arrived at the office once again. The guards called the security person and by 6:30 he unlocked the building for us. The mad search began with the passport no where in sight. I started going through the books on my shelf when it finally fell out of a research book. We ran out of the building to the car, hit the road, and headed to the airport. We managed to get onto the R21 that would take us directly to the airport. Of course, it wasn’t long until the car began it’s signature morphing into a rabbit and we just held on as we hopped along.



Having made it to the airport by 7:45, we headed to the Kulula desk to rebook the ticket – an experience something akin to buying another ticket. I wasn’t taking any chances that we wouldn’t get on the 12:00 flight as standby so I paid for the new ticket that would get us out of town by 10:45. Ben and I had breakfast at his favorite Two Oceans Restaurant, roamed around a while, then went through security to wait. Note to self: Shopping on the domestic side is incredibly limited. It’s definitely much better on the international side! Our flight was on time and we landed close to 1:00 in Cape Town. I began to reorganize the agenda.



Dave, a Presbyterian minister, was an absolute delight. He was so friendly and outgoing and made us feel at ease immediately. He took us by his church, then ran us over to the Waterfront clock tower to begin an afternoon of shopping and getting our bearings. Since we had the tickets for the choir, he said he’d pick us up at 4:15 so Ben and I made the best use of our time by checking out the shops, getting lunch, purchasing our Robben Island tickets, and then going by the Visitor’s Bureau. Ben was immediately attracted to the adventure opportunities and before I knew it, we were booking a trip on Monday to see sharks. Of course, that meant another change in our flight plans, but how many times do you get to come to Cape Town? We have now modified the beginning and ending of our agenda. This is getting more expensive as we go!



The concert at the park was lovely. There was a band that opened for the Soweto choir and they were certainly perfect for the younger crowd. We were sitting near a group of American students who loved the music, but as more sophisticated adults, we just sat back and enjoyed it all. When the Soweto Choir came on, we were all enthralled. Music certainly communicates across languages and cultures and everyone enjoyed the performance. I think this was even more special after Ben had lived in Soweto for a while and then we had seen several of the choir members in the airport prior to our flight out of J’burg. We returned later in the evening to the Smit’s home to learn from Gareth, the photo journalist in the family, that there had been a big earthquake in Chile. Between trying to catch the international news and get to know our new friends, we had a lovely evening. Carrying some amazing photo equipment to a young photographer turned out to be a wonderful opportunity to meet an amazing family who became new friends.



Sunday morning, with a new agenda in place, Dave dropped us off at the Waterfront so that we could spend our day on the top of a double decker bus touring the beautiful Cape Town. We headed straight for Table Mountain, the cable car, and my first chance to see the area from the top of this mountain. Ben and I walked all over the top, gazing into every direction to see what this landmark had to offer. After a lovely start to the day, we boarded the bus to drive through the area and return to the Waterfront for lunch. What we thought would be a quick lunch of club sandwiches turned out to take over an hour so that we were unable to return to the bus tour to see the museums we had planned to visit. Instead, we walked around a bit and then headed over to the Robben Island departure point so that we could make that trip. The tour was fascinating and our guide was the same former prisoner who had led my students when we were there in July. At the end of the day, we headed back to the Waterfront, had a light supper, and then met up with Dave and Renee. After a cup of tea and some conversation, we turned in early since we had a pre-5 a.m. pick up for shark viewing. The modified agenda was working out, even though there was a significantly early start to our last day.



It’s amazing how quickly the time flies when you’re asleep! The alarm went off at 4 for me and I made Ben get up a little before 4:30. By 4:45 our van was outside the house waiting for us (10 minutes early) so we headed out and slept for most of the 2-hour ride to our location for shark diving. We had spent quite a bit of time on Sunday searching for some swim trunks for Ben because we had no plans for swimming when we left Pretoria (See how limiting an agenda can become?). As you might imagine, the end of the summer season is not the best time to search for swimwear and what’s left tends to be on the high price end at the specialty shops. We did luck out at long last, by finding one set of board shorts that actually fit and were on sale so we got ahead of the US summer season! After a buffet breakfast, a bit of a video, and some basic information, we and all the other folks we had traveled with headed down to the dock to board the boat that would take us out into the bay. Thank goodness, jackets were provided because the wind proved to be quite chilly and the water temperature was a chilly 9 degrees Centigrade.



We rode out into the bay, set anchor, and the first group donned their wet suits and got into the cage. The shark cage is really for underwater viewing of the sharks and remains attached to the boat. The first group was quite lucky and we all spotted our first shark within the first 5 minutes out. Ben watched the “divers” and I watched the sharks. They are quite amazing animals. I stayed on board the ship, noting that even with wet suits, divers were freezing in the water. I learned that actually the water is warmer in the winter (June and July) and the boat anchors closer to the seal island so that makes this trip a real possibility for next summer’s group of students.



Ben was in the third group of people to get into the cage. He spent more time waiting than viewing, but did actually see the sharks several different times. The women who entered the cage with him got so cold that they came out a little early, but Ben, hands shaking from the cold the whole time, stayed in the water in the hopes of more up close viewing. By the time he got out of the water, he was blue. We nibbled on chips, sandwiches, and fruit, took a ride to see the seals and their babies, and then headed back for tea and cookies, watch our video, and buy a t-shirt before heading home.



