Addo and Schotia

I don’t know why but blogging seems to take forever for me to do. And so it definitely is taking away from my homework time tonight!! Well maybe it’s because I write so much, but I don’t know what to keep out of the blog. So here is my attempt to be short and sweet because I have a lot to do tonight.

Sunday we went to Addo Elephant Park and Schotia Game Reserve. At Addo we toured through the game park in our tour bus with all thirty of us running from side to side looking out the windows. Schotia was similar to the game drives I did with the Kearneys. So I was kind of the pro in the group, because I had “like, done that like ten times.” These two places were really cool though because I got to see the rest of the Big 5. I saw cape buffalo, rhino, lions, hippos an crocodiles. Those aren’t all in the big 5, but those were new ones for me. I got some more good pictures, that I will hold off on posting for another day or two cause I’m going to try and get some pictures of those and me surfing off my roommate’s camera. Oh and the entire day it was raining. So in the bus it was okay, but in the game drive vehicles it sucked. The ponchos only covered so much!! But it was just part of the day so no one complained too much. Except for toward dinner time when we could see our breath! That is way too cold for SA. After the four hour drives at Schotia, we had the South African dinner. I guess the main South African part of it was that it was cooked on hot coals in the ground (like a Braii) but it was kudu stew, awesome chicken, rice, mushroom sauce, carrots, peas and biscuits. Delicious, especially after the cold day!

Today was the first day of volunteering. So half of us went to Aids Haven and my half went to Pendla Primary School. The day started off with the principal of the school fainting and being taken away by an ambulance. We don’t know what’s wrong with her, but after that the assistant principal took over and the day went fine. The children did a welcome ceremony for us. It was a lot of singing. And they were amazing!!! So loud they were booming through the room, and they switched back and forth between 2 parts, 3 parts and 4 parts. Some girls did a traditional Xhosa dance. Oh and all the songs were sung in Xhosa too. It was very fun. Then we got a tour of the school and were assigned to our rooms. Me and another girl got into a 4th and 5th grade advanced English class. So like grammar and reading stories in English I think. I’m very excited because that’s what I want to teach when I’m done with school. Anyway so we spent an hour in the classroom today. The teacher we’re working with is new to the school (has only been there for 3 days) so she is getting orientated like we are. She asked me and my partner, Heather, what we wanted to do in her classroom. Of course, I took the opportunity to say that I want to teach lessons! She said that she would love to have me teach everyday and she would enjoy learning from me! This put me off a little bit, because I kinda want to watch her teach. But anyway, it’ll be an experience that’s for sure. She said that she’s still getting her classroom set up and so she hasn’t really started to teach the students too much or start to learn their names… So the kids were doing absolutely nothing in class. But I walked around and said My name is… in Xhosa. Then they talked back to me in English. It was really cute. I’m sure this volunteering will be one of the best parts of my trip here.

And lastly, in my music class today we learned how to sing a couple songs in Xhosa. It was so difficult! The Xhosa language uses clicks. I think you’ll know what I’m talking about, but just in case, the clicks are like the sound you can make with your tongue if you put it on the top of your mouth or suck in air through the sides of your mouth. They make a different click noise for the X, C and Q. So you can imagine that it is hard for us to speak. But we sang the South African national anthem which is in Xhosa, Sesotho, Africaans and English. Super cool and definitely something I had to learn while I was here!

And yet again, I’ll be posting pictures soon and I’ll tell more later. So much for short and sweet. Well I guess for how much more I could have written…

Thanks to everyone who’s reading this and making comments. I’m going to respond to the comments here because it’s faster for me that way.

Steve, happy valentine's day to you too! I wonder if the flowers I sent you were still good when they got to MN?

Leah, that sounds like a horrible dream! I definitely am coming back! And how dare you mention Rocky's pizza to me while I'm so far away from it!!! miss you too!

Charlotte and Marty, your weekend with the boys sounds awesome. I'm so jealous! And I haven't seen the movie Madagascar, but I really wish there was a way that I could visit there while I'm down here. But I think it's too far to go for a weekend.

A & E in Alaska, the answer to what I think is your sarcastic question is that I did not have school on Friday. So my outfit is not blog noteworthy.

Anna, when do you have to leave to go to your next school? Plans for this summer? I heard a PR rumor that you were possibly coming to town...?