My induction into Zulu Culture

My colleague from the Dept of Education, Bheka Makhitini,  invited me to his home just outside Durban to spend the weekend with him and his beautiful family

 

He may of been tired of hearing me complain that based on my experience all South African culture and food revolved around the malls.  After meeting his family

 I was served Amasi and Pap.  Amasi is fermented milk that tastes like cottage cheese or plain yogurt. It is very popular in South Africa.  While the Amasi that I had was commercially produced Amasi is traditionally prepared by storing unpasteurized cow's milk in a container to allow it to ferment. This thick liquid is mostly poured over the maize flour porridge called pap, or drunk straight.  I was also told some people add honey or yogurt to sweeten it but I it was quite tasty for sour milk

One of Bheka's cousins had passed away.  Since the funeral can take up to seven hours it was decided the kids would go to a friends house.  Bheka's wife prepared a fabulous home cooked meal and then went to the home of the deceased to help prepare the meal for the next day.  Bheka and I dropped his kids off at a friend's house,

stopped by his cousins house in the Claremont Township and then stopped by at a club one his friends owns called the Velvet Lounge.  we got back to his house just passed midnight

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The next morning we headed out  to a church in an old industrial park.  Bheka's wife warned me Zulu funerals go on for 7 hours or so.  It was extremely interesting to see for the first hour or so but as I sat in the blistering heat sweating not understanding a word that was being said as the  pastor spoke about the after life in Zulu, and listening to the women singing.  I started to wonder if I could make it for 7 hours.



Fortunately I was not challenged as the service was only about 2 hours.  We proceeded  over to the cemetery.  I had never seen a cemetery on such a steep hill.  This picture does not do it justice.

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The pastor said a bit more and the woman continued to sing. recognized the tune of Amazing Grace but they sang alot of songs I did not recognize

Following the burial we went to the house of the deceased where everyone washed from a bucket filed with a grass called Isqonga.  This is to purify you after you have been exposed to death.

After paying our respects and eating Chicken, Rice,  Beet Salad and Cole slaw we went to Umlazi the largest township in KwaZulu Natal to the home Bheka grew up in to drop off his mother.










We then met up with a friend of Bheka's and visited a place called Max's Lifestyle in the Umlazi township.  Where we watched the Kaizer Chiefs play the Orlando Pirates in the largest soccer match of the year in South Africa

While there we ate Mogudo which is Tripe Soup with Indombolo which is bread that is cooked by boiling in the pot with the stew.  Then we ate Shinsanyama which is the Zulu word for burnt meat and I would call barbeque

The next morning Bheka took me for a run as we had eaten far too much the day before.  We then got prepared to go see the one of the phases of the Zulu Wedding ritual where, the groom’s family travels to the bride’s family’s household to partake in a traditional ceremony. Some of the folks put on thieir traditional  Zulu dress.

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The two separate families gather together and watch each one march and sing around the household property. This is the beginning of a friendly “competition” between the families. The families then will march to wherever the groom or bride is and sing for them to come out of the house and join them.

After about 30 minutes of dancing and singing, the bride’s family stops and the groom’s family begins. Once both sides have completed, they will do the gita – a traditional Zulu dance when one kicks his or her leg to the beat of a drum or song as high as they can in the air and maintain balance.

At this event a sheep was brought out and then slaughtered

About an hour or so later, the family gathered and to the  family compound to eat a traditional meal. The area is set up as it is at any American wedding reception – tables gathered around a long table for the groom, bride, bridesmaids and groomsmen amongst a backdrop of decorative cheetah fabric.What was different from any western wedding was the way they cooked the lamb



After congratulating the bride and groom I asked if I could take a picture with them.

I was grateful for the oppty to see another side of the Bheka who I have been working with all month and to see another side of South Africa

Understanding the past and Education's role in creating the future

During the first week of my assignment I have learned a tremendous amount about South Africa.  Casual conversations with folks from  IBM, NGO Partner - Pyxera Global, and  the Department of Education as well as visits to museums and historical sites has has informed me about the dramatic change that has taken place over the last 20 years in South Africa.  Neighborhoods that were once all white are integrated, the homelands are no more. At the mall, black and white shoppers buy sneakers and eat frozen yogurt together without caring that such a thing was once unthinkable. In newly prosperous Soweto, Nelson Mandela's house is a museum crowded with black and white tourists Unlike so many countries that have been through similarly profound transitions, South Africa retains strong democratic institutions, including high-quality media, decent courts, and a well-organized civil society.  There are huge opportunities in South Africa for things to improve and to a large degree this change begins with education.

