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^ The water buffalo portion of the mural.  I would add the picture of the whole thing, but you wouldn't be able to see the details so well.  My square is the darkish pink one directly to the left of the very top, right corner piece.  

I'm back!  The flights went well.  One short delay from JFK to Boston, but that's it!  Didn't actually get a wink of sleep until the hour-long flight to Boston.  I just watched movies the whole time on those really long plane rides.  Watching Invictus was particularly cool after just leaving South Africa...So I suppose this is the end of the blog.  I'm so glad I decided to keep a blog and I hope everyone enjoyed it.  So here goes:  On the day we had to say good-bye at Kleinberg, the sky was gray and it was cold and rainy.  How fitting!  We felt like we'd only been there for a very, short time and it shouldn't be time to go yet.  I said good-bye to my first grade class and gave them all a hug.  Their teacher and I suppose my colleague, told me that I was a born teacher.  I thought she was just saying it to be nice, but the principal told me afterwards that she doesn't give compliments like that easily.  The staff at Kleinberg really were fun, very friendly, and particularly generous.  During break every day, they would always share their food with each other and us, even towards the end of our time there when half of them were fasting for Ramadan.  The first grade teacher I was with brought in food for me even when she couldn't eat herself!  Another one of the teachers once bought me an entire package of Rooibos tea because I had mentioned in passing that I liked it...Now that is something a grandmother would do.  So nice.  The principal called all of the teachers to the staff room that day during break so we could have a real goodbye and give all of them a hug as well.  As for my six Grade 4 Help2Read kids, I will admit that I rushed through my meetings that last day with them because I didn't want to prolong the goodbye any more than I had to.  I really liked all of them.  I hope I actually helped them or at least built their confidence a bit.  Some of them began to sound out the words more often, rather than just looking at long words and freezing, like they did in the beginning.  I only had about 10 meetings with each them, so I can't really expect to have changed the world or anything, but I hope they got something out of it!  A few of them told me that I was a good/nice/'the best' teacher.  I attribute this mainly to my just being really nice to them.  Give them a smile, ask them how they are doing, and let them know how much you appreciate their effort, and you've won their hearts.  I think one of them was actually in love with me haha.  I wore I dress once and he looked up at me with this look of pure admiration and fascination and was just like, "You look beautiful."  I almost died.  It was the best- I told everyone about that.  He was also the one who said "Me last!" when I hugged them all goodbye so he could hold on for an extra moment or two.  I'll miss him and all the rest of them!
Saying good-bye to my host family was actually the hardest good-bye I've probably ever done because I probably won't see them again or a very, very long time.  We are talking years.  That family was made up of some of the best and most giving, loving people I have ever met.  Hands down.  Yes I cried and I will miss them dearly!
To sum it all up, my trip to South Africa was one of the best decisions I've ever made and I absolutely loved every minute of it!!

Almost done...

Tomorrow is my last day at Kleinberg and then the next day (Saturday) is my last full day in South Africa. It is such a strange feeling knowing not knowing when I'll be back.  It is just so FAR and so expensive to fly here.  I do want to come back one day though.  It is just so strange not having any idea how far in the future that may be.  Anyway, tomorrow, I'm going to give out certificates and little notes to the kids I've been tutoring in reading and also give a whole bunch of pencils to the kids in the first grade class I've been in.  There is a serious shortage of even the basic supplies at this school and I actually plan on trying to organize some fundraisers back home to help out with that, but for now, pencils it is.  Tomorrow will be the last time I hear their little morning prayer that they do and that I can't help but to have memorized- "Help us to do the things we should, to be to others kind and good, in all we do, in work or play, to grow more loving every day, Amen."  It is cute, especially with the accents.  I like it because it basically sums up how people should try to live their lives.  I will also have to prepare myself for a massive group hug.  People around here love to hug and it is just magnified in the kind of unconditional love environment of a primary school.  I've definitely been through ups, as well as downs at Kleinberg.  One of the downs was the day I was asked to watch the class for the whole day with another volunteer.  It was pure chaos.  Yelling, screaming, kids rolling around on the floor fighting.  Absolutely bonkers, but hey, that is how we all act when there is a substitute.  Still, it made me realize how assertive you have to be to be a teacher.  You really do have to call them out when they are doing something disrespectful when you are talking or else it turns into a zoo fast.  However, you really need to understand that the student's home situations are likely to be a huge cause of their chaotic behavior.  The teacher told me today that one of the more difficult girls lives in a small house with more family members that she can count and the reason she hits other kids all the time is because she is so used to constant fighting and hitting as means of solving conflict that she thinks it is normal in every situation.  When you hear things like that, you can't help but be more patient with the kids.  Furthermore, you also have to be endlessly creative to capture and hold the attention of a classroom full of students, especially 6-year-olds because if you change things up all the time, the kids stay engaged and aren't tempted to act up in the first place.  I have so much more respect for all of my past teachers.  However, (here comes one of the ups) it is hard to stay angry at the kids when they do spontaneous cute things, like a few days ago, when one of the really quiet little boys called me over to his desk in the middle of class.  His voice is so small that you have to tilt your head so your ear is facing him.  Plus, he mumbles, which cranks up the cute factor.  Anyway, so he called me over and said something along the lines of, "I'm gonna miss you when you go back to where you live."  SO sweet.  I thought he was just going to ask a question!  Yep, tomorrow could be rough!  I also can't wait to see the finished mural that one of the other volunteers has singlehandedly organized.  The mural is of the "Big 5" animals I mentioned in a previous blog- elephant, lion, rhino, water buffalo, and leopard.  It is a huge splash of bright colors and patterns.  I painted a square today and came home with pink hands.  Such a cool idea!

