Since we arrived under the cover of darkness on Sunday night, we didn't do much besides explore Mantis and Moon (our backpackers). But there was no shortage of nooks and crannies to explore. Such a cool spot! Like wooden cabins and treehouses (yep. stayed in one of those...childhood fantasy fulfilled!!) built into the jumgle so that you can't see any other civilization from your cabin. Everything was rustic and wooden in a super hippy kind of way, with an outdoor bar, teepee, these rickety uneven wooden slat pathways, hot tub, pool, fabric-covered gazebo, rooftop deck, and tons of neon lights lighting everything up. DUH! Amaze-balls. Only downside was that there was only about 9 people there, in total. It turned out pretty well though cuz we just wanted to chill and hot tub and get a little drunkity and wake up bright and early the next day. There was Raymund the bartender who unfortunately was sick from the big party they'd had the night before. With his bleach-blonde dreds, we could definitely tell he would've been a good time. He was sad too. But he poured us a bunch of drinks and tucked himself into bed. Omri, an Israeli traveller on an exploration before joining the army for 5 years joined us. Calvin, a new staff member, joined us also. Pretty chill night but perfectly wonderful once the hot tub heated up beyond lukewarm.
Next morning, we woke up bright and early knowing already the Gorge awaited us. We headed to the beach for a quick stroll before our ride was picking us up. It was my first true Indian Ocean beach experience. We were walking along on the amazing dark tan sand gazing out at the gorgeous waves crashing all over the rocks. Too tempting!!
We had to get in...Naked! Well, suits would've worked too but we didn't have those and we couldn't pass up a dip. There were a few old white couples walking up and down the beach and several life guards chillin about 150 yds away. That may have deterred me if I was alone. But I didn't have to be the moving party on this one! THANK GOODNESS FOR KAYLA :))
For serious. She just doesn't care at all. Its amazing. She waits about 200ms for a couple to pass by and once their backs are to us (like actually 10 feet away) she starts stripping down. Well, once the stripping starts you can't stop it--its just like pringles! So we got nakey as quickly as possible and ran in. So warm Mmmmm. But it definitely was only about a foot deep for the first 200 feet. Only slightly awkward: skinny dipping in broad daylight on a populated beach with only your ankles covered. Teehee
It took about 20 minutes for one of the lifeguards to start waving us in. Honestly, I think it was more awkward for him than it was for us. We played the dumb tourists and skipped our way back to Mantis and Moon. Oh and PS we passed a praying mantis on the road on our way. For realsies!
Next adventure on the agenda: Oribi Gorge. A local, Ryan, who the backpackers hooked us up with was gonna show us around for the day. We thought we were just getting a bus driver. But No! We got a friend (Awwwwww). Haha. He was awesome.
Omri decided to tag along with us. And Lisa, a lovely German volunteer working in the area and dating Ryan, joined us as well. We headed out (with Sofie the cutest little sausage dog) and stopped for some food along the way. Got Nando's chicken, which apparently is taking the world over by storm. Well everywhere but the US. We learned the whole history from the owner and he was so excited to share. Making friends with everyone everywhere was one of the main goals of our trip.
Ryan briefed us on the area as we drove through and when we got to the Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve and we hopped out to walk around the first part to get views from every angle. It was a huge limestone and sandstone U-shaped canyon. Gorgeous. It had a flowing river at the bottom, like the Grand Canyon, but unlike the GC it was a jungle down at the bottom. Just green and gorgeous foliage everywhere you looked. Really breathtaking (or breath-giving, think on that). As we hiked around we saw this beautiful waterfall off the top of the canyon, falling 170m to the bottom. That's about 55 stories. And that's what we were going to jump off of :)
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
Hello Narnia, is that you? (Part 1)
Holy Moley! Just had one of the best weeks of my life...possibly the best ever. I will forewarn you that there ARE NO WORDS to describe i, before I describe it in words :)
So I took last week off from program which was incredibly sad and an extremely hard decision. But I made the right one. I missed my kids so very very very very much! All of them. Cried a couple times and couldn't help but look at their pictures while I was away. But that was the ONLY reason that coming back to Muizenberg/Cape Town (both of which I absolutely adore btw) was bearable. That and the fact that I am one week closer to having my baby in my arms (Apollo duh!).
I traveled with Kayla and Jenny. Two phenomenal people and incredible travel partners! LoVe!!! We took the Baz Bus for a week. It is a hop-on hop-off bus/van that travels around SA taking backpackers to various backpackers and awesome stops all along the coast from Cape Town to Durban and then up to Jo'berg. Its a pretty comfortable ride. Unbelivably scenic (here is the first place where the NO WORDS thing comes into play). And you meet some AWESOMELY "tubular" people. "Hectic bru, hectic!" (in SA-lingo).
We spent our first day (Saturday) on the bus puuurrrdy much the whole day from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. We had to take the train in from Muizenberg to CT first, so it was definitely a 5am wake-up call and we didn't get to our destination until about 10pm. Looooonng Day. You get to get off and on the bus some to check out the different backpackers and at stops and breaks along the way. But it is still a lot of "bus" if you know what I mean. We just crashed when we got to PE too. Our backpackers was nothing special but still nice and there were some cool people hanging out and playing pool, card games, and drinking when we got there. We told them, "Ya, we'll be right back to hang out as soon as we drop our bags in our room!" Didn't happen. Not even close. First of all, we had our own private room (or room for the 3 of us, which is the most "private" I've experienced in the last couple months). Secondly, had the only non-twin bed of my trip. Ahhhh to lie diagonally!!! (it's the simple things you miss the most) Thirdly, we had a teeny tiny TV in our room. WHAT??! We at the Four Seasons or something? To watch TV in bed--straight up luxury. So shower, couple slices of cheese for dinner (but it was nummy cheese), and sleepy time. Briefly.
We got picked up at 6:45am the next morning (Sunday). For another long Baz-bus filled day. Still super cool people. Picked up right where we left off the day before with our box of wine. Classy ladies! Drinking games, journaling, sleeping, reading, meeting new people and exchanging awesome stories, researching places along the coast that were "Must-Visits". Which is everywhere. Literally. The Eastern Cape coastline (Sunshine Coast, Wild Coast, and beyond) is stunning, unreal, unimaginably beautiful and full of incredible variety. Ahhhh so cool!
At about 8pm we got to our first REAL destination: Umzumbe. Never heard of it? Well neither has most any South African. Little off the beaten path. Our undiscovered treasure trove!
So I took last week off from program which was incredibly sad and an extremely hard decision. But I made the right one. I missed my kids so very very very very much! All of them. Cried a couple times and couldn't help but look at their pictures while I was away. But that was the ONLY reason that coming back to Muizenberg/Cape Town (both of which I absolutely adore btw) was bearable. That and the fact that I am one week closer to having my baby in my arms (Apollo duh!).
I traveled with Kayla and Jenny. Two phenomenal people and incredible travel partners! LoVe!!! We took the Baz Bus for a week. It is a hop-on hop-off bus/van that travels around SA taking backpackers to various backpackers and awesome stops all along the coast from Cape Town to Durban and then up to Jo'berg. Its a pretty comfortable ride. Unbelivably scenic (here is the first place where the NO WORDS thing comes into play). And you meet some AWESOMELY "tubular" people. "Hectic bru, hectic!" (in SA-lingo).
We spent our first day (Saturday) on the bus puuurrrdy much the whole day from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. We had to take the train in from Muizenberg to CT first, so it was definitely a 5am wake-up call and we didn't get to our destination until about 10pm. Looooonng Day. You get to get off and on the bus some to check out the different backpackers and at stops and breaks along the way. But it is still a lot of "bus" if you know what I mean. We just crashed when we got to PE too. Our backpackers was nothing special but still nice and there were some cool people hanging out and playing pool, card games, and drinking when we got there. We told them, "Ya, we'll be right back to hang out as soon as we drop our bags in our room!" Didn't happen. Not even close. First of all, we had our own private room (or room for the 3 of us, which is the most "private" I've experienced in the last couple months). Secondly, had the only non-twin bed of my trip. Ahhhh to lie diagonally!!! (it's the simple things you miss the most) Thirdly, we had a teeny tiny TV in our room. WHAT??! We at the Four Seasons or something? To watch TV in bed--straight up luxury. So shower, couple slices of cheese for dinner (but it was nummy cheese), and sleepy time. Briefly.
