My New Job

The Gate at the American School-Pretoria



The Office/Reception Area

My classroom-MS2

Hard to believe but I have been in my new job now for 6 weeks and I am loving it!  I thought I would post some photos of my campus. It is a beautiful spot and I feel so lucky to be here.  My kids are terrific-a mix of American and other nationalities including British, French, Kuwaiti, Hungarian and Indian. They are so well-traveled that I am learning more from them than they are from me.  I think what is most amazing about these kids is how well-adjusted they are considering some of them have lived in as many as 4 or 5 different countries in their short lives.  Most of them speak at least two languages if not three. 

The garden view from my classroom

We are leaving Tuesday (the middle school students and teachers) for a 3-night camping trip in the bush up in the Northwest Province. The kids are so excited. The teachers, not so much.  I will post an update when I get back, after I have had a long hot shower.

Our guards check under each car before coming through
the gates due to the large numbers of diplomatic children here.

Hope all is well with you.  Jody

This is our cafeteria. It is called the lapa, which is an old African
term for an open, thatched-roof building.

Our Amazing Holiday Vacation

Jonathan and Ally
Hout's Bay, Cape Town

Table Mountain

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas/New Year holiday season.  Jon and I got the best Christmas gift ever-Jonathan and his girlfriend Ally came to SA the day after Christmas and we began an incredible 14-day adventure (Please see below for our photos).  We spent 2 days in Jo-burg, taking the kids to Pilanesberg for a game drive and to the Lion and Rhino park to pet the cubs and watch the lions feed, among other things.  Then we packed up the rented SUV and left Jo'burg at 1:00 am on Dec 30th to begin the 15-hour drive to Cape Town.  Little did we know that this was just the first leg of what would turn out to be a 3,000 mile road trip through South Africa!  We arrived in Cape Town the evening of the 30th and stayed in a hotel down on the old market square.  It was what you might call a boutique hotel, across the street from a 150 year old Methodist Church and overlooking the old market square which is today a "traditional" African market of tents and tables and everything from wood carvings to Bob Marley t-shirts.  Ally and I had fun exploring.  This old part of Cape Town has a bit of a New Orleans feel with converted warehouses and iron-wrought balconied buildings.  It is an eclectic mix of old and new with a melting pot of people.  On New Year's Eve day we got up early to ride the cable car to the top of Table Mountain. We got there only to be told that there were gale-force winds and the cable car was closed.  We re-grouped and changed our plans and spent the day driving south along the Cape Peninsula where we went to Boulders Beach and saw the penguins, drove to Cape Point and felt like we were standing at the bottom of the world, and wound our way back north along the western edge of the peninsula on Chapman's Peak Drive, the steepest, narrowest, most harrowing road I have ever been on.  But the views were breathtaking.  Jon made reservations for us that night for New Years' Eve dinner at his favorite restaurant in Cape Town, called Codfathers.  You select your seafood fresh from the ice and it is grilled to order. It was spectacular.  We finished the night standing on the balcony of one of the many bars in town, watching the streets below, people and cars vying for space, listening to car horns and the music of the New Year's parade a block away.  I can honestly say it was the best day I have had in recent memory.

We also managed a rather rough ferry ride to Robben Island while we were there.  Robben Island is a small island about 6 km off the coast, originally a leper colony during colonial times and a prison for political dissidents in recent history and the home of Nelson Mandela for 18 of his 27 years in prison.  It is a desolate island, scrubby and sandy and windy, yet within sight of the mainland. It must have been awful to be so close and yet so far to freedom.  The prison tours are given by former prisoners and so with their individual stories the island and prison really came to life. 

We never got up Table Mountain because of the clouds or winds, but we managed the drive up to the top of Signal Hill and got some great photos overlooking the city and out toward Robben Island before climbing back in the SUV and heading East along the Garden Route.  We made it to Stellenbosch in time for lunch. This part of SA is known for its vineyards. Stellenbosch is a quaint Dutch Colonial town and the countryside is covered in vineyards and flowers.  We found a little private vineyard where we had a lunch of cheese and meats and did some wine tasting to accompany our meal.  It was a unique experience for us all.  We traveled a few hundred kilometers more and after a one-night hotel stop we made our way to Tsitsikamma National Park and the Storms River suspension bridge.  The park is perched literally on the side of mountains that drop right to the water's edge.  We made the short hike to the suspension bridges and walked and rested overlooking the ocean.  The entire day's drive was gorgeous.  Between the scenery along Cape Point and Tsitsikamma National Park I can honestly say I have never seen anything more beautiful and breathtaking in my life. 

