I haven't posted in a couple of days and there is a lot of stuff I could get into. Teaching the class has been much more engaging than the sports program but it is much harder. A few days ago, all of the 5th grade teachers had to do "National Assessments" and so for the entire day all of the 5th grade classrooms were without teachers - just 45 kids on there own. I had to figure out stuff for them to do. I tried doing spelling quizzes and math problems on the board but by the end of the day, my throat was soar and I was exhausted for improv teaching for 9 hours. The school does not run like any school I've ever seen before, everything is so disorganized and last minute. Further, everyone blames each other for the school's short comings. Even my teacher, who I believe to be an intelligent and bright person, believes that the children are at fault for failing the exams.
Socially, things have been surprisingly quiet. Considering it is everyone's last week, I was expecting everyone to go into Capetown and party but we mainly just chilled in Kalk Bay and Fish Hoek. We all went out for Jack's Birthday last night into Cape Town to a sushi restaurant. The sushi was not as good as I was thought it would be but it was a good time. A few of the people went out after dinner to Long Street. I decided to head back home because I had to register for classes for the fall at 6:00 o'clock am. Unfortunately, when I got up, my registration guide told me that I do not register until the 6th of April. I will be on a safari from the 4th to the 7th so I do not know whats going to happen there.
Aside from the dinner, we went to the movies one night. Another night we went to a late-night waffle bar. Other than that, not a whole lot has happened - a lot of early nights.
Tonight, however, we have decided to to into Kalk Bay and go to a few hot spots that we've been to before. Some of the volunteers are planning on staying up all night to watch the sunrise over the ocean. I don't think I'll make it that far. It is not my last night and I saw the sunrise when I got up for shark cage diving.
Going back to today:
Today was the final day of term and like any primary school on the last day of term it was vibrant with playful chaos. We got in early and went to the teachers lounge where the principle and all of the teachers thanked us for our help. We then went to Friday assembly, where all of the kids in the school (1300) were gathered to say thank you and good bye. When the assembly broke, the day continued to be festive. Everyone brought their cameras and I tried to take a bunch of pictures.It was kind of a weird experience because everyone assumed that I was leaving too. I had to remind them that I was coming back to the school for the next term. Class was held 'til about 12 but the teachers did even less than usual and so we tried to visit all of the kids we knew. The day dragged on a little bit as some of the girls in the group had trouble saying good bye but we managed to get out of there by about 1.
After about two hours of down time Will droves to a picnic area to have our last South African braai. The food was really good but the highlight of the meal was that a baboon came over and got up close and personal with our camp site. We managed to throw all the food in the van before he came over but he managed to snag a bottle of Coke. He chilled with us for about 10 minutes before realizing that there wasn't any food to be had. They are pretty fearless animals. Will, tried to scare it away and instead of running off it acted like it accepted Will's challenge to fight. While he was the only one to come over to our area, there were about 10 in the camping area and they tormented some of the other campers. One managed to get inside a car! It was pretty cool watching them from afar. We hung out til about 5 o'clock and now we're back at the house. Almost everyone is taking a nap before we go into Kalk Bay to have our last night out as a group.
About a week and a half ago, my mom sent me a package that had stuff to help me with the safari that I'm going to on Monday. While the tracking system shows that it has gone through all South African customs, it has not arrived. The package contains my prescription malaria pills which I am suppose to start taking tomorrow. I'm going to the post office tomorrow to see if it is there but I have a feeling that it will not arrive for a while. Some of the other volunteers have malaria pills but I don't know if they have any extra. I might just have to buy a lot of bug spray and cross my fingers...
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