Ukuhamba kukubona

Well I bid Cape Town farewell this morning and got onto the tiniest plane I've ever been on to King Shaka Airport in Durban. Had fantastic views of Gordons Bay on the way out but descended to fog and mist in Durban. My friends Jenny and Norman were there to pick me up and we drove out of Durban, through Pietermaritzburg and on to Howick. It is my first time in Natal and was taking it all in and thinking about the book "Cry the Beloved Country". This afternoon we had a walk in some of Paton's grass covered hills and saw the mist come seeping in.

We plan to go for another walk tomorrow and possibly visit the waterfall nearby. Howick is quite a sleepy town but so far seems very quaint and the rolling hills are beautiful. It will be good to chill and recover from CELTA. It was good to see friends in Cape Town and see my family there. Before I left I managed to see a few more friends which was really nice.

Got an email from International House saying there are jobs going in Kazakstan. For the moment will stick with the plan to go to Oxford. My Mum says there is a student from Azerbaijan in Zim when I return who would like some extra English lessons so is some possible work for when I return before going to England.

OK the sleepy hills are beckoning and I need to call it a night.

Finished in all senses of the word

Today was our final day at International House in Cape Town for the CELTA course. My group ran an unobserved vocab lesson with our students and then we had a farewell tea with both the elementary and intermediate students. We ended with a where to from here and some suggestions of schools and things to look for with work contracts.

We went to celebrate at Primi as a class and it was awesome to be done and to chill finally. I then had coffee with my friend Gail at Flatteur and on my way home on the bus I got off at Cliffton 1 and walked to the other end of the beach, dipping my feet in the icy water along the way. Was a good way to end off what has been a frenetic and stressful 4 weeks. I will get an email next week letting me know my provisional mark. I think I have passed.

Going to catch up with some friends this weekend and spend time with family before I fly to Durban on Monday. Cape Town people let me know if you are free this weekend at all. I unexpectedly bumped into a friend in Woolworths in Sea Point which was awesome.

OK I"m going to bed - am pretty darn pooped and am looking forward to a weekend without assignments :)

It is finished

Well I did my last teaching prac yesterday and I passed all four of my assignments - so I survived and passed CELTA. Feeling exhausted so it is a little anti-climatical but had coffee with my friend Gail after yesterday and went for a braai with friends last night. Was supposed to go to a zumba class with my cousin this evening but I think I might have collapsed on the floor in a heap.

We will do one last unobserved lesson with our students tomorrow and then wrap up. Yesterday we looked at teaching business English and today young learners. Reaching saturation point where there's not much more that can go into my brain. So looking forward to being in Howick and Durban and relaxing next week with friends.

Will try catch up with a few more Cape Town friends this weekend and visit Church on Main before flying to Durban on Monday morning.

At the braai yesterday a friend came back from a sit-in on the UCT campus over the Rhodes statue. It touches on bigger issues to do with transformation and inclusivity at the university. Is an interesting time for UCT and how it will tackle race issues. One of the challenges is making education open to those from disadvantaged backgrounds without lowering standards. The legacy of apartheid is still very entrenched in some of the systems.

4 days left!

Into the home stretch and my last week of CELTA - yeeha! Submitted my last assignment today and had my second last teaching prac. Unfortunately I don't know that I passed today's lesson - it was a vocab lesson and I should have followed the rubric a little closer and got to the part where the students really practised using the language and collocations. Now just have to prepare for my last lesson on Wednesday. You are allowed to fail 3 lessons so I should get through but hope to improve for Wednesday to end on a good note.

We will throw a small farewell for our students on Thursday and we're planning on going out as a class on Friday night to celebrate and chill together one last time. Can't believe we're almost there. I am feeling drained and am really looking forward to chilling in Howick next week with my friends Jenny and Norman. I will also spend my last night in South Africa with my friend Fia whom I met in Switzerland. Will be lovely to catch up with her.

Things are apparently a little precarious again in Zim. There was a massive protest at the university as staff have not been paid for three months and I think it was also linked to protests over a political activist going missing. See below for more and sign the petition here if you would like to.

