Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.

It was nice to get back after a great break and get back "in the swing of things" at Wits. The students have three more weeks of classes before taking a four-week "teaching experience" break. During this time, all of the education students will go into schools around Johannesburg to observe and student-teach. I'm really looking forward to this experience; I'll be paired with a group of students and will observe their lessons throughout the month, providing feedback and problem shoot. I think that this is where a lot of the learning happens, rather than in the classroom. Basically, the students will take their theoretical knowledge from the classroom and try it in the "real world." There's a steep learning curve, particularly because you have to adapt quickly or you'll sink in the classroom. I look forward to helping them become better teachers through mentoring and modeling.

Aside from work, I enjoyed the week and the weekend: On Thursday night I went to a trivia night at a local pub with a fellow Fulbrighter and some friends. I enjoy trivia night, because well, I like seeing how my random knowledge is applicable in a meaningless trivia game at a bar. However, Thursday night wasn't "meaningless" - the game was sponsored by a SA cell phone company, with first prize being new Blackberry(s) and second place a $100 bar tab. There were 23 teams, with the stipulation that members had to be under 35 (a marketing ploy). In any event, my team, the "Blackberry Liberation Front (BLF)" started the first three rounds in first place (out of five rounds). Then, came the music round. I feel like I have a wide-range of music knowledge; my iTunes library is not genre specific and has everything from Wiz Khalifia to Bob Dylan to Tchaikovsky, and even (a guilty pleasure) one-hit wonders. I thought that this round would be another "solid" round by team BLF. Then came the music. The MC played interviews and short sounds clips and then we would guess the artist or celebrity. The first question was Steven Tyler, no problem. The next 19 questions were South African pop and American (current) trash-pop, which I have no idea about. Needless to say, in one round, we went from leaders to fourth place. The last round, we were given twenty car models and had to guess the top 10 most popular cars in SA in 2011. We could guess as many as we wanted, but if we got one wrong, then we received no points. For the final round, we got 7 right… one wrong. With victory within our sights, we let it slip and finished fourth for the night. I guess there's always next week?!

On Friday night I went to the Bioscope Independent Theater ("theatre" - those English!) in the former industrial area of Johannesburg for the premiere of the documentary Robert Mugabe…What Happened? I really enjoyed the documentary about the controversial leader of Zimbabwe. Honestly, I had only read of Mugabe's irrational leadership and decision making over the last few years (since the 2008 election), but had little insight on his "democratic" rule since 1980. The documentary did a great job chronicling the break from Great Britain, Mugabe's early leadership successes (he was knighted), his war/terrorism with opposition parties and their supporters, and Mugabe today. I also appreciated talking to one of the Fulbrighter's friends from Wits who came to the movie with us and was born in Harare; his insight was really helpful in making sense of what happened (and is continuing to) in Zimbabwe as well as the shortcomings of the documentary. The documentary also dispelled my ignorant notions of Mugabe's land redistribution plans; it was my understanding that it was African Zimbabweans versus European Zimbabweans with Mugabe taking European Zimbabweans' land and redistributing it. The documentary explained very clearly that Mugabe took land from both African and European Zimbabweans alike, anyone who resisted his power, with a conservative estimate of 800,000 families' land taken by the government (out of a population of 8,000,000). Zimbabwe has a lot of potential, particularly in agriculture. One thing I always think about when I hear "Zimbabwe" or "Rhodesia" is my grandmother telling me about the German families that moved to Rhodesia to farm the bountiful land. As Nietzsche said: "Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one" (read: Mugabe).

Saturday was the day of the big "derby" - the rugby match between the Johannesburg Golden Lions and the Pretoria Blue Bulls. As I've mentioned before, the Johannesburg Golden Lions are notoriously bad and have a small fan base (comparatively). There have been numerous years where they have gone winless in a season. Some background: the premier rugby league in South Africa is the "Super 15" with five teams from South Africa, five teams from New Zealand, and five teams from Australia playing one another (and it is traditional, 15-man rugby). The South Africa teams are: Cape Town Stormers, Pretoria Blue Bulls, Johannesburg Golden Lions, Free State Cheetahs (Bloemfontein), and the KwaZulu-Natal (Durban) Sharks. The two Fulbrighters (Rob and Ben) came down from Pretoria and went to the game to support our respective teams, understanding, of course, that there was little chance of a Golden Lion victory. Fun fact: "scholars" (students/teachers) can go to the games for R10 (about $1.25), with high-end tickets typically around R90 ($12.50)! We enjoyed the game, a 32-18 victory for the Pretoria Blue Bulls, and I am gradually starting to understand the game (and thus getting a great appreciation for it).

Random Weather Talk

It is quite odd, but I feel like I do not have any concept of time. Let me clarify: I left freezing Toledo and freezing Rome in January. I arrived to a sunny, beautiful, summer in South Africa. The weather is changing here, getting more "brisk," but still sunny and beautiful. At the same time, I read from family and friends about the spring weather in the Northern Hemisphere, as well as spring sports in the US. I'm completely mixed up! I'm sure it will be odd too, going from warm - almost summer - in South Africa in November, to winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

Random Book Talk:

• I finished Toole's Confederacy of Dunces, a book that has been on my reading list for quite some time. I put off reading the book for some time, as the plot didn't really interest me - a eccentric and wacky man who lives with his mother in New Orleans. Not really a thriller. I started reading it over the break last week and couldn’t put it down! Toole's language is so vivid and raw. The main character, Ignatius Jacque Reilly is also one of my favorite literary characters. Ignatius isn't an "inspiring" character, but I found him to be hilarious and odd at the same time, particularly with the dialogue. Confederacy of Dunces also has an interesting backstory: Toole committed suicide and his mother sent the manuscript to a editor, who reluctantly read it, and ended up publishing the work. Toole won a Pulitzer Prize posthumously. 

• I'm currently reading Brink's A Dry White Season, a fictional story taking place in Johannesburg after the 1976 Soweto Riots. A schoolteachers' gardener's son (black) was mysteriously murdered by the secret police after the riots. In the process, the gardener tried to investigate what happened to his son, and he, in turn, mysteriously died while being interrogated by the secret police. The schoolteacher then investigates both deaths, seeing the intense racism and corruption of the government. In the end, the schoolteacher, too, sacrifices himself for the greater justice of society.