The trip home was quiet and we had a short nap along the way, getting back in time to have a brief visit with our hosts before making our way to the airport for some supper, a 30-minute delayed flight, and a 10 p.m. arrival in Pretoria (complete with car pretending to be rabbit experience). One would think that our arrival home would be routine, but as you can probably tell, there’s no such thing as routine or planned agenda. When we drove up to our flat, the remote that opens the gate refused to work. We back the car up, we drove around the block, we aimed the remote in every direction we could imagine. Finally I simply stopped the car in front of the gate and a security guard opened the gate for us! Who knew?  Does the agenda ever end the way you think it should?



With Monday morning and my final week with Ben beginning, I headed out early to get caught up with emails and work so that I could relax for the final week. I backed out of my parking spot, aimed the remote, and nothing happened! Thirty minutes after a frantic call to Jaco for the number of campus security, an attempt by another resident to open the gate with his remote, and the announcement of the cleaning ladies that the gate had been broken and attempts to repair it were obviously unsuccessful, a security guard came with a massive set of keys to make the gate open manually until the system was repaired.



Lessons Learned:

1. Agendas are a good idea to create some structure for what you want to do.

2. Flexibility is imperative to deal with all the curve balls that come your way.

3. Enjoying the good company of the people you are with makes the whole experience worth living through.

Look Both Ways

It’s one of those lessons we’re taught early on, “Look both ways before you cross the street.” Well, here in South Africa, it’s just a little more complex, especially for an American who has developed a particular way of looking both ways that has been quite successful up until now. Here’s what’s happening.

I live on a corner, but instead of having the typical four-corner intersection, I have a round about with stop signs. This is new to me, not because of the traffic circle, but because of my experiences with traffic circles. In my early years of driving, the only traffic circle I went though actually had five entrances, but a single lane from each entrance yielded to make sure it was safe and then proceeded. I’ve been through several round abouts since then and that was the typical pattern. Well, welcome to a new experience! At my corner, you stop before proceeding. Now, that’s not too hard to do, even for me, except for the morning when the engine hasn’t gotten warm and my car is reluctant to head out from the car park. Even though I’m becoming better and better each day with maneuvering the car, as I approach this round about, I find that I have to keep one foot on the brake as I stop and the heel of that same foot on the accelerator to give it enough gas as I try to shift gears or keep it going in second while at the same time anticipating who’s going straight through the round about or simply taking a turn. One simple solution I’ve found so far is to leave by 6:45. There’s just not enough traffic to worry about so I just go all the way around the circle to make my right turn and don’t bother to stop.

My next challenge, after trying to make a right-hand turn onto Duncan Street, is making it through a series of stop lights. The traffic on Duncan is much lighter before 7 a.m. so I can actually make the turn, even with 2 lanes of traffic coming straight and a third lane turning in front of me. Then once on Duncan I can sometimes actually go fast enough to get into fourth gear! Duncan Street dead ends at the Brooklyn round about with two lanes entering, a special inner circle for the taxis (which are like mini busses) and 5 exits with pedestrians crossing right in front of you at each one. Again, you stop first – a really good idea before risking your life to get around to your preferred exit. Once onto the street you’ve selected, then you have to figure out if you ended up in the correct lane to avoid large trucks that are now blocking a lane or a car that’s decided to stop to unload passengers, or yet another exit that you forgot existed on that particular street. I’ve found that “looking both ways” demands eyes all over your head. By the time I make it to work, usually less than 15 minutes when I leave before 7, I’ve done quite a lot of looking and managed to drive in the correct lane.

Looking both ways is also important at work. I can now find my way around my building and have learned a couple of ways to get from point A to point B. I’ve been minimally helpful to some hapless student who can’t find a particular office. And I can get to the library, log in to the library page to search for articles, and check out books. The more subtle aspect of looking both ways occurs in understanding the context in which I work. A few examples might help. I visited Nkidi’s classroom last week. She’s doing a literacy seminar designed to take the issues and concerns that arose during the students’ 3-week field experience and use those as the basis for instruction. I thought that was such a good example of building on students’ interests to create a meaningful learning curriculum. As I entered the classroom, the students were trying to negotiate for an earlier start time and she was trying to explain that she would get back in touch with them after checking to be sure that there would be a room available. Those students were relentless in pushing her to change the start time. Once she finally moved beyond that opening issue, she presented her plan based on the data she had collected from their reflections. I watched students text, listened to side conversations, saw notes passing around. Having seen her be firm with individual students, I was surprised by the limited ways that she redirected their behavior. Later, when we were having tea, I told her that I thought her students were treating her rudely. She said that, “You never know who is in your classroom and how they were raised.” She went on to elaborate, letting me know that the deep seated attitudes towards race are still an issue and she recognizes that not all her learners come with respect towards their Black professors. Obviously, her eyesight on this matter is much keener than my own.

In my role here, I’m working to support faculty members get their work published. I listen to my friends talk about their teaching loads and more significantly, the numbers of students they teach. The Afrikaans sections are generally 60 students or more in each of the 2 sections; the English section is 35-40 students. When they set up for class, their classrooms may be too small, the rooms may not have blinds so when showing videos/dvds, they have to find alternative spaces, when the technology man sets up/brings in equipment, it doesn’t always work or there’s something missing (like the speakers), or when trying to show an overhead, none of the projectors are working. They are revising their program again based on an external mandate and at the same time, developing a distance version to improve the qualifications of teachers already in the field. When I talk with the Head of Department (HOD), he expresses his concerns that they publish in the journals approved by the Department of Education so the writers and the department receive the subsidies that the government pays for publication. So, I’m looking and talking with people about how they can publish data that they’ve collected, how they can begin new studies, and also write up pieces they’ve started but not completed.