My team has spent the first week trying to understand how education in South Africa works, what the issues are and where are the real opportunities for change in South Africa.  We have spent more then 14 hours in the car from coast to rural areas meeting with the Dept of Education, visiting schools and working with Subject advisers who help convert the curriculum into actionable lessons.  Seeing how that the majority of South Africans live in rural areas where poverty is high and infrastructure is not great.  This provides a great deal of challenges for the South African Education system.

While  South Africa’s education system has been strongly criticized there has been a huge focus on improving the situation.  All South Africans have the right to a basic education and in fact it is compulsory for all South Africans from the age of seven (grade 1) to age 15, or the completion of grade 9 . Compared with most other countries, education gets a very large slice of the public pie – around 20% of total state expenditure. It receives the largest share of government spending. More money is always needed to address the huge backlogs left by 40 years of apartheid education. Under that system, white South African children received a quality schooling virtually for free, while their black counterparts had only "Bantu education", a keystone of the overall apartheid system. Although today's government is working to rectify the imbalances in education, the apartheid legacy remains. Illiteracy rates currently stand at around 18% of adults over 15 years old (about 9-million adults are not functionally literate), teachers in township schools are poorly trained. Despite the challenges, much has been achieved since apartheid legislation was scrapped. Equity has yet to be achieved: almost 58.5% of whites and around 51% of Indians enter higher education. While the rate for blacks is 12%. The reason for this is generally understood as poor quality primary and secondary schooling, which is a priority for the current government. The greatest challenges for schooling lie in the poorer, rural provinces such as the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

There is no single owner of education.  The central government provides a national framework for school policy, but administrative responsibility lies with the provinces. Power is further devolved to grassroots level via elected school governing bodies, which have a significant say in the running of their schools.   The central government's newest strategy for turning education around is known as "Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realization of Schooling 2025", which aims to improve learning and the work of teachers.  With a new curriculum at its heart, the focus is on literacy and numeracy. Known as the national Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), the new curriculum provides very specific guidelines to streamline what is taught in schools with the aim to close the divide between well-resourced and poor schools.

In South Africa school life spans 13 years or grades, from grade 0, otherwise known as grade R or "reception year", through to grade 12 or "matric" – the year of matriculation. The first phase is called General Education and Training and runs from grade 0 to grade 9.    The second phase is called Further Education and Training. Further Education and Training takes place from grades 10 to 12, and also includes career-oriented education and training offered in other Further Education and Training institutions – technical colleges, community colleges and private colleges. Diplomas and certificates are qualifications recognized at this level.  The matric pass rate, has improved dramatically over the last 5 years. South Africa relies on the matric pass rate as a significant marker of what's going on in its schools. There is a huge correlation between passing “matric”  and the learner rising out of poverty. Other measures include the introduction of standardized assessments of grade three, six and nine to better track progress; an emphasis on early child development and universal access to Grade R; ensuring learners have access to good quality textbooks; and improving school infrastructure and strengthening school management. Teacher education and development programs have also been strengthened, including funding for bursaries for trainee teachers.

Class sizes tend to be very large.  The average ratio of learners to teachers is 30.4 to one   However we have heard of class sizes being as large as 102 in a single classroom, The education of the poorest of the poor remains a priority, one example of this is the National Schools Nutrition Program, which gives many schoolchildren a cooked meal five days a week.   This program appears to help draw kids into the school as it may be there only real meal of the day

As I work on this project I feel grateful to be in this beautiful country, working on an issue that has clearly been identified as a priority to assist in the healing of historic wounds and help the transformation of a country.

WORKING TOGETHER FOR THE FUTURE OF AFRICA

On Monday accompanied by the 9 other IBM'ers from India, Nigeria, Czech Republic, Japan, Canada and Great Britain went to the office of the Premier to kick off three very important projects aligned to South Africa's key imperatives

1.       Create a more responsive, accountable, effective and efficient Local Government system by assisting the Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the Office of the Premier in improving accuracy, validity and reliability data collected has

2.       Support A long and healthy life for all South Africans by working with NGO Kheth’Impilo to develop a new business model to improve capacity and health care services provided in public sector outreach by developing a new business model 

3.       Assist in delivery of quality basic education and more specifically improve science education through thru introduction of a program called Teachers Try Science

