Pictures!

I got a few up on my Flickr! I don't feel like trying to put them all in here, but they all have descriptions on Flickr, so just follow the link and check them out there. I have over 600 pictures, but these took almost an hour to upload so I can't very well show them all.

Just a few highlights...

Enjoy! I know I am.

31 March (Day 15)

This was a pretty chill day. We spent some time this morning at The Ark: City of Refuge. It’s a compound of housing and schools that basically runs like a commune. People who have no money or homes can come to The Ark and receive a place to stay in exchange for working there. It houses about 730 people and is run by Christians. They survive on donations.

Two years ago students were placed there for their teaching, and Sandy said she would not do that again. The teachers in the schools are people who live at The Ark. It’s the job they do in exchange for their room and board, and so they’re not actually certified. She said that they would often leave the GVSU students to teach because they were embarrassed at their lack of education and skill. The problem with

The Ark is that the jobs are not paid. They are provided with food and housing instead. But in order to stay at The Ark you need to work there, which prevents you from getting a paid job, and you can’t afford to move out of The Ark without money. It’s sort of a catch-22. It’s also a Christian organization which requires praise and worship daily, which is an issue for people in need who are of a different faith.

They do house and aid a lot of people, though. And what we saw of their school today seemed nice, even if the teachers aren’t certified. One thing that a student on our trip commented on, though, was the level of happiness. The mood at The Ark was quite somber, especially compared to the township that we visited yesterday. Our tour guide was very chipper, though, so it may just be the personalities of the other people we saw.

We leave tomorrow for holiday. I’m bringing my computer, so hopefully I can keep up with my writing, but I’m not sure how much internet access I’ll have. So I wouldn’t count on too many updates in the coming days. But since we’ll be on holiday for Easter, I think that Heather and I are going to decorate eggs with Raiatea and Genovesa tonight. It should be fun; we brought a Camp Rock egg dying kit with us because we heard the girls like the Jonas Brothers. I’m excited! Also look forward to updates on cage diving, the game reserve, the elephant park, and bungee jumping when I get back from holiday!

30 March (Day 14)

We took a tour of Kayamandi Township today. The townships are where people live in shacks made from scrap metal and wood. There’s not plumbing in the shacks, there are little areas of toilets with like 15 toilets to be shared with hundreds of people. I saw people washing their clothes in sinks that were filthy. They do have electricity, though, and our tour guide Madiba was telling us that people are obsessed with having nice music systems and TVs, and we definitely saw a lot of TVs and heard lots of music.

We met a woman in the township who makes handmade jewelry, as well. I bought a necklace in purples, pinks and teals that is made of buttons. I also bought a couple of gifts. I think almost everyone bought something, and no one even bartered. We really cleared off her boards. She was so, so thankful. The things she made were beautiful and she was so nice.

We also visited the daycare in the township and were with the kids while they ate lunch. I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked, because I spent most of the time wiping little kids faces. I was happy to help, though, and I think that other people in our group got a lot of pictures.

I really feel like this day is better shared in pictures than words. When we left the township we came home to find that our laundry had been done for us and the beds were made. It was really surreal after seeing how some people have family homes the size of my room, while I have a live-in maid who cooks and cleans. I am very lucky. The people in the township weren’t unhappy, though. They were friendly and welcoming and much more open than I had expected.

The night was spent at the rugby game. I must admit that I definitely got into the local drinking customs, so I had a wonderful time. Heather and I bought a six pack of beer at the beginning of the game, and it was a good thing we did because beer sold out fast. We met some guys who were friends of James (Jeff's roommate) and they helped explain rugby to us a bit more. We tried to learn some of the Stellenbosch songs, but no one was interested in teaching us. I guess we'll have to try to find them online, or something!

29 March (Day 13)

Today was jam-packed! We met up early with our tour guide, Pierre. Sandy wasn’t with us because she decided to go to a baby shower instead. Pierre drove us along the coast to Hout’s Bay. We got to see where Michael Jackson’s house was (it’s hillside and shaped like a castle, but a total eyesore). There was also a brushfire on the mountain. I think I mentioned earlier that it’s been dry here, so there have been a lot of fires. It was my first time seeing one firsthand, though. There was a helicopter that was flying back and forth between the mountain and the bay dumping water. It was cool, but obviously really sad, as well.

In Hout’s Bay we got to go to a seal island! We took a glass-bottomed boat tour out to a little rock island where seals sit and sun themselves. We got to see some swimming and playing in the water, too. It’s funny that even though they’re wild, this is a tourist attraction so they’re not afraid of the boats full of people.

Back on land there was a little market. I wasn’t planning to buy anything, but I thought I would practice my bartering skills anyway. I set my sights on a painted wooden bowl. After I watched people from my group try their best at a few stands, I picked the furthest stand down the road. I inadvertently got it down to a price that I liked (40rand, or about $4US) and so now I have a painted wooden bowl.

After leaving Hout’s Bay, we headed to the Cape of Good Hope. It’s the most southwestern point of Africa. There’s a path over from there to Cape Point that we decided to walk. It’s not too bad of a walk, but the first portion was a bit steep and I have the feeling my legs will be sore tomorrow.

We saw some sweet critters on the hike, though! Some guys on the trail said they were called “rock rabbits,” and they pretty much looked like prairie dog-guinea pig hybrids. We saw a ton, and consequently I have tons of pictures of them.

