Teachers notes

LEVEL 4

PENGUIN READERS Teacher Support Programme

Tears of the Giraffe

Alexander McCall Smith
Chapters 3 4: Mr Matekoni feels his community is changing; young people are not responsible; there are more unwanted children; there are more orphans due to the spread of the disease (HIV/AIDS). As he does every month, he visits an orphan farm run by Mma Potokwane, where he meets a girl in a wheelchair. Mma Ramotswe, in the meantime, goes to Silokwolela to try to find out something about Michael Curtin. She visits the remains of the farm and finds a yellowing newspaper cutting pinned to the wall of the ruined house where Michael used to live. Chapters 5 6: Mma Ramotswe returns from the farm feeling certain that Michaels dead body is there. But she needs to find out what has happened. Her secretary, Mma Makutsi, finds the phone number of one of the people in the photograph, Dr Ranta, and Mma Ramotswe promotes her to assistant detective. In the meantime, Mma Potokwane presses Mr Matekoni into adopting the girl in the wheelchair and her brother. Their mother had died while she was still breastfeeding her baby boy and, in the Barsawa tradition, the baby had been buried with his mother as there wasnt enough food to feed him. The girl had rescued her brother and escaped. They had then been picked up by a nurse who later had to leave town. In spite of hospital treatment, the girls bones became damaged by TB and she can no longer walk. Chapters 78: Mma Makutsis first client is Mr Badule, who suspects that his wife is getting the money to pay for their sons private school from another man. When she finds that the mans suspicions are right and that, furthermore, the other man whose rich legal wife knows nothing about his affair is the father of Mr Badules son, she wonders whether she should tell the truth to her client or not, as she does not want people to suffer. In the meantime, Mr Matekoni takes the children shopping and meets Mma Ramotswe, who looks at the scene in surprise. Chapters 910: Florence Peko, Mr Maketonis maid, wants to prevent his marriage to Mma Ramotswe. She asks an old boyfriend to get her a gun, which he does, and asks Paul Monosopati to put it in Mma Ramotswes house, so that the police find it there. But he betrays her and the police find her with the gun and she is arrested. In the meantime, Mr Maketoni tells Mma Ramotswe that he has adopted the children Motholeli and Puso. She is upset for a moment but soon realises what a good man Mr Maketoni is and feels happy to have a family. They all go home for their first lunch together.

About the author

Alexander McCall Smith was born in 1948 in Rhodesia now Zimbabwe and educated both there and in Scotland. After he graduated, he taught law at the Universities of Edinburgh and Botswana. His love for Africa and the Africans led him to write many stories about them, both for adults and children. For many years, McCall Smith found the time to alternate his lecturing with his writing. In 2004, however, he decided to interrupt his teaching career for a while to devote himself fully to his literary production. A multi-talented writer, McCall Smith has published over sixty books that range from academic writing on law to collections of short stories, mystery stories and childrens books. Tears of the Giraffe is the second book in The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, a popular collection of nine books. Besides his books about Mma Ramotswe, he has written others series, such as 44 Scotland Street and The Sunday Philosophy Club. At present McCall Smith lives in Scotland with his wife and two daughters, and he plays the bassoon in The Really Terrible Orchestra that he himself co-founded.

Summary
Chapters 12: Mma Ramotswe runs The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency in Gaborone, Botswana, and is about to marry a mechanic, Mr KLB Maketoni. She visits his house and meets his unkind maid, and then goes to her agency, where she is visited by Mrs Curtin, an American woman whose son disappeared ten years before, while living in a commune in a nearby farm with a South African woman, a German man, and some local families. Mrs Curtin wants to know what happened to him.

c Pearson Education Limited 2008

Tears of the Giraffe - Teachers notes

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Teachers notes

LEVEL 4

PENGUIN READERS Teacher Support Programme

Tears of the Giraffe

Chapters 1112: Mma Ramotswe tells Mma Makutsi that a detective cant lie to a client and that all that is needed for everybody to be happy is that Mr Badule, their client, accepts the truth. Then she goes to the university to speak to Dr Ranta. There she finds out that he has shown examination questions to a student in order to have sex with her and blackmails him into telling her the truth about Michael. They agree to meet at his house the following evening. Mr Matekoni is pleased to find out that Motholeli is interested in mechanics. Chapters 1314: Dr Ranta tells Mma Ramotswe that he was having an affair with Michaels South African girl friend, Carla, and, one evening, after having seen them together, Michael had run away and broken his neck when he fell into a ditch. Dr Ranta had hidden the body in an anthill for fear of being accused of murder and Carla had left the country and later had Michaels baby. Mma Ramotswe finds Carla and brings her to her office, where she meets Mrs Curtin who is very happy to find she has a grandson. Problems in African society: In its depiction of African society and culture, the novel points at two problems in particular: HIV/AIDS (which is called the disease in the book) and its devastating effects, and unemployment, depicted as one of the main problems that young people face. Human values and the need to be good, help others and value peoples lives and needs are other important themes in the book, often mentioned in Mr Maketoni and Mma Ramotswes conversations and thoughts. Truth and lies are also touched on in the novel; Mma Ramotswe considers that telling her clients the truth is a must but uses lies to soften the effects the truth has.

Discussion activities
Chapters 12 After reading
1 Read carefully and pair work: Tell students: Read carefully what the Introduction says about the characters (page vii). What does Mma Ramotswe do in these chapters that shows her understanding, respect and interest for other people? Pairs share their answers. Write: Tell students to imagine that Michael, when he decided to stay in Africa, wrote a letter to a friend back in America. What did he tell him/her about his life on the farm? Groups share their letters and find what all letters have in common and whether this information is stated clearly or just suggested in the book.

