Thank you!



Welcome home TTS26 - this was an incredible journey! For those of us watching from afar we thank you (students and teachers) for sharing your journey, trying to encapsulate the details of Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. You hinted at the plethora of lessons learned, wisdom shared and landscapes explored. Thank you for bringing us into your dream semester and showcasing the journey. You will forever be a part of Traveling School family.

 

Thank you teachers for opening your hearts, minds and lives to fifteen weeks of teaching, learning, and exploring with fourteen teenage age girls. You brought laughter, energy and spirit to this community and created a "family", you stepped into new roles and experienced an amazing journey. Thank you for inspiring another generation. Thank you for your phone calls, emails and generosity. Thank you for taking care of yourselves, these students and our overseas friends.

 

Thank you friends and family for your adventurous spirits. It takes courage to send your daughters off to learn outside of a four-walled classroom. It takes bravery to step away from the normal routine and let them experience a new place. Thank you for sharing your daughters and helping them realize they have the power to be the change. Thank you for changing the world.

 

Thanks to Jennifer, Leah and Price - you make this office the best office in the world.

 

Cheers,

Aunge

At our closing circle many of the students remarked on what a special and wholly unique community we built over the last 105 days.  I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to help build this community that taught us all so much.  I can never thank the office ladies enough, who work endlessly supporting us in the field, undoubtedly in ways I can’t even imagine.  I want to thank each and every parent, grand-parent and sibling of each of the girls for sharing your family with us.  Especially, after getting to know them all over the last 15 weeks, I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to say goodbye and entrust us to care for them. Thank you for trusting both us and your daughter.  I’d like to thank each student for bringing their sense of adventure, positivity and curiosity this semester. Finally, I need to say an enormous Thanks to the spectacular teacher team, who supported me, challenged me and kept me laughing all semester long.

With Gratitude,
Bekah

I really can’t even begin to thank all the people who have made our group’s last 105 days so spectacular and still I will try! Thank you Aunge, Jennifer, Leah, and Price in the office for all your hard work that goes on behind the scenes. I am sure I only know half of the many things you all do to make each semester possible. Thank you parents and families for letting us borrow you daughters for the last few months and for raising such incredible young ladies. Thank you to all the people we met along the way that opened their homes and shared their communities with us. Thank you to our driver, TK, for the thousands of kilometers you drove and thank you to our cook, Benson, for the hundreds of meals you prepared. Thank you both for your immense positivity and flexibility as well as for sharing your stories. Lastly, thank you ladies for having the courage to leave your friends and families for the semester. Thank you for being open to new experiences and challenges. Most of all thank you for creating such a magical community and semester. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it all!

 

Graciously,

Elsie

This semester would not have been nearly as entertaining, supportive, inspiring and successful without a few certain key players. I am infinitely grateful for the encouraging words and love from our team at the head office in Bozeman. These fantastic women knew how to help in ways I did not necessarily know I needed. Furthermore, I am honored and inspired by the parents of our students (and teachers!) who have trusted us from day 1. This experience would not have been possible without their understanding and support in pursuit of our group's ideals and passions. Last but not least, I want to give a shout out to our goofy, motivated, and spirited students. These students made our semester more magical and memorable than we, teachers, could have created ourselves. Thank you for your positivity, openness and flexibility. Thank you for being you. 

With love,

Quinn

It seems fitting that this blog should end with a note of thanks.  I am grateful for the office ladies, who support us 100% from day 0 through day 105, and beyond; your encouragement and advice provides so much strength for us in the field.  Secondly, since my parents are out there reading this blog, too (hi, mom!), I want to thank my family for encouraging me and loving the Traveling School as much as I do.  It is with sincerest gratitude that I thank you, parents of TTS26, for sharing your daughters with us this fall.  Based not on direct experience of parenting, but instead on the indirect experience of “parenting” on TTS, I know that the confidence with which you entrusted us to care for your offspring is truly inspiring.  Thank you parents.  What an incredible group of young women!  They traveled long days, studied for tests by headlamp, took classes with a smile in 110+ degree heat, sang entertaining songs, wore flexible pants, and most of all, supported each other (and us!) for more than 100 days.  Thank you “scholars of the world.”  Lastly, I am enormously thankful for this rock star teacher team: for laughing with me, for grading late into the night, for remembering we are humans during this incredible experience.  Thank you teachers. 