We got picked up at 6:45am the next morning (Sunday). For another long Baz-bus filled day. Still super cool people. Picked up right where we left off the day before with our box of wine. Classy ladies! Drinking games, journaling, sleeping, reading, meeting new people and exchanging awesome stories, researching places along the coast that were "Must-Visits". Which is everywhere. Literally. The Eastern Cape coastline (Sunshine Coast, Wild Coast, and beyond) is stunning, unreal, unimaginably beautiful and full of incredible variety. Ahhhh so cool!
At about 8pm we got to our first REAL destination: Umzumbe. Never heard of it? Well neither has most any South African. Little off the beaten path. Our undiscovered treasure trove!
Monday, May 6, 2013
Stress: Longer I'm here the more there is to see!
Continuation from previous (Weekend Update):
The peninsula tour was really fun. Nice chill day making new buddies and seeing marvellous sights. Figured it wouldn't be too hard on my sad sick self. We got to see the entire peninsula (btw Aussies, Brits, and SAs say that word REALLY funny: "peninshoola"). STUNNING. Every time we turned a corner and every new view we saw was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Can't believe all of this beauteous nature is all packed into such a small place. We stopped in Bo Kaap, which I had visited the week before with James, Kate, Dean, and Chloe. But it was cool to actually hear a bit more of the history. It began as a Vietnamese neighborhood back right after they were released from slavery. During that time they were greatly restricted in the ways they could express their culture. So when the were finally free, they went crazy and painted all of their houses these amazingly bright bold colors. After some time, a large Muslim population moved into Bo Kaap as well and there are mosques on every third corner all decorated in the same bold colors. Most recently, and large population of college students have been colonizing the area so its really trendy and young and fairly safe. So its a very interesting mix of cultures and people and has a super cool vibe to it (Oh! and the gay neighborhood borders it too). We had several cars of guys in their twenties in full muslim garb drive by blasting African drum music. So weird!!
We drove around and past the West Coast Beaches and towns and only stopped for long enough to figure out we HAD to come back. Paradise. AHH! Especially Camps Bay and Clifton. Pretty upscale neighborhoods and ridiculously so in comparison to whats just over the mountains from them. We went to Cape Point (Nature Reserve), which is the most SW point of the African continent and hiked up to the lighthouse where views were unreal. You could see the entire peninsula from up there, so Atlantic ocean on both sides and all the bays along both coasts, and mountains shooting straight up from the coasts: table mountain, lions head, muizenberg mountain, the 12 apostles. We even spotted a couple buildings in our "home town" (Muizenberg). There's a lot of super cool history about explorers and shipwrecks and such. Something like 300 shipwrecks right around that point. Only downside was all the bugs at the top! Gross and of course they all fell in love with me most of all! I had on a bright yellow/green skirt and they just swarmed. Got my first bug bites of the trip and was itching off imaginary bugs for the next hour. Still worth it though. And if I'm okay with bugs you KNOW the view was good!
We came back around to the eastern side of the peninsula and went to see the penguins again. I'd gone to Simon's Town to Boulder Beach a couple weeks before with Doni and Tyler, but there's no getting tired of penguins! So cute and awkward and little. And they are almost always in pairs because they mate for life and its adorable! You can climb through the boulders to like secret hidden little white sand beaches and privately obsess over the closest little jackass penguins (that's really their name).
Next up: Lunch. Finally! It was about 2:30 by this point and we'd left the house at 8:15am. We went to Kalkies at the Kalk Bay harbor. Its a sort of grungy but awesome hole-in-the-wall seafood place just sitting on the dock with a canopy over top. I got my first fish and chips, which are apparently a big deal! Its one of the classic 'Cape' dishes.
Side note: I came wanting to experience all the 'local' cuisine. But there is such a mixture of cultures that much of the 'local' cuisine is much like you'd find in the states. There are certain specialties though. Like fish and chips. And there's a special type of cuisine called 'Cape Malay' that is a mixture of indian, south asian (indonesian), dutch, and middle eastern. It is unique to the Western Cape of SA. And delicious. Or at least I thought so. I went during my day in Bo Kaap with James and crew and had a sort of wrap with a spiced curried steak. A few had the traditional dish bobotie. I was really the only one that loved the food. But some weren't super open to new things and some just ordered really heavy food. There is lots of game eaten here: ostrich, kudu, etc. And biltong--sort of like jerky--is huge as well. Moral of the story: There is no one local cuisine. There are many and they are all intertwined, a reflection of the people here.
Back to the tour... We headed to a winery in Constancia for our last stop. This is not the big wine region that is classically boasted about. It is a smaller area right in the center of the peninsula. Gorgeous! We were all seated around a huge rustic wooden dining table. And the pouring began. We continued the party (and the bonding) in the courtyard outside and then headed home around 6:30.
Long Day. A few of the girls were going to a hockey game after (invited by some referees they met cage diving) and I was planning on going with but there ended up not being enough tickets and I think it was a blessing in disguise because I was sick, remember? And of course, I can't say no to good times :)
Woke up feeling pretty shitty on Monday, even as it was. Hawking up phlegm like I was going for the world record. (Apologies for the explicit nature of that description). It was pretty bad. Back to no voice at all, constant coughing and of the moist kind as described above. I had to stay home. There was no way I could be helpful at school feeling like I was. And there's really no soap, paper towels, napkins, or anyway to deal with the phlegm thing soooo. Bed it was! And I slept man! I tried to be somewhat productive and organize my stuff, do laundry, and practice consulting cases. Useless. My eyes kept closing on me and I slept basically all day. When nighttime came (about 5 hours after I got up-up) I had no problem going right back to sleep. So as much as it sucks to be away from my kids I think it was much needed.
I'm getting more and more behind on retelling my adventures as time goes. So quick synopsis (I promise I'll get to it all asap):
trying to walk to town and nearly passing out, Constantia wine tour, no brass bell, visiting Robben Island, ferry out, hottest day we've had, crying when reading about Mandala, African Dance show, best latte ever and hugest cheesecake ever (cheesecake factory watch out!), third class train, table mountain hike, opera, champagne, ostrich stew, cable car, robert, green market, kids dancing on train, girls' night but not really, mall and train back, horseback riding, imnhoff farm, santori,, story about mommies and daddies, health form and mulumba, my favorites, Sara at Sunrise, kloof st, savoy cabbage, fiction, high tea, kalk bay, cape to cuba (x3), tapas, friday market puppy, sneaking wine, house to ourselves, switch rooms, woodstock market, foooood, new people oh my, Toad round 2, my first Village, Kirstenbosch yoga, smelling evil, camps bay day of chill, deep convo with Jenny, Kayla just Kayla, sushi and sunset, gelato....
See, so much! I can't believe I only have 3 weeks left. It's gonna fly by
The peninsula tour was really fun. Nice chill day making new buddies and seeing marvellous sights. Figured it wouldn't be too hard on my sad sick self. We got to see the entire peninsula (btw Aussies, Brits, and SAs say that word REALLY funny: "peninshoola"). STUNNING. Every time we turned a corner and every new view we saw was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Can't believe all of this beauteous nature is all packed into such a small place. We stopped in Bo Kaap, which I had visited the week before with James, Kate, Dean, and Chloe. But it was cool to actually hear a bit more of the history. It began as a Vietnamese neighborhood back right after they were released from slavery. During that time they were greatly restricted in the ways they could express their culture. So when the were finally free, they went crazy and painted all of their houses these amazingly bright bold colors. After some time, a large Muslim population moved into Bo Kaap as well and there are mosques on every third corner all decorated in the same bold colors. Most recently, and large population of college students have been colonizing the area so its really trendy and young and fairly safe. So its a very interesting mix of cultures and people and has a super cool vibe to it (Oh! and the gay neighborhood borders it too). We had several cars of guys in their twenties in full muslim garb drive by blasting African drum music. So weird!!
We drove around and past the West Coast Beaches and towns and only stopped for long enough to figure out we HAD to come back. Paradise. AHH! Especially Camps Bay and Clifton. Pretty upscale neighborhoods and ridiculously so in comparison to whats just over the mountains from them. We went to Cape Point (Nature Reserve), which is the most SW point of the African continent and hiked up to the lighthouse where views were unreal. You could see the entire peninsula from up there, so Atlantic ocean on both sides and all the bays along both coasts, and mountains shooting straight up from the coasts: table mountain, lions head, muizenberg mountain, the 12 apostles. We even spotted a couple buildings in our "home town" (Muizenberg). There's a lot of super cool history about explorers and shipwrecks and such. Something like 300 shipwrecks right around that point. Only downside was all the bugs at the top! Gross and of course they all fell in love with me most of all! I had on a bright yellow/green skirt and they just swarmed. Got my first bug bites of the trip and was itching off imaginary bugs for the next hour. Still worth it though. And if I'm okay with bugs you KNOW the view was good!