We also FINALLY saw a baboon! A bunch, actually, but two on the trail. There was one that was on the trail where Anna, Heather, Kate, Kristina, Jeff and I were walking. Jeff thought we should just leave the path, but as soon as we left the trail the baboon did, too. Then as we continued on there was another sitting right next to the path. After we finished the walk we had lunch at a little restaurant at the end of the trail. While we were there, there were several baboons in the parking lot and going into the trash. I’ve been waiting to see baboons, so I’m glad. I hear we should see even more on holiday.

We rushed through lunch so that we could make it to Simon’s Town before the penguin park closed. Boulder Beach has tons of penguins. We went into the park where they had man-made nests set up, and boardwalks that you could follow to look at all the penguins. I took sooooo many pictures (~250 this weekend in all). Then we walked further along to a little stretch of beach where you can swim with the penguins. Yes, I swam with penguins. Kind of. I mean, I waded around and climbed on some rocks by the penguins. But it’s basically the same thing. We did so much cool stuff today, I’m really excited for the next few weeks!

28 March (Day 12)

We did tons of wine tasting today. We met at 9:30am because the vineyards open at 10. We started at Warwick, where we saw a cool cup that two people can drink from. There’s a hokey story that goes with it: There was a princess who felt in love with a silversmith, but her father wouldn’t let them get married. The princess wouldn’t eat because she was so upset, so the king said that if the silversmith could create a cup that two people could drink from at the same time without spilling, he could marry the princess. Now Warwick sells these cups that are really cool, but also over $200USD! Crazy! The wine was good, but a little bit pricey so instead I bought some olive oil there.

Next up was Fairview, which was my favorite of the vineyards. Fairview is the home of the Goats Do Roam line of wines, and they have this cool silo-type building with a spiral ramp all around that goats can climb up on. It’s really cool, but pictures will be better than words. The woman conducting our tasting told us that when they first started growing their grapes, they would let the goats out into the vineyards. The goats would choose to eat the sweetest grapes, and those were then the grapes they would harvest. They don’t do that anymore, though. We tasted a bunch of wine there that we all really good, and we did a wine and cheese tasting with the wines that they cheese that they make at their dairy. There was goats cheese with herbs, goats cheese with pepper, a bleu and brie hybrid that was interesting, a bleu and a brie. They were delicious. They also sold breads on the grounds, so I bought this delicious seed loaf. And I bought a Pinotage-Vigonnier blend that we tried. Both grape varieties are really popular in South Africa, but Fairview was the first (only?) vineyard to put out a blend.

For lunch we went to a chain called Spur. It’s a basic burger restaurant, but we were definitely ready to eat after all of our wine tasting.

After lunch we went to our last vineyard. Sandy picked Diemersfontein because they have a Pinotage that has flavors of chocolate and coffee. It was really interesting and I may buy a bottle later to take home. It’s a really distinct coffee flavor that comes from the barrels they age it in. Instead I bought a rose. They had overproduced because an order was placed and then cancelled, so they were selling their rose for 10 rand, which is just over $1US. I bought two bottles, as did everyone on our trip but Kristina, who bought a case. The wine was actually pretty good, it was just that they needed to sell it because they made too much. I really can’t argue with $1 wine!

Phoebe and the girls were gone overnight in Cape Town. They had friends from Australia and the US who were coming into town and so they rented a hotel room and spent the night with them. We took full advantage of the empty house and invited everyone over to the pool after tasting. Jeff and Anna were the only two bold enough to actually go swimming since our pool is freezing. Lutz the crazy dog trapped Anna in the pool, though. When she tried to get out he jumped on her and knocked her down. I guess she has a pretty gnarly bruise on her butt, and I had to take her upstairs and clean up a nice scratch from his claws. I felt pretty bad about it.

Then we all played Screw Your Neighbor, which Heather had to teach most of us. I did pretty well, I think. It was fun because we had a big group. There were a few of us whose families weren’t around for dinner so we called Sandy to recommend someplace to get pizza. She said there’s a restaurant called Col’Cacchio that she’d heard good things about, so we went to check it out. We had a party of eight so we had to wait for them to put together a table for us, but it was worth it. I ordered a pizza with smoked mozzarella, sundried tomato, and caramelized onions. Heather was impressive, too; she got spinach, feta, and avocado. Jeff wins the award for weirdest, though. It’s a common flavor in South Africa, but in the states I think there are few people who would be interested in banana and bacon pizza. I tried it, but since I’m not a big fan of bananas I wasn’t too impressed. I’ll eat pretty much anything with bacon, though.

We happened to be at the restaurant during Earth Hour, though. I’m not sure how big of a deal it was at home, but Earth Hour here was pretty big. During Earth Hour they had candles and fires lit and the turned down the lights (the kitchen stayed open) and just kept on running. It was cool, I’m not sure how many restaurants in the US would have done that, but Sandy said the restaurant she was at did it too. I know some of the host families also participated.

27 March (Day 11)

Friday my teacher wasn’t in school. The student teacher from the local college was there and so she was the lead teacher and I did what she needed me to. She was fantastic. She had good control of the kids (as good as you can have with a group of 34 five- and six-year-olds) and she used some of the same techniques that we do in the states. She told me that she’s not as comfortable in English because it’s not her first language but she did a great job.