Long Weekend!

Just got back from a loooong weekend driving through the Western Cape.  On Thursday, I went on a safari at a game reserve called Aquila.  I highly, highly recommend it to anyone who makes their way to South Africa one day.  We saw hippos, lions, wildebeests, zebras, springboks, rhinos, and my favorite animal that we encountered- elephants!  The two of them walked right up to our vehicle and one of them held his trunk up in front of another volunteer's face for a moment before walking off.  It was amazing.  Also, the food at this place (we stayed there overnight) was PHENOMENAL.  We had a buffet dinner after getting back from the safari and we had really worked up an appetite because it was freezing out there.  When we left the next day (after a buffet breakfast and lunch), there was snow on top of the mountains by the reserve!  It was that cold- cold enough to snow in Africa.  :)
We did lots of driving around over the course of the weekend and had to really be patient with one another because we were in the car quite a bit.  We listened to lots of Bob Marley on the ride, which was cool and the scenery was beautiful and basically got increasingly beautiful over the course of the trip.  I think I've overdosed on gorgeous views here.  It wasn't quite the same sights we've been seeing though.  Before this weekend, I'd been exposed to city, suburb, township, mountains, and beaches.  Now, I've gotten to see more of the rural South Africa.  We saw lots of farmland, rolling hills, and cattle over the course of the weekend.  We even stayed at a wonderful little place called Honeywood Farm on Friday night.  The cottages were really quaint and nice and we got to eat a home-cooked dinner made by a very cute old couple.  You might have guessed from the name of the farm, but the husband is a beekeeper as well and sold us some very cheap, raw honey.  Not only that, but he actually let another volunteer and I take a ride on a couple of his horses the next morning!!
The next two nights, we stayed at this very environmentally conscious and very hippie-friendly hostel.  We did drumming one night and other than that, just relaxed in the sort of lounge area, occasionally chatting with people from all over the world who were staying there.  There were people from France, England, Germany, and probably a few other places the two nights we were there.  From there, we just kept on driving!
As we drove, I loved asking the program director, who is like a personal tour guide, what the town names mean in English (since many of them are written in Afrikaans).  There are lots of town names that end in hoek, which means corner or baai, which means bay.  Actually, we spent most of today in a town called Gansbaai (Goose Bay) doing something very exciting...SHARK CAGE DIVING!  Yep, today, I saw Great White Sharks up close and personal.  So huge.  I didn't get a great look at the first one that came by when I was down in the cage because it wasn't facing me, but I felt it!  It had chased the chum right up over the cage and was thrashing around like a maniac.  All I could see was its tail moving, but I did get a nice side view of the next one that came by.  Anyway, that was an exciting end to a beautiful weekend!

Table Mountain!

Moi on top of Table Mountain.  Man, it was so amazing to finally be at the top looking down after looking up at it every day since I arrived!  Making it to the top of Table Mountain is just one of those things you can't leave South Africa without doing.  After school on Friday, the other volunteers and I went straight to the place where we were going to start hiking and got to it.  We were accompanied by one older and experienced guide, as well as a cute young French guy who was training to be a guide.  We all stayed overnight part way up the mountain (after about a 2 hour hike) and finished in the morning with another 2 hour (ish) hike.  It wasn't as strenuous as I imagined it would be , but I definitely broke a sweat and got my heart pumping.  The hike down was probably harder than the hike up actually.  Imagine walking down a windy stone staircase with extra tall, uneven steps.  I slipped at one point and about 4 people actually slipped in the same spot, which goes to show that certain sports were just plain tricky.   

You might be wondering why I'm wearing a dress in the picture above after I just said I hiked up the mountain...Long story short, I had my change of clothes ready, but when we came back home to pick up our things after school, we were running late, so I haphazardly grabbed my stuff and decided to just change later.  I didn't really consider the fact that there wouldn't really be another opportunity or place to change before the hike.  Also, I forgot to pack a shirt haha, so that was the end of that!  Anyway, I basically pulled on sweatpants over the dress, wore a sweatshirt on top, and was good to go, but when I took off my top layers, people were so confused!!  Oh well, my lapse in judgement made for some laughs and at least I arrived at the top in style (or at least a moment of style where I briefly took off my other layers to take the picture above haha).  

