Penguins and Patches

Convalescing penguins

On Wednesday, we visited the South African Marine Rescue Center.  Very close to PE and our campus, SAMREC (as it is known) has about fifty rescued penguins right now.  These penguins have been hurt from nets, or in one case a gunshot wound.  In some cases, chicks have been abandoned.  Due to over-fishing of the oceans, the adult penguins have to swim further and further out to find food to eat, leaving their chicks behind.  (SAMREC has a program where you can "adopt" a penguin.  $200/year pays for all the fish one penguin eats while at the center.)

Seventeen kinds of penguins in our world

Because of the sound they make - a  unique "braying" sound, the penguins we saw are sometimes called the "jackass" penguin.  However, their official name is the African penguin.  I learned that there are 17 different kinds of penguins in the world.  Only one - the Galapagos penguin - lives north of the equator.  All are on the endangered list.

The babies must be hand-fed

You can recognize the younger penguins by the fact that they have not formed white bands around the eyes, but have all black heads.  When they are born, they are actually covered with thick, brown fur - but that molts off before becoming the familiar black and white colors.

While there, we used their cafeteria to hold one of our last South African Literature classes.  The students had been asked by Mary West to create a quilt square to represent something they have learned/feel about South Africa.  There were some beautiful - and meaningful - patches.

Patrick made the South African flag out of fingerprints to remind us that a country is not monolithic, but made up of individuals.  Trang represented the South African woman.  Molly Jackson portrayed how welcomed we've been into the township homes.


There were messages about the "long walk" yet ahead of the people of this country to reach not only political - but economic - freedom.  Andrew's patch portrayed a sign that used to read, "whites only", but now only has a price tag that's cost-prohibitive for most.  The media used spoke to this concept, too.  For example, Sydney used glitter mixed with the grit of sand.



Here's the whole group with all the patches.

South African Literature Class, with Mary West