All good things must come to an end

Sitting in the Cape Town airport.... How is this trip over already? It has gone by so fast! Now that everything is packed and I have left my friends, kids at school, and brother.... all I want to do if fast forward this journey and get home! 

I am thrilled that I was able to spend the last night in the hostel with my friend Naomi. It would have been a very lonely sad night without her. Instead of being cooped up in our hostel, we decided to go on a date night and went out for a glass of wine and sushi. We reminisced on the past month and shared many good laughs. 

Yesterday was a sad day, full of lots of goodbyes. Ryan was able to spend most of the day with us. It was very sweet of him to stay in Cape Town and hang out with Naomi and me. Of course we found a couple more last items to take home and strolled the waterfront, taking in the picturesque scenery. It felt like a postcard that I happen to be walking through. 

.... I And then all the goodbyes hit me! In the end I have to be grateful that I have so many people that I have shared this experience with that make it such a sad goodbye. After going to Barcelona for a semester and spending the last 4/5 weeks traveling I can confidently say that the people that travel together develop a special bond and relationship that is difficult to describe. Going around and experiencing a new culture together, getting lost together, and sharing the ups and downs of a journey like this together is an amazing bond. 

I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity. I really feel like I have taken advantage of my time here and made an impact. Now time to take what I have learned about myself and about the world and use it to make a difference. 

Cape Town

Moved out of Muizenberg this afternoon. It was certainly bitter sweet. I have become quite connected to this small quaint suburb of Cape Town. We took the train into Cape Town and then started a long walking journey to our hostel for the next two dates. (Slightly underestimated the distance to this hostel) There are several people leaving in the next couple of days that also finished volunteering on Friday so it has been convenient for us to get a hostel together. (Ryan also came and is spending the night in the hostel for the first night to send me off and hang out in Cape Town) In the afternoon we did some market shopping and exploring Cape Town. 

Dinner reservations were made for a famous restaurant called Mama Africa. It is an authentic African meal with love music, a wonderful atmosphere and friendly staff. We also had many other volunteers come in from Muizenberg to meet up with us, in total we had nearly 20 people in our reservation. It was tons of fun! I enjoyed it so much! The food was pretty good! Lots of exotic meats and curry. Overall, it was a nice dinner until the bill came. Imagine dividing up a bill between 20 people. (Separate checks is not something that they do here) Eeeeeek 

Later in the evening we went out on Long Street. This is a famous street that has a lot of fun pubs, restaurants, and clubs. It was a great time because we had so many volunteers! 

*sorry I do not have any pictures from the evening part of the day because I was very strongly advised not to bring my iPhone out! 

Sunrise

Today I started one of my last days with a sunrise hike up Muizenberg. Beautiful start to the day! Then a big breakfast at my favorite cafe called Slow Life.

Don't be sad it's over be happy it happened

One of the best days I have had in South Africa. Started with a wonderful day at school. My students were so spunky and adorable. Because it is the last day of the term the kids were allowed to dress in any type of clothes! They were so cute and expressive! One cutie Chavarno was wearing electric yellow pants and a lime green tshirt. (Totally did not match...but it was just so him) 

We had the treats I made, played games and ran around outside. The day ended with incredibly sad goodbyes. All the kids swarmed me and gave me cute cards. My heart melted! My hardest goodbye was to my sweet kindergartener Hayden. I can not express how amazing this little girl is. She is absolutely one of a kind and has the sweetest personality to match her smile. She knew all week that today was my last day. She kept on telling me how much she doesn't want Friday to come. Finally when the time came to say goodbye she was hugging me so tight. She gave me a kiss on the check and left her lips pressed against my check for I am serious 4 minutes straight. She wouldn't let go. It brought a tear to my eye. It was emotional.  

The day continued with a staff meeting after the kids left. The principal again gave a heart felt speech. They gave me a mug with a picture of the school on it and the school tie.

Following the staff meeting several teachers and school staff  (maybe 20 people in total) went to a beautiful forest with nice grill out and picnic areas. All the staff gathered, brought there own drinks and a huge spread of food and had lot of meat to throw on the grill! 

The teachers are some of the nicest most welcoming people I have ever been around. They are so sweet and willing to help as much as they can. I had an amazing time. It was fun to get to know the teachers at a more personal level. Teachers were singing, drinking, dancing, eating... Everyone was so happy and kind to us volunteers! 

A few more kid pics! 

Sad sad good bye! 

The other volunteer is Sarah. And of course our kindergarteners attached to the hip. 

Mobeem! Anther sad goodbye. He dressed so cute today and apologized that my last day he didn't wear any super hero outfit. 

I let Ryan have one pic with Hayden! That js all he gets though! 