 

Warm wishes,

Beth

A few final class moments

History Class Wraps Up

Since arriving in South Africa we’ve had the opportunity to turn nearly every place we visited and each person we talked with into a history class.  In Cape Town the students were guided through the infamous Robben Island by an inspirational former political prisoner.  In the Hout Bay, the students ate mac n’ cheese as they listened to the stories of Denis Goldberg, one of the freedom fighters sentenced to life in prison in the Rivonia Trial.  In Cape Flats homestays the girls conducted interviews with their homestay families and presented oral presentations on pivotal players and themes in South African history.  In Johannesburg we dove into the history of Apartheid, which came alive during our exploration of the Apartheid Museum.  And after a morning in the Hector Pieterson Museum learning about the Soweto Student Uprisings the students visited a youth program in the Soweto township and talked with high school students about their experiences growing up in a post-apartheid Soweto.  Now that the group has finally arrived at our last stop in South Africa, we are settling in and the girls are starting to reflect on all they’ve learned.  For their history final the students will be creating one-of-a-kind maps that trace their journey of the second half of the semester.  These maps will include, but are not limited to; our route traveled, key geographic features, an analysis of historical sites, quotes and stories of people who have shaped their journey and more.  In addition to demonstrating an in depth understanding of historic events and their effects, this project aims to provide students with tools to reflect on their personal journey and explore how their experience in Southern Africa is connected to the history and geography of Southern Africa itself.      
~ Bekah  

Zooming in on our whirlwind three day Jo'burg extravaganza...
The first day, we visited Sandton and Roodeport, two of the more wealthy northern suburbs of Jo'burg.  Liliesleaf Museum commemorates the site at which the majority of the MK high command was arrested in 1963 (including Denis Goldberg, who we met in Cape Town).  The African Leadership Academy is an inspirational high school that recruits students from all over the continent and brings them together to study African politics and entrepreneurial leadership.  We enjoyed the opportunity to get to know some of the students on a campus tour; don't be surprised if your daughter has an interest in attending one of their programs!

Day two was in Soweto, a less financially well-off sector of town.  The Hector Pietersen Museum chronicles the Soweto student uprisings; students remarked on the power of personal stories that appeared.  Next, we were off to Freedom Square, where the Freedom Charter was drafted in 1956.  At the Square, we met up with Tulani, the founder of the Kliptown Youth Project, which provides academic resources to youth in the townships.  We were blown away by his energy and the success he has had at improving the lives of kids in Soweto.  After a roundtable discussion in which students from TTS and KYP shared their experiences, the KYP students presented us with a show of traditional gumboot dancing!  If you have never seen this type of dance, it is worth looking up, given its unique history.  But there is nothing like being in the room with the dancers: we loved the excitement, the smiles, and the incredible sound.

Thanksgiving in Johannesburg included a visit to the powerful Apartheid Museum.  Filled with textual information, as well as graphic pictures and videos, the museum provides more than one can process in a few hours.  In our debrief of the museum, we noted our emotions in reacting to the upsetting experience of remembering apartheid so vividly.  It made us think about what we are grateful in our lives, which was convenient since it was time to start cooking a massive meal.  Students worked together in groups to make roasted vegetables, salad, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallow, stuffing, desserts, and... chicken! Turns out turkey is difficult to find around here.


It is quite amazing to see what fourteen ladies can accomplish during an in-class essay final for Literature class. Here is one to enjoy, I bet your daughter has another one to read once she arrives back home.

In-class Essay – Final Literature Exam on The Poisonwood Bible

Rachel, Sophomore, Washington

Guiding question: What do the hope chests represent for Leah and Rachel Price?

Thesis: For both Rachel and Leah Price, the hope chests symbolize their personal insecurities, familial care and romantic love respectively.

Evidence:

Leah sees her hope chest assignment as evidence of her failure in the domestic arts, especially compared to her sisters.  On page 149, Leah relays her and her sisters' hope chest projects, “Rachel and Adah were assigned any number of hope chest projects to work on, but the domestic arena was never my long suit, so I was to focus on a single big project: a cross stitch tablecloth.  It's nothing by a thousand tiny x's to be made up in different colors of thread...A monkey could do it, if he got bored enough,” (Kingsolver 149).  Leah sees her hope chest project as being given to her because it is a no-brainer and she can only handle something simple and easy.  Whereas Rachel and Adah were assigned multiple different projects because [Orleanna] views them as much better than her sisters.  She views herself as smarter than Rachel and more athletic than all her sisters.  Being inferior in the domestic arts is a blow to her self esteem.