Anyway, what else was memorable about the hike?  hmm...oh yeah, there was stream water at various points along the trail, often in the form of mini waterfalls, and I used this little polka dot mug to drink every chance I got because the guide said right from the beginning that it was perfectly fine to drink.  The water was of questionable color (yellowish), but tasted fresh and sort of sweet.  Someone said it tasted like nature and I agree.  It felt so cool to drink pure, untreated mountain water.  I felt like I was in the movie Holes or something.  Something else that I will probably not forget any time soon was the trail mix that one of the guys packed for the hike- M&Ms, peanuts, and raisins.  He said that everything tastes amazing after you spend a few hours hiking and it is a 100% true phenomenon haha, but really, it was delicious.  All around, it was a beautiful start to the weekend!!  

My weekend...

Alright, before I start on the new stuff, I think I'll rewind to one blogworthy event that didn't make it into past posts.  This past week, one of the girls who I tutored at the Masi Library gave me a typed out thank you note:  "Hi Cindy, I want to thank you for being a great teacher, friend and a sister.  I won't forget your smile, love, and care and I wish my teacher would explain things the way you do [< that was my favorite line of the whole thing].  I was very lucky to meet a wonderful person like you, I will miss you."  CUTE.  Needless to say, that note made my day.

Anyway, on to Friday night.  We all went to this market in Muizenberg that I don't know the name of, so I'm just gonna call it Muizenberg Market.  Muizenberg's claim to fame is that it is one of the main surfing destinations around Cape Town, but we went there at night so no surfing.  Anyway, the market is the place to be if you are hungry.  So many foods to choose from.  I got three samosas (potato & butternut, chicken, and bacon & spinach) for the equivalent of like a dollar and 50 cents, a vegetable spring roll, a chicken risotto (< the most delicious meal ever, one of those ones where when you bring it back to the table, everyone all of a sudden looks 10x hungrier and goes: what did YOU get?!), and the coup de gras: a waffle with strawberry icecream, banana, chocolate, and whipped cream.  YES.

After that, all of the volunteers went to this place called the Melting Pot to listen to some blues kind of music.  The girl who opened for the night was sooo talented.  Beautiful voice.  Played both acoustic and electric guitar.  The whole atmosphere of the place was really relaxed.  The tables were lit with candles stuffed into bottles, with the wax dripping all down the sides and you could see the shadows of the instruments flickering on the ceiling.  Cool.  Anyway, someone else that met us at the Melting Pot to hang out was a British volunteer (my age) who was staying the night at my host family's house.  Long story short:  She meant to stay for about a week, but plans changed and she could only stay for a night.  We were basically friends for a span of 12 hours, but it was action-packed because not only did we jam to music at the Melting Pot, she, my host family, and I went to this place called Olympia Cafe for breakfast the next morning.  It was in Kalk Bay (from a previous blog).  I had a divine mushroom, mozzarella, avo, and tomato omelette.  I don't think I'd ever had an avocado (besides in guacamole) before coming to S.A.  and I realize that I have really been missing out!  Also, since my host family cooks so much with mushrooms, I am now a fan of those as well, whereas before I came here, I would just avoid them.  Happy I'm broadening my food horizons haha.  

After the cafe, I got dropped off at the train station and rode in to Cape Town on the train with some friends.  We went to a few markets (sort of the main one: Greenmarket Square, which is outdoors and the African Women's Market, which is inside) with the goal of doing some serious shopping for people back home. The cool thing about these markets is that you can bargain for prices.  I am terrible at it and get swindled more often than not, but sometimes I'll get a buck or two off.  There are a number of strategies shopkeepers will use to try to get you to buy their stuff and spend your money, including guilt trips, bullying, or making you laugh.  Example:  I asked one woman for 10 bracelets for 70 rand.  She raised her eyebrows and said there is no way they are worth that little, so she went up to 85 rand.  I hesitated.  She said please (guilt trip technique).  I hesitated again.  She got mad and said firmly just gimme 85 rand (bullying technique).  I hesitated some more, so she said 80 in the same pleading sort of voice as she did when she said please (back to the guilt trip technique).  I said ok.  I think my indecisiveness is almost an asset because I can sometimes wear the shopkeepers down just by taking so long to respond to the prices they give me.  I think they assume they've gone too high and go lower just to get me to say something haha.  My host family told me that they totally take advantage of Americans, but if they hear in your accent that you are South African, they aren't nearly as pushy because they know that you know their game.  

Anyway, last but not least, today I went wine tasting with my host mom at a gorgeous vineyard called Constantia.  We were not serious about it at all and had a grand old time sticking out our pinkies, holding the stems of our glasses, pursing our lips, laughing about how unsophisticated we are, etc. etc.  All I know is that I much prefer white wine to red.  But anyway, I'd better get to bed- back to school tomorrow!    

