Lumelang,
As many people have asked how we are doing, here is a short interim report. Things are going well at school, even if our plans are now and then disrupted a little by lots of minor incidents.
We are very happy with the library, which has now become part of everyday school life and is almost impossible to imagine school without.
Library time for Grade 5
Our football girls are also making great progress, even though the team had to be topped up because some players did not (or could not) come to training regularly.
Worn out after training – just as it should be
We are also seeing small successes in the German club and the sports club. In the next few weeks there will be a sports competition between different schools, which will hopefully show how good our athletics training has been.
Last month there were of course Easter holidays here too, and we used the time to travel to the Drakensberg for a week (travel report to follow).
It was especially lovely that Leif came to visit us. Leif was the first volunteer to support Kingsgate Primary School, sent by the association “Children of Lesotho e.V.”. He spent almost ten months here last year, which made him our main contact person beforehand and now a welcome guest.
When he arrived on the first morning and walked through the school gate, a Grade 3 pupil spotted him – and chaos broke out. Almost all the pupils ran out of their classrooms without asking permission and surrounded their long-missed teacher. Even in the library we could hear the shouts: “Sir Leif! Sir Leif!” It was a huge commotion, and we had our hands full keeping the children who were in the middle of borrowing books inside the library so as not to lose track completely.
The following days, when Leif visited the classes, were also something special, because everyone here was very happy to see him again at last. We went on a few nice trips with him, for example to Maseru. There we went to a very cool, hip bar that you would never have expected in Lesotho’s capital.
On his last day here we also went on a spontaneous teachers’ outing to a dam, Thaba Bosiu and the nearby “hat mountain”. Thaba Bosiu is the country’s sacred site, which is why all of Lesotho’s kings are buried there. It is sacred because in 1820 Moshoeshoe I gathered the Basotho people on this mountain in order to defend them against the tribal wars (Difaqane) in southern Africa. He succeeded, because the mountain plateau can only be reached by six very steep paths that were easy to guard, and from the mountain you could also spot approaching enemies from a great distance. On the plateau there was enough drinking water for the many people and room for keeping livestock.
Over the years the plateau could never be taken by hostile Bantu peoples or by the Boers. And so the Basotho nation was never subjugated by hostile powers.
Today Thaba Bosiu is a national monument and there are many other things to see there. From the mountain you can, for example, see a neighbouring mountain, Qiloane, after whose shape the traditional Basotho hat is modelled.
After ten days Leif had to leave again, and we are now back to our perfectly normal everyday life.
A little teachers’ outing
To describe this everyday life better, in our next section, “Differences between a primary school in Germany and in Lesotho”, we want to show you the things we hardly even notice any more:
1. Packed lunch
While in German schools children usually bring a double slice of bread with cheese or cold meats, a pretzel and perhaps an apple or a snack bar, and otherwise buy something at the bakery, the choice here is a good deal more imaginative. The pupils usually pack a huge lunch box with a double portion of rice, pasta, chips, fried food or bread with vegetables and chicken. Sometimes, though, it is double sandwiches or up to four apples. To drink there are soft drinks or water. At break time you can buy maize puffs or a small bag of popcorn here at the fence by the high school. What the children bring to eat may seem strange. But you have to bear in mind that Western fast food is making strong inroads here too. Besides, the food has to last them from six in the morning until dinner. Sometimes we are still amazed at the things the pupils conjure up out of their lunch boxes.
2. School materials
For us it was perfectly normal that at the start of every school year there is a list of materials the parents have to buy – from exercise books and pens to a paint box. In Lesotho every child gets their exercise books from the school. They are handed out to the pupils at the start of the school year and are then supposed to last a certain time until new ones are issued. The textbooks always stay in the classrooms and are not lent to individual children but handed out by the teacher. This also means that two or three children have to share one book. The other school materials are limited to a pencil, sharpener and rubber for the little ones, and for the older ones a ballpoint pen (which only works sometimes), a ruler, sometimes a pair of compasses and, with a lot of luck, coloured pencils. By contrast, a primary school pupil in Germany usually has two pencil cases, because not all the pens fit into one. The school bags cannot be compared with age-appropriate German satchels either. They are usually just simple rucksacks, stuffed full to the top.
3. Cleaning staff
For us it is perfectly normal that the pupils put the chairs up on the desks after school and then cleaners clean the school.