OK I'd best get on with my final lesson plan and try get an earlyish night.
A plus!

Itai Dzamara is an activist and journalist based in Zimbabwe who is exercising his constitutional right to protest against the Zimbabwean government and its poor performance since "winning" the last election.

On 10 march, 2015  Itai Dzamara was abducted by assailants in a SUV commonly associated with the brutal Cental Intelligence Organisation (C.I.O).

We call on the international community to condemn this atrocious act and press the government to release Itai Dzamara and desist from persecuting the free press.We also call for a sincere effort to investigate his abduction.

Itai Dzamara was been applauded for his bravery when he hand-delivered a request for the resignation of the President of Zimbabwe.It is from that moment, as well as his other acts of protest and activism that have led to this form of victimisation.

Poem by Rumi

When you plant a tree
every leaf that grows will tell you,
what you sow will bear fruit.
So if you have any sense, my friend
don't plant anything but love,
you show your worth by what you seek

Day 15 - end of week 3 nogal

I'm feeling pretty wiped out after this week and next Friday is the light at the end of the tunnel. Have an assignment and my second last teaching prac for Monday morning but am taking tonight after. Will resume tomorrow morning. Going to rent a movie and have a night in with my Cousin Jaimie.

We looked at writing today as a productive skill and found the following quote really cool -

The writer is a lonely figure cut off from the stimulus and corrective of listeners. He must be a predictor of reactions and act on his predictions. He writes with one hand tied behind his back, being robbed of gesture. He is robbed too of the tone of his voice and the aid of clues the environment provides. He is condemned to monologue; there is no one to help out, to fill the silences put words in his mouth, or make encouraging noises. (Rosen in Hedge, 1998: 5)

 True for any writer, not just English as a foreign language students.

A Cambridge assessor arrived today to moderate the course and we touched base with him and chatted about our plans for after CELTA. He teaches at The University of the Arts in London.

Thought the quote below from my friend Ingrid rather amusing :)

Bon weekend to all!

ITS AMAZING............ The Cross IN Our Bodies

Found this an interesting thought - is not mine so I don't claim to have written it :)

This is a pretty neat story and an interesting thing that few of us know. 

A couple of days ago I was running (I use that term very loosely) on my treadmill, watching a DVD sermon by Louie Giglio... And I was BLOWN AWAY!  I want to share what I learned....

He (Louie) was talking about how inconceivably BIG our God is... How He spoke the universe into being... How He breathes stars out of His mouth that are huge raging balls of fire... Etc. Etc.  Then He went on to speak of how this star-breathing, universe creating God ALSO knitted our human bodies together with amazing detail and wonder. At this point I am LOVING it (fascinating from a medical standpoint, you know.) .. And I was remembering how I was constantly amazed during medical school as I learned more and more about God's handiwork.  I remember so many times thinking.. 'How can ANYONE deny that a Creator did all of this???'

And then I lost my breath.  And it wasn't because I was running my treadmill, either!!!  It was because Louie started talking about ‘laminin.’  Being a doctor, I knew about ‘laminin’....And, for the lay person here is how Wikipedia describes them:

'Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue'  You see.... Laminins are what hold us together... LITERALLY. They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell.  Without them, we would literally fall apart.  And I knew all this already.  But what I didn't know is what they LOOKED LIKE..

But now I do.  And I have thought about it a thousand times since (already).... Here is what the structure of laminin looks like... AND THIS IS NOT a 'Christian portrayal' of it....  If you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see....

Now tell me that our God is not the coolest!!!  Amazing.  The glue that holds us together.... ALL of us..... Is in the shape of the cross.  Immediately Colossians 1:15-17 comes to mind.  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  All things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him All things HOLD TOGETHER.' Colossians 1:15-17
Call me crazy.  I just think that is very, very, very cool.  Thousands of years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned those words.  And now we see that from a very LITERAL standpoint, we are held together... One cell to another.... By the cross. 

You would never in a quadrillion years convince me that is anything other than the mark of a Creator who knew EXACTLY what laminin 'glue' would look like long before Adam breathed his first breath!!

