Friday 19 August- Saturday 20 August

This weekend was great. We went to Cape Town on Friday right after we got back from project. Literally I had to throw some things in my backpack, run down to Pick n Pay, get some cash and by the time I got back it was time to go. The weekend was so great! We arrived in Cape Town around 4 and were dropped off at Ashanti a hostel in the heart of Cape Town. We were minutes away from Long Street and a good half an hours walk from the waterfront. Tim, Emma, Malin and I walked to the Company Gardens which were also close by to where we stayed. We enjoyed a long walk through the gardens and then came back up through Long Street looking at the different shops, bars and such.

Then we got back to the hostel and relaxed until it was time for dinner. Then we ate at probably the best burger place in Cape Town: The Royale Eatery. If you’re ever in Cape Town, please eat at this place. The burgers are amazing but the best part are the shakes. I got an Oreo shake and it was to die for. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the meal. It was also amazing how easy it was to pay. Everyone chipped in R100 and we were done. No trying to figure out how much everyone owned. It was so easy.

Then we went back to the hostel and chilled, waiting on the newbies to get back from Mama Africa. Each first weekend they go to Mama Africa and it usually takes a while because it is a huge tourist attraction. One group went and it took hours for them to get the food, eat it and get the check. So we relaxed before finally I got fed up with waiting and trying to decide where everyone wanted to go. I just started walking with a group of people down Long Street. We were originally supposed to go to The Waiting Room but there was a cover charge so we kept on walking until we found the club Jo’burg which JT highly recommended. I loved it. Apparently everyone else didn’t. They were all sitting in the back room talking and listening to the music. But I am on the dance floor thoroughly enjoying myself. The best was when Ashley came because she loves to dance too so we danced together.  It was still all good and we danced a good three or four hours there.

The next day we got up and walked down to the waterfront and to Green Market Square. It’s a fabulous market in the heart of Cape Town and it’s a great place to go to get souvenirs. I enjoyed just looking around trying to figure out what to get everyone and not buying anything. I had a limited budget since I took out some cash and left my debit card at Gordon’s Bay just so there would be no chance that I lost my debit card. I’ve lost my debit card in Cape Town before and it is not fun to deal with. Anyways, we walked around the market for a while until we got bored and walked down to the waterfront. Matt really wanted to go to the Two Oceans Aquarium but no one else really wanted to go so he went by himself and everyone else walked around the waterfront looking at the different shops. More shopping and more walking until we finally met up with Matt and had lunch at Spurs. It’s a pretty good place to eat and cheap which is always nice. That was pretty much our day. We walked around some more before walking back to Ashanti. I was ready to go back because we spent most of the day walking. It was exhausting but a great day!

Wednesday 17 August

I am so exhausted. I couldn’t sleep last night because I was so congested which sucks. Yesterday was a good day though. Mel and I tried bellydancing which was really fun. I loved it. It’s R260 which is pretty pricy for only once a week. They do have another session in the mornings on Fridays but I can’t go because of school.

School was good yesterday. Ms. Halana came to see me early and said that the learners were writing a maths exam so she would come get me once they were done. So Mel and I took the extra time to plan for next week’s workshop. There are eight more weeks until the annual exam and I just feel like we have so much to do still, especially in terms of maths. We went through that first and next week I’ll be covering place value, addition and subtraction and ordering numbers all in one hour sessions. We’ll see how it goes. It’s hard not to feel any pressure because I have been grading their maths exams and the learners aren’t doing well. But our job isn’t to teach everything. I just have to keep remembering that. But it’s hard because I feel like I have correct teachers.

After Mel and I had our planning session, it was break time and I enjoyed the sun. It’s usually really cold inside and then later in the day it warms up. After break, I went with Ms. Halana and she went over part of literacy exam which took about twenty minutes. I then took some learners who were struggling to work on their comprehension. It didn’t go to well. What I thought would take twenty to thirty minutes ended up taking about an hour.

Later…

I feel in a haze right now. I can’t really think. This morning was a million times worse so it’s good that I am feeling better but better doesn’t mean great. There still doesn’t seem to be enough time. I’m on dinner duty tonight and then social night and then I’ll probably go to bed because social nights usually end late.

So I’m back from social night which was so much fun. It was thirty seconds which is a game where everyone writes down different words on pieces of papers and then people guess the words. The first round was just describing the word without saying it and then the second was just saying one word and then finally acting it out. I’m really competitive so I had a lot of fun, screaming and yelling trying to figure out the different words. Good times.

