Final words, last laughs and new adventures

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.

Inside the Grand Mosque Abu Dhabi

 

  13 June 2015.

After 15 months of blogging, we have finally moved, thank you Allah, but we will miss Schaapkraal so. So it is time to put the Schaapkraal Diaries to bed; though not before a quick run-down of the last two weeks.

I really enjoyed my visit to the conference in Oslo on learning outside of the formal education system, alternating between formal, informal and non-formal.  Norway is beautiful, safe, green, efficient as is expected of a First world country - everyone is out walking, running or cycling because its summer. Perpetual light it never gets dark at all, well maybe a bit. For Muslims in Europe this Ramadhan is going to be long fasting days. (My children fasted about 19 hours in South Korea one year and they were exhausted but ate nutritiously when they broke fast and rested when they felt the need.) I enjoyed walks down by the riverside - complete serenity watching the water run rapidly like a moving painting.

Really enjoyed conference presentations – some more than others, here are some snapshots of my highlights.

A paper delivered by Dawid Niccolini of the University of Warwick .The title of his talk was Understanding expertise as a multi situated practice - expertise as socio-material mastery ostensibly exercised in accomplishing specific discursive (bodily or worldly) tasks recognised as superior by peers.

He offered a case study of a collaborating valve replacement team (TAVI) which is a situated performance. It’s about accomplishing efforts and combining knowing in practice from different players where experts become novices again by functioning in a new environment. Thus expertise is fluid and expertise knowledge is not in any one person but in the team.

Another speaker who mesmerized with his paper was Yrjö Engeström - Analysing expansive learning – learning actions and expressions and transformative agency, offering a case study of a school in Boa Vista, Sao Paulo in Brazil. He addressed 3 things: Expansive learning; The Change Laboratory and analyses/empirical about these issues.

The case - a river runs through the school; the flooding river impacts on movement to and from school and the garbage that is swept along causes disease. Students and parents conflicts of motives – is of course the risk of becoming ill or injured should they attend. Whilst teachers’ conflicts of motives – should they close the school? Do they risk getting sick and making their students sick too? I appreciated his reference to Vygotski’s ZPD; describing Expansive learning as the joint journey across the collective Zone of Proximal Development and how they solved their dilemma with collaborative efforts and good management tools. It made me think about some of our students who run the gauntlet to come to campus from gang-infested areas.

The third speaker whose paper really rocked was David Greenwood of the University of Cornell. He spoke about Global Neo Taylorism/Neo Liberalism in the Anti Bildung and the future of universities.  He started his talk with the crises in Higher Education all over the world and the distance between private elite universities and public universities, describing them as departmentalized silos that compete for budgets. The only way to have exciting collaborative work at universities is to bring in outside money.  Universities are hierarchical and removed from knowledge production with pseudo leadership and pseudo compliance where research establishes cartels for citing and student debt crises escalate.

He asks that crucial question: “What do they mean when they say they want to educate workers for 21^st century learning?”  To be better customers and slaves to materialism? Completely agree. So he also asks what kind of person are we producing in universities? We are lost in Meritocracy.  But what to do? Reconsider how the structure works and change the structure. If there is enough people who are unhappy there are enough people to start an arena.

My favourite site visit was to the BLOK - Florist Apprentices Learning Centre, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the coordinator of BLOK is a smart, eloquent and compassionate educator who knows her trade well and has the ability to engage her students and tutors in a dynamic way. She takes a keen interest in each learner and stimulates their learning with novel and current pedagogic techniques and devices. They have a blended learning approach,   a closed online platform specifically developed for them which includes an e-portfolio. I recognized most of the flowers they use in their floral repertoires such as peonies, lisianthus, campanula, snap dragons and ferns of all sorts. And students are also using their smart phones to take pictures of their work and submit online for feedback and evaluation.


Iznik tiles

view from the top

A final picnic on the island and I was off to Dubai where I was met by family, whisked away to a superb hotel for a short sleep and a shower and lots of catching up.

