When You Finally Have A Success Story…

When I received my results back from Term One, I was excited! I completed my first term of teaching South Africa and I was pretty confident that I was going to pass all of my learners, but when I received my mark sheet, 26 out of 28 learners passed. People said that it was great while I felt that I failed my learners who didn’t pass. I told myself that I was going to make sure that they pass in Term Two. I matched them with tutors from Grade 7, who helped them some of the concepts they were learning, listening and speaking skills, and reading comprehension.

The principal and I coordinated a Reading Day, which will be conducted once every term. The purpose of Reading Day is for the parents to see where their children are when it comes to reading in Sepedi [home language] and English. Learners read in front of the parents one by one and are given a copy of the materials that they will read. After the parents saw how their learners performed, they wanted me to give extra material to help. So I started giving all the learners extra reading books with questions about the story to answer. I drilled them until they couldn’t be drilled anymore!

When they received their marks from the first major test of the term, they both lost their minds and were so happy because they worked so hard to get a happy face! Then when it came to their mid-year examinations, they are ecstatic to see that they received happy faces again when they were used to getting sad faces.

As I began to enter grades into SA-SAMS, I was nervous about putting in their grades because I felt like I did all that I could do- gave them a tutor, drilled them, got the parents involved, and built confidence within them. I really wanted them to pass, because I wanted them to know that all of their hard work paid off.

As when I entered the marks, I scream with excitement, not only did they pass, their percentages increased. One learner increased by 14% and the other increased by 28%. When I told them, all they could do is say, “Thank you Ma’am Mokgadi for helping me pass.” For the rest of my English Grade 5 class, 100% of the learners passed, class average increased by 5%, reading comprehension increased by 28%, language structures increased by 9%, and 75% of learners’ percentages increased from Term One. It took two terms to understand my role as a volunteer teacher, questioning if my existence meant anything to anyone, and if I am doing anything that is worth something, but this was my shining moment and I am happy that I am continuing to not only teach my learners, but to continue to build confidence within them.

Peace Corps Cribs: South Africa

Soooo it’s been eight months since I moved to my site (10 months in South Africa) and honestly, I hit the jack pot!

Here is a video of my room!

It’s quite different from my room back in America, but it’s my space that I call home.

My Typical Schedule

The day to day life as an Education Volunteer constantly changes. Unlike primary schools aka elementary schools, my school day to day schedule changes. Some days I teach for one hour and others about three hours. Here’s an example of my typical Wednesday schedule.

Walking to school with some of my Grade 4 learners,

What My Trip To America Taught Me

In the beginning of February, tragedy struck in my family and I had to leave my site for two weeks. Peace Corps South Africa and the Peer Support Alliance (formerly known as the Volunteer Support Committee) were a big support in helping me cope with losing someone close to me and the next steps that it took to prep to leave from South Africa.

When I got on the plane to America, it was like I was in a dream. I’ve been having crazy dreams lately that I would end up going to America all of the time, but not under bad circumstances. So I had to really snap into reality that I was really heading to the states.

15 hours later…. I landed in Atlanta, GA

When I got off of the plane, I still was in a confused state of mind.

“There are signs in only English?”

“No one is speaking to me in Sepedi or any other languages? Everyone thinks that I’m American.”

“STARBUCKS!”

It was exciting to hear Spanish and the country accents, openly LGBT communities, and watching CNN as I prepared my next flight to Savannah, GA, which was only a 40 minute flight.

When I got off of the plane, I went straight to the hospital with my cousin. The reunion that I had when I saw my aunt was so happy and emotional. All she and the rest of the Southern folks in the hospital wanted to know was the big question, “HOW IS SOUTH AFRICA?”

Trying to explain your experience in South Africa in two minutes is difficult.

The mini answers I had were, “It’s amazing. I love my village, school, and community” or “It’s definitely my new home. I love the food and the culture”. The thing is that it is hard to summarize your amount of months that you have been away because so much has happen. It’s difficult to try to pile all of the stories and moment in a span of two minutes. But it’s nice to think now of how to get to the point about how your PC experience is thus far.

EVERYONE is still living their lives.

What I found out going home is that even though I left the country to teach and left people behind, everyone is still living their lives. People are still going to school to earn their degrees, or getting married, engaged, or having babies, while you feel as though your life is, in that aspect, on a pause for the next two years.

Meeting up with my City Year teammates!

Not everyone will welcome you back with open arms

… and that is okay. It doesn’t matter if people want to welcome you back, as long as you know that your experience will change your view of life and your attitude, then that’s you understanding your personal growth. So let them be mad.