What I found when I googled laminin !!!!!!!!!!!

Day 14 - caffeine and how many tenses are there in the English language?

Well today has been all about grammar. We observed our tutor give a two hour lesson on modal verbs and functional language for giving advice. A lively debate arose around the topic of etiquette for interviews with the students getting quite worked up about whether it was OK to chew gum and not say thank you. It was entertaining. This afternoon we looked at time and tenses and why English is so confusing. The fact that time and tenses don't always correlate is what makes it so hard. Present tense though can be used to talk about the past and the future

e.g. Sir Charles dies or The Chelsea Flower Show opens next week.

Is fascinating but the mind boggles a bit. We got asked how many tenses there are in the English language - the simple answer is two - past and present if you only look at word endings as the future tense is not inflected and you rely on auxiliary verbs. If you get technical though with combinations to the continuous, perfect etc. there are 8 but when you put in modal auxiliaries and the passive form there are 16. Yes, complex!

I saw dolphins near Llandudno on my way into school today - so special. Needed more than Ricoffy this morning and went via Bootleggers to imbibe caffeine. My friend Warren picked me up after class and we had a quick coffee and almond croissant at Baked in Bakoven on the way back to my Aunt and Uncle's this evening. There's an interesting debate going on at UCT on white privilege which is linked to the movement to have Cecil Rhodes' statue removed from Jammie Stairs on campus. Some people see it as an abomination but the land UCT is built on is part of Rhodes' estate that was bequeathed. Would have liked to have gone to the debate yesterday on the law campus.

OK need to finish my assignment on my reflections on my teaching and observations of experienced teachers. On a caffeine high - eeeek!
Til soon :)

Day 12 & 13 - the end in sight and techno-glitches

The pressure has been lifted slightly in that my lesson for Friday was moved to next week and we are knocking off earlier each day to have more time for assignments. Have two more assignment hand ins and then two more lessons and then my continual assessments are done - yeeha! Can't wait till Wednesday next week :) I will then be one happy bunny - or at least hopefully :P

Been observing quite a few experienced teachers as part of our assignment work. Cool to see how it is done and note some tricks of the trade. Going to still feel a little nervous going into the real world after this and having to make my own way but the grounding we've been given will hopefully come to the fore. I have a potential job with a language school in Oxford teaching English and biology at Lady Margaret Hall. As long as I pass the course!

Briefly met up with my good friend Warren yesterday and he introduced me to video clips of "Killer Karaoke" - made me laugh so much - good stress relief. Have a look here :)

Glad I got in early this morning as had trouble with the speakers for the MP3 player I needed for my listening lesson today. At one point the plug of one got stuck in the socket and I was trying to lever it out with a knife - health and safety rules broken and I'm lucky I didn't electrocute myself in hindsight.

The coastline was hidden on the bus ride home this evening as sea mist was engulfing the mountains and sea. Met an interesting lady from Kenya on the Myciti Bus who came from Kericho where my Mum lived when she was a child. Apparently the tea estates there now supply The Queen and the sheikhs of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Interesting.

OK to work!

Survived Day 11 - more than halfway

Well yesterday the wheels came off a bit and I almost had a melt down. My lesson for today proved harder than I had thought and I slogged at it all day and went to bed not feeling at all ready. Asked my home group back home in Zim to pray and some friends in Cape Town. Prayers were answered in that I passed - God's grace I tell you! It was not easy trying to teach the rules of the comparatives and superlatives and their irregularities and the word medieval - arrrrrrgh!

Sadly another person has left the course so we are down to eight. There were others besides me who were thinking about dropping out yesterday. It was very pressured with another assignment hand in today and lessons.

Having a mini breather and then getting cracking with Friday's hand in and Wednesday's lesson. Today's hand in was a focus on one learner. I looked at my student Khadim from Senegal and tried to come up with exercises to help him. Interesting book on what phonemes French speakers struggle with in English called "Learner English: A teacher's guide to interference and other problems" by Swan and Smith.

For Friday's assignment I've got to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses and go over my observations and what I'd like to include in my lessons from them.

