Hoya Nag. Good night South Africa!

Blog Update June 23, 2009

Sorry for the lack of updating—it’s been hectic. I’m staying at a hostel in Cape Town and the internet here is really sketchy and doesn’t like to let me sign into my blog. Thus, I’m writing this in MS Word with the hope that I can copy and paste it into my blog soon.

So, Friday was my last day of placement. I did the haiku and snowflake activity and it was really great. I feel so proud of the kids when they write their little poem and paste it onto a cute snowflake that they’ve made. I then hung them around the room and my teacher was so happy with it she said that she will probably keep them up all year, which makes me feel great. I got lots of hugs and lovely little notes. Those kids are just so affectionate and writing things like “to the one I trust” or “I will keep you in my heart forever” and “may God bless you and watch over you and your family”. Such sweet and thoughtful kids. I nearly cried on my last day but I held it together because I thought that would be awkward, haha.

Friday afternoon we hiked Table Mountain! We were fortunate enough to have a perfectly clear, warm sunny day in the middle of Cape Town winter. It was a 2(ish) hour grueling hike. Literally, it is straight up. You are on a steep incline the whole way, and you’re walking on rocks and there are even parts where you have to be on all fours. It was super intense. At the top though, you feel such a sense of accomplishment. I felt accomplished for so many times here when I have completely stepped outside my comfort zone and character to do something challenging and difficult for myself. I did it! It was an amazing view from the top. You could see all of Cape Town and the ocean—it was just wonderful.


Later that night we went out with the rest of the CCS gang as a last hurrah. I was feeling really sick and just tired since I didn’t sleep much the night before so I didn’t stay out too late, but it was great seeing everyone and the others at Homebase1.

Saturday we packed our things and came to the hostel called Cape Town Backpackers. It’s nice and safe. There’s a little bar downstairs, and a kitchen, and lots of seating area. It’s great too because Dena, Lyndsay, Aly, and I have a private room with our own bathroom. I’m liking it a lot, the only downside is that it can get kind of loud. I think that I am just SO ready to sleep in my own bed, without 3 other people in the room haha.

We have just been moseying around town, killing time essentially. The weather has been crappy and I’m really low on money so, there isn’t much to do. We had a nice dinner at this place called Café Mojito with Glenna, Jen, Shanika, and Amanda who are all still in the middle of their volunteering program with CCS. Today we saw Sunshine Cleaning at the movie theater and it made me feel like I was at home, til I walked outside and saw Table Mountain covered in fog. Tonight we are seeing a South African play called Prison Codes, which Jen had found for us so that should be interesting.

Other than that, I’m all packed and ready to go. Faried, one of the awesome drivers who we got to know well, is taking Lyndsay and I to the airport for our flight home. It should be interesting, because I’m bringing home two bottles of wine so hopefully that doesn’t cause any issues. I know that I will have to claim it and all, but hopefully they don’t make me unpack everything and show them. It’s all packed in there pretty tight! Thank God I brought that extra duffle bag because even though I didn’t need it on the way here, I definitely need it for the way home…Hmmm I wonder why that is….:)

This will probably be my last update til I am home. My flight arrives in the states at 12:15pm Thursday. Hopefully I will get photos uploaded to facebook and probably onto a snapfish.com account where you all can view them (if you don’t have facebook).
Here’s my tentative plan for the rest of my summer:
Home June 25th. Spend time with family til mom and dad leave for their vacation on Sunday.
See Steve, hang out with Rachel.
Get up to East Lansing on/after the 4th of july to see friends (Hey TE folk-that means you too!)
Spend time in EL and home until Steve and I go to Costa Rica the end of July (Yep, I have TWO trips in one summer. I’m a lucky/broke girl!)
Pack up my life, then move to Chicago August 8th. So, now that you all know what I’ll be doing, find a way for our paths to cross (intentionally, preferably haha).

Update: I forgot to mention the safari!! Here's some photos to do the talking for me :)

Do you know Obama?

Wow, I only have two days left at my placement. I really wish I had more time with the kids. It’s so crazy because I have only had like 5 days with each class because there were two days off because of a holiday called Youth Day. Youth Day is like a memorial day to commemorate the violent uprising of children in Soweto in the 70s. The students were protesting and demonstrating for better education and police open fired on the crowed killing hundreds of young people. If you’re interested in reading more, check this out: http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa060801a.htm

This weekend was long and relaxing. Saturday consisted of a trip out to Stellenbosch area to the many many South African winelands. We went to four different wineries and the first even produced its own cheese (which was SOOO good). I tried something like 20 different wines (sips mind you) and still have concluded that I HATE red wine. The only red-ish wine that I liked was the sparkling wine called Cape Jazz of which I bought a bottle of to bring home. It’s like a celebratory drink and I think it would be really cool to save for New Years or something. Needless to say, after that day we were all a little tipsy and tired. Came back for a little nap and some dinner and then relaxed for the evening. A lot of people in the homebase went out on the garden route for “adventure weekend” full of skydiving, caving, and bungee jumping. Obviously, that isn’t my thing. It was nice to have a quiet evening with just 5 or 6 of us in the house.