School was rough this morning because I felt like I was in a haze. I didn’t feel completely there so I did very little today. Mostly I graded but beyond that nothing. Ms. Fani taught shapes again, a lesson that I had already seen so I graded the assignment. I was really bored today actually. After break, Ms. Fani taught a different lesson on data handling and I didn’t have anything prepared for that so I just sat in the back taking notes. I did do some more grading. It wasn’t a very exciting day. I wanted to go home the second I got there.

Well something interesting did happen today or rather disturbing. I saw two older girls picking on this little girl and when I tried to stop them, they kept on going and it was really hard for me to control my anger. When I asked them about it, they said the girl was stupid which made me even more anger. The little girl was the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen and it broke my heart/enraged me. It was really hard to see. You get stuck thinking that this place is so great and that the only people you have protect is the children from the teachers (I saw one of the teachers hit one of my students really hard with a plastic rod) but then you realize that you also have to protect some kids from other kids. It really made me sad. I started to look at the school differently, more as a place where I had watch out for danger and protect kids instead of focusing on what I’m trying to do: teach. It’s just weird.

In the afternoon, I felt much better and I actually helped with sports. The girls were playing net ball which is a strange game where you have to catch the ball and land on your feet one at a time. It’s sorta like basketball.

Thursday 18 August

I feel wonderful at the moment, completely relaxed. I feel like I’ve been going all week. If it wasn’t social night, it was grading papers. If it wasn’t grading papers, I was trying to get my internet fixed. If it wasn’t that, I was trying to exercise because I have been severely neglecting that part of my life. This week has been crazy and emotional.

Let’s start with today. My maths teacher disappeared yet again but this time I at least knew what to do: go to another teacher. I asked around, couldn’t find her and was about to go to another teacher when Ms. Halana came looking for me needing help. So I worked with her. I did lots of grading which seems to be the bane of my existence. Luckily I took action and asked if anyone was struggling and Ms. Halana suggested Ongezewe. She’s so sweet and really shy. It was really difficult working with her but I really enjoyed it because I got to work with a student. I’m finding it hard to balance between helping the teachers (grading, planning, etc) and helping the students (tutoring, teaching, etc). But we had our one to ones today which is when the program coordinators talk to each of us just to see how we’re getting on. I definitely had a lot to say. Mostly about how I’m still trying to figure out my role. Mel wasn’t there which is weird because I’m used to seeing her all the time, at home, at school. She had to work in the office today so Jim did my one to one. I found out he’s leaving even sooner than I thought. Next week to be exact. Of course. One more person leaving.

But enough about me complaining, today I found out that my teacher disappeared because one of her students tried to commit suicide. I was shocked and didn’t know what to say. She said she had to take the student to a social worker and that’s where she went. I felt horrible and really didn’t know what to do besides obviously offer any help that I could provide. I ended up just doing some more grading which didn’t seem like a big help but at least it’s one less thing she had to worry about. What do you do in that situation?

I saw the little girl who got picked on yesterday again. She is so cute. I think she’s rather fond of me. She would pop her head into the classroom and I would get up to say hi to her and she would run away and then turn and smile. So cute! She’s missing in front two teeth as well which makes her even more adorable. She was in the room and Aimee was talking to her and when I left the room she followed me and held out her hand so I could hold it. I could cry. She’s so adorable. I’m sorry have I said that enough. Can I take her home with me? She then ran away and I kept walking and she followed me all the way to my classroom where I went in to see if my teacher needed any more help. She popped her head in that room too and then when I came out ran away. She is seriously the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

There is seriously still so much to write. It’s impossible to write it all. Last night was social night which was awesome as usual. I’m so competitive. We lost but it was still a lot of fun.

This is the adorable girl I've been talking about

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 12^th

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.

Let’s face it. This blog is a hot mess. I am so behind, it’s appalling. I’m so sorry. Let it just stand as a testament of my incredible work load. I’m at lost as to how to rectify the situation. According to my records, I am three weeks behind schedule. How is that even possible? Below is my attempt to catch up. Again, sorry!

Tuesday August 9th

I enjoyed a fabulous weekend by myself which I explained in my previous post. Everyone went to Cape Town this weekend but I stayed in enjoyed some much needed rest and relaxation. It was wonderful.