We came back around to the eastern side of the peninsula and went to see the penguins again. I'd gone to Simon's Town to Boulder Beach a couple weeks before with Doni and Tyler, but there's no getting tired of penguins! So cute and awkward and little. And they are almost always in pairs because they mate for life and its adorable! You can climb through the boulders to like secret hidden little white sand beaches and privately obsess over the closest little jackass penguins (that's really their name).
Next up: Lunch. Finally! It was about 2:30 by this point and we'd left the house at 8:15am. We went to Kalkies at the Kalk Bay harbor. Its a sort of grungy but awesome hole-in-the-wall seafood place just sitting on the dock with a canopy over top. I got my first fish and chips, which are apparently a big deal! Its one of the classic 'Cape' dishes.
Side note: I came wanting to experience all the 'local' cuisine. But there is such a mixture of cultures that much of the 'local' cuisine is much like you'd find in the states. There are certain specialties though. Like fish and chips. And there's a special type of cuisine called 'Cape Malay' that is a mixture of indian, south asian (indonesian), dutch, and middle eastern. It is unique to the Western Cape of SA. And delicious. Or at least I thought so. I went during my day in Bo Kaap with James and crew and had a sort of wrap with a spiced curried steak. A few had the traditional dish bobotie. I was really the only one that loved the food. But some weren't super open to new things and some just ordered really heavy food. There is lots of game eaten here: ostrich, kudu, etc. And biltong--sort of like jerky--is huge as well. Moral of the story: There is no one local cuisine. There are many and they are all intertwined, a reflection of the people here.
Back to the tour... We headed to a winery in Constancia for our last stop. This is not the big wine region that is classically boasted about. It is a smaller area right in the center of the peninsula. Gorgeous! We were all seated around a huge rustic wooden dining table. And the pouring began. We continued the party (and the bonding) in the courtyard outside and then headed home around 6:30.
Long Day. A few of the girls were going to a hockey game after (invited by some referees they met cage diving) and I was planning on going with but there ended up not being enough tickets and I think it was a blessing in disguise because I was sick, remember? And of course, I can't say no to good times :)
Woke up feeling pretty shitty on Monday, even as it was. Hawking up phlegm like I was going for the world record. (Apologies for the explicit nature of that description). It was pretty bad. Back to no voice at all, constant coughing and of the moist kind as described above. I had to stay home. There was no way I could be helpful at school feeling like I was. And there's really no soap, paper towels, napkins, or anyway to deal with the phlegm thing soooo. Bed it was! And I slept man! I tried to be somewhat productive and organize my stuff, do laundry, and practice consulting cases. Useless. My eyes kept closing on me and I slept basically all day. When nighttime came (about 5 hours after I got up-up) I had no problem going right back to sleep. So as much as it sucks to be away from my kids I think it was much needed.
I'm getting more and more behind on retelling my adventures as time goes. So quick synopsis (I promise I'll get to it all asap):
trying to walk to town and nearly passing out, Constantia wine tour, no brass bell, visiting Robben Island, ferry out, hottest day we've had, crying when reading about Mandala, African Dance show, best latte ever and hugest cheesecake ever (cheesecake factory watch out!), third class train, table mountain hike, opera, champagne, ostrich stew, cable car, robert, green market, kids dancing on train, girls' night but not really, mall and train back, horseback riding, imnhoff farm, santori,, story about mommies and daddies, health form and mulumba, my favorites, Sara at Sunrise, kloof st, savoy cabbage, fiction, high tea, kalk bay, cape to cuba (x3), tapas, friday market puppy, sneaking wine, house to ourselves, switch rooms, woodstock market, foooood, new people oh my, Toad round 2, my first Village, Kirstenbosch yoga, smelling evil, camps bay day of chill, deep convo with Jenny, Kayla just Kayla, sushi and sunset, gelato....
See, so much! I can't believe I only have 3 weeks left. It's gonna fly by
Monday, April 29, 2013
With a Little Help From My Friends..
So I'm just over half-way through my trip. I cannot believe I've already been here for over a month. It has flown by and I've already seen many friends come-and-go. So I've started to think about what else I can do for my children, and the kids and teachers of the preschool and primary school. They are definitely in need of supplies. From the most basic of things like toilet paper, hand soap, and scissors up to the much bigger stuff like decently up-to-date software (just like Microsoft Office from sometime in the last decade and a half) and heaters or fans for the schools.
I am hoping to be able to pick out some meaningful and useful supplies for them but my funds are a little tapped out because of this trip. So I'm going to send out a heartfelt request from friends, family, friends of friends, acquaintances, anyone interested to collect donations. If we can pool together, I think we could really change the classroom and school experience for these kids. I really want to buy them books/games/toys to help them learn to read and learn the alphabet and stuff like that. Thinking like leapfrog or the books that read with you, because they don't get to hear English spoken very often and it is not always correct English that they do hear (even by the teachers). Learning English is an ESSENTIAL skill for them to be able to create a future for themselves, finish school, go to college, get a job.
I know many people will just shrug this off or think they don't have much themselves. But seriously, even $10 can go pretty far here. Think about and anyone willing, I SO appreciate it and you know the kids do too! Please do if you can. I'll have pictures to show you what we did!!!!
If you can send a check to my parents they will help me with the collection so I know how much I'm working with. If you are a friend with Chase you can send it to me through the Pay-a-Friend service. The email associated is kel.e.mason@gmai.com. If you can send something to mis padres, it is:
Curt and Nancy Mason
1055 Siesta Way
Sonoma, CA 95476
THANK YOU SO SOSOSOSOSO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! SERIOUSLY! HUGS. KISSES. HANDSHAKES. BUTT-BUMPS. CHEERS.
FYI Kids can also be sponsored (so have all of their school costs which include 2 meals a day) for 200 Rand/month (the equivalent of about $22). Its all directly through the school with bank accounts set up for the individual kids. I can pick some favorites :)
I am hoping to be able to pick out some meaningful and useful supplies for them but my funds are a little tapped out because of this trip. So I'm going to send out a heartfelt request from friends, family, friends of friends, acquaintances, anyone interested to collect donations. If we can pool together, I think we could really change the classroom and school experience for these kids. I really want to buy them books/games/toys to help them learn to read and learn the alphabet and stuff like that. Thinking like leapfrog or the books that read with you, because they don't get to hear English spoken very often and it is not always correct English that they do hear (even by the teachers). Learning English is an ESSENTIAL skill for them to be able to create a future for themselves, finish school, go to college, get a job.
I know many people will just shrug this off or think they don't have much themselves. But seriously, even $10 can go pretty far here. Think about and anyone willing, I SO appreciate it and you know the kids do too! Please do if you can. I'll have pictures to show you what we did!!!!
If you can send a check to my parents they will help me with the collection so I know how much I'm working with. If you are a friend with Chase you can send it to me through the Pay-a-Friend service. The email associated is kel.e.mason@gmai.com. If you can send something to mis padres, it is:
Curt and Nancy Mason
1055 Siesta Way
Sonoma, CA 95476
THANK YOU SO SOSOSOSOSO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! SERIOUSLY! HUGS. KISSES. HANDSHAKES. BUTT-BUMPS. CHEERS.
FYI Kids can also be sponsored (so have all of their school costs which include 2 meals a day) for 200 Rand/month (the equivalent of about $22). Its all directly through the school with bank accounts set up for the individual kids. I can pick some favorites :)
Weekend Update.
Live from Cape Town its....Weekend Update!!!
So I've had two more weekends--make that three weekends now given my delay-- that I've yet to post anything about any the details are slowly fading away into distant fuzzy memory so I better get some of it down.
2 weeks ago:
Every friday there is a Friday Night Market right in Muizenberg. It is so awesome! Actually feels a bit like the bay area. There is a farmer's market, tons of amazing prepared food, a beer and wine bar, lots of local artisans displaying their work, live music, vintage clothing racks, and all these picnic tables in the middle for everyone to sit, eat, relax communal-style. It's amazing and the only time I even come close to feeling like a local :)
To bed early with me after that!
Saturday morning 8am pick-up for a wine tour through the Stellenbosch region. Woot woot! I was definitely looking forward to this. I wanted to see how different it was from Sonoma/Napa. Well... it started early for one. We had glasses set up at our first winery by 9:15am! Started with three. A white, rose, then red. Sizeable pours. All is good. Then, he comes back with 6 MORE bottles! SIX. We had NINE freaking pours at our first winery so I was definitely tipsy by like 10 in the morning. I ate my Cliff Bar first thing when we climbed back in our van--It didn't quite do the trick though. We visited two more wineries before lunch and got a tour at one of them. We should have skipped that part because it was a sad little 8 minute tour given by a really creepy man with one wandering eye who snapped at anyone who dared to ask a question.
