"It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you" Saying goodbye to Nansindlela and Ingwavuma...

A quick blog post and my last one here in Ingwavuma, which has been my home for the last six months. We are leaving from here this Friday and I can't believe this time has come. During the few bad days I've had here I have wished this week would hurry up, but now it's here the thought of not coming back after the holidays is really saddening me.

The last two or three weeks have been very busy at school, revising and preparing for exams, writing papers and mark schemes for both english and social science for both my grades, getting very stressed with the photocopier and printer breaking a number of times, having to postpone one exam because of these problems and finally marking all the papers! My students have done well overall which I'm pleased with although they would have done a lot better had they actually revised! I understand though, I remember year eight and nine not being particularly important to me at school! What annoys me with the education system here is that they only have to get 33% to pass, so I personally believe this doesn't give them much enthusiasm for working hard to achieve a good result like we had to at home. The major problem with the exams is that they struggle with reading the questions which are all in English and they have to write their answers in English- I know I would not have done so well at school if I had had to write in a language that wasn't my own! Tomorrow is our last assembly at Nansindlela and I might do a bit of a speech, although for some reason I'm a little bit nervous to stand up in front of the whole high school. I've prepared some little 'goodbye' notes for each of my grade nine's saying what I will remember about them and that I will miss them. I think they will like them. Learner's are already asking me that please won't I come back after the holidays and can they have my address to write to me? Of course, I have thought a lot about maybe staying here for the year but my money situation and a university place in September has pulled my mind back to coming back to England, oh and also that I miss my family and friends!

As for back at home, Patrick and I visited Richard's Bay a few weekends back and stayed with the Halls, who put us up when we were first in SA and about to be starting our placements. It was such a funny feeling returning there as the last time we had not had any experience of our life at our placements, and now it was nearly time to go home! We spent the Saturday at the mall, catching up on some shopping of things we can't buy around here. We then decided to watch Men in Black 3 for something to do which I thought was alright. I saw bits of the preparation in London for the Queen's Jubilee on the TV but it didn't make me feel homesick.
In Ingwavuma recently, things at home haven't been exactly great, I've been feeling quite lonely after school by myself, and wishing the school day was longer at half past two! However, now a new family have moved into our house, the Rafamoyo's! They have two children who are lovely to have around and I am learning a lot about Zimbabwe culture which is where they come from. I have also just finished reading the book "We are all Zimbabweans now" by James Kilgore which was really good and with the aid of Mr Raf to explain things, it has taught me a lot about the War of Independence and the struggles of the black people in Zimbabwe. It is something I hope I can study at university and one day I hope to come back to this part of the world and explore the countries above SA a bit more. However, I've caught the travel bug and it's steering me towards South East Asia for my next trip, I'm not sure when that will be but I'm hoping within the next two years.

Last weekend we celebrated Patrick's birthday in Manguzi. I met Jacques in Manguzi and we went to Kosi Bay Cabanas, a lodge where Patrick was spending the day with friends. He liked his present which was a photo frame I bought from Fancy Stitch with a photo of him walking in the Drakensberg. We had a few drinks there before going over to Kosi Bay Cabins for dinner which was lovely. I can't believe that was our last weekend!

As for the weather, I was wondering when we were actually going to reach winter and it is here! Some mornings it has been absolutely freezing, but the sun always comes out in the afternoon and it can get very hot. The sun is setting around 5.30pm and it gets very cold at night, especially in our room. We have a huge problem with water here. I really can't remember the last time it rained, it has to be more than a month ago. All of our tanks which collect the rain water and which we depend on for everything ran dry and even at school there was nothing for the learners to drink during exams! Our principal bought us a tank of water for the houses and some for school, where Kenny the librarian has started a campaign "Save water, saves life" where one bucket and some cups is assigned to each block (around two or three classes) and the tanks are being padlocked. It is also quite windy and with no rain the ground is dusty so I often come home from school rubbing my eyes because they feel so itchy from the dust! I really hope it rains soon, even our tank is beginning to run out now.

I still have three weeks left in SA before I go home. Next week I am travelling on the Baz Bus from Durban to Cape Town. The bus is especially for people who are travelling so it takes the route down the coast stopping at popular stops and I have decided to do the Garden Route as we have already done most of the east coast. I am stopping at Knysna, Oudtshoorn and Hermanus mainly which are regularly visited spots and so I am hoping to meet some people along the way. I am a little nervous about travelling alone but I know this is the safest option and there are going to be others who are doing exactly the same thing. I hope to take 6 or 7 days doing this, and then I will be in Cape Town again! I can't wait to see Sonia and her family again and we are hoping to do a few more touristy things again like visiting Robben Island which will be fun! I am spending about a week and a half there before flying up to Pretoria to stay with Rose (she used to live with us here) for a few days and then flying home from Jo'burg on the 15th July! I am already dreading the long flight but looking forward to finally seeing everyone again.

I'm not sure if I will blog again whilst I'm here, but I hope everyone has enjoyed reading these posts over the last six months. I know I will be glad to have something to look back at in the future and I know I will be visiting this wonderful place again! I've had the time of my life!

Nineteen! In South Africa and Mozambique

Last Wednesday I celebrated my nineteenth birthday in South Africa! I have never had my birthday away from home but it has had to have been one of the best ever! 

Being a Wednesday, I spent my birthday at school and it was a really lovely day. As I walked into school, heard two girls screaming “Miss Donald!” as they ran down the bridge from the high school and flung their arms around me. Noncedo and Nobuhle from grade eight wished me Happy Birthday and then we went up to assembly where I was greeted by more of my students, receiving a beautiful hand made card from Sletho from grade nine. We had assembly which consisted of nothing much more than the usual few announcements, a song and the Lords Prayer and then back to the staffroom to catch up on marking and lesson planning. I walked up to the science block at the start of the second lesson to take my grade eights for English as they were ending their lesson with Katie. As I walked into the room they all sang Happy Birthday to me- from nearly fifty children! We then had a short English lesson before I asked them to sing traditional Zulu songs for the video on my camera, which they happily agreed to! After break, I had another lesson with the grade eights, this time for Social Science and it was a really great lesson as we were starting the Industrial Revolution. They wrote notes and then I used an activity that I did in year eight when learning the Industrial Revolution from Ms Barrall, whereby she made us pretend to be child factory workers by bending down to the floor and straightening up as if we were working a machine. I did this for TWENTY MINUTES with my class who loved it! Of course, I couldn't see if forty seven children were cheating or not by resting as I joined in with them otherwise they thought they had to stop. In the end I picked about six who I think had been consistent and took them outside. It had become very hot but they carried on and in the end it was between two girls! Noxolo, who didn't use her hands on her knees or back once I forbade it was the one that won and I rewarded her with sweets which made her very happy! My legs felt like jelly afterwards and I actually suffered for a few days after with that sudden onset of exercise! Back in the office I was happy to receive several birthday cards in the post from home and the office staff admired the pinkness and prettiness of them all! The two teachers from Zimbabwe, Abel and Mr Raf, gave me a personal song of Happy Birthday and then the principal called an urgent meeting at lunchtime. It turned out to be a surprise party for me which I thought was so lovely! He had bought a cake and quite a few of the staff had turned up so they sang to me, exclaimed at how young I was then we all shared drinks and cakes. Then it back up to the high school to teach nine B who also sang to me and I took photos of them all as I had not yet. They had written me some lovely birthday messages on the blackboard too. Some of them begged me to do a 'fun lesson' but I was mean and said no yet we ended up having a really successful and productive lesson. After school, Katie had organised to go to Fancy Stitch, the tearoom in Ingwavuma which we sometimes visit. Minky and Miss G joined us and I received some pink slippers from Miss G and when Patrick joined us, a wooden hair piece and comb which was identical to the one I had wanted to buy in Swaziland. He brought a cake with him too, so after our lunch I had candles to blow out and a wish to make! In the evening, Patrick stayed and Jacques from Manguzi also came round which was good as we hadn't seen him in months! We chilled out with a few drinks and just chatted for hours before I skyped my parents. In some ways it didn't really feel like my birthday as I was not at home, but I couldn't have asked for a better day in my home here!

