My school schedule for the year!

Hello, I thought I'd post the schedule for my school year, so those of you who are thinking "hey, I'd like to come visit!" can do so knowing when I am more available. So here it is.

First Term
September 3rd Start of first term
October 15-19 Mid-term holiday
December 17 End of first term

Second Term
January 11 Start of second term
February 6-7 ALA Grand Opening Celebration
February 19-22 Mid-term holiday
March 26 End of second term

Third Team
April 5 Start of third term
May 14-18 Mid-term holiday
June 25 End of school year

Video of my house!

Hi everyone! Thanks to Ben, I was able to upload my house video for you all to see. I started it last night at around 7pm and when I checked in on it this morning at almost 8am, it wasn't quite done, but did finish around 8:30am!!! That is a long time, so I hope you enjoy it! The video is about 8:30 minutes long-- enjoy!!

Pics of my house-- finally!!

Well, I finally have some pics of my fabulous house to put up! I still can't get the video to load (Veuve, I tried youtubing it-- no go!) so we're going with pics instead. Hopefully after you've viewed the pics you will get right on the internet and book a flight down here to spend some time in South Africa, luxuriating in my awesome thatched house!!

I have no confidence that if I spend the time to write the text to match each picture, it will all match up. So I'm just going to list the pics the right now with brief commentary:

#1- view of my house from the gate. Owners are rethatching the roof before they move to Australia, so the color will be more of a yellow, then gradually get darker in color.

#2- front door, from inside

#3- view from kitchen into living room. What initially drew me to the house was open floor plan and lots of natural light.

#4- living room

#5- this could be a spare bedroom, though the current owners have it as a work room/play room (they have two small boys)

#6- PART of the backyard-- it's massive! i'm going to get a zebra or two to graze and keep the grass trimmed.

#7- guest room (where ya'll will be staying, right?)

#8- kitchen view and loft above, leading up to master suite

#9- master bedroom. Has a large walk in closet and bathroom

#10- balcony off of master bedroom

#11- view from balcony of PART of backyard (did I tell you it's massive??)

#12- carport area

#13- one last view! Don't you love it!

I can't wait to move in on September 27th!!

A few pics of life at ALA

Welcome to the latest edition of my blog! There hasn't been a whole lot of activity the past week or so, in terms of getting out and about around Joburg. However, school starts in just over a week, so we're all working furiously to get everything prepared for our students' arrivals! We're all excited for our 98 students from 29 African nations to come and let the school year get underway.

I thought I'd post some pics and text to give you a slice of life at African Leadership Academy. Hopefully the pictures won't get all screwed up with the accompanying text, because when I type this all up, it matches-- then when I go to post, it gets all screwy. So we'll see how it goes!

Picture 1-- The three male teaching fellows: Samburu from Kenya, teaching African Studies, geography section; Eugene from Ghana also teaching African Studies, geography; David from USA (Tennessee) teaching Biology


Picture 2-- Michael and Scott in their dorm room before everyone moved off campus! Can you imagine returning to a dorm room as an adult and sharing with another person, whom you didn't know prior!, for a full month?? That's how we roll here! Michael is from Ghana and teaching chemistry. Scott is from USA (Texas) and teaching math and physics. Scott's wife, Leni, is from Kenya and their two boys are the two most gorgeous humans I've ever seen!




Picture 3-- The Dean in the background and Sani, my first roommate and I at a fundraising dinner. Sani is from Nigeria and teaching physics and also computer technology. Sani is quite a character and I really enjoyed living with him! We got along fabulously and he has quite the stories from his life. In one of our first conversations as roommates, Sani bet me that the actor (Gary Sinise) that played Lt. Dan from "Forrest Gump" actually had his legs surgically removed and then reattached in order to play an amputee! Easiest 20 Rand I ever made!



Picture 4-- Three female fellows: Dinah, from Ghana, running student businesses and co-teaching the entrepreneurship and leadership classes with Jess and myself; Jordan, from USA (Virginia), teaching writing; Rhobhi, from Tanzania, teaching African studies, economics section.
Picture 5-- Tanya, from South Africa, teaching French. Tanya most recently lived and taught in Saudi Arabia and has fascinating stories of life there that make me really want to go visit! Jordan and Samburu.

