First workshop: Seke

Time is well and truly flying - it has already been 4 weeks! And in the meantime, I have been to my first workshop!

In Seke Teachers College - Chitungwiza, the student teachers are given preparation before they go out on teaching practice (internships of 5 terms). They are prepared with Life Skills, basic life skills on how to deal with difficulties that can be faced in the new environment and within the schools. We were there to experience how these workshops happen, to experience what it really is that VVOB does and has achieved. The workshop happens in two parts: the first is training peer educators, a small group who will then train their peers in the second step.

Saturday started with the first part, and though time management was not very successful the continuation was interesting. Sunday would be the challenge of rounding up all that needs to be done before day’s end. In different activities we learnt to find out what is important to us, how HIV affects our lives, why it is we (the student teachers in this case, but we joined the activity) want to do community service and lastly solving specific cases of problems or situations that can occur on teaching practice. To me it was very interesting, especially since I, after all, have a very different view on issues such as HIV/AIDS. It is the main topic and a great concern to the average Zimbabwean, even though infection rates are going down steadily (ten years ago it was 25%, now it’s around 14% - still too high). On questions such as “how does HIV affect your life” and “are you at risk to HIV” my answers were very different, just because it’s not such a pressing issue in Belgium. On several occasions I was asked to share my answers, I assume because they expected that indeed my answers would be quite a bit different to the general average. The activities around HIV have really opened my eyes, it is the first thing people consider when choosing a partner, or the first thing they think about when thinking of hospitals, the main cause of orphanage and one of the main reasons why children don’t attend school or have low grades. Basically, it is the main theme around the Vulnerability issue within the programme of VVOB (Quality Education and Vulnerability). A story was shared about the pupils (Grade 0’s, 5-6 years old) saying people don’t die in accidents, they die from AIDS. They might not know much about it yet, but they know the main message that is shared everywhere: AIDS kills.

Besides all this, what was also interesting and what I really enjoyed was that people were discussing in Shona over the whole day, apparently they realized quickly that I understood and so there was no need to adjust for my sake. Not that I well and truly understood everything:) but I’m learning..

Despite that I still had the “so, do you like Sadza? It’s our staple food here”-talk. I have to tell you, whether you know beforehand or not, after three weeks in Zimbabwe, it’s not difficult to figure out just how much Zimbabweans LOVE their sadza! Luckily I’m starting to join that group, it’d be pretty hard otherwise!

As we were driving out of Chitungwiza (in small streets of the little village) kids came running after the car screaming “murungu murungu murungu” (whitey). I felt like just dropping down in my chair, but instead Mike opened my window, so I said hi to the kids in Shona. After a short puzzled look they decided: “haasi murungu, ari albino!”. So now, because I spoke Shona I became an albino. I guess they still need to enter the wider world.

Sunday workshop was slightly less interesting - less interesting facts to comment on. One thing that was remarkable was how “vulnerable children” were defined. Orphans, children affected or infected by HIV/AIDS and child-headed families. Whereas for me, the first thing that came to mind was disabilities. A discussion occurred about whether a child is an orphan if one parent is deceased and yet it’s becoming normal for mothers to start one-parent families. Different opinions and views on the same item.

The workshop didn’t finish too late so I managed to be home on time to enjoy some daylight, which is always a nice extra! To ‘celebrate’ mummy’s birthday from a distance:)

On Monday the workshop continued, but with a different system, this time the students that had come over the weekend were teaching/educating their peers. Usually they present the same as what they saw, receive input from their colleagues and the lecturers help them out, and exercise authority when needed. It was interesting to see the difference in impact. Only in some classes this happened, in others the teacher was not present and we noticed a clear lack of rich information, compared to the weekend sessions. This was partly what we were there for: to observe where VVOB needed to add extra support, so I guess that part was successful!

I also learnt/ practiced a lot of Shona, because for these students speaking English seemed to be an extra challenge. I didn’t manage to follow everything, but practice makes perfect they say.

As we headed home we got some sugar cane from Mike and my teeth suffered trying to enjoy a piece, but I managed and it tasted really really good afterwards!

Tuesday was more of the same, the last day of the workshop, rounded off successfully, and after four days of hard work tomorrow will be back to the office for daily business!

The intellectual road trips learning about Zimbabwean history, some politics, love and life facts will have to do without the scenery of passing rocks, ‘factories’, sculpture set-ups and a more rural setting but will have to continue on the veranda of the office in Avondale!