Learn Locally, Think Globally

More than anything, I’ve been putting off writing about Lynedoch. Not because it isn’t an important part of my experience in South Africa, but rather because it is the single most important part of my experience in South Africa and is so close to my heart that it hurts. The things I can write about are limited in order to respect the confidentiality of the people, especially the children, at Lynedoch, and my ability to write is limited by the constraints of language and words, which cannot come close to explaining my experience.

Nine of the 15 credits I’m taking at Stellenbosch come from my Learning for Sustainable Community Engagement (LSCE) course, which takes place at Lynedoch Primary School in the Lynedoch EcoVillage, about a ten minute train ride from Stellenbosch. This post will explain what I do there; more posts on what it means to me will come later. The following excerpt from the organisational profile which I wrote for class gives some context for our work:

Community
Most of the learners at Lynedoch Primary School come from 26 surrounding wine farms, and they number 294 in total. Children from the Boorland Winelands area get first priority when filling positions at Lynedoch, but children from other areas (such as the Kayamandi township) also apply for admission and, supposing their families can find a way to transport them to the school, are permitted to attend. All of the children come from poor families – the average parental income is R700 (about US$100) per month – and are Black or Coloured, though the Coloured learners greatly outnumber the Black ones. These children can attend Lynedoch because their transport to and from school is paid by the state and there are no fees to attend the school, unlike the schools where their White counterparts learn, which are heavy in fees.

Social Challenges
The communities in which the learners live are plagued with social problems. The people are poor and have little education, and many of the children’s parents are unemployed. The housing conditions are poor and overcrowding is a huge problem, with 10-12 people living in a one bedroom home. The mortality rate is high. Until recently, farmers would pay their workers in alcohol, leading to a high instance of alcoholism among the working population and of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome among the children. The community also has a significant drug problem, specifically with “tik,” or methamphetamine. Along with alcohol and drugs, the children are also exposed to prostitution and sex at a young age, and there have been instances of very early pregnancies. HIV/AIDS is prevalent, and many of the learners have lost parents or other family members to the disease. Many of the children have absent fathers and their parents typically work long days, leaving the children to care for themselves and their younger siblings. All of these conditions leave the community ripe for other social ills and the children susceptible to risky decision-making and behaviours.

Religion and Language
Staying true to its roots, Lynedoch Primary School is still a Christian school, and all of the teachers and the vast majority of the students are Christian. In particular, the religious population of Lynedoch adheres to a charismatic, Pentecostal flavour of Christianity, with a strong emphasis on the Holy Spirit and a personal relationship with God. This is an important source of hope for members of the community in the midst of the multitude of problems they face on a daily basis – many of the farms on which the children live have chapels on the property which become cherished sanctuaries for the children. The school is heavily decorated with verses from Scripture and other faith-related quotes, sayings and icons. The teachers incorporate faith in their lessons, and the learners pray at the beginning and end of each school day, before and after meals, and at various other times throughout the day. Mr. Jansen, the school principal, says, “We need to pray to soften the children a little bit. Some of them come to school quite damaged.” Unlike the school systems in other countries, the education department in the Western Cape allows the schools the autonomy to determine the role religion will play in their individual institutions. Still, there are a few learners at the school who are not Christian, are allowed to practice their own faiths and are not required to pray with the other students; the school places a strong emphasis on teaching religious freedom and tolerance.
Many of the learners at Lynedoch speak isiXhosa and/or other indigenous languages at home, and all of them speak Afrikaans and learn English at school. As a result, the isiXhosa-speaking learners may fall behind in their first few years at Lynedoch, though it seems that those whose home environment is conducive to learning tend to do better. The school has tried to get an isiXhosa-speaking teacher, but it is not financially plausible as he or she would have to teach a few learners from each grade...

Mission and Goals
The principle goal of Lynedoch Primary School is poverty eradication through community development. It believes that education is the best vehicle with which to achieve this, and it strives at all times to provide an excellent education to its learners in order to make some reparation for their many poverties, primarily their poverty of experience. Lynedoch is constantly encouraging its learners to value education, to develop high aspirations and to desire higher education, and it strives to lay the proper foundations so that it students can go on to attend good high schools and universities. In this way, it is instrumental in breaking the cycle of poverty in the Lynedoch community.

My class consists of 23 students from American and European universities. Our professor, Grant, is trained as a Community Development Worker (CDW) and also has training in psychology (it often feels like he’s inside all of our heads, but in a good way). He is absolutely brilliant and I could not ask for a better teacher and mentor. We spend Mondays and Fridays, 9am-4pm at Lynedoch for the course, though our day starts just before 8 so we can walk across town to catch the 8:20 train, and we typically get home around 4:30. I am always completely exhausted at the end of the day, but it is the most fulfilling type of exhaustion there is. Our class is divided into eight teams of three, one team for each of the grades taught at the school, and we are responsible for teaching three short lessons each Monday to our respective grades – this is the community engagement part of our learning. For the community service aspect, we are contributing to the beautification of the school by cleaning, painting, bringing in plants, etc. We spend all day Friday in lecture and complete assignments surrounding the study of community development. We work within the context of Lynedoch and South Africa, but we also apply the concepts to many other situations, including those in our home countries. Enter one of Grant’s many mottos: “Learn locally, think globally.”

My team works in the grade 2 classroom, and I could not be more blessed. We have 37 learners who are almost all eight or nine years old and are all beyond adorable. Some of them speak perfect English and can act as translators for us, and some of them do not speak a word of English, though they can mostly understand us when we talk to them (I also get to implement the Afrikaans that I’m learning at Stellenbosch frequently at Lynedoch – I think I learn far more of it there through practical application than I do in the classroom). Each Monday we do a session on physical education, typically consisting of singing, dancing, simple games and lots of silliness; a session on animals, typically consisting of worksheets, stories, activities and more singing, games and silliness; and a session on careers, following the same format. Several of the students from my class have chosen to go to Lynedoch on Wednesdays in order to give more time to the school. We all have individual projects that we do during that time, ranging from teaching a creative writing class to repairing and prepping the walls for painting, from playing rugby with the children to gardening to organising and beautifying the student library and teachers’ lounge. I partner with some other students to lead a worship service with the children during their morning recess, where we sing praise songs with learners from all grades. The children love to sing and dance to very upbeat praise songs that include lots of clapping and dancing and are filled with overwhelming joy. I also help my friend with her work in the library and spend a lot of time just playing with the children between their classes, interacting and building relationships with my classmates, and loving life. Stellenbosch may be the place that I sleep at night, but Lynedoch is my newest home.

peace and love