R&R in the Cape...

I'm sitting in Delani's mother's house in the Strand. A suburban off-shoot of Cape Town right on the coast of the beautiful False Bay. I just finished a week of ACE teacher's training in Ladybrand so I only get one week of the two week school holiday. The training was worth the loss of a week. ACE is a good system when implemented correctly and there were significant deficits in my ability to properly administrate the procedures.

I don't know how many know just how ACE curriculum works, but let me just give you a quick overview. The students work in a PACE, which is a small booklet (generally around thirty to forty pages in the elementary grades). This PACE is the teacher and the children work individually at their own pace (although we do try and help them in the setting of goals). The students set within a determined framework, how many pages to do a day etc., we as the "teachers" are merely facilitators to that learning process and clear up any confusion from the PACE instructions and with more abstract concepts. So, for this week we were students. There were twenty-five of us who were taking the training and for the week we worked in individual offices just like our students, had to raise our flags for the supervisor or monitor just like our students and worked in PACEs just like our students. I think with the wrong facilitators it could have been deemed condescending and trivial, but our facilitator was great and it was just a fun time to learn with other educators and to get a feel for what our students do everyday.

The training was held in Ladybrand, which was fortunate for me, I could go home every night. It started at 7:30 am and went to 4:30 pm everyday. Since I live 30 minutes out of town, that meant waking up at the same time as I do during school, but that was no problem really...I was already used to it. The training not only sharpened our procedural skills, but the devotional times and the times of sharing really helped us to refocus our mission. It was stressed all through that this was a calling and the number one reason for being there was to bring the children to Christ. It is so easy to get into the necessary academic pursuits of the day and forget this number one impetus to waking up and making the thirty minute drive, five times a week.

I was able to finish the training early and take Michelle Waterson's (a colleague at the school) car to Graaff-Reinet where she was already visiting with Delani. I arrived in Graaff-Reinet (about a seven hour drive with all the road construction) and on the way at one of the construction stops I saw a Ron Jon Surf shop sticker on a truck in front of me. This at first made no impression as I am very accustomed to seeing these...in Florida. It suddenly hit me what I was seeing and I was so shocked that I did something very uncharacteristic of me; I walked up and tapped on the guy's window. He seemed somewhat annoyed, but rolled down his window in any case. I asked him if he had been to the surf shop and in an unmistakably South African accent said, "yes." I began to explain I was from near there when the girl in the passenger seat said in an unmistakably American accent, "I'm from West Palm Beach." The more I travel, the more I find this world is very, very small these days.

In any case, Michelle and Delani and I all rode together to the Cape to split fuel costs. Michelle is originally from the Cape and her parents are here and of course, so are Delani's parents. So, back to the beginning, I am sitting in Tannie Melinda's sitting room and tapping out a few words here to bring you all up to date. I am about to start working on my newsletter for this past month, or perhaps it should be for April...I guess I'll work all that out before I send it. I realize that this may be a bit rambling, if so I am sorry, but I'm tired. It has been a good Sunday with a good service this morning at Delani's old church. We will be having tea with the Pastor and his wife at some point in this week.

Well, goodnight all. I know this has been a bit disjointed, but I hope it is understandable at least. Thanks so much for all the prayers and support.