Elephant Sanctuary

Hi All

Thought I would share a quick post with you regarding our visit to an Elephant sanctuary outside Plettenburg Bay. There are only 6 elephants there but they now have a great life. One of the elephants used to be kept as a pet! Inevitably when she got older and BIGGER her owners lost interest in her - the elephant became bored and naughty and so it was time to find a solution. The other elephants there are orphans from poaching or culling.

At this sanctuary we got up and close with the elephants. We learnt about their backgrounds, their personalities and their ages. We got to 'lead' them into the forest, we touched, stroked and fed them and lastly and most fun, we got to ride them. All in all a great tour and the money we spent goes on the elephants.

One of the elephants (the one I led was called Mopane - not sure if that is how you spell it) had no tusks. When questioned about this the guide explained that this was not unusual nowadays. The reason? So many elephants with big impressive tusks have been hunted for their ivory that the gene has been weakened throughout the elephant popuation. It stands to reason, if we kill all the elephants with great tusks how can their genes be passed on to future generations - another side effect of our greed for ivory. Apparently it will take generations for this to be reversed, if ever as the illegal ivory trade is still alive and kicking. Apparently elephants with no tusks can survive well enough in the wild but they don't have their tusks to knock off food from tree tops or to dig with to find roots or water. The plus side is that the poachers have no need to kill them.
Still want that ivory ornament?

A few of the elephants have damaged trunks. The sensitive end which is used to pick things up has been cut off. How? They have accidentally set off illegal traps for other wildlife which have sliced off the end of their trunks. Nice huh?

I have to say - I am a big fan of elephants, now even more so.

Class 8B on HIV/AIDS

Hi All

The age range in 8B is from 12 to 18 years old. Students who don’t pass their end of year exams stay in another year. However, if you have an 18 year old in year 8 it does not mean that they have failed their end of year exams 5 years in a row! There are all sorts of other reasons for it.

They might have started their school career late, or their parents may have taken them out of school for a year for some reason, or perhaps the family could not afford the fees. The government are trying to get students to start school at the right age, attend every year and they are bringing in non-fee paying schools to help in that process.

This morning 8B told me about HIV/AIDS and how it is taught in the schools. I have used their words.

We get information about HIV / AIDS in school. We start learning abut HIV AIDS in Primary school when we are 10 years old.

The first thing we are taught is how you get the virus.

You get HIV/Aids by having unprotected sex.

You get it by exchanging blood, like in cuts.

Or by using a toothbrush with someone who has bleeding gums and you have bleeding gums.

You can get it from your mother’s milk if you are a baby and she is HIV/AIDs positive.

We think that we get good advice in school.

We are trying to follow the instructions that we get in class.

Here are some of the slogans that class 8B came up with regarding AIDS.

Face HIV
Be What You Want To Be
Know Your Status
Don’t Give Up When You are HIV Positive
AIDS is a killer disease
You should Make Your Own Choices
Get Attitude
HIV, Face It
You’ve Got To Be Positively Positive
HIV wants you

So that is HIV/AIDS according to 8B. Let me know what you think.

Bye for now.

Claire

Play at Chriss Nissen Primary School

Hi All

Last Thursday a group of us went to see a performance at Chris Nissen Primary School in the Township. It was a musical developed by the students, teachers and some of the Traveller's Volunteers called Live It Up.

The basic story was of a young girl going to the big city to seek better opportunitiesj in her life after her mother died. The moral of the story is that education is the key to success and the way to better your lot in life. Along the way there were messages warning against getting involved in crime and prostitution. You might think that perhaps this might have come across as corny or trite but that was not the case at all.

The students put such energy into their performances that you really got into the musical. The dancing was superb, as was the singing and acting. There was real talent there that night. We all clapped like mad at the end of the performance as they fully deserved recognition for their achievement.

Also on Thursday of last week we had a special assembly at the school. Assembly is held outside as there is no school hall as yet. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the students sang very well in Xhosa. This is a wonderful experience, listening to them all in full song and I hope to get a recording at some stage. We had vistors at the Assembly who were Christian volunteers who had come to talk to the children about Christ and about giving their lives to Christ. One of the accounts by one of the visitors was very passionately told and the students were invited to give themselves over to Christ at the end of session. I was interested to witness this but at the same time I could see that not everyone wholeheartedly felt comfortable with the process.

St Dominic's is on half term this week in Belfast so I have not heard much from the learners there. The students start their end of year exams here at Percy Mdala in a day or two so I am not sure how my timetable will change or how easy it will be to get 8A and 8B engaged in the project once the exams are over. We shall see.

Last week I did meet up with the 5 students from 8B who will be using the Digital camera and we had a lesson on how to use the camera. At the end of the day I gave the camera to a student called Mantini who lives in the town. The idea was that he should do a sort of Day in the Life of and record aspects of his life at home. Mantini came up trumps and I now have lots of pictures and some text. I just need to put them together and send them to both St Dominic's and to the BBC website.

Enough for now I think.
All the best and do send in some posts.