Visiting schools and teachers...

The pictures - me with some teachers during tea - they were attending a class at a local hotel

The team with the principal - we had given him some art materials to share

The children - they loved getting their pictures taken!  They crowded around - and wanted to see themselves in the pictures!  Children receive a hot meal each day.  In most schools parents come in to cook the meal - which is one dish with a maise or pasta with a small amount of meat.  It's cooked in large cauldrons - and each child brings his or her own dish to receive the lunch.  Often this is the only hot meal of the day - and if the teacher is not there - there are no substitute teachers - the children typically come to school for the meals.  The food is placed in a large picnic cooler and scooped out into their dishes.  

During our time in Sekhukhune, we visited several schools as well as some professional development training sessions.  Uniformly we found the teachers eager to learn - the sessions were about technology - and somewhat scared - as some had never used a computer!  They also loved to get their pictures taken!

I'm with some primary school teachers at a training session to help them learn to teach the new curriculum that's coming in January.  It was tea break - and the team was chatting with several of the teachers - to begin to get a sense of their use of computers.  This was our first week - and we were to create tools that would be used on computers.  In addition, there is an initiative in Limpopo province for teachers to incorporate more technology into the classrooms - but remember I've said that some schools don't have running water and a few don't have electricity.  Many with electricity have no access to Internet - and often the one computer is locked in the principal's office.  Interesting set of mixed messages!

On another day we visited two schools – one in a very poor rural area – yes without running water – and the other in an area a bit better – but with an outstanding principal who did so much for the school – and managed to obtain several computers – and a security system and air conditioning for that room!  All schools keep their computers in locked rooms – there’s a lot of theft of computers from schools – for sale to a ready market!