last day at school and the teacher was out so we helped out in the 6th graders

we got a bit distracted with games and pictures from time to time 

then we had a swim lesson in the freezing cold pool. who wears wetsuits in a pool? we do. its freezing

the newest and cutest visitor at saltys

carmen, one of my students, gave me braids

my leaving celebration 

halloween!

neti pot fun!

break time

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sushi buffet anyone? 

chilling at the rocks after sushi

sundown in cape town

chillers being chill 

playtime in tachakut

at the tachakut settlement to go play with the kids with table mountain in the background

we did face paint! 

and hula hooped for you don't even know how long 

at the t.l.c playground in the settlement 

we also gave piggy back rides/ races for sooo long

german and i raced around with kids on our backs for what seemed like a fun forever

thomas did double the work

inside one the houses

school and surf

the time in the school has been great. im actually just physically exhausted tho after work. i have surfed 3 times in the past 2 days and climbed lions head again and been doing surfing and swim lessons and working in the computer lab. im drained. i bought a new wetsuit 2 nights ago because as i have said before, the water here chills the bones and the one's at salty's are peppered with holes and the almost freezing water and me aren't friendly together. i got a really nice one from reef but after wearing it in the water im afraid it is too big in the calfs because the water kinda rushes in and its a bit loose. anyway it still made the time sooo much better. the waves were great yesterday and decent today. im getting back into the swing of things. salty's is so nice to come back to after a day of surf and chill out, but yesterday instead of watching a movie and falling asleep, which i would have been fine with cuz i was exhausted, we decided to drive into cape town and a full moon hike of lions head. it was so beautiful and nice but im so exhausted still. the new guy, thomas, sophie and i went for a morning surf this morning and it was a bit small but we were just about the only ones out there so we had all the waves to ourself to mess around on. it was so nice. then we went to placement and worked with the 5th graders in the computer lab with math again and then took some of them swimming. im too exhausted to write much more but i will upload pictures of the school and my other happenings soon. 

first day in the schools

today was our first day at the vaaloek school. we worked with kids, ages 10 to 11, on math using the computers which is very hard for many a reasons. 1 there is a huge difference in learning and comprehension between the kids that all come from the same class so the simple addition that mara was doing years ago ie 6+2=? was like translating greek for me - not even the symbols make sense- while for others they were done with their math games in 5 minutes when it was supposed to take 30. 2 the kids dont know how to use a computer or a keyboard for the most part. a girl today accidentally hit down the shift key while typing a 2 and made an @ sign and freaked out thinking she had done something wrong. they don't know that clicking on a red x will get rid of a window or that you can do other things with the computer all they know is that if they hit numbers and then enter it will be red and wrong or green and right. it just seems like there should be a program for learning about computers. i was astounded at uneven levels of understanding was between the kids.

anyway in the afternoon we took some of the kids for their surfing lesson and i was so surprised with the skill level of the kids in the surfing program. like some of them were really good and damn fearless. the water in cape town is truthfully just crazy cold. bone chill cold. i think its terrible in the hole-filled wetsuit that i borrow from the program. the kids however use never donated wetsuits sans holes and want to stay in the water forever and they will. i hope i can record some of them surfing they have really come a long way because most of them were apparently just learning how to swim 6 months ago. so impressive. 

also its my mama's birthday and it makes me kinda homesick but ive got good company to keep my mind off it. too bad the bodyboarders are gone; they were good at that. the church group of 20 gossiping children keen on playing with the dogs and not much else that now takes the bodyboarders' just give off a different vibe :)

cape town and big bay

this guy was great

 eastern bizzzzzzare for lunch

beautiful flower market in downtown

chillin with canada and germany in big bay to support the boys

boland boiiiis!!!

the boland boys for the win! 

harbour day and pool day

the cape town harbour 

a day at the pool with the kids

lunch at the pool 

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!!! 

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Beginning

I'm not going to write an introductory post because I alway think those are cheesy so here goes blogging:

Its 10 AM St. Louis time and 5 PM Cape Town time on the eve of my 21st birthday. I arrived to this beautiful city on the coast at 8 AM after about 30+ hours of traveling from St. Louis to Chicago over the Atlantic to Abu Dhabi then back west to Johannesburg and finally to Cape Town. PS the Abu Dhabi airport is like Rodeo Dr with every luxury a traveling bijillionaire might have the slightest impulse to buy. Anyway, I was met in the airport by the backpackers bus that took me to the volunteer house, which is full of only great people it seems. I spent the morning trying not to fall asleep, eating breakfast, buying groceries and eventually falling asleep for a deep mid-day nap - thus far I have no complaints :). I am eager to get to my placement soon but am really liking it here in the city too. I will keep you all updated with pictures when I take some, thus far its just been getting adjusted thats been taking up my time.