Xhosa lessons and school readiness

My Xhosa teacher, Wezi, is amazing. Her normal occupation is a primary grade teacher, but she teaches English and Xhosa (she is a native Xhosa speaker) on the side. <> Jeannie and I have been in classes now for two weeks, and have gotten to know her very well. Yesterday, she was telling us that she is leaving formal teaching because she has discovered that her life's passion is to create a "school readiness" program for children in the township where she lives. She says the main problem with township schools is that the children are not adequately prepared for school (they don't speak English at home) which results in shockingly low literacy and numeracy rates. She is planning on creating the equivalent of a "head start" program that would be free of cost to the children, and would allow them to learn the basic skills they would need to be successful in school. This of course is a project near and dear to my heart, and Jeannie and I about jumped out of our chairs when we heard her talk about it. I love it for so many reasons:

1. She thought of it, not us, and it is a program that will be addressing a specific issue that is greatly affecting South African schools
2. It is realistic - she just needs a space and some donated school supplies

Jeannie and I are going to get started looking for grants and whatnot to provide the basic of what she'll need. Next Friday, she is taking us to the township schools so that we can have a look for ourselves. Wezi is spending this weekend writing a business plan, which we will hopefully be able to go over with her next week.

I am very, very excited.