Our final destination was Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa's premier surfing spot (can you guess whose idea that was?) and along the way we made a detour (again, guess who) to the actual southernmost tip of Africa and the place where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, called Cape Agulhas.  Most people think the Cape of Good Hope, also known as Cape Point, is that spot but in fact it is not. But since you can only get to Cape Agulhas after 30 km of dirt roads I guess the SA board of tourism decided to give the honor to Cape Point.  We trusted Jonathan, our navigator since our GPS can't navigate dirt roads, to get us to Cape Agulhas, which he did.  This was another special moment of the trip- an unplanned detour that turned out to be well worth the dusty drive.

We finally reached Jeffrey's Bay and stayed right on the beach in a lovely 10-unit condo. It was beautifully decorated in beach style and the bedrooms had AC!!  I haven't slept in an air conditioned bedroom in a year! The most decadent part of our stay there was that every morning the staff at the guest house as it is called in SA came into our unit, set the table and cooked us breakfast to order.  We felt like royalty.  We had eggs, sausage, assorted breads, fresh fruit, yogurt, coffee and tea each morning. The unit had excellent views and Jonathan loved that he could walk right out on the beach with his rented surfboard and be in the water, surfing the waves (well, attempting to) within minutes.  All four of us enjoyed our four days in Jeffrey's Bay, laying on the beach, reading, body-surfing, collecting shells.  The town itself isn't much, a miniature Panama City Beach, but we managed to eat some delicious meals and Jonathan and I snuck off for a moment of mother-son time and a round of putt putt golf on the old boardwalk. I beat him by one stroke which felt good after all his trash talking.

On one of our beach days we drove an hour back toward Storms River to a bridge we had crossed earlier in our travels called Bloukrans Bridge.  It is a world-famous bridge known for being the highest bungee-jumping bridge in the world (over 700 meters).  Jonathan, Ally and Jon all jumped!  I can't believe they all had the courage to do it.  Ally didn't call and tell her mom back home until after she jumped.  We all agreed it was better that way.  I don't know if the kids will ever do it again but I think I can safely say that Jon has added that to his "one and done" list. 

Our last night in Jeffrey's Bay we ate at this great little restaurant right on the beach called the Walskipper. The moon was out over the water, the tables are under a big thatched roof cover and it all  sits right in the white sand of the beach.  The seafood and meats are cooked on open fires and served on a huge platter with rice and potatoes.  We dove in and ate langoustines, prawns, calamari, oysters, crab, line fish, ostrich, oxtail, lamb, springbok and crocodile. It was a beautiful evening and an incredible meal.  We headed back to Jo'burg the next day, a grueling 12 hour drive through some desolate landscape and 40 degree Celsius temps (104 F) and ending the drive in pouring rain and an incredible lightning show. 

After a day in Jo'burg to catch up on laundry and rest, the kids had to fly back to Virginia.  We hated to see them go because we had the best vacation of our lives. I can't remember a time when we all laughed so much, did so much, and detoured so much as we did for those 2 weeks.  I am so grateful we got to spend the time together.

The kids flew home on Wednesday night and I started a new job on Thursday morning. The day after Christmas I got a call from the American International School principal in Pretoria needing a social studies/English middle school teacher in January.  They had a teacher quit suddenly at the end of the first term and he had heard good things about me from the American School principals in Johannesburg, with whom I had met and interviewed for some other positions.  So I took the job and I am loving it, even after 2 days.  It is a bit of a drive to Pretoria (about 40 minutes) but it is all interstate and I have a total of 28 students. Not 28 in each class, 28 total!  It is a dream job.

So far 2012 has gotten off to a terrific start-a happy visit with Jonathan and Ally, a new job for me, and a happy Jon because now I will have a paycheck to help pay for the mammoth road trip!

Happy New Year and all our Love,  Jody

Cape Point Preserve

Yes, it's a real baboon sitting on the sign! Baboons are found all over Cape Point Preserve.

