With a little help from my friends

Thanks to Rod for the picture :-)

A dream come true?

Characters:
Zenzi – Miriam Makeba at about 14 years old; Mother – her mother

Setting:
A kitchen in a township home in the 1940s

Scene 1

Zenzi, who is in the kitchen, is singing softly. Her mother comes in


Zenzi: Mama, Mama! (runs to her mother) Something exciting has happened!
Mother: What is it, my child? You look as though a dream has come true!

Zenzi: It has, Mama! You know I’ve been learning a new solo?

Mother: (laughing) I have heard it about 100 times!

Zenzi: Well, I’m going to sing it for the King!

Mother: What king?

Mirima: You know – the king from over the sea – King George.

Mother: You are not going over the sea! (sounds horrified)

Zenzi: No, Mama. (laughs) The King who is from England is coming to South Africa. Our choir is going to sing for him! I am going to sing in front of a king, a queen and two princesses!

Mother: That is wonderful news!

Zenzi: I can’t wait to see the princesses. Look, here is a picture of the little one whose name is Margaret …
Scene 2
A week later; Zenzi’s mother is in the kitchen. It is raining hard. Zenzi comes in.
Mother: My child, you are so wet! Come to the fire and get dry. (Zenzi walks slowly to the fire and sits down sadly)

Mother: What is wrong, my little Zenzi? Did you sing the wrong notes?

Zenzi: No Mama – it’s worse. I didn’t even sing.

Mother: But today you sang for the king and the queen and …
Zenzi: (Zenzi interrupts) No! We stood in the rain and waited and waited, and then the cars came … (pause) We were so excited! We stood up straight and then I took a breath …
(sobs)


Mother: What happened? Why are you crying?

Zenzi: Oh, Mama – the cars didn’t stop! They just drove past. The king didn’t even see us. They just drove past!

Mother: Oh my child! (holds her as she cries) How disappointed you must be.

Zenzi: (Stops crying and stands up straight) Mama, I won’t let this stop me! One day I will sing in front of kings and presidents. They will see that they were wrong and an African woman can become famous!

Mother: You are a brave child, my Zenzi.

Zenzi: You know, Mama – I think I saw the little princess look out of the back window of the car and wave. I will sing so she hears me one day!

The Trial

I only had 350 words to work with, and the language could not be too complex or passive.

I used Sihle as my main character - I'll write about my other kids some other time.

The last day of the competition had arrived. Sihle knew that his chances were good. He had listened to the coach’s advice, he had trained hard, he was fit, he was ready for this! His most serious rival for the position of striker was Thabo, but Sihle felt confident that he could beat him. As Sihle walked to the hostel, his phone buzzed – a message. “Maybe it’s mom,” he thought. “She said she would call to wish me luck.” But as he looked at the screen, he realised it was a number he didn’t know. Yr mom is sick come home now Sihle’s mouth dried up. He shook his head. What should he do? The final trial was in two hours. Should he wait till afterwards or should he leave now? What was more important – the trial or getting home? The decision was easy – family first! He ran back to the dormitory and started packing. He’d get the first bus home. “Hey, bra! What you doing? The trials are starting now-now!” It was his friend Vuyo. Sihle told him what had happened. “Sorry, man!” said Vuyo. “Did your mom ask you to come?” “No, I got an sms saying I must come now,” said Sihle. “Mmm …” said Vuyo. “Let me see that message. It sounds a bit off to me.” He looked at Sihle’s phone. Then he looked at his phone “I thought so!” he said. “That’s Thabo’s number. He sent the message.” “Why would he do that?” wondered Sihle. “Well, you’re his only competition for striker and Thabo really wants to win, “answered Vuyo. “This is his way of trying to get you to leave, or to play badly. I’m not surprised – he never plays fair.” Just then, Sihle’s phone rang. “Hullo, my boy. It’s Mom – I’m just calling to wish you luck.” Suddenly Sihle’s head cleared – it was all trick and he had nearly fallen for it. But, unlike Thabo, he would play fair. He squared his shoulders and picked up his kit. “Thanks, Vuyo. Now it’s time to play and may the best man win!”

Writing in a different genre

I have not written in my blog since June - but I have been writing - TEXTBOOKS!

I have been one of the authors on the English Today Senior Phase English First Additional Language team.  We have written 3 books of 18 chapters each in less than 4 months - which must be some sort of record!

The whole thing is a gamble - only 8 books per subject per Grade will be selected by the Department and schools will have to choose from that list.  Our books go forward for scrutiny and hopefully selection next year - but who knows!

So why did I do it - it was a real challenge!  And I didn't know how hard it would be - I've used textbooks for years - who would have known how difficult it would be to interpret the CAPS (Assessment standards) and write chapters that fulfilled all the criteria and still hung together?  I've had amazing co-ordinating authors, editors and publishers who have held my hand all the way, asked me to rewrite so nicely that I have looked forward to the ride (to hell, because rewriting is much harder than writing)

But the best part is that I have always suspected that there was a writer inside, but I have never really tried writing.  And now I know I am able to write - not just non-fiction, but even stories and plays!

