January, 2010
After 4 weeks of Christmas holidays a new year of school started. With the South African seasons being opposite to the European, academic years here start in January. After a final end-of-the-holidays braai (South African barbecue) at the hostel, term 1 was about to begin.
For 2010, 2 new gap-years would be joining Calum and me (for those who forgot, Calum’s my roommate). Dave (Australian) was the first one to arrive, early January. He’s a very friendly guy with a great talent for surfing (and drinking, it’s true what they say about Aussie’s). Nick (New Zealander) arrived a little later due to problems with his visa. He’s also a very friendly guy that’s together with Dave staying in the room opposite to ours. Now that there are 4 of us gappies (a more commonly used term for Gap-years) we are more likely to go out and enjoy our free time. If we’re lucky we’re allowed to use the hostel’s car and go do some things in and around Cape Town. We’ve been to the waterfront, malls and one weekend we went to visit the Two Oceans aquarium, famous for its sharks and huge seawater basins. We are still planning on going to Robbenisland.
A Wynberg tradition at the beginning of the year is the “house braais”. Wynberg uses an English school system. To create bonding between the boys and a clear structure of tutors (mentoren) every boy as soon as it has started school is placed into one of the 8 “houses”. Every house has its own badge, colour and househead (it has nothing to do with an actual house, it’s the name given to the groups the boys are divided in). For the rest of your career at Wynberg you’ll be part of that house and the idea is that you’ll always help and support your house members. The houses are: Van Riebeek (green), De Waal (yellow), Rhodes (red), Wellington (blue), De Villiers (maroon), Lorie (light blue), McNaughton (black) and last but definitely not least Littlewood (white). Every learner living at the hostel (about 100) automatically is a Littlewood boy, which of course makes me a Littlewood. I must say the house system is a very special and good way of giving the pupils a sort of connection to each other and the teachers and it allows the school to organise very interesting inter-house competitions on grounds of sports, drama and singing. Every teacher is allocated to one of the houses, making him a tutor for a group of boys from that house. Coming back to the house braais I mentioned, every house organises its own braai to celebrate the start of the year and to make the new grade 8’s (brugklassers) familiar with their house members. I took the liberty of visiting several.
Another tradition that comes with the start of the year is the grade 8 induction week. For one week all the new coming pupils are being introduced to “the Wynberg ways”. During that time they’re being taught about the school traditions, expectations in manners, sport, culture, service and they’re shown their way around the school. In that first week they must wear their school uniform, but they’re not allowed to wear the blazer until the blazer ceremony. Once they’re inducted they are officially handed over their blazer and linked to the “brothers in an endless chain”. With other words, they’re part of Wynberg.
Now that I’m on the topic of traditions anyway, the hostel has the tradition to initiate the year with an obstacle course organised by the grade 11’s (5e klassers). I participated in doing the course. What I hadn’t been told however was that the course also serves as initiation for all new hostel boys. When I think of an obstacle course, I think of a straight forward track in which you have to climb over or crawl under certain objects. However, first we were told by the hostel masters to “wear clothes we’d never wear again”, second they said “this year, the beatings with sticks will not be included in the track anymore”. Once I heard that I started to reconsider my definition of obstacle course and didn’t know what I was getting myself into. This was it: you enter a tight long dark passage which has been dug in earth, through an opening in the bushes. On your stomach you crawl yourself a way through the dirt, halfway covered in water and mud. Meanwhile the grade 11’s shout at you, throw eggs, cover your face with mud and flower and you simply desperately try to find your way through the course. Once finally finished, I had never been that dirty in my life.
The first few weeks were a welcome back to Wynberg and the start of what will become a busy term.
After 4 weeks of Christmas holidays a new year of school started. With the South African seasons being opposite to the European, academic years here start in January. After a final end-of-the-holidays braai (South African barbecue) at the hostel, term 1 was about to begin.