After school, one of the host moms had a braai for all of the GVSU students and Sandy. A braai is a South African barbecue. We had salad, bread, chicken, boerwurst (not sure if I’m spelling that right, but it’s sausage), and lamb for dinner. Alet also provided wine for us all, which was great. For dessert we had ice cream with mint chocolate sauce from a tube that looked like sunscreen but tasted good. Before dinner Jeff told me that he “noticed that [I] was wearing some makeup and [my] hair was down.” I was wearing the exact makeup I wear every day. He insisted he was trying to pay me a compliment. I am now trying to teach Jeff how to compliment people.

After the braai everyone decided to go out to the bar. Jeff lives with a South African grad student named James, so we met up with James and his friends at a bar on the edge of downtown. I tried to order a rum and coke but got whisky and coke. I still did better than Heather and Anna, though. They ordered tequila shots and were presented with sliced lemons and table salt. Gross. We sat on some tables outside and hung out with James’ friends.

After a drink there we switched bars because some girls wanted to dance. Sadly, the bar with dancing had a cover charge. It was only about $1US, but no one really felt like paying it, so instead we went next door to Bohemia. I can’t dislike a bar that plays “Mr. Jones,” but it wasn’t long before I was really sick of one of James’ friends who wouldn’t quit hitting on every single girl in the group. I told him that Jake was “the guy who takes me home,” (which is true, he walks us home because we’re on the way) and that didn’t even seem to faze him, even when I would sit right next to Jake. He tried to pull Heather into the bathroom with him! So after another drink we headed home. Unfortunately Kristina is diabetic and her blood sugar got a bit low, so she needed to be carried home. She was fine when she got home, though.

26 March 2009 (Day 10)

Today was our first wine tasting! It wasn’t an official group outing, but one of the host families organized it. Peter is quite the wine connoisseur and offered to take a bunch of us out tasting. We went to Rustenburg, which is right near the school I work at. We did a typical tasting (three reds, three whites) and I ended up buying a bottle of red (a Bordeaux-blend, quelle surprise). Peter knows the people at the vineyard, though, and he totally hooked us up. He took us on a tour of the facilities. We even got to try some of the grapes they were processing! I told everyone else in the group, the tour Peter gave us was like something straight out of my wine class. It was also really cool to ask questions about the wine-making process in South Africa, since I only really learned extensively about French wines.

When we got back, our family had made dinner plans without us. Another host family had other plans, so Jake, Anna, Alex, Heather and I ended up going out for dinner with Sandy. We went to a restaurant called Sosato. Their specialty is kebobs, so I had a lamb kebob sandwich and small pap balls. Pap is a traditional South Africa meal dish, sort of like polenta. These were rolled in chili and then fried, basically awesome. We also ordered three bottles of wine with our meal, and we had dessert. I ordered Koeksisters, which were fried dough with a yogurt dressing served with a scoop of ice cream. Sounds phenomenal, tasted really gross. I didn’t even finish them. I like spending time in smaller groups, though. It makes it easier to get to know people.

25 March 2009 (Day 9)

I had a pretty okay day at school today. My kids made these adorable Easter egg collages and then played outside and played Bingo. It would have been a great day, except for one little incident with a student that almost had me in tears. My teacher singled out one kid for not finishing his work. Instead of talking to him about it, so just held up his work and said, “Aiden didn’t do anything. What was he doing while you were all working,” and generally mocked him. And then another kid chimed in and said, “Yeah, because he’s stupid!” Aiden was on the verge of tears and I was too. I talked to him later to see how he was doing, and he told me he was having surgery the next day. I felt terrible, but other than that the day was uneventful.

That evening we were supposed to go to house church, but it got cancelled. Instead, Phoebe invited friends for dinner. It was interesting to chat with locals about the schools. Obviously we talk to Sandy and Phoebe, but it’s still cool to have different insight. Phoebe’s friend’s kids go to the same school Phoebe’s do, a very nice public school. We got to talk about way that their school compared to those that we worked in and whether or not the things that we see would be considered “normal” for the area. They were really nice, and even though we didn’t get to go to church I still feel like we had a good evening.

24 March 2009 (Day 8)

My kids had a field trip today! It was awesome, we went to the local museum. We actually aren’t going with my GVSU group, so it was an opportunity I probably would have missed out on otherwise. The museum consisted of several houses that were maintained in their old ways. It was all colonial stuff, though, so it (obviously) reminded me a lot of the types of museums and estates you see in Europe.

My kids had a great time, though. There was a sort of Easter program going on, and they got to do a little story play about Easter. One of my students was chosen to represent the people who came to get Jesus, and the museum guides gave him a very realistic-looking play gun! That’s so different from what you would see in the US. Then they talked about the story of Easter. I learned to say, “Jesus has risen,” in Afrikaans. It’s been a day and I’ve already forgotten, oops. Then they talked about how Easter eggs are hollow because when they came to the cave it was empty, which was funny because later on they got candy eggs with marshmallow filling (aka NOT hollow).

After that they got to go out to the gardens where they met up with the Easter bunny (who gave them their eggs). I also got a candy egg. I thought it would be similar to the French oursons guimauvre, but it was actually pretty different. The marshmallow was less chewy and almost creamier. Strange. They also got their faces painted, which resulted in dozens of adorable pictures. Someday I’ll post pictures, I swear!

