Saturday, February 25, 2006
Frustrations in the mountains
Before I start I must apologize for any duplication between reports. I do not have easy access to earlier reports and have to rely on memory which is not a good thing.
Things are not going very well at Mamohau and I may end up changing schools for the last month or so. The problem has been there from the start (when I was not picked up on the day arranged), but I guess my optimism made me think that I could overcome this. The school was chosen for twinning and to receive a volunteer because of the strong leadership it has. The principal and deputy principal are both very nice men but are frequently absent from the school. In the case of the principal, he is there for an average of less than a day a week and the deputy for about three days. They were given a copy of my work plan but had apparently never read it – in any case, I was never introduced to either the staff or students and my role there was never formally made clear. This meant that I had to explain it to each person or group individually. Not surprisingly, the teachers (and kids) did not feel all that comfortable with a stranger coming in, without a clear mandate from the principal, to suggest that there might be better ways to teach and learn.
I have taught lessons for teachers and taught in the absence of teachers (and the deputy who teaches Form E English) but am not really getting anywhere. The standard teaching method is for the teachers to write something on the board (copied from a textbook or the government syllabus) and the kids write it down and memorize it. There is little thought given to what this might be. I came into a Form E class and there was something on the board about “…breathing chemical bonds by heating them”. The kids had all copied this down without thinking. I suggested that perhaps the ‘th’ in breathing should be replaced by a ‘k’ and I could see faces light up when they actually thought about it. An introductory computer class was being taught word processing by typing a passage on the blackboard with the errors that it included so that they could try the spell checker.
One of the Form E classes told me that they did not want me to teach them because they could not understand my accent (I spoke very slowly and clearly) and, more to the point, because I gave them too much work. I was teaching the probability unit (grade 9 in Ontario I think, but grade 12 here) and the kids were having huge difficulty with it. They prefer it when the teacher just copies the answers on the board so they get it in their books – even if they do not have a clue about how the questions can be done.
I have also discovered that the kids suffer from sleep deprivation. They seem to get from 5 to 6 hours and it means that they always falling asleep in class. I checked with a couple of the sponsored girls (in Form A and B) and they go to sleep at around 1030 and wake up at 340 to get ready for the day. They have to be out of the dorm rooms at 5 am to allow for cleaning and line up for breakfast at 6. They are supposed to be in class to study at 7 but they tend to sleep there for obvious reasons.
The Deputy Principal has just gotten a job as a principal about 40 km from Mamohau, so there is really no one there to lead. It will be interesting to see how much more the principal comes. I was told that the appointment of a deputy can take 1 to 2 years but that an acting appointment is likely.
Last weekend there was a very strange combined staff meeting and BBQ held about 40 km south of Maseru. Not sure why we had to travel so far from Mamohau for this, but it was on the grounds of a lodge that used to be the summer home of the British High Commissioner during colonial times. During the staff meeting, prizes were given to the teachers who had the highest passing rate during the Form C and E central exams. They also were asked to explain the reasons for their success (generally that they taught courses that had the highest marks across the country, but they did not say this of course). The teachers with the worst success rates (math and computers) had to explain what they would do differently this year – it had the feel of something from the Cultural Revolution, with self-criticism in order. The reality is that no schools do well in math and computer science. At Mamohau they stopped teaching physics because the math skills were so bad – and they are terrible, but it is a shame that kids who might be good at math/science are virtually eliminated from taking engineering, most science etc.
The principal also made his remarks about what had to improve and it was like he was reading from parts of the interim report I had given him. Unfortunately, he focused on teachers not missing so many days of school (a major problem for sure) – but hard for him to talk about (he said he was away, but ‘that there were good reasons for this’. He also said he wanted people to be on time at school and for each class and to stay in class until the end of the period. This was also problematic, since his wife, who teaches geography, is the worst offender here. Anyway, nothing has changed this week except that the teachers are pretty angry, but not showing it.
We had a visit for two days from Peggy and Peter, who are two of our volunteers. What they are doing is quite remarkable. They have been in Africa since November doing HIV/AIDS education. In that time they have been in Rwanda (apparently most of the women in the country were raped during the genocide, giving AIDS a big boost), Zimbabwe (one of the basket cases of Africa under Mugabe) and Lesotho. Peggy has been HIV+ for 20 years and Peter is HIV- negative and they can talk about the subject with great credibility and considerable knowledge on the subject. Many people here cannot believe that Peggy has been positive for so long since here getting infected has been a death sentence.