Sunday, I went to Kirstenbosch gardens with Lyndsay, Glenna, ShaNika, and Jen. It was absolutely beautiful! The gardens wind up along the mountain and there is just so much natural beauty all around. It was really nice to walk around there.
Monday we attempted to go to Robben Island. We got out to the waterfront and bought tickets just for it to be cancelled an hour later. Robben Island is like a 45min ferry ride off Cape Town so if the wind is too much, the swells out in the ocean get really big and then it isn’t a good idea to be boating out there. We’re hoping to get to the island this weekend or next week. Monday night we went out to a bar called The Dubliner for some live music and adult beverages with like 25 of us volunteers. It was a really nice, casual fun time.

Tuesday was Youth Day and we planned to go on safari but the weather was too bad so that got cancelled too. Unfortunately, weather in Cape Town is even more unpredictable than Michigan! For one thing, it’s in the middle of massive mountains and the ocean, and it is the rainy season. So it might rain all morning then be sunny and 75 in the afternoon. Or, it might be windy and cold all day. Or some combination of the above. Thus, it’s hard to plan for outdoor activities that require good weather. We’re hoping for this weekend but there are a few complications with that so we’ll see. If I don’t get to go on safari, I won’t be too disappointed. I feel like I’ve experienced a lot more to South Africa than animals on a private game reserve. Now, if I were in Kruger then hell yeah, I would be determined to go on safari. There, the animals are wild. Near Cape Town, they are wild-ish but on a private game reserve. So who knows!

Today I taught quite a bit and talked a lot about home and then the students wrote a few paragraphs about what they learned about me and the US. They wanted to know all kinds of things: what my mommy and daddys names were and when their birthdays were, what kind of animals are wild in Michigan, if I have met celebrities, do I know Obama, what my favorite season is, what my favorite color is, and if my flight was scary. It was really fun  I drew a poor version of the American flag and of Michigan and drew dots where I lived. I also read them a poem by Shel Silverstein called hug-o-war and talked about who he was and what his poems are like. I hope that they might be able to go out and find them around here (though I’m not sure how big he is in SA). Friday I am doing the haiku/snowflake activity as a good bye thing for this class. It went awesome with the other class, so I hope it’ll be just as great with them.

Snowflakes:

Next week Lyndsay and I are staying in a hostel with two other girls who are staying later than the program. We’re taking it easy for now, and I’m sure we’ll just do some more exploring in the city during that time (and robben island if we still haven’t done it by then).

I can’t believe it’s almost over. In exactly one week, I will be getting on a plane to come home. Let’s hope that plane ride is better than the last. Seriously, cross your fingers. My anxiety can’t take it!
As sad as I am to leave all of the wonderful kids, I’m definitely running out of money and I’m ready to sleep in my own bed. It’s definitely not easy living with 16 females and sharing a small room with another. I’m ready for my own space and privacy back! Plus, I need a damn hamburger and some chocolate cookies. (Got that, mom & dad? Hahaha) Love you!

PS: Happy Belated Birthday Rachel!!

Sunsets,Shopping, Snowflakes, Spicy food, and more…

I apologize for not updating sooner—I feel like this week has really just flown by so fast and I haven’t had much time to update. After shark diving, we went for a day drive around the peninsula to Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, all part of a national park reserve area. It was breathtaking. I have some amazing photos from the ocean and the scenery. We saw wild ostriches and penguins, and saw an amazing sunset. I can’t wait to print off photos and frame them. I seriously feel like even with my crappy camera and my lack of photography skills, every shot was like national geographic or something. It is just that beautiful.


The next day, we ventured into the city to Green Market Square. This is essentially a huge craft/artisan market where you can bargain and get things really cheap. I spent more money than anticipated but it only came out to be like $50 US. Not bad for all the things I got (I cant tell you here since some of the things I bought are gifts for my family!). I got pretty good at bargaining and I must say, I was impressed.