The next day we visited the Burj Khalifa and in a jiffy up 163 floors we looked down from the top - an almost eerie view of the buildings and movements below hazy in the dust storm. Then off to Abu Dhabi where the muathin’s call invites so beautifully. We also visited the Grand Mosque of Sh Zayed which was enchanting with its jade inlays and Iznik blue tile art. The wudhu section was so awe-inspiring, I was scared to lift my feet towards the fountains of water cascading over marble. Everything was so perfectly shiny that I could not resist a short run and a slide over polished surfaces.


Mother of pearl in lay on pillars

sliding on the marble

inside the dome

I met with some friends in Abu Dhabi too – Muna and her charming daughters and Susanne from Jamaica; two friends from Mauritius and some Arabic school teachers from Iraq and Jordan who were eloquent and charming. Hey, remember I posted two Middle Eastern recipes – Baba Ganoush and Umm Ali? Well I got to eat them for the very first time nogal - Baba ganoush in a Syrian restaurant serving delectable food and fresh veggies and salads and the Umm Ali at a farewell dinner. It was downright lekker!! All kinds of restaurants Lebanese, Turkish, etc. And had that beautiful soup called "Addes" - we had it regularly in the Sudan a soup made from red lentils with a warm cumin aroma and taste and a squeeze of lemon juice. A glass of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice and I am good to go. The heat in Abu Dhabi was a bit much, ne, thank goodness for air conditioning and cool showers.

So this is the end of the Schaapkraal diaries Alhamdulillah - a chapter closes and a new one beckons. Methinks I will call my next blog, the Wynberg Chronicles, watch this space.

Asalaamu alaykum and peace be with you all!

Plant food not lawn.

Yasmine

 

 

 

 

 

Stone fountains and Piccaso, norwegian strawberries and electric cars

In the name of Allah the most gracious the most merciful.

31 May 2015.

We arrived in Oslo yesterday lekker moeg at about 12 o'clock or there abouts. Weather was excellently cool and light drizzle. We took a trains and busses and trams and walked. The transport system is incredibly efficient and few people are about driving, even in their small electric cars. Everyone else is walking and the air so fresh it is quite pleasant.

Oslo is beautiful and the area that we are in is so picturesque. Beautiful buildings and greenery that smells heavenly. So many familiar plants too ne like Cape May and malva and daisies and pansies. Where we stay there are herb gardens and seedling trays on windows. I even saw two grey cats that look like Wolverine's relatives with the long neck hairs.

Our hostess Trine met up with us to take us on a tour and welcome us to Norway. The churches and cathedrals, the building with the Picasso mural and the one that was bombed in 2011. Methinks that by the time I return to Cape Town I will be fit, we walk all the time and I guess a lot more walking throughout the week and its safe. Last night we were making our way back to the flat at 12.00. Besides its not even dark yet, so the daylight till late takes some getting use to.

My blogs will be short because there is so much to do, places to see and the most wonderful sweet strawberries to eat. There is something called Mills Caviar which is kind of like a fish paste that we bought for on biscuits and toast and keeps us sustained. And lots of fish and fruits. We're off for walk along the river and I am going to hunt down some postcards (old school) to send home. And here's a pic of Electric cars in Oslo!

Plant food and go sight seeing.

Yasmine

Vimeos, travel and shades of blue.

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.

Amid the clamour of classes and class tests, of last minute submissions and checking charts to see if all artefacts have been handed in and attendance warrants that small bit of paper for Due Performance, I take some time out and breath deeply, everything is coming together sweetly, Thank you Allah.

I notice its been two weeks since I last posted, so much has happened. Classes are abuzz both on line and face to face and face to movie yay!! the movies are splendid but a grade has to be extracted that is fair on every group member. So we sit in a group, watch the short movie with self and peer evaluations, pens poised. We forget to mark sometimes the movies are so good and the footage - giving the Blair Witch project a bit of run.


Work continues in the Peace garden and Abu's group of Art students are exhibiting their work. I must say I am impressed by their still life sketches, especially the students who has never drawn or sketched before.

And then its midyear exams next week. But I am happy to say I will miss it what with our trip to Oslo  looming largely. Our group is really excited and I am happy to also visit my daughter and son in law in Abu Dhabi and meet with some friends.



exhibit at IPSA

What makes me really happy though is that we are moving finally!! A wonderful family are renting their beautiful house to us and our younger ones have both decided on their colour schemes - shades of blue. I am just so happy that our plants have a home and that the house has charm and character and the owners are warm people. I found a chart with the colours quite by chance of the exact shades that my young ones want in this blog: http://blog.kellywilliamsphotography.com. So my son loves the top shade and my daughter the second from below. Now just to convince them to leave the portion above the picture rail white!