Here, though, every class looks after its own classroom: set groups of pupils sweep the classroom every day after school with a straw hand brush. This is necessary because, with the now dry winter climate, every room is covered with a thick layer of dust after half a day. So after lessons you can of course see even the smallest three-year-olds sweeping their classroom, well practised and very thoroughly.
4. Checking system
Another new thing for us was that the children are not taught to check their own work and correct it themselves in discussion with the teacher, as in German schools; instead every piece of work, however small, is checked and signed off by the teacher.
This is how it works:
Even after every copying exercise, for which the pupils do not even have to think, every exercise book is collected and corrected and “marked” individually by the teacher, usually during the lesson. This becomes a real problem when classes, like my Grade 5, have 60 pupils. It is quite time-consuming, which is why we often check the exercise books so that the teacher can teach in the meantime. Basically the system also has its good side, especially for the little ones, as the teacher, the pupil and the parents all know immediately how the child is progressing.
5. Media
Of course we knew that in Lesotho we could not expect multimedia tables or the like in every room, and yet the difference in how lessons are designed is strikingly large. In Germany you are used to being taught with photocopied worksheets, lots of posters, an overhead projector and, at secondary schools, with projectors, smart boards and so on. Here photocopies are a rarity unless they are exams, and at a school that has only recently had electricity in every classroom you can of course only dream of the rest. The children do not have workbooks either. That makes it all the harder to design child-friendly lessons for Grade 1 or to prepare a Grade 7 class for challenging high school. But it is impressive again and again how ambitiously some teachers here work to convey knowledge as vividly as possible.
6. Marks and tests
In Germany you are used to receiving a half-year and an end-of-year report, made up of oral and written marks. Exams are written in special rooms or with screens to prevent copying.
In Lesotho, on the other hand, there are exams every quarter, which the whole school writes in the same week and which are then added up to give the annual mark. Weekly tests or oral marks, by contrast, do not count towards the report. The tests are not written in the classroom either, as it is far too cramped there, but simply wherever there is room. So all over the school grounds you see children sitting in the sun, quietly writing their tests. Strangely enough, even when the children sit close together and unsupervised, they do not copy. Every child tries to write down what they know.
The announcement of results is also different: each child’s test results are made public in front of the whole class, and in every classroom there is also a list ranking the pupils by performance and grouping them into mark categories. This makes much more direct comparison and competition possible. At the end of every quarter the best pupils are presented with prizes in front of the whole school.
7. Morning Assembly
While in Germany school starts at 7:50 with the teacher briefly saying good morning or, in rare cases, with a morning prayer, in Lesotho there is also the Morning Assembly. At this assembly, held every morning, all the children line up in rows, sorted by class, in front of the teacher leading the assembly. It begins with a formal greeting, followed by various prayers, and then pupils from one grade recite poems or sing songs. On Fridays there is always a quiz between the classes. It is remarkable that from Grade 1 onwards the children learn to speak in front of several hundred schoolmates.
8. Teacher–pupil relationship
From Germany we are used to a mostly respectful, friendly and distant relationship with our teachers. Of course there are all kinds of teachers, but in general I would say that everyone treats everyone else with respect and goodwill, as long as that is not violated.
The difference here is that teachers are allowed to punish children by hitting them on the hand with a stick. This of course changes the relationship between pupils and teachers. The relationship remains respectful, but simply stricter.
Apart from that, the children are used as errand runners at every possible opportunity. You hear things like: “Fetch me that quickly” or “Go over there and say this and that.” But, just as in Germany, the children always take on these tasks gladly and with a smile on their faces. We are also amazed again and again at how much dedication and joy the teachers – who have not a single free period – put into teaching the children and helping their charges.
It is also not unusual for pupils to help teachers with private tasks, such as digging their garden or quickly picking a peach from a tree for them. In the cultural context here, however, this is completely normal.
9. Language of instruction
The mother tongue is the language of instruction – that is what we are used to from Germany. The only exception, of course, are foreign languages, which are usually taught in German and the foreign language concerned. At Kingsgate the language of instruction and of everyday communication is English. This means that every subject except Sesotho is taught in English, and the children also have to speak English among themselves, or they face punishment. So the pupils learn a foreign language from kindergarten onwards and over the years learn to speak it almost perfectly, which of course opens many doors for them in today’s world. On the other hand, this is also often the reason why many children do not achieve such good results, since answering a test in English is an additional hurdle for them. In Lesotho many forms and the like also have to be completed in English, as English is the country’s second official language.
