My First Day at School

The group got up at 7:00 and was out of the house by 7:45. Belinda, The lady that helps around the house makes everybody lunch everyday. Today she made ham and cheese sandwiches. Knowing this, I went to the grocery store (it is about a 5 minutes walk)  the day I arrived and got peanut butter and jelly and cereal. At the store, I also looked for some of the other essentials that I eat in the USA ( including(Chewy bars, Nature valley bars, Yoplay Yogurt,). none of these exist in South Africa, So I am experimenting with dried fruits and nuts.

When we arrived at the School at around 8 o'clock it was as if we had crossed into another the country. The difference in living conditions was simply astonishing. The school is located in a township call Masi consisting of hundreds of shacks that seemed to be put together with scrap metal.  (I will try to post pictures later).


Because I was new, Will gave me a tour of the school. It is a primary school (grades 1 through 7). Most kids were dressed in a yellow and black uniform which no shoes. The school holds a little over 1400 students with each classroom holding about 45. The school is a nice facility compared to the shacks that stand around it but for its enrollment it is really small in size.

Once the tour was over I went over to the black top to start the sports program with the other volunteers. Today we dealt with mostly first grade students but because they can't move up in grade level until they pass, some students were 8 or 9 years old. While all of the adults speak English fluently, the kids only speak "xhosa.." With the assistance of the PE instructors, India and Sia, we ran drills with the kids working on Speed Agility and quickness (known as SAQ). I was amazed that the children were jumping and running on the black top on their bare feet in 80 degree weather. I was more amazed that It did not seem to bother them at all. We had about 5 or 6 waves of kids during the day each exercising for about a half hour. We then eat lunch, and were driven back to the house. We relaxed their for about two hours before being driven back to school to coach kids in specific sports. I, along with 2 other volunteers, helped play basketball with three 9 year old girls. It was a small showing at basketball, most of the kids wanted to play soccer or rugby but I was assured by the other volunteers that more come on other days of the week. Daily schedule is different everyday of the week. 

When we arrived back at the house I was able to catch an hour-long nap before we all went out to dinner to celebrate one of the volunteer's last day. The program started in the beginning of January so most of the people have been here for 6 weeks. We went to fish restaurant and I got a Yellow Fin Steak, 6 pawns, a side of salad and fries, and a coke for 12 dollars. The food was delicious, it was the first real meal I had had since the steak I had the night before my flight

There is a lot more to say and I will try to post more info later.