Lesotho has become one of the African leaders with respect to AIDS. Testing is free and available widely, including at the hospital near the school. For those who know this, my apologies – once you test positive, the next step is to have a monthly test to check your CD4 count. This is a measure of the health of the immune system. Generally it takes 5 or so years after infection for the count to drop to 200, which is when ARV treatment is needed. CD4 monitoring is free and the ARVs are technically free but there is a charge to transport them from Maseru. This means that the cost is R10 for three months – this is a bit less than $2. ARVs should have been available in Africa years ago (millions of lives could have been saved, but at least they are here now – at least in Lesotho, the story is not so good elsewhere I understand. Peggy and Peter were focusing on two messages – get tested and protect yourself.
I have been doing some follow-up with the teachers and students after these presentations. Only 2 (of 24) teachers have been tested and I have talked to several about their fears about being tested. One of the problems in the country is that huge numbers of teachers (and other community leaders) have died. This week I will also be working with the school’s AIDS club.
The seriousness of the problem can be seen from simple stats. In Lejone, near the school, the AIDS clinic did a workshop for 60 women. At the end of the workshop, 29 of the women were too frightened to be tested. Of the 31 who were tested, 29 were positive. More scary was that only 3 of these women have returned for CD4 testing.
Rains continue here, almost every day. Older people in the community are saying that they cannot remember such a rainy time in their lives. It really is a cruel joke after so many years of drought.
We set a new record for the 15 person taxis on the way here. It might have been the last taxi from Mamohau to Lejone (6 km or so) and it was pretty full when it stopped to pick up the 6 or so waiting. We managed 25 people including the two who were standing on the bumper holding on to the luggage rack. I was standing up with one foot in the door well and one between someone’s leg – the idea of personal space is not remotely the same here as in Canada. You are crammed into the taxi and could have someone’s arm around your shoulders or a hand on top of yours. You start to get used to it after while. The people here tend to fall into two categories with respect to personal hygiene. Most people are scrupulously clean – they often will have two sponge baths a day. A few people, the herd boys in particular, only seem to bathe in months that have a ‘V’ in them.
An interesting thought I had about South Africa …, they have benefited from the sanctions that were put in place during Apartheid. During this time they seemed to develop a great deal of economic self-sufficiency. Almost everything that you see for sale in Lesotho comes from there – for example, all manner of tools and foodstuffs. A particular favourite of mine was Da Vinci’s Genuine Scottish Shortbread. I imagine that globalization will gradually have an impact, but not much evidence of it so far.
Enough for now I think - except to say that the radio is on in the Internet cafe and it seems to be a combination of a phone-in show and Christmas music. This is the not the first time I have heard Silent Night in Feb here.
Things are not going very well at Mamohau and I may end up changing schools for the last month or so. The problem has been there from the start (when I was not picked up on the day arranged), but I guess my optimism made me think that I could overcome this. The school was chosen for twinning and to receive a volunteer because of the strong leadership it has. The principal and deputy principal are both very nice men but are frequently absent from the school. In the case of the principal, he is there for an average of less than a day a week and the deputy for about three days. They were given a copy of my work plan but had apparently never read it – in any case, I was never introduced to either the staff or students and my role there was never formally made clear. This meant that I had to explain it to each person or group individually. Not surprisingly, the teachers (and kids) did not feel all that comfortable with a stranger coming in, without a clear mandate from the principal, to suggest that there might be better ways to teach and learn.
I have taught lessons for teachers and taught in the absence of teachers (and the deputy who teaches Form E English) but am not really getting anywhere. The standard teaching method is for the teachers to write something on the board (copied from a textbook or the government syllabus) and the kids write it down and memorize it. There is little thought given to what this might be. I came into a Form E class and there was something on the board about “…breathing chemical bonds by heating them”. The kids had all copied this down without thinking. I suggested that perhaps the ‘th’ in breathing should be replaced by a ‘k’ and I could see faces light up when they actually thought about it. An introductory computer class was being taught word processing by typing a passage on the blackboard with the errors that it included so that they could try the spell checker.
One of the Form E classes told me that they did not want me to teach them because they could not understand my accent (I spoke very slowly and clearly) and, more to the point, because I gave them too much work. I was teaching the probability unit (grade 9 in Ontario I think, but grade 12 here) and the kids were having huge difficulty with it. They prefer it when the teacher just copies the answers on the board so they get it in their books – even if they do not have a clue about how the questions can be done.
I have also discovered that the kids suffer from sleep deprivation. They seem to get from 5 to 6 hours and it means that they always falling asleep in class. I checked with a couple of the sponsored girls (in Form A and B) and they go to sleep at around 1030 and wake up at 340 to get ready for the day. They have to be out of the dorm rooms at 5 am to allow for cleaning and line up for breakfast at 6. They are supposed to be in class to study at 7 but they tend to sleep there for obvious reasons.