While this context sounds difficult, it's important to look at it more carefully. There's certainly a familiarity in the voices and experiences of these teacher educators that we share. While we may be technology rich, I can remember times that I've called for help with technology that I had set up ready to run and then it wouldn't. I've complained about my work load with the number of inquiry students I had or the number of case studies I had to grade. I worry about publishing data I've gathered but just can't quite get written up. How much alike we are in the struggles that we face with our professional lives and work settings. However, within this context and relieved of all the teaching responsibilities, I have the chance to rethink some of the things that I do at work. I have different sounding boards to reflect their own ideas about what works and doesn't work because when I look their way and they look my way, we have a new space for looking and thinking about things that otherwise get bogged down and blurry. Believe it or not, all this looking around is really stimulating and I’ve got 3 pieces started just for myself with colleagues JMU and other institutions in America.

The weekend has proved to be a series of “look both ways” as well. After picking up Ben in Soweto, I looked around to see how well-loved he was by his family. Cena, his mom, gave him a big hug and told me he had been helpful at her school and a good member of the family. The joking that went on between Tebogo, his same-age brother, and Ben was so typical of 16 and 17-year-olds that I couldn’t help but laugh. Ben teased his little sister, throwing her over his shoulder, and LOTS of little guys came and went to say hello and goodbye. As I drove to the house and then back towards Pretoria, Ben knew the ways around from walking through his neighborhood – a big change from last Saturday when he was still a little unsure of where he was.

After getting a little lost on the return trip (some of my looking around helps me get home, but apparently I need better eyes in the back of my head when I'm leaving Pretoria), we decided to go out for supper at the Ocean Basket. Ben devoured his platter for 2, but managed to have some leftovers to bring home. I ate half of my salad, fish, and chips, but by the time I got home, the ocean meal had turned into a storm at sea and I had an uncomfortable evening and Saturday morning.

From "look before you eat" to "look before you leap", I decided not to let a little intestinal distress get in the way of a weekend of fun, so Ben and I headed out to Magaliesberg Canopy Tour to spend a beautiful day in the great outdoors. Annalie was certain that I might underestimate the time it would take to get there, so I made sure that we were out of the house before 8 to get there by 10. Of course, we made it there by 9 a.m. because there was no traffic, so Ben and I just hung out by the pool and little bar until it was our turn to gear up for a zip line tour of the 2500 year old Magaliesberg Mountain range. The focus of this tour was on the range itself so we “zipped” from platform to platform, back and forth between the mountains at 30 meters above the forest floor. There were 10 slides of up to 140 meters long that were set in the cliff faces. Talk about looking! I looked at the gear we wore, I looked at the scenery on the ride to the site and up to the first lift. I looked at how high we were, and I looked at the people we were traveling with.

Our two guides, Jeffery and January, were so confident and funny, they made the trip fun with their jokes and teasing. But it was clear that they were also very safety conscious and while they clearly enjoyed their swinging back and forth, they were VERY serious when it came to hooking us up to the zip lines and getting us to a safe place once we arrived at the next stop. Along with Ben and me, was a young mom from Pretoria out for a day of fun, and a family with the mom, a 25-year-old son and 2 daughters who looked to be university-age. Everyone was friendly and congenial, adding to the fun of the day.

There was so much to see and the zip lines weren’t really scary, but more like flying through the air. Ben took to this like a bird, I had a couple of challenges with the stopping, but nothing that would prevent me from doing this again. And the views were spectacular! After slide number 10, we hiked back to the top of the range from our lowest point for the bumpy ride to our starting point and some lunch before heading home.

The drive home was quiet. Ben served as navigator until we got to the main highway and then he dozed off while I dealt with a car that kept trying to morph into a rabbit. At 2 different points, I had to pull off the road, stop the car and restart it, because the car’s safety alarm went off. All this, after Nico had it checked out by his mechanic who found a crack in something and repaired that. Then, as I approached Pretoria, I got confused again on the appropriate exit, made a series of wrong turns before correcting myself and ending up at the new exit I discovered on my return from Soweto. I stopped at the traffic light at the Lynnwood exit, only to be greeted by the same guy I met the day before who had wanted to wash my wind shield. On Friday, I had asked for the direction to get me home, he helped and I gave him a few rand. On Saturday, he remembered me and I ended up giving a couple more rand. The only way to avoid this sort of thing is to avoid looking at the person approaching your vehicle.

As a result of our adventurous ride home, we decided to postpone our trip to J’burg on Sunday. I really didn’t want to risk another bumpy ride in a car I don’t quite trust. So at 3:30, we walked to the shopping center to pick up some shower supplies for Ben and get some groceries. Who knew! Pic ‘n Pay closes on Saturdays at 3, so Ben got a “tub” (cup) of frozen yogurt and we walked back home to veg out for the rest of the evening.

With a tummy that wasn’t quite right yet, I decided to go to bed early and left Ben with the tv and the internet. Around 1 a.m., I heard Ben start a skype conversation and then a major crash. He apparently broke a glass, I told him where to find the broom, and he cleaned up his mess and then got back on the computer. I fell asleep wondering what had actually broken. This morning, I saw the broken drinking glass in the trash can, walked into the parlor to pick up something, and after feeling something sharp in my foot, realized, he probably couldn’t see too well to sweep last night. In looking both ways in the morning sun, I swept the room again in an attempt to get those tiniest pieces up.

