Guest Blog - Mr Scott of St Dominic's

Hi my name is Mr Scott and I have a very enthusiastic citizenship class called 9D – you have already seen their photos on previous Blogs.

In year 8 citizenship we look at issues surrounding diversity and inclusion, and these naturally include sectarianism and racism. As part of our studies we are required to study the ethnic minority experience here in N. Ireland. This is where Claire came into our lives in St Dominic’s.

We were planning to get together with the African Development Centre (ADC) with James Uhomioubhi in Belfast and organise a diversity day to appreciate Irish and African culture. Claire came in at the same time and asked 8D would they like to ink up with a school in Knysna, South Africa and set up an interactive website with Percy Mdala High School. The girls jumped at the chance and have been working very hard to produce PowerPoints, photo logs, vox pops, day in the life, school info etc….. They even recorded themselves singing the school song which you can hear on the website. Not exactly hip hop I know but sounds good.

We hope Claire can let the Knysna students see their work and we can then record our efforts, with BBC help, when we go to the African Development Centre of our Diversity Day. This is to happen soon. We have just sent some fun photos of ourselves recently and look forward to seeing some personalised ones of you guys – including teachers. Despite the students only getting this class for 40 minutes a week they have been very interested indeed and worked very hard. We have also got some technical problems with the students unable to access the Blog and Blog Claire themselves. I have been copying and pasting onto our network and they have been able to keep abreast with developments. I feel they are learning a lot and are a bit worried about your sanity Claire regarding the cockroaches!!

Note from Claire:

Many thanks to Mr Scott for the above.

The individual photos of the St Dominic's pupils are great. We are going to print them out and get the learners from 8A and 8B to put them on the walls of their classroom. Unfortunately the pictures will be in black and white but I will put them into a powerpoint presentation so that they can see them in colour as well. On Monday we are going to do a photo bonanza with the learners and send them to St Dominic's.

Next Thursday is the Teacher's end of year outing so I will be there with my trusty camera capturing the day and the good humour of the teachers!

Another Community Story

Hi All

This time we have a contribution from: Sindiswa Dassie and Mrs Dlengezele and written up by Bulelwa Dassie, Yoliswa Rala and Luyando Jonas, all from class 11B. Above is a picture of a township house perched high on a steep embankment.

The past of our community: eDamini and Bongani

We once lived in eDamini. We were removed from eDamini because they wanted to build a dam in the area and they said it was dangerous for people to live in that area and we went to live in Bongani.

We built our own houses and rented the land for R1.50 and we stopped paying rent in 1985.

When we lived in eDamini we fetched water from the river. Also when we lived in Bongani we fetched water from the river until the community field was built and we stopped because they said it was unhealthy for us to drink water that came from the river and they introduced taps to us.

When we went to town or to work we used to wake up at 5.00 am if we wanted to be on time for the bus because it left at 6.00am. And back then we had no electricity.

When the bus came back, it stopped at Nekkies and did not go to other locations. It didn’t matter where you lived or how much groceries you had to carry. You walked to where you lived, with your groceries. We used to pay 6 cents for bus fare and there were only four buses that transported the entire Knysna.

We used to go to White Location for school. Grades 1 and 2 were in Flenter, and grades 3 to 7 were in White Location where Chris Nissan is now. We also used to have a church as a school.

We have almost finished the year's Community Stories booklet. Once it is done we are hoping to put some of the best stories up on the BBC website. (See link to the right marked NISA).

Cockroach update:

On some more household news. The cockroaches were becoming too bold to put up with so yesterday we had the house fumigated. This means that we have to wash everything BEFORE we use it, i.e. cups, plates, glasses etc. Not sure what the impact has been on the clothes I had hanging in the wardrobe. Perhaps I will come out in a rash ... or succumb like the unfortunate cockroaches OR NOT. After the blitz a cockroach sauntered out of one of the bedrooms, bold as you like. Admittedly not full size but still, rather discouraging.

Bye for now.
Claire