Kleinberg

For the last three days, I've been getting used to life at Kleinberg and trying to find out how I can be of use.  At first, I didn't feel like I was helping at all, but lately, I've been doing little things make the day go more smoothly, like setting up the room at the beginning of class, checking off their classwork, etc. etc.  Also, I just started doing some small group work with the kids who are taking a little longer to grasp the things we are learning.  There is one girl who is always fidgeting around in her chair and chewing on her pencil and looking very distracted, but I took her to the back of the room today and helped her one-on-one with adding and she did really well.  It really makes me wish the class sizes were smaller and each kid could get more attention...but the teachers do really well with the challenge and I'm glad to help out.  Tomorrow, we are going to start regularly working one-on-one on reading with 4th and 5th graders with a program called Help2Read.  I've spent most of these past few days in the same 1st grade class I mentioned in my last blog.  I'm starting to feel more and more comfortable in this particular class, so I think it is where I will stay.  I did visit a 2nd grade class yesterday, but there is something about this 1st grade class that makes me want to stay, so I'll go with my gut.  The kids are adorable.  One of them told me I was a nice teacher, which was cute.  Another one of them always takes the opportunity in those free moments when we are switching between activities or the teacher is quickly marking down the attendance to ask me questions.  This morning, I knelt down to help him with his handwriting and right when I was about to get up he asked me what grade I was in.  He just chooses the most random moments haha.  Also, you can barely walk around the school without getting hugs from half the kids you see.  Bottom line- these kids are very affectionate.  Don't get me wrong- it can be exhausting trying to get certain kids to concentrate when they just don't want to, but the cute moments have the uncanny ability to restore your patience and happiness in an instant.  <3
I suppose I could write a bit more about the logistics of my day:  I wake up at around 6:30 every morning and get picked up at 7:30.  A few other people get picked up and we arrive at school around 7:50.  That usually leaves us with about 5 minutes or so to chill in the staffroom before heading to the classrooms.  During the day, we have two 20 minute breaks- one at 10 and one at 12:20.  All of the teachers share their food with each other and with us, so everyone just samples everyone else's food.  I love that.  As for end time, I was surprised to find out that Grades 1 and 2 get out at 1:15 and Grade 3 and up get out at 2:15, rather than everyone at the same time.  Anyway, that means that I'm one of the early ones.  :)

Ocean View/ Mandela Day

Alright, so now, the Worldteach program has moved on to its second phase, which is working at actual schools in a town called Ocean View.  One of the other volunteer's host families hosted a braai (BBQ) on Saturday night at their house in Ocean View, so we sort of kicked off the transition then.  When you are invited to a braai, the custom is to basically bring the equivalent of what you're going to eat and drink (or more).  Everyone ends up sharing everything, so its basically a potluck every time.  I brought some juice, chicken, and ostrich burgers :).  Anyway, now that was a party.  Karaoke (99% Whitney Houston hahaha), dancing, talking, eating, drinking, being merry, etc. etc.  His host family was very welcoming and it wasn't hard for all of us (volunteers, host family, extended family, family friends) to just have fun together.

FYI, a defining feature of Ocean View is that it is almost entirely a "coloured" community.  Coloured doesn't have the same connotation here as it does in America.  It doesn't apply to anyone who is not white, like it does in the states.  It is basically the label for anyone who isn't entirely black or entirely white.  You could be a mix of both.  You could be Indian.  It doesn't make much sense- it's a product of apartheid.  If you are coloured, chances are you speak Afrikaans.  Therefore, coloured people tend to have cool accents- complete with rolling r's and a slight variation in most vowel sounds (the sound aye is now oye e.g. eight is pronounced more like oyt).  I got to hear the accent all day long today because like I said, we've now moved on to working at schools in Ocean View.  I'm at Kleinberg Primary (in Afrikaans: Klein= small, berg=mountain), where I'll be for the next month.  It was my first day and it  also coincidentally happened to be Mandela Day.  The school got together for an assembly in the courtyard right at the start of the day and we sang the National Anthem (well they did- I don't know it!)  and then Happy Birthday to Nelson Mandela, which was cute.  It was quite a sight to see all of the students together in the courtyard.  First of all, there are about 1000 students, about 40 to a class (I spent the day in a 1st grade class with 39 students!), which is chaotic, but there aren't enough funds to hire additional teachers.  Something else I noticed was that there was not one white child in that crowd!  Odd, to see, but I know that apartheid really wasn't that long ago and the racial makeup of many communities and schools will reflect that to some degree.

For anyone who doesn't know, Mandela day is Nelson Mandela's birthday and the tradition is for everyone to do 67 minutes of service to the community as a gesture of respect for Mandela's 67 years of fighting for a better South Africa/ world.  (When I got home from school, I spent my 67 minutes baking cupcakes with my youngest host sister for the Worldteach program directors, the principal and teachers at Kleinberg, and some of the people on our street.)  

Catching up...