The wine was alright. I don't want to be a snob, but I guess I am one. Thanks Mom and Dad!! No I had a great experience and tried to stay open minded and not taint anyone else's opinion but it was no Napa/Sonoma wine, let's just say that! They are known for their whites much more than their reds and the whites (and the sparkling and roses) were actually really delicious. But the reds stank. The scenery, however, was impeccable and surpassed expectations! Every winery had a different vibe, tasting style, view, etc. All gorgeous. Wonderful. Grand. Tasting was incredibly cheap. And by the end even the reds tasted yummy. Hehe
We topped the tour off at the fifth winery, which also had cheese tasting. MMmmm CHEESE. So nummy. But I was so tired. And drunk, let's be honest. So of course it's the perfect time to all head to Cape Town. Duh! Had Dinner of Fish and Chips at a harbor restaurant on the beautiful V&A Waterfront. It was my first time seeing the waterfront, but when I went back a few days later it felt like the first time. Fancy that! Not sure if dinner was good... A few of us made the wise decision to cab it back to Muizenberg after dinner. Yep. Who's growing up??
It's meeee!
Next day was Mzoli's!!!!!!!!! Okay so the description of this plate is just really incomplete until you've been there but I'll give it a go.
Inside a township. Arestaurant. Scratch that. An eatery that serves meat and meat. With no silverware and no plates and no napkins. Just meat. Its messy and gross but awesome and delicious.
It was about a 30-40min car ride into the township (not quite sure which one it is in). No ordinary car ride though. About 18 of us pack into an 11 person van driven by the lovely Carl, who is our driver for program during the week. We each pay 30 Rand for the trip there-and-back. It was one of the least comfortable car/van rides of my life. So squished and I had about 180lbs sitting on my lap. Ow!
All of a sudden, I hear, "Out, out, out". It was frantic spilling out of the van but I didn't really see anything that looked like a big restaurant party anywhere. Just the typical township corner. With more white people. Some of the veterans led us to this butcher shop. Tiny shop with about 4 guys behind the counter yelling in languages I don't understand about the piles and slabs of fresh raw pink meat behind the glass. Ribs, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, sausage, ostrich. Meat (deep guttural fatty voice).
We order I don't know how many lbs of meat. An entire tray full two layers high (like a cafeteria tray). It was sort of an obscene amount of meat for 4 people but when in rome... And it came out at a little under $5pp.
We handed off our tray to the BBQ (Braai) guys and then headed back out to the street. One of the girls who has been here for months and months led us to the "shop" to buy drinks. It was a tiny window cut out of a corrugated tin shack with only room for the one salesguy inside. We each get a water and a six-pack and head over to the "restaurant". It is a huge fenced in area with a canopy shade and about 20 rows of super long picnic tables. Our group of like 40 claims two. Its hot and sweaty inside. But its full of all kinds of different people from all over. I think there was about a 60:40 breakdown of tourists:locals. There was some live African drum music going. Cracked my Hunter's and was having a good time.
After about a half hour there was all this commotion from the kitchen to the back corner and the fence was knocked down for a minute. Later, we found out that the owner of Mzoli's had gotten stabbed out on the street earlier that morning and they found the guy who did it and took him to the back and did I-don't-know-what with him. I can imagine though. The commotion was them all throwing him out. Crazy!!!
Our food, a combination of chicken, lamb, and beef smothered in some delicious sauce came out a few minutes later. And then. We grubbed out. It was messy. Really messy. No napkins, no silverware, no plates, remember? So the four of us where just hanging out heads over the tray munching on it all. Quickly. Because it was so good and because everyone else was eating so quickly I didn't think there would be anything left for me. When we ordered we had talked about taking whatever we didn't finish back to our houses. Unnecessary conversation because the plate was empty before I knew it. Mmmmmmmmmm! It was gooooood though. We just hung out the rest of the morning/afternoon until our 3:00 pickup. Things got a little crazy before that. Just drunken fools getting drunk and Youngin' newbs getting drunk for the first or third time and the rest of us rolling our eyes or laughing at them. Not even quite sure how but a couple people ended up bleeding and many more were puking. No napkins. Ick! It was definitely an experience but worth doing for sure! Although a bunch of people have it down as un-skippable each and every weekend. I am not one of them.
Then we went back to our house to find a whole bunch of new people moving in. I think 10 in total. That's a lot. Basically just spent the evening asking everyone and getting asked "Name? Which program you in? How old are you? Where are you from?" Didn't really get a good feel for anyone until a few days later because it was straight up memorization that first day.
Next day was my first day of childcare. So yes, this is all out of order chronologically but I couldn't wait to write about the kids and wanted to get my first impressions down fresh. Talk of Mzoli's could wait.
Fast forward to the next weekend and I am SICK! Granted I have been a little sick since a few days after arriving in SA because new surroundings, new bugs, and my immune system was just trying to figure it all out. But after a week the 'dorable snotty little children I was halfway to dead. I had started to feel really bad that Wednesday before and had picked up some medicine and drank a lot of water and hoped for the best. Didn't get it. By Saturday I had no voice. None. I was coughing, like this phlegm-y racking cough ever 49 seconds. I was achy and exhausted. I had a headache from all the coughing. My head, nasal passages, chest, every sinus in my body was so congested I felt like I weighed 400lbs, I couldn't hear very well, an breathing through my nose felt as likely as climbing Everest. Bad. I was supposed to climb Table Mountain that day but... stayed in bed instead. That sucked but I just wanted to get better!
Sunday, I felt a little better. Had some energy and only about 80% congested. I had already booked and paid for a Peninsula tour. Wasn't gonna lose that money! And I wanted to meet and hang out with some of the new peeps. I went. Probably not a very bright idea in hindsight but it was fun!
The tour was really fun. Nice chill day making new buddies and seeing marvellous sights. Figured it wouldn't be too hard on my sad sick self. We got to see the entire peninsula (btw Aussies, Brits, and SAs say that word REALLY funny: "peninshoola"). STUNNING. Every time we turned a corner and every new view we saw was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Can't believe all of this beauteous nature is all packed into such a small place. We stopped in Bo Kaap, which I had visited the week before with James, Kate, Dean, and Chloe. But it was cool to actually hear a bit more of the history. It began as a Vietnamese neighborhood back right after they were released from slavery. During that time they were greatly restricted in the ways they could express their culture. So when the were finally free, they went crazy and painted all of their houses these amazingly bright bold colors. After some time, a large Muslim population moved into Bo Kaap as well and there are mosques on every third corner all decorated in the same bold colors. Most recently, and large population of college students have been colonizing the area so its really trendy and young and fairly safe. So its a very interesting mix of cultures and people and has a super cool vibe to it (Oh! and the gay neighborhood borders it too). We had several cars of guys in their twenties in full muslim garb drive by blasting African drum music. So weird!!
We drove around and past the West Coast Beaches and towns and only stopped for long enough to figure out we HAD to come back. Paradise. AHH! Especially Camps Bay and Clifton. Pretty upscale neighborhoods and ridiculously so in comparison to whats just over the mountains from them. We went to Cape Point (Nature Reserve), which is the most SW point of the African continent and hiked up to the lighthouse where views were unreal. You could see the entire peninsula from up there, so Atlantic ocean on both sides and all the bays along both coasts, and mountains shooting straight up from the coasts: table mountain, lions head, muizenberg mountain, the 12 apostles. We even spotted a couple buildings in our "home town" (Muizenberg). There's a lot of super cool history about explorers and shipwrecks and such. Something like 300 shipwrecks right around that point. Only downside was all the bugs at the top! Gross and of course they all fell in love with me most of all! I had on a bright yellow/green skirt and they just swarmed. Got my first bug bites of the trip and was itching off imaginary bugs for the next hour. Still worth it though. And if I'm okay with bugs you KNOW the view was good!
We came back around to the eastern side of the peninsula and went to see the penguins again. I'd gone to Simon's Town to Boulder Beach a couple weeks before with Doni and Tyler, but there's no getting tired of penguins! So cute and awkward and little. And they are almost always in pairs because they mate for life and its adorable! You can climb through the boulders to like secret hidden little white sand beaches and privately obsess over the closest little jackass penguins (that's really their name).
