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.