121: Babiche Deysel

<div>My guest this week is Babiche Deysel, Executive Headteacher at Petham Primary School in Kent. Originally from the Netherlands, Babiche lived and worked for many years in Zimbabwe and Botswana.<br> <br> </div> <div>In Zimbabwe she studied the economic impact of projects run by a women's group in Zimbabwe and she discusses the way in which one doesn’t always realize realize how bad things are in a country which, as she discusses, is very different from the country where she got married, until one steps outside of it. Babiche talks about her experience of living in houses surrounded by barbed wire and of friends being attacked.<br> <br> </div> <div>Born in the Hague, Babiche talks about experiences which have made her and her family stronger and about the ways in which we are inclined to look back through the past with a rose coloured lens but in which there were adversities we had to overcome. She talks about her experience of Christmas during the pandemic and how boundaries were woolly during lockdown.<br> <br> </div> <div>She remembers from childhood driving to Spain or Italy and listening to Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison on a loop and enjoying the sounds of Radio Caroline.<br> <br> </div> <div>In those days there was information to which we did not have access, which is all very different to today, and we learn that Babiche brought all her records back with her from Zimbabwe to Botswana but that they didn’t make the journey to the UK.<br> <br> </div> <div>We find out how Babiche ended up accidentally working as a teacher. When she was young she wanted to be a ballerina, she studied Social Educational Care at undergraduate level and then did a Masters in Pedagogy. When she was in Africa she ended up working in the fashion industry as a menswear buyer where people would get worked up about, say, the colour of a drawstring and she thought there was more to life. She then embarked on a teaching degree through the University of South Africa.<br> <br> </div> <div>Babiche talks about why it’s imp