I felt like I hadn't blogged in a long time so I thought I'd fit one in tonight.  I helped run two workshops this week where we had the students sign up for email addresses because most of them don't have one.  Some of them gave me their emails today to keep in touch (because today was our last day at the Masi Library), which made me feel like I'd done my job in getting them excited about actually using their emails.  I think it was a useful workshop because once you get into college, you'd better know how to sign in, sign out, send an email, etc. because they really flood you with messages once you get into college!  Anyway, I hope they got something out of it.  The students said they mainly use computers about once a week or so for researching information for school assignments.  It makes me kind of ashamed that I'm on the computer and Facebook so much!!  Anyways, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous the past few days- like those comfortably warm (not hot) stretches you get in the summertime back home.  and it's winter here!  I watched the sunset on the beach today with waves crashing and people surfing.  So cool.  The Masi kids (I keep calling them kids, but I just want to clarify now that they are high school students) showed us around the township today.  Most of the time, we stick close to the library and don't go walking around, so it was great to get out on such a beautiful day.  Some of the students showed us their homes- made of wooden planks and sheet metal, but none of us really paid attention to that.  We were just happy to be trusted enough to be invited inside and shown around/ introduced to families.  Other than that, we were shown this place with no name, simply referred to as "the Chinese shop,"  which is like a clothing store run by Chinese people in the middle of this South African township.  Definitely the only Asian person I've seen in weeks.  We also walked by some shibeens (basically like township bars), other shops, and the one internet cafe in town.  For those of you who don't know, an internet cafe is a place that charges hourly for the use of their computers.  It wasn't open for business at the time we walked in because the electricity was down.  Rolling blackouts happen fairly regularly in South Africa (to conserve energy).  Anyway, it was a really informative hour that we spend wandering around.  We also had a drumming workshop this afternoon.  The people who ran the workshop barely said a word the whole time- just sort of demonstrated a beat and next thing you knew the entire room was going.  Kind of impossible not to smile haha.  The Masi kids are ridiculously energetic- yelling and clapping and making all kinds of noise that somehow just blended right in with the music.  Also, I should mention that their rhythm is flipping impeccable.  I'm so jealous.  It was definitely another one of those times where I thought wow, there's no doubt about it- I AM in Africa.  Anyway, we also did awards and I've never seen people cheer so enthusiastically for every single person who got their certificate.  It was just a happy day.  I took pictures with a bunch of people and this is one of me and a girl named Amanda who was in my mentoring group.  (Each Worldteach volunteer was put with 5 or 6 mentees.)  Amanda, by the way, is a full on traditional Xhosa name.  The Masi kids were amazed that it was also a completely common name in America.

Porter's Pigs/ Robben Island

Ok, I'm gonna try to make this a quick one although I'm sure it will be a novel like always.  So yeah, on Saturday morning, the Waltons took me to this farmer's market type place called Porter's Pigs.  It was one of my favorite things that I've done so far.  There were booths with all different types of foods to sample.  I sampled: fudge, honey (above), lemon curd, dried fruit, and biltong (the South African version of beef jerky, with your choice of beef or springbok, which is a type of antelope).  Great place.  Also, I had pancakes for breakfast and just to clarify, here, a pancakes are long, thin, and rolled up, like crepes.  Mine had sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice inside.  Delicious.  Here, the pancakes we think of are called flapjacks or crumpets.  Hilarious.  It just never ends haha.

Yeah, so it was 70 degrees that morning we went to Porter's Pigs.  Ok, let's just stop for a moment and reflect...It is WINTER here.  Hahahaha.  Beautiful.  fun fact: 70 degrees Fahrenheit is 21 degrees Celsius.  :)  

Anyways, so today I went to Robben Island, which is the location one of the many prisons Nelson Mandela was incarcerated in.  (He was at this one the longest- for 18 years.)  We took a ferry out to it and one non-history related fact that I learned was that people actually live on the island today- not many, but a hundred or two, mostly people who do tours and everything.  The island has its own primary school, church, supermarket, health clinic- all for the tiny community that lives there.  Once the kids graduate from primary school, they take the ferry to the mainland and back every day for high school and then university.  Anyway, yes we saw Mandela's cell.  We learned that him and the other political leaders who were imprisoned there basically planned the new democratic South Africa during meals and during their brief breaks from working at the lime quarries morning til night.  Whoa. 

Look at this thing...

So, my host family and I were watching American Idol when all of a sudden the topic of spiders came up and they asked me what size spiders typically are in America.  I told them they really are really aren't that big, so they informed me that they'd seen one in their kitchen this morning- a 'wolf spider'- and joked that I should catch it for them.  So we went upstairs.  I was the last one there and they were all gathered around the corner of the kitchen looking up near the ceiling.  I couldn't really see it because my view was blocked by the top of the cabinets.  My anticipation was pretty high because everyone else was flipping out, so I just inched over little by little and when I finally saw the thing, there was a definite increase in heart rate haha- it was BIG.  Oh well, I can't say that I'm surprised that African spiders are much more intense than American ones.  P.S.  We ate ostrich again for dinner tonight.  It is a regular dish here haha.  

