The San Children in Botswana

A San family in their home at a farm.

From the 11th to the 18th of June we did a tour to D'kar in Kalahari desert in Botswana. The purpose was to take part in a study about why San children drop early out of school and what can be done to keep them in school. We worked with Stella Nguluka and Sinnah Motetho from Bokamoso, Botswana. We visited some settlements and some farms where more san people worked, and we interviewed children who had dropped out of school, parents and teachers.

The kitchen in the home

It was interesting to visit the farms. Some of them were very big, one had about 30 000 cows. San people are hired as workers on these farms. They have their own homesteads in small villages in the farm. Houses were simple, but well organized. 

 It was nice to meet the families. They were very willing to give their views.


We will work with Stella and Sinnah on the report, and we hope the recommendations will be of help for the san children. We hope this little child will find conditions that makes it possible for him to stay in school.

The area were we were was desert or half desert. But once a year comes water flowing from the rains in Angola. The water flods into the sand and it turns into a see. With the water also come fish. So many were fishing in this newly arrived water, and they were getting fish!

Xai-Xai

We visited Xai-Xai in Mozambique some 200 km north of Maputo, along the coast. We visited Mel and Diane Stauber who is related to our son in law Sean.

 They run 2 care points where children could come and hear some bible stories, sing songs and get some food. The care point was next to a church that was just built. About 100 children where coming and it was touching to see how they were interested to listen, to participate and learn.

Children were from 2-3 to 14-15. They want to start a preschool here, and then have some other gathering for the school going children that could come after school in the afternoon for a gathering and some food.

 On the other place the work was more new. It was also good to meet this children and their caretakers.

 Interesting to see how children are able to play with what they have. Skipping rope made of local materials where used with some rhymes that were recited as they were jumping.

Many of the  houses outside town was made of reeds keept together with some thin wire. It is cheap and easily available building material. It is quite relevant in a climate that is quite warm throughout the year. Here is even a church built of this material - Assemblies of God International was written over the enterance.

Good to see that people are able to use what they have to develop the kingdom of God.

Graduation for FEA Preschool Teacher Training College

Graduates in their beautiful gauns

Friday we celebrated graduation for last years students at FEA Preschool Teacher Training College in Manzini. 21 students graduated. They were dressed in their beautiful gauns, and came dancing into the assembly in the opening of the feast.

The graduation was led by Mrs. Winile Tzabedze who is a lecturer at the centre. The students sang a hymn and a self -composed song as a thank you to FEA. The student representative had a nice speech where she expressed the students gratitude to the FEA Ckollege for the training thay had got.


The Principal of FEA Preschool Teacher Training College, Dr. S'lungile Thwala Welcomed everybody and had a special welcome adress to the gratuating students. She was dressed in a beautiful gaun in red and yellow for the occasion. 

It was a joy to be the guest speaker on this occation

I was invited as the guest speaker. I congratulated the graduants with the choice of career and with the efforts during a two year study. When we estimate that each student could work at an average of 20 years and receive a new group of children every year - then this group of 21 students will touch the lives of more than 10 000 children during such a period!

I also had the opportunity to give Queen Maud's Price to the best student. This has become a good tradition since the FEA Preschool TEaacher Training College is affiliated with Queen Maud University College in Trondheim, Norway. 

The graduation ended with prayers and dedication of the new preschool teachers, and then everybody were invited to lunch- beef, chicken, and assorted vegetables such as butternut, beetroot,  etc. Very delicious!

A joyful day that we will remember!

I barnehagen

I am visiting the preschool every now and then to see how things are going and enjoy the experience. Some days back I happened to come at a special time: a child had birthday, and the parents had brought a cake. A very exciting moment when the birthday- child shall take the first piece of cake.

We are still working in the project of improving the preschool. Last staff meeting the staff had made  puzzles, picture-lottos, and small books with pictures to have in the play corner and the book corner in their classroom.Corners like home corner, book-corner and block-corners are now being established in the classrooms.

Since we are now through with the period about forgiveness, Kirsti was introducing the value we are going to empasis on next month - after easter: honesty. After the presentation we had a good discussion. We agreed that in addition to telling stories, dramatizing and talking about honesty, it is very important that we ourselves are honest in relatin to children.

