Hello from Cofimvaba! We are six students who teach 5. – 10. grade, and we are having our teaching-practice in St. James Secondary Senior School. We spent our first weekend in Port Elizabeth, where we felt like we were staying in an urban city with great diversity. During the drive to Cofimvaba we got to see the rural areas of the country, and how a big part of the South-African residents still lives under poor conditions. This reflects the ongoing consequences Apartheid still has on the country.
On our first day at St. James we did not know what to expect, however the way we were welcomed exceeded anything we could possibly imagine. The entire day was dedicated to welcoming us through speeches, dances, music, showcasing cultural artifacts and traditional food. We were emotionally moved by all the people in both the town and the school who showed up, and everything they had arranged for us. This is a day we will remember for the rest of our lives.
Our first impressions of the school are that they have a great community where they cheer each other on and are excited for each other’s achievements and success. Since we arrived, the school have had an Award and Motivation Day, an entire day where the pupils and the teachers celebrate the pupils with the highest results in different subjects. The intention of the day is to motivate the pupils to work even harder and achieve higher results so they can get into higher education, through motivational speeches and awarding good results. This seems to be a contradiction to Norwegians schools, where it seems St. James highly focuses on results and promoting idealistic accomplishments. On several occasions the famous quote from Nelson Mandela was highlighted; Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Something we find funny (and maybe still a bit frustrating) about the African culture is the concept of African time. One day we were told to attend a meeting at 12.00. We showed up at 11.58, and there was no one in the meeting room. The teachers in the school dropped by the room and laughed at us and said: “Why are you here already? This is African time where 12.00 means 12.30”. The meeting actually started 13.00… But we hope we will get used to this concept and take this opportunity to stress down about time-management.
The community here is very different from the community in Norway. Here it is common to greet everyone you see and ask about their day, often also giving them a hug. They also greet their elders with respect, which is shown through titles such as “mama” and “tata”. We have experienced a community where everyone wants to help and take care of each other, which is not that common to experience in Norway as we do not want to be a burden to each other. The community here seems to focus on the community as a whole, whereas in Norway we are more individualistic. This has made us feel very welcomed. As they said in one of their speeches, we are no longer visitors, but part of the community. This type of community is new to us, and we feel so grateful and honored to get to experience it. While the community in the school has been great and they have taken us in as their own, we are still advised to never walk in the streets without a local to accompany us. This shows us that the diversity here is less spread than in the cities.
Our thoughts before we left were in some parts far from what we actually experienced, were our pre-conception was clouded by the stereotypical thoughts about an African country in the context of Apartheid. The people here are very open and outgoing, and we have been welcomed in such a warm way and have truly experienced the togetherness of the community.
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