10. School transport
At 7:30 and 13:00 in Germany, masses of school buses roll up to schools to take the pupils off in all directions within half an hour. The system usually runs smoothly and every child is home at a particular time.
Here there is no public transport system with buses and trains as in Germany; local transport works exclusively with minibus taxis, which run at very irregular times.
For schools, however, there is a kind of privately organised school bus system with minibus taxis that pick up the children at fixed times. It looks very disorganised but follows a strict plan, as the children know exactly which taxi goes to their home area. Some children are also picked up by small ordinary taxis and taken home. Occasionally children are collected on foot or by car. Many also walk home – and you should not imagine the 10–20-minute dawdle home typical of a German primary school pupil, but marches of up to an hour and a half.
So after school the children sit in the school yard and wait to be picked up. It is usually a chaotic jumble of constant hooting (so that everyone knows their taxi has arrived), children playing and parents collecting the kindergarten children. This hustle and bustle lasts about 30 minutes, and even after that by no means all the children have been picked up. Some even wait from 1 pm until 3 pm for their taxi to come.
The children who walk home also often play for another hour or two before setting off.
11. School clothes
In Germany school uniforms have long been a hot topic of debate. Advantages and disadvantages are weighed up, and the question is always whether uniforms create a kind of equality regardless of the parents’ income or whether they restrict the pupils’ self-expression.
In Lesotho, by contrast, school uniform is compulsory at every primary and high school. The hairstyle is also prescribed: either you wear strict braids or you have your hair shaved off completely. The pupils wear their school uniform every day, and some also wear it to church on Sundays. Every child washes their own uniform every day (even if they are only five years old). And almost every boy has a perfect crease in his trousers, even though some families have neither running water nor electricity, let alone a washing machine to get the shirts white. The school uniform is the smartest and most valuable thing a child owns here, and it is worn with corresponding pride. Nevertheless, the children love every last day before the holidays, when they are allowed to come to school with their hair down and in clothes of their choice – and they always celebrate it accordingly.
Trip to the Drakensberg
We decided to make a little trip through Lesotho during our Easter holidays. The Drakensberg mountains appealed to us in particular, as we also wanted to go hiking. So on Maundy Thursday we set off at 5 in the morning with a teacher friend. She took us the first 300 km, and from her home town we travelled the remaining 400 km by minibus taxi. The journey took us through Lesotho’s beautiful mountain landscape up to an altitude of 3,000 m. The roads often wound in hairpin bends past lonely traditional Basotho villages, or ran dead straight over the hills. Along the way we marvelled at an impressive sunrise and fields of flowers in the middle of the otherwise rather barren land.
When we arrived at our destination, Sani Pass, we were greeted by a panorama that fully justified the exhausting 14-hour journey. The weather was glorious, and we stood at the edge of the Sani Pass on Lesotho’s border with a wonderfully wide view over South Africa. We were simply fascinated, and so we spent the whole rest of the day at the cliff.
At the top of Sani Pass there is a hotel with an adjoining hostel and the highest pub in Africa. We stayed there for the next two nights. The pub is one of the most relaxed and unreal places I have ever been to in my life.
The next morning, after a short night, we got up again at 5:30, enjoyed the sunrise with a cup of coffee on the terrace and then, after a tasty breakfast, set off on our hike.
We had planned a hike (32 km) to Lesotho’s highest mountain, which is also the highest mountain south of Kilimanjaro: Thabana Ntlenyana, 3,400 m high. We set off at 7 o’clock with our very own private guide, Joseph. At first the weather looked rather poor, but then it cleared up a little. The hike was by far the most strenuous thing we have ever done in connection with hiking in our lives. It was the altitude and the very cold air, but above all the brutal mountains that we had to climb and get over again and again that made the hike so exhausting. We took lots of breaks and chatted a lot. Finally, at around 12 o’clock, after five hours, we reached the summit. Filled with pride and with aching legs, we enjoyed the great view, which was unfortunately somewhat obscured by fog. We had our lunch break and enjoyed being on the roof of southern Africa, even if it was very cold and windy – as befits a 3,000-metre peak. On the way down, unfortunately, the weather closed in and it started to rain, so we got soaked, but that only partly dampened our good mood. In the evening we warmed up with mulled wine by the stove in the lodge, chatted with people from all over the world and then fell into bed dead tired.