Cards from home, Patrick and learner's.

Cake at Fancy Stich!

With my 9B's

The real celebration took place that weekend as we managed to get Friday off from school, so Katie, Patrick and I left Manguzi on Friday morning for Mozambique! We didn't have far to travel as the border post is just outside of Manguzi in Kosi Bay so we got a willing man at the shops with a bukkie to take us to the border for just fifteen rand each! We spent a lot of time at the border post haggling with the guards over the price of our visa. As you can imagine, our money situations are not as good as they used to be, so we were not happy to pay the equivalent of £60 for a visa into the country when we were only staying two nights. After much persuasion, the head guy let us have it for 300 rand each- more than half the original price, yay! At the border, two english guys were also heading to the backpackers we were staying at and they happened to be livign in Manguzi too! They were nearly at the end of their month of working at the hospital and so we all got the same shuttle to the backpackers. The way to Ponta D'Ouro, just fifteen or so kilometres from the border was spent on the back of another bukkie and the roads were all sand. We finally got into Ponta, which I expected to be heavily touristy and maybe a bit spoilt like we had found with elzulwini in Swaziland, but it wasn't. Their were people holding small Mozambique flags as the President of Mozambique was visiting the town. We saw a number of tourists, mostly South Africans, but there was no divide between the locals and the visitors which was really refreshing. We dumped our bags at our dorm at Kaya Kweru and then headed off over the sand into town to get some lunch. We found a rooftop place overlooking the beautiful view of the beach and settled for R &R's and fish and chips! Rum and raspberry's are the local drink and are very pink and also very lethal! We saw the president's cars all heading down the road below us into a building we were looking down on. Patrick and I rushed down (I was still suffering from that SS competition so I hobbled!) in an attempt to meet the President of Mozambique. (not that we knew anything about him) A guard let us through the gates and we walked with some of the smartly dressed guards up to the building where it appeared the President had just gone into the building. Unfortunately we needed a named pass but no one could speak English (which shows the difference between the country and SA just down the road!) but they were happy to let us stand outside and listen to his speech. Later that day, I saw all the cars come out as we were walking along the street and saw everyone in those cars so I must have seen him at some point! Would have been nice to meet him though....maybe.

On our way to Ponta D'ouro, Mozambique

During the course of Friday we visited the stunning beach of Ponta. I wanted to go in the sea but the waves were really big and someone had warned us of rip currents. We all seemed to fall asleep, probably from the rum and the sun! Of course, the weather was absolutely stunning. We returned to the backpackers where we spent the evening with the two doctors, Andrew and Micheal, comparing our experiences of South Africa and having dinner. We then went to the bar with them plus two South African guys who bought us all more R & R's and that was that! Definitely feeling a bit delicate the next morning even though most of us hadn't made it out of the backpackers! There was a really good vibe there as loads of people were staying over the weekend and all the staff were lovely. Due to trying to keep to a budget, Saturday was spent relaxing (recovering) and going into town several times to get things we needed. It was the first place I have been to where my card didn't work but luckily Johno brought money to lend with him when he came to join us for Saturday night. We went out for dinner in the evening, avoiding the rum and had a much quieter time- somehow Patrick and I ended up watching the football when neither of us were particularly interested!

Our first R&R's!

On Sunday morning we were up at half past five to go swimming with dolphins! Just a short walk down the road, the Somente dolphin centre greeted a group of twelve of us, including Katie and I and Andrew and Michael. We were briefed at the centre on the different behaviours of the dolphins and what we should and should not do. Then it was time to go down to the beach, hop on the boat and it wasn't long before we came across a pod of social dolphins. We slipped into the water quietly, which was fortunately warm! In the first minute, my snorkel broke and I lost the pipe which was so annoying! But I could still see them through my mask. The only downside was that there was so many people that they sometimes got in the way. The first pod moved away fairly quickly, but the second or third time we were more successful with apparently twenty five or more dolphins appearing around us! Below me I could see about three all twisting and turning around and it looked like they were having so much fun. You could also hear the little clicks and other funny noises they were making which was a brilliant experience! They put on a show for us, as we headed down towards the South African coast (we could even see the Kosi Mouth!), leaping out of the water alongside the boat and nearer to the shore. Being so early in the morning, there were no people to be seen, apart from Patrick who got some photo's of us on the boat as it was about to land on the beach. It was the best experience of the weekend and I am so glad we did it! Katie went home that morning with Johno but Patrick and I decided to stay until the late afternoon when we would get a shuttle back to the border with Andrew and Micheal. We went out to this cute little shop for breakfast then explored the market for hours, yes, I did buy a few things but they are strictly for presents for people when I get home! They seemed to sell so many items of clothing with Mozambique written on them and we even came across some Nelson Mandela trousers! The ride back to the border in a mini bus was a bit scary as we seemed to drive down huge sand dunes which looked terrifying from the top! Quickly being advised by our driver to hide my souvenirs from the border people ( I think they might have charged me), we got back through into South Africa and the doctors gave us a lift into Manguzi.

Swimming with dolphins

And that was our weekend in Mozambique! Even though it was just the other side of the border, I still felt like we had experienced a different country and culture, especially hearing Portuguese which is the first language and using the Metical instead of the rand for the currency. What a lovely way to remember my nineteenth birthday.

Life being nineteen in South Africa:

So what's been happening in good old Ingwavuma? Not a lot to tell you the truth...the things that seemed novel or strange at the beginning to us at the start are now normal! The weather has become a bit cooler, but most chilly mornings turn out to be beautiful and sunny days! Teaching at school has become a little stressful just recently as June exams are looming and I am trying to finish the social science course with the grade nine's and start revision for their exams. Naturally, there is no sign of an exam timetable and we have been advised to write our own exams as it sometimes happens that the educational board do not send the papers in time! I have begun writing a paper for grade eight English and it struck me that it actually has been quite a challenge doing this all by myself (I am sure that I have mentioned before that my English H.O.D hasn't shown much of a will to help me this whole time!) but hopefully I have been of good use. I know that Mr Rafamoyo is really grateful towards me for taking on most of his grade eight and nine SS lessons as he has a hectic timetable with the upper high school and it has given him extra time to focus on them and catch up with marking. With the primary school, I have started my second chart. The first one I drew was on the world and solar system for the grade fours. This one is for the pre grade R's about farm animals (thank you Linden for all the stickers!). I seem to be having mostly good lessons, but there is an odd lesson where the class, or certain members, will really play up and make it exhausting for me! I have a new Zulu name that has caught on in both the grade nine classes which is Miss Fikile. 'Fikile' (pronounced like fikeelay) means “arrive” in Zulu and I'm not exactly sure why Mvelo from 9A invented it for me but now I'm stuck with it! Could have been something a lot worse I suppose! (Or maybe it is and they are not telling me the real meaning!) Last weekend was spent in Manguzi not doing much but it was great to be with friends watching films and chatting. This weekend I am desperate to get away so Patrick and I might be heading down to Richards Bay in search of something to do. Hopefully we can stay with friends there.