And the fun didn’t stop there. After we were done at the museum, we walked all of the students through downtown Stellenbosch to the Eikestad mall. We went to a fast food chain called the Hungry Lion and ordered 37 ice cream cones (34 students and 3 adults), then we walked everyone across the street to an open field/park area to play until our taxi came to get us. Once again, transporation proved interesting when we fit 35 people into a bus made for 16.

After school the GVSU group was dropped off in town. Anna, Alex, Heather, and I went off in search of some cardigans. We didn’t find any, but I got a zip-up from a store called Pep that looks decent and cost about $4US. Then we went to La Cubana, a sort of bar/restaurant/hookah lounge in town. We each tried a shot (they looked awesome, and were only $1.50US) at 3 in the afternoon, and we all shared an order of nachos as a bit of an after-school snack. They were delicious, we’ll have to do it again sometime.

Then Anna and Alex headed to the internet café and Heather and I started to walk home. We wanted to get some University of Stellenbosch tee shirts on our way home, because Jess and Emily got some that were really cute on clearance. I guess we asked directions from a student at exactly the right time, because we were right by where we needed to be to get to the bookstore. Heather and I each got v-necks (mine black, hers maroon), Heather got a really cute sweatshirt and I got a crew-neck tee shirt with the school crest on it. Each of our purchases came out to less than $25US, and Heather even got a free scarf with hers! Lucky. Now we’ll have something to wear when we go to next week’s rugby game.

23 March 2009 (Day 7)

Monday was pretty boring, school-wise. The day went according to plan. I got to spend a bit of one-on-one time with one of my more difficult students, and I’m working on building a bit of a relationship up with him. We’ll see how that goes.
After school was quite hectic. We were dropped off in downtown Stellenbosch around 3, and did a quick debriefing with our professor on the side of the road. After that, a few of us went to Mug and Bean coffee shop for smoothies. Heather and I split a piece of carrot cake that was divine. We then stopped into the grocery store quickly to pick up some candy for Heather’s lesson the next day, and a bit of wine for the evening. We bought two mini bottles of sparkling wine and a bottle of sparkling rose. We rushed home and made it with about 15 minutes to change and get ready to go out.

At 5 we went over to Kate and Kristina’s host family’s house, where they were celebrating Kristina’s birthday. Kristina had mentioned to her family that her favorite cake was angel food, so Amelia, her host mother, had searched and searched for a recipe or an angel food cake, because they are uncommon here. She made an incredibly beautiful butter cake, instead, and garnished the plate with fresh flowers. We ate in their garden under a beautiful flowering tree with a homemade treehouse; it was a garden party straight out of Martha Stewart Living. They bought Kristina flowers and a brooch for her birthday, but Jan and Amelia also teach parenting classes. Amelia said that their family “believes that the greatest give one can give is their words,” so then each of the children said something that they think makes Kristina special. It was really touching and I’m so glad that Amelia included Heather and me in the evening.

At 6 we were off to a rugby match! I’ve never seen a rugby match in person, but the University of Stellenbosch Maties were in the semifinals, I guess, and everyone was really excited. I managed to get . myself in free, I think I just baffled the ticket man. We headed for an entrance that said, “Ticket Holders Only.” I didn’t have a ticket, so I told the man just that and he waved me through! Jeff claims we got in because we’re girls, but I think our accents could have also thrown him.
I can definitely get into rugby. First of all, there was a fire in the stands. Someone just set up a braai (barbecue) right in the stands! Sweet! Second, there is copious drinking at this University event. You can buy six packs of beer from the vendor in the stadium. Third, this specific stadium is surrounded by mountains. In case you can’t tell yet, I am a big fan of mountains. Lastly, there is yelling involved. I can’t tell all of the rules, but I can follow social cues to yell when “we” score. I’m trying to learn some of the rules, but Jake seemed less than enthusiastic about my questions.

And we won! The score was 38-14, so we decided to have a small gathering to celebrate “our” win. Jake, Anna, Heather, and I went over to Jeff, Jess, and Emily’s house. Their host family has Jeff staying in a little flat that he shares with a local grad student. Heather and I stopped home to pick up our aforementioned wine and then walked down to the Roos house (which is half way down the block, we were safe, no worries!) around 9. Peter and Liesel were having dinner with Jeff, Jess, and Emily when we got there, so we talked with them for awhile. Peter is big on wine and offered to take us with him wine tasting! I think we’re going to go on Thursday after school.

After they finished eating, we went back to Jeff and James’ flat. I got to meet James for the first time, though I had heard a lot about him from the other three. We all hung out for a bit, drinking wine and beer and listening to music. We weren’t out too late, we got home around 11:30, since we needed to go to school at 7am the next day. I had a really great time, though, and I’m excited for next Monday’s rugby match!

21-22 March 2009 (Day 5 and 6)

Aka Beach House Weekend/ “Dog Ponytail”

Saturday morning I woke up around 9am, but I didn’t hear anyone else moving. The house was set up so that there was a loft with eight beds, a basement room with three beds, and four bedrooms with double beds. The place had four bathrooms, but only one with a functioning toilet, so when people did get up it was easy to hear. I was sleeping in the basement room with Anna and Alex, and Jeff was in the room next to us. I laid in bed until Anna and Alex started to move around. Everyone woke up about 10:30. I helped Jess and Emily make breakfast, and as we were cleaning up Jeff asked if anyone wanted to go for a hike.

