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.