I just found out that both Jim and Nick are leaving. They aren’t going far just to Fish Hoek but still it sucks. Apparently some woman named JT will be replacing Jim and Nick’s replacement won’t be here for a while. They’re trying to find someone in the community to replace Nick which seems like it will take a while. Nick will be leaving this weekend which sucks and then Jim will be here for another four weeks before he leaves. It just sucks because I am getting used to the idea of volunteers leaving all the time but it sucks when someone you think is staying is leaving. Both Jim and Nick are awesome so I’m really not happy about them leaving.

Today we didn’t have school because there was a public holiday. What exactly the holiday was I don’t know but we still had things to do. We’re trying to collect books for the school because right now, they have a physical structure for a library but no books. So we went across the area: Gordon’s Bay, Strand and Somerset West to try to see if we could get some books. We got collection points at all those locations and went around to different businesses to see if they would be willing to donate as well. Hopefully within the next couple weeks we’ll get lots of donations so we can fill the library with books!

Wednesday August 10^th

Back at school after a four day break. It was lovely and a much needed break but today was completely exhausting. I was supposed to work with one of the numeracy teachers but she had a meeting with her subject teacher so I had nothing to do. I decided to work on my workshops that I’m supposed to be doing with Grade 6. It was very overwhelming. There are so many things to cover.

After working on that for a bit, I talked to Mel and both agreed that I should work with another teacher since my numeracy teacher was busy. I found one of the literacy teachers and helped her out. She had a lot of questions about the exam. Some of the questions were really hard like the opposite of pleasure which I said was displeasure but it didn’t really work in the context of the question. There were other questions too such as fill in the blank. For example: as good as _____ The first thing that came to my mind was as good as dead but that didn’t sound right to me so I asked Mel who suggested as good as gold a phrase I’ve never heard before. English is such a weird language. There were worse questions as well like explain the meaning of stirring ill-will or something like that it was so confusing. I definitely prefer numeracy to literacy. English is too confusing and vague.

Thursday August 11^th

Last night was social night which was really fun even though it was so short. We played Family Freud or as the British call it “Family Fortune.” They asked 100 people at Pick N Pay different questions and we had to guess their responses. It was pretty hilarious because people go to GVI literally twice a day if not more. After the official social night ever, we played music and I was the only one dancing. No one seems to love dancing here as much as me which sucks but I still had fun so I guess it doesn’t matter.

Today I had probably one of the worst meetings I’ve ever been in. Mel and I had a meeting with the Grade 6 teachers to discuss my role in the classroom. I was excited at first because they seemed to be very organized. They even had a secretary who read out the agenda but we didn’t even get to my role. We maybe covered three of things on the items. It was pretty frustrating to experience. At one point the head teacher asked how the other teachers felt about extra classes and she was meant with silence. I of course had an opinion about it but they asking me. I honestly think that a lot of time is wasted in the classroom and if that time wasn’t wasted then there probably wouldn’t be a need for extra classes but that’s just me.

The rest of the day was pretty much a reflection of the meeting. I worked with one of the numeracy teachers and they were doing fractions which is probably the most difficult topic I’ve had to help with so far. I was told that we were working on shapes so it was really hard for me to be effective when I hadn’t prepared a lesson for fractions. To make manners worse I had to correct the teacher when she made a pretty big error. It was extremely awkward for me because I knew I was right, but it’s hard to find the right way to correct an error like that. You have the students learn the wrong thing but how to tell the teacher? I think I managed it pretty well :/

Then my teacher disappeared after break. She didn’t tell me anything, just disappeared. I was at a complete lost. I asked around but no one knew where she was so I just ended up finding another teacher and helping her with literacy. Overall it was a pretty bad day. 🙁

Friday 5 August

I am in heaven right now. I have this whole house/apartment/whatever you want to call it to myself. Don’t get me wrong I love the girls I live with but I am one who enjoys her personal space and here this isn’t much of it. So I am loving the fact that everyone is Cape Town having a grand time, I’m sure but I’m just here chilling and relaxing and I couldn’t ask for more. I took a ridiculously hot bath without worrying about when I needed to get out and blasted some Jason Mraz without having to worry about bothering someone else. My picture of heaven J It doesn’t take much in life to make me happy. I’ll probably go to bed early just because I can. I don’t have to think about noise because it will be quiet, blessedly quiet and I frinkin love it!

