Wow, well it's been a journey! It has taken me approximately half an hour to load up this computer to write a blog.. haha!! All good fun. We all arrived in Johannesburg on Thursday late afternoon after travelling for about 25/30 hours. I've never been on a long haul flight before so that was new for me. We spent a busy 2/3 days in Johannesburg and had an incredible time there visiting Soweto, various museums, apartheid prisons and visiting The Children's Memorial Institute. I don't think you really realise until you actually see it, that the rich and poor are literally living side by side. I had my mouth open driving past some of the slums and then seeing the mansions. I think we all agreed that what we did in Jo'burg was pretty much a once in a lifetime experience..! Simply amazing. We stayed in a Backpackers on the outskirts of the city. We tried billtong. I love it!
It's Monday the 26th of August, the first day at our project. (Not sunk in yet that we're even here..). Beth, Katie and I have settled in well and very much looking forward to everything. We have a large pink bedroom next to the kids (girls) who board at the school. The boys sleep upstairs. Our main task set by our host is to continue the reading program that was set up by the previous volunteer. She did an amazing job of organising all of that. As well as continuing that, we will be working with the pre-primary kids and in the mastery unit. Our host also asked if any of us liked roller blading. I said "Yes!" so he's put me in charge of teaching the kids how to roller skate! I can't wait. As well as teaching duties in the daytime, we get to be in charge of evening activities. We can go outside and play sport, we can put a CD on and sing/dance, we can watch TV or we can read stories. The kids don't really get books read to them at home so it will be a real, real treat for us to read to them. There are about 34 children who board. The children are amazing, impeccably mannered, hard working and very loving and fun. They all wear little caps as part of their uniform and whenever you walk past them in the corridor they will lift up their caps, give you a big grin and say "Good morning Ma'am!" or "Hello miss!". Food in the hostel is amazing and weather in Underberg is amazing, (although quite cold in mornings and at night during winter, can get to -4/5 degrees), summer is lovely and it doesn't go much over 30 degrees which is refreshing (Durban is really hot and humid, for example). We are just coming into summer so it's good to get climatised. We get 10 days off in October and 6 weeks off at Christmas (!) We're thinking of getting the BazBus down to Coffee Bay and then travelling the coastal route to Cape Town to be there in time for Christmas and a good ol' jol.
Until next blog
Totsiens :D 'Peace, love and happiness'
