13 October 2014: Long and Boring / Inspiring Student

Training is becoming long and boring. This morning was not particularly boring, but it was very long. We visited 5 primary and high schools in the area where we got to meet the kids and ask questions to them and the teachers. They were mostly excited to ask questions to us about our lives and about America. They found it hilarious when we spoke a little bit of Sesotho to them, either because our pronunciation was horrible, or (more likely) that they had never seen foreigners (try to) speak Sesotho before. So that was the long part. The boring part came afterward when we were all 1) in a food coma from the aforementioned giant lunches our families pack, 2) exhausted mentally from talking to so many students, and 3) physically exhausted from bus ride after bus ride to the different schools. We were going through very theoretical teaching approaches with very academic-sounding terms that don’t really mean much in real life.

                The most interesting part of the day was when I was walking back to my house with this girl from the high school next to the hub. She is 19 years old and in form D [11^th grade]. As a few of us walked with her, she read a very touching poem that she had written about her father who passed away from diabetes when she was a baby. Her mother works as what I gathered was a maid or something in South Africa. When she has the money, she likes to call her mom on the phone. She wants to be an engineer, and I told her that she had to focus on math and science. I think she is newly inspired by us, especially the math teachers, to concentrate on math and science, because apparently there is a culture here of thinking that math is too hard to understand, so it’s not worth trying. Almost every Basotho seems to be scared of math. I was happy to encourage her to pursue engineering in a country that apparently discourages especially girls to pursue these kinds of careers. This girl is going places, I can tell, and it was nice to see that sort of enthusiasm and dedication to her studies so that she can take care of herself and her mom when she gets older. That was her number one priority- taking care of her mom because her mom had provided so much for her. Family is everything here.