I needed this kind of day too because my morning wasn’t the greatest. Basically today my goal was to talk to my teachers and plan for next week. Since next week there is a school holiday on Monday and a public holiday on Tuesday we won’t be at school until Wednesday which means I only have two classes to plan for. This is perfectly fine with me because I’m feeling very overwhelmed right now. The classes are huge, there’s the language barrier and I’m finding that I have to fight the teachers as well who are the very people I’m trying to help and then in turn of course help the learners. Both my teachers said to me today that the learners are ‘slow.’ I didn’t know what to say. But how can you expect for students to learn if their teachers have such negative views of them. I’m praying that I will never say that about my learners and always have patience. I have to have an infinite amount of patience to do this job because it is no joke. It is really hard and I know already how easy it is to get frustrated so maybe I should cut my teachers a break and just assume that they are just as overwhelmed as I am. I would just hope that their outlook would be more positive because what are fighting for if all you have are negative thoughts?

I’m trying not to let the teachers bother me and do the best that I can. Next week is a pretty simple topic: shapes. I need to look at the pervious annual exams to see what questions apply to the topic of shapes and hopefully use those in our lessons because the learners have trouble with answering questions correctly simply because they don’t understand what the question is asking. So we’re trying to use as many of the exam questions as possible so that they are familiar with the questions and how to answer them. The real fun for me though will come when I get to run my own workshops because I feel very inhibited by my teachers and their negative attitudes. It’s also hard for me because I’m not sure about resources. GVI is very limited in what they have but the school is even worse. The copy machine has been broken for weeks now so they’ve had to go to other schools and ask to print a minimal amount there. I’m still not sure whose resources I can take advantage of because I would love to play games with the learners but most of the things I want to do like bingo take time, effort and paper that may not be available to me. I’ll have to talk to Mel more about this so I can understand what I can and cannot do.

Next week is shapes and my main role in the classroom will be to help with measuring. They’ll be drawing shapes but apparently they’re not really familiar with how to measure things so I’ll be going around the room and helping with that. I am constantly amazed at how low the level is because in my mind drawing a line that’s 3cm long is such an elementary thing. I could be wrong but I would think that by sixth grade they’d be doing more advanced stuff that this. It’s hard to know since it’s been so long since I was in sixth grade. Anyways, that will be my role plus helping with the exam questions which I will hopefully find before the weekend is out though I guess I have time since I won’t be in school til Wednesday. Hooray weekend!

Hello All!!

I am writing this first post just to have an update on the blog.

I am still in Nashville right now and am getting ready to move and travel abroad. It is a bit overwhelming and I can’t stop wondering how much my life is about to change. I don’t have any expectations and I try not to worry about how different things are going to be for me; I have found this is the best way to travel. International travel can be very exhausting and culturally shocking for some people, so it’s always best to not expect too much and go with the flow once you arrive.

For now, that’s all I have to say, but when I leave, I’m sure this blog will be full of emotions, photos, and revelations.

Monday 2 August

Today was a thousand times better than yesterday. Not that yesterday was terrible but there were definitely some bad parts. Today I was with Ms. Halana whose subject is literacy. Today her lesson was on adjectives and the different kinds of adjectives. I was surprised by how much they struggled with it, especially since she said that she has gone over it before. She explained the concept and gave examples and then asked the class to copy down a paragraph from the chalk board and then identify the different kinds of adjectives. What I saw were almost all the other words being underlined instead. Anything from verbs to nouns to prepositions. They seem to struggle a lot with parts of speech. We both agreed that next week we would go over nouns, verbs and adjectives again since there seems to be so much confusion. Ms. Halana said she hasn’t even gotten to adverbs yet but I consistently saw those being underlined as adjectives. Lots of confusion. Hopefully next week we can clear some things up.

I have a lot of confusion myself about my role. Apparently I’m only supposed to be working with small groups of students and I am not supposed to be left alone with the students which happened again today but not to the same degree as yesterday. Ms. Halana even tried to ask me about it but I had to explain, although I knew she already knew that I was not allowed to be alone with the students. I’m not here to replace the teacher but I’m here to help. Mr. Stofile has gone over this with them but I think they want to just try it to see what I do. Maybe next time I’ll just walk out with the teacher. It’s pretty annoying.

Today I was so busy with marking papers I barely noticed that Ms. Halana had left. Every single paper had something wrong with it or they had found adjectives and identified them correctly but hadn’t found all of them. Tons and tons of marking. It was pretty overwhelming. Ms. Halana was helping a little bit before she disappeared but tomorrow officials are supposed to observing so there’s a lot more paperwork to do….I’m not really sure. I’m not sure if I was understanding what Ms. Halana was saying. But regardless she wasn’t helping me too much which was fine because I was busy anyway. So next week hopefully we can divide the class up and I can take some to do a fun learning activity outside and Ms. Halana can do something inside. I don’t know. We have to figure all that out. It’s so confusing!