Of course, it has dawned on me that in three and a half weeks I will be leaving Ingwavuma and Nansindlela. Some days I really can't wait as I am looking forward to travelling again and seeing other parts of the country. Also, I am so fed up of washing in a washing up bowl, not having a proper cooker and now a broken microwave, no running water and hand washing my clothes! (I think this is because I know I am leaving soon) However, most days it just makes me feel sad when I think about the fact I will have to say goodbye to the people here. Especially Minky and Mr Magagula who have become our family, to the principal who has been so lovely to us and to all my learners who I will miss so much. But, anyway, there is still three weeks to enjoy after this one so that is what I am focusing on.

Plans for the three weeks holiday after our placement finishes are slowly coming together...firstly, a week hiring a car and doing some travelling with Patrick up the top part of the country- maybe Swaziland again and exploring some of provinces we haven't visited inland from here. Then I plan to fly or catch a bus down to Cape Town to spend a week and a half with Sonia which I'm really looking forward to, and then a flight back to Jo'burg to spend a few days in Pretoria with our old house mate Rose. Can't wait! 

Miss everyone at home, can't wait to see you in seven weeks! xx

Welcome to the Kingdom of Swaziland!

The long weekend gave us the perfect opportunity to travel as it was five days long! Our librarian at school, Kenny, made a joke in the staff meeting that was he the only one who had heard that we were breaking up at twelve instead of half two and the Principal laughed and then said, “why not?” Everyone was so happy as we were all so tired and it would be a great start to our little break. Patrick came up to Ingwavuma on the Thursday night and Katie went down to Manguzi with Johno. After a funny evening of skyping with various friends and family, Patrick and I got up around six on the Friday morning to set off early...

It was the first time since I arrived here that I used my huge rucksack, although it was not quite as full! Unfortunately, neither of us had had our driving license a year (for me it was a couple of days before!) so we were unable to hire a car to get to and around Swaziland. So it was taxi's all the way! That day was long, hot and sometimes uncomfortable and we found our way over the Swazi border and were surprised when they did not charge us for a visa but just a stamp in the passport. We waited ages at this desolate border post for a taxi to come along and when one finally did, about twenty people crammed into it. We had to wait for the engine to cool down first so a local was showing us the Emalangeni- the currency which has wavy cent coins which I thought were really unusual. They are equal to the rand and we could use SA rand in the country, but not the other way round. After a few more taxi journeys, and someone declaring that I was to be their wife, we got into into the touristy town of Elzulwini in the early evening. We walked to our backpackers which was annoyingly at the top of a hill. It was pretty dead there so we soon went out again to this pub girll place for dinner where loads of tourists, or maybe they were locals, had come out for the night. We didn't feel like we were in Africa and it wasn't what we had expected Swaziland to be like but it was a good night.

The next morning we walked to the craft markets which were just down the road from where we were staying and this time I actually didn't buy anything. We then walked on to an art gallery and then to the cultural village. At the village we were just in time for the traditional dance which involved about twenty women and ten men all dressed in traditional costumes with furs around their legs and colourful cloths. Their singing was amazing and the dancing even better, with the women kicking their legs up with their feet by their noses! It was so full of energy and they even made some of us join in! I liked dancing with the lady I was with because she was so funny even though it was embarrassing for me! At least I can say I took part in something like that! Afterwards we had a short tour of the village- where the chief lived, his wives, the children and the other men. The men had separate cooking areas and a smoking areas where sometimes they smoke 'special' cigarettes, no guesses what that might be! It was quite strange to be doing such a tourist thing like that after all this time of living here! We caught a lift with a family from Jo'burg up to the waterfall where everyone was advised to go next. The place was full of city people taking a short break in the countryside for the long weekend. Patrick went over to the waterfall and swam beneath it whilst I played with Nondo, the little boy who liked to follow me around taking photo's. Later that afternoon after seeing a huge monitor lizard on our way out of the village, we got back into town and got a private taxi- the only way for us to get around and also very expensive!- to a place called 'The House on Fire' which houses live music events and other functions. We didn't expect anything to be happening there but were just interested to look around as we had heard it was decorated beautifully and traditionally. Unfortunately, when we got there we were quickly ushered out as they were about to host a wedding but it was a stunning venue, I was quite jealous of whoever was about to get married there! We went back into town after a nice Canadian lady offered to give us a lift as she was going that way. We managed to change the place we were staying to a more lively backpackers called Lidwala Lodge. There we were placed in a 'Safari tent' which was basically an oversized tent with a south african couple who were very nice. We went out in the evening for Chinese and then to the Hot Springs which was a new experience for me! It was getting dark and not cold with clothes on but wearing my bikini it was a bit chilly so when I got into the warm water it was like heaven! We stayed there for a couple of hours and I joined in with a group of very hyperactive Swazi girls who were doing congas, and singing and playing games. They saw me get my camera out when we were about to leave and shouted “SHOOT US!” something I had forgotten means 'take my picture!' and not something else!

The next morning can only be described as hectic! We had to find our way to the other side of Swaziland to the Hlane Game Park. After getting a taxi along the road, I remembered after about ten minutes that I had left my coat at the backpackers so we had to go all the way back. We then went into town and did our food shopping after a nice couple gave us a lift there. We then caught another taxi to Manzini and then from there we were advised to get a private taxi to some hotel where we would be able to get a bus to the park. We did this and found ourselves on a road side where hundreds of people were gathered waiting for something. We wondered why we had left the taxi rank and ended up here and asked the group of police there for help. They told us that there had been a bus strike the day before and this is where the people would usually wait for them so taxi's had been filling in. no taxi would take us to where we wanted so we waited for what seemed like forever and it was too hot! Finally, a public bus came along who was not on strike and we piled onto that hoping it would take us to where we wanted. I think the whole of Swaziland was on that bus! We were lucky to find a seat, with our huge bags on top of us and people down the aisle. Even chickens were travelling on that bus! It took a while but we were finally dropped off at the entrance to the park, not knowing how long the road was into the park. To our luck, a family in a 4x4 came past and a lovely Afrikaans man offered to help us despite having a car full of children and toys. They seemed horrified that we had just used public transport and exclaimed “with all those blacks?” (yes, there is still racism here) He gave us a lift in and dropped us at the camp site where we would be staying. There were loads of people staying there so we picked a spot at the back and set up our tent quickly. With it being so hot, I fell asleep in the tent for a while before Patrick ran in to tell me he had seen a rhino. I walked down to the water hole with him and I saw my first African rhino scratching himself in the bushes. We watched it for a while over the tiny electric fence and then it suddenly came right up to Patrick, it must have been only a few metres from him. I backed away but Patrick was unsure as to what to do but luckily a ranger was nearby who told him to move slowly back. That evening we saw two more rhino come right up to the fence and look at everybody there for ages as if they had been told to do it! I got majorly attacked by mosquitoes on my legs as the sun was setting which was not pleasant for days afterwards! We braaied next to a family from Jo'burg who also thought we were crazy for catching public transport around the country and only being eighteen. Never mind, I don't mind being called crazy if I'm having the best time! Patrick made friends with the family who were staying next to us as they invited him over to see the elephants that were behind the camp site. Unfortunately, I had no idea where Patrick had disappeared to so I missed them but I met Richard and his son Storm and we had a good chat about South Africa and places we had been to and the wildlife. They were driving back to their home in Durban on the Tuesday morning so we were very happy when he offered to give us a lift back as we would be on the way. I think they felt a bit sorry for us at the start as we had arrived with no car (you definitely need a car in this country!!) and just our bags! That night was uncomfortable on the extremely hard ground but so fun as we could hear the lions roaring and mubling, the impala who were in the rutting season making funny noises, the hippo's laughing and the elephants trampling around. At one point we both woke up and it sounded as if a warthog ran straight past our tent- I couldn't help but laugh it was so funny!

