Yes I know I’m still very behind. I’m sorry. I’m just too busy here having fun/doing work to write. But here’s the rest of week 4. Keep in mind it’s week 7 for me here. I know it’s horrible....my bad.
Friday August 12th
Today is Nick’s last day L Mel and I went around to the different classrooms and asked the students to make Nick a card. We got so many cards. It was so awesome. We had a presentation for Nick where we presented the cards. He absoutley loved it. We packed into this tiny classroom and the choir sang and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. It was the most amazing singing I’ve ever heard. They also did some dancing which was amazing as well. It was probably my favourite thing that I’ve experienced here so far.
As far as what I was actually supposed to be doing yesterday, I talked to all my teachers and got them to tell me what 5 students were struggling the most. I will be working with them and providing support which should be a lot easier than what I have been doing. I know what my teachers are supposed to be teaching next week. We’ll see if they actually do what they said they would. I also got some maths papers to grade. This is weird but I like grading, at least math. Math answers are fairly straight forward and it’s a lot easier to grade than English. So far I know for sure that I want to be a math teacher and NOT an English teacher. You can’t fully appreciate how hard the English language is until you’re trying to teach it. I guess that’s true for any subject so liking it is a must. I love math because it makes sense to me so that’s why I can see myself teaching it.
The rest of yesterday was good. I relaxed at home before the braai which means barbeque in Afrikaans. We had it at the orphanage because it was GVI’s two year anniversary of being at Ikhayalathemba (the name of the orphanage). It means home of hope in Xhosa. The party started at 7 and we got to see the children and play with them. They seem to really like playing with me. One of the girls grabbed my hand and started singing a song in Xhosa. It started out slow and then they started jumping up and down and saying “woo, woo!” It was so cute. I got some pictures of me doing it with them. The weather was still bad so instead of having it outside, we were inside. It was really nice. The food was great!
Me and some of the amazing kids at Ikhayalathemba (the orphange)
Saturday 13 August
This weekend was relaxing as all weekends should be. On Saturday Mel and I walked to the craft shop to see if we got any books. We got a couple which is exciting and the owner said that more people had noticed our signs and said they would bring donations. Then we walked down to the beach where there is a huge book store. It is awesome. Walls and walls of books and it has that old book smell which I love. We wandered around for a little while seeing all the amazing resources that we’d love to buy. Then Mel talked to the person at the front desk who said that the owner was out of the country but she gave us two bags full of books. It was very exciting.
We then walked to a bar called Barbaydos and were about to order when Mel decided to call Nick to see if he was leaving. He was supposed to be leaving at one and it was only noon but Nick was actually in the midst of leaving when she called. So we ran out of the bar and went to a gas station where we waited for Nick to say goodbye. It was really sad because even though I only knew him two weeks, Nick was really awesome, always good for a laugh. I know Mel was pretty upset too to see him go.
After Nick left and we said our goodbyes, we walked back to the bar and got malva pudding. It’s a South African bread pudding that I really love. It’s supposed to be really moist but the one I had wasn’t dry but it wasn’t nearly as moist as I thought it should be. I have made malva pudding better than that. So it was a sad disappointment but I ate it anyway. I had to pay for it regardless. After that we braved the turbulent weather which kept on switching back and forth between rain and sunshine and walked home.
I walked up to Mont Blanc to borrow Beth’s usb only to find out that everyone is leaving. It’s very confusing and difficult to remember when everyone is leaving because there are about four to five depatures a day. So I said a sad goodbye to all the ones that were leaving. Then I discovered that Matt, Emma and the new girl Ashley and the coordinators were going to watch the rugby game so I decided to go with them. Watching rugby at a bar full of locals is quite the cultural experience. I loved it. They all sang their national anthem with pride which is in three different languages by the way and were all cheering for their team the Springboks. It was awesome. The game is similar to football and not too hard to follow. It was a little awkward though because we have two program coordinators from Australia and they were playing so they would of course cheer for their team while the rest of the bar remained silent. It was a good time though.
Sunday 14 August
Sunday meant saying goodbye to more people. Dina and Siobhan left yesterday and it sucked to say goodbye. I wonder if I’ll get used to it. It’s nice though because four of the girls are staying so it’s not a huge change. In two weeks though all of them are leaving so I’ll have to meet new people all over again. We went on a walk although the beach because the weather was nice. We almost walked all the way to Strand but people didn’t want to walk that far. So we walked back. It was a nice walk though. Emma and I then Insanity Pure Cardio and I thought I was going to die. It was very difficult. It was good though to workout though. I need to get into a regular schedule though. I haven’t been very consistent since I’ve gotten before. I’m hoping to do some dance lessons or something. Tomorrow I’m going to try bellydancing and then Thursday I’ll try Nia which is a mix of different things. After Insanity, Emma and I went on a walk. It ended up being all the way to Strand and I discovered a swimming pool. I might see how much it to swim there. I could swim laps there. Hopefully it’s not too expensive. We’ll see.