July 6

The days seem to running into each other so I guess I may be a little off as I describe the events of certain days. Like today, for instance…
First, I’m really excited to be leaving for Johannesburg in a few weeks to work with the LEAP 3 school. I’m going with two other people from Teach With Africa: one teacher and one who works for Electronic Arts. We’ll be living together in an apartment on campus. Strangely, I’ve gotten really comfortable living with 20 people at the house now, which is definitely not my normal style. Maybe with only three of us I’ll get better internet access though (such an enticing idea!). The school in Jo-Burg (that’s what the cool kids are calling it these days) has a lot of need and is not quite as far as the two LEAP schools we are working with here in Cape Town so I anticipate this being very rewarding and challenging. The decision to come here was a very difficult one as I know there are a few people back home who have very strong opinions about me staying in Cape Town along with the fact that Matt (my cousin who is here with me) was very unhappy this morning when I told him the news. I think he is going to try to come meet up with me for a couple of weeks at the end of my stay. The unknown aspect of Johannesburg is very appealing to me as I feel that I rarely take chances on things that make me nervous or anxious; and this trip certainly makes me feel both of those things.
In other news…as Matt and I were exploring the city a few days ago we were accosted at an ATM from a group of “locals” who wanted to show us the “international” way to use the ATM. They warned about this in many of the guidebooks, but it was weird to actually have it happen. As most of you know, I’m pretty spastic. I would have expected to freak out, but I was surprisingly calm and made sure they kept their hands off of me, which they were trying to do from many angles. Pretty sweet and totally bad ass (imagine me saying this with my usual tone and it seems a lot cooler).
Today we started a dialogue with the founder and director of the LEAP schools and discussed some of the problems plaguing South African education. Strange how many of the issues are parallel to those I see in the urban schools of America. Many things struck me about his observations and ideas about school reform; however, the way he spoke about communication and hierarchy in schools will stick with me. During every presentation we’ve seen so far has been very student led and I have never heard him speak before any student. He also has no problem calling out students who do not speak from the heart and asks them constantly to not speak to please others but from a place that is real and true. He has encouraged and demanded that all of us move away from the cognitive places that we tend to be comfortable operating from and speak and act from an intuitive place that will allow us to have truthful discourse. I’m not very good at this; but will undoubtedly improve this summer.