For 2010, 2 new gap-years would be joining Calum and me (for those who forgot, Calum’s my roommate). Dave (Australian) was the first one to arrive, early January. He’s a very friendly guy with a great talent for surfing (and drinking, it’s true what they say about Aussie’s). Nick (New Zealander) arrived a little later due to problems with his visa. He’s also a very friendly guy that’s together with Dave staying in the room opposite to ours. Now that there are 4 of us gappies (a more commonly used term for Gap-years) we are more likely to go out and enjoy our free time. If we’re lucky we’re allowed to use the hostel’s car and go do some things in and around Cape Town. We’ve been to the waterfront, malls and one weekend we went to visit the Two Oceans aquarium, famous for its sharks and huge seawater basins. We are still planning on going to Robbenisland.
A Wynberg tradition at the beginning of the year is the “house braais”. Wynberg uses an English school system. To create bonding between the boys and a clear structure of tutors (mentoren) every boy as soon as it has started school is placed into one of the 8 “houses”. Every house has its own badge, colour and househead (it has nothing to do with an actual house, it’s the name given to the groups the boys are divided in). For the rest of your career at Wynberg you’ll be part of that house and the idea is that you’ll always help and support your house members. The houses are: Van Riebeek (green), De Waal (yellow), Rhodes (red), Wellington (blue), De Villiers (maroon), Lorie (light blue), McNaughton (black) and last but definitely not least Littlewood (white). Every learner living at the hostel (about 100) automatically is a Littlewood boy, which of course makes me a Littlewood. I must say the house system is a very special and good way of giving the pupils a sort of connection to each other and the teachers and it allows the school to organise very interesting inter-house competitions on grounds of sports, drama and singing. Every teacher is allocated to one of the houses, making him a tutor for a group of boys from that house. Coming back to the house braais I mentioned, every house organises its own braai to celebrate the start of the year and to make the new grade 8’s (brugklassers) familiar with their house members. I took the liberty of visiting several.
Another tradition that comes with the start of the year is the grade 8 induction week. For one week all the new coming pupils are being introduced to “the Wynberg ways”. During that time they’re being taught about the school traditions, expectations in manners, sport, culture, service and they’re shown their way around the school. In that first week they must wear their school uniform, but they’re not allowed to wear the blazer until the blazer ceremony. Once they’re inducted they are officially handed over their blazer and linked to the “brothers in an endless chain”. With other words, they’re part of Wynberg.
Now that I’m on the topic of traditions anyway, the hostel has the tradition to initiate the year with an obstacle course organised by the grade 11’s (5e klassers). I participated in doing the course. What I hadn’t been told however was that the course also serves as initiation for all new hostel boys. When I think of an obstacle course, I think of a straight forward track in which you have to climb over or crawl under certain objects. However, first we were told by the hostel masters to “wear clothes we’d never wear again”, second they said “this year, the beatings with sticks will not be included in the track anymore”. Once I heard that I started to reconsider my definition of obstacle course and didn’t know what I was getting myself into. This was it: you enter a tight long dark passage which has been dug in earth, through an opening in the bushes. On your stomach you crawl yourself a way through the dirt, halfway covered in water and mud. Meanwhile the grade 11’s shout at you, throw eggs, cover your face with mud and flower and you simply desperately try to find your way through the course. Once finally finished, I had never been that dirty in my life.
The first few weeks were a welcome back to Wynberg and the start of what will become a busy term.
Hoi Jori,
ReplyDeleteLeuk om je gisteren weer even te spreken.
Fijn dat je het zo naar je zin hebt en leuke foto's!
Tim's Afrika avontuur komt nu toch wel 'akelig' dichtbij. In mijn naiviteit dacht ik alles pas op gang te hoeven brengen nadat we duidelijkheid zouden hebben over het slagen.
L&B gaat er echter vanuit dat dat geen probleem zal zijn en dus gaan we de regelzaken in kaart brengen. Dit weekend maar even contacten met je ouders.
Fijne tijd nog en zie je vast wel in juni!
groetjes, Bea