I should have said no. I had a maxi dress and flip-flops on, and I’m not exactly the most experienced climber to begin with, but Jeff said that he’d be going out in the afternoon and then again at sunset. I knew I didn’t want to be out after dark, so Anna, Kate, and I decided we would tag along for the afternoon hike. I wasn’t planning on doing much, since I wasn’t exactly dressed for the task. I considered even just walking to the base of the mountain and then turning back, but sometimes I make stupid choices just because I want to.

I climbed a mountain in South Africa wearing a dress and flip flops. Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration (surprising from me?). I was only in flip flops about half of the way up. Unlike me, Jeff was overly prepared and lent me his climbing shoes. Good thing, because I could never have gone as far as I did without them. I didn’t even make it all the way up, I made Kate stop with me at a peak while Jeff and Anna headed for the summit. But I made it pretty far, and it was pretty awesome and I’m really glad I did it (even though I feel bad for holding the others back). And while we waited for Jeff and Anna I got to talk to Kate for an hour and a half, and it can be hard to get one-on-one time with people in the group, so that was really cool. Not to mention sitting on a mountain looking over the Atlantic is pretty much the perfect place for conversation.

My body, on the other hand, is not so happy. The ground was covered in bushes, some of them dead and all of them spiky. My legs are now sliced up and look pretty disgusting. But I didn’t get sunburned! My dress was long and I had a really lightweight jersey cardigan that covered my arms and back. I applied SPF 70 on my face in the morning and 50 on my body, and then Kate lent me her SPF 15 to reapply on my face throughout the day. I say throughout the day, because despite our plan of Jeff taking two separate hikes, we were gone all day.

We climbed more than I think any of us (except maybe Jeff) expected to, and ended up being out for about six hours. After we came down one side, Jeff decided he wanted to try another peak to watch the sunset. We had worried about him the night before, so we gave him Kate’s cell phone and parted ways. Too bad Jeff had led us to the mountain. Anna, Kate, and I got hopelessly lost trying to get home. Luckily for us, Heather and Jess were out at the store and happened to see us on the road, walking away from where our house was. We didn’t get home until after sunset.

I felt even worse about coming home later than expected when I realized that the group had already started to make dinner. It was pizza night and everyone else was getting the dinner started that I had been responsible for. I wasn’t too late, though, and I was still able to do quite a bit. We also made mimosas, which were delicious.

Saturday night was somewhat similar to Friday, in that I spent some time on the deck (no shooting stars this time) and we played cards, but at midnight something special happened. It was Kristina’s birthday! The group had managed to sneak a cake with us to the beach house, so we surprised her with candles and we all sang. Then we let Kristina decide what game we would play. She picked charades.

We decided that we would play with Pictionary cards, since we had them. One of the groups had the prompt “Shetland Pony.” I don’t even know what the girl acting it out did to solicit this response, but Jeff guessed, very seriously, “Dog ponytail.” Anna and I basically died laughing. It wasn’t like he was guessing a ton of random things. “Dog ponytail” was his only guess, as though he thought a Pictionary card had said “dog ponytail,” and if it said anything else he would be entirely shocked. You could tell he was exhausted and trying to participate, but it cracked Anna and I up for a good few hours. It was a good thing he said it though, since they ended up getting the point for “pony.”

We ended the night a lot earlier on Saturday, and the last few of us standing finished it out with a few rounds of “What Grandpa Likes” and “Behind The Green Glass Doors.”

Sunday morning I had absolutely no desire to get out of bed. My muscles weren’t too sore at that point, but I was still exhausted and my cuts were burning. I needed Anna and Alex to force me out of bed while we packed up to leave. Deion wasn’t coming to pick us up until 3pm, so we had most of the day to hang out. We walked down the beach to a little pool of water that was shallower (read: warmer) to lay out and swim. I felt fine going into the water; it was nice and cold on my cuts. Coming out was far less pleasant. Everyone else insisted that they thought the burn of salt water on cuts felt good, because you “know that it’s cleaning them out.” I disagree, strongly. It did not feel at all good.

We headed back around 12:30; I didn’t want to be out in the sun too long. I rinsed off in the outdoor shower to get off some of the salt and sand, and then had lunch. Anna had a blister that tore open while we were hiking on Saturday that had gotten filled with dirt and sand. It was disgusting, and since I like being grossed out I decided to sit with her while she soaked it in salt water, cut off the skin, washed it out with a foaming face wipe, swiped some antiseptic on it, and put on a bandaid. That is to say, we spent quite a bit of time on the porch. Then we headed up to sit on the deck for a bit. Remember when I said I rinsed off? Yeah, I didn’t put on any more sunscreen after that. Oops. My face, legs, neck, chest, and most of my arms are fine. My back is fried. There is one red stripe down the back of my right arm, but I have some gnarly burn lines on my back. I was wearing a racer back dress and my swimsuit that has double straps, so I have crazy marks.

We packed up and left, stopping once on the drive home for pictures. We got back into Stellenbosch around 5:15, and Heather and I hung out with Phoebe and the girls. Everyone else went into town for dinner, since their families were out when we got home. I’m a little bummed that we missed out on hanging out with the group, but Phoebe’s dinner was sooo good, and I was still wearing my bathing suit when they all stopped by to see if we wanted to come out.

After dinner I took a shower and had my first South African bug run-in. I felt it crunch under my foot, but it was definitely not dead. When I looked down, I saw a beetle. Nothing too big, between the size of a quarter and a half dollar, but still not what you want to find while you’re naked and alone. So I got out of the shower pretty fast and called Lotz, the dog, in hopes that he may be interested in eating bugs. Nope. I was showing the bug to Heather when Phoebe walked by. A much braver woman than I, she picked up the beetle and tossed it out the window.