One more thing...

Oops, I forget to say: Happy Fourth of July!  Yesterday, despite that it wasn't actually the 4th yet, we celebrated with a braai (that's what they called BBQs around here).  It was absolutely delicious.  I also had a great time partaking in off-key renditions of almost every America song you could think of.  :)

My latest escapades...

Wow I haven't written a blog in a while!  I thought I would give an update on what I've been up to lately.  On Friday night, I went to some bar to listen to the program director's wife's brother play jazz.  I ended up playing a couple games of pool with some locals, which I was nervous about at first since I'm terrible at pool, but I really enjoyed myself.  I talked to some guy that looked exactly like Spencer Pratt from the Hills and another who said he was in some special forces section of the South African Navy (or so he claimed haha).  My friend and I beat the navy guy and some 15-year old kid, then lost to Spencer and his father.  Starting that night, I spent the whole weekend with four or five volunteers who are staying in their own house in Kommetjie (which is pronounced Kommie-kee by the way, apparently the tj makes a k sound- go figure! haha).  The house is like a palace.  Plus, it was nice to hang out for a few days with the other volunteers that I don't see as much.  On Saturday morning, we hiked up to the top of Slangkop Mountain and stayed up there for a little while just enjoying the view and a rare few minutes of sunshine that came along as sat and rested after our hike.  We just walked, but it was so steep that it didn't take long for me to break a sweat.  I picked the wild flower in the picture on the walk back.  Oh and on Sunday, I went out on a sailboat!  So awesome.  Other than that, our first day of work was today!  We are working in the Masiphumelele Library with this program called Ikumva Youth.  It is so much like the Upward Bound program.  Basically, each of the volunteers is running one or two workshops over the next two weeks on all kinds of topics.  Today, I helped run a study skills workshop.  (Next week, I'm doing a workshop on blogging.)  The study skills one went really well.  The other volunteers that worked on it with me were really on top of their game, so it went pretty smoothly.  One piece of feedback that we received though was to speak louder, more slowly and more clearly.  There were 60 students in the workshop in a large room and I now know that I need to work on projecting my voice because wow, is it hard to get the attention of 60 people when you take a break or do an activity and then go to start talking again.  Also, English is these students' second language and I'm still getting used to really enunciating and slowing down.  In our downtime, I made some smalltalk with a few of the students and once and for all asked them how to pronounce the name of their language (Xhosa).  I made them laugh with my first few tries, but I finally asked them to demonstrate in such a way that it clicked (no pun intended) and I finally got it right haha.  Anyway, something else that happened today was that I  met my mentee (yay!).  Each Worldteach volunteers gets paired with a Grade 12 student to guide them through applying for university, studying for classes, figuring out what they want for a career, working on resumes, etc. or just to talk about life.  I'm excited.  :)

The host family...

^ my host family's cat Ginger (aka Gingie) at the end of my bed (he sleeps there every night- ugh he is so flipping cute- most affectionate cat ever)

I really lucked out.  My host family is wonderful.  My room is downstairs so I kind of have my own lair haha.  My host mom is a great cook and I wrote it on Facebook, but some people might not know- my host family fed me ostrich the first night I was here!  After, I was done, they asked me what kind of meat I thought that was and at that point, I knew I was in for a surprise haha.  It was this casserole type thing and I thought it was beef.  It looked and tasted just like beef and if they hadn't told me, I would never have known I'd eaten ostrich!!  Anyway, that was one of those- wow I really am in Africa moments and I loved it!  Anyway, what else can I say about my host family...We always talk about how American English and South African English differ and my host dad especially loves those discussions (my host mom calls him a "closeted American").  Sweaters are jerseys.  Bathrooms are toilets.  Bathing suits are swimming costumes.  Closets are cupboards.  Cookies are biscuits.  and many more.  Plus, I learned a phrase that all South Africans know about, which is "just now."  Basically, you say it when you are going to be somewhere or do something in the near future, but not right that second.  It could mean in 10 minutes, an hour, more, who knows- just don't wait up haha.  Also, they have showed me the joys of electric tea kettles, which boil water 10x faster than on a stove, which I guess comes in handy more here because people drink tea 24/7.  Lots of South Africans drink this particular type of herbal tea called rooibos tea with these biscuit thingies called rusks.  Really tasty.  Rooibos, by the way, is Afrikaans for red bush.  The languages most commonly spoken here are Afrikaans (which is really similar to Dutch), Xhosa (pronouced *click*- osa, yes, it is a language with clicks!!), and English.  My host family just speaks English, but as I said, it isn't the same and I love it.  Anyways, I really like my host family's daughters.  All of them are younger than me (9, 12, and 14).  All of them are really polite and sweet and the youngest two are especially hilarious when it comes to being absolutely random and kidding around all the time.  We all went to their cousin's fifth birthday party this past weekend and had an awesome time on the moonbounce (aka jumping castle) acting like complete fools.  Oh and another thing is that at that party, I learned a new game that is apparently a must-do at kids parties around here- "Pass the Parcel."  You basically wrap some prize up in layer upon layer upon layer of wrapping paper, put on music, and pass it around it a circle.  Whenever the music stops, whoever is holding the package takes off one layer of wrapping paper and usually gets a lollipop or something that was wrapped up in between layers.  Then you just keep passing until all the layers are gone and someone gets the grand prize!  I'm playing that at my next birthday party...haha, but no, really, I don't know why we don't play that at younger kids parties in America- it's fun!  but anyway, I should wrap this up and go to sleep. In America right now, it is 5:02 PM (my laptop still says American time by the way, so all I had to do just now was look up in the corner of the screen), but here it is 10:02 PM, so 6 hours later!