As I thinking about looking both ways before doing something, I’m reminded of a piece I wrote several years ago about critical thinking and multiple perspectives. Remembering that nothing is really as simple as it first appears, I value being able to look at a single person or event, to really take it apart to see the richness that is there. For example, I love having Ben here to get to know him without all his friends or his sisters – just understanding and enjoying him as a person. The same is true for each of the people I’ve met, the questions they raise in their work, the new ways of living and adapting in a new place. But I also think that seeing familiar things, living familiar kinds of experiences with the help of this new place and my new friends enriches and deepens my appreciation and understanding of the people I love and have yet to meet. There’s a real excitement (even when my tummy hurts) to learning more about the issues within my professional field and my personal life.

So, look both ways before you cross the street. You never know what you might find in the crossing!

Sabbatical

It’s Sunday morning, 14 February 2010, and I haven’t really thought about it being Valentine’s Day until just now as I typed in the date. As I write, I hear church bells ringing. The wind is blowing through all my open windows and I even have the door open (but the screen door locked) to let the breeze come through. It looks like there may be a storm, but it’s hard to tell here. I’ve managed to drag myself out of bed and shower off all the sweat from a long day in Soweto with Ben. Clothes are in the wash, pre-breakfast dishes are draining while my breakfast mess is awaiting my attention. I’m enjoying my pot of tea and my little white tea set that is part of the household set up here. And I’m thinking about the importance of Sabbath/sabbatical rest.

Saturday was one of those fun and busy days. After a week of meetings and trying to figure out my place in my new department, sending Ben off for a home stay in Soweto, and then dealing with frustrations related to editing, loading, and posting videos, I was ready for a break. My frequent texts to Ben as to how many people from his family might join us appeared to be ignored and my calls were met with his voice mail. By the time I got into the car and was heading out of town, Ben started texting and then calling. Try to picture me driving to Soweto for the first time (that means getting onto the N14/N1 freeway), changing gears with my left hand and driving in the left lane with people passing me with speeds of at least 20-30 km over the posted speed limit. With each text ring or phone call, my anxiety level rose until I finally pulled into the Engen station (a petrol station) near Ben’s home. I bought a diet soda and a bottle of water and waited with one of the women who works at Engen until Ben and his mom and a friend of hers arrived.

During the wait, this friendly service attendant asked why I was there and where I stayed. When I told her that I was staying in Pretoria, she said, “I’d like to go over to that side to get a job. Working here is not nice, especially at night. People are loud and get drunk and fight.” It was hard to disagree with that! She left to attend to a customer and I saw Ben, Cena, and Cena’s friend coming towards the station so we headed off for our personal Soweto tour of the Hector Pieterson Museum, Mandela’s Soweto house, the Regina Mundi cathedral, and then Ben’s bungee jumping experience. Keep in mind that it was in the ‘80’s and there is no air conditioning anywhere. By the time Ben and I got home from the bungee jumping (Cena refused to stay because she has an incredible fear of heights), it was after 4:30 in the afternoon. I tried to rehydrate with Cena and her daughter while Ben played basketball with the kids in the neighborhood. Her home was much cooler and the juice she offered came straight from the fridge. We started comparing notes on our children and our work as teachers and the challenges that she faces in her school with her grade 5-7 learners. For most of her students, their only meals are the breakfast porridge and lunchtime samp (a bean and corn dish) that are provided through the government’s feeding scheme. The government also provides all the books and covers some of the costs that school fees might provide so that students are only responsible for their uniforms and stationary.

By 5:00 I knew I needed to head back home so I wasn’t driving in the dark so I said my goodbyes and headed home. An episode of the car morphing into a rabbit nearly scared me to death, but it settled down and I made it almost to Pretoria when I missed a left exit. As soon as I drove past, I knew I had probably made a mistake, but the N1 takes you right into the city, so I kept going until a street name sounded familiar and took that exit. Of course that wasn’t quite right, but it pointed in the direction of something familiar, but that still didn’t quite get me where I thought I should be so I turned on yet another road that sounded familiar and sure enough, it got me to more familiar streets and intersections and I made it home safe and sound!

Once home, I texted Nkidi to let her know I was back in town, downed some more water, and then decided to relax with some wine and skype. I managed to finally connect with Suzanne for a lovely chat. Then Abbey came on with brief visits from Rebecca, and then I headed to bed completely exhausted.

So today is a day of rest with me and the computer and time to work on NVivo software tutorials. It’s something I’ve wanted to spend time doing and just never quite got around to it. And that leads me to my wonderings this morning on the idea of Sabbath/sabbaticals, because in the quiet of my very own space with only myself for company, I realize how tired I am. It’s more than just the stress of driving in unfamiliar places or the heat. It’s partly the stress of new adventures, lots of goodbyes and lots of hellos. It’s discovering what I can do and what I know and how I feel about all those things and about myself. With all of those things going on, this day is an opportunity to breathe and this sabbatical is an opportunity to rest.