The next morning we had actually wanted to hike down the Sani Pass to South Africa, but that was not possible because of the fog. So with heavy hearts we said goodbye to Sani Pass and drove down the pass with some very nice people from Cape Town to our next hostel. It must be mentioned that the South African side of Sani Pass is an untarred, bumpy track on which even the best four-wheel-drive vehicle gets thoroughly shaken about. After a very adventurous drive we arrived at our second hostel.
There we found completely different scenery with a refreshingly different climate. The hostel was beautifully situated among the foothills of the Drakensberg, but the weather was more reminiscent of the Mediterranean. At the hostel we met lots of nice backpackers and, for once, spoke German with people other than the two of us.
The next morning we first tried to work out what we wanted to do in our remaining two days. We definitely wanted to go hiking again, as that had been our main reason for going to the Drakensberg.
We also wanted to discover a bit of South Africa, and the perfect opportunity presented itself: by chance, the “SPLASHY FEN FESTIVAL” was taking place that very weekend – the oldest and one of the most famous festivals in South Africa and one of the best in the world. So in the morning we set off in our more or less festival-ready clothes and got a lift with a nice family from Johannesburg to Underberg, and from there we travelled to “Splashy” with party-hungry festival-goers from Durban. Once we got there, it was just as cool as we had hoped. The whole atmosphere could hardly have been more laid-back. The festival was a large site with several stages (Tree Stage, River Stage, Acoustic Stage, Dance Stage, Main Stage), each always with an artist performing, so there was a huge choice. The band “Monark”, who made very modern and cool music, were particularly great. “Ed Matthews” with the song “What he means” was also awesome.
The atmosphere was really great. At midday it was rather family-friendly and full of summer feeling. Lots of families were there, and next to the stage by the river many festival-goers were swimming and splashing about in the water. It was like a summer holiday, and we felt completely free of the responsibility of our volunteer service and like perfectly normal young people – which was nice for a change.
In the evening, with the darkness and the dance music, it felt much more like a festival again. When it got later we had to head home. The festival helpers had kindly organised a taxi to take us back to our hostel. Amusingly, we were chauffeured to it in a golf cart. All in all it was a very funny day.
On the last day we went hiking again, as planned. The hostel suggested a day tour with a waterfall and a rock pool. We set off in the morning, up the local mountain and then along the ridge into the hinterland. The landscape was quite different from the Drakensberg – not as steep and rugged, but always with the high mountains as a backdrop. With our music speaker along, we enjoyed the hike, the music, the nature and the solitude. It was especially lovely at a rock pool, as it was a perfect natural swimming pool. That is why we swam a few lengths despite the very cold water.
A wonderful panoramic path then took us back down into the valley, past the waterfall and across about 100 streams that we always had to wade through barefoot. The real highlight of the hike, a large waterfall, could unfortunately only be glimpsed through all the trees. Once at the bottom, we quickly went to another waterfall before the sun set punctually at six o’clock.
And then it was already time to go home. The next morning at seven o’clock we set off for Underberg, where the minibus taxis leave for Sani Pass and Lesotho. Unfortunately we had to wait two hours there until the bus was full and we could finally set off. From then on we went up the Sani Pass at a breathtaking pace. It rocked and swayed alarmingly, as the shared taxis are the exact opposite of a four-wheel-drive vehicle, so we were a little bit scared – but the music was so loud that our senses were somewhat fogged anyway, and luckily we did not have to hear the noises of the very battered taxi. You would hardly believe it, but the shared taxi zoomed past every new giant Ford four-wheel drive, however good, which is mainly down to the drivers’ experience. Then we travelled with several other taxis to Leribe. There a friend picked us up, and we finally arrived at 10 pm after 15 hours on the road. The next day, of course, was exhausting, as school started again at 7:50 and demanded all our concentration…
That’s it,
Sala hantle, Clara and Hannah
PS: Last Sunday we went to the Anglican church service, because we really wanted to experience a proper “African” service with a gospel choir, drums and simply much more energy than the normal Catholic service. No sooner said than done – and it was really breathtakingly wonderful! Unfortunately the church choir was not there, but the many churchgoers more than made up for it. The priest even introduced us in front of the whole church and we were given seats in the front row. The whole congregation welcomed us and at the end also asked us how we had liked it.
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