Kalk Bay

Ok, so on Saturday, I went to Kalk Bay and it was blogworthy, but I just hadn't gotten the chance to write about it until now.  We went to this fish and chips place called Kaulky's and it was legit because there really wasn't anything on the menu besides seafood (unless you wanted to be the boring person who got the Greek Salad), so I got some hake and chips.  Note that here, chips is the word for French Fries.  Anyway, in true South Africa National Geographic style, there were 3 seals swimming in the harbo(u)r so you could see them up close.  Another memorable part of that day was that there was a band playing these xylophone type instruments and guess what one of the songs was that they played?  Come on...think of a  song that would make you extra happy and highly aware that you were in Africa at the moment?  WAKA WAKA!! hahaha I was so excited.  I couldn't help but throw a 2 rand coin in their hat.  We have the dollar.  South Africa has the rand.  I think its 6.5 rand to a dollar and I always have to take a minute to convert prices in my head, although I've found that prices here are for the most part the same as in America.  Except, however, movie tickets here cost about the equivalent of 3 U.S. dollars (Harry Potter, here I come!!) and my host family was scandalized when I told them that tickets cost 10 bucks at home.  The money here is so much prettier than in the U.S. because each bill has some awesome animal on it- the 200 rand note has a leopard, the 100 has a buffalo, the 50 has a lion, the 20 has an elephant, and the 10 has a rhino.  Also, as the amount the bill is worth goes down, the actual length of the bill becomes sliiightly shorter (cool).  fun fact: the leopard, the buffalo, the rhino, the elephant, and the lion are the "Big 5" animals that South Africa is famous for.  Well, that was quite the tangent about the money, but anyway, I liked Kalk Bay.  We also did a bit of shopping, but I'm trying to control myself, so I've been kind of stingy so far!  It's only a matter of time though haha.

More on orientation...

        Orientation was wonderful.  The first night we were there, we got kind of an introductory talk and we were informed that our first stop in the morning was to Boulder's Beach to see...wait for it...PENGUINS.  Needless to say, I went to bed pretty excited haha.  Oh and about bed, there is no central heating in South Africa because most of the year you don't really need it.  People just use hot water bottles and I bought one when I bought my cell phone, so that was new.  Hot water bottles are so soothing! Plus, you really do need them around here.  Speaking of those, my host family gave me a mini one with a lion shaped cover to put over it.  I thought that was SO cute of them.  Anyway, back to orientation.  The penguins were great and were so, so close because they are used to people coming to look at them.  Some of them had babies!!  We saw so many other animals over the next few days.  It isn't like America where all the cool animals try and hide for some reason.  There are animals EVERYWHERE.  It isn't hard to get National Geographic-status pictures.  So far, I've seen baboons, antelope, ostrich, a tortoise, and dassies (I never knew what they were until I got here, so I provided a picture haha).  The photo below is a prime example of how animals around here (at least it seems to me) stare right back at you!!  I took that picture at Cape Point- the southernmost point of Africa.

               Other than looking at beautiful scenery and cute animals, we have talked to all kinds of people.  I have to admit, the first time we went to a township called Khayelitsha and walked around talking to people, I felt overwhelmed.  I had no idea how to engage people in conversation and I really just wanted to step back to my comfort zone.  However, after a week of orientation, I've realized that the experience is so much more interesting when you actually talk to people.  We went to a township recently and on the outskirts, there was a small community of Rastafarians and we just went up to an older guy, introduced ourselves, and he told us about his life.  I know that people don't take Rastafarians seriously because they smoke ganja (aka marijuana), but he explained to us other parts of his community's lifestyle, like how Rastas like to live a more isolated lifestyle because with more people comes more crime.  He was saying how his community would be having a demonstration in town the upcoming weeks to petition the government for toilets (well, port-o-potties) and how, since wealthier people have everything they need, they don't think to give poorer people the basics unless you get right in their faces and make them listen.  It was really interesting talking to him.  P.S.  Yes he had dreadlocks.