OK must get going. Was a beautiful drive home on the bus with the waves capped by the wind and surf spewing on their crests along the shore. The sea was an aquamarine blue and it was really invigorating with the wind.

Day 9 & 10 - changes and pressure

Well Thursday got hectic with work and the transition from teaching elementary level students to intermediate ones on Monday had me in a bit of a flap. Felt like I was drowning in information and work. Luckily yesterday went better and I feel a little less stressed but think everyone on the course is taking   a little strain. Sadly one girl had to drop out due to family reasons so now we are down to nine.

We looked at connected speech on Thursday and I found the following word puzzle really cool. See if you get it :)

There is a fruit shop that sells three types of fruit, wapples, rappels and yapples. It is a very strange fruit shop because it only sells these fruit in certain quantities. For example, you can't but 1 or 3 wapples, only 2. You can't buy 3 or 5 rappels, only 4. How many yapples can you buy?

Had a break last night and spent time with my Cousin Jaimie and a friend of hers. Jaimie picked me up from school and we went and had pizza in Camps Bay and walked back to Clifton to watch fire dancers on the beach. Very cool and chilled.

Today's my Uncle's birthday and we are going to Harbour House restaurant in Kalk Bay. The rest of the day I need to work and tomorrow as have a hand in on Monday and a lesson to prepare for then too eeeeeeek.

Will try be in touch again soon but next week is going to be a little crazy! I might go up in smoke and drown in paper.

Recall notice

The Maker of all human beings (GOD) is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart. This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units code named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units. This defect has been identified as "Sub sequential Internal Non-morality," more commonly known as S.I.N., as it is primarily expressed. Some of the symptoms include :  1. Loss of direction 2. Foul vocal emissions 3. Amnesia of origin 4. Lack of peace and joy 5. Selfish or violent behavior 6. Depression or confusion 7. Fearfulness 8. Idolatry 9. Rebellion The Manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect, is providing factory-authorized repair and service free of charge to correct this defect. The Repair Technician, JESUS, has most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. There is no additional fee required. The number to call for repair in all areas is: P-R-A-Y-E-R. Once connected, please upload your burden of SIN through theREPENTANCE procedure. Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair Technician, Jesus, into the heart component. No matter how big or small the SINdefect is, Jesus will replace it with:  1. Love 2. Joy 3. Peace 4. Patience 5. Kindness 6. Goodness 7. Faithfulness 8. Gentleness 9. Self control Please see the operating manual, the B.I.B.L.E.(BEST Instructions Before Leaving Earth), for further details on the use of these fixes. WARNING: Continuing to operate the human being unit without correction voids any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit to dangers and problems too numerous to list, and will result in the human unit being permanently impounded. For free emergency service, call on Jesus.  DANGER: The human being units not responding to this recall action will have to be scrapped in the furnace. The SIN defect will not be permitted to enter Heaven so as to prevent contamination of that facility. Thank you for your attention! - GOD

P.S. Please assist where possible by notifying others of this important recall notice, and you may contact the Father any time by 'Knee mail'!

Because HE Lives!

Working for God on earth doesn't pay much......but His retirement plan is out of this world!

Day 8 - murdering a rainforest & the Queen

Handed in my first assignment today. Shame one lady on the course lives all the way in Gordon's Bay and it takes her 3 hours to get home. She's averaging one hour of sleep a night - not cool. Another classmate was off sick today which is hectic as you are supposed to have 100% attendance.

We have to do so much photocopying and printing for our lessons and assignments I think we owe the planet a hectare of forest by now. Can now see why my Mum hoards paper as a teacher!

Observed my first live qualified teacher lesson today which was really cool and amazing to see how it can really work well. Also worked with my student on my learner observation task. So glad I can speak French as trying to find out if he learns best through auditory, visual or kinaesthetic input would have been really hard to ascertain with some of the blank faces I got when I tried in English at times. That assignment is due Monday.

Surviving on a caffeine high and marking off the days now till my final teaching prac and hand in. Am really looking forward to the week after the course which I will spend in Howick with friends who were elders at my church back home in Zim. They live in a nature reserve and are close to the Midlands Meander.