The rest of our time at the park was sat down by the water hole by ourselves or with our friends from next door who were all lovely. We watched as a crocodile was confronted by a very large hippo, the hippos walking over in the morning to settle in the water for the day, an elephant come to wash himself and a family of warthog! We went on a sunset game drive at three which was really fun! We saw our first lions- a male and two female who were very happy to pose for photo's, a group of three female rhino's, a lone bull elephant who looked amazing walking through the open plain everywhere we drove and we got so close! He kept edging towards the car as he was grazing and at one point I could have easily stood up from my seat and touched him! That night, our friends invited us to join them around their fire and we had a lovely chat then found a herd of elephants behind the camp with our torches. They look so magical in the dark, and I felt bad for shining the light at them in their peace but I thought I would probably never have an experience like this for a long time, if not ever again! That second night was not so noisy on the animal side, or maybe I was just so tired I slept through any noise. In the morning we were welcomed by about six rhino's lazing about by the water front and then we helped Richard, Freda, Storm and the rest of the family pack up their things and by half past one we were ready to go! It didn't take long to get to the border which was actually really near to Ingwavuma and they dropped us at the junction where they were going right to Mkuze and we were going left to Jozini. We found a taxi that was about to leave so we quickly said our goodbyes to Richard and Freda, thanking them for how kind they had been the whole time and that we would maybe see them at the rugby in Durban at the end of the month. We caught a taxi to Jozini which was going to Bhambanana and then to Ingwavuma where Patrick stayed again at ours before leaving in the morning. A truly fun weekend! 

So, I guess I should also include on this post what has been happening since the long weekend, but to tell you the truth, not a lot! Even though last week was only three days, I felt completely shattered from our time away and also a little under the weather. For some reason I was even feeling a bit homesick and just fed up of living where we do. I was desperate to have a shower, not just a sort-of bath in a washing up bowl, I wanted water to come out of the taps and not get water from the tank and also my own bed at home, not this one which is very uncomfortable! I decided to stay here for the weekend to catch up and Katie went down to Manguzi to stay with Johno. Patrick was away with his school so I just had Minky next door for company. On Saturday I was quite happy to be on my own but cleaning the kitchen and doing piles and piles of hand washing was boring. I still wasn't feeling great and after coming back from Minky's in the evening I felt very sick. I tried to sleep for four hours but the feeling kept getting worse and I threw up quite a bit but I won't go into details! Minky and Abel from next door came round to look after me and when I was sure I was not going to be sick any more I went to stay with Minky in her big double bed, which was really lovely of her to offer. In the morning I thought I was feeling better so I went to the hospital church as I had promised I would go and watch some of my student's sing, as due to poor timing I missed it a few weeks ago when I was here! One of my nine B girls, Snethemba, was over the moon that I had come and I saw that about eight of my students from grade eight and nine were there in the choir. I was greeted by other students from the school and a lady offered to interpret the Zulu for me and she was so lovely. It was not as scary as the church we went to the first weekend and it as mostly three hours of singing and dancing, which was so good to observe and as usual, the singing was beautiful. However, I realised that I was still not OK. I walked back, phoned home and then decided to eat some yoghurt which I regretted all day as I stayed at Minky's feeling sick and very tired but being unable to sleep. She did school work and I sat on her bed, drifting in and out of sleep watching whatever films they were showing on TV and the day just sort of passed. Katie was unable to come back until the morning and I still wasn't able to eat in the morning so the principal took me to his doctors who gave me lots of medicine and in the last four days I have finally started to feel better and myself again! I still don't know what caused it but I think it might have been some dodgy tank water as we have been having trouble with the tanks here that haven't been cleaned so even if the water is boiled, we can't drink it. Never mind, hopefully it will be the only time I'm ill here. This week I have been feeling quite down though but I'm not sure why, I think it's the mid term blues which I had before. I wish they had half terms here! My classes are doing well, if not becoming quite lazy but they are making me laugh all the time and I'm finding it quite hard to keep a straight face when I'm supposed to be annoyed at them! I am still enjoying teaching Social Science although it is stressing me out a little bit as Mr Raf told me I need to finish Apartheid by the end of May- better start doing more writing on the board and less talking! Today we finished the French Revolution with the grade eight's who did a test. The best thing about covering Mr Raf's subject is that he comes in at the start of each lesson to make them aware of his presence so they don't misbehave with me. I marked half of their tests today and most of them are passing which makes me really happy! Unfortunately, those who don't get over fifteen out of twenty five will be dealt with not by me but by Mr R and I won't say any more! Next week we are going to start the Industrial Revolution and I've got some good ideas of how to teach it from when I learnt it at school. I used to get very annoyed with the grade eights but now I am really fond of them and after feeling really low this morning, they really cheered me up after spending the afternoon with them. We had a staff meal at one today for the lady in the office, Beulah, who left at the start of this term to pursue another career at a nearby lodge. She has been at the school for about eleven years so was loved by everyone and I know I was really sad when she said she was going. Mr Magagula, the Principal and Beulah all gave speeches and then we ate chicken and pap which I didn't really feel like but it was a nice social occasion. 