The BBQ! So fun! 

Dancing teachers! 

Craft Day!

Did a craft with the kids today! Brought all these supplies and they were sooo excited! I printed a goofy class picture and we made "picture frames." Here are a couple pics! 

Getting ready for the last day

This evenings adventure has been baking in the metric system! Quite fun! I am in shock that tomorrow is my last day at school. It is so sad! I decided to make some goodies for the kids and for the teachers that have been so welcoming to me the past month! I set out for the grocery store and made a ton of cookies and dessert bars for everyone! I know it is not much but it will be a nice treat before they leave for a 3 week break from school. I also wrote some cards thanking individuals for making my experience so memorable.

It had been inspiring to be surrounded by other volunteers in the house. If I have the opportunity to do another trip like this I would make an effort to do fundraising before the trip to help the students! Some volunteers have helped out in amazing ways. For example one volunteer raised enough money to buy over 60 uniforms for students whose parents can not afford them or they have grown out of their current uniform. Another volunteer has raised money to allow the class to go on a field trip. From what I heard this was a huge success. They went to Cape Town  to a children's museum and went to a park in the afternoon. Of course many volunteers provide supplies for the students and school. So many ways to give back! 

A volunteer at my house organized something called #lunchbag. This is something that is coming to some bigger cities that have a homeless population. A group of people come together and buy sandwich making ingredients. So my housemate Anastasia organized this so all volunteers could be involved. Each of the volunteer houses had a sandwich making party. We had everything from basic ham and cheese, pp&j, to full out veggie sandwiches. All of the volunteers together made over 500 hundred sandwiches. It was incredible! A couple people were able to pack these sandwiches up and deliver them to homeless people in the township areas where our schools are located. It was an amazing experience. 

Still in shock that I head home in only a couple days. This has been such a wonderful journey that has been extremely rewarding in many ways. 

Use Your Very Best Handwriting!

Today I was alone again with the kids. I have one funny story that happened. So one of my activities that I planned was to make cards for my teacher congratulating her for her new baby boy. I brought in colored construction paper and some other supplies for them to use. By the time I got all the supplies passed out, I wrote a couple of ideas of what to write on the chalk board. For example, "Congratulations," "Good Luck," "Have a great holiday break!" Also on the board I also wrote "Use your very best hand writing!" 

I thought the activity was going really well! The kids were engaged and loving it. After I asked the students to show me their cards! They were so thankful to have the supplies! Told me thank you several times!  They lined up and one by one were so excited to present their hard work. The first 4 cards I looked at had written on the front "Congratulations, Good Luck, Have a Great Holiday Break and Use Your Very Best Handwriting." 

I couldn't help but laugh. They are so trained to copy everything on the board! It was adorable! I

Another cute pic with Hayden! Do not want to leave her!

My crazy class

Getting attached

So today I realized how attached I am becoming to my adorable second graders, or here they call it grade 2. Everything from the same couple trouble makers to the way they greet me in the morning will be missed. Today was a great day because I had a little bit more responsibility in the classroom. My teacher is only here for part of the day because she is having her baby in the next day or two. Her doctor has told her she should not be working full days. Today she was there in the morning and the afternoon was an opportunity for me to step up. She gave me very vague instructions about what she wanted me to do and I somewhat improvised with something that I think would be productive and meaningful while still accomplishing the task. 

The morning ran smoothly with my teacher there although I am always surprised about how little work the kids do. Today for the majority of the morning, roughly 2.5 hours, the teacher wrote 4 word problems on the chalkboard. They were very basic fact word problem. The instructions were for the students to rewrite the 2-3 sentence problem, solve it and show their work... Very straight forward, however this took some kids close to 3 hours... 3 HOURS! The teachers emphasize different things here. For example, my teacher yells at the kids for not having neat handwriting or going to fast or slow. So that was the entire morning which seemed a little bit slow in general. 

The afternoon I did a little craft with the students and read a new story to them. They were more engaged because for once they have not seen this story yet. 

The weather today was absolutely beautiful! Immediately after program we went to the beach and hung out for the whole afternoon. Playing soccer, frisbee and eventually we went swimming. (First time swimming in the Indian Ocean) it was cold but also very refreshing! 

Sweeeeet Hayden 

Trouble maker Chad who was sent to the corner for being disruptive

Got Hayden some lip gloss! She loves it!

The birthday boy!

