Birds Badgers and Birthdays

On Friday school didn't start til 11 o'clock and it ended at around 1:30 so it was a pretty relaxed day. At around 3 I took a quality power nap that took the rest of the afternoon. I went to the local pizza place in Fish Hoek for dinner. It's decent but it makes me miss New Haven pizza.

On Friday night, I went back to Mowbray to meet up with Elsha, my friend from American, for her birthday party. It turns out that three people in Elsha's group have had a birthday this week so it was a "birthday extravaganza." There were about 10 people in our group. We had tickets to see Goldfish at Trinity in Clairmont.I had already seen Goldfish at the botanical gardens but they were really good and I was interested to see how different their performance would be in a club setting. They didn't disappoint, and it was soo much fun.

Unfortunately, taking cabs back and forth from Fish Hoek to Cape Town is pretty expensive. Its roughly a half hour drive and I've spent at least $100 this week on taxis.


The next day Will gave us tickets to the World of Birds - a small zoo-like enclosure that houses birds, monkey's and some other mammals. The zoo was geared more toward younger children but we made it fin. We got to play with some of the monkeys and some of the birds were really cool.

Later that afternoon, we all went to the beach. It was the first time I had actually swam in the water. It was a beautiful day and the Indian Ocean was not as cold as expected. I've been reassured that on worse days the water is freezing.

 That night we went to the Cape Town Carnival. We weren't really sure what to expect but it turned out to be a two hour parade and then a massive block party that went well into that night. there were thousands of people there and when I got lost for twenty minutes it was a little terrifying.All ended well though as I spotted Pablo from the distance -luckily he's 6-4. 

The Past Few Days

This week local South African guys joined the sports program to learn about SAQ so that they can take the program to other schools. It is a great idea but there are just too many people doing sports now. There are 5 of us, 4 coaches from Masi and about 6 new guys learning the program. There are sometimes two people working with one kid and it's overkill. Many times our group find ourselves with nothing to do, so this week we decided to help some of the people doing the teaching program.


Everyone in the teaching program right now is teaching first grade. It is a very different and more challenging experience than the sports program. On Wednesday I was helping some of the kids with an activity. The teacher drew vegetables on the board and then wrote the name of the vegetable next to the drawing. The class (mostly comprised of 7 or 8 year olds because most kids have to repeat grade one at least once) was instructed to copy what was on the board into their notebook. It was shocking to me how much they struggled with this activity.I had to sit down individually with almost all 40 kids before the activity was completed.

The next day I helped out another grade one class an it got even worse. They were working on a worksheet where they had to write their name, age, grade, and gender and a large part of them couldn't write their name. I would dot out their name and some of them couldn't trace what I outlined. They understood me and knew what they were supposed to do but they simply could not complete the task.

I've asked almost every adult I talked to what the problem was and it is my understanding that everyone is blaming each other. The parents don't stimulate the kids at a young age and they rely completely on the school to educate their kids. Some of the parents treat the school as a place for their kids to go and get food and nothing more. The teachers are lazy and unmotivated. They expect little of their students and do not teach with any enthusiasm. Then everyone blames the kids for not being up to par. It is really a broken system, I guess that is why we're here.

In more upbeat news, Cam, a volunteer from Maine, and I are booked to shark cage dive on Sunday morning.If I post again it will have been a successful trip haha.

Last night I hung out with my American friend near UCT. It was really good to see her and she seems to be really enjoying South Africa. I'm seeing her again at her birthday party tonight so that should be a good time too.

Unlike last weekend, this weekend seems to be really chill. I think we're just going to visit the bird world on saturday. Sunday, after shark cage diving, I think a lot of the volunteers are going into Simon's town to get some souvenirs, and then there is a beer/wine festival on Long Street in the evening. There is no school on Monday because the national holiday "Human Rights Day" and I think we might go into Miuzenberg and try out surfing (though after I see the sharks I don't know if I'll want to go into the water again).

I tried playing basketball  yesterday and the thumb held up pretty well (I did tweak my Achilles a little bit but you can't have everything I guess). There is another game with the local team next Friday and I'm going to try and play in it. Just pray that no one touches my thumb. I'm starting the teaching program on Tuesday and that should give me a much needed rest until Friday.

Riversdale Pics

Cape Town From the Highway we got stuck on

Me on the cloudy day

Me tubing

the Mountains in the late afternoon

Pablo, a volunteer from Argentina, and I failing at trying to tube at the same time

Me tubing successfully

The Cabin that we stayed in

Inside the Cabin that we stayed in

Breatfast

The mountains in the morning

Everyone swimming

Dinner (steak and chicken Braii))

The other side of the lake at sunset

I think thats me failing at Knee Boarding

Me with the Lake and Mountains

A South African Spider in the Bathroom

You can see the cabin where we stayed between the trees. This is where we stayed for the weekend

Riversdale

Eight out of the ten volunteers decided to make the trip. Bryan, the volunteer who was on the same flight as me, decided not to go because he is leaving Cape Town to take advantage of a job/internship opportunity in the USA. Ben, a volunteer from Massachusetts and a huge patriots fan, decided not to go because his parents are in Cape Town for the weekend.

