Zigudu – 19 August 2014

We arrived at Cofimvaba at 08:05 as per usual and decided to report in at 08:15. My attention was drawn to an official I had communicated with the day before and decided to seek advice from them. We established that Mr Mgijima’s car was on the premises but eventually resorted to phoning him. He indicated that someone was allocated to accompany us but they were nowhere to be seen. After 20 minutes I resorted to locating the school on my iPad, sought confirmation of the directions and off we went.

I am always impressed with the scenery especially the little pass overlooking the Kei river. After some 5km of very bad road and slow driving we drove into the school grounds of Zigudu where we were met by Lucas the Principal. What a delightful person who was in total control of a well-managed school. He had allocated the Grades 6, 7, 8 and 9 learners as the others were busy with tests.

The learners were very different to the previous day as they could not be enticed to interact with the content. Language and cultural differences were evident but despite this many would go through the motions of indicating the answers through gestures. When asked to explain even in their own language they would shy away. None of them took up the offer to repeat their answers in isiXhosa to the 4 teachers who were present in the demonstration.

I did notice that there were more girls responding than usual and hammered home the importance of delaying child birth until after their studies. This included the importance of not taking Mathematics Literacy which would exclude them from the vast majority of university course that that may wish to embark on.

There was evidence once again of large solar panels to generate electricity but sadly the solar panels were either very badly damaged or simply missing. Even the blades of a local windmill were missing which was used to supply water to this community at one stage of its operational life. The absence of electricity at the school drove home the point of the use of alternative energy sources.

The customary singing was enjoyed by all allowing some of the more mature members to enjoy a Madiba Jive as well.

On route out of the area we stopped off at Zinzele to establish what time they were expecting us in the morning. Due to the absence of any large venue the request was made to make use of the veranda if the weather permitted allowing for the demonstration to all the Grade 4, 5, 6 and 7.