Cape Town, December 2009
With the end of the year in sight and the matric (examenjaars) exams almost finished, the school was clearly rounding of its activities in December. The last weeks of the year at school were rather quiet. The same counted for the teachers, so during the times there was really nothing to do I spent a few hours behind the chessboard challenging other teachers. A very big and time-consuming, but also very interesting project I started on, is next year’s play. Wynberg Boys’ High School Major Production. Wynberg will be performing a drama production at the end of term next year: “The Insect Play”. Back in Holland I’ve been involved with drama for the past 5 years and therefore I was very keen on participating in the organisation. During the last weeks we’ve been working on the selection of the play and organising auditions. The cast has now been selected and the rehearsals will start next term.
All the boys end their year with a test period in which they write an exam for every subject. During the test period I had been scheduled for a lot of invigilation. With other words: keeping the boys quiet while they write a test. At some occasions this was quite a challenge, considering that I just left high school myself. But in general I think I can conclude that the boys are pretty well behaving. At the end of one test I spoke with one of the boys and this boy kept on addressing me with “sir”. I asked him if it was compulsory for him to call me sir. His response touched me: “No sir, definitely not, that is our way to show you our respect”. An answer I probably wouldn’t have heard in a lifetime if I’d be working for a Dutch school. I did notice though, the huge differences between the A classes and the other classes. At Wynberg, the highly intelligent and hard-working boys are put together in the so called A class. And believe me, it makes a world of difference to either supervise 9A or 9D.
In preparation of the their tests, a few boys from the hostel have asked me to tutor them or help them with their study. One of them is a black township boy. He is a huge muscled rugby player, but also one of the friendliest and polite boys I’ve met at the school. When I first met him I asked him how his matric exams were going, on which he replied he was only in grade 9 (2e klas). Hearing his stories from living at the township made me realise how complete different cultures live together in this one country; definitely compared to some spoiled white boys that take everything in their life for granted. South Africa is the land of contrast. The boy received a scholarship from Wynberg for his rugby talent. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to go to an upper-class school as Wynberg. He told me one day that it wouldn’t take long any more for he would “go to the bush”. He explained that it is a ritual in their culture for boys to gain their manhood: without the use of any kind of painkiller, their foreskin is cut off. Never thought these things still happened; just think of it! BRRRR!
The end of the year came with all kinds of ceremonies. The last day of school for the matrics is a day full of traditions and is called valedictory. It is a very emotional event for the matrics. The parents come to school, the headmaster and several teachers give speeches and there is a big price giving. A BIG price giving. I thought it be nice to sitting on stage with the other teachers: mistake. The ceremony took forever. One could almost give away the price for not receiving a prize. Another event was the Christmas celebration with the hostel. It was very nice, although the real Christmas feeling was hard to find with a 30 °C and a blue sky outside. There was a big dinner and one of the boys (a black guy) dressed up as Santa Claus.
The 11th of December the holidays started. The second of the three summers in a row I’ll experience, with wonderful warm and dry weather. Although, I do need to confess that I was quite jealous when I heard of Holland’s white winter weather.