 On Friday morning we all packed up our stuff and got into the van. Will drove the van while Roxy, his wife, drove the sedan that was towing the boat. Our trip got off on the wrong foot when Roxy’s car overheated. Will and Roxy had to bring both cars back to the Fish Hoek while the volunteers were stuck on the side of the highway. It was a gorgeous view looking down at downtown Cape Town but we were stuck there for about two hours and it was really hot. Once we got moving again, the trip went relatively smoothly.

As we travelled farther away from Cape Town it was interesting to see how the landscape changed. About an hour outside Cape Town, there are just massive expanses of farm land. For the middle three hours of the car ride all we saw was sheep, ostrich, and cattle farms. 

Once we arrived in Riversdale the landscape changed again to forest. The forests were mostly conifer trees and it seemed oddly familiar to America (except for the giant mountains in the distance.) We drove through Riversdale and after a 20 minute ride on a dirt road we finally arrived at our cabin. The pictures do a better job of describing the cabin and the view.

We got there at about 7 o’clock and it was almost dark. As I said before, there was no electricity so we had to unpack and make a fire for dinner in the dark. We cooked chicken on a braai, roasted some marsh mellows and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, the next day was cloudy. Some of the volunteers got an early start and went out to the water but most of us slept in ‘til about 9 o’clock. We hung out on the grass watching the others go tubing and then we took a break to make brunch. We had mass quantities of scrabbled eggs, toast and bacon. We then each got a turn tubing around the lake. The day was really relaxing and a lot of fun. It would have been more fun if the boat didn’t keep stalling. It took about a half hour to get the boat started again when we switched people from the boat to the grass. Further, the boat guzzled gas. It used up 70 liters of fuel in three hours. Because we were isolated from everything (including a gas station)…we only got to use the boat for three hours per day. We cooked up an early braai with steak and sweet potatoes and played games until we went to bed at about 9 o’clock (you can’t really do much at night with no electricity.)

The next day was clear blue sky. Most of the day we spent chilling in the sun while we took turns tubing. We had fried eggs for lunch and a massive dinner with chicken, steak, stuffed squash, salad, and homemade bread rolls. Needless to say, any food that was lacking these passed two weeks I made up for this weekend. I’ve never had so many consecutive meals when I’ve felt so full after everyone. We ate way too many marsh mellows while playing games during the early evening.

On Monday, we decided to get in a boating session and a solid lunch before heading back. I tried knee boarding for the first time but it was an epic fail. Because I was sunburned on the front of my torso from Sunday, I couldn’t take the board on my stomach, I kept letting go before getting the chance to get on my knees. We ran out of fuel before I had a chance to try water skiing, but it looked like a lot of fun and I’m eager to try it. We had scrabbled eggs again for lunch and we hit the road at about 1 o’clock. I got back about 4 hours ago.

Overall, it was a great weekend. While I thought I would struggle a little bit with no electricity it was a really nice change. It slowed things down and the scenery and stars were just breathtaking. That being said, it’s good to be back in the 21^st century.

Over the weekend I talked to Will about possibly changing programs and trying out the teaching program. He’ll hopefully help me out with that on Wednesday. Also, I think I’m going to do shark cage diving on Sunday with another volunteer! Were doing the research to find the best program tomorrow.

Some Pics from the Sports Program

I bought my camera today to get some pics of the sports program. I'm going to try and do something in the teaching program next week so I wanted to get some pics before I changed.  The photography sucks because the kids go crazy whenever you take out the camera. I ended up taking dozens of pics. I would upload them all but It takes about 8 minutes to download one pic.

It turns out that there's a lot of stuff to do today in preparation for the trip to the Eastern Cape tomorrow so I'm going to try and see my friend from AU next week. Like I said before, there's no internet (there's not even electricity) where we're staying so this is the last post til Monday or Tuesday. 

On Monday half of us spontaneously decided to go into Cape Town for the evening. We went to a bar and the dance club right next store to the bar. The evening was a lot of fun but we got back to the house around 2 so I've been exhausted all day.


Today, is the hardest day of the week in terms of number of classes. We run straight through the day and it was pretty tiresome.The highlight of the day was at 2:30 where instead of after school sports, the volunteers played a basketball game with the regional basketball team for the township. Because of my injury, I was the designated referee. I was pretty frustrated that I couldn't play in the game until I saw the other team. Each of them had about 3 inches and 50 pounds on us. The game was over quickly when the regional team took a commanding lead in the first quarter. The final score was 54-26. While I'm glad I didn't play (because I would have gotten embarrassed like the rest of them). I have a new appreciate for referees...It is a really hard job and no one is on your side.

The past 2 nights the food has gotten marginally better and tonight we all decided to make pancakes for dessert. The People from the UK made them so they were more like crepes but they were still pretty good.

I've made plans to chill with my friend from AU, who is studying abroad at UCT, on Thursday.
Will has planned a trip to a secluded beach for the weekend. He's bring his boat so there will be water skying and such. There will be on Internet for a while so there might  not be a post til next week.

Some Pics From The Concert On Sunday