The Weather Sucked Today

We obviously got the really nice weather in Cape Town yesterday. Today was a high of 57 with rain off and on.

We started the day off with a discussion with people involved with the Active School Initiative. They are a not for profit organization dedicated to promoting play and physical activity as important approaches for social learning and life skill development. This program has been endorsed by the South African Education department.

Their vision is that each child has hidden potential that is worthwhile and yet to be discovered. They want to show that education can be fun, creative and dynamic. Their results showed that many students attendance and behavior has improved since the implementation of this program in the primary schools.

They focus on a lot of cooperative education, social skill development and health and safety awareness. Based on the activities they do and the content they get across, this program seems to be more relevant to elementary and middle schools. I couldn't imagine doing some of their initiatives at the U.S. high school level. Although, they do outward bound activities as well as teamwork initiatives.

After this meeting we were able to visit a primary school that was still in session. We met with the principal for about an hour and then visited a classroom. Though this school was struggling financially, they were far better off than the schools we visited in Durban. Instruction in this school was in Afrikaan, the official language of the old government. However the students spoke English fairly well even though the principal said they would be shy because their English isn't very good.

Their facilities are not great but they've done a lot with the help of the Active School Initiative, otherwise, Physical Education wouldn't be existent at this school either. After the school visit, we ate lunch in a Township at a bed/breakfast owned by a couple who turned their shack into a 15 room bed and breakfast. They built the restraunt one brick at a time when he would find them on the side of the street and collect them until he had enough to build his business. Now their in a position to expand and people come from all over the world to stay with them. It's really interesting to see this thriving business in the middle of the dirt poor township.

After lunch we visited the Sports Science Institute of South Africa. Bascially it was tour of their facility, which looked a lot like our upscale fitness clubs (X-sport, Bally's, etc.) but had a sports medicine and elite sports training department as well. I was in my element viewing this facility as they had a lot going on and were truly working on improving wellness. Unfortunately, they didn't allow us to take pics in their facility.

Tomorrow we'll visit a local university and then tour Robben Island. I'm sure that will be an amazing visit. Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 29 years.