OK you're wondering about the murdering the Queen part? We had to read a short text on someone's dream that they poisoned Queen Liz. It was to give an example of a guided discovery approach on how to use the defined and undefined relative clause. Am learning grammar we definitely didn't really cover at school. Think we missed out a chunk on some of the grammatical rules - eeeek. Some of these terms are very new to me.

OK must plan my lesson for tomorrow and get on.

PS - for those in Cape Town, I will be going to Clifton 2 on Friday evening with my cousin Jaimie to watch fire dancers on the beach. Aiming to get there at around 6. Let me know if you would like to join us :)

Day 7 - the countdown begins

Well today feels like it should be Thursday and getting to the final tutorial required numerous cups of coffee (admittedly Ricoffy but yes caffeine!) Worked late on my grammar lesson last night. I improved on my eliciting but had to include parts of speech more. I now have to observe one of my learners and see what he struggles with, which aspect of learning i.e. visual/auditory/kinesthetic is his strength and find out about him and see where he might have difficulties. I then have to set him exercises on key problem areas to help. Eeeeek! When I'm not teaching and watching him I will be observing qualified teachers from tomorrow so it is all go.

Next week is going to be hectic but I am looking forward to the following Tuesday when I have my last teaching prac and will have handed in all my assignments. Not too far away but possibly a week from hell in between with hopefully enough sleep to survive on.

Will be going with my cousin to the beach on Friday night though to watch fire throwers. Anyone in Cape Town that I haven't seen or would like to see me again is welcome to join us. Let me know if you are keen.

Have met some cool international students from a university in Sweden on the bus. They are French, Belgian, American and Brazilian and we have chatted twice now on the way to Sea Point. They are here on internship to look at social entrepreneurial projects in the high density areas for sustainable development. One is a musician and his father who is a carpenter learnt how to make marimbas from scratch in America. Discussed with the Brazilian the difficulty in explaining the difference in pronunciation between ship and sheep.

OK need to finish tomorrow's assignment.

Day 6 - it is going to get hectic!

OK short blog today as I have to prepare my lesson for tomorrow and stress is starting to mount. Next week is going to be a little crazy as I teach three times and we have two big assignments due the same week - aaaargh. Lots of work.

Enjoyed visiting Christchurch in Kennilworth yesterday and had dinner after up in the Smuts and Fuller car park of UCT overlooking the city. Lots of memories from near Mem Stone. I also met up with my school friend Judi and we had a good chat about everything from the ethics of hunting to the philosophy of Victor Fankl. Really fascinating.

Christchurch Kennilworth

UCT campus and Mem Stone, lots of memories.

Met up with my friend Gail after school today and heard of her experience of being evacuated from South Sudan when there was a rebel attack. Was good to de-stress a bit with her and see her again.

OK I must prepare my lesson and if I have time finish Wednesday's assignment before midnight. Have another Skype interview for work in Oxford on Thursday for a school that is based at Lady Margaret Hall at the University.

Bye for now :)

Two great videos are 1) street art in Zim and then 2) language related to mathematics.
Check them out, they are really cool :)

Savouring the weekend

Woke up this morning with a bit of a headache - it is quite warm so maybe need to keep hydrated. Today is the Cape Town Cycle Tour or Argus. Lots of cyclists out and I have a few friends who rode it. Because of the fires the route was moved away from the traditional Chapman's Peak route.

I'm sitting working on my CELTA assignment and grappling with grammar and phonemes and the like. Not easy! Need to also start on my next lesson on Tuesday. Will meet up with my friend Gail tomorrow after class briefly. Meeting my friend Judi who teaches TOEFL in China this afternoon at Cavendish Fruit and Veg and then going to go to Christchurch Kennilworth for the evening service with my friend Warren. I will try visit Church on Main too but not this weekend.

Went to get a few things that are not easy to come by in Zim yesterday. I picked the wrong day to go to Woolworths though as it was the end of summer sale and it was chaotic to say the least. While I was there I got a whatsapp from my friend Nina who is getting married in Zim when I return. Unfortunately the lady making my bridesmaid dress can't use the material we got. I started looking for a possible dress at Cavendish but unfortunately nothing reasonably priced in my size. Might get some fabric here.