The penguins at Boulders Beach

The view along Chapman's Peak Drive on the west side of the Cape Point. FRIGHTENING!

The Stellenbosch wine country

The dirt road we traveled to visit the true southern most tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas

Jon and Jody where two oceans meet

A shipwreck off Cape Agulhas

The suspension bridges across Storm's River. The Indian Ocean is directly to the right.

Bloukran's Bridge-the highest bungee jumping bridge in the world

The bungee jumpers

Jonathan takes the dive!

The boys checking out the waves at Jeffrey's Bay

A rainstorm over the Karoo

These are just a few of the amazing animal pics we were able to snap...

A mother and baby baboon sitting on the side of the road
in the Cape Point Nature Preserve

There are seals all over the harbor in Cape Town. This one was laying on a slab of concrete along the
dock cleaning and sunning himself.

Two of the 5-month-old lion cubs we petted at the nature park

The lion pride at the nature park

One of the penguins at Boulders Beach

"These tourists are always tying up the bathrooms"

Preparing for Christmas, UFOs, a New Camera and More

Hi Everyone-

Twas the week before Christmas...
and Jon and I drove to the nearby Pilanesberg Game Reserve this past Saturday. I got a new camera for my birthday and we wanted to practice with it before Jonathan and his girlfriend Ally come for a 2 week holiday on Dec. 27th. We also wanted to make sure we saw lots of zebra because Ally's one hope is to see zebra on her trip. Not only did we see zebra but we saw baby zebras as well. Not to mention some hippos fighting (or playing or courting...we don't know) some baby wart hogs and other amazing animals.

Rhinos enjoying the shade

Mama Zebra and baby scratching on a tree

The breathtaking landscape of Pilanesberg Game Reserve

Hippos Frolicking?

A Blue Wildebeest and her baby

Mama Warthog and her 2 babies

Jonathan and Ally come on Dec. 27 for a 2-week trip as I mentioned before.  We are so excited to have them visit and thanks to our camera-training day at Pilanesberg we feel certain we can find zebras for Ally and take extraordinary amounts of photos for lots of blog updates!  We are going to have a fun-filled 2 weeks of riding in the car! Yes-lots of driving. South Africa is a huge country and we are trying to cover as much as we can in 2 weeks.  Our plan is to drive from Jo-burg to Cape Town. In Cape Town we are going to celebrate the New Year, visit Table Mountain, Boulders Beach (to see the penguins) and drive to the most southern point of the Cape.  We are going from there and driving along the Garden Route to Jeffrey's Bay- the mega hot spot for surfing and spend a few days on the beach. Stay tuned!

Christmas is only a week away but celebrations here are much more subdued than in the US.  No fresh cut trees are available here.  All trees are artificial and a lot of people only put up table top trees or don't put up a tree at all. The climate just isn't suited to growing evergreen trees and South Africa does not want to introduce trees here that are not indigenous, which I understand. Big Christmas light displays are rare and that is probably a good thing.  Too many Christmas lights would probably strain the power grid and leave us in the dark all of December! Father Christmas (Santa Claus) is available for photos at the malls for three days before Christmas only.  People do buy gifts and host Christmas dinners with turkey and ham (which South Africans call gammons) but there isn't the month long build-up and over-the-top decorating like we have at home. I miss that! We are the only home in our neighborhood that has hung lighted garland on our balcony rail. New Year's Day is the big holiday here. Almost like our 4th of July - picnics, cook-outs, pool parties, fireworks. 


Yes, I did mention UFOs in the title.  A few weeks ago Jo-burg hosted a weekend long UFO convention. A week or so before the convention Jon got a call that came straight through to his desk, which is unusual because you would have to know his extension.  The caller asked if he could buy communication space on one of Intelsat's satellite.  Jon asked what his need was to be able to refer him to the right sales person.  The man explained that he had been in communication with aliens on Mars for several years, planning for them to come and retrieve him from Earth and take him back to Mars.  He needed satellite communication abilities to coordinate with his alien friends for his final extraction time and place.  Jon asked if this was some sort of prank but the caller ensured him it wasn't. Jon politely explained he couldn't help him.  (Begin humming the tune from the Twilight Zone)