Shades of blue

So ja, tomorrow last checks on portfolios and a final meeting with my travel companions and then we can start carting our plants. The house is still being painted and clean and a few things fixed, but I am patient. It may well be that the house is ready when I am gone and Abu and the children will move so that by the time I get back in June everything is ready. Or maybe not, what if we get the keys before then? I will certainly be happier, but patience Yasmine.

Then, I remember to make a list of what to pack I am so traveling lightly and wisely. In Oslo it is spring with 12 hours of sunshine and average temperature of 12 °C and rainy weather. But on the upside it is known to be the most picturesque time when the snow has melted and all the flowers are blooming. Then of course its into the heat in Abu Dhabi and back home to Cape Town, new house, warm food and lots of love.

This blog is short but I will be indeed be blogging from Oslo Insha'Allah.

Later

Plant food and travel.

Yasmine

The mother of all mothers

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.



Rows of fenugreek at Garlandale

Phew this was a hectic week. Hectic but wonderbaar. Last week we started working really hard on the peace garden, tilling the soils, nourishing it, preparing beds with long thick beams.  



planting cilantro



Spent some extra time on the gardens before the cold arrives. More talks at schools to engage students and visits to fellow garden collaborators. Visited the Garlandale gardens and took some pics to show you there's wonderful things happening there!



Our online platforms are livening up both at IPSA and the IHYA course Alhamdulillah - assignments submitted; discussions and resources abound. But the cherry on top was on Friday. Students from the iLABS GLO programme submitted their 5 minute movies  yay!

Every time I start a blog and abandon it, too much work - online marking; reading, preparation for the trip; taking sneak peaks at student vimeo submissions and so on.So ja, its Mom's day today with breakfast in bed and all of those things kids rush to do.

Should you take an early morning drive rows and rows of bouquets for sale. At least they could put up a sign that reads "So when last have you bought your Mom flowers?" or something witty.




Barefoot teaching

Yesterday we had class "barefoot college" style, someone forgot to unlock the classes so we made ourselves comfortable and started class.

And today I spent my day in the mother of all mothers - the peace garden, with some volunteers. Levelling vegetable beds, seeding Swiss chards and cilantro, planting chili, lemongrass and herbs and of course strawberries!


While we were busy the Al Waagah Institute for the Deaf was also having classes at IPSA. How wonderful - the plants draw everyone's attention. Pinching off herbs smelling deeply, a bright smile and off into class. A small boy and I communicating, I pretend I don't know that he eyes the strawberry plants. I wait for him to turn, tap him on the shoulder and gesture to take one. That smile, priceless.

Have a wonderful day or what's left of it.

Grow food and smile at someone.

Yasmine



seeding swiss chard in situ




Sayed mulching with straw




Garlandale gardens

The juggler

In the name of Allah most gracious most merciful.

 

1 May 2015.
Educating adults is by far the most exciting space to be in when individuals decide to continue with their studies or start a new course – stepping on the journey to the valley of amazement. The experiences that adults bring to the classroom, enrich the learning journeys of everyone including the lecturer or facilitator of learning. It has enriched my education in so many ways learning both from young adults as well as adults with more life experience, that should I make a map of it, my khoki would run dry.
In the learning arena, theoretical concepts are grappled with and made meaning of as it offered and the depth of it increases many times enriched it in its appropriation. Abu often talks about adults as being constructive repositories of knowledge; producers of knowledge; reproducers of knowledge and transmitters of knowledge at some stage of their lives or the other.

The most challenging part to be an adult learner is struggling to give the haq of your path of learning while straddling responsibilities at home (cleaning, cooking, shopping; homework help chauffeuring; taking care of a parent, feeding and caring for cats, dogs, budgies, weeding and watering and sowing and harvesting etc); responsibilities to family and in laws, neighbours and friends; responsibilities at work/school (reports, lesson plans, marking, assessing, evaluating, meetings); social responsibilities such as  part time classes; mosque; parents meetings, civic meetings, environmental initiatives etc; responsibilities to yourself – your health, state of mind; fitness; and just time to bum around.

