#shawco

7:00 am Monday morning we were up, out of bed and waiting to board the bus to Dublin to catch our flight to London and from there South Africa. It was the beginning of the second half of the trip.

  Leaving Northern Ireland

Finally after almost 24 hours…

There I was, waiting by the bus stop for the SHAWCO bus to Manenberg. Tuesdays are my long days, 8am-5pm, and finishing the school day by attempting to make 11 and 12 year olds learn math is not exactly relaxing. As per usual, at our specified meeting time, 2pm, I was the only volunteer waiting. After a few more minutes, five others joined me. I joked we were the skeleton crew, but it’s a hollow sort of laughter. When our program started we had closer to 30 volunteers, but as the weeks passed they dwindled and dwindled until now it’s usually just a few of us, rarely more than eight. This week our coordinator, a flustered 3rd year that tends to exacerbate confusion and ruckus when she does show up, isn’t here, but has helpfully left us with a handwritten paper of the day’s activities which includes scrawling notes like “1st graders—animal game. 7th grade—computers.” We’ve worked with low numbers before, but six of us? We debated amongst ourselves what we should do.

Sarah shares some frustrations while volunteering in South Africa. But here's the thing: "You can’t not show up. You matter. Your energy and enthusiasm matters. It contributes. You contribute to the lives of these kids, and they to yours."

Whoever from the Waiting Room gave the okay for a bunch of college kids to gather under a very large pinata for a night of squeezed together hips shaking was out of their mind.  Luckily for anyone concerned with broken roofs and cracked floors, these were pretty responsible UCT students doing good by raising some rands for SHAWCO.  None of those damages resulted, but what did transpire was young South Africans proving yet again what musical tricks they have up their sleeves.

The Hedges kicked off the evening on a peaceful note that all sets of ears were thankful for.  If the student body hadn’t yet heard of the harmonious trio yet, well they definitely have now considering how packed it was and the A-game the Hedges brought with them.  Standing admirably calm in front of the packed to the bone Waiting Room, the Hedges played like seasoned veterans of harmony in what may have been the best I’ve seen them.  I even overheard some peeps comparing their sound to Iron & Wine.  

When a violin and an acoustic guitar had taken the floor next, I assumed the tranquilness would continue.  Oh my gosh was I wrong.  Put together a guitar-fueled craze like the younger and more sane brother of Tombstone Pete (as well as the biggest smile a stage has ever known) and a violin-playing that any prince would be wise to throw all his rubies up for, and you get a duo destined for Sunday madness at the Flamjangled Tea Party.  As if things weren’t jaw dropping and head bopping enough, Luma decides to make things just plain magical.  Joining the balkan fest on stage for the final number comes this metal dude looking very out of place in this Waiting Room crowd.  But not even Tchaikovsky could have thrown together strings as powerful, like something in the most epic of theatres, as this unlikely uniting of violin and electric guitar.

It took a while for my jaw to lower after the mindblowingness of Luma, but I needed to get my thoughts collected and find a prime dancing spot because three girls that could get any forest swinging and shaking would be up next.  Touchwood play tunes like the South African energetic sisters of an indie folk trio hailing from Vermont called ‘Mountain Man’.  The three play this upbeat cover of City and Colour’s ‘The Girl’ that could have easily turned the melancholy Dallas Green giddy.  Speaking of Canadians in music, Ruth de Freitas spreads the good vibes and even sounds a bit like a young Neko Case.  These girls have a knack for filling folks with all these groovy feelings inside with their cool quirky jamming that makes me think they’ll be doing big things overseas one of these days.

Last but not least, it was time for the roof to get properly blown off with those never fail to bring the madness guys from Nomadic Orchestra.   I’ll admit though, I could not handle the insanity this time.  A few of us decided to take the party to the balcony for some fresh air.  Fortunately outside we could go berserk to the brass but still breathe.  Inside though it looked like this was a Bar Mitzvah gone completely out of control.  This was sheer madness well surpassing the signs of a successful party.  We reclaimed some territory back inside just in time for the most demanding of calls for an encore.  An absolutely ridiculous best-not-leave-the-night-with-any-energy-left cover of Squirrel Nut Zippers was the perfect way to satisfy this hungry for more fun bunch.  And thus P for Pinata had come to a close with a sheer lunacy that UCT students must have been daydreaming about in class the next morning.

Last Wednesday, I taught in the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha.  The University of Cape Town has a program called SHAWCO, which pairs college students with the brightest children for extra instruction after school. A bus took us from campus to Khayelitsha, which is Cape Town's biggest township.  With a population of over 400,000, it is essentially a city unto itself.  While it is hard to summarize such a large community based off one visit, the township is mostly comprised of poorly constructed shacks and dusty roads. 

Obviously it does not resemble the luxurious waterfront area or even the student neighborhood where I currently reside.  Moreover, the demographics are drastically different.  Townships are primarily black whereas the waterfront and downtown areas are almost all white.  While this is obviously a lasting result of apartheid, I came to the depressing realization that the United State is hardly different.  When I think of my hometown of Ridgewood, NJ versus the much larger town of Patterson, which is just 15 minutes away, the differences in demographics and socio-economic standing are just as stark as Cape Town.

I chose to work with sixth graders in math.  I had preferred to work with younger kids, as opposed to adolescents, but we were told that unless you could speak Afrikaans or Xhosa (a clicking language) you should probably stick to older students.  I was glad I listened to their advice.  My friend from the US who chose to teach fourth graders was besieged by young kids that climbed all over him while clicking louder and louder until he lost all control.  Still, English was hardly spoken at the sixth grade level and I had to basically use two or three of the 14 students I was working with to translate for everyone else. 

Nevertheless, I was shocked by all the student's eagerness to learn, especially considering the circumstances.  For instance, there was only one notebook for 14 students, the desks were so scratched and dented it was almost impossible to write on, there were not enough pencils, and the teacher (me) did not speak the primary language of the kids.  However, the students were undeterred and constantly wanted more math problems to work on.  I was forced to think of problems on the fly.