Furthermore, Leah views her perceived personal failure in the domestic arts are evidence for her dreaded future life as a spinster.  Leah views herself for her dreaded future life asking herself, “what red-blooded American boy will look twice at a geography whiz with scabs on her knees, when he could have a sweater girl?” (Kingsolver 150).  To Leah a sweater girl is her foil.  Sweater girls are good at the  domestic arts especially hope chests and spend lots of time on their physical appearances.  Leah views Rachel as a sweater girl, who wishes for a pink mohair sweater set for her sixteenth birthday (Kingsolver 28).  Leah is fifteen and interested in boys as evidence by her eventual infatuation with Anatole.  She wants to find love but she believes that because of her tomboy nature, love will always pass her up for sweater girls analogous to Rachel.

For Rachel her hope chest represents an insecurity about how much her family cares about her and a way to get out of the Congo by finding someone who cares about her needs.  Leah gives a description of Rachel's reaction to her own hope chest projects, “She seemed to think she needed to have it all finished up in the next week or so” (Kingsolver 150).  Rachel's dedication to finishing her hope chest which is supposed to contain all a girl's material needs for her future married life reveals her own eagerness for marriage.  Rachel sees marriage as an inevitable way to satisfy her needs.  Rachel greatly desires to leave the Congo and go back home to Bethlehem, Georgia, but her father is staunchly against this prospect.  Rachel continuously requests to leave the Congo but again and again she is refused.  Because of this Rachel begins to feel as if her family doesn't care about her needs (177).  Rachel, therefore, views marriage as a way out, that she wants immediately, which is why she tirelessly works on her hope chest.

Words from the field

Hello all~

We're busy this week - completing finals, exploring the idea of transitioning away from South Africa, having fun on the rocks and getting ready to abseil next to a waterfall. With many "to-do's" on the list, we wanted to share a few of the things we recently "checked off" our adventure.

Transitions Part 1:

This trip has become a venue for us to help prepare our students to return home, and we have been asking them what they need to make this transition smooth.  Along with informal discussions thinking about home and what we are excited for, we are also starting to focus more formally on how to think about this big transition.  We are looking forward to practicing our Global Studies presentations and “elevator speeches” to help us think about how we express our experience to others upon returning home.  We have begun the process of writing “warm and fuzzies,” a traditional TTS send off activity in which each person on the trip writes a note to everyone.  Folks will open these notes after our final good-byes. These notes aid in helping to feel connected during what can sometimes feel like time with mixed emotions about separation.

 

Global Studies:
Our concluding unit in the Global Studies curriculum focuses on the “politics of saving the world.”  As we prepare to release these students back into their home communities, we need to discuss the methods and intentions behind solving big problems.  The unit began with an introduction to service: voluntourism, meaning, and effects.  Utilizing the thinking of Ivan Illich, Adam Davis, and Rafia Zakaria, we deconstructed how we go about service and worked to formulate a renewed perspective on how to effectively serve.  Students participated in Socratic seminars to help facilitate thoughtful discussion.

Within this unit, the teachers also planned another cross-curricular experience (similar to “Diamond Day”) to investigate HIV/AIDS in this part of the world.  We focused on cellular, personal, and community based levels of the disease.  At the end, students worked in groups to devise a plan for distributing $15 billion of hypothetical funds to help the fight against HIV/AIDS, then analyzed the reality of PEPFAR (which initially started with these same funds) as an instrument of aid in affected countries.  The next day, we visited Plettaid, a non-profit that works with HIV/AIDS-affected communities, and questioned their staff about our lingering questions.

Next, we turned to the second major part of saving the world: foreign aid.  Students were assigned in pairs to research different aspects of foreign aid: distribution, the context of the Cold War, the World Bank and IMF, the controversy of military aid, etc.  The culmination of the research occurred as students created lesson plans with the goal of critically challenging their peers in the spheres they had investigated.  Each pair worked with a teacher to develop an effective lesson, and then they taught the classes utilizing techniques learned throughout the semester to engage with the material.

This was a great way to culminate the semester and start everyone on the process of thinking outward about the cause and effect of global issues. With their critical thinking skills, students will be able to return home, engage with the news and put context to issues.

 

iLife:

The students have taken over iLife class as they work together to finalize their plan for a Zenith Project.  Zenith is an opportunity given to the students of each semester (independently from the teachers) to address a community need.  This need could be in communities at home, at TTS, or in places that we have traveled during the semester.  Students work together to brainstorm, narrow ideas, select an option, formalize a plan, and implement the project after the semester is over.  I'm sure the students will be excited to tell you all about their idea when they get home!

In other iLife news, we turned to the subjects of healthy relationships and bodies.  We endeavored to provide factual and helpful resources that addressed a number of anonymously submitted questions. We hope our "Ladies discussing Ladies" workshop continues the theme of self-care as students return home and continue with their next adventures.