It was at that point that the sunburn was discovered. I couldn’t feel it (though the shower burned the heck out of the cuts on my legs), but Phoebe and Heather both saw it. Phoebe gave me some after-sun gel and Heather helped me put it on. Since then I’ve been sitting topless while the gel dries, writing out the account of this weekend. We’ll see how the burn is treating me tomorrow.

20 March 2009 (Day 4)

My kids had a field trip today! It was very different from an American field trip. We went to a park near school, but near school is actually about a mile away. And we walked. With 80 four- and five-year-old children. 8 adults. On roads without sidewalks.

When we got to the park it was (can you guess?) beautiful. There were palm trees, and the mountains were in the background and there was a little vine covered path with benches. The kids played all morning. No real educational learning objective, just play. We brought some cricket sticks and a rugby ball, but other than that there were some swings, a spinning wheel type thing, a jungle gym, and a slide. And tortoises! There were two tortoises. One had a cracked shell, which was really sad.
I took a bunch of pictures of my kids, again. One boy, Zicklin, had a little cookie stick in his hand and he said, “Look at me, I’m like Harry Potter!” and then did a move with the “wand.” So I took a video of him, and showed it to him. Then when Uzayr saw the video, he wanted to take one of him dancing, so I have another video of Uzayr dancing that Zicklin then moves through, and Jayren does a little move, too. Very cute.

Going home was another serious moment of culture shock for me. We didn’t walk back to school, they had called a “taxi” (one of those 12 person vans). My teacher had also driven her Ford Ranger. We fit 25 little Grade R students into the back of my teacher’s Ford Ranger!!! The rest of the 80 students and 6 teachers were split among two trips in the taxi. It was insane. Not only was it something you couldn’t do in the states, but it was something you could never DREAM of doing with students. It was definitely a crazy experience, and I took several pictures of that, too.
Friday was the beginning of our beach house weekend. We rented a house on Pringle Bay for the weekend, and left right from school. First we went to the grocery store. We had split into groups of 3 and had taken on one meal per group to provide for the weekend. Heather, Sara, and I were pizza. We had to find pizza crusts, which interestingly are sold frozen here, with the sauce already on them. We also bought veggies, peppered salami (no pepperoni that we could find) and a bunch of mozzarella cheese, and some bread to make cheese bread. Heather and I also picked up some snack type foods that we’re going to bust into after school this coming week. AND we decided we wanted to make guacamole. I couldn’t find jalapenos or limes, so I got green chilies and lemon, and there were only yellow onions (I prefer red for guacamole), but the end (I am writing all of the weekend stuff Sunday night) result was all eaten up. People obviously haven’t had my amazing guac before, so they didn’t know what they were missing out on.

After the grocery store we ran to our houses to pick up our weekend bags, which we’d packed the night before. Unfortunately, Sandy didn’t tell us until that morning that we would need to bring our own bedding to the beach house. Laeti (the maid) wasn’t working, and Phoebe wasn’t home so Heather and I had to find bedding ourselves, which can be hard in a house that isn’t your own! Luckily, we found things easily enough and managed to throw together some bags with bedding before rushing back to the van. When we got to the van, though, Heather and I couldn’t remember if we had shut the cupboard door with the linens. It wouldn’t have been a huge deal, except that Lotz (the dog, I have no clue how to spell his name but that is when Genove told me—it sounds like Loots) is only a year old and happens to be gigantic and energetic. We haven’t seen him actually harm property yet (though he did try to eat one of Heather’s sandals), but we didn’t want to find out the hard way if he would. So we had to have the van drive us back to our house and run in. Good thing we did, because the cupboard was definitely open.

We hit the road with a planned stop. Jeff wanted to run into a shop to get a leash for the surfboard he borrowed from his roommate. When he went in, he found out that they were sold out! So then we had to make an extra stop at Somerset Mall. Yes, I stopped at Somerset Mall in South Africa. Obviously I took a picture.
It took about an hour to get to Pringle Bay. The drive was incredible, we were surrounded by mountains and driving right along the ocean. I sound like a broken record, but it really was beautiful. We got to the house with about an hour until sunset, so most of us headed for the beach. We walked down to the water and dipped our feet into the Atlantic—it was freeeezing. Painfully cold, actually. After that, Jeff headed for a mountain to watch the sunset, and the rest of us settled into a dune. I wish I had grabbed my camera, but I know a picture could never have fully captured it. That sunset was one of, if not THE, best I’ve ever seen. Absolutely breathtaking.

After that we headed inside and the group cooking dinner got started. It wasn’t until it was fully dark that people started to worry about Jeff. He had planned on climbing up to see the sunset, so we knew he wouldn’t be back until after dark, plus he’s definitely experienced, but when you get a group of teachers together the collective worrying just starts to kick in. A few of us went out to the beach to wave flashlights around to try and signal to him, and also to see if we could see his light coming down the mountain. Nothing. We were all sitting down to dinner, when suddenly there was Jeff at the door with a bundle of sticks around his neck. He was proud as a peacock, and just wanted to know if we could have a bonfire.
We ended up skipping the bonfire that night; it was really windy and already dark by the time Jeff was home. Instead, after dinner we broke up into groups and played Euchre (not me), Balderdash, and Spongebob Uno (with the good old “Super Absorbency” card. I also spent a decent amount of time on the upper deck looking at the stars. I’ve never seen stars so clearly before. The Milky Way was super bright, and I saw THREE shooting stars! It was great.