The Deputy Principal has just gotten a job as a principal about 40 km from Mamohau, so there is really no one there to lead. It will be interesting to see how much more the principal comes. I was told that the appointment of a deputy can take 1 to 2 years but that an acting appointment is likely.
Last weekend there was a very strange combined staff meeting and BBQ held about 40 km south of Maseru. Not sure why we had to travel so far from Mamohau for this, but it was on the grounds of a lodge that used to be the summer home of the British High Commissioner during colonial times. During the staff meeting, prizes were given to the teachers who had the highest passing rate during the Form C and E central exams. They also were asked to explain the reasons for their success (generally that they taught courses that had the highest marks across the country, but they did not say this of course). The teachers with the worst success rates (math and computers) had to explain what they would do differently this year – it had the feel of something from the Cultural Revolution, with self-criticism in order. The reality is that no schools do well in math and computer science. At Mamohau they stopped teaching physics because the math skills were so bad – and they are terrible, but it is a shame that kids who might be good at math/science are virtually eliminated from taking engineering, most science etc.
The principal also made his remarks about what had to improve and it was like he was reading from parts of the interim report I had given him. Unfortunately, he focused on teachers not missing so many days of school (a major problem for sure) – but hard for him to talk about (he said he was away, but ‘that there were good reasons for this’. He also said he wanted people to be on time at school and for each class and to stay in class until the end of the period. This was also problematic, since his wife, who teaches geography, is the worst offender here. Anyway, nothing has changed this week except that the teachers are pretty angry, but not showing it.
We had a visit for two days from Peggy and Peter, who are two of our volunteers. What they are doing is quite remarkable. They have been in Africa since November doing HIV/AIDS education. In that time they have been in Rwanda (apparently most of the women in the country were raped during the genocide, giving AIDS a big boost), Zimbabwe (one of the basket cases of Africa under Mugabe) and Lesotho. Peggy has been HIV+ for 20 years and Peter is HIV- negative and they can talk about the subject with great credibility and considerable knowledge on the subject. Many people here cannot believe that Peggy has been positive for so long since here getting infected has been a death sentence.
Lesotho has become one of the African leaders with respect to AIDS. Testing is free and available widely, including at the hospital near the school. For those who know this, my apologies – once you test positive, the next step is to have a monthly test to check your CD4 count. This is a measure of the health of the immune system. Generally it takes 5 or so years after infection for the count to drop to 200, which is when ARV treatment is needed. CD4 monitoring is free and the ARVs are technically free but there is a charge to transport them from Maseru. This means that the cost is R10 for three months – this is a bit less than $2. ARVs should have been available in Africa years ago (millions of lives could have been saved, but at least they are here now – at least in Lesotho, the story is not so good elsewhere I understand. Peggy and Peter were focusing on two messages – get tested and protect yourself.
I have been doing some follow-up with the teachers and students after these presentations. Only 2 (of 24) teachers have been tested and I have talked to several about their fears about being tested. One of the problems in the country is that huge numbers of teachers (and other community leaders) have died. This week I will also be working with the school’s AIDS club.
The seriousness of the problem can be seen from simple stats. In Lejone, near the school, the AIDS clinic did a workshop for 60 women. At the end of the workshop, 29 of the women were too frightened to be tested. Of the 31 who were tested, 29 were positive. More scary was that only 3 of these women have returned for CD4 testing.
Rains continue here, almost every day. Older people in the community are saying that they cannot remember such a rainy time in their lives. It really is a cruel joke after so many years of drought.
We set a new record for the 15 person taxis on the way here. It might have been the last taxi from Mamohau to Lejone (6 km or so) and it was pretty full when it stopped to pick up the 6 or so waiting. We managed 25 people including the two who were standing on the bumper holding on to the luggage rack. I was standing up with one foot in the door well and one between someone’s leg – the idea of personal space is not remotely the same here as in Canada. You are crammed into the taxi and could have someone’s arm around your shoulders or a hand on top of yours. You start to get used to it after while. The people here tend to fall into two categories with respect to personal hygiene. Most people are scrupulously clean – they often will have two sponge baths a day. A few people, the herd boys in particular, only seem to bathe in months that have a ‘V’ in them.
An interesting thought I had about South Africa …, they have benefited from the sanctions that were put in place during Apartheid. During this time they seemed to develop a great deal of economic self-sufficiency. Almost everything that you see for sale in Lesotho comes from there – for example, all manner of tools and foodstuffs. A particular favourite of mine was Da Vinci’s Genuine Scottish Shortbread. I imagine that globalization will gradually have an impact, but not much evidence of it so far.
Enough for now I think - except to say that the radio is on in the Internet cafe and it seems to be a combination of a phone-in show and Christmas music. This is the not the first time I have heard Silent Night in Feb here.
