Our third week focused mainly on the start of school for the kids and my infusion back into a work-type role. Kara is attending Pearson Secondary School, which consists of grades 8-12. Katilee and Jack are at Summerwood Primary School (or Laerskool in Afrikaans), which consists of grades 1-7. We even have Bekah slated for Beachwood Pre Primary (next door to Summerwood Primary), where she will start next week. She'll start in "three sleeps." You talk about excited! This is a girl who was born to go to school. It takes us less then 10 minutes to drive to school, and all three schools are near each other in Summerwood. Wait a minute. I thought you were in Port Elizabeth? Yes, we are. See, Summerwood is an "area" of Port Elizabeth. Sort of like an incorporated town but without a unit of government and other facilities that exist as part of a town. If you were to look at a map of Port Elizabeth, Summerwood is the farthest South part of PE, which means it is the farthest to the left. PE is actually on a peninsula that sticks out of the Southern coast of Africa (or Afrika as it is spelled here) and is situated on a huge and beautiful bay (Algoa Bay) of the Indian Ocean. It is about a 10-minute drive to PE central city (downtown PE). Not a very big city, PE is about the size of Grand Rapids (Michigan) or Salt Lake City (without the expansive valley), if you have ever been to either of those cities. PE was founded by an Englishman, Donkin, in the mid 1800s, who named the city after his late wife, Elizabeth. It has evolved over time connecting the different populations who live here, namely the English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa. Afrikaans consists of the early European settlers in South Africa, namely a mix of Dutch and a bit of Huguenot French. They migrated here in the 1600s to establish a port for Dutch colonial traders to rest before continuing to the far east around the horn of Africa. Over time, this mixture of Europeans established their own language (Afrikaans) and flourished. Seeing the importance of this strategic position, the English in turn moved in to establish their own base of operation. Hence, the foundation for a series of bloody conflicts for control. The Boer War is actually one such continued struggle between these two groups ("Boer" meaning farmer, or the rural Afrikaners, in Dutch). There are distinct differences in the names of roads, etc. within PE, some being of Afrikaans origin and others being English. For instance Heugh Road, which is obviously an Afrikaans name, runs perpendicular to William Moffet Road, which is obviously an English name. So these two white groups coexist in present day South Africa, with some areas more predominantly of English origin and others Afrikaans. Although these two groups appear to be merged together, we have noticed some subtle differences. For instance, at the schools there are classes that teach English as the language medium and others that teach in Afrikaans. Jack is in 1 of the 2 English medium grade 1 classes. Andre (Andre and Marina's son) is in the one Afrikaans speaking grade 1 class. Both are at Summerwood. Both Afrikaans and English are official languages in South Africa. There are 9 other official languages here, each being associated with the tribe indigenous to the area. The Xhosa live in the Eastern Cape (which is the province in which PE is situated). Thus, Xhosa is also an official language for this area. Xhosa is one of the "click" languages, where clicking sounds are used within the speech. For instance, the "x" in Xhosa is pronounced by making a sound with the tongue dropping from the roof of your mouth, sort of like what a proper old lady would do to a child causing mischief (shaking her head and making a "tsk, tsk, tsk" sound with her tongue). So "Xhosa" is pronounced as the tongue click + "osa." What we find truly amazing is that many people here, regardless of color or origin, speak all three of the languages. Everyone speaks their indigenous language plus at least one more. It is fun to listen to a conversation between two South Africans. They may begin in Afrikaans, switch to English, back to Afrikaans, to Xhosa, and then back to English; all in the same conversation. It is beautiful to listen to. I feel foolish being an American who speaks only one language. It seems that in the U.S. the attitude is common that "Why learn a second language? Everyone should speak English." We are working hard at trying to learn as much Afrikaans and Xhosa as possible.