Welcome to the Fairest Cape of them all...

^ I made this the title because it is what the pilot said as we landed    
  
           Ok, so landing in Cape Town on a beautiful sunny morning felt like flying straight into a brochure- a feeling that I haven't been able to shake since.  Mountains everywhere.  You just can't escape the view even if you were crazy enough to want to.  We also got to see some of the beautiful beaches.  One of the most memorable parts of the first day we got here was when we saw this sign that said "shark spotters," with guys standing there with binoculars.  Basically, these guys are paid to keep an eye out for Great Whites and if they see one, set off an alarm to warn the surfers.  Awesome.  Also, I got my first tastes of South African English pronunciation.  zebra= zeh-bra, baboon= b-boon haha, albino= al-bee-no.  I love it.  We got our first view of the townships i.e. towns where all the houses are tin shacks.  More on that later.  After picking up some cheap cell phones at the mall, we got to move into our campsite- not really camping- we stayed in little buildings aka "bungalows" hehe.  Another memorable moment was when we met the program directors' daughter at the door and she was telling us how a baboon had just broken in, but he ran away when reached for the broom haha.  By the way, it is common for baboons to walk down the road or if you don't lock your doors, break in and ransack your kitchen.  *common*  
        

      

So THAT’s how you say Burger King in Arabic...

^ I bought Burger King at the airport  (:

       

        Dubai was an experience!  Now that we had taken the morning flight from JFK, we arrived in Dubai at around 7 AM the next day (Sunday 6/19)  and our next flight didn’t leave until 3:50 AM the NEXT morning (Monday 6/20).  Just to clarify, the actual flight was about 11 or 12 hours long and then there is an 8 hour time difference, so it all added up to make it so we arrived almost an entire day later.  We got our passports stamped (yay!  my first passport stamp!)  and our first stop was the bathroom, in which we were surprised to find that each toilet came with its very own handheld hose (my first   experience stepping foot in a foreign bathroom haha). The moment when it finally hit me that I had finally set foot in another country though was actually when I stepped outside into the HEAT.  Dang!

Anyway, the volunteers and I decided to get a hotel in Dubai because that was just way too long to spend sitting in an airport.  We spent 200 dollars for 2 rooms, which wasn’t so bad, especially considering that the hotel was super fancy.  Also, the staff was ridiculously polite and offered us these mango drinks at the counter while we waited to be checked in.  We ended up taking a tour of the city to take advantage of our

unexpected day in Dubai.  We saw the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world), Ski Dubai (a mini place to ski indoors!), and the Mall of Dubai, complete with gigantic aquarium and iceskating rink.  Every time we stopped somewhere scenic, our driver would get down on one knee and attempt to balance himself precariously while taking excessive amounts of group photos. Anyway, jetlag hit us all hard about 1 hour into the 3 hour tour.  Most of the people knocked out in the back seat, but I was in the front seat right next to the guy so I was really trying to stay awake.  My head kept tilting forward slowly and snapping back for rest of the tour and I fell asleep like a baby when we got back to the hotel for your average everyday 5 hour late afternoon nap (4:30 to 9:30 PM) before we left for the airport.

oh Emirates...haha

The flight...

        The flight to Dubai (6/18) was a fascinating experience because Emirates (as I was once told) is a super fancy airline.  The plane had cameras in the front and underside of the plane so you could see scenery during takeoff and landing (althought all you could see was ocean for most of our flight), we were given the stickers in the picture above, a mini toothbrush complete with even mini-er toothpaste, a change of socks, and a complete lunch and breakfast.  I totally took pictures of and stole everything I could, including the menus.  I mean, it was all going to get thrown away anyway.  Maybe I’ll try to do a scrapbook or something haha.  

Anyway, so most of the people on the flight looked like they were from the Middle East, the introduction/safety video was shown in Arabic first and then English, the instructions to open the fold-down table in the backs of the chairs was in Arabic and English, and so were those menus!  Very cool.  

Getting here...

10:45 PM Friday 6/24/11

Getting here...

Wow, so right now I am sitting in the guest room of my host family’s house, getting my first solid chunk of time on a computer since I left on last Friday (6/17).  I guess we should start with the craziness of actually getting to South Africa!  Let me write out the logistics for the original plan:

3:15 PM flight from Boston to JFK Aiport in New York

11 PM flight (with all of the other Worldteach volunteers) from JFK to Dubai

and then a flight a few hours later from Dubai to Cape Town, South Africa

So anyway, I’m going to try to make this short since there is so much more to say!  My flight to New York was delayed 8 hours due to thunderstorms at JFK.  Basically, I ended up leaving Boston around the same time my supposed-to-be flight was taking off at JFK for Dubai.  Once I got to JFK, I met up with a few of the other stranded volunteers who had missed the flight and we slept on the floor of JFK because the next flight didn’t leave until the next morning.  Not comfortable haha.  Anyway, it was an experience!