Happy Holidays to All-  Jon and Jody

Diepsloot and the Gingerbread Man

The school year is drawing to a close in Diepsloot. Last week we had out last lesson with our 4th grade students. We began the week before with each of our groups reading one of three stories-The Three Little Pigs, Three Billy Goats Gruff or The Gingerbread Man.  At the end of each book was a short play of the story that each group could perform for the other groups. Each group practiced their parts and one of the volunteers made these fantastic masks for the actors to hold while they read their parts.  My group read The Gingerbread Man and while they liked the story, many students had never seen or eaten a gingerbread man cookie. They day of our plays I went to the local bakery and bought gingerbread man cookies for the class.  The plays were amazing!  We all enjoyed them so much. The kids were so attentive and encouraging when others were nervous or couldn't remember how to pronounce a word.  After all the plays were done, we surprised everyone with a cookie of their own. Some of the students jumped right in and ate theirs quickly, especially after one of the teacher-volunteers told them to eat the legs first so the cookies couldn't run away (just like in the story). Others savored them slowly, and still others pocketed them to save for later.  It was a good day all around.

A Diepsloot classroom

 Two of the three billy goats

 the three (actually four) little pigs and the big bad wolf

 
 the gingerbread man cast








kids and cookies!

Decisions for the Osler Family

I know it has been a while since my last entry but the truth is that we have settled in to a fairly routine life here in Jo'burg and there hasn't been a lot to share.  Jon continues to work harder than ever. The blog title photo is one of his "press release" photos. If I could make the photo bigger I would but I haven't figured out how to do that. However, he could really be the poster child for the proverbial Protestant work ethic, not to mention the fact that he is still so handsome even at 49. He travels quite a bit, which always makes me worry. Especially after recent incidents in Nigeria and Kenya. You can click on the links to read what is happening but Jon is stubborn and ever the optimist and never seems concerned about his safety.  Of course it scares me to death, especially since both these countries are places Jon visits regularly.  He just teases me that he has excellent life insurance which will have me set for life; at which point I start thinking... face lift, Italian Riviera, a much younger man named Fabio...not a bleak future for me.......just kidding.  I worry every time Jon gets on a plane going anywhere. I absolutely cannot imagine my life without him.

Also- I haven't figured out yet how to make the total blog viewer number to show, but as of today I have had over 1400 "hits" or views of my blog.  I am so appreciative! And if I can get my husband's attention long enough I will have him figure out why the hits don't show on the website.  The number shows when I am editing the site but not when you just access the site.  Anyway- thank you to everyone who has accessed my blog-more than 1400 hits so far!  Thank you!!!!

Our son Jonathan is doing well.  He is in his last year at the University of Virginia, graduating in May 2012 with a degree in Foreign Affairs.  Since his early high school years he has thought of nothing but going to law school after college.   He took the LSAT (Law School Entrance Exam) earlier this fall and scored very well (92% percentile). Jon and I are both so proud of him and know how hard he worked for this score.  He came to SA in June over his summer break and we spent many nights practicing the logic games in preparation for the exam.  He is in the process of applying to law schools now and we will see what happens.  No matter what, Jon and I are so proud of our only child that it wouldn't matter if he got accepted into the Acme Night School of Law along side Wylie E. Coyote (Ok-maybe that's pushing it). 

I (Jody) have probably struggled the most with this move to Africa.  I miss having my own classroom more than you can imagine (unless you are a teacher), not to mention just being in the Good Ole US of A and being closer to family and friends.  I have found some wonderful substitutes for my time - volunteering with a group of other women at a settlement school teaching English skills, tutoring private school and American School students in various subjects, and consulting on some projects for an NGO, Mindset. In the mean time, I applied for the PhD program at the University of Pretoria. I have always wanted to earn my PhD in Education.  Since 1994 in South Africa, there has been a struggle for democracy, not only politically but in education as well. As poorly as the US education system may be perceived, curriculum design and professional development are still light years ahead of SA.  While SA's examination system is challenging ( a lot of writing and rote memorization), in my mind there doesn't seem to be a purposeful, relevant connection between the learning and the real world. Many students in SA are not taught the skills they need to be successful and teachers are not taught how to best address the needs of students.  My research proposal is how to implement the use of Professional Learning Communities in schools, not only to improve student achievement but also to improve teacher professional development. I have personally participated in PLCs in Georgia and was a PLC facilitator in Virginia and am a whole-hearted proponent. My proposal was accepted ( as of 28 Oct, 2011).  Now what I (and Jon and JB) have to decide is whether or not to commit another 3 or 4 years to staying in SA for me to complete my PhD.  Jon has been so supportive and wants me to do what is best for me.  And I want him to do what is best for him.  An amazing marriage for sure....but good decision-making abilities....not so certain!