People will praise you for serving your country.

On my plane ride to America, I met an Afrikaner couple that was headed back to their home. We talked about Peace Corp and the goals of Peace Corps. As I prepared to get off of the plane, they tapped me on the shoulder, gave me the rest of their South African Rands, and said, “Thank you for your work in South Africa. It takes a brave person to do a job like that.” When I went to the thrift store in my mother’s hometown in South Carolina, they charged me two dollars for four items that I bought from the store and the ladies at the salon gave me a discount on my hairstyle. The thing is that your status seems to go up once people find out that you are a volunteer. At first, they might think that you are crazy at first, but then they usually end the conversation with, “I have a lot of respect for you and what you are doing. Good job.”

You will want to eat and drink EVERYTHING!

Lord, I ate EVERYWHERE! As soon as you hit American soil, you mouth waters and yearns for all of the foods that you haven’t had in forever! I ate/ drank at Bojangles, Buffalo Wild Wings, Waffle House, American Chinese, real Mexican food, happy hours, Frosty from Wendy’s, Soul Food, American Candy, Starbucks, Fried Chicken and Mambo Sauce etc. mhmmm I ate sooooo cool.

My auntie made me some Southern Food the day before I left! 🙂

 

You will accidentally do they things that are normal in your village, but not normal in America.

For example, in my village everyone likes to hold each other’s hand and I completely forgot that it’s not a thing in America haha. There were moments that I caught myself saying, “Cho,” which is like the South African version of “OMG.”

Getting to see my lovely uncle!

Things will change

Home will change. Coming from Washington DC, I saw how the dynamic of my university has changed, the city life has changed, and the faces within that city have changed and that it is okay.  Your mentality will change as well. You will start to understand that first world problems are NOTHING compared to the problem that you see on a day to day basis. You start to become more understanding about people’s struggle, more patient, open to talk about things that you didn’t dare to talk about before, and more grateful for the little things that you didn’t have.

Going home was good and bad, but it was worth seeing my family, wishing someone a proper farewell, and having the opportunity to check on everyone!

Until next time!

The Wonders of a Joy Box

When I was a Corps Member with City Year, my team leader had a joy jar that we would put our little joys in and read during the week. I took that same thing and brought it over to South Africa to help with coping in a new place. I call it the Joy Box.

The Unexpected Friend

A few months ago I posted this quote:
“The great thing about getting older is that you become more mellow. Things aren’t as black and white and you become much more tolerant. You can see the good in things much more easily rather than get enraged as you used to when you were young. -Maeve Binchy”

These last couple of days have been very stressful, especially after being in the hospital. My moods have been very, very high and very, very down. I called my mom yesterday morning and told her that I was done. That I didn’t want to do this anymore and that I wanted to come home.

Being the mother that she is, she immediately said come home after I explained my reasoning, but today when we spoke, she told me to sit and think about everything. Because my mom is mama bear plus the therapist, I agreed to sit and think if I wanted to stay or not.

Hours later….
I’m walking around the village and went to the spaza shop to buy some potatoes, fruits, and bread. I felt so overwhelmed by the many voices yelling, “Ma’am! Ma’am Mokgadi! Hi.” After leaving the store, I went to visit another shop. At this shop is an older gentleman that I love to talk to every time I take a walk around the village. He’s from Johannesburg and has several American friends, so when I talk to him about how I feel, he completely understands. Our convo started as:

Friend: Shanti (people tend to forget the last A). How are you?
Me: Meh.
Friend: But why my friend?!
Me: I want to go home.
Friend: No, no, no Shanti you will not go home.
Me: AND why not?
Friend: Because you see these kids, (pointing to the little ones who followed me to the store) these are your children now and you must help guide them. Yes, I know my people and I know that they can be bad sometimes, but you must help these children. Don’t leave this place forever. We will cry because we like you. Don’t leave Shanti. Plus you will go back to America and then regret leaving.
Me: (Forty minutes into the convo) Fine, I won’t leave.
Friend: Yes! We love you and we don’t want to see you leave.

I started with the quote because it’s easy as humans to make decisions quickly because of our emotions. It is easy to forget the people that we have cheering for us and those who have wisdom and words of encouragement to keep us motivated.

My friend, that has adopted me as a granddaughter is right, these children are like my children now and I must remember that! Who would’ve thought that my new friend would be a 70-year-old man.