Maths and special needs eduation

Many things are going in here. We are planning a course with Anne Nakken from Queen Maud University College in Norway from the 23rd to the 26th of May. We are sending invitations these days to preschool teachers in Swaziland, to University lecturers in Swaziland and Mozambique, to members of our network for preschool teacher training in Southern Africa. A. Nakken has an ability to create enthusiasm and interest for maths among children and students, and we believe this will be a real step forward in competence building in Early Childhood Education in the region.

I am also invited to run a seminar for teachers on special needs education in Maputo. It is an new organisation that will work to upgrade the competence of teachers in Christian Schools when it comes to issues on faith, values, ethics etc. It is a great need for information and teaching on inclusive and special needs education in Mozambique, and I am looking forward for the day.

   

Krûger Park

Friday after working hour we went for a trip to the famus Kruger National Park in South Africa. I believe it is one of the gratest game parks in the world. It is about 3 hours drive from here. We drove up to Komatiport in SouthAfrica, and slept over in a lodge there. Then 5 oclock next morning we woke up, and bit after 6 we were in the park.

We met big flocks of may be 100 impalas in one group

 Kruger Park in one of the biggest in the world, bigger than the whole of Swaziland. We only drove through a part of it during 6 hours. We saw a lot: more groups of giraffs, elephants, sebras, impalas, hippos, a lion, rihno, birds etc. What makes it special in Kruger is that you find the animals in their natural environment living as they were supposed to live.

Two giraffs that saw us as we were driving by

 We also met more groups of giraffs along the road. These animals are impressive, they reach up to 5 meter above the ground and feed on the top of the trees. They look suprised when they look at you, may be wondering how it is to have such a very short neck as human beings have! I think God had fun when he made the giraffs!

We also met more groups of elephants. The group on the picture were coming to dring. Afterwards the smallest one played and smached in the water. Then most of them crossed over to our side. - Other elephans we found just in front of us on the road or as they were crossing the road. Very impressive animals.


I can recommend a visit to Kruger National Park, may be in combination by seeing some educational and mission projects in Swaziland and Mozambique.

Forgiveness

Teachers in our meeting today

We are running a project on forgiveness. In the grade 0 all three classes has used a week to tell everyday stories or traditional stories on forgiveness. Then for two more weeks they have told the story of Joseph from the Bible: a very touching story. The teachers have noted down spontaneous reactions from children. Today we met with the teachers to discuss the last part of the study where we will interview the children on what they think about forgiveness. We had a very interesting talk about the children's understanding of forgiveness and also about our own relationship to the theme. It is difficult to ask for forgiveness. In the African tradition it is rear that a senior person ask a lower placed person for forgiveness, that parents ask children for forgiveness, that husbands ask their wifes for forgiveness. However, forgiveness has a great value as it reestablish relations. It needs to be learned when we are young. We all felt we learned something about children and ourselves in relation to forgiveness.

The same project is also being done in preschools in Norway, Botswana and Kenya.

Barnehageprosjektet

Picture

The Preschool at Helemisi is an experience of its own! 176 children in 7 classes. Beautiful children willing and interested to learn. Our preschool is a demonstration preschool, it means that our own students as well as others who want to know how a good preschool can be, should come and see for themselves. I have been involved in a project to make this preschool one of the best in Swaziland. We have used the last 3 staff meetings every Tuesday for this. All staff has come with ideas for what we can do to make things better. It is all from painting the classrooms, repairing outdoor equipment, decorating the walls indoor with children's own drawings, teachers being more active during free play etc.



Picture: Outdoor play- a race to collect buckets of water. The teacher Hlopsile in front, and QMUC students in the back.

We have also emphasised that language learning can be very effective during outdoor play if the teachers also participate. Teacher Fikile and teacher Lungile in action with happy children.









Commuting to Maputo

I have been driving up and down to Maputo nearly every week of late - to try to get all the documentation ready for our application to start the preschool teacher training. The vw city is my faithful friend on the tours that take at least 3 hours one way.

Kirkeleder
Aron Matsebula is president i Free Evangelical Assemblies in Swaziland. He works in the office next door to my office. Today he came over to us for lunch. We had interesting talks about missions and church work in Swaziland. FEA is a growing church. New local assemblies are continously started, and the churches are growing.

Mr. Aron Matsebula with me in our sitting room.

