Classes Have Begun

This semester I am part of a service learning course called Learning for Sustainable Community Engagement. Monday we had our first meeting in the village of Lynedoch where there is a primary school. We will be helping in the classrooms on Mondays and on Fridays we will be in lectures about community development. While I know this class is going to demand a lot from me, I am very interested in its context and think it will help me even more when deciding what to do with urban or community planning in the future. We had introductions and then divided up into groups for our teaching. This reminds me a lot of what we did in Italy where I was in an elementary school class and taught students English. This semester I have grade 5 at Lynedoch Primary School, and the students will be learning more about life skills since they already know a lot of English. These students all take the train to get to school and stay until 2pm each day. The average income in the household is 700R and that is about 100 American dollars. We will take the resources available to learn about civil engagement and hopefully teach the students things they can keep with them. Grant is the director of the program and he is very well educated in community development and psychology. He will be teaching us about how we can position ourselves in this community and then how to address those abstract needs of the community. I really hope all I learn here can be really beneficial when I return home and continue to student community development.
I went to a Conflict Studies class today (Thursday) and as much as I am interested in the topics that we will be talking about in the class, I am not sure that I am ready for the course load. I think that I may try and volunteer on Thursdays instead and maybe Wednesdays as well. I am hoping that I can set aside time in my schedule to research HIV/Aids more (since the class conflicts with my jewelry making class) and read more about peace resolutions, since that is what I am missing with the conflict studies class. I am also hoping that in the next week I find an organization in town that I can volunteer with. I have to remember to make this experience my own and balance having fun and planning trips with class, service learning, and volunteering.

This weekend is a Robben Island trip with the Arcadia students, then hopefully church Sunday with some dinner plans. We have the first Varsity Cup match Monday. Its gonna be awesome!


Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow will die -dmb