So tired. I am writing this post while laying in bed at 2:30 am....oops. Well today at midnight was the start of Ryan's birthday and also at midnight US played Portugal in the World Cup. Naturally we had to stay up for this game. Finding a bar in Muizenberg to stay open for this game was a little bit challenging. After asking around we found a bar and pretty much set up camp for a long time. We were there plenty early waiting for the start. Little did Ryan know I had a small surprise up my sleeve. We have gotten to know this local man who lives in Muizenberg names Jean. He is originally from the Congo but now lives here. He is probably a couple years older than me and is trying to put himself through engineering school. He also is a model and actually has been in Nike commercials. We know Jean through other volunteers that have been here for longer. He is one of the nicest, kind-hearted people ever. He is constantly helping volunteers with rides or anything they may need.

On Friday evening he was out with us at a bar and Jean and I were hanging out. He confirmed with me that Monday is Ryan's birthday. (Ryan must have told him at some point)  We talked about how we should do something special for him! Jean's idea was to get Ryan a personalized birthday cake! He said he would have no problem going to Checkers, a local grocery store, to order one and they would be able to make it very  nice. 

Earlier in the day I saw Jean at a meat market that we went to. He was so excited about the cake! It was so sweet.

He then told me that Checkers in Muizenberg was unable to do it because they need at least 1 week notice. So he ordered the cake from this special bakery in downtown Cape Town. It was sooooo nice of him. He mentioned that after the meat market, he was going to drive to Cape Town and get it! I felt so bad that he was inconvenienced to go get this so myself and another friend, Niome, went with Jean.  

Then we waited around till midnight to serve the cake and sing to Ryan! We were surrounded by about 10 friends! Ryan was completely suprised and LOVED it! It was so great! 

Little dark but this is Jean!! So sweet! 

Robben Island

Today was another beautiful day in Cape Town. Six volunteers in my house got on an early train to Cape Town because we had tickets to go to Robben Island. Robben Island is an island off the coast of South Africa that is a prison that used to imprison many political activists including Nelson Mandela. Mandela spent 27 years in prison in total and 18 of these years were spent at Robben Island. The later years he went back to the main land because he had tuberculosis and lung infections that needed more medical attention. 

The tour consisted of about an hour boat ride to the island followed by a 45 minute bus ride around the island. There was a nice tour guide that explained the various buildings, village, and wildlife. After the bus tour we went into the actual prison. This was my favorite part of the tour because our tour guide for this portion was an ex-prisioner. He was roughly 60 years, named Kgotso, and told his stories about being in the prison. He shared fantastic stories that gave me the goose bumps about the hardships that these prisoners went through. He shared personal stories about other inmates and things they did to pass the time. It was inspiring to see and has made me want to learn more about South African history and Nelson Mandala's role in everything. 

Following the tour and a wavey boat ride back to the mainland we wandered the water front and went to another beautiful market! Beautiful weather today! Can't believe I only have a little over a week left! 

This is Mandela's jail cell. Because he was such a political leader he had an isolated jail cell (4ft by 6ft)  Other activists shared a room. (As many as 60 to a room)

Photo of our tour guide! 

Beautiful shot of table mountain from Cape Town! 

No day is an ordinary day

I arrived at school like any other day. I walked into my school ready for another day with the kids. I could unfortunately hear the kids more than a classroom as I walked up so I knew they were riled up about something. As I opened the door I scanned the room for my teacher. She was not there. I asked the kids where she was and they responded with blank stares and an I don't know!! I tried to take control but that was easier said then done. After giving the students a couple riddles on the board I had a moment to myself. Luckily at this time the other 2nd grade teacher marched into my room and asked to speak to me outside. She told me Mrs. Meyer is not in and she was wondering if I can handle things today? (My jaw nearly dropped to the floor) Open for a challenge I said yes. I turned back and walked back into the classroom and found the 40 students yelling at each other, several standing on chairs, writing on the chalkboards.... What did I get myself into?!?

I managed to get the students back on task allowing for a few moments for me to plan something for the students to do. Mrs. Meyer left absolutely no plans or any type of notes to follow for the day. It was truly whatever I wanted. I decided I wanted to do a lesson on summarizing a story because this is something that the students have never heard of before. I brought the students to the carpet-like area. (Which actually is a used piece of scrap rug that can fit maybe 25 of the students if they are sitting as close as possible. The rest of the class is in surrounding desks or small area  by the door) I selected a book that I have not heard of before but looked promising. There are very few books in my classroom. Excited about my mini lesson and having high hopes I introduced the book and the concept of summarizing and began to read. About 5 words into the story I had most of the class in unison reading the story word for word. I stopped and realized that the students have so few books that they memorized the books that they do have. They explained that they have heard this story so many times that they memorized it! It was so sad.

So off to a rocky start I had to think on my feet and decided to read the story half way through and then have the students make up their own ending. This worked well because it took the students a long time and was engaging. The rest of the day was hectic. The students randomly started to fight each other or run across the room and hit someone. I did my best to manage the class but it was far the toughest classroom management experience I have ever had.