Next up: Lunch. Finally! It was about 2:30 by this point and we'd left the house at 8:15am. We went to Kalkies at the Kalk Bay harbor. Its a sort of grungy but awesome hole-in-the-wall seafood place just sitting on the dock with a canopy over top. I got my first fish and chips, which are apparently a big deal! Its one of the classic 'Cape' dishes.
Side note:
So I've had two more weekends--make that three weekends now given my delay-- that I've yet to post anything about any the details are slowly fading away into distant fuzzy memory so I better get some of it down.
2 weeks ago:
Every friday there is a Friday Night Market right in Muizenberg. It is so awesome! Actually feels a bit like the bay area. There is a farmer's market, tons of amazing prepared food, a beer and wine bar, lots of local artisans displaying their work, live music, vintage clothing racks, and all these picnic tables in the middle for everyone to sit, eat, relax communal-style. It's amazing and the only time I even come close to feeling like a local :)
To bed early with me after that!
Saturday morning 8am pick-up for a wine tour through the Stellenbosch region. Woot woot! I was definitely looking forward to this. I wanted to see how different it was from Sonoma/Napa. Well... it started early for one. We had glasses set up at our first winery by 9:15am! Started with three. A white, rose, then red. Sizeable pours. All is good. Then, he comes back with 6 MORE bottles! SIX. We had NINE freaking pours at our first winery so I was definitely tipsy by like 10 in the morning. I ate my Cliff Bar first thing when we climbed back in our van--It didn't quite do the trick though. We visited two more wineries before lunch and got a tour at one of them. We should have skipped that part because it was a sad little 8 minute tour given by a really creepy man with one wandering eye who snapped at anyone who dared to ask a question.
The wine was alright. I don't want to be a snob, but I guess I am one. Thanks Mom and Dad!! No I had a great experience and tried to stay open minded and not taint anyone else's opinion but it was no Napa/Sonoma wine, let's just say that! They are known for their whites much more than their reds and the whites (and the sparkling and roses) were actually really delicious. But the reds stank. The scenery, however, was impeccable and surpassed expectations! Every winery had a different vibe, tasting style, view, etc. All gorgeous. Wonderful. Grand. Tasting was incredibly cheap. And by the end even the reds tasted yummy. Hehe
We topped the tour off at the fifth winery, which also had cheese tasting. MMmmm CHEESE. So nummy. But I was so tired. And drunk, let's be honest. So of course it's the perfect time to all head to Cape Town. Duh! Had Dinner of Fish and Chips at a harbor restaurant on the beautiful V&A Waterfront. It was my first time seeing the waterfront, but when I went back a few days later it felt like the first time. Fancy that! Not sure if dinner was good... A few of us made the wise decision to cab it back to Muizenberg after dinner. Yep. Who's growing up??
It's meeee!
Next day was Mzoli's!!!!!!!!! Okay so the description of this plate is just really incomplete until you've been there but I'll give it a go.
Inside a township. A
It was about a 30-40min car ride into the township (not quite sure which one it is in). No ordinary car ride though. About 18 of us pack into an 11 person van driven by the lovely Carl, who is our driver for program during the week. We each pay 30 Rand for the trip there-and-back. It was one of the least comfortable car/van rides of my life. So squished and I had about 180lbs sitting on my lap. Ow!
All of a sudden, I hear, "Out, out, out". It was frantic spilling out of the van but I didn't really see anything that looked like a big restaurant party anywhere. Just the typical township corner. With more white people. Some of the veterans led us to this butcher shop. Tiny shop with about 4 guys behind the counter yelling in languages I don't understand about the piles and slabs of fresh raw pink meat behind the glass. Ribs, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, sausage, ostrich. Meat (deep guttural fatty voice).
We order I don't know how many lbs of meat. An entire tray full two layers high (like a cafeteria tray). It was sort of an obscene amount of meat for 4 people but when in rome... And it came out at a little under $5pp.
We handed off our tray to the BBQ (Braai) guys and then headed back out to the street. One of the girls who has been here for months and months led us to the "shop" to buy drinks. It was a tiny window cut out of a corrugated tin shack with only room for the one salesguy inside. We each get a water and a six-pack and head over to the "restaurant". It is a huge fenced in area with a canopy shade and about 20 rows of super long picnic tables. Our group of like 40 claims two. Its hot and sweaty inside. But its full of all kinds of different people from all over. I think there was about a 60:40 breakdown of tourists:locals. There was some live African drum music going. Cracked my Hunter's and was having a good time.
After about a half hour there was all this commotion from the kitchen to the back corner and the fence was knocked down for a minute. Later, we found out that the owner of Mzoli's had gotten stabbed out on the street earlier that morning and they found the guy who did it and took him to the back and did I-don't-know-what with him. I can imagine though. The commotion was them all throwing him out. Crazy!!!
Our food, a combination of chicken, lamb, and beef smothered in some delicious sauce came out a few minutes later. And then. We grubbed out. It was messy. Really messy. No napkins, no silverware, no plates, remember? So the four of us where just hanging out heads over the tray munching on it all. Quickly. Because it was so good and because everyone else was eating so quickly I didn't think there would be anything left for me. When we ordered we had talked about taking whatever we didn't finish back to our houses. Unnecessary conversation because the plate was empty before I knew it. Mmmmmmmmmm! It was gooooood though. We just hung out the rest of the morning/afternoon until our 3:00 pickup. Things got a little crazy before that. Just drunken fools getting drunk and Youngin' newbs getting drunk for the first or third time and the rest of us rolling our eyes or laughing at them. Not even quite sure how but a couple people ended up bleeding and many more were puking. No napkins. Ick! It was definitely an experience but worth doing for sure! Although a bunch of people have it down as un-skippable each and every weekend. I am not one of them.
Then we went back to our house to find a whole bunch of new people moving in. I think 10 in total. That's a lot. Basically just spent the evening asking everyone and getting asked "Name? Which program you in? How old are you? Where are you from?" Didn't really get a good feel for anyone until a few days later because it was straight up memorization that first day.
Next day was my first day of childcare. So yes, this is all out of order chronologically but I couldn't wait to write about the kids and wanted to get my first impressions down fresh. Talk of Mzoli's could wait.
Fast forward to the next weekend and I am SICK! Granted I have been a little sick since a few days after arriving in SA because new surroundings, new bugs, and my immune system was just trying to figure it all out. But after a week the 'dorable snotty little children I was halfway to dead. I had started to feel really bad that Wednesday before and had picked up some medicine and drank a lot of water and hoped for the best. Didn't get it. By Saturday I had no voice. None. I was coughing, like this phlegm-y racking cough ever 49 seconds. I was achy and exhausted. I had a headache from all the coughing. My head, nasal passages, chest, every sinus in my body was so congested I felt like I weighed 400lbs, I couldn't hear very well, an breathing through my nose felt as likely as climbing Everest. Bad. I was supposed to climb Table Mountain that day but... stayed in bed instead. That sucked but I just wanted to get better!
Sunday, I felt a little better. Had some energy and only about 80% congested. I had already booked and paid for a Peninsula tour. Wasn't gonna lose that money! And I wanted to meet and hang out with some of the new peeps. I went. Probably not a very bright idea in hindsight but it was fun!
The tour was really fun. Nice chill day making new buddies and seeing marvellous sights. Figured it wouldn't be too hard on my sad sick self. We got to see the entire peninsula (btw Aussies, Brits, and SAs say that word REALLY funny: "peninshoola"). STUNNING. Every time we turned a corner and every new view we saw was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Can't believe all of this beauteous nature is all packed into such a small place. We stopped in Bo Kaap, which I had visited the week before with James, Kate, Dean, and Chloe. But it was cool to actually hear a bit more of the history. It began as a Vietnamese neighborhood back right after they were released from slavery. During that time they were greatly restricted in the ways they could express their culture. So when the were finally free, they went crazy and painted all of their houses these amazingly bright bold colors. After some time, a large Muslim population moved into Bo Kaap as well and there are mosques on every third corner all decorated in the same bold colors. Most recently, and large population of college students have been colonizing the area so its really trendy and young and fairly safe. So its a very interesting mix of cultures and people and has a super cool vibe to it (Oh! and the gay neighborhood borders it too). We had several cars of guys in their twenties in full muslim garb drive by blasting African drum music. So weird!!