Not much is happening this weekend either: I am staying here tonight and then going down to Manguzi tomorrow to help paint Johno's new flat and maybe go camping for the night with Patrick and Jacques. Next week is much more exciting as I am turning nineteen on Wednesday! I don't think much will be happening on my actual birthday but I am looking forward to it anyway and especially Friday as we will be travelling to Mozambique for the weekend to celebrate! We are going to Ponta D'ouro, just the other side of the South African border which is in Kosi Bay, so it won't take us long to get there. We are staying at a resort and I believe the area is made for tourists and holiday makers and we are going swimming with dolphins! I'm sure there will also be consuming of the local drink Rum N Raspberry! I can't wait to get away again and it is exciting to finally be going to Mozambique as it is so close to us and it's the fourth African country I can add to my list after SA, Lesotho and Swaziland! (I don't care how tiny the second and third are!) If anything, I can't believe that it has been a year since I was turning eighteen and having my party, passing my driving test and leaving school. I have had the best year being eighteen, I don't think I would have changed anything about the past year at all. I wonder what being nineteen will bring besides starting university? Nothing as amazing as the experience I have had out here! It is only six weeks left for us at Nansindlela and I am starting to feel very sad about it. Time has gone so quick and continues to do so that before I know it I will on the plane and back in England. In some ways I am looking forward to coming home, but mostly I would love to stay and know I will come back! Anyway, enough of thinking about all that and time to mark the rest of my grade eight tests! Love to everyone back at home xxx 

Quotes from the weekend, for Patrick:

"My name is Mswati, and I'm not like those South African dogs"

"SARABI?!...She's not here"

"Thanks for the apple crumble"- warthog outside our tent.

"HOWWW??"

"What if one of those elephants just came over here, picked me up with it's trunk and carried me off into the bushes. What would you do?"- Patrick

"Whyyy don't the poachers just go up to the rhino and cut the horn off and not kill it?"- annoying American's sat next to us on the game drive.

Time is going too fast! Life back at home...

Where have the last two and a half weeks gone? A very long and maybe boring post, but I just wanted to communicate how I have been feeling since coming back after our Easter holidays, which seem a life time ago now! A lot of things have changed positively with my placement, and luckily a lot of the things that I love about this place have remained the same. I took the blog one week at a time to show how things have been progressing and changing but also because I have been a lot busier which can only mean good things here!

G1, G2 and G3- the lower part of the high school. Much chaos happens here! 

Week One: "Decisions, Decisions"

So, with much free time on my own in Ingwavuma this weekend, I am able to write about what it's been like coming back home. Before coming back, I had had a lot of issues with deciding on whether to leave my placement here and start afresh somewhere new. I was completely torn as I know that I feel completely settled here, we like our house and are surrounded by lovely people where we live and teach. I also enjoy teaching and would miss my learners so much if I left, and would feel like I've let them down in some way, or that I don't care about them. It would make me so sad to leave my closest friends behind who I spend so much time with and would I end up wishing I had stayed with them? I would also regret leaving this area when we haven't seen places we still want to see yet such as Swaziland, Mozambique and the battlefields, all of which I'm still really keen to visit. On the other hand, I was thinking that maybe it would be nice to do two placements- three months teaching and maybe the next three months could be spent somewhere else in the country doing something different. That maybe a different place would offer us more to do than two hours of teaching a day and more things to do and more people to visit. In the end I decided that instead of running from here, I would come back but try to improve things and get myself more involved in the community. On the first day back of school, Katie and I had a chat to the principal who was completely understanding when we told him we were feeling underutilised and bored. He was so lovely about it all and I asked him if maybe I could spend some time volunteering at the hospital here when I am not teaching. He thought it was a good idea, but just for weekends as he doesn't want to lose us at the school. I am quite happy to stay here some weekends now because I want to save some money mainly but also meet some more people here. That day our friend from the office, Beula, announced that she was leaving that afternoon as she had got a new job in tourism. I was sad to see her go because she has been so lovely to us from the start and was such a quirky character that she will be missed around school. However, this also means that they are now short of one of the office staff which gives us possibly more work to do, although we are yet to be of use in there. The principal said he would go and talk to the general manager of the hospital for me so I started to feel more optimistic about my time here. He also promised that he would find things for us to do, but as all principals are here, he is a busy man so we understand why he can't focus on us all the time. Unfortunately, our mentor Bongi has been away all week writing exams so hopefully when she is back next week she will be able to help me as well. Something that I am more excited about is starting my second teaching subject as of next week. I have been meaning to ask Mr Rafamoya, a lovely Zimbabwean guy who also teaches in the high school about his subject Social Science as I noticed he was teaching Nazi Germany last term to the grade nine's. He told me that the subject is half history and half geography so when I said I was interested in teaching some history he was more than happy to let me help him as he said he was more specialised in geography anyway. I was so happy because this means that I will be teaching more than twice a day, I will have more lessons to plan and I already know his classes as he teaches the subject to grades eight and nine. So this week he has been giving me the syllabus which consists of the French Revolution and Industrial Revolution for grade eight which I think will be alright but I've had to read up on it quite a bit. Grade nine are just starting Apartheid which I think will be great for me to learn about and teach at the same time, especially when it is so relevant to the country. After we finish that they are going to learn about the Cold War which I remember a lot about from A Level last year so I'm looking forward to that too. Life back at school and home. On Tuesday we started back at school and getting up at six was such an effort! I noticed that the sun wasn't as high in the sky as it usually was and the temperatures outside have dropped quite a bit- welcome to winter in South Africa! However, the sun still continues to shine and even today it is like a summers day in England! I was kind of dreading having the grade eights first for some reason but due to whole school assembly I only had them for half an hour and they were actually quiet as they wrote about their Easter holidays (it had to be done!). The rest of the day was spent planning my grade nine lessons as I have moved on from grammar and this term I am going to do poetry and literature with them. My 9b's last lesson were quite chatty but most were actually taking an interest in what we were learning about and I think we made some progress. Once we got home I did a lot of washing, cooked dinner, spoke to my Mum on the phone and then the boys came over from Manguzi in the evening. The rest of the week has been fairly uneventful but it's so nice to be back into a routine and I call this home now...I can't imagine being placed anywhere else! Our evenings after half seven are spent in Mienky's room in the house next door as she has a TV and a very comfy bed with lots of blankets! Mr Magagula is of course still living in our house and is still trying to teach us little bits of Zulu which I'm struggling to remember but “ou hambile” means “he went” if I need to use it! He is also still singing “Issy like Sunday morning” at me! This weekend I decided to stay in Ingwavuma whilst Katie went down to Manguzi to visit Johno because I wanted to save money and also sort out everything that is still in a mess from Easter. On Saturday I did loads of washing, cleaned up the kitchen which had become quite a mess from the last four days and started on the last four weeks with this blog which I had been putting off for a long time! A herd of cows managed to get into our garden so I had a bit of a surprise when I walked outside and was surrounded by cows eating the grass! I had a lovely Skype call with Heidi and then spent the evening at Mienky's watching a south African film called 'The Bang Bang Club'. There is a guy staying in their house who is a friend of TB's and he is studying to become a teacher but is also an actor and we were surprised to see that he was playing one of the characters in the film! I realised this weekend that I don't think I could ever live in a place by myself, it is way too quiet and lonely but I'm glad I stayed here to catch up. This morning, after tidying up my very messy side of the bedroom, I went over to Mienky's for a bit and then over to the Principals house. He was watching a film so I joined him for a bit and hinted about had he spoken to the manager at the hospital. He had not, but said he would go there tomorrow and so next weekend I might have some work there if it works out. Our mentor, Bongi, will be back on Wednesday so hopefully she will be able to help me too. The weekend after next we are going to Pretoria as we have five days off over a bank holiday weekend to see our lovely Rose who used to live here with us as that is where she lives and now has a job. I'm quite excited to see the capital of the country and also to catch up with Rose and meet her family.