In the resting from my American life, I’m catching glimpses of what is important and what can be let go. For example, I live in 3 rooms. That is certainly enough room for me, myself, and I! With Ben here, there’s still plenty of room for the two of us without our running into each other. Of course, it helps that he lives on the evening shift and I live on the morning shift and our time together is when I’m winding down from work and he’s gearing up for some activity. I keep looking around at my flat, thinking about buying some throw pillows to make the couch more comfortable and picking up some duvets because our bedspreads are dull and boring. Having just watched Oprah’s show on hoarding this week, I keep reminding myself to think about the purchases I make as ways to bring people together rather than as things to fill up holes. So, the 2 chairs and the table that I bought reflect choices that Ben and I made together for our space. The little table is one that he uses all the time when he’s on the computer and I’ve found that I use it to prop my feet. The chairs give us a little more seating if we need it and we really just liked them! The paintings that I purchased capture what I love about South Africa better than any photos I’ve taken, so they really bless my need for something beautiful in my living space.

A second aspect of my sabbatical is the increasing clarity I have in the research questions I want to examine more clearly. While I’m still refining the questions around teaching and learning, I have the time to look at video data that friends are sharing with me and starting to think about the answers that are there in the data. The process is so time consuming that trying to do this just to meet a publish-or-perish mandate is untenable during the regular academic year. However, I think that trying to understand what happens in the space between teacher and learner is incredibly important and worth the commitment of time, energy, and space.

That commitment of resources frequently means that something else has to go. What can I give up to create the space for research that I believe is important for myself as a teacher scholar, for the professional community in which I work, and for the broader community in which people live. A striking theme has emerged in conversations and emails with educators. Cena said it best yesterday when she said, “I don’ t like this anymore. I was trained to be a teacher, to teach my learners, to watch them, to help them learn. But this is only paperwork. This system is just about filling in reports and sending them off for someone to read. What difference does this make? How does this help them?” My UP colleagues are much like my JMU colleagues in that they are very fine teachers and that is what they love to do. In just the few classes I’ve visited, their commitment to the principles of high quality early childhood teacher education is evident. In meetings to talk about program revisions that come from mandates at a higher level, they remain committed to do maintaining a philosophical orientation that is child-centered. Yet they spend so much time on program revisions. What I’m trying to understand is how they manage their own resources of time with their teaching schedules and large numbers of students. Where do they have the space to give up some of what they are doing in teaching to create space for their own scholarly activity? Like my JMU colleagues, they are sitting on mounds of data that actually build the case for quality learning experiences in teacher education and in primary schools, but they are challenged by how to prioritize their time so that they can actually produce their scholarly work. In their system, they can apply for paid study leave and that is certainly something that I want to learn more about. Mary just left on study leave to write up her dissertation and will be gone for the remainder of this semester. How does the JMU College of Education create spaces that allow a “study leave” or “sabbatical” so that faculty can get refresh and renew? Even within the department, do we think that we could reorganize teaching schedules so that some classes met on the block so that faculty could have some “study leave” during another block?

All the paperwork that Cena referred to is real. I’ve seen the many meetings and forms that teachers and administrators in the schools must complete as part of their evidence of policy compliance. Yet, in talking with teachers and principals, few see the connection between what they complete and submit as having relevance for their teaching or serve to support their learners. Reading emails from home, I’m aware that data is necessary to maintain or demonstrate adherence to standards, particularly accreditation standards. But by the time we get to data collection and management at the faculty level, it ceases to feel connected to the work that we who are teaching students actually do. Part of that may stem from the challenges of implementing new systems of doing things. Certainly, trying to create a new routine of living here has been a challenge. Yet establishing routines to make life flow more smoothly has been purposeful and I know what to do so that I can get out the door to face the morning traffic with my wits about me. When I think about entering scores for key assessments into a database that is used by someone else to make decisions that don’t seem to connect back to what I do as a teacher educator, then I feel resistant to be part of any discussion around anything related to accreditation.

This sabbatical Sabbath has also given me a chance to remember that the relationships I have with my family and friends are critical to my well-being. I look forward to opening emails to hear from people. Skyping to see the people with whom I speak is such a gift! Ben told me yesterday that he was ready to go home. He missed his friends (and maybe his American family) and I can understand how he feels. We’re deeply connected to the people we left behind and it’s good to learn that as a young person and be reminded of that again and again.

So at one month into my sabbatical, I appreciate the relationships I have with so many wonderful people in two countries. I’m thrilled to be warm, and sometimes even hot, rather than face a cold snowy winter. I’ve faced some new fears about getting around in a new place and remained challenged by differences in technology and understandings about time. There’s still quite a lot of “resting” yet to do. In fact, I feel like a nap!

Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?

Time

Summer time.  Winter time.  African time.  On time.  Enough time.  What time?

Time is a theme that I keep bumping into.  I don’t have a watch so I rely on my cell phone.  It’s only problematic when I have to pull out the sim card to put it into my modem so I can work online.  Then I count on either the television to see if he time is displayed or I recognize a show that comes on at a particular time.  Or I check on the computer and do the math by adding 7 hours to whatever shows up to get a sense of what time it might be.   To re-set my cell phone upon replacing the sim card, I have to remember that here it’s important to use military time so that the alarm goes off in the morning and the evening time is accurate.