We drove around and past the West Coast Beaches and towns and only stopped for long enough to figure out we HAD to come back. Paradise. AHH! Especially Camps Bay and Clifton. Pretty upscale neighborhoods and ridiculously so in comparison to whats just over the mountains from them. We went to Cape Point (Nature Reserve), which is the most SW point of the African continent and hiked up to the lighthouse where views were unreal. You could see the entire peninsula from up there, so Atlantic ocean on both sides and all the bays along both coasts, and mountains shooting straight up from the coasts: table mountain, lions head, muizenberg mountain, the 12 apostles. We even spotted a couple buildings in our "home town" (Muizenberg). There's a lot of super cool history about explorers and shipwrecks and such. Something like 300 shipwrecks right around that point. Only downside was all the bugs at the top! Gross and of course they all fell in love with me most of all! I had on a bright yellow/green skirt and they just swarmed. Got my first bug bites of the trip and was itching off imaginary bugs for the next hour. Still worth it though. And if I'm okay with bugs you KNOW the view was good!
We came back around to the eastern side of the peninsula and went to see the penguins again. I'd gone to Simon's Town to Boulder Beach a couple weeks before with Doni and Tyler, but there's no getting tired of penguins! So cute and awkward and little. And they are almost always in pairs because they mate for life and its adorable! You can climb through the boulders to like secret hidden little white sand beaches and privately obsess over the closest little jackass penguins (that's really their name).
Next up: Lunch. Finally! It was about 2:30 by this point and we'd left the house at 8:15am. We went to Kalkies at the Kalk Bay harbor. Its a sort of grungy but awesome hole-in-the-wall seafood place just sitting on the dock with a canopy over top. I got my first fish and chips, which are apparently a big deal! Its one of the classic 'Cape' dishes.
Side note:
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Beautiful Angels or Wicked Devils?? Both.
After 2 weeks in the surf program I switched over to Childcare with plans to do that for 2 weeks and then switch to teaching/tutoring for my last month. I'm so happy I made the switch!
Childcare is basically pre-K. It is their preparation for children before they enter grade R (like Kindergarten). Our childcare, Sunrise, is the biggest one in Capricorn. It has about 8 rooms and it is an actual building (has some solid walls in addition to the corrugated tin roof and walls of the portables). There are two playgrounds for the kids too. It is really nice actually--I was pretty impressed. It is super expensive (relatively) for parents to send their children though. I could have the numbers off but I think it is R200 a year (the equivalent of about $25). However, their average hourly wage is less than R10. And that is for legitimate jobs.
So the kids at Sunrise range in age from 18 months (the baby room) to 6 years, and the classes are divided up by age. I have the 3-4 year olds and they are SOOOOO adorable. Words cannot describe!
So yes, I really really really wish I could <insert photo here>. I have cursed myself about 4.3 billion times for losing my iPhone on the way here b/c that would be my way to do it :( They are coming though. Hopefully other friends will post soon and I can steal their pics! Also my ghetto Nokia--hell ya! who had to learn T9 all over again--has a camera-ish.
There are 30 kids in my class, but realistically about 27 on any given day. They are sooo sweet. Everyday I'm greeted with about 15 cuties immediately running up to me and squeezing my legs, arms, neck (whatever they can get ahold of) and screaming, "TEEAACCHAAA". I die. Lit--Erally.
Its a pretty big effort to get them all to sit back down in their circle on the rug (but of course I'm secretly so happy). There are two "teachers" (in addition to me) in every class. One actual teacher and one teacher's assistant. (My teacher is great and TA is useless). At first I thought this seemed like a lot. I was wrong. Oh so wrong. These cutie-patooties are also little monsters! You would never EVER see any American 3yo's acting the way these terrors do! Crocodile tears literally do not stop from attendance to pick-ups. They're just looking for attention but its gets incredibly annoying. They hit each other to solve ever problem. They are all the biggest narcs. They will just stop talking at any point in the day and pretend they don't understand what you are saying or don't hear it (if they don't like it). They will climb and crawl all over you and sob if you tell them you're tired. They won't look you in the eye when you reprimand them and refuse to be punished. They make gang signs in every picture. Chaos. Complete Chaos. Never seen anything like it. BUT...
They are so cute and so sweet and really want to learn and impress and do the right thing. Just what they see on a day to day basis is so outside the realm of normal for us that they don't behave the way 'normal' little kids do. They see aggression and violence everyday so they act aggressively. Makes sense. But when they get a little of their energy out they are the sweetest. They sing songs for everything they do and every lesson they learn. Adorable! They want to show you whenever they get claps whenever they get an answer right and they want a hug everytime. All 27 of them want to hold my hand on the way to the bathroom or playground. They clean up even when they are not told to but always come show you what they have before they put it or throw it away. They all want to be your favorite.
The first few days were fun but a struggle. I couldn't really get them to listen to me at all. I was just yelling, "Hey", "You", "Honey", "In the green pants". Ineffective. I was warned that until I learned their names I would have absolutely zero authority by an ex-volunteer. I was determined to learn day 1. But OMG. Didn't factor into that that everything was pronounced with an Afrikaans accent and it all sounded a littttlllle bit the same. Hahah. I had to study spelling and by the end of the second day I had most of them down. By day 3 I was an expert. Now I had to work on my 'strict voice'. I couldn't be nice or be their friend all the time if I ever wanted them to listen to me. I had to learn to be quite a bit more forceful than I'm used to being. To get their kids in line, almost all of the teachers hit the kids--to varying degrees. My teacher is fond of having them stick their hands out and snapping them with a ruler or pen, or spanking them with her binder. Other teachers straight-up, slap them on the back of the head. A bit shocking. Took a little bit to get used to and some of it still makes me cringe. But that's their culture. It is not for me to judge. It is a much more aggressive culture than our own. As much as I'm trying to be open and accepting, there is no way in hell that I'm hitting any of these kids. I don't want them to fear me. They've got enough of that around them already. Since I can't use that as my main means of discipline I have to master my scary serious voice. I'm getting there...
How did I get there, you ask??
On my third day, the teacher was not in school because she's going to college to earn her education degree. So it was just me and the TA. Strike that. It was just me. All by myself. The TA just up and left after the initial attendance/morning routine (the easiest part). I had no idea where she went. I thought she was probably just in the kitchen making some tea and would be back in a few months. That was just my optimistic thinking. She didn't show up again for an HOUR AND A HALF!!!! An hour and a half. Do you know how long that is to be with 28 rambunctous, wild, energetic, out-of-control 3 and 4 year olds who's first language is not English and don't listen at all because they've only known you for 2 days??? A lifetime!!!! To make matters worse, it was raining outside so they had to stay cooped up in the class rather than getting to play outside during interval (recess). ARRGH! The second she comes back I approach her, "I really can't be left alone for that length of time. I just have no control and need some help". She says, "Oh, haha, yes Teacha Kelsey"
Guess what she does next??
After 25 seconds in the class (basically just enough time for me to turn my back and walk across the room), she leaves again!!!!! Only for about 10 minutes this time. But still!!!!!!!!!!! RUDE. It was nuts. So awful. I was cursing them all as little sh**ts by the end of the day sooooooo fed up.
But it was on me to learn what I can do to handle them better (and keep a closer eye on Teacher Norma). Thursday, the teacher (Teacher Nicky) was back. THANK GOD. Think I might've had to walk out if she wasn't there. But it was a great day! So much fun. They actually learned and paid attention. It was sunny again so they got to play outside and run some of their energy off. And my voice was slowly but surely getting deeper and more stern throughout the day.
And they listened! Sort of. But I'll take it! Haha
Childcare is basically pre-K. It is their preparation for children before they enter grade R (like Kindergarten). Our childcare, Sunrise, is the biggest one in Capricorn. It has about 8 rooms and it is an actual building (has some solid walls in addition to the corrugated tin roof and walls of the portables). There are two playgrounds for the kids too. It is really nice actually--I was pretty impressed. It is super expensive (relatively) for parents to send their children though. I could have the numbers off but I think it is R200 a year (the equivalent of about $25). However, their average hourly wage is less than R10. And that is for legitimate jobs.
So the kids at Sunrise range in age from 18 months (the baby room) to 6 years, and the classes are divided up by age. I have the 3-4 year olds and they are SOOOOO adorable. Words cannot describe!
So yes, I really really really wish I could <insert photo here>. I have cursed myself about 4.3 billion times for losing my iPhone on the way here b/c that would be my way to do it :( They are coming though. Hopefully other friends will post soon and I can steal their pics! Also my ghetto Nokia--hell ya! who had to learn T9 all over again--has a camera-ish.
There are 30 kids in my class, but realistically about 27 on any given day. They are sooo sweet. Everyday I'm greeted with about 15 cuties immediately running up to me and squeezing my legs, arms, neck (whatever they can get ahold of) and screaming, "TEEAACCHAAA". I die. Lit--Erally.