Preschool Teacher Training in Maputo

The work to start a preschool teacher training in Maputo is progressing. I am commuting between Swaziland and Mozambique almost every week. Last week we managed to have a meeting with the vice director and three staff members of the faculty of Education at the University of Maputo. They are willing to work with us and they also want to join our Africa-network. A very positiv meeting that can be important for the recognition of the training.

 Picture: Meeting with staff from the Universidade Pedagogica, Maputo. To my left: Magaly, a missionary from Brasil who work with preschools. She also participated in the meeting.
 
I also had an interview with a lady who can teach Early Childhood Education,  and made arrangement to have office and classroom for the training at Centro Juvenil Ingrid Chawner, a street children's centre started by PYM in Maputo.

Saturday we took a tour to Mbambane, the capital city, to do some shopping and a haircut. Afterwards we rested on a sun bed at Logogo Sun hotel. I had a swim in the pool. It is good to have a break in the weekend.
Next week I am going back to Maputo to finalize the work with the application for the training there.

Visit to cultural village

We took the Norwegian students doing there fieldwork here in Swaziland for a little tour around Ezulwini vally. We visited Swazi candle where we saw how these famous candels are made, and also a lot of other handicraft. We also visited another centre for local craft, and then the cultural village where one can see how a traditional Swazi homestead looks like.

 We also got to see traditional swazi dances, and the Norwegian students were invited to participate!


The Preschool here has now started to use also the outdoor area as a classroom. Under a three there is a nice shade and  a very pleasent place for storytelling.

Watch out!
On the way to Mozambique we passed this sign. It is better to wach out, especially if one is walking this way!

Swaziland and Mozambique,

Back in Swaziland by the beginning of February, I have visited our demonstration preschool at Helemisi some times. Very nice children! We agreed on the last staff meeting to start a project on making this preschool one of the best in Swaziland. All staff will give their ideas in the next meeting!

Last week I also did a quick two days visit to Maputo. I met with Bernardo Muthemba who is working to get our application to start a preschool teacher training through all the different offices. He has also done a great job by finding a number of documents that need to follow such an application. Leif Listgaard, a Swedish missionary at the street children's centre in Maputo also took part in the meetings.

The picture: Bernardo with his wife and two children, a neigbour and a friend of the children, with me in from of Bernardo's house.

I also had a meeting with the director and three staff members of the Faculty of Education at the Universidade Pedagogica. They seemed positive to assist us, and we hope they will sign our certificates. This will give our preschool training a good reputation. The Director also was interested in cooperation with our Competence Building Network for Early Childhood in South and East Africa.  We will soon have a new meeting with them.

Another nice happening this week was that Kirsti had invited a number of our friends here for a celebration of my 60. birthday. We had Mrs. and Mr. Tsabedze, Mrs. and Mr. Khumalo, Lars Blystad, Lars Olsen, Mr. and Mrs. Thwala, Evy Surdal and Mrs. and Mr. Dlamini (Absalom and Flora). Kirsti had a nice picture show about different aspects of my life, and had made a song, there were speches and a song from the guests and also nice messages from our daugheters, sons in law and grandchildren. A memorable evening.

Summerfield was a nice frame around the occation. The menu was very good!

Kirsti and me listening to one of the good speeches!

In Norway

The last two weeks I have been in Norway, mainly to teach the international class called Comparing Childhoods at Queen Maud University College. This is a 4 week course for those who come to QMUC on exchange and those from QMUC who are going for exchange to other countries. It was nice to share experiences with them. I was also teaching the class for further education (master level) in Special Needs Education. Very good students and interesting talks. In Trondheim this time I stayed with Hanna and Sean (daughter and son in law) and my grandchild Isak (3 1/2 month). It was very nice to share the fellowship with them at Heimdal. The picture shows Isak with his aunt Susanna. She is living upstairs in the same house.
On my way back to Swaziland I stopped over in Kristiansand (south in Norway) where Sara (my second daughter) and Espen is living. Sara just gave birth to Isabella the day before I arrived, and it was exciting to be able to visit them and see our second grandchild - a beautiful girl - this time!

Above is one day old Isabella! David says in Psalm 127, 3 Children are a gift from the Lord. (Translated from Norwegian). So we thank Him for this gift!

Glade, nybakte foreldre Espen og Sara med lille Isabella.