 

Then there is spiritual time and entertainment time and that very important time you have to spend with each and every child – watching Mocking Jay or listening to a recital or shouting yay to an when an arrow hits the bulls eye or just talking about the changes in their bodies. The adult educator neglects sometimes the most important time spent; on your personal relationship with spouse/partner. If you can see that visually in a kind of juggling fashion it’s a lot to contend with without support from spouse, family and friends.

I know this because as much as I am an adult educator I am a learner too with many many responsibilities sometimes peering down that precipice thinking how the heck am I doing justice to everything, something’s gotta give. The first thing that gives is that Course we enjoy the most; a diploma or certificate course; Masters; Doctorate. Courses formal or non-formal because when we rationalise, we think that we can do it later, next year or sometime in the future.

Here’s the thing. With all of that responsibilities it’s never the right time or the wrong time. Because we are always pinning something on the board that is more important, has higher priority. What we are doing, no matter how important to our personal development - it can wait for later. When you feel stuck and about to leave that class/course/degree because you think you can’t cope – speak to someone to gain better perspective. I have been there many times in my life and my lecturers and supervisors, Alhamdulilah always found time to meet me for coffee and assist me to reorganise, reprioritise and negotiate my time with my family. Thank you Linda and Salma.

And most importantly I need to say shukran to my children wherever they are in the world today, who have given me support – cooked and cleaned and looked after the babies sometimes sitting in the room next to my lecture theatre between nursing feeds, picking me up after class and so many more things that made it possible for my continuing/ lifelong education.

 

To my Abubakr who has been the most inspirational/motivational husband a studying girl can have. Thank you for listening;  helping me unpack difficult theorists such as Bourdieu and Spivak and the rest; fetching me from campus with a picnic basket; putting your studies aside for me to move forward; midnight picnics, reading my stories, bunches of flowers, buying me beautiful dresses and new shoes (cos I hate shopping) etc. My co conspirator; co creator of materials and co lecturer from Cape Town to Durban, from Johannesburg to Andriesvale in the Kalahari, from Pretoria to Khartoum.

 

There is neither change nor power except by means of Allah.

There is no transformation or strength except through Allah.

There is neither progress nor ability except through Allah.

 

We are because of others.

Plant food and continue to learn.

Yasmine

Raindrops on Chaste trees

In the name of Allah the most gracious the most merciful. 

   

29 April 2015.

Raindrops on chaste trees and whiskers on Wolfie, whistling kettle tells me I must make tea, boxes with iris corms tied up with string. These are a few of my favourite things. Hey, waxing lyrical this morning.  Alhamdulilah, my son's operation was successful plates and screws and all and he is hungry, that says it all.

Early this morning was just so beautiful, light drizzles of rain, welcome chill in the air, frogs croaking in the garden. So I donned my gumboots and the cats and I were out. I survey the garden for interesting shots and the hues of autumn reds and copper attract me.









I run around the house remembering dishcloths on the line but they are already soaked. So I stand and peruse the fruit trees that have almost doubled in size. They stand forlorn and half naked with leaves turning brown and shedding but already new buds have developed for spring.



I am so upbeat because Abubakr and I have worked burning the midnight oil, fine tuning our online platforms and cropping pictures of each and every student to include with their membership invitations, they can change it later. Besides I don’t know hey, its April already and I am still a bit dof around the names of 65 students. Thank goodness for the camera. Ja, I take pics of their groups and factions so I know who is who (sheepishly).

Today is perfect to work in the garden, the soil is moist so no watering Shukran Allah. I have left seeding a bit late, preoccupied with a number of things besides lots of tasks that keep me indoors and glued to the monitor. I peep into the box of iris and ranuculus corms that I placed in sawdust and they are already sprouting. They are ready to be planted in the ground. Thinks they will find a good home in the Peace garden.

I rummage through the seeds I collected in the summer and look at my list. I have turnip and spinach seedlings to plant into beds. The garlic I planted late into pots can be transplanted. Alas the broad beans perished. But on the upside I have the following seeds that I will plant in trays or in situ today still, well maybe: Beetroot; Cabbage; Celery; Lettuce; Peas; Radish; Red and green Swiss chard.