Miss Donald and Miss Guess

Week Two: "YES, our oven is fixed!"

This week started off in chaos as it is the time of year where every teacher in the school must attend workshops. The education system here holds workshops for teachers on their specialised subject and they have to attend, even though it is during school hours. This basically meant that the whole week Katie and I were taking our lessons and then trying to keep the grades eight and nine in their classrooms during all the free lessons they were having due to various teachers being away. However, it was also my first day of teaching Apartheid to the grade nine's and it went well! We wrote notes on all the apartheid laws- what they were called, what they enforced and the aim for passing the law. I thought it might be a bit awkward teaching this subject because it is still not that long ago since people here were living through it, but it was not at all and I am trying to keep to just facts and no personal opinions! That afternoon I remember I was teaching a grade nine English lesson and supervising the grade eights with their social science (obviously there are clashes but I have to take English over SS) as Mr Rafamoyo was away and I was exhausted afterwards, due to constantly running between classrooms! Since we have been back from Easter, some of my students have actually started to take an interest in my culture and started asking me about the money and “do you have game parks there?” which I though was so funny! So the next day I grabbed a couple of the photos off of my bedroom wall of my friends and family; my photo book of the New Forest and some English currency I still have. They were really interested in the money and identified the Queen which they thought was great on a money note! They also marvelled at the pictures of the New Forest and asked if they could come back home with me! Towards the end of last week, the absence of so many teachers was starting to have a negative impact on both grades. They had had so many free lessons doing nothing that they started to think they could act like that when they did have lessons. Unfortunately, they do mess us around more so than the other teachers, not only because we are young but because they do not have the fear in them of us beating them. Sadly, although it is illegal here, some teachers do beat the children still. I absolutely hate seeing it and would never do it myself, but there is nothing that can be done to stop it when it happens, and it is unlikely that this is the only school in the country. Thursday was an exciting day as it was the first time I was teaching four lessons! I prepared really well for them: eight SS, eight English, 9A English and 9B SS. They all went really well and I am definitely getting to know my learners a lot better this term. In the afternoon I went to watch a bit of the grade twelve function which they were putting on to raise money for their matric dance. It was a variety show so there was dancing, singing and even some acting which was fantastic. We also had a fun time sitting in the office with Mienky, Mr Raf, Nqobile and Mr Stole- we laughed so so much over Mr Raf's political debates (it happened to be Independence Day in Zimbabwe that day) and a lady from a funeral company coming to talk to the staff about the policies they offer and no one turning up after she sent Mienky to go and find people. This resulted in a very annoyed looking funeral lady coming back to the office and Mienky running and hiding behind the photo copier because she was scared! Another highlight of last week was our oven being fixed! Ever since we got here we have been cooking on a two ring electric cooker, so this was a huge deal as we can do so much more and not everything has to be fried or boiled any more! Mienky asked me if I would help her with her grade fours' vocabulary and she gave me a list of words so that I could draw a chart. I was obviously feeling quite creative as I drew up a plan of what I would draw which involved the earth, villages and cities, the solar system including the sun, moon, planets and the stars, the four seasons and any other things that I could think of. I am still yet to finish the chart but it's looking good despite my questionable drawing and it has given me something to work on when I have free time in the evening. I am also hoping to do a clothing chart using cut outs from magazines after I finish this one. Last weekend was a big improvement on the previous one! On Friday night we went down to Manguzi to a place called 'Kosi Bay Cabins' where we met Johno's friend Harry who was experiencing a very quiet night at the bar. We had a lovely night chatting about English and south african culture, the places we had been to, the wildlife we had seen and I was introduced to the 'Springbok' shot. It was made with peppermint lacquer and Marula and it was actually nice, although I felt so rubbish the next day! We stayed in one of the cabins which was big enough for a whole family and when we woke up the next morning it was really hot! Harry cooked us breakfast and we stayed there all morning before going back to Patrick's to sleep/recover for the afternoon- never drinking Springboks again!! that night Patrick and I went back to Ingwavuma and just chilled and watched “Invictus” which was about the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. I enjoyed the film as it was so relevant to this country and it tied in with what I had been teaching that week about Apartheid. On Sunday morning I had accepted an invitation from my grade nine girls to go and watch them sing at their church at the hospital, which I was looking forward to as the singing is always amazing and it would be a good chance to meet new people in Ingwavuma. Unfortunately I got up too late and did not realise how late it was so I was disappointed at myself! Patrick and I wandered down to the shops, I did the washing whilst he skyped his friends in New Zealand, did a bit of school work and the day went so quick! In the evening I had a lovely Skype call with about ten members of my family who were all at home celebrating my Dad's birthday. They could see me on the camera and I could see fuzzy versions of them but it was like I was there with them and they asked lots of questions about South Africa and exclaimed at how long my hair has got! I also told them that I am so happy here now and I don't want to come home! (Don't worry, I will!)

The grade eight girls- they make me laugh all the time!

Week Three: “Ekse Majimbos!”