Time is important with my routines. I’ve figured out that if I’m up by 6, then I can get through my morning rituals of showering, ironing my clothes, eating some breakfast, and picking up my flat before heading out to work in time to miss most of the traffic.  Of course, this is a major city and I live on a huge campus, so allowing adequate time to get from my flat to the office is a real challenge.  At my first intersection I have to make a right hand turn at a light with 3 lanes facing 4 lanes trying to cross 4 lanes with no turn signal. In the morning that means that perhaps 2-3 cars can make the right turn at each click of the light going our way.  Even though I only have one more turn onto another road, it’s never a certainty that all the lights will work or that a taxi (really a small van) won’t cut in front of me while I’m still trying to make sure that I’ve shifted into the right gear.

What does it mean to be on time for a meeting?  I’ve finally learned that if I’m joining someone so that we can go somewhere together, I should call first.  As at my own institution, students stop by at the last minute with questions, another colleague comes by and needs to talk, or the phone rings and so getting to the meeting or the next place gets postponed to take care of more pressing issues.  How long are the meetings once we’re there.  There are two set meeting times each week of one hour.  Then there are other meetings that are set to address bigger issues over longer blocks of time.  The departmental meeting to review the module revisions that will impact the proposed distance education degree started right on time at 3 and lasted until 6 (1500-1800).  Today’s department meeting to officially talk about the purpose of my stay was set to run during the 9:30-10:30 time slot.  I was there early with all the stuff I had brought, began talking informally with colleagues as they arrived and then watched as the time flew by while we talked together about what we hoped to accomplish in the next few months.  We looked at setting up times to talk together as individuals and time to address larger issues and interests.

Then I watch my new colleagues racing through time as they have back-to-back classes and need enough time to breathe between groups, reset or refocus between groups, or just time to get a quick drink of water or tea before teaching again. This contrasts sharply with tea time when people take a break to make a cup of coffee or tea, perhaps have a snack or early lunch, and sit down to visit with whoever is in the tea room.  Sometimes people will go to the staff dining room to order a cup of something to drink and maybe a sandwich or salad.  In either setting, there’s the time for talk about our personal lives or our professional concerns, but most often the conversations move back and forth across topics and interests and it’s truly a mental health break before we go back to our offices or classes.

The gift of time that this leave offers is absolutely amazing.  I find that I’m taking time at the end of the day to walk around the track that surrounds the rugby field on the Groenklof campus where the education college is located.  When Ben is here, he shoots baskets while I walk laps and then read or watch him.  When he’s gone, then it’s just me walking for a while before heading home to catch Oprah while I enjoy my glass of wine, watching Isidingo (one of my soaps) and cooking supper during the commercials, and catching the 7:00 news while eating supper.  Then it’s time to get a little more work done until 8:00 when it’s time for Generations.  That’s my favorite soap opera and I don’t do anything else except to enjoy a cup or two of rooibos tea.  Then there’s time to work some more on editing videos or reading.

I find that I still spend time online – as much as ever before.  This time, it doesn’t seem to be to address my short attention span, but to maintain the connection between myself and my family and friends.  I look forward to those quick emails that come through that let me know about what’s going on at home.  When I read the messages from Ken and my children, I’m grateful for their support in letting me be away for so long to do something that feels very selfish.  Let’s face it, I’m warm, walking barefoot on the track.  I have someone who comes in to clean my flat and wash my dishes everyday.  There’s no doggie droppings or demands on me.  My children are managing their lives quite capably and competently and I’m so proud of the young adults they have become.  My dear friends and colleagues are wrestling with so many issues in our program and department.  As they all know, I’m thrilled to miss out on all of those meetings and discussions and just keep reminding myself that they are incredibly wise and know what’s really important in the work that we do.  Then there are my friends at Trinity who remain in my thoughts.  We share deep friendships with many people here and our time together in South Africa and with our time with our South African friends when they were with us in Harrisonburg binds us together closely.

Today is also a very special time to remember here in South Africa.  20 years ago today, Nelson Mandela was released from prison at Paarl and made his first public appearance after 27 years in prison.  What a long time he served for what he believed to be right and just.  I’ve read about all the he did during that time and it amazes me that during such a challenging period in history and his personal life, he emerged an incredible inspiration and leader for so many people.  I can’t think about the costs involved in his being away for so long on his family and on his health. 

So then, since I have so much time to think now, I can’t help but wonder about how I spend my time.  What is important about the time that is mine each moment?  How do I use the time that is mine? Today I met the consultant who led the workshop for the fourth year students.  During our tea time Leola talked about the sudden death of her husband and how she has spent the last year since his death.  This morning, Nkidi and I had a cup of coffee and talked about the time she spent as a young girl, living with her grandmother.  She talked about the wonderful stories her gogo told as they cooked supper outside with the moon for light.  She said that even now, she and her four siblings remember the prayers that their gogo had taught them.  This afternoon, I had a text from Themba saying that he and the children were waiting for Thembela to come out of her gall bladder surgery, spending that time together.  And Nico texted to let me know that he had spent time today tracking down a book I had left in my car when we were trying to get it fixed and had picked up a loaner until mine was ready.

I enjoy my time alone, there’s no doubt.  I love to be able to work and think and find it a precious gift to have the time right now to do just that.  But I think what I enjoy the most, is having the time to read a lengthy email from one of my kids, or talk to someone I love on skype, or chat with a new friend over tea, or hang out with Ben while he shoots baskets or watches tv with me (FYI, he watches my soaps and I watch is WWF Wrestling). 

