Don't tear out the pages!

I would like to take this blog post to focus on some aspects of the Xhosa culture I have been both intrigued by and challenged with in my stay at Walmer. To begin, it is so neat to be surrounded by a culture that is still so alive with tradition. Each school day begins with an assembly full of singing, rejoice, and prayer. Alice and I have had fun participating in the mornings that we are there early enough for assembly, despite the fact that we don’t understand a word. There have been a few days that Alice and I chose to walk home from school with two of our prefects (Zolisa and Asanda) who walk in the same direction instead of taking the minibuses. It takes almost two hours, but it has been a great opportunity to get to know the girls and their culture. One of the most fascinating traditions that is still practiced in the Xhosa community is an “initiation into manhood” of sorts for boys who are 17-18 years old. Much about this tradition is concealed from women, but I will share what I know. During either the winter or summer holiday, boys of this age go to “the bush” (a mountain or hill of sorts) for 3ish weeks. Over these three weeks, the boys are circumcised and endure a variety of lessons and challenges that help them to become a man. Once their time in the bush is over, they return to society as a man, wearing a very distinct outfit to represent their transformation. These boys are easily distinguishable from the blue and white school uniforms of their peers, as they dress in slacks and fitted jackets (all of neutral tones), orange face paint, and cap. They wear this outfit and face paint for the next 6-8 weeks as a reminder to those around them that they are now a man. They are no longer addressed by their former name, but as “bhuti” or brother for the time being. These men tend to remain very reserved and quiet in their actions, a behavior they learn in the bush that shows their new maturity.

Asanda and Zolisa (whose other first name is Colleen as well!) explained much of this to us. They explained that for a boy to one day be respected as a man, he must go to the bush. If he goes to the hospital for his circumcision, he has not endured any struggles, and cannot be viewed with the same respect. We went on to speak of the differences between “white” and “traditional” weddings, what kind of “lobola” a suitors family will give to the bride’s family, etc. The highlight of this conversation came when Alice and I expressed our fascination with the dilemma these girls faced of which type of wedding they would chose and they exclaimed, “You Americans think everything is sooo interesting, we just think it sucks!” It was honest and hilarious. I can’t count the number of times since I’ve been here that I have described something as ‘interesting’. And I truly believe it is! But for them, this is real life.

We have also experienced more subtle cultural differences that have played a larger role in our day to day interactions at Walmer. Beginning in primary school, our learners were taught to write with impeccable penmanship- neatly on the lines with perfect headings and no errors. If you made a mistake, you started on a new piece of paper. If your paper didn’t have lines on it, you got a ruler. I have never seen such dedication to neatness/organization. While I think sometimes the emphasis on perfect penmanship can be greater than the emphasis on the material itself, I do think there is something very admirable about taking such care in the presentation of your work that American students could learn from. However, with over 700 students and only about 2/3rds of the number of notebooks we need, we can’t afford students to rip out paper each time they make a mistake. The first time we met with each class, we asked them to write a brief introduction paragraph to us about themselves and their goals for the future. We watched student after student rip out pages for one simple mistake! Our instruction quickly adapted as we began instructing students that mistakes are okay prior to handing out notebooks. We explained that our class does not have grades as it is not part of the national curriculum, that we are making the most of the paper we have since we are grateful to have anything to write with at all, and simply that we care more about content than neatness in this class! We begged students not to rip out pages, wrote it on the board, repeated it multiple times- and so they didn’t. Instead, many of them just skipped to the next page, sometime folding the first one in half (neatly of course) to hide the first response, and moved on to the next page. In many of these cases, the two responses said the exact same thing- one was just slightly neater. This need for perfection is so engrained in them and will be a constant struggle for Alice and me this year. Even as I was making a sign that said “University Info” for a bulletin board with colored markers the other day, one of our prefects, Manel, asked why I wasn’t using a ruler! We never thought we would be begging our students to make a mistake!

Other than school, on a typical day Alice and I do a couple of errands before heading home to cook dinner, relax and read. While no singular day ever feels terribly tiring, the combo of seeing so many different students every week, bike riding to school, and still adjusting has been exhausting! This weekend we are having a dinner party at our apartment with some students from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) that we met last weekend and then going to a bar nearby where one of them is the DJ. Other than that we hope to be able to relax this weekend (on the beach if the weather permits) and begin planning some fun weekend trips for the weeks ahead! I hope to have some more fun blog posts about our life outside of school soon, but thanks for bearing with me for the nerdy stuff in the meantime J