This week I left my first class of third graders and had to switch to a new one. I guess that the two third grade teachers like to share the volunteers, which is great. It was hard leaving the other children just as I was really getting to know them as individuals and build relationships with them. This class is a lot different than my other one. My previous teacher was warm and open, and so good with the kids. They were really well-behaved and she had high standards for them but there was always a positive environment in the classroom. The air in my new classroom is very heavy. It is always just so negative. The teacher has an abrasive personality and will often yell at the kids and even embarrass them by yelling at them if they don’t understand something or don’t do something right. I just don’t think learning happens when students are afraid to ask questions or make mistakes. You need to feel comfortable taking risks in the classroom and I don’t think these kids do.

My new class:

I think it’s a personality thing (the teachers) but also a cultural thing as well. South African culture really values well-behaved children, almost a “seen and not heard” kind of belief. It is really important for students to respect adults and give them high respect and authority. They also really don’t pamper kids or sugarcoat things. They are very honest with them and have high expectations. I think this is good because often times, I find that in the US we are soo lax with students or we feel like they are so sensitive that we treat them with too much fragility. I believe there needs to be a good balance. I think I found that balance in my first classroom, but I’m on the other extreme right now. While it makes me uncomfortable to witness a lot of these interactions, I know that I’m bringing something different to the kids. I am able to teach lessons and manage the classroom ( for the most part, I mean..kids are kids lol so misbehavior definitely occurs) but I maintain a smile. I can be firm and command their attention but treat them with kindness and respect. From both perspectives that I have gotten here, I have learned a lot. I definitely have so much experience and perspective to bring home with me.

This week we visited District 6 in the city. Before apartheid, the area known as district six was a thriving, diverse community. Blacks, coloreds, whites, Indians, etc…lived together in harmony and created great art, food, and music. Unfortunately, under the group areas act in 196-(Don’t quote me, but I think it was 61?) apartheid ruled that these “races” could not intermix. Each respective group was forced to move out of district 6 into another part of town. District 6 was bulldozed and 60000 people were forced out of their homes. Apartheid created so many horrible things but I believe the worst thing it did was convince people that they didn’t belong together. After visiting Bo Kaap (a mostly Moslem section of town), we learned that people in one group were told how horrible the other group was and vice versa. Essentially, people who once lived amicably together were pitted against one another. While people are free to intermingle today since apartheid is gone, the effects are still strong. I sense strong underlying racial tensions and it just feels so separate. The disparity between cultures and communities is vast. It’s sad because although coloureds (anyone apartheid govt determined to be “mixed) and blacks are free to move wherever they like, because of years of degradation and forced poverty…many can’t afford to move out of the shacks and shanties they live in, in the townships.

The wounds from apartheid are so fresh that it’s hard to move forward. I see so much potential here though. There is a lot of rebuilding going on and there are a lot of good changes in the works. Knowing that communities like district 6 once existed, and that there are strong community organizations working toward integration and equality and financial stability, this can be an amazing and diverse country. Throughout history, countries don’t just bounce back after something like apartheid or any other oppressive regime. It takes time. I can see South Africa is on its way when every single person I meet is welcoming, open, and honest. I think we can expect many more great things from this country.

Today we visited Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. It’s acres and acres of beautiful fauna and flora (excuse the triteness of that expression lol) up along the side of the mountains. Seriously, this country has soooooooooo much natural beauty that it is unbelievable. You have Cape Town, this huge modern city and then all surrounding it you have natural reserves , mountains, coastline, and more. Make South Africa your next vacation spot. ;) Just 13 days left of this trip. Hopefully I’ll get another update in soon. We have a long weekend. It’s a holiday next week so we have Monday and Tuesday off placement so we are going to winelands tomorrow and then safari Tuesday, and hiking table mountain somewhere between. Hope you all are doing well. Love you!!

JAWS!

Thanks for the comments & emails! It’s so nice to come home after a long and usually overwhelming day, to find notes from home.

This’ll be a quick update but I just HAD to tell you all about shark diving!! We drove about two hours from Cape Town to the Gansbaai area where the great white sharks all seem to hang out. There is a place in the Atlantic between two islands that’s known as ‘shark alley’ because of the fact that there are so many sharks there. The reason for this is that on these islands are about 30-50,000 seals on a regular basis. Thus, good old great white has guaranteed dinner. Nifty fact about the great white shark: You can only find them here and in Australia and ONLY here are they known for breaching (Planet Earth anyone?? Yeah…). Exciting stuff! So about 12 from our group and some other people we didn’t know headed out to sea on a boat named ‘The Barracuda’ early this morning.