So over the next few days I am going to put some of my writing on my blog.  I shouldn't really, in case our book is published, but the stories have been changed for the book.

I hope my readers - if there are some - enjoy the fiction.

Out in the Field

Field work in this district has been challenging.  We have visited 7 schools, had meetings at 2 district offices, met with the Education CAO of the district, visited a Community Library and none of them were near each other!  I would love to know how much mileage we covered in the four days.

We stayed in Soroti, as there is a halfway decent hotel there, but all our work was in the Dokolo District and the Amolotar District.  Doloko is 70 km from Soroti on a good tar road, but schools were quite spread out and we had to leave really early each morning in order to reach the schools in time.  But Amolotar was another kettle of fish!  Turning off at Dokolo we followed a very bumpy road for about an hour and a half to reach Amolotar Town, and then it was at least another half an hour ro the schools.  The team was so eager for us to do masses of things that they had 3 schools visits planned for each day as well as interviews with community and Department Officials.  Eventually we had to put our foot down and say it was impossible to do it all – we have been leaving between 6 and 7 each day and never getting back to the hotel before 6, and we were getting exhausted.

The other major challenge is the loos!  I knew they wouldn’t “be up to my specifications” as Helen, our colleague in Mombasa said, so I limited my liquid intake – just half a cup of tea at breakfast, sips of water when I could have drunk a whole bottle it was so hot, being careful not to eat too much fruit – but there were still numerous times I had to find a loo – and only once was it a loo as I’m used to.  Holes in the ground might be the way it’s done in Africa, but I am not very good at it!  I always feel sorry for whoever has to follow me.  I learnt to wear dresses and skirts and to carry my tissues wherever I went – as well as my hand cleaner.  The best wee was in the bushes when the loos were so bad that even the kids didn’t want to go in.

But on the plus side, the field work has been amazing.

In the Amolatar district, Gulzar and I were a curiosity, with the kids into whose classes we went, giggling and looking at us under veiled lids, and bigger kids peering in the windows. We were meeting teachers in the playground and the kids crowded so close we were afraid of being smothered and the prefects had to keep them away with sticks! And all they wanted was to have their photo taken.

Sitting under the mango trees in the deep shade for all our meetings was another pleasure.  The trees are big, the shade is dense and it is so wonderful to have a meeting in that setting.  We also shared some meals with teachers and members of the team – the Office team arranged for the meal to be brought each day so we could all eat together.  I will admit I wasn’t brave enough for goat, chicken or turkey and ate mostly rice and beans, but I was a bit adventurous with millet porridge – really chewy brown stywe pap, and even some smoked fish which I ate with my fingers because there were no forks.

Working with the team was another joy – not just our immediate team of Gulzar, Katherine and me, but the AKF team – Amina, Daniel, Semmy, Barbara, Henry, Robert, Irene and a whole lot more. They are such warm and generous people – Amina lent me her modem and insisted on charging it with airtime.  Daniel and Irene went and sorted out a sim card for my phone – not their fault it didn’t work because it takes a long time for the card to be registered J.  Every day Amina organised tea and fruit for us – Gulzar said she liked pineapple and so there was some waiting for us each morning when we arrived.  Tom our driver was a treasure – he drove so carefully on the bad roads so we wouldn’t get bumped too much, slowed down and even stopped when we wanted to take photos and generally looked after us all day.

And despite the bad roads, there was so much to keep us entertained – trees that fascinated wuth their colours and foliage, cows with huge horns, goats of all colours, but the black and white spotted ones were my favourite, chickens with a death wish as the skeltered into the road in fromt of the cars, kids in their bright uniforms waving and laughing and swimming in the swampy areas, bicycles carrying varied cargoes, from elegantly dressed women in their silky dresses, to bags of charcoal, pots, live goats and bags of mangoes.

As we drove back tonight we sang softly and recited snatches of half remembered songs – children’s songs, like BINGO, as we were all pre-school teachers; beloved poems like The Owl and the Pussycat, Jabberwocky, Girl Guide songs, like Land of the Silver Birch and This little Guiding Light of mine.  It was a mellow end to a busy week.

A long trip to Kampala tomorrow and then home on Saturday night.

The Rainbow Schools

As we set off from Soroti to the Dokolo District, about 80kms away, we saw a lot of schools – and children in brightly coloured uniforms streaming towards them.  The first lot we saw were dressed in a deep, imperial purple – the girls in voluminous dresses to their knees and the boys in navy shorts with purple shirts.  And as we kept going we saw pink, yellow, a couple of shades of green, blue, orange and an infinite variety of combinations of the colours.  Interestingly, no red – maybe it fades too quickly.

The other fascinating thing was the modes of transport.  The road is quite good so we saw some boda-bodas (motor bikes) but there were even more bicycles.  They seldom only have a driver – there is usually a passenger and if she is female, she is sitting side-saddle.  We even saw a schoolgirl reading her book as she sat on the back of a bike – catching up with homework, maybe.