Background and themes

Alexander McCall Smith lived in Africa for several years of his life, during which he developed an understanding of its society and deep love for its culture and people, which he reflects in his writing. Mma Ramotswe and the characters that accompany her adventures, who are mostly based on real people, are an attempt to show the good sense of humour and strong sense of human values that characterise sub-Saharan African cultures, as McCall Smith has said in an interview. Mma Ramotswe is concerned with helping people to solve their problems and, as she works on her cases, sheds light on African people and culture. The place of women: Mma Ramotswe and her secretary, Mma Makutsi have chosen to work in a field where men have always predominated. The place of women in society is also brought to the surface in the behaviour of Dr Ranta, a Casanova university teacher. More traditional women are also present as Mma Ramotswe interacts with them in search of information. Changes in African society: JLB Maketonis observations of his young assistants and Mma Ramotswes contestation with the South African woman clearly show how African society is undergoing changes that place it in line with the rest of the western world.

Chapters 34 Before reading

3 Guess: Tell students: Mma Ramotswe must start looking for the American boy now. Where do you think she will start? Where would you start? Role play: Tell students: Imagine Mma Ramotswe and Mr JLB Matekoni had dinner together and told each other what they had done during the day and how they felt in the places they visited. Students role play their conversation. Research: Tell students: On page 13 McCall Smith mentions an illness that is killing many Africans. Go back to the Introduction, page vi. What illness is this? In groups, students search the Internet and find information about HIV/AIDS and the situation in Africa.

After reading
4

Chapters 56 Before reading

6 Guess: Ask students: Why do you think Mma Ramotswe feels that she is about to understand what has happened? Do you think the newspaper cutting has given her an idea?
Tears of the Giraffe - Teachers notes 2 of 3

c Pearson Education Limited 2008

Teachers notes

LEVEL 4

PENGUIN READERS Teacher Support Programme

Tears of the Giraffe

After reading
7 Write: Tell students they are journalists working for a magazine. They write articles about amazing people. Ask them to write an article about the girl in the wheelchair. Discuss: Mma Makutsi thinks that beautiful women get secretarial jobs more easily than others. Ask students if they think physical appearance affects job opportunities in the world today. Ask them how the accepted ideas as to what constitutes beauty affect people who dont come up to these standards. What can be done to reduce discrimination? Artwork: Tell students: JLB Maketoni says that engines feel pain (page 19); Mma Ramotswe says that she found a feeling (page 25). Students discuss what they mean and in pairs make a drawing that shows what they meant. 16 Pair work: Divide the class into two groups and then into pairs. The pairs in one group take the roles of Mma Ramotswe and Puso and role play their conversation in the car. The other half takes the roles of JLB Maketoni and Motholeli and role play their conversation in the van. The pairs then change and one half of the class role plays a conversation between the two children and the other half between the two adults. In this second role play they tell each other about their conversations on the way home.

Chapters 1112 Before reading

17 Guess: Tell students: In these chapters someone will blackmail someone else. Who do you think will blackmail whom? What makes you think so?

After reading
18 Discuss: Students discuss whether they agree with Mma Ramotswes idea that Mr Badule must be told the truth and that the whole problem goes away if he accepts it. Then they compare this to their ideas as expressed in activity 12. 19 Artwork: In groups. Students draw a sequence of four faces showing how Mr Rantas expression changes during his conversation with Mma Ramotswe. Then groups exchange their pictures, try to put them in order and explain why they think the order they choose is the correct one. 20 Role play: In groups of three, students take the roles of JLB Maketoni, Motholeli and Puso 20 years later. They speak about what each felt on that first visit to the garage.

Chapters 7 8 Before reading

10 Guess: Tell students: In these chapters people face new situations. How do you think the following people will feel? Mr JLB Maketoni, suddenly turned into a father; Mma Makutsi, now an assistant detective solving her first case; the children, having moved to a new house.

After reading
11 Debate: Tell students: Mma Makutsi wonders whether she should tell the truth to her client because she does not want people to suffer. Divide the class into two groups. Each defends one of these positions: A: It is better not to say what we know about other people if this will hurt them; B: We must always tell people what we know about them and let them decide what to do. 12 Discuss: Tell students: In different ways, both Mr Badules son and the girl in the wheelchair and her little brother have a foster father, and both fathers are good men. Do you think the childrens feelings for their fathers are the same or different? Why? 13 Role play: In pairs, students take the roles of the girl in the wheelchair and her brother. They role play their private conversation after the shopping trip.

Chapters 1314 Before reading

21 Guess: Ask students: Do you think it is safe for Mma Ramotswe to go to Mr Rantas house in the evening? Why?

After reading
22 Research: Students search the Internet for information about apartheid. They prepare brief presentations for the class. 23 Pair work and role play: In pairs, students discuss what is wrong with Mma Makutsis solution to Mr Badules problem. Then they role play the conversation Mma Ramotswe had with Mma Makutsi. 24 Artwork: Students make the drawing of the giraffe and its tears on the basket as they imagine it. They share their drawings and discuss other possible reasons why the giraffe gives its tears to women.

Chapters 910 Before reading

14 Guess: Tell students: In these chapters someone will try to get someone else into trouble with the police. Who do you think they are? Why?

After reading
15 Write: Tell students: The local newspaper publishes a piece of news under the headline: Maid arrested for carrying gun in shopping bag. The information in the article is based on the maids statement to the police. Write the article.

Vocabulary activities
For the Word List and vocabulary activities, go to www.penguinreaders.com.

c Pearson Education Limited 2008

Tears of the Giraffe - Teachers notes

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