Sometimes it takes minutes to find sharks, sometimes it takes hours. They do NOT feed the shark; they just bait them with some chum (fish guts and heads of fish that already exist in their diet). Lucky for us, we were the first boat out there and found a shark right away. Four other girls and I jumped in the cage first because I was afraid that if I waited too long and actually saw the shark first, I would chicken out. So I went in blindly… The cage is a large one, attached to the boat with an open top. Essentially you sit up top and wait for the shark to swim by the cage while the crew is chumming and when they yell something like “go down, to your left” you take a deep breath and go under and wait for it coming from the left. I went in twice. The first time, the shark kept his distance but it was beautiful. I was terrified above water, but under the water it was absolutely serene. I was just completely in awe of its wonder. Then, the second time we had TWO sharks. They came VERY close to the cage and I even saw inside one’s mouth (yes, scary!). It was sooo amazing. I cannot even describe it in words. I feel different, like I did something totally new and way out of character for me. It’s awesome.



Today is the first beautiful day we’ve had in Cape Town. The sun is out and it is not raining—it’s even about 63 degrees out right now. It’s really nice. South Africa has such beauty and as we were driving to Gansbaai it was just full of green and mountains. Oh! I forgot to mention the baboons. There are a lot of wild baboons outside of Gansbaai and we were fortunate enough to see like 12 of them hanging out on the side of the road. I got some pictures but it was just so awesome that they were wild and we were seeing them in their habitat. I don’t have pictures of my own from the shark diving( I was too nervous to multitask!) but a lot of other people do so I will just steal some from them whenever they upload them. It’s hard to upload photos here because it eats up all of our bites and we pay for internet by the bite. That’s why I haven’t uploaded any yet—they’ll be up when I get home though!

This week: teaching the third graders about snow, making cut out snowflakes and pasting their photos on them as a craft. I want to talk to them about individuality and how people are all unique and different, yet beautiful (just like the snowflakes!) Plus since they don’t get snow here, it’ll be something new for them. It’s cheesy… but hey you can do that stuff with the little ones.

Love you all!
--Shark Bait

Hello! Hi LuAnn from Lyndsay!

It’s been an amazing week. I think I’ll start with describing a typical day and some of the activities we have planned. And of course, tell you all about the wonderful children I’m working with.

So there are two homebases here right now since there are SO many volunteers at this time. My homebase has 16 girls living in it and the other has about 21 (with a few boys). We get picked up at 745 to go to our placements. I am placed at Blossom Street Primary School with Lyndsay, Glenna, and a volunteer who was already here named Ran. I work in a 3rd grade classroom with about thirty students. The school is very well organized and structured and functions much like our schools at home. The students are different though, because they are so well-behaved and polite. Students here are very respectful of adults (and hey, I guess I’m considered an adult lol).

Everyday when I come in, I hear all of them say “ good morning teacher sarah” and when I leave they say “ good afternoon teacher sarah”. It’s adorable. I get to read them stories everyday at story time and I take small reading groups and work with them. I was pretty much free to do what I wanted with the reading groups so I’ve started doing reader’s theater. They LOVE it. We first start with comprehension, then we talk about actors and what it means to read with enthusiasm and animation. So then, they get their parts and read it as if they were acting. Then I let them stand up and create movements to do with the words. It’s great. They are really doing well with it and enjoying it quite a bit. Next week, I guess they are sending me to another teacher because they really want me in that classroom too lol. It’s sad because I’m getting to know these students, but I’ll get to meet new ones.


I get picked up from placement at 12:30 and then we have lunch at 1. Food has been very good. Lots of veggies and salad. We are definitely eating very healthy here! Then after lunch, we either have a free afternoon or some kind of cultural activity. Today we have an HIV/AIDS workshop, the other day we went on a township tour, and a city tour, and tonight we have a South African Movie. We also have language lessons on Tuesdays. I am learning a little bit of Afrikaans.Dinner is at 6pm and usually after there isn’t much to do. We all kind of just hang out and relax, or plan for the next days lessons. At that point, I am dead tired.

Images of the townships:


Children Playing in Langa
One room in the houses where 40 people would live. A family of ten lives in this room.
The shower.



I’ve already learned sooo much and I know that this is such a meaningful experience for me. We of course, also have our touristy activities as well. Friday we are visiting Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned), Saturday I am going CAGE DIVING WITH SHARKS! I know, totally out of character for me, right? I’m terrified…but it’s a once in a lifetime experience. Great Whites are only found in Cape Town and Australia so like, where else am I going to do this? Maybe it’ll make me braver…haha. Anyway, I’ll definitely let you all know how that goes. I’m sure my anxiety level will be quite high. Sunday we are driving down to the Cape of Good Hope and on the way we stop at Boulders Beach to see penguins (like, not in a zoo..just in their natural habitat). I have lots of photos but it uses too many of my bites to upload them.