The first school we went to, Adwoki Primary, had pink and blue dresses – pink with a big blue sailor type collar.  This school did have desks, but woefully big classes – 106 in the first class, and 20 of them were absent.  Where those 20 would sit, I don’t know!  A really interesting thing was that many of the P 1 – P3 teachers are male – we saw a number of them in action.  The other strange thing is that there are often two teachers for a class.  However, we didn’t see much co-teaching – they just seemed to teach alternate lessons.  Now if they had another classroom, they could split the classes and have 60 in a class!  Sounds horrific but it would be so much better.

The Project team are so keen for us to see everything, that they had crammed far too much into the programme.  Apart from all the travel – some on really bad roads – they wanted us to travel to three schools each day, observe the lessons, meet and interview teachers and head teachers, meet Department officials and interview parents and children.  On the first day we tried going to 3 schools, but didn’t have time to observe any lessons in the third as we arrived at lunch time.  The teachers were so disappointed so we put our foot down and said we would only go to 2 schools – one before break and one after.  The first day was aggravated by the fact that we hadn’t had any breakfast and only got to eat at about 12 o clock for the first time.  Hopefully we have managed to organise things a bit better for the rest of this week.

The schools we saw today had no desks for the children in the lower grades – 110 kids squashed onto the floor in tight groups.  Their books are filthy – dog-eared and dusty, if not downright muddy.  The evaluation team before us complained that the teachers weren’t taking enough care of the books – but how can they?  With these huge classes I am amazed that they achieve anything, but we have seen some great work and especially some wonderful learning and teaching aids.  It is so impressive to see a class full of big books the teacher has made on cardboard from boxes.

A fascinating part of the trip has been looking at the crops.  Sunflowers are grown a lot in this area as is sim-sim – sesame seeds.  I never thought about how they grew – they are on a plant with little blue flowers that grows to about 60cm tall.  I will try to buy some in Lira on our way home on Friday.

Tomorrow we go to Amolatar - the other school district in the project.  Bad roads, we are told, so a six o clock start.  The adventure continues.

Uganda - The Pearl of Africa

We arrived at Entebbe airport and drove into Kampala mid afternoon on Saturday after a short flight from Nairobi.  Flying over magnificent Lake Victoria as you come in towards the airport is heart-stoppingly beautiful, even on a grey day. As you get off the plane, across the airport building is a sign – “Welcome to Uganda – Pearl of Africa.”

Gulzar, who went to University in Kampala as a young woman and who returned after Idi Amin had wrecked the country, to work on a School Improvement Initiative, told me that this is what Winston Churchill had said about Uganda, and it stuck.

The drive into Kampala was like most drives from African airports – congested, noisy and through fairly depressed areas.  We saw caribou storks circling as we approached the city which, like Rome, is built on seven hills.  Our Hotel was the Golf Course Hotel – very luxurious and well placed, but a blot on Uganda’s name as it was built with state funds appropriated quite illegally but unashamedly by the President’s wife!  It happens everywhere.

On Sunday morning we set off on the long journey to Soroti – about 7 hours north east of Kampala.  It is quite a distance but the last 100km was on really potholed roads, and we were competing with huge lorries and tankers, as the rail service has broken down and the roads are used too much and by vehicles it was never designed for.  Sound familiar?

As we left Kampala I was struck by the lushness of the countryside.  Gulzar told me that they say you can throw a stick down anywhere and it will grow! The first 100km or so out of Kampala was characterised by lots of mixed farming on small plots next to the houses which line the road – maize, millet, sweet potatoes, and fruit trees of all sorts. Every scrap of land is used – right down to the road reserve.  In the little towns there are “dukas” or shops selling airtime, bricks and masses of iron doors and gates – what they are used on, I couldn’t imagine.  Every second house has a MTN, Airtel or one of the other service provider signs painted on it.

A little further on we came to masses of sugar cane fields, all belonging to one big, family company.  They were chased out by Idi Amin, but 20 years later, they came back and re-established their empire.  There are also tea plantations and rice paddies which seem to be commercial enterprises. 

In the villages there are churches and mosques, side by side, and lots of little schools along the sides of the road.  And everywhere stalls selling bananas, pineapples, mangoes, tomatoes, maize, cassava and cooked meats as well as the ubiquitous coca cola and Fanta.

We crossed a huge swamp and a lake which has been dammed for HEP and the terrain seemed to change – much drier, scrubby and thorny.  Here the main crop for sale on the side of the road was charcoal, packed in rope bags.  Houses close to the swamp were thatched with papyrus stalks and stood like little pagodas with their tiered roofs.  Further away, the houses were thatched with shabby grass.

The last part of the road was boring, bumpy and slow.  By the time we reached Soroti and arrived at the landmark Hotel we were ready to fall into bed.  Another long and busy day ahead as we start the Uganda leg of our trip.