19 March 2009 (DAY 3)

I had my first full day in the school today. I had decided that by the end of the day I would have learned at least half of my students’ names, and I think I’m doing well so far. I also met the student aide today. She’s doing her student teaching here, basically. She’s in our class on Thursdays and Fridays and teaches two lessons each day.

Today one of her lessons was about homes, and she talked about houses/flats/shacks/caravans. Then we sang a Sunday school song about houses. We also pray at the end of the day and before lunch in the public school, which is definitely different than the States.

She also taught a PE-type outdoor lesson, which was nice because the weather today is much better! It’s sunny and warm, so I tried to stay out of the sun as much as I could, since I only applied sunscreen at 6am. I took some pictures of the kids playing outside today. They have an hour of outdoor recess! I took pictures of them playing, and a couple of videos. They have a small playground next to their room, but for toys all they really have are old tires and some sticks with wheels on the end. I got a lot of cute pictures, though.

After school, Heather and I invited Emily, Jeff, and Jessica over to lay out and swim. Jeff and Jess decided to go hiking (with Jake, heyyyy alliteration), but Emily came over for a bit. We vegged on the couches by the pool for a while, then Genove came home. She decided to go swimming, but the water was way too cold for us.
My favorite part of today, though, was after dinner. Phoebe, Heather, and I were cleaning up and Phoebe had sent the girls up for their baths. Heather and I stepped out onto the back patio to look at the mountains, and commented to Phoebe on how beautiful the light was on the mountains as the sun set. Phoebe then proceeded to call the girls down before they could start their bath, and herded us all into the car. We then drove very quickly up into the mountains before it got dark. It was so beautiful! We could see very clearly where the fires had moved along the mountains, and even up to the roads. It was sad.

19 March 2009 (DAY 3)

I had my first full day in the school today. I had decided that by the end of the day I would have learned at least half of my students’ names, and I think I’m doing well so far. I also met the student aide today. She’s doing her student teaching here, basically. She’s in our class on Thursdays and Fridays and teaches two lessons each day.

Today one of her lessons was about homes, and she talked about houses/flats/shacks/caravans. Then we sang a Sunday school song about houses. We also pray at the end of the day and before lunch in the public school, which is definitely different than the States.

She also taught a PE-type outdoor lesson, which was nice because the weather today is much better! It’s sunny and warm, so I tried to stay out of the sun as much as I could, since I only applied sunscreen at 6am. I took some pictures of the kids playing outside today. They have an hour of outdoor recess! I took pictures of them playing, and a couple of videos. They have a small playground next to their room, but for toys all they really have are old tires and some sticks with wheels on the end. I got a lot of cute pictures, though.

After school, Heather and I invited Emily, Jeff, and Jessica over to lay out and swim. Jeff and Jess decided to go hiking (with Jake, heyyyy alliteration), but Emily came over for a bit. We vegged on the couches by the pool for a while, then Genove came home. She decided to go swimming, but the water was way too cold for us.
My favorite part of today, though, was after dinner. Phoebe, Heather, and I were cleaning up and Phoebe had sent the girls up for their baths. Heather and I stepped out onto the back patio to look at the mountains, and commented to Phoebe on how beautiful the light was on the mountains as the sun set. Phoebe then proceeded to call the girls down before they could start their bath, and herded us all into the car. We then drove very quickly up into the mountains before it got dark. It was so beautiful! We could see very clearly where the fires had moved along the mountains, and even up to the roads. It was sad.

Day Two

18 March 2009
I got my placement today. I wasn’t in my classroom all day, though. The principal of the school hadn’t yet figured out where we would be when we got there, so I missed the first few minutes because we were waiting to find out where I would be placed. I told him that I would go anywhere he needed me. He asked, “Even the younger grades?” and I explained that I had taught preschool before, so I was comfortable with younger students. At that point he asked if I would be comfortable working with actual preschoolers, and I told him I would be glad to.
I’m teaching Grade R, which is their preschool. My students are mostly five and six years old, with one four year old. There are 38 students in my class, with one teacher and two aides who come on alternating days. There are three Grade R classes in the school, but only my class is the English track.
I taught preschool in the States when I was in high school, but it was a very different experience. I taught fours and fives, and in our class of 22 preschoolers, we had a 2 to 1 ratio. That sort of classroom runs very differently from a 19 to 1 ratio. I can’t say for certain, but I think that’s actually an illegal number in the States.
I’m obviously working very hard to learn names, but between the sheer number and the fact that there are so many names that are entirely unfamiliar, I’m having a hard time. And it doesn’t help that we have TWO sets of identical twins! Luckily I’ve already figured out how to tell them apart (in one set Venito has a freckle on his forehead, in another one of them has a scar on his cheek), but now I need to figure out who is who out of Conner and Cohen.
It looks like my teacher will be out soon to have surgery, and she’s already asked me to prepare some lessons! Next week’s theme is Easter (no separation of church and state here) so I think I’m going to talk to a few of my fellow GV students. Heather loves Easter, and Kristina has worked in a preschool for a few years, so I think I should be able to work something out.
After school we had a debriefing with Sandy, our professor, at a gelato shop in downtown Stellenbosch. I have to admit that I wasn’t overly impressed by what I had today (black cherry yogurt and peach), but I’ll have to try the chocolate flavors next.
After that, Heather and I walked home. I felt filthy after watching my students play in the dust for about an hour at recess, so I took a quick bath and then Heather and I napped on our family’s glorious patio. Unfortunately it was a bit cool again today, so we woke up pretty cold and moved inside to lay in the family room. At that point, the dog joined us. He is so dopey sometimes. He loves to chase his tail; he chased and chased until he wore himself out, then rested and chased some more. It was too funny.
For dinner, all of the host families and students gathered at the Taylor’s house for a potluck. There are five families, three with young children. It was fun to introduce my friends to my family. Raiatea and Genove were a riot, and I loved meeting everyone else’s families as well.