I look forward to our workshop in the early afternoon when we’ll discuss what organic gardening is about and what it is not; natural methods of controlling pests and diseases; collecting clean seed; seeing the garden as an entire ecosystem (plants and animals that share the same resources and rely on each other); encouraging our best friends, the insects; collection points for recycling and water management. And by Friday we can have a planting bonanza – the compost has settled and half of the beds can be filled with new plants and seedlings.

Garden tools are so expensive but I managed to find a wheel barrow with hard wheel; a steel rake (secondhand for R70) ; garden gloves and a good spade and fork as well as a packet of bone meal from our small garden budget. The pink wheelbarrow still serves us well but is starting to tear.

Last week gourmet gardeners came to work with tackies but I am sure they learnt that lesson well and will get some gumboots. I might just reward them with a picnic when they’re done and who knows maybe we can learn to do a gumboot dance.

Students in gum boots with thick winter socks
Spading and planting and running amok
Cool autumn weather that makes my heart sing
These are a few of my favourite things.

 

When the dog bites, when the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
And then I don't feel so bad.

Plant food and do a gumboot dance to keep warm.

Have a wonderful day!

Yasmine

Be mindful and don't despair

In the name of Allah the most gracious, the most merciful.

 

27 April 2015.

Despairing is not good for the soul. Whether you can’t find a house to rent; going in for an operation to have screws and wires inserted in your ankle; can’t find a job or a bursary or have to receive treatment for an illness, it’s easy to slip into that mode.  One of the key things to do is to distract oneself from thoughts that cannot be helpful. It’s easy to give advice “think good thoughts, happy thoughts”. But it is both the mind and body that needs to be arrested from despondency. So I bake and I write and I work and I decide to polish the pots and cutlery. I organise my thoughts and revisit my tasks. And then I am out in the garden for solace in the beautiful fiesta of fuchsia, I keep an eye on the chrysalis still on the wall, I separate clumps of wild garlic and I plant turmeric - shukran to Adnaan who bought it at Soil for Life with talons.

What always helps me is knowing that Allah SWT will not give me more than I can bear. And over time I have found a hundred different ways to cope. I start with a thankful list and I write it by hand. There’s a certain kind of soothing when you clutch the pen as your hand glides over paper. I have done this countless times and every time I am surprised at all of the small things one has to be thankful for.

Like being thankful to family and friends who are actually there when they say they are. That your belly does not ache of hunger; that you have good health and most of your teeth; that there is a roof over your head; that you got invited and sponsored for a once in a lifetime educational trip; that your children are caring and amazing; that your husband takes the time to sit you down, make you a cup of tea and a warm hug and you’re good to go; that your cats mew, look you in the eye, jump up on your bed and make themselves comfortable at your back while you’re typing.

Be thankful that you have a few tins of groceries in your cupboard and two rolls of double ply and not a lot of dirty laundry and that food you got from your host at the wedding, will make your neighbour so happy when you share it. Be thankful that there is a last pound of butter in the fridge and the last bits of coconut to make hertsoggies and the last of the cocoa and milk to brew a pot. Be thankful if you can call a friend and ask for some seedlings and he rocks up with a tray of spinach and a tray of turnips, 400 of them.

Be mindful that despite everything that you are enduring there is someone in more pain, more hungry, more worried, more confused, more devastated by earthquakes and phenomena outside of their control, battling their demons and hopeful against all odds. Be mindful that a percentage of the world is at war and that someone lost a limb or daughter or a baby or a loved one or all of them at once. Think about those who have lost their sight or had their bodies put together with plates and wires and are in excruciating pain and those who have woken up from a stroke. Think about children and young women who have been abducted and there is no help coming. Or those who have tortured their souls with drugs.

But most of all just step outside and breath in deeply and appreciate the garden and the caterpillars  and the greenery and if you don’t have a garden then look up into the sky and contemplate your Lord. And if none of that works, well then I don’t know, hey. I am sitting here with those warmly baked hertsoggies and cocoa and grateful just to be alive and to be safe and loved and I send duahs for those who despair and also for those who need them for tomorrow's operation.

Plant food and don’t despair.

Later Yasmine.