Picture 6-- Me and Eugene explaining our concept behind "Rent-a-friend" that we came up with during Entrepreneur day. Very fun and very innovative! And yes, not only do I look chunky, but I am chunky! I've had to contend with that infamous "Freshman 15" but it's a whole different game at 34, then at 18!
Picture 7-- Fred Swaniker (l) and Chris Bradford (r)-- two of the co-founders of ALA. It was Fred's initial vision to form ALA after he concluded that so many African parents send their kids to British or American boarding schools (and spend a lot of money along the way) and then these kids don't come back. So he worked out a business plan at Stanford while getting his MBA, which is where he met Chris. So when the doors open on September 3rd, it will be the culmination of 4 years of work! Fred is from Ghana, and also grew up in Botswana and Zimbabwe. Chris is from the USA, Michigan.

Peacocks!

I can't seem to get my pictures lined up with the text-- sorry! I know that last post was all crazy but you'll figure it out!

Here are some pics of our feathered friends on campus. In addition to the peacocks, there are several variety of birds that are quite fun to have. I know one of them to be guinea fowl, I'm not sure of the rest, but they're much cooler than pigeons and sparrows!

Soweto

As you've probably figured out, I can't get the video of my house to load onto my blog. I've spoken with a few people who know how to blog and everyone seems to agree that the size of my video is too big to load with the amount of bandwidth available. We have a temporary computer lab set up on campus with a pretty slow internet connection and my video keeps timing out before it can load, so my apologies that you can't take my house tour yet. But when the connection is permanent and quicker, I'll try it again. It's worth waiting for though!



So, we toured the township of Soweto on Wednesday and it was quite interesting. Our guide, Mandy, is a resident of Soweto and had a lot to tell our group about it, which made for a very informative tour. The population of Soweto is 4.5 million people, but it's estimated that up to 7 million people live there. The population of Johannesburg is 3.5 million in comparison, but Soweto is part of Joburg, so it's confusing. Soweto started as a place for miners to live and grew from there, but the name Soweto wasn't officially given until the early 1960's. Soweto is mostly comprised of black Africans and all 11 official languages of South Africa are spoken in the township.

Picture 1:
Rhobhi (l) and Mandy (r)-- our fun and informative guide. She wants to set me up with Winnie Mandela!






Mandy told us that Soweto stands for SOuthWEst of TOwn, but I've also heard it's from SOuth WEstern TOwnship. At any rate, one fascinating thing about Soweto is the largest hospital in the world (in terms of beds) is here, called Baragwanath, with about 3,800 beds and plans to increase it to 7000 beds. It's quite a diverse area, with some neighborhoods of nice homes that are considered rich, and very poor areas as well.

Picture 2:
left to right- Maria (works in ALA office and sets up our awesome tours!), Samburu, Dinah, Soweto resident walking by!, Michael, me, Alison, Sani, Beatrice





Picture 3: Soweto shacks













Also in Soweto is Mandela square, named after Nelson Mandela, of course! It was in this spot in Soweto that several members of the African National Congress (ANC) created the Freedom Charter, similar to the US Constitution, that was a document outlining what the ANC wanted for all South Africans. In this picture is the one for education, which starts off at the top as "The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall Be Opened!" It's quite an amazing, inspiring, and beautiful monument that houses the Freedom Charter.

Picture 4: Freedom Charter








Mandela Square is home to a market where vendors sell their goods. The man in this picture was selling herbs, among other things, and he wanted us to buy his products. One was an herbal viagra and the other was for tightening the vagina! Everyone wins!

Picture 5: Mandela Square vendor







We also visited Hector Pieterson Memorial Site, which commemorate the 1976 student uprising of black Africans against imposing the learning of Afrikaans in school. The students were demonstrating peacefully when police opened fire and Hector was the first to die at age 12. He is the one being held in the picture. Figures differ, but somewhere between 200-600 people were killed, mostly school children, and thousands wounded. One of the member of the kitchen staff, Thami, was in 3rd grade and was part of it.