Now, it’s time to get back to editing videos…

Buying a Car

I’ve never enjoyed buying a car. There’s just so much at stake. You know, is it going to run well? What’s the gas mileage? Is this the best price for the car? How do you know that all those wires and buttons and cylinders are in top notch shape? Here in South Africa, things are slightly more complicated in that when you do a test drive, especially when you’re an American, you have to remember how to shift with your left hand, drive on the left hand side of the road, lean left when you make a left-hand turn and go wide right to make your right hand turn. So, how does a single female who knows very little about cars go about buying one in another country? For me, it’s all about the kindness of strangers.

After arriving in South Africa on Monday, 18 January, I was eager to buy a car so that I could have the flexibility of getting around without burdening all my friends in Johannesburg and Pretoria. On Tuesday morning, Steven came by in his bakkie to start the hunt. Themba and Thembela, my host family until I moved to Pretoria, both had to work so Steven was able to arrange time away from work to take me shopping. What Steven didn’t quite realize was that Ben was with me and so the three of us began our search with Ben and I sharing the single passenger seat. There is certainly quite a bit that I could say about just that aspect of our day of car shopping, particularly since Ben sat next to the window and I tried to balance on the seat between Ben and the gears that Steven had to change. At one point Steven looked at us, laughed and said, “My wife (a traditionally built African woman) would never try that!”

We drove to a number of car lots to check on what kinds of cars were available in my price range and try to figure out both how well they would run during my six months here and still hold their resale value when I left for the states in July. Around noon, we met with one of Steven’s friends who worked for a company the sold cars by having people submit tenders or bids. The car was a beautiful white 2006 VW Polo and the minimum bid was R42,000. There were about 5 other people looking at the car with us and everyone was impressed. As Steven, Ben, and I left to do more shopping, we tried to figure out a strategy for our tender. I had no idea how high people would tend to offer and Steven wasn’t really sure either. He had bid on one car before and lost out, but then later was successful with a bid on another vehicle. We decided that we would offer the top of my range, $49,000 (about $7,000) and see what happened and Steven agreed to submit the tender on my behalf.

More shopping and one more possibility emerged. A cute little Corsa Opal, one-owner, with air con was there in my price range at R 43,900. We looked at it closely, talked with the salesman, checked through the service log, and agreed that it would also be a good investment. A few more brief stops and then we headed home, ready for some lunch from Wimpy’s. Now, the dilemma became which car would be the better buy for my particular needs and circumstances.

I moved to Pretoria with the help of Nkidi and Linda on Wednesday. They took me grocery shopping and helped me get unloaded and I began my work at the university with Nkidi picking me up in the morning and returning me to my flat on Thursday and Friday. Friday afternoon Thembela came by when she finished at work in central Pretoria to check out my flat and bring me to J’burg for a family weekend. Saturday, while she was in class and the children were at a birthday party, Themba and I continued the quest for a car, making sure to check out the Opal. He, too, thought it would be a good investment and we talked about the price with the salesman who stood firm. At the end of a lovely weekend, Themba and Steven brought me back to my flat to start my first full week of work at the university.

Monday was the full day workshop at the sports ground near my flat. I now know that it’s just a 15 minute walk away, but I was grateful for the ride because the rain was pouring from the sky. I mentioned to some of my new colleagues that I was trying to purchase a car and several people mentioned that Annalie’s husband was in the car selling business. I asked her if he had any cars that I could look at and she promised to check with him and get back in touch with me. By afternoon it was sunny and hot and Nkidi helped me pay attention to the directions to get me back home. Tuesday and Wednesday were supervision days so again, Nkidi picked me up to visit the schools and run some errands. While observing lessons, I received a call from Steven to let me know that our tender was rejected in favor of one for over R60,000. I let Deon, the Opal sales person know I was definitely interested in the car we had seen twice and that I would try to arrange to come by. Before I could make the travel plans to get back to J’burg with Thembela, Deon called to say that “my” opal had been sold but that there was a nicer Opal that had come in that cost even less! I let him know that I would continue to try to make arrangements to get to his lot.

While the phone calls and texts kept flying back and forth while I was trying to observe students, Annalie’s husband, Nico offered to take me to look at some cars in Centurion with some of the people with whom he works regularly. Annalie had already checked out Nico’s lot and found no cars meeting her approval for me. We set up a Thursday morning appointment, drove out to three lots, and promptly found a car that we thought would work. I was feeling some pressure to get a car so that I could drive to the airport to pick up Ben on Sunday, 31 January since Themba and Thembela were going to be out of town for the weekend. I also didn’t want to burden friends with driving between J’burg and Pretoria on a weekend when everyone has so many things to do. Nkidi assured me that she was available on Sunday to take me to the airport and would bring me home again. I had already made plans with Maggie and her family for lunch at their home so I started thinking about how to coordinate all the transport without creating additional hassles for everyone. Convinced that I had found the perfect call with Nico and his enthusiastic agreement, I asked him about how to proceed with the purchase.