Its a pretty big effort to get them all to sit back down in their circle on the rug (but of course I'm secretly so happy). There are two "teachers" (in addition to me) in every class. One actual teacher and one teacher's assistant. (My teacher is great and TA is useless). At first I thought this seemed like a lot. I was wrong. Oh so wrong. These cutie-patooties are also little monsters! You would never EVER see any American 3yo's acting the way these terrors do! Crocodile tears literally do not stop from attendance to pick-ups. They're just looking for attention but its gets incredibly annoying. They hit each other to solve ever problem. They are all the biggest narcs. They will just stop talking at any point in the day and pretend they don't understand what you are saying or don't hear it (if they don't like it). They will climb and crawl all over you and sob if you tell them you're tired. They won't look you in the eye when you reprimand them and refuse to be punished. They make gang signs in every picture. Chaos. Complete Chaos. Never seen anything like it. BUT...
They are so cute and so sweet and really want to learn and impress and do the right thing. Just what they see on a day to day basis is so outside the realm of normal for us that they don't behave the way 'normal' little kids do. They see aggression and violence everyday so they act aggressively. Makes sense. But when they get a little of their energy out they are the sweetest. They sing songs for everything they do and every lesson they learn. Adorable! They want to show you whenever they get claps whenever they get an answer right and they want a hug everytime. All 27 of them want to hold my hand on the way to the bathroom or playground. They clean up even when they are not told to but always come show you what they have before they put it or throw it away. They all want to be your favorite.
 |
| Lucian, Marulisha, Grace, David |
 |
| Grace |
 |
| Yep this is in the Winnie the Pooh mural at the primary school. 'Let's stop Rape against women' is also posted everywhere. Slightly different than what we see around our elementary schools and daycares. |
 |
| One of the 'big' kids, Alvina. |
How did I get there, you ask??
On my third day, the teacher was not in school because she's going to college to earn her education degree. So it was just me and the TA. Strike that. It was just me. All by myself. The TA just up and left after the initial attendance/morning routine (the easiest part). I had no idea where she went. I thought she was probably just in the kitchen making some tea and would be back in a few months. That was just my optimistic thinking. She didn't show up again for an HOUR AND A HALF!!!! An hour and a half. Do you know how long that is to be with 28 rambunctous, wild, energetic, out-of-control 3 and 4 year olds who's first language is not English and don't listen at all because they've only known you for 2 days??? A lifetime!!!! To make matters worse, it was raining outside so they had to stay cooped up in the class rather than getting to play outside during interval (recess). ARRGH! The second she comes back I approach her, "I really can't be left alone for that length of time. I just have no control and need some help". She says, "Oh, haha, yes Teacha Kelsey"
Guess what she does next??
After 25 seconds in the class (basically just enough time for me to turn my back and walk across the room), she leaves again!!!!! Only for about 10 minutes this time. But still!!!!!!!!!!! RUDE. It was nuts. So awful. I was cursing them all as little sh**ts by the end of the day sooooooo fed up.
But it was on me to learn what I can do to handle them better (and keep a closer eye on Teacher Norma). Thursday, the teacher (Teacher Nicky) was back. THANK GOD. Think I might've had to walk out if she wasn't there. But it was a great day! So much fun. They actually learned and paid attention. It was sunny again so they got to play outside and run some of their energy off. And my voice was slowly but surely getting deeper and more stern throughout the day.
And they listened! Sort of. But I'll take it! Haha
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
If I pray hard enough will I give birth to a black baby?
I haven't had a second to get to the internet cafe and recap what's going on here and there's so much so I don't even know where to begin. My apologies if this is a bit scrambled.
The KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love these kids!
In Surf, we only get to see about 20 kids a day and there's a lot of repeat day-to-day so you get to know about 30 4th-7th graders really well. They are supposed to be the kids that have done really well and behaved at school and therefore they get to surf as a reward. That is what is supposed to happen. It doesn't. The program is underdeveloped, incredibly unorganized, and not nearly as efficient, effective, or rewarding (for us and for the kids) as it could be. I've got a ton of ideas about how they could revamp things to make everything work more smoothly and really be a reward for the kids. It'd be easy but I'm almost positive the organization here will have none of it. Anyways...that's not what I wanted to share...
The surf kids just end up being the totally wild, rambunctious older kids that are so energetic after school they are dying for a fun way to blow off steam. We provide that to them. And it is SO important. I didn't quite get why until I'd been here for a couple weeks. School and the programs we offer the kids are the ONLY structure most of the kids get throughout their day and week. They don't have meals at specific times. they don't know when their parents are going to be home. They do not have a bed time. At all. (It's not like kids in the US with parents that aren't strict so they get to go to be a bit later if their favorite show is on). Sometimes they don't sleep at all. A family of 8 may be sharing 2 twin beds and they have to take turns and someone is always up making noise (And let's be honest, can you imagine sharing a twin bed with multiple people everynight?) They can't really hang out with friends all that much because after sunset it is unsafe for them to walk even 10 feet outside their front door.
So anyways there is no activity or structure in their home-life so these kids are starved for structure and routine and activity when they are with us. They don't enjoy the weekends or their holiday breaks. If you ask them, they are SO EXCITED to be back in school. Surf is great in that we are just there to play with the kids basically and be as good of role models in our short time with them as possible. They are happy to be there and it is all purely voluntary.
However, I was wishing I could spend more time with the kids and make better use of my time in general. I was excited when I got assigned to the Surf Group that got to go to school 2 days a week instead of 1 (and had to wash wetsuits less often...its not great).
For my first trip to school I went to Christian David Primary. It is the more run-down of the 2 schools we work with. And run-down is putting it nicely because it really wasn't ever fixed up to begin with. There are about 8 classrooms (grades 1-7), an office, and a tutoring center (our home base). There are bathrooms in the back that are just huts with toilets in stalls without doors and a sink that is really more like a outdoor faucet most of us connect our hoses to in the US. There is no soap, there is no electricity, there is not toilet paper. Yep. Gross. And Wow.
Most of the classrooms also have no electricity. The tutoring center and office do have a couple working outlets and one light each. The floors are wooden with large holes where you can see the dirt below. The school is completely gated up because it's right in the middle of the township. The classrooms have some books and paper and some art materials and some of the educational posters that usually cover the walls of any elementary school classroom that we are used to seeing. But they are extremely outdated (the one about the internet named some random like "starlight search" engine (pre-google)), not always appropriate for the age group, and contained a lot of typos. The teachers are a complete mixed bag. The principal is awesome! Super dedicated and knows what's up. Some of the teachers are really sweet, care A LOT about the kids, and are happy to have our help and support. Some are HORRIBLE! They yell and scream and send any kid who is being 'naughty' out of the class. Not to the principal's office or another class or anything. Just outside to wander around the little dirt patch of a yard and pop into other classes looking for something to do. They get kicked out for the whole day too. What good does that do?!? And they are just the talkative ones. Not evil. One teacher literally kicks out the most challenging third of her class EVERYDAY. So these kids basically are not going to school. Oh! Best of all, she hits them! Like really hits them! And encourages them to hit each other ("or they'll never learn to fight back"). It makes our job a lot easier :)
Despite these bare basic surroundings, I LOVED my day at school!!!!!! It was so awesome to get to hang out with the kids for the whole day. We run their PE program. One class at a time. We played Simon Says, Dodgeball, and Red-Rover. So fun! We also run the tutoring center where we take any kids that are behind in school and give them personalized attention throughout the day. This was my favorite part for sure! I kind of expected it would be, but I was very surprised at the type of help I was giving. A lot of hugs for one thing. Like every time a new kid sees you they want a hug.
One little girl (in 4th grade) in our first period asked if we could read a story. She picked out a book that said 5+ on it. I opened it up and wasn't sure if she was going to read or expected me to. She didn't say a word. So I began the story. It was about monkeys doing different actions (sitting, swinging on a tree, jumping, etc.). A few pages in, I began to trace the words with my finger and asking her to act out the actions. She had no idea where on the page I was reading from. She got very excited when she saw the word "and" and I pointed to it for a second and she said it! She had a huge smile on her face and was so proud that she knew a word. I started to pick out the propositions and really basic words. She had some trouble, but gave it a shot. She proudly yelled "and", "the", and "it" by the time the period was finished. I was excited for her and sent her back to class. Later in the day, she came back with a friend and got the book out and pointed these 3 words out and read them aloud. She was showing off and her friend was excited and impressed and wanted to learn them too.