To add to my confusion Mel and I had a meeting with Mr. Stofile and we discussed doing afternoon workshops specifically for Grade 6 since they have their annual exams in October. The main purpose of the workshops is to focus on the exam and get them to answer questions correctly. That’s probably what I should be doing right now actually. Looking through the question papers as they call them here and finding out how questions are phrased and focusing on that. Lots of work. So starting next Wednesday I start workshops with 15 students for an hour with a half an hour on numeracy and a half an hour on literacy. Like I said lots of work. So next week Wednesday and Thursday I’ll be doing that and then the week after that on Tuesday I’ll be starting a computer workshop with the teachers because most of them don’t know much about how to use it. And then the week after that every other Monday I will be teaching another workshop with the Grade 6s at the computer lab. So if you’re counting that’s a total of four workshops going on during the week in addition to the classroom work that I’ve already agreed to do. Hopefully I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew.

But today was fine because I was done by around 1 because Ms. Halan tried to leave her class with me and I decided that it was a good time to leave. The schedules still don’t make any sense here because even though I get the time table, we rarely follow it. Like today, we were supposed to go to three classes and we only went to two. Didn’t even go to the other one. I think it had something to do with the officials coming tomorrow and the teachers had to go through some more training for that….I don’t know. Again lots of confusion.

So what I’ve been told is that each day I’m supposed to be in three classes with one teacher moving from class to class. What happens is like today we go to two classes and spend way too much time on one assignment. I’ve been told a period is 40 minutes. What usually happens is usually an hour, sometimes an hour and a half. Makes no sense! But I just roll with and try to do the best that I can with the time I have. But it’s hard when you don’t even know really what you’re supposed to be doing.

So after I left Ms. Halana’s class I went to the GVI classroom and enjoyed some lunch. I didn’t realize until then how hungry I was. After that I watched the sports people who are supposed to be doing dance this week which makes me so jealous. I love dancing. What I saw was more chaos. They didn’t really have a set plan. They asked each of the kids to show them a move but it ended up being lots of kids dancing and volunteers dancing with the kids and no music. Weird but they seemed to enjoy it.

After that I was supposed to go into the computer lab to familiarize myself with the various packages offered but there was a class in there so I didn’t want to disturb the class. What I ended up doing was busy work. Mel kept on asking me if I wanted to help Mr. Stofile and I already knew I didn’t but there really was nothing else for me to do so I reluctantly joined her in his office. What he wanted us to do was basically count the numbers of 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s that they use for coding the students. Exactly what the numbers mean I don’t know. What I do know is that I got stuck counting up numbers over and over again which made my brain feel like it was going to explode. Not fun. What made it worse was the horrible buzzing that the light above us kept making it was driving me crazy, pounding into my head. I was so glad to get out of there.

They left me at the school. Just completely forgot about me. It was alright though. I didn’t even notice to be honest. I did notice that the door was locked but I just figured that they locked it because they weren’t in the room. Turns out they left me. I was in the computer lab working with Ms. Cwaita and didn’t even noticed. My watch is still on STL time so I didn’t really know what time it was. It was fine because I was enjoying being in the computer lab.

Let’s rewind in a little. We arrived at school at 9 as usual and I went to find Ms. Cwaita. Each day I am with another teacher. Today was Ms. Cwaita with literacy and I must admit I wasn’t looking forward to it. I like math better than literacy. But it turned out fine. It was pretty confusing. She didn’t really seem to know what I was supposed to be doing and I really don’t know either. She ended up teaching a very short lesson on prefixes and suffixes which was good but then she left and I was completely alone which is something that wasn’t supposed to happen. It was very confusing. Also she seemed to think that I was supposed to be teaching today which was definitely not going to happen. It was pretty uncomfortable.

The periods are supposed to be 40 minutes but the first period I was in was short and I was literally in the classroom alone for about an hour. Luckily the next period was great. I marked papers aka grading and I actually helped some of the students understand what was wrong. For example, they were given an assignment to create words using suffixes and prefixes. They were given six root words and had to create new words but they made up a lot of words. It was kind of hard because some words I wasn’t sure about such as freehold which is apparently a word. Who knew? It was very eye opening. I feel like I barely know my own language let alone teach someone else.