Monday started off pretty hectic as we got a new timetable for the high school. Over the weekend I completely forgot to plan anything for Monday but I usually had last lesson only. It turned out that I now have the first two lessons on a Monday morning- 9A English and 8 English! I somehow managed to get some stuff together and made it through the morning. Mr Rafamoyo gave me some lesson plan templates and taught me how to write a lesson plan which I thought was so lovely of him as it is giving me a real experience of life as a teacher. Up until now I have been using my paper pad to plan all my lessons, but using the lesson plans I have found makes everything a lot more structured and you can go through it easily. My new timetable has also given me a last lesson every day which means I have gained five hours also from taking on SS. I am really happy with this as it puts my hours up to fifteen and a half so I have three lessons a day Monday- Wednesday. On Thursday and Friday I only have first and last lessons so I am trying to find something to fill in that time.... This leads me to our visit from Matt from Lattitude on Tuesday afternoon. He was coming to see how we were getting on as the last time we had seen him was when he had arrived at our placement. We had a lot to talk about regarding how we had not been feeling fulfilled last term despite trying our best to get involved in the primary school and Bongi joined us and we realised at the start there had been quite a bit of confusion for lots of reasons about our role at the school when we arrived. The afternoon was really productive and we agreed to start meeting with Bongi once a week to talk about things. She also said she would try to start slotting us into the primary school to fill up some of our time, which will be helpful for me on those last two days of the week. After school, we visited the womens centre which is in a huge building behind the shops. The lady there explained to us that women come to do craft and make bags and clothes but there was also a school there. We ended up going to the classrooms and chatting to a lady who was teaching there. They are using an American system of teaching the students whereby they work on their own at their own pace and after asking how we might be able to get involved we decided it would be great if we could join in with their after school sports sessions twice a week. We were keen to set some after school clubs up at Nansindlela but unfortunately everyone goes after school as most of the children are not local so have to get their transport. If we can help out with these children at this tiny school in the women’s centre, and get our local students to join in, I would like to set up a dance or games club as I don't believe that everyone is interested in just football and cricket! Matt took us to Fancy Stitch afterwards which was nice of him and we then spent the evening planning our week after we finish our placement travelling from Durban to Cape Town on the Baz Bus exploring the Garden Route. Only eight weeks after this one! Time is going way too fast! Today was Wednesday which, as usual, involved a very long assembly and the last two days have been very cold so it was not fun standing outside! I taught lessons three and four, spent the whole lunchtime with the nine's finishing their assessment and then taught again last lesson which was productive for about half an hour and then sort of finished after I let them have a five minute break and got distracted myself. During the sports hour I let some of my learners plat my hair and they asked me if I would teach them how to do Ballet! I haven't done it since I was about ten but I said I would try and incorporate it into some fun dance if they could find me a CD player from somewhere (this probably means I will have to buy one myself!) and we would do that on Wednesday afternoons. Bongi told me that she had got in contact with an ex teacher of the school who was now running a special needs school down near Bhambanana (about half an hours drive from here) and some of the children were staying there at the weekend so would I like to go down there and do some stuff with them. I hope to go down next weekend as we have not got anything planned otherwise and I'm quite excited about it. After school we met up with Danny, an American guy who is volunteering with the Peace Corps down at Ingwavuma High School, at Fancy Stitch. He has been here for over a year teaching maths and science and we got in touch with him through Mr and Mrs Rafamoya. We chatted about both our experiences in Ingwavuma, our trips to Manguzi at the weekend, what we were teaching and then he came to see where we lived. Hopefully we will see him again as we have offered him a lift if we go down in the car to Manguzi where he also has friends. It was good to meet someone new here too! So yeah, that's about all that has happened in the last three weeks! Things are definitely getting much better as I am a lot busier at school which is filling up more time at home. I am so aware of time now as we only have eight more weeks of teaching and next week will only be three days long. I know that the three weeks travelling after placement will go so quickly and then it will be time to go home. I don't even like to think about it, it's going to be pretty hard for me! This weekend our plans to go to Pretoria to visit Rose were cancelled as she could not do it any more so instead Patrick and I are going to Swaziland for the five day weekend. Yes, five days! On Friday it is 'Freedom Day' which was the day the first democratic elections were held in South Africa eighteen years ago and then Tuesday is also a bank holiday, so we get Monday off too! Our plans for Swaziland are not very organised at the moment, but we are planning to taxi it to the Piet Retief border (we could just walk across the mountain here but it hasn't been advised!) then about an hours drive (possible a lot longer in a taxi) to Lobamba where our backpackers is. I am hoping to go to a cultural village and we are also keen to visit a game park there. The Swazi people are renowned for being extremely nice and the country is supposed to quite beautiful. I just hope it gets a bit warmer! Lastly, “You know you're back in Ingwavuma when...” Zulu guys are surprised when you don't want to marry them! You wait FOREVER at the shops for Mr Magagula and Mienky to do a few bits of shopping that should only take ten minutes. (and see all the teachers there too!) You have to confiscate a bible in a lesson? We are eating vetkoek way more than we should be You recognise a goat that you have previously named A massive lizard appears in your house but you don't even care You have strong cravings for chocolate biscuits You live off of polony and plastic cheese You're not surprised any more when a herd of cows enters the garden You respond automatically to “Miss D” “Teacher!” You say 'Sawubona' to every single person you meet along the road You are in bed by nine PM You recognise all the people that work in Spar You feel totally at home and can't believe you have to leave!!!

 We are getting to know the staff here well now! When brownies and ice cream are needed, this is the place to go!

The Wild Coast :)

We left the Drakensberg to go to the wild coast and it took us twelve hours from Johnny's place to get to Coffee Bay! Maybe because it was a Saturday there was more traffic and again, the only way to access Coffee Bay involved driving on a dirt road for about two hours and our GPS got us very lost as it was set to the 'shortest way'- very stressful! We finally arrived at the Coffee Shack where we were welcomed with a free drink and then shown to our dorms which involved crossing a river! This is Africa. We made dinner and then went to bed as we were so tired.

Our first day in Coffee Bay was lovely. I got my washing done and sorted out my student accommodation online (I keep forget I'm going to uni this year!) then we explored the small town on the beach. It is a surfers paradise, completely secluded with a few restaurants and small independent shops and stunning scenery. We looked in what I called the 'hippy shop' which had loads of cool clothes and I bought some green hippy trousers which are so comfortable but I was disappointed to see the label said “Made in India”. We then went to a pizza restaurant which used the outdoor pizza ovens and overlooked the Bay and then drove to the part of the beach where we could relax. I went in the water which after Cape Town I was happy to go in because it was much warmer! There were ladies selling beads- bracelets, toe rings, anklets and necklaces and we got so harassed by them! At one point two started pushing each other and they were tying beads around our ankles because they were so desperate for us to come to their particular products! We left with buying a few things but tried not to be sucked in again. It made me sad to think that they need the money so much but it also put us off looking again. That night we went to the shack for the free Sunday night 'Potjie' a traditional south African meal that is like a chicken stew and had Xhosa bread with it. Now we were out of KZN, we were in the Eastern Cape (otherwise known as the 'Traanskei) which meant that the tribal language was Xhosa- pronounced a bit like the word 'corsa' with a click at the start. We got chatting to an Australian couple who were nearing the end to their year of travelling around the world, and also a Scottish guy who was doing the same thing. They were all older than us and I thought they were very fortunate to have jobs that let them go for a year that they could return to when they got home. We talked about everything possible it seemed and it was great to hear their stories. The Australians were a lesbian couple and they were saying about how they have not been able to be a couple whilst in Africa because it is not as well accepted here, especially in Eastern Africa where they spent some time. It made me realise how they still very much have traditional values and beliefs in this part of the world and that can sometimes cause problems for the outside western traveller. Another interesting story I heard that night was from a Xhosa girl who had lost her Mum a few years back. She told us it was because her grandfather had been a Sangomer, and after he passed away and her mother realised she had a gift to also become one she refused to accept it because she did not want to lead that life. She suddenly fell ill and started dancing about going crazy and they realised that she must accept her gift otherwise she would die. The girl said that her mother did finally accept but it was too late so the ancestors took her. It was so fascinating and I'm glad we had learnt about Sangomers earlier that week so I could understand. The girl told us she thought she had a gift too and she would accept it because she did not want to die like her Mum did. Hard for us to believe, but she was so serious that no one could question it out loud.

When I woke up the next day I felt really run down and like I was getting a cold so I decided not to go on the surf lesson with the others but stay and sort out my washing, write some letters and post cards and just have some time by myself. We went to the beach for a bit and I read our guide books as we needed to decide where to go next. We decided we would go up to Port Shepstone which was about an hour from Durban where we wanted to end up. In the evening we chatted to an older English couple who were staying in Coffee Bay for two weeks and watched Xhosa boys from a local school sing and dance. They were nothing on the Zulu songs! A lovely few days spent in Coffee Bay!

We set off in the morning for Port Shepstone and arrived at the 'Spot Backpackers' in the afternoon which was in a quiet part just outside of the town. Port Shepstone itself was not very exciting, it seemed like an industrial place with a beach. That evening we went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant and got talking to a couple who had lived in London for over twenty years and had lots to tell us about the area we were staying in. They were surprised that we were travelling along the wild coast instead of the usual places. The meal was nice and we went back to the backpackers and chatted with a British guy and an Australian girl who were both volunteering in Lesotho. The girl had done six months out of two years- two years! I admired her for committing herself to living in Lesotho for so long. They were also on their Easter holidays travelling.