I was stunned. Like totally shocked. I knew they'd be behind the equivalent American grade levels but I was not prepared for how far behind. They couldn't read! Our 10 and 11 year olds could not read. Basically at all. It's crazy. Some didn't even know how to say all the letters of the alphabet. And I'm not talking about the little little ones. We did some math and that was tricky. They knew the numbers a bit better. But still had trouble with simple arithmetic. Like 3+1, 8+0, 7-1. They just counted (rehearsed from memory) and then worked from there. And getting them to want to stick with anything for longer than about 3 minutes was a feat worthy of a Nobel Prize (There, I earned one! Sort of..)
We had one laptop computer at the school. One computer. In a school in today's world. That's nuts. Software on it is pretty limited but there is some typing program and a few games, educational and otherwise. They couldn't sit still for the 'educational games' for sh**. So we played solitaire and turned it into a math game. Three were at the computer with me figuring out what you could play on a 9. So we did a lot of 9-1 and 9+1. I could see them starting to figure out the answers a little more quickly once we added the motivation of a game. Never thought about Solitaire as a math game before this, but it worked! But the game was more than math because you should have seen these little fingers trying to work that mouse. I've never seen anyone so unfamiliar with the drag, point, and click. It was so unnatural. The concept just didn't come easily that you were moving the mouse to move things around on the screen. Getting them to do File>>Open was like a 6 minute task.
I want to tell so much more....not sure I even got any of the best stories out but gotta go. Too much time at the internet cafe is unforgivable here.
The KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love these kids!
In Surf, we only get to see about 20 kids a day and there's a lot of repeat day-to-day so you get to know about 30 4th-7th graders really well. They are supposed to be the kids that have done really well and behaved at school and therefore they get to surf as a reward. That is what is supposed to happen. It doesn't. The program is underdeveloped, incredibly unorganized, and not nearly as efficient, effective, or rewarding (for us and for the kids) as it could be. I've got a ton of ideas about how they could revamp things to make everything work more smoothly and really be a reward for the kids. It'd be easy but I'm almost positive the organization here will have none of it. Anyways...that's not what I wanted to share...
The surf kids just end up being the totally wild, rambunctious older kids that are so energetic after school they are dying for a fun way to blow off steam. We provide that to them. And it is SO important. I didn't quite get why until I'd been here for a couple weeks. School and the programs we offer the kids are the ONLY structure most of the kids get throughout their day and week. They don't have meals at specific times. they don't know when their parents are going to be home. They do not have a bed time. At all. (It's not like kids in the US with parents that aren't strict so they get to go to be a bit later if their favorite show is on). Sometimes they don't sleep at all. A family of 8 may be sharing 2 twin beds and they have to take turns and someone is always up making noise (And let's be honest, can you imagine sharing a twin bed with multiple people everynight?) They can't really hang out with friends all that much because after sunset it is unsafe for them to walk even 10 feet outside their front door.
To give you an idea: One day after surf, we dropped off all the kids back at their homes in the townships (Capricorn and Lavender Hill). It was about 5:30pm. We were going through a really rough area known to be almost exclusively gang-populated. Tim (the founder of the volunteer organization) was afraid to drive any further because even though we are well liked by the community, there is a shooting in that area prettttyyy much everyday and sometimes innocents are caught in the crossfire. The gang leaders are not too worried about it. But we had to drive through it to drop off Roxy (one of my favorites). We got two 'houses'/miniscule shacks away from her home and Tim asked if she was safe to hop out there so we could turn at that corner and hightail it out of there. She shyly told him "No. It's not safe.". We had to do a U-turn and pull the car door directly up to her house door so that she could hop out and get inside as quickly as possible.I don't really understand how there can be such a big discrepancy from day to night. But the townships are fairly safe during daylight. But once it starts to get dark, it's lock up your doors. Rape, and robbery, and even murder are daily occurrences. And assaults on children are common. Awful! I know.
So anyways there is no activity or structure in their home-life so these kids are starved for structure and routine and activity when they are with us. They don't enjoy the weekends or their holiday breaks. If you ask them, they are SO EXCITED to be back in school. Surf is great in that we are just there to play with the kids basically and be as good of role models in our short time with them as possible. They are happy to be there and it is all purely voluntary.
However, I was wishing I could spend more time with the kids and make better use of my time in general. I was excited when I got assigned to the Surf Group that got to go to school 2 days a week instead of 1 (and had to wash wetsuits less often...its not great).
For my first trip to school I went to Christian David Primary. It is the more run-down of the 2 schools we work with. And run-down is putting it nicely because it really wasn't ever fixed up to begin with. There are about 8 classrooms (grades 1-7), an office, and a tutoring center (our home base). There are bathrooms in the back that are just huts with toilets in stalls without doors and a sink that is really more like a outdoor faucet most of us connect our hoses to in the US. There is no soap, there is no electricity, there is not toilet paper. Yep. Gross. And Wow.
Most of the classrooms also have no electricity. The tutoring center and office do have a couple working outlets and one light each. The floors are wooden with large holes where you can see the dirt below. The school is completely gated up because it's right in the middle of the township. The classrooms have some books and paper and some art materials and some of the educational posters that usually cover the walls of any elementary school classroom that we are used to seeing. But they are extremely outdated (the one about the internet named some random like "starlight search" engine (pre-google)), not always appropriate for the age group, and contained a lot of typos. The teachers are a complete mixed bag. The principal is awesome! Super dedicated and knows what's up. Some of the teachers are really sweet, care A LOT about the kids, and are happy to have our help and support. Some are HORRIBLE! They yell and scream and send any kid who is being 'naughty' out of the class. Not to the principal's office or another class or anything. Just outside to wander around the little dirt patch of a yard and pop into other classes looking for something to do. They get kicked out for the whole day too. What good does that do?!? And they are just the talkative ones. Not evil. One teacher literally kicks out the most challenging third of her class EVERYDAY. So these kids basically are not going to school. Oh! Best of all, she hits them! Like really hits them! And encourages them to hit each other ("or they'll never learn to fight back"). It makes our job a lot easier :)
Despite these bare basic surroundings, I LOVED my day at school!!!!!! It was so awesome to get to hang out with the kids for the whole day. We run their PE program. One class at a time. We played Simon Says, Dodgeball, and Red-Rover. So fun! We also run the tutoring center where we take any kids that are behind in school and give them personalized attention throughout the day. This was my favorite part for sure! I kind of expected it would be, but I was very surprised at the type of help I was giving. A lot of hugs for one thing. Like every time a new kid sees you they want a hug.
One little girl (in 4th grade) in our first period asked if we could read a story. She picked out a book that said 5+ on it. I opened it up and wasn't sure if she was going to read or expected me to. She didn't say a word. So I began the story. It was about monkeys doing different actions (sitting, swinging on a tree, jumping, etc.). A few pages in, I began to trace the words with my finger and asking her to act out the actions. She had no idea where on the page I was reading from. She got very excited when she saw the word "and" and I pointed to it for a second and she said it! She had a huge smile on her face and was so proud that she knew a word. I started to pick out the propositions and really basic words. She had some trouble, but gave it a shot. She proudly yelled "and", "the", and "it" by the time the period was finished. I was excited for her and sent her back to class. Later in the day, she came back with a friend and got the book out and pointed these 3 words out and read them aloud. She was showing off and her friend was excited and impressed and wanted to learn them too.
I was stunned. Like totally shocked. I knew they'd be behind the equivalent American grade levels but I was not prepared for how far behind. They couldn't read! Our 10 and 11 year olds could not read. Basically at all. It's crazy. Some didn't even know how to say all the letters of the alphabet. And I'm not talking about the little little ones. We did some math and that was tricky. They knew the numbers a bit better. But still had trouble with simple arithmetic. Like 3+1, 8+0, 7-1. They just counted (rehearsed from memory) and then worked from there. And getting them to want to stick with anything for longer than about 3 minutes was a feat worthy of a Nobel Prize (There, I earned one! Sort of..)
We had one laptop computer at the school. One computer. In a school in today's world. That's nuts. Software on it is pretty limited but there is some typing program and a few games, educational and otherwise. They couldn't sit still for the 'educational games' for sh**. So we played solitaire and turned it into a math game. Three were at the computer with me figuring out what you could play on a 9. So we did a lot of 9-1 and 9+1. I could see them starting to figure out the answers a little more quickly once we added the motivation of a game. Never thought about Solitaire as a math game before this, but it worked! But the game was more than math because you should have seen these little fingers trying to work that mouse. I've never seen anyone so unfamiliar with the drag, point, and click. It was so unnatural. The concept just didn't come easily that you were moving the mouse to move things around on the screen. Getting them to do File>>Open was like a 6 minute task.
I want to tell so much more....not sure I even got any of the best stories out but gotta go. Too much time at the internet cafe is unforgivable here.
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