The day passed with writing stories, making collages, singing songs, and some math work. Late in the day another volunteer realized I was in over my head so came to assist me! Overall this was an exhausting and challenging day but in the end I learned a lot.



Ryan getting his hair done!






This is one of Ryan's favorites, Craig. (I know you aren't suppose to have favorites but he is so cute.. A mini Ryan)












Meet my girl Hayden. (A few days this week I have packed an extra lunch for Hayden. She never has anything to eat at school. It is so hard)



















This is Chavarno (left). The BIGGEST trouble maker in my class.. but just look at that smile!

The First Assembly

Today was an exciting day at school. I don’t think I have mentioned this but there has been a lot of construction at the lot next to my school for the past 6 months. I recently found out that this building is going to be a gymnasium for the Sullivan Primary School. I did not realize how big of a deal this was until today. The buzz going around school all morning was about the assembly that was taking place later in the day in the new gymnasium celebrating the opening and the completion of the building.

After lunch the classes gathered and made their way to the gymnasium. As the students entered they were wide-eyed and ecstatic to see the new gymnasium. Some students were jumping and screaming while others were silently taking everything in. The gymnasium was about the size of two basketball courts with a bit of space surrounding it for chairs. There also was a nice area in the front where they built in a stage. It had brick walls and a tile floor. Yes it was a very simple, non-elaborate design yet the students and faculty were thrilled! After all 7 grades were packed like sardines into the gymnasium and teachers were seated the principal gave a very nice speech expressing his gratitude and appreciation for all those that contributed to this project.

I later found out that this gymnasium would also be used to host some community events. I think it is great that it will serve so many purposes for the students and the greater community.

The assembly continued with the teacher who had been there the longest, 48 years, giving a speech. It brought a tear to my eye. She was so thrilled and thankful that something like this can happen at Sullivan Primary. It was so genuine and sincere. The students also sang several songs and chanted the school chant. At the end of the assembly the principal raffled off several prizes. The prizes were food donations that were donated from a private organization. There were gorgeous food baskets filled with canned goods and other non-perishable items. The kids were adorable when they heard there name called. They jumped for joy as if they have just won the lottery. The entire school cheered eagerly and then one lucky girl or boy made their way to the front to collect their food basket. It was so cute and again the students were so thankful and just so loving.

A memorable weekend!

Started the final day of our safari at our beautiful hostel in Plettenberg. The hostel again offered breakfast! I was served an amazing yogurt parfait! It was unbelievably delicious! Yogurt, honey, granola, fresh melon, apple, flax seed all combined in a beautiful arrangement. The day was off to a good start except the weather was a little shaky. With high hopes of the rain clearing up and David waking up and doing a "reverse rain dance" (apparently this makes rain go away, I think he made this up) the skies were blue and sunny by 11 am. In the morning we stopped at a couple mountainous beaches. One of these beaches was called Victoria Bay. There were breathtaking cliffs leading right up to the water. The waves crashed and and we sat taking in the beauty of nature. Prior to making it to Victoria Bay we stopped at a little sandwich place and grocery store so we could have a picnic! And that is exactly what we did. It was breathtaking. 

Following the picnic and relaxing on the beach, we drove about 90 minutes to where we were scheduled to do the "walk with the lions." Not really sure what I was getting myself into, I signed another wavior and was about to have another interactive experience. 

We were led by three guides that went through a lot or rules and guidelines very quickly! (Such as no sunglasses, no scarfs/loose clothing, no whispering, no bending down to take pictures.. etc...) They also required each person to have a long walking stick like thing. They claimed that having this stick shows the lion that you have dominance and they will respect you.  

Only moments later we were off. We met two lionesses that we were going to spend the next hour with. Apparently once the lions/lionesses reach the age of three they are no longer allowed to do lion walks or interact with tourists because they become too aggressive. We got a personal tour around the grounds and got to pet and take lots of pictures with the lions. The tour guides would stop along our walk and tell us facts about lions and their importance to the African culture. It was very interesting. I still can't believe I was so close to such a huge/dangerous animal. (Definitely was thinking about Lion King the whole time :))

Sadly this was the last stop of an unbelievable weekend. David kept us incredibly busy and I would have it no other way! Everything we did offered something different and allowed us to experience a different taste of Africa. 

As we are driving home and I am watching the sunset over the mountains I am reflecting at how lucky I am to have the opportunity to explore this amazing region of the world. 

On that note I also have to send a shout out to my dad becaue I wish I could have spent the day with him today (and everyday) Happy Father's Day!! Love you!