Day 1

17 March 2009
Today was our first full day in Stellenbosch. We got to our houses last night around 1am, following approximately 28 hours of travel (not including the drive from Grosse Pointe to Grand Rapids). The flights, though exhausting, were relatively uneventful. Since Hayley is dying to know, I watched Four Christmases, The Changeling, and part of a movie called Hallam Foe, which I didn’t like enough to finish. They also has Slumdog Millionaire, but I didn’t feel like watching that for the first time on an airplane, and Doubt, which seemed more serious than I wanted. They are still playing Mamma Mia. I have no idea why, but several of the people on the trip ended up watching it. It was a good thing we had so many Abba fans, since the only CD in the bus that picked us up happened to be an Abba CD. Unfortunately, I am not much of an Abba fan, and now I cannot seem to get “Fernando” out of my head.
But you don’t read this blog to hear about my taste in dated European pop groups.
There are five families hosting the 12 Grand Valley students in Stellenbosch. We are all ridiculously close to each other: two of the families are six and seven houses down from us; another family, the Taylors, is about a 2 minute walk away. David Taylor is the person in charge of the program in Stellenbosch, he set us up with our families and we meet at his house in the morning to get picked up for school.
This morning, David and Sandy, the GVSU program head, took us on a tour of all three of the school we’ll be working at. Three students are at Cloetusville Secondary School, five are at A.F. Louw Primary School, and four are at Idasvallei Primary School. We visited the schools in that order, meeting each of the principals, touring each school, and at A.F. Louw we were even lucky enough to have tea with the other teachers!
Tomorrow will be my first day at Idasvallei. There are about 900 students and 28 teachers. In South Africa, the government agrees to pay for a certain amount of teachers. Then, the governing body of the school decides how they will allocate their funds, and the most important thing to spend money on is teachers. Four or five of the Idasvallei teachers are paid for by the school. By adding those teachers, they can bring their average class size down to about 40 students. FORTY! I thought my 27 were a handful!
In 2007 they spent a lot of money to build a new media center. It’s pretty much empty. It’s sad, because the room is really nice but they just don’t have any books for it. I’m glad that we at least brought what resources we could with us. Their pride and glory of the school was also built in 2007: a computer lab. The lab is great, I would say it’s better than a lot of public school labs in the States. The government paid for half, and then Idasvallei was able to raise enough money from its funds to make it twice the size it would have been. They’re right to be proud of it.
After touring the schools, we were dropped off in downtown Stellenbosch to explore a bit. We found the bank, had lunch, picked up some stuff we needed (hair dryer, cell phones, etc) and then learned how to walk back home from there. It’s about a 15 minute walk, I think. We stopped about half way to see where Sandy stays.
When we got home our host family was waiting for us! I live with my friend Heather, from Grand Valley. We’re in a gorgeous house with a mom, a 12-year-old daughter, Raiatea (ryh-TEE), and a 7-year-old daughter, Genove (jen-oh-VEE). We gave them their gifts, including a Motown CD, some baseball caps, the book M is for Mitten and ton of Disney stuff, and they seemed to really love them all. Then we all had dinner together, played some Wii (I’m really good at tennis and bowling!) and then the girls went to bed.
The family also has a dog: a German Shepherd puppy named Luce. When I say puppy, I mean in age alone. This dog is NOT small, and unluckily for Heather and I, he doesn’t speak English. So when we tried to tell him “out!,” “no!,” and “come here!,” this morning, he was less than responsive. I have the feeling the only Afrikaans I will know when I leave will be commands. So far I’ve learned “aff!,” (off) and “eit!,” (out). Those are merely phonetic estimations, but he actually listened to me when I said “eit,” today, so basically I am a Goddess of Afrikaans.
In other exciting house news: I have my own room! I stay in the guest room and Heather is staying in Raiatea’s room. This means that I have a glorious full sized bed, and Heather has a glorious full sized poster of the Jonas Brothers over her bed. I think this is an even trade. Heather may disagree. We can both, however, agree on how awesome our view is! I’ll have to take a picture, but ours windows face the mountains. It’s incredible. We also have a pool in the backyard, which is almost as incredible. Unfortunately it was quite cold here today, so the pool must wait for another day.
It’s nearing 10pm here, and I have to wake up at 6am to teach tomorrow, so I’ll stop this now. I’ll try to get it uploaded as soon as I can, but I probably won’t get them up daily. Sorry if you’re reading this in the future, but I wrote it on the day that it’s dated, so hopefully that will give you an idea of what point in the trip I’m at (though day one should really be quite apparent).