A little over two weeks ago, I was on my way here watching Up in the Air on that little TV screen on the airplane. Seemed to me like a fitting movie. Also, the plane was a 747 and only about a fifth full, so everyone had plenty of room to spread out. After nearly 24 hours in airports and on airplanes, I was nevertheless relieved to land and get to the house of Jim and Carol Welsh, who were generous enough to let me stay in their guest room for the duration of my trip. Mr. Welsh is also the headmaster of St. Martin's, the school where I am interning for the summer (which is South Africa's winter). It took a grueling few days of sleep and higher altitude adjustment, but eventually I settled in and began interning at St. Martin's.
St. Martin's is, to put it simply, a good school in a bad area. The school is split up into two campuses, the prep school (pre-K through 7th) and the high school (8th through 12th), both of which are pretty and very secure. In Johannesburg, everything has to be very secure. All the houses have brick walls and barbed wire around them, electronic security systems, and at least 1 or 2 gates to go through to get into the house. The suburb that we are in, Rosettenville, has problems with violence and prostitution, and so it is not the kind of place where you can just walk around, particularly not at night. That being said, the campus and the Welsh residence (which is right across the road from the high school) feel safe.
Despite the school being in a bad area, the school itself is very good, and parent pay around 70,000 rand a year (about $10,000) to send their kids there. The school has about 250 kids are 30 or so faculty, as well as a few other interns. There are classes in math, geography, english, business, 3 languages, woodworking, and chess, among many others.
Some things I've noticed about South Africa thus far:
- Everyone drives manual transmission on the opposite side of the road. I don't have a clue how to drive manual transmission.
- Rugby, cricket, field hockey, and soccer are the major sports. I went and saw a pro rugby game with Mr. Welsh (see pics), and it's a pretty intense sport. Similar to football, but they don't wear pads and can't pass the ball forward.
- The malls in South Africa look just like the malls at home. Stores like Levi's, Guess, and Gap are here, as well as McDonalds and KFC. Coca-cola is also very popular. Instead of Diet Coke, they call it Coke Lite because of anorexia problems or something.
- Smoking is very popular here. Besides myself and the Welshes, it seems like everyone smokes. Even though the cigarette packs have even less subtle warnings on them, such as SMOKING WILL KILL YOU. Hookah is very popular too, although they call it "hubbly bubbly."
- If the USA is a melting pot, South Africa is a giant fruit salad. With 11 official languages and every color person imaginable, South Africa is incredibly diverse. The most popular languages are Zulu, Afrikaans, and English. Sometimes I can't tell whether someone is speaking Afrikaans or is just speaking English with a really heavy accent. Either way I can't tell what they're saying.
- A massive chunk of South African pop culture is imported courtesy of the USA. I haven't decided if this is a good or bad thing. I've had kids ask me whether or not there are "jocks" and if they always date the head cheerleaders. Also, they've asked if all the cool kids sit at one table at lunch and if the nerds all sit at another table, and so on. One 8th grader even asked me if I "had ever kissed a guy so that you could see two girls make out." For the older folk in today's reading audience, this question's inspiration comes right out of a scene in the movie American Pie. And the answer to that question, mom, is no. In case you were wondering.
That's about it for now. I'll post sometime soon about how teaching is going at the school. Hope everything is going well back at home.
Ben
