A Teacher's Travels & Search for Math/Science Theorems that aren't Named after White Men |
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A Teacher's Travels & Search for Math/Science Theorems that aren't Named after White Men |
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Happy New Year! I cannot believe that I've only been in southern Africa for four days....
I left Chicago at noon on December 30th, headed to Atlanta, then took a 15.5 hour flight straight to Johannesburg. I obviously didn't really sleep on that flight, as I was too busy smiling, dancing to South African house music and studying Tswana. I stumbled off the plane, tired and sore, in JoBurg, only to have to wait for a connection to Gaborone, but I wasn't at all cranky because something amazing happened---instead of aggressively checking and messing with my braids, I was smiled at by the security woman, asked what the style was called and what braiding hair I used. My exhaustion disappeared, and my smile returned to my face. How affirming! I arrived in Gaborone after being welcomed and invited to go on a tour by my flight attendants, then grabbed a cab from a driver named Mashaba. Mashaba, "I love this name Tess so much that when I have my first born daughter, I'll also name her Tess." And headed into the guest house, which I'd be staying in prior to my two week holiday in South Africa and prior to the official start of my program. The guest house, hostess, Gaone (the "g" is a "h" sound) complimented my efforts at Tswana (which aren't amazing) and invited me out with her and her friend for NYE. Of course I went, despite having had been up for 20 hours. We got in at about 5am, I slept as much as I could, until I was awoken by a man I had been emailing with about Botswana---No, not a random man, but he is a high school college counselor, who went to a conference for African educators with a friend of Dawit (helping in my project, with whom I was connected by a former Fulbright). We emailed just twice, and he showed up at my home to welcome me to Botswana and arrange to give me a tour around the city later that afternoon. After the tour, I took a well-deserved nap, and then watched soccer with two Zimbabwean men who live nearby but don't have access to whatever obscure soccer game station we were watching. Later on, I met an Italian ex-pat living in Botswana, with whom I could speak Italian, who showed me a local place for live outdoor music. Again, I got very little sleep, but managed to wake up for my flight to JoBurg, just a 45 minute ride on a tiny plane. I was initially showed around by someone leaving the airbnb I have, then I was approached on the street by an Ethiopian man who asked if I wanted to buy injera. I then explained that I had just arrived, and he invited me to a tasty Ethiopian (maybe the best I've had) lunch with his friends. They then gave me a driving tour of the immigrant and working class enclaves of JoBurg. And as you could imagine, then later on, I met up with more beautiful, generous, exceptionally intelligent friends of friends, who owed me nothing, knew very little about me, but showed up to offer me food, break bread with me, laugh and share mutual admiration for our respective countries' black culture. Four days in southern Africa. Many new, but intimate and close connections to people who just decided to be generous without asking or expecting anything in return. I've never had that experience in the US, despite having it frequently abroad, particularly in less-western places. I'm off to sleep (at least at a reasonable hour) and am thinking about how unbelievably kind and welcoming people across the diaspora are, and how undeserving our colonizers were of that compassion, and how tragic their exploitation of that compassion has been and continues to be. I also reflecting on how cold, at a human level, and odd the US is. I have much more to say about days since I wrote this several back about South Africa. Look out for my next post! How many friend of a friend of a friend of a cousin, have you helped out, talked to or spent time with recently??
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AuthorFulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching Archives
April 2019
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