03 Jun 2020

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has brought to the fore many things that were taken for granted.

Many countries went on lockdown in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus.

While frontline workers were busy saving lives during lockdown, some families used the time to bond and in the process developed some skills such as cooking and gardening among others.

For 16-year-old Lerato Potongwane, a student at Al Nur School in Gaborone, who barely finds due to a tight school schedule, used the time to learn cooking  and radio presenting skills during lockdown. 

“On normal days I go to school all week and never had time to make use of the kitchen,” said Lerato.

Additionally, Lerato said she did not only learn how to cook, she said the lockdown period gave her an opportunity to work on radio presenting skills.

It was during the first weeks of lockdown that Lerato staged a radio interview with his brother as the interviewee, to polish her presenting skills.

She prepared a clip, which his father shared, interviewing his brother Simphiwe, and a ‘imaginary’ international football star.

For Lerato, who has never been on radio or taken any classes on radio presenting, her voice is very good.

She possesses such clarity and fantastic authority such that when listening to the clip one would simply see her smile through the interview. 

For a moment, one would think they were listening to one of the experienced radio presenters, just because of her engaging voice and the musicality in her voice that appealed to the listener.

Lerato indicated that before the extreme social distancing period, she used to work  on her presenting skills and doing voice overs.

She said she then performed before her family and nailed the performance.

Post lockdown and after her end of year examinations, Lerato aspires to penetrate the entertainment industry.

Similarly, her 11-year-old brother, Simphiwe also worked on improving football skills and cycling around the block with their father.

Simphiwe also indicated that he learnt to prepare school lessons online by himself without his mother’s help.

The soccer enthusiast who aspires to play professional football, said he learnt that sport was one of mind soothing therapy.

Technology played a  role in everyday running of lives during the lockdown period, not only for business but students also made use of it a great deal.

As a student seating for her final exams at the end of year, Lerato made use of Zoom and Whatsapp to keep abreast with her studies.

She said technology should be a part of everyday even after lockdown as it had proved to be possible to continue live with the use of technology.

She implored government to exclusively consider making it part of the core curriculum, also encouraging students like her to positively use it as it can assist in their research work.

Lerato cautioned students on the negative use of technology, saying a student need not have a smartphone to be able to carry their research but could use their parents’ cellphones if and when they need something from the internet.

The entire period of lockdown, Lerato said she used her mother’s cellphone to research as well as virtual studying and getting in contact with her teachers; as she did not own a cellphone herself.

Other cooking enthusiats also unleashed their potential during the period.

Bheka Mahlanza, a teacher at Naledi Secondary school shared her newly found hobby with regards to cooking.

“I have always hated cooking outdoors in an open fire, but I somehow gathered courage,” said Mahlanza.

She indicated that she cooked outside in a traditional open fire, perhaps as a way to while away time.

This, she did not experiment alone, she roped in her son so as to give him exposure to the traditional ways of cooking.

“Before we knew it, we  found ourselves enjoying cooking outside and he learnt a lot from all that experiment,” said Mahlanza.

ENDS