Our adventures in South Africa continue.....stay tuned!

Airport Musings

I have always loved to people-watch and there is no better place to do this than an international airport.  I have found in the last 10 months that I am at Johannesburg's O.R. Tambo International Airport about every two or three weeks either picking up or dropping Jon off.  The photo above is of the international arrivals area where everyone pours out after having passed through immigration, baggage claim and customs.  I have noticed two amusingly consistent things:

Singapore Air
flight attendant

1. International arrivals often arrive together in clumps.  The flight crews always come through the doors first, never having to wait for bags and passing through crew immigration gates.  As I stand waiting for Jon I have learned to recognize some of the prettier flight attendant uniforms such as those of Emirates Air and Singapore Air.  I can always recognize the American flight attendants, not for their beautiful uniforms but for the Bed, Bath and Beyond and Target bags strapped to their luggage carts.  When I see those shopping bags coming out the doors then I know Jon isn't far behind.

Emirates Air flight attendants

2. As you can see from the photo, O.R. Tambo is a huge, modern airport. There is really nothing traditionally African about it.  Even the music playing through the airport is American.  What is fun to watch are all the tourists arriving for the first time in Africa to venture out on their long-anticipated and usually costly African safaris.  For many safaris in southern Africa, Jo'burg is the starting point. It is just a few hours drive from here to the Kruger National Park.  These tourists come through the arrival doors looking at the drivers' signs hoping to see their last names or the tour company name for the ride that will start them on their great African adventure.  They are completely decked out from head to toe in their safari clothes. They have bought out their local Columbia store and are wearing their Sunguard safari hats, their zip-off safari trousers, their hiking boots, trail packs....only to step out into the flourescent lighting of the three-story tall arrivals atrium with Lady Gaga singing on the loudspeakers.  I want to tell them that the only wild animals they are going to see in Jo'burg are the giant rats that skitter across intersections and sidewalks under cover of night.  But soon enough they will be out in the Bush capturing the Big Five on camera, and since this will be the last air conditioning they will enjoy for a few weeks, I just smile to myself and keep watching for a blonde man in a blue blazer to come through the doors.  I left my sign that says OSLER in the car.  I hope he recognizes me.

Latest Happenings in SA

This past weekend down toward Cape Town was the 20th annual Hermanus Whale Festival. 
Hermanus/Walker Bay area is reputed to be the best land-based whale watching area in the world. Every year at this time the Southern Right Whales return to this area for the spring/summer season.  It is estimated that 200 whales will come to the bay and the Festival brings 150,000 people to watch.  If we are here next year I would definitely like to go.

I am still volunteering at the Diepsloot Combined School. I am up to 3 mornings per week right now as we have added a new project, which is cleaning up the library and getting it to a point where it is usable.  The school hasn't had a librarian for over a year, in which time the library has fallen into a mess of unpacked boxes, stacks of periodicals, and stacks of unshelved books.  At some point there was a drive in the white community to donate used books to the school library (which serves students in all 12 grades).  These boxes have been collecting over the year and have simply piled up, unopened.  We estimate there are over 100 boxes plus stacks and stacks of magazines.  There are also unopened, still shrink-wrapped school-purchased books, novel sets and teacher resources that are sitting in a corner collecting dust.  Three of us started last week unpacking and sorting the used books by general subject or topic: fiction, non-fiction, history, math, science, etc.  Sadly, many of the donated books are useless to the students here.  It is obvious that people just cleaned off their bookshelves of unwanted books (medical texts from the 1960s is one example) and so after unpacking them, we repacked them to ship them to the local prison library.  Our ultimate goal is to get all the books unpacked, sorted, Dewey Decimal numbered and shelved.  Then we would like to start having classes come through for a library orientation and train students, teachers and volunteers how to keep the library in working order and to ensure the library functions as a useful resource for students and faculty. We estimate it will take 6 months or so to do this.

Hope all is well with everyone. Please stay in touch!  Jody