The kids automatically learn the other European-driven language in their studies. Our kids, who are all in English medium classes, will spend time with Afrikaans. In the US, schools children complete course work in English (grammar, literature, language arts, etc.). Here, the kids have English, but they also have Afrikaans (grammar, literature, language arts, etc.). In Katilee's Afrikaans class, they were each required to read a sentence in Afrikaans. Katilee read her sentence and the teacher and class clapped, as she apparently read it in beautiful Afrikaans pronunciation. In Kara's Afrikaans class, she is learning literature, language, and communication. She was required to write a short essay (in Afrikaans) the other day about 5 famous people. Fortunately she has an English-Afrikaans dictionary and has made friends in class who are helping her translate between the two languages. See, everybody else speaks both languages already. So Kara was able to write a beautiful little essay about famous people such as Heath Ledger, Josh Hartnett, and Eminem

It is a riot to hear about the kids' school day. Unlike the US, where kids seem to roam free and express themselves in anyway they choose, there is strict order and discipline in South African schools. Everyone wears a uniform, is required to address adults as "sir" and "ma'am", and abides by the school rules. No chewing gum in school, no shirts untucked, etc. This is how it works in ALL of the schools, public and private. Sort of like a preppy, old fashioned boarding school. There is even a "prefect" for each class and school "houses." Fortunately we have read the Harry Potter books, so we know what prefects and school houses are. However, if there were no Harry Potter, where would we be? Yes, yes, yes we know--the next edition of harry Potter is due out June 21st. Summer Solstice. Katilee came home after the first day of school and told us she was selected for the Wegerhoff (or something like that) house. Apparently this house always wins the challenges. Sort of like Gryphondor in Harry Potter. Jack is also in the same house. Katilee told us about their placement in the house and how her house is so much better then the Clemens house. I asked if there was a Slytheran house. No. Thank goodness. "What is the name of the house are you in, Katilee?" 'The Kkchtghtkkgkcght house." "Huh?" "The Kkchtghtkkgkcght house, or something like that." It appears the Wegerhoff house (or something like that) is pronounced Kkchtghtkkgkcght (or something like that). We assume this is of Afrikaans origin, as "Clemens" was easy for us to pronounce. Kara is in the "du Plelies" (or something like that) house. Everyone calls it "dupee." These houses are named after the early founders of the school. On Kara's first day the original "head boy," which is like the top prefect for the school, was the inspirational guest speaker. Kara said that for 92 years old he was actually quite funny.

The uniforms have turned out to be not as bad as initially thought, with the exception of Jack's, of course. Katilee looks very cute in her matching dress, shirt, socks, and scrunchie. Kara was able to convert her 1950s style girl scout skirt into a very fashionable semi-mini skirt. Seems all the secondary girls push the hemline as high as is allowed ("No higher then 12 centimeters from the floor when in a kneeling position"). She has a black "jersey" (sweater) with the school's emblem on the breast. Actually, quite cute. The school blazer, which she will be required to wear during the second fall term April-June, is another story: green and black stripes. For Jack--being a boy who does not like to wear shoes, socks, button up shirts, long pants, or coats--the uniform experience has been a bit challenging. This is a guy who is in heaven here, because you don't need to wear shoes in any of the stores, including food stores and restaurants. Squishing him into a pair of lace up black leather shoes, a white button down short sleeve shirt (with a sea horse emblem on the pocket) and knee length, wool-blend socks, is not his idea of what school should be all about. The school rules require shoes to be shined, "shirts to be tucked in at all times," and other proper attire rules. Violation of these rules could result is the accumulation of demerits, or even detention. Fortunately they relax these a bit for the little guys, or else Jack (and most of his mates) would be accumulating a lot of demerits. At the end of his school day (12:50), he runs up to us with half his shirt tail hanging out, socks shoved down to his ankles, shoes dusty and untied, and remnants from a crust-spared peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the corner of his mouth. He's got a smile on his face, though which is all that really matters to us. Hey, he's an American. That's how we do it in America.

We closed out the first week of school with a beach event "braai" (which means barbecue in Afrikaans) at King's Beach (about 1 mile, er, sorry, 1.5 kilometers) from Summerwood. After the school festivities, which included a "house" tug-of-war competition (which the Wegerhoff house won, of course), we had our own little braai with the de Jagers on a spot overlooking the beach directly in front of Summerwood. A beautiful evening with stars, waves, grilled springbok sausage (like a bratwurst), and a bottle of South African wine (which is absolutely excellent). Being a star gazer, it was the first time since arriving that I realized the consolations--and all the stories that go with them--in the northern hemisphere do not exist down here, with the exception of a few, such as Orion and the Seven Sisters. It was comforting to see Orion's belt, but absolutely weird not to be able to see the big dipper. "How do you navigate by the stars down here, Andre?" "We have a system that uses the Southern Cross as the focal point for due south." This is the first time in our lives (other than cloudy nights) where we were in a night sky and were unable to find the North Star. As strange as it may sound, that experience was a little unsettling.