Picture 6: Hector Pieterson Memorial Site
















Our tour concluded with several hours at the Apartheid Museum. We spent three hours there and it was nowhere near enough time to take it all in. Very powerful. Very informative. Very emotional. The Steve Biko exhibit was incredibly done and so interesting. I taught Biko this past fall in World History, so it was of particular interest to me. The picture is of Gavin entering the musuem through doors that were prominent throughout apartheid.

Picture 7: Apartheid Museum entrance

We also saw Nelson Mandela's house, Desmond Tutu's house, and where Winnie Mandela still lives.
We had lunch at a wonderful restaurant called Wandy's that if any of you visit, I am going to take you there-- one of the best meals I've ever had in my life. All in all, it was a very powerful and informative day.

My house in Randpark Ridge

So, here' s a video of the house that I'm renting in Johannesburg in the area called Randpark Ridge. It's a thatched house and very open and lots of light, which is what drew me to it initially. As you will see in the video, it has a huge back yard and I've got plenty of room to host people! At the end of my blog is a link to the video, hopefully it will work because I can't seem to load it. If it doesn't work then I'll try something else.

The address is 6 Haakdoring. The people that own it and live there are moving to Australia. If your audio works, you will hear the owner, Kerry, telling me about the move and that it's for two primary reasons: 1) the overall crime in Joburg, and 2) opportunities for her young sons. As she was telling me, it is difficult for white males post-apartheid in getting a job. And as I've come to learn, there is a similar version of affirmative action here in South Africa, so you'll hear me make a reference to black and coloured males. Race is talked about very differently here than in the US. Coloured is an official racial category and is used openly, which of course is outdated and insensitive in the States, so it's an adjustment.

Tomorrow we're going to the Apartheid Museum and Soweto, which I'm really looking forward to. Two of my colleagues are white South Africans in the 30's who have told some stories about being a youth and growing up in the apartheid era of South Africa and seeing its collapse in the 90's. Both of them went to integrated schools, which was rare for the times, and in fact, Alison's father was an educator who was involved in this very famous social movement called Edu-train where, back in the 80s, black and white South African high school students were put on a train together and traveled around South Africa. This was during apartheid and there were still separate cars for the two races to sit in and this caused quite a stir, as you can imagine. I'm anxious after tomorrow's visit to learn more about this time period.

Here's a picture of two of my colleagues that weren't in the group photo, Samburu and Dinah. Gavin is on the left and I'm on the right. This is at a mall before we went and saw a movie last Friday night. I'm the one without anything fancy around my neck.file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/user7/My%20Documents/My%20Flip%20Video%20Library/house/Thatched%20house.AVI

Welcome to Joburg!

Hi everyone!

Yes, I know I had promised a blog and here it is! A little late, but here nonetheless.

I've been here for just about three weeks and it's been an interesting three weeks. As a member of the inaugural faculty at ALA, I have been doing a lot of work, work, work, work, and work. And more work. We started working on the 15th of July and worked straight through until July 26th-- 11 days in a row without a break, and often going until 8 or so at night. There finally was an outcry for personal time and a near mutiny, and now we actually are getting days off to go explore the city of 3.5 million people that is Johannesburg.

But, I have come to a very clear and powerful conclusion in my short time here so far: this school is going to transform Africa. I am working with amazing people from all over and I've had the chance to meet several students who are exceptional human beings who are going to lead the African Renaissance. It's quite exciting and I feel both humbled and privileged to be down here. If you have not had a chance to check out the school, please take a moment to at: www.africanleadershipacademy.org.

