the first week

The first week at Salty's and with the kids has been great. After arriving on Monday, we started working with the kids on Tuesday by taking them on a harbour of Cape Town ("we" refers to Adaliade and Sophie, two Canadians, then Marie and Camilla, two Norwegians plus myself and Jennifer the project organizer). The highlight of the tour was not the howling wind but the seals that decided to swim next to the boat for the majority of the time. Wednesday was a better day, weather-wise, and we took the kids to the public pools in Sea Point. The water wasn't much warmer than the ocean but the kids so enjoyed the time to swim and play in the water, which most now can. Thursday was a day of driving to Simon's Town, a more southern town on the Cape. The ride was not the best because of continued traffic all the way from halfway there thru to Simon's Town. We saw the penguins which was nice for the kids, none of whom had seen one before. Then we went and swam in the best pool I've ever been in. It was part of the ocean, just on the beach with a cement wall enclosing the pool area, to keep out sharks mainly and it did its job because apparently that side of the cape is warmer and is definition shark heaven. After a hard week of work, which is different than what we are normally doing because the kids are on holiday, we all came back to Salty's and ended up going out with the body boarders who are staying here with us. Soo much fun; it will be sad to see them go. And yesterday we girls all went into Cape Town, downtown that is, and did the markets and all that good stuff. I bought some really beautiful but unnecessary jewelry for myself and for presents, or so I tell myself, and that filled most of the day. Today we are all getting ready to go watch the body boarders in their competition, the nationals for South Africa, and it is the finals today. Should be fun. Bring on the SUN!!!