Reflections - Teachers Without Borders-South Africa - July 2005

Erin Wilson, Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama Science Dept.

I have been an eager supporter of the Teachers Without Borders project in South Africa since I first heard about it at a science department meeting in the winter of 2003. That year, Yunus Peer came to my school looking for volunteers to help facilitate chemistry and physics workshops for South African teachers and students during our summer vacation, and even before he was finished with his presentation, I knew that I really wanted to be a part of the team. I knew that this project was different from any other staff development or travel experience I had ever had, and I knew that Teachers Without Borders-South Africa would change my life forever. I was not wrong.

Since then, I have had the incredible fortune of spending the past two summers in South Africa as a part of the TWB-SA team. Not only have I had the chance to visit a beautiful and exotic part of the world, but I have also been lucky enough to share this experience with the most incredible educators, administrators, and students that I have ever met. Yunus warned us about warmth of the South African people, but nothing he said could have ever prepared me for the tremendous generosity, compassion, and optimism that I encountered while I was there. Not only did I make friends for life and meet people who can only be described as heroes, but during these two summers, I also learned more about myself and who I want to be than I had ever previously even considered.

There are many reasons why these past two summers were so significant to me, but the most obvious ones all involve the people we met while working as part of the TWB team. From Yunus Peer and his family who had the vision to start this project, to Yunus Chamda, Dr. Razvi, and Pualine Duncan who make TWB possible by providing never-ending logistical and administrative support, to the numerous educators and students from South Africa that gave up their winter vacation to come and see what a group of teachers from Hawaii had to say about math and science.

Being from the United States where education is considered every citizen’s right, I never would have believed that high school seniors would walk for hours on the first day of their vacation to attend a review session for a math and science exam that was scheduled to take place six months later. I saw it happen, however, I can testify that it is true. I also would have had a hard time believing that teachers who are given almost impossible circumstances (50 students to a classroom, no textbooks, no electricity, etc.) would voluntarily sacrifice their time-off to attend a four-day, unpaid workshop with a group of people from Hawaii who may have known something about math and science but knew very little about the reality of life in South Africa. Not only did these teachers show up, but they also brought with them open hearts, positive attitudes, and incredible amounts of patience and grace. I was floored when we asked about the teaching experience of the South African teachers. There were people there who had been in the classroom for over twenty years. They had come because they wanted to learn how to better serve their students given their limited resources. They were there because they really believed that they were helping to create the new South Africa.

I have hundreds of memories of kindness and love that the South African students and teachers shared with me. From homemade beaded pins of Aids ribbons attached to my lapel at closing ceremonies to the songs that they sang for us when we began and ended each day, but I can’t think of a single incident when anybody expressed resentment or negativity about the dark age of apartheid that the country is still recuperating from. This message of hope is the most important lesson that I will take away from my two summers in South Africa.

Life is not about looking backwards and hanging onto the ugliness that exists in this world or the senseless hatred that has shaped so much of our society. Life is about looking forward and doing what you can today to make a better tomorrow. And being a teacher is one of the most effective ways of obtaining this goal. Working with students is about creating better people to share the future with, and thanks to my experiences in South Africa, I will never forget my calling. I always want to be a teacher.