The staff are amazing, as I said. Here's a quick rundown of us so far:

The Dean-- from Kenya, led two schools to the top ranking in Kenya. Amazing, humble man
Alex- from the UK but living in Hong Kong last 9 years-- teaching African History
Alison- from South Africa, teaching languages
Beatrice- from Kenya, teaching languages
David- from US, teaching fellow (I'll explain what this is below)
Dinah- from Ghana, teaching fellow
Eugene- from Ghana, teaching fellow
Gavin- from Zimbabwe, teaching drama
Jess- from US, teaching Entrepreneurship
Jordan- from US, teaching fellow
Michael- from Ghana, teaching science
Mohammed- from Morocco, teaching languages
Rhobhi- from Tanzania, teaching fellow
Samburu- from Kenya, teaching fellow
Sani- from Nigeria, teaching science
Scott- from US, but living in Kenya previously- teaching science
Tanya- from South Africa, teaching languages

(In this picture, left to right: Gavin, The Dean, me, Alex, Sani, Michael (standing)

We still have a few positions left to fill, so our staff will grow in the next month before we open, but that's it for now. The teaching fellows are all people with 1-3 years of work experience post college, who are living on campus with the students and will have a hand in a variety of the classes offered here at ALA. They're all in their early-to-mid 20's.


(In the picture above: 1st row- Rhobhi, Tanya, Maria (our guide), Alex, Alison, The Dean;
2nd row- David, Gavin, Sani, Michael; 3rd row- me, Scott, Jordan, Jess, Eugene
not pictured: Samburu, Dinah, Mohammed, Beatrice)

So, I've said that we've working a lot and haven't had much of a chance to explore Joburg and the area. The few times we have gone out, we've seen a few sites worth mentioning. Our first outing was to Sterkfontein caves, where the oldest human remains have been found, thus confirming the claim of Africa as the "Motherland" and the origination of humans. The caves are part of an area called "Cradle of Humankind" because of the remains that have been found over the years. The picture above is from this day.

Another outing was to a theater production called "Ten Bush" which was a fascinating play about tribal history, among other things. Part of the play was spoken in Zulu, which I hope to learn a little bit of while I'm here.

We've gone out house hunting and I did find a house that I'm really excited about! I'll have plenty, plenty, plenty of room, so I am making a request that you all come and visit me! I'll post a video tour of the house on my next post. It's a thatched house and it's so cool!

I have found Joburg to be less expensive overall, than living in the States. In particular, going out is quite cheap! For example, our crew here have discovered how cheap movies are. The unit of currency is called the rand, and currently, 1 US dollar is equivalent to 7.5 rand. So, going to a movie costs R 29.50, or about $3.94 US. And it gets even lower because we all have Discovery health care at ALA and with one of their plans called Vitality (which I got) you get a discount on the movies which takes the price down to R12! That is less than $2 USD per movie! That is unheard of yeah? So I've taken in two movies so far, with plans to take in a lot more! Perhaps two or three or four times even...

And food and beverages-- quite cheap. There were a group of 5 of us that went out last night and we hit three spots in a hip part of Joburg. Each of us got a drink at every place and the cheapest bill was R88 and the most expensive was R102-- so we're looking at liquoring up 5 people for under $14-- love that! (Of course we ate too! And that was cheap as well.)

There are some fun things that I'm finding out about the culture here in Joburg. Among them: instead of saying "I'll see you in a bit" or "I'll see you soon," you would say "I'll see you just now." How "just now" means "in a bit or soon" is beyond me, especially given we're all speaking English! But it's one of those fun things about learning about another culture.
I've managed to learn how to drive on the other side of the street, and driving from the driver's seat, which is now on the right side of the car. 99% of the cars are manuals, which is what I had anyways. I hear that doing things opposite of what you're used to keeps your brain sharp, so thank God for that!

This week we're going to the Apartheid Museum, which I hear is an amazing experience. And we're going to tour the largest township of Sowetho, so this should be an exciting week. I'll tell you all about it in my 3rd blog installment (remember my house comes next!)

Oh yeah-- you can get a hold of me on my cell phone: 011 27 073 954 2593. That's what you'd do if you picked up the phone and called me straight up. Also, I'm going to get a skype number, which is a US number so then it's very inexpensive. I'll keep you posted. And my address here is as follows:

Peter Myers
African Leadership Academy
Post Net Suite
#143
Private Bag X 1
Northcliff 2115
South Africa

The campus is gorgeous and has about 20 peacocks living amongst us, including an albino one. Apparently, there was another albino one but a staff member thought it was a chicken and killed it. I'll assume that he or she was informed of the error and hence, the other albino lives on.

Love to all and make plans to come see me!