I was assigned to the third project to assist in improving the skills of South Africa’s Teachers in educating students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  The primary vehicle for this is a program called Teachers  Try Science, Teachers Try Science : enables teachers to revolutionize their teaching methods through design-based lessons which apply scientific, mathematical and technological solutions to engineering problems. The lesson plans are linked to online resources which guide teachers through effective delivery of project-based work; offer subject knowledge materials and professional development support. Teachers TryScience aims to improve teaching and learning by providing a comprehensive guide to classroom delivery and by fostering student interest and enthusiasm for the STEM subjects. Through the Teachers TryScience project-based model, students are provided with the opportunity to experience a range of STEM disciplines while exploring real world problems and challenges hands on.  Lessons encourage students to work collaboratively, employ critical thinking, inquiry and problem solving skills and achieve success by having autonomy to predicting, assessing and revising project outcomes. The site also provides social networking tools to enable educators to submit their own teaching materials and engage in focused discussions on relevant topics.

This  project builds on a CSC program in 2012 where IBM worked with the Eastern Cape Department of Education to map the KIdSmart programme for literacy, numeracy and life skills to the CAPS educational curriculum helping teachers improve the classroom experience for young learners while ensuring the course activities can be adopted as part of the school curriculum. This success of this has led to the roll out of the KidSmart in three more provinces in South Africa. Currently we have more than 2500 KidSmart units in schools being used by 5000 + teachers in South Africa.

In Africa these projects have special meaning as IBM has a strategic focus on Africa as a growth market. The level of development on the continent is fast and furious and we see the opportunity for many step changes and even “leap frogging” problems that exist today. As we work with NGO’s and Governments here in South Africa, we are working together for the future of Africa. 
 

Introduction to IBM CSC

Last Friday, my family departed after the trip of a lifetime and I began the second phase of my trip to South Africa.  For the next month I will participate in the IBM Corporate Service Corp. For those of you who have not heard of the IBM Corporate Services Corps (CSC) I have the following introduction for you (most of which was plagiarized from my colleague, Andrew MacDonald).

IBM's CSC  is a leadership program that takes high performing IBM’ers from different countries, to all join together in a developing country to perform a community service project.

The Corporate Service Corps was launched in 2008 to help provide IBMers with high quality leadership development while delivering high quality problem solving for communities and organizations in emerging markets. The program empowers IBM employees as global citizens by sending groups of 10 - 15 individuals from different countries with a range of skills to an emerging market for four week community-based assignments. During the assignment, participants perform community-driven economic development projects working at the intersection of business, technology, and society.

This program increases IBM's understanding and appreciation of growth markets while creating global leaders who are culturally aware and possess advanced teaching skills. The Corporate Service Corps offers a triple benefit: leadership development for the IBMers, leadership training and development for the communities, and greater knowledge and enhanced reputation in the growth markets for IBM.

Since its launch in 2008, the Corporate Service Corps has had a positive impact of the lives of more the 140,000 people through skills transfer and capacity building. Many thousands more have been positively impacted through the services of the organizations the Corporate Service Corps has supported. The Corporate Service Corps program has sent over 2400 participants on over 200 teams to more than 30 countries around the world. The participants come from over 50 countries and have served communities in Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan , Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, The Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Vietnam, UAE and Ukraine . The program continues to expand to new locations each year.

For more information on this IBM program please look at the following site -> http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/corporateservicecorps/

Gratitude in Getting to South Africa

Today my wife, my two kids and I arrived in South Africa. Exhausted after 28 hours in transit but with smiles on our faces. The trip was not as harrowing as 28 hours might seem.  We had an overnight flight on Tuesday from Newark to Munich.

We had a 10 hour lay over in Munich.  My son took on the task of organizing our day and did a phenomenal job.  We took the train into Munich, had a German Lunch of Bratwurst, Frankfurters, Sauerkraut and Mashed Potato, took a bus tour of the city and ten returned to the airport for our overnight flight to Johannesburg. 

We arrived this morning in Johannesburg took a short flight to Cape Town collected our car and then got to our apartment just off the VA Waterfront.  While we did well on the trip (I am very proud of my kids) we were all ecstatic to finally arrive at our destination.    Since we only had two showers and I can not sit still on vacation my daughter and I decided to go over to the waterfront to explore and get some snacks.  As we walked around I was feeling incredibly grateful.   Not only was I given an opportunity by IBM to do a one month service assignment in South Africa but circumstances were such that my wife and two children could come for 10 days prior to the beginning of my project so we could share what is sure to be an awesome experience.

As we traveled these past couple days it was staggering when we realized that my children at the ages of 9 and 12 had been to 4 continents.  Wow they certainly understand the world is far larger then our hometown and can appreciate the value of diversity that is a part of our Irish, Jewish Chinese family