MirandaNet Fellows in Free State, South Africa
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from the Advisers
David Jordan
Diary Log
It was with great excitement and some trepidation that I
found myself as part of the MirandaNet team to visit and work
on the e-Lapa Project in Free State, South Africa.
I had been to SA once before, in 1989, in the days of Apartheid,
working in Khayelitsha, a black township to the North of Cape
Town, and had found it challenging but both rewarding and
humbling as the black people were more friendly and welcoming
than some of the Afrikaaners that we met, especially those
of the Dutch Reform Church whose ideology and beliefs had
created the system known as “Apartheid” or separation.
Knowing that Free State was originally “The Orange
Free State” and predominantly an independent Afrikaaner
state, having been established by the Voortrekkers in their
bid for freedom from British rule in the south, I wondered
how much of the “apartheid” mentality and attitudes
would still be present. I need not have worried as the people
we met had a love of their state and a heart for its people,
for indeed they too were the descendants of a group that had
fled not only the British but the strictness and harshness
of the early Dutch church, as I found out after re-reading
sections of James Michener’s novel “The Covenant”.
Going in late October I knew that we would be hitting late
spring early summer and that the temperatures would be high,
though not up to 39 degrees as it was in my second week out
in a township school north of Welkom. However there was little
or no time to enjoy the weather and get a tan as most of our
time was spent indoors, up to 8 hours a day with the schools
starting at 7.20 and working with the staff after school from
1.30 until 3.30: the hottest part of the day was spent in
the car driving the 45 minutes to and from the township from
our base and with sunset at around 6.30 little time to sightsee!
(But I did find time for a milk shake.)
I had heard that Free State had a reputation for being flat
and rather uninteresting and most of the guidebooks I read
had little or no references to it at all, apart from the comment
that “The birds fly upside down there” –
as there is nothing worth looking! My visit proved this to
be wrong: it is an area with varying landscapes, though admittedly
a vast semi-arid central plain, which had seen little rain
for the past few years and was indeed looking brown and parched.
However the areas where I was posted to, THABO MOFUTSANYANA
in the East and LEJWELEPUTSWA West Central, were certainly
contrasting, as were the two town centres, Ficksburg and Welkom.
THABO MOFUTSANYANA has the stunning Drakensburg mountain
range as its Eastern border with Kwa Zulu Natal and Lesotho:
the hills and mountains on the horizon serve to emphasise
the vastness of Free State and acts both as a protection,
and a barrier, and although one can imagine how after trekking
over the huge mountain ranges the original Voortrekkers must
have seen this vast area as a land of milk and honey with
its pastureland for cattle, it is also a harsh land as there
are few rivers or natural wells and rain is a rare commodity:
although you can see the clouds gathering in the distance
rarely do they ascend the mountains and get blown across the
border to refresh the valleys of Free State. The mountains
are both a protective deterrent and custodian, as once inside
there was, and still is, little or no incentive to re-cross
them: in may ways this is reflected in the homes that are
lived in by the white settlers, especially in the towns where
high walls and electric gates surround each family home and
both protecting and imprisoning the occupants; I came away
feeling that in Free State “whilst the animals roam
free, the people live like prisoners” for there was
indeed fear both within and outside the homes, where to be
out after dark was a definite “no, no!”
In contrast LEJWELEPUTSWA is a vast open plain, dry, arid
and dangerous, as I found out on the last day when we were
caught in a thunderstorm and its aftermath, a whirling, blinding
sandstorm that made driving impossible as dust and debris
flew round us and mini tornados could be seen whipping across
fields. Welkom, the town where I was staying, was a complete
contrast to the “one horse” town of Ficksburg;
it appeared modern and well laid out with wide two lane boulevards
and avenues flanked by rows of palms and other assorted trees
and very few cars: I was told it had “no robots, only
circles”. Think “X files” and science fiction
and the mind boggles, but no - not crop circles or alien landing
sites for spaceships but simply a town without traffic lights,
only roundabouts! I found it clean, pleasant and friendly
with its myriad stores and shopping centres and it was maybe
ironic that the film that week was “I, Robot”!
It was a town built on the wealth of its mines, gold mines,
and it was strange to see pitheads with avenues of palm trees
leading to them, especially having lived in the heart of the
industrial north and seen the greyness of towns like Wakefield
and Sheffield as a student; one legacy of the digging are
the lakes that have filled up from the holes that were dug,
which although they are poisonous and sulphurous are the only
home in the whole of South Africa to thousands of flamingos
that fly in at sunset in a blaze of colour to feed.
 
The schools were a mixture of shock and surprise, the former
at the lack of resources and the latter at how well everyone
copes without complaint. The students were a joy to work with,
polite, friendly and talkative, uncomplaining in having to
share a chair to work in pairs in the ICT suite, co-operative
and with a thirst for education: in Kheleng the motto of “Knowledge
is Power” is becoming a reality, for this school has
just seen the completion of its new hall, a reward for 100%
success over the past three years with its Grade 12 students,
its 15 year old leavers: township schools did not have halls
as part of the site, unlike the Afrikaans ones, the old pre-Apartheid
Model C schools!
I felt that a week was not long enough and I wish that the
time scale had been different as it all felt rushed –going
at the end of their school year, in the middle of both National
and state school exams and so close to the signing that neither
o my township schools had received their allocation of resources:
we were therefore unable to show them how to use a network
suite and shared areas, how to access the Internet for resources
or use digital cameras or interactive whiteboards and the
laptops that they promised. However we did manage to gather
a lot of information and the pupils provided us with a wealth
of “sights and sounds” and the keenness of both
the students and pupils to learn will reap benefits, as their
Free State e-Lapa adviser will be with hem until Easter. I
would love to go back in February or towards the end of March
to se how far they have succeeded and I know that now we must
continue as a group to help them find and create a bank of
resources that they can use for both teaching and learning:
in schools where there are so few paper resources then the
Internet with its wealth of material will be invaluable if
together we can help them harness and use those sites that
are most valuable as sources of information, as well as ensuing
that the strategies and techniques are in place to utilise
it meaningfully and successfully.
December 2nd 2004
Reports from the Project Advisory Team
Here are some reports from the MirandaNet team: more will
follow.
- Andree Jordan,
e-Lapa Adviser for Retief High School
- David Thomas,
e-Lapa Adviser for Heilbron School, Heilbron
- Mara Chrystie,
e-Lapa Adviser for Gelukwaarts School, Van Stadensrus
- John Cuthell,
e-Lapa Adviser for Ikanyegeng Combined School, Ratanang
- David Jordan
, e-Lapa Adviser for Marallaneng School, Ficksburg
- Mara Chrystie,
e-Lapa Adviser for Unitas Welkom
- Tom Rank,
e-Lapa Adviser for St Bernard’s High School, Motheo
District
- Lawrence Williams,
e-Lapa Adviser for Retshedisitswe
Article in the Volksblad, October 28th
2004
World ECitizens Newsletter
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