OK back to work!

Phonemic chart that I'm getting to grips with.

Chill Time - time out to stop and smell the daisies

Well my first week of CELTA is over and I survived so far! Caught up on some sleep last night and slowly tackling assignments this morning. Might pop across to Cavendish this afternoon for a bit. Have been looking at emails this morning and seeing news from back home in Zim.

Like the quote above. Leaning on faith that all will be well. So far I made it with CELTA despite nerves at the beginning and stress over the last week with assignments. Got to just learn to let go and trust God that it will work out. So far not as bad as I thought.

Have a Skype interview on Tuesday for teaching in Oxford in the summer. Have had one interview already for another job. Provisionally have a job as long as I pass for both. The one would be teaching in the mornings and then doing sightseeing with the students in the afternoons. Downside for that is it is not for the whole summer and would be on Saturdays too. The other appeals a lot as it is based in the Lady Margaret Hall College at the university and is fewer hours a week. Will see. The Lady Margaret Hall one would be to teach English and biology - will see.

Here's a picture of my class for CELTA at International House :)

Day 5 - TGIF, survived week 1 of CELTA

View from our classroom in Sea Point

Well last night I was burning the midnight oil again as had to give a lesson on grammar today. I explained too much this morning and needed to elicit more and hold back on making it too complicated. Have an assignment to work on this weekend on language form, contextual use, phonemes and pronunciation and structure. Tonight though I'm going to chill and get an early night as I'm knackered. Glad I'm not the only one, everyone was rather weary when we finished class at 5. We had welcome drinks on the deck of the school. I then jumped on the Myciti bus back to Hout Bay.

I love going the coastal route each day, passing Llandudno and Camps Bay and seeing the Twelve Apostles side of Table Mountain. Hope to have a chance to hop off the bus one evening when I don't have too much work and dip my feet in the sea. It was quite hot again today.

Thankfully the fires are calming down but there are still helicopters flying over regularly with water buckets. We luckily have been safe thus far.

Going to visit Christchurch Kennilworth on Sunday. Otherwise mostly taking a bit of a break in between my assignment and lesson prep for my next teaching prac on Tuesday. So glad tomorrow is Saturday and I don't have to get up quite so early.

Have a Libyan student in my class and when I told him I was from Zimbabwe he really didn't believe me as he thought there were only black people there. His face made me laugh as he looked on in complete disbelief. My other Congolese student continues to wear a large Halloween witch's hat to class.

Camps Bay route 

Day 4 - Beautiful Cape Town

Today was a beautiful day in the Mother City with blue skies and perfect to be at the beach (I wish). On the bus home I was gazing longingly at the beaches of Clifton, Camps Bay and Llandudno - sigh. Very tempted to hop off and go sit and gaze at the waves but sadly have to now get on with planning my next lesson for tomorrow and hopefully not pull an all nighter. Feeling rather tired so drinking a strong cup of tea. Avoiding coffee as stress and a caffeine possibly not a good idea.

The fires are still burning and the wind today may not help but thankfully for us it has moved away a bit from Southern Cross Drive. Constantia Nek, which is just up the road had part of the vineyards burnt yesterday and some houses and the museum had to have things moved to safety. All very real. The fynbos vegetation does need to burn regularly to regenerate. It just sucks when people's houses are in the way and if it is too often it can cause lots of erosion. There are concerns that Chapman's Peak may not be safe for the Argus cycle race on Sunday.

Really enjoying Sea Point and hearing the seagulls everyday and the course is stimulating. My colleagues are cool and it is fun. We had more students today with someone from Libya and then Senegal joining us along with the other mostly Congolese students. I have discovered a quaint coffee shop on the corner which gives me a caffeine fix at lunchtime to help me stay awake for the afternoon tutorials.

OK best get on with my lesson prep so I get some sleep tonight. We have cocktails after tomorrow's class in the evening. Very glad it is Friday tomorrow - teaching is tiring!