We then went to the computer lab which I didn’t even know was happening. Ms. Cwaita just said that she was going to be going to the computer lab with her class and I was supposed to stick with her so I went with her. She didn’t even have a lesson planned. We had to find something relevant on the computer which didn’t take long but I was just so confused. How can you go to the computer lab without already planning ahead? Such is life here. Lots of chaos. Breaks happen when they want to and last longer than they should and teachers don’t teach. It can be incredibly frustrating. It’s very hard to feel motivated when this is the situation that you’re dealing with but the students motivate me. They’re the ones I’m here to help. I have to remember that.

It is Friday evening and I have said my goodbyes to the Elderly Home, Autistic School and Keats School.  I have mixed emotions of sadness and happiness.  I am especially happy that I was able to volunteer at two places and help both the young and old.  It was extremely hard to say goodbye to the people I have regularly been helping and spending time with for over a month.  I am so grateful to have the Lumos Scholarship which allowed me to experience something so life changing. 

At the same time, I am ready to go home to start classes again at Belmont.  This trip made my passion for China and Asia grow even more.  I am really excited about the new things I will learn in my Asian Studies classes next semester!

Advanced Chinese I – Dr. Andrew Siao
Seminar in Asian Area Studies – Dr. Joan Li
East and West Psychologies – Dr. Peter Giordano
Japanin the Shogun Age – Dr. Cynthia Bisson
Spirituality in World Religion – Dr. Marty Bell

Below are some of my final pictures:

Goodbye picture with the boss at the autistic school

Goodbye/Thank You Letter from the autistic school

Goodbye picture with the boss at the Elderly Home and Wang Yeye

She is such a great teacher and has taught me so much more than just Chinese! She is one my greatest friends now 🙂

Giving me my certificate for completing 120 hours of Chinese study

Validation of Volunteer Service (need that convo credit!) and Certificate for Chinese Study

Special thanks to Cynthia Leu for generously funding this amazing experience. 

I also want to thank Dr. Maggie Monteverde for helping me so much with my application process. 

Thank you Dr. Ronnie Littlejohn, Dr. Andrew Siao and Arthur Lachowicz for writing such great recommendation letters.

Thank you Paul Chenoweth for setting up my blog.

And thank you to everyone else who read my blog!! 🙂

Saturday July 30^th

Last night we had our farewell dinner for the volunteers that are leaving. It was at the hotel on Habour Island. I was told it was “buffet” style but that wasn’t really true. There really were only three choices: grilled fish, fried fish or a vegetarian option.  The sides were mashed potatoes, tomato sauce and vegetables. It was really good though. There was also a presentation that had pictures of all the volunteers from their different projects. It was pretty sweet. I need to try to get a copy of it so I’ll have the pictures. They give everyone that is leaving a copy.

Today I went surfing for the first time in two years. I went several times when I was here last time and I am definitely out of shape. The water was freezing. Keep in mind it’s winter here so it is to be expected. I’m going to try again maybe by the time I leave here I’ll be great at it. Right now it’s exhausting and I’m not very good at all.

Sunday July 31^st

The rest of yesterday was relaxing. I went with some of the program coordinators, Beth, Ali, Nick and Jim to Mont Blanc to watch a movie and eat more. I was so hungry after coming back from surfing but then I got hungry later. I actually rode the bike to Mont Blanc. Beth has a car but she’s not allowed to drive volunteers L But it was ok because it was a beautiful night. Stars everywhere which was sort of a bad thing because I kept on looking up at the stars instead of paying attention to where I was going. But I made it there in one piece and we had pizzas with mushrooms and tomato slices. It was so good! Then we watched Fair Game which is this movie about this CIA agent who is working before 9/11 and sort of discovered the whole lie with the WMDs. It’s kind of hard to explain but I highly recommend it. Then I passed out and enjoyed some well needed sleep.

I did some more laundry today. Did I mention I did laundry on Friday? I did it by hand which really made me appreciate the whole washer and dryer thing. I washed my clothes in the bathtub and then moved my clothes outside to dry. It takes a while but it’s free because Beth left some soap so I won’t complain. There is a Laundromat nearby but I am trying to save as much money as possible.

Later…..

I have met all the new people. It’s very overwhelming but they’re cool so it’s fine. We have a total of 8 girls here including me so we are pretty much full. There is one extra spot in my room but besides that we are at capacity. The new people had a tour so I walked with them and then ended the tour by relaxing on Habour Island. It was nice but we stayed there too long and I got cold. Dinner was veggie pasta and it was delicious.