Peace Corps isn’t the prettiest lifestyle to live, but it is a very rewardable experience that I have to constantly remember. Like the quote states, now that I am getting older, I must learn how to not be enraged, but more tolerant and understanding of people in this country. I must also learn how to see more of the good than of the bad. Because emotions can easily get me caught up and forget the real reason as to why I am pledging two years of my life to serve as, essentially, an American Ambassador in my village.

How To Survive Peace Corps Lockdown

After Swearing In as an Education Volunteer in September, I was officially on lockdown, meaning that that the first three months I am not allowed to teach, can’t visit volunteers outside of my assigned shopping town, granted only one weekend away to shop for food, and the main focus is to integrate into the community. Isolation Period has been very tough, but here are some tips to survive being the only American in the village.

C: Coming All Together

It has been about a month and a half since I moved to Leokaneng Village, which has been a fascinating experience so far. Between people understanding that I am American, running every day with my host mom and neighbor, understanding my community and how the people live in my community. It’s been a crazy ride, especially with the high number of marriage proposals I have received haha.

Home
I live a spacious room that has a combing small room. When I thought of Peace Corps, I never thought of having a room like this. Next door will be my guest bedroom, but for now it’s where I do my hair.

My Family
I live with an amazing family that has a father, mom, and five children. One of their children is finishing their first year of university! My host father is a solder and my host mother is a house wife. Across the village are my host father’s mother, my aunt, and uncle. In another house, is my host mom’s mother. They remind me of my family at home and it was the type of family I wanted when I first received my invitation.

Now Coming Together
These last two weeks, specifically, officially introduced me to what it is to truly live in  rural part and be associated with the first world of South Africa along with the mindfuck that comes with living here. On October 23^rd, two of my fellow volunteers and I rode down to Polokwane to volunteer at the CANSA Relay for Life with another organization. As we were driving, we go through this community with tin houses that looked like little boxes and then down the street were really nice homes made of bricks and beautiful stoned roofs. That was the only the beginning. Then after, the event we stayed with some Afrikaners [known as White South Africans] in their beautiful home decorated with pictures, beautiful high ceiling, a dog inside of the house, flushing toilets, running showers, amazing backyard with a gorgeous patio, and an 8 foot tall shelf with a variety of books. Where as in my village, we take bucket baths, uses a pit latrine for the bathroom, dogs are normally outside on a chain, and backyards are filled with animals, fruit trees, and vegetable gardens.

I went from being in my natural habitat and happy to being very sad that I was heading back to village life. Point blank: I relapsed.

South Africa is a tough country to serve in because there are the Haves and Have Nots blatantly in your face (The Haves as First World of South Africa and the Have Nots as the Third World of South Africa). When I arrived from my little adventure, my family was worried because I couldn’t say anything. I was too much in shock to say anything. Students in the city do well in school, parents are more involved in the education, and gives freely to the school. Whereas here, some people cannot afford to give to the school, learners cannot go to the parents to get help with homework because the parent might be illiterate, and it gives learners a disadvantage to aim higher.
  Honestly, I am happy that I am able to truly experience living in the two worlds in one country. It makes me sad that people have unsure futures based off of their backgrounds. People may say, “But we have that in America.” No, in America everyone is given the same basic quality of life (apartment/house/ condo with bathroom, kitchen, and running water).In America, we have so many resources that many people can access. It’s best that I am experiencing this emotion because I am understanding the lives of the people here and not living in some fantasy world. All I can do is uplift the society’s future police officers, doctors, social workers, fashion designers, and nurses.

Goodbye City Year, Hello Peace Corps

Through the chaos, the happy times, and the sad times, I can say that I have completed such an amazing year of service. On May 29, 2015, I completed my year of service with City Year Washington DC.

Stepping into my flagship school, I was filled with optimism and hope for an amazing year and it turned into just that. I was honored to serve in an amazing first grade classroom along with my partner teacher who graduated Howard University as well. There were days that were filled with ambition and days when I just wanted to throw in the towel. There were days that I didn’t feel appreciated at all, but days that I felt all the love  from my students. It was the best roller coaster ride of emotions that I have ever felt and was a ride that would forever change my life.

The News That I Have Been Waiting For!

After two and a half months of running around, I am officially medically cleared to serve in Peace Corps South Africa. I was so nervous because of my Polycystic Kidney Disease and other health issues that would have a possibilty of preventing me from being cleared. I will have a post about the expenses of everything that I needed. But yes for medical clearance! Finally the world has been lifted from my shoulders.