First there was the matter of wiring money from my account to the Active Motors account, then I needed to register the car, and finally I needed car insurance. He assured me that he would help with all the paper work so the process of paying for the car was my first step. I spent much of my time on Thursday afternoon and Friday trying to figure out how to make the .pdf form for the wire transfer work. A volley of emails went back and forth between Julie at the bank and me. Soon after thinking I had submitted all the appropriate information, she let me know that she had to have my “live signature” on the form. Knowing that this would require faxing and everything was closed for the weekend, I decided to make sure I had all the proper information on the account. Texts with Nico explaining exactly what kinds of account and banking numbers were required by the bank led to phone calls with the car lot owner who got busy selling cars and didn’t get the information to me until late on Sunday evening. By Monday, I had the form completely filled out with my signature so that when Nkidi came to get me for work, I was ready to fax.
We arrived at the office bright and early, ready for a busy week. I asked about faxing my document and she showed me the fancy copier, fax, scanning machine they had in the office and we began the process of faxing the paper to my bank so the wire would be ready to go when Julie came in to work. The first attempt failed, as did the second and third so we called in Tebogo, our departmental secretary to try. Still no luck! Finally I thought about the scanner option and asked if Tebogo would scan it. Nkidi recommended that the scan be sent to her and then she would email it to me. By noon, I managed to have my scanned image and I emailed that to the bank, hopeful that the money would move forward to Active Motors.

More travel arrangements had to be made so that I could get Ben, so I took Nkidi up on her offer to take me to the airport. I also asked if she could drop us off at Greenstone Mall where I would ask Karabelo to pick us up and take us on to his house for lunch. Nkidi graciously agreed, but was concerned that she really wasn’t familiar with the mall and wanted to be sure that I got good directions. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that Karabelo might be able to simply meet us at the airport so that Nkidi could get home and that’s precisely what we ended up arranging.

By Monday I was sure that my car would be delivered and that I could take care of all the paperwork on Tuesday after visiting a few students with Ina in the morning. I checked in with Nico on Monday only to learn that the money hadn’t made it to the account. I assured him that I had heard from my bank that the wire had been sent. On Tuesday, I called Nico again to follow up on the wire transfer. He was certain at that point that I should be able to get the car. He called his friend from Active Motors who again said that the money wasn’t in his account. Nico then checked with the bank to see about the problem and the bank informed him that the funds had been transferred but the account owner needed to activate the funds. More phone calls and a visit from Nico to find out what was going on and finally a call to me that he was going to pick up the car and bring it to me. At long last, my car was ready.

Nico arrived in the afternoon with my new car. He agreed to drive it out to Centurion so that we could get it registered and then I would drive it back home. On the drive Nico extolled the virtues of the Citi Golf, telling me how easy it was to be serviced, about the cheap replacement parts, and the great gas mileage. He also reminded me that he would purchase the car back from me in July so he thought that he would get the car registered to him through his business. When I asked about how to get the insurance, he had a new idea. He phoned his agent to tell him how he purchased the car and was letting me use it for 6 months and managed to get the insurance through his own business. Nico decided that with the rate of only R260/month, he would take care of it and I would pay him the full amount when I left!

Along the way to Active Motors with my new car, ready to be registered and insured, the car started to jerk a little. Nico looked at me and asked, “Did you feel that?” and then the car settled down again. Once on the highway, the car started sputtering and jerking again and Nico was clearly dismayed. He had been assured that the car was in top shape and road worthy. We began tossing ideas around. Maybe it was really almost empty. Or perhaps there was a clog in the fuel line. Or it seemed possible that a cylinder was missing. We arrived at the car lot with lots of questions.

Inside the office, Johanes was busy with a man and woman and his daughter around his computer. The conversation was all in Afrikaans so I remained clueless. Ben and I just took a seat in the office where it was much cooler than the ride in the car had been. After 30 minutes or so, Johanes was free and Nico explained what had happened while we were on the road. Immediately he told his mechanic to take a look at the car. More waiting to replace a bad spark plug and further checking around to see if anything else could be going on. Johanes brought us a bottle of cold water to drink while we waited for the mechanic to finish up his work. While we waited, he checked his bank account to see if the funds had been deposited yet. Earlier in the day the bank’s website had gone down and he had not been able to confirm that the wire had gone through. He proudly announced that the money was now in his account so his daughter started the registration process for the car. More waiting and Nico came back into the office to tell us that there was still a little more work to be done to be sure that all was well with the car. However, since it was almost closing time, Johanes was going to let me take another car from the lot so that I could get home and still have transport available and Nico would bring me the car on Wednesday.

Thanks to Ben’s help, we drove off for our first solo trip driving from Centurion to Pretoria with a stop for gas (thanks to Nico’s R100 gift) and a stop at the Brooklyn mall to search for a basketball. Ben paid close attention to how I shifted gears and managed the clutch, clearly an astute student with a desire to take over the driving! We made it home safe and sound – but still without the car I bought.

The next day, while once again in a classroom, the phone rang. I rushed outside the classroom to learn that the car was officially repaired and that Nico was going to drive it all the way to J’burg to make sure that everything was really all right. He let me know that he would bring the car to me later in the day. You can’t imagine my surprise when the car with Nico behind the wheel actually arrived! I was so excited that after the eternity 3 weeks, I finally had a car to help me get around.

You know, Nico was the real hero in the Golf purchase. I can’t begin to explain how much time he spent negotiating with Johanes to take care of the car, the funding, the additional repairs; his test drives; his time spent shopping around with someone who simply worked with his wife. He took on the responsibility for having the car registered in his name and securing the insurance at an affordable rate.

But there was also Annalie who told her husband about my desire for a car and who made sure that he helped me select one with care. She continues to be the little faery to checks in on me to be sure I get directions to places I may like to visit and offers suggestions for fun things to do.

And of course, there are my friends Steven, Andiswa, and Elizabeth who call to make sure I’m settled in Pretoria. And my younger brother Themba and my sister Thembela who fill in the gaps and provide a base of support and love.

The kindness of people…