jumping, climbing, wining, and dining

Molweni!

Things are going along swimmingly in South Africa. On our second and third days of placement, things ran fairly smoothly. The kids are so much fun and continue to shower with us affection (and head butts…and arm twisting. The affection is sometimes painful) every second :) They know many English songs like "If you're happy and you know it" and "Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes." It is so cute to watch them sing. Some of the words and sounds blend together for them, as is very apparent when they sing the alphabet. It goes.... " A B C D E F G H I J K olololo (instead of LMNO) P Q R S T U V W X Y AND Z, Now I know my AB 6....H I JK olololo P"......then it continues in a cycle much like the song that never ends....so adorable. We are working with them on letters each morning, pointing out the letter and having them repeat, so we will see if we make any progress with that. They know some English words like colors, animals, and shapes. I am also learning Isi Xhosa, especially the important words when working with kids, like "listen" "sit" and "stop."

On the fourth day of placement (today) the teacher was out sick….so yes things got interesting. One of the women there, Mama Cynthia, helped out a bit, but she was in and out of the room. The kids definitely see Sophie and me as friends rather than authority figures and our limited Xhosa compounds that. When she leaves they love to jump on us, jump on each other, and jump on chairs and tables... really just a lot of jumping. At times, we just look across the room at each other in utter helplessness. Needless to say, we are hoping she is back on Monday!!

Going back a few days… On Wednesday, we hiked Table Mountain. An amazing, and difficult journey to say the least. It is much steeper then I expected and at times on the way up we were literally on our hands and knees pulling ourselves because it was easier than stepping up again. We took multiple, very necessary breaks. But when we stopped to take the time to look at the view…these were by far the prettiest views I have seen in my life. It took us an hour and half to get to the top (apparently very good time!) Once we got up there, we took some time to look all around at more amazing views. Normally we would take a cable car back down, but it was not running due to high winds. So back down the mountain on our feet we went. Slightly easier, but by far more terrifying. At this point your legs feel like jelly, but again it was so steep that you have to step so carefully to be sure you don’t trip…not to mention if you happen to step or fall off the side, there’s some barbed wire protecting you, but that’s about it. There were multiple sighs of relief when we finally reached the bottom. It was quite the experience and I felt very accomplished and proud when I finished!

On Thursday, a few girls and I headed into Cape Town for a sushi dinner. We also had some lovely South Africa wine with our dinner. I tried one called “African Java” which had a slight taste of bananas. So yummy! We also went to a documentary called “A Common Purpose” about an incident during Apartheid where 25 people were charged for the murder of 1 person. Very well done, interesting documentary.

Which brings us to today! We headed into town to go to Green Market- an area where they have small stands set up with jewelry, figurines, bags, etc. One of the girls in our group is an amazing haggler, so I stuck with her and got some pretty good deals! Tonight we are going to a rugby game to see the South Africa Junior Springboks vs. New Zealand in the junior Rugby world championships! Pretty cool- all I know about rugby I learned from Ross, so hopefully I learn a little more tonight.

Hope all is well back home! Love you all!