It’s very intense. I feel like I’m on a rollercoaster! It’s emotional and just really unique. I’m so happy to be here but I know that I’ll be happy to be home when I do come back. Love you all. Leave comments, and send me emails!

I’ve arrived!

Well, we’ve finally made it to our home base after a loooooong two days of flying. I’ll start at the beginning. Our first flight to London was not so bad. It was fairly smooth but very uncomfortable. We had our own personal tvs which was great but I wasn’t able to sleep at all. Time change stole 5 hours from us and just as I was falling asleep, the lights came on and they started serving breakfast! Anyway, we landed in London safely.

We spent the day in London yesterday, though neither Lyndsay nor I slept at all on the plane the night before. We had some issues at the airport because Northwest did NOT take care of our luggage and pass it on to the next carrier as we had been told. Instead, by some stroke of luck I see some woman strolling along with my suitcase. Apparently, she thought it was hers. Nope, sorry the one with the obnoxious huge gold luggage tag and colorful ribbon is certainly mine. So yeah, that’s how we figured out that NW did not pass along our luggage. Nice, right? We were sleep deprived and admittedly, I was crabby and not feeling emotionally up for all of this. After we found our luggage and figured out how to get to London, we set off for the city. We had a nice (but again, looong) walking tour of the city. We even got good use out of our one-day subway “tube” passes. I saw Big Ben, Buckingham Palace at which by the way, we saw the changing of the guards, Kensington Palace (where Princess Di lived) and the Globe theatre. Overall, a pretty good day but after our 7 hour adventure in London, we were exhausted.



We had high hopes for sleeping on last night’s flight since we fit all of the qualifications for actually falling asleep on a plane(note: we were desperate!). To our dismay, we had turbulence for about the last 5 hours of our flight. It was nerve wrenching and stressful. I think I may have slept for an hour or two with the aid of AdvilPM but it was so uncomfortable and I was anxious most the night, so it wasn’t so grand. We landed in the rain/fog of Cape Town, and our driver Kimie got us safely to homebase 2. We got a brief look at the squatter camps and some of the housing developments where people are living in poverty. It’s sad because from afar, Cape Town is gorgeous with Table Mountain to top off its view. Yet, driving through the city, we get a good look at the way that people (note: mostly blacks and coloureds) are living. We’ll learn more tomorrow and Monday with orientation.
This all sounds pretty negative so far, but I promise I am excited to be here lol. I cannot wait to learn all that I can and experience everything, good and bad. I’m placed at Blossom Street Primary School with Lyndsay and two other girls I believe. We’ll be working with kids age 5-14 and could be doing anything from physical education, computers, or working on reading and literacy (obviously, the latter is what I’m hoping for!). I’ll definitely have more to say later, after our orientations and our placements. I smell lunch cooking right now, and it smells wonderful. It’s pretty chilly right now, since it is only like 50 degrees outside and it’s been rainy. We left Michigan summer for Cape Town’s winter—but it’s alright. I think I’ve packed plenty of cold weather clothes (SO glad I threw in my jacket at the last minute) and I’m sure our experience will be well worth a little bit of clouds and rain. Anyway, the internet situation is a little sticky and in fact, as I am writing this I am not even connected. I’m planning on copying and pasting to the blog once I get the connection worked out. I signed up for the service and everything, but it says that this is an inactive hotspot. Oh well, I’ll have to talk to Latifa ( the admin person) when she gets back later.

EDIT: Internet is all good. :)

Love you all. Expect more from me later!

Homebase:

I leave in exactly 12 days!! Lyndsay and I are so excited :) We got our flight info figured out, and I should know my placement within the next couple days. I'll post that here as soon as I get more info.

I'm really sick right now but I've got some strong antibiotics and I slept a lot (16 hours last night!) and I've been pumping myself with vitamin C and green tea so hopefully I will be 100% by the time I leave. Being sick on the plane would be just miserable! I'm thinking optimistically though, so I am sure that I will be just fine by then.

I just spent a week in Chicago to visit and get oriented to the city in which I'll be living next year. We found apartments in Hyde Park, very near to the University of Chicago. They are small, but nice and safe. Several people in my group will be living there as well so it'll be a nice little community. I will be student teaching at Kenwood Academy. It looks like a really great school that is really focused on college. 67% of students attend college and there are alot of really academically challenging courses. I'm excited to be in such a positive atmosphere! I'll know more about my mentor teacher and classes that I'll teach sometime in June or July.

Updates soon :)