“Laerskool Olifantsvallei”
I spent an amazing day in Laerskool Olifantsvallei, a primary school located in Citrusdal.
Citrusdal is a largely black, coloured and Afrikaans community about 30 minutes south of Gecko Creek. It is a farming community, mostly Oranges and Lemons, with a large (by African standards) fruit processing plant. There is a very high population of coloureds and blacks who work on the farms and in the processing plant and shops and services in town.
This school was different than the two schools that I go into in Clanwilliam in that the classrooms are mixed with white and coloured students together. Although the blacks still have their own primary school here, even the coming together of coloureds and whites is noteworthy at this school.
All instruction in this school is given in Afrikaans even though English is the language that the country now recognizes as the language which instruction should be given in. To understand this contradiction you must understand a little bit about the culture in this area of South Africa.
The northern part of the Western Cape (the province I am in) contains an extremely high population of traditional Afrikaners. These are the people who control most of the wealth here, and consequently, the “power”. They are staunchly Afrikaans and their traditions and their culture are unquestioned here. In fact, although almost everyone here can speak English, they laughingly say that they speak English only in self defense. Having said all of this, they are a wonderful, friendly, industrious and amazing group of people. I consider myself very fortunate to be invited into their circles to the extent that I am.
Getting back to the school, while the children receive some instruction in English, it is taught in this school as a subject, much as we teach French as a Second Language. The lesson was almost exactly the same as a lesson we would have in our English lessons with a writing piece that had been read on several days, discussed in class and to which the children would now prepare a response. Care was given to apply all steps of the writing process exactly as we would instruct the children to do in our classrooms. For the most part I have found that when people do speak English here it is much “better” English than we speak at home. Although it is heavily accented, it retains the formality and grammatical correctness that we so easily give up as we slide into our slangs and colloquialisms. This is further emphasized by the impeccable manners with which people address each other.
I must say that listening to en entire day in Afrikaans certainly tested my meager understanding of the language. I usually could grasp the topic that was being discussed but not what was being said about it. For example I could tell that they were speaking about the inter-school sports day but I did not know what they were saying about it, or in the staff room I could tell that they were talking about the Braii on the weekend but again, who knows what they were saying. Fortunately, my new friends at the school took pity on me and switched the staffroom conversation to English and they had good fun laughing at this foreigner struggling to decipher their beautiful language.
Again I cannot tell you how beautiful and respectful children are here. They sit in rows and receive instruction from the front of the classroom, get down to it and do their seat work and are deeply respectful of their teacher.
A little something that I found interesting was that I had noticed that each time a child came up to the teacher’s desk to ask her a question, they would gently scratch her back as they spoke with her. I asked her why they did that and she said that the children liked to do it and it is considered a sign of affection for a child to do this. I was quite touched when as the day progressed the children began to scratch me on the back too as I interacted with them.
Another remarkable experience and the more schools I visit I am again struck by the uniqueness of the culture of each. Still, the level of instruction remains good and the respectfulness of the children makes for a very productive day at school.
At the end of the day, each of the children greeted me as they left the classrooms with phrases such as: “You must have a good evening further Madam,” “I will keep you in my prayers Mafrou,” and “Thank you for teaching me today teacher.”
How can you not love these children ???
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Morag