2. week in Swaziland/Mozambique

The second week in Swaziland we had an intensive week in the Preschool TEacher Training. 2 classes had about 40 periods each. It became a very busy week. In addition to students from year 1 and 2 there were also about 13 former students who came back to upgrade their exams to diploma. It was very exciting when we were together with about 65-70 students for morning devotion. The songs in different voices is something one need to experience!

The students at the morning devotion. Kirsti in the picture to the left.

Winile is one of the lecturers at the college. She is well known of many since she took her master degree at Queen Maud University College in Norway. She was teaching a number of lessons during the week. She is also the headmistress of the demonstration preschool.

Winile teaching. Kirsti and I was also teaching this first week together with Evy Surdal and some part time lecturers in English and Health/nutrition. Evy did a great job in teaching them how to make teddy bears and puppets etc. Students were very enthusiastic!


Early Wednesday morning I drove to Maputo. In the afternoon I was teaching in a seminar for about 50 preschool teachers. My theme was how to help children develop a positive self image.I also gave them some group work. The participants showed a great involvement!

Next day I went with Bernardo (a Mozambiquan brother who has been working to get the documents through the ministry of education) and Leif- a missionary- to meetings in the Ministry of Education. The meetings were positive, and we got more precice information about all the documents our application need to contain for recognition by the Ministry. In the afternoon we had a meeting with 3 staff from the pedagogical university of Maputo. They were quite interested in our plan, and were willing to assist in teaching in our course.


After this week I went back to Norway to have two weeks of intensive teaching at Queen Maud University in Trondheim, Norway. It was part of the deal to let me go to Africa that I had to come back for some teaching. I am here the two last weeks of January. It gave me the opportunity to stay with Hanna and Sean and see my first gradchild Isak. He is a very beautiful boy who is developing every day...

Isak, our first gradson, is an active and joyful boy who knows how to charm is grandpa.

En sondag i Swaziland

Hva gjor man en sondag i Swaziland?

Forst gikk vi til en engelsk gudstjeneste kl. 9.00 i Zakhele church, en stor Swazi menighet like ved senteret.  Det var en livlig gudstjeneste med fantastisk sang. Vaar tidligere nabo (fra 1996) ledet sangen sammen med en gruppe. Det er bevegelser og mange stemmer! Menigheten hadde bygd ny kirke siden vi var der, og har naa minst to gudstjenester, en paa engelsk og en paa siswati, den siste best besokt, men det var ganske mye folk ogsaa p[ den den engelske. Imponerende bygg, ikke minst med tanke paa at de har bygd den med egne midler. Trivelig aa treffe gamle kjente.

Etterpaa gikk vi paa gudstjenesten paa Helemisi senteret der vi bor. Den startet kl. 11. Denne menigheten ble dannet paa slutten av vaart opphold her. Naa var det mye folk ogsaa her, sarlig yngre folk. Guds rike vokser i Swaziland. Her traff vi bl.a. pastor Khumalo og familien hans, som var med og startet senteret naar vi var der for 11 aar siden. Levende sang og utfordrende tale om aa laa troen vokse i det nye aaret!

Etterpaa begynte vi aa bli sultne, og vi dro til et nytt sted - Summerfield - mellom Manzini og Mbambane. Her har eieren laget en storslagen botanisk hage med kunstige dammer, statuer av afrikas dyr, restaurant i stilig afrikansk arkitektur, smaa paviljonger i hagen der man kunne spise, svaert god mat. Og rimelig! Omraadet er noe av de vakreste jeg har sett paa mine mange reiser. Vi hadde en deilig lunsj!  Og saa var jo dagen neste gaatt, og det var hjem aa skrive litt meldinger og blogg.

Afrika er ikke bare nodhjelp og fattigdom. Det er ogsaa mye fint.

Arrived in Swaziland

We arrived in Swaziland Tuesday the 3rd after more than 20 hours in the air and on airports. Warm weather (25/30 degrees) and warm welcome from Mrs. S'lungile Thwala and Evy Surdal. They have prepared lunch for us. I will be teaching next week in an intensive week for students in the second year in preschool teacher training and those who are upgrading themselves (former students who want a diploma in Early Childhood). We are still waiting to see if and when we are moving our centre across the road here since the government want to expropriate our land. The new centre is ready, but since the government has not yet paid  the contractor we are still waiting to move in. We hope and pray for a solution since the preschool, the new primary school and the teacher training are starting next week and the week after.

ARVE