In the morning we took the couple at the restaurant's advice and drove up to a spot called Leopards Rock to have breakfast. We had a full English which was so nice and the views were just incredible of the river and the surrounding mountains. We paid our five rand insurance (less than 50p!) to go onto the rock which is famous for a photo of a leopard lying on it in the sun and sticks out with nothing underneath it. Climbing onto it wasn't scary because you couldn't see that there was nothing underneath but when I watched the others on it it made me nervous! We got some great photos and then drove up to Eland Game reserve where we had booked to go horse riding. We were a little bit early so we drove to the suspension bridge above the Oribi Gorge and walked across it. It was a little wobbly but very much safe but I had to tell myself to keep going for what seemed like forever! I am definitely getting rid of my slight fear of heights over here! On the way back we saw some eland which are almost a cross between a buck, a horse and a cow- they are huge! Horse riding consisted of the three of us, our guide and another girl. I haven't ridden since I was maybe about ten and I never properly learnt so it was like a new experience again. It was a lovely ride as we rode past zebra, eland and even saw wildebeest all running together. In the afternoon we went into Port Shepstone to do some shopping and then spent the evening chilling at the backpackers and had an amazing chicken salad and milk tart. Milk tart is a south African dessert that I can't really describe but I wish they made it in England! We realised that people from Coffee Bay were on the same path as us as we recognised a few of the people that had been there arrive which was cool.

On Thursday we drove down to Durban for midday and stopped in the centre. The first thing that hit me was the strong smell of spices and the heat. We got out of the car onto the bustling street and found Victoria Street Market. This was indoors and consisted of lots of little curios shops run by Indian south africans who all welcomed us in and helped us find something we wanted to buy. Unfortunately, I have a huge liking for the contents of these shops and ended up spending over five hundred rand on a painting and lots of other little souvenirs (presents for people at home!). One thing that made Durban so unattractive was the amount of Chinese shops. There is usually a Chinese shop in every town here and they sell the most tacky, un-useful stuff. In Durban they completely line the streets and they are full of the same things! Afterwards, we drove down to the Northern beach front which was very built up and touristy and stopped for lunch before finding our backpackers on the other side of the city. Due to it being Easter weekend we were unable to find any accommodation apart from in this one where we paid a little bit more than we usually would I think mainly because it had a pool and they gave you breakfast. It was also next to a beach and after checking in there we drove to a friend of Johno's house, Joel. He and Johno had driven down that day from Manguzi and we met them there and had yet another braii and a really lovely evening. Joel was surprised that we had gone into central Durban as living on the outskirts on the city he deemed it unsafe. Sometimes being a traveller makes you totally oblivious to these things!

Friday morning led us to the beach town of Amanzimtoti which was full of Chinese market stalls and a tacky beach front. We walked along the beach for a bit and then stopped for a drink in an overcrowded restaurant. In the afternoon we checked into a different backpackers as the one we had stayed in the night before didn't have room that night but we could go back the next night. Katie and Patrick had stayed in Banana backpackers before when I was in Cape Town and said it was in a bit of a dodgy area but was basically fine so we decided that with everywhere else booked up we would go there. We had to park our hire car on the main road and the place below the backpackers was called “Sonia's escort and massage” which tells you everything! Patrick and I wandered down to the beach front again for dinner and I had the famous “bunny chow” which is curry in a quarter of a loaf of bread! (thank goodness no rabbits!) There were lots of Indian Muslims all dressed up meeting and socialising with their friends and it was a lovely atmosphere at night. I bought some pineapple on a stick from a seller then we browsed the African markets where I held myself back from buying anything! Patrick bought a springbok fur after making sure it definitely was a springbok and not just a goat! We walked back and got a bit lost and I'm glad Patrick was with me as it was not the nicest area to be walking about at night.

The next morning I went down to our car to get something and a man from the car sales room there asked me if I knew the person who's car was in front of ours. It was Johno's and his drivers seat window had been completely smashed and his stereo ripped out. We watched it all on the showrooms CCTV and saw two guys just before six that morning come along and they looked at our car but luckily didn't touch it. One guy smashed Johno's window, ran away then came back and spent a long time in the drivers seat possibly trying to start it and then just ran off with the stereo. It was such a shame because everything else there had been fine but I suppose we should have thought about it more with having to leave our cars on the main street. We went into Durban to return our car to Avis and then I went to the post office and we all went to a mall as I needed to buy a few more things before we came home. We had lunch, went back to the backpackers we had stayed at previously which was much safer! For our last night we went to a restaurant (yes, we ate out a lot this week!) and a had a very chilled evening.

Easter Sunday was a funny morning! Patrick wanted to go to church so we found one near to where we were staying that seemed normal. We were welcomed by about twenty people in a row all asking the same questions... “where are you from? Where are you staying?” and in the end we were trying not to laugh as we constantly repeated ourselves but they were very nice! The service started with a band playing and of course we are not used to this but the service was alright if not very much to do with Easter and we ended up staying for tea and cake afterwards (the fact they had milk tart heavily influenced this decision). We got talking to a few people and then left after what seemed like hours! After searching for proper Easter eggs at a mall and realising they don't sell big ones in this country we settled on four little one's for all of us. We went back to the backpackers and packed all our stuff into Johno's corsa- not an easy job! It took us five hours to get back to Manguzi and we had dinner and went to bed. On Monday it was a bank holiday so we did all our food shopping in Manguzi (much cheaper than here) and came back to Ingwavuma late afternoon. The boys stayed for dinner and we decorated our room with our new paintings, various maps we had picked up and I put lots of post cards on my wall. Our room is looking lovely now!

And that was the end of my three week holiday! I saw so much wonderful scenery, met so many different people and learnt so much more about the culture here. I can't wait to go travelling again at the end of my placement but I am glad to not be living out a bag any more and it's good to be home :) Yebo!

The Drakensberg and Lesotho

I met Katie and Patrick at the airport and after having some lunch we left for the Northern Drakensberg in our lovely little hire Hyundai I10 which was just the right size for three of us plus our bags. The drive took around three hours and we arrived at the Ampitheatre backpackers in the late afternoon. The views of the mountains were incredible and the backpackers was huge and full of others like us. We had dinner there and chatted about our placements as we were all feeling that we were not being put to full use at them and what could we do about it. Before the holidays I was even contemplating moving to another one after Easter, so I was relieved to hear that Katie was also feeling like I was, although she wanted to stay. The next morning we joined up with a tour from the backpackers and met the group at seven thirty in the morning! Our guide was called Sim and he drove us in the mini bus to Sentinel Peak which is part of the 'Ampitheatre' a flat part of the mountains. The drive took a few hours but we drove into the Eastern Cape to get there and it was beautiful with the pink flower 'cosmos' and the colourful rondavels decorating the hill sides. The Peak was a large rock at the top of the mountain and the first part was fairly steep with a few rock faces to climb across but nothing too challenging. When we got to the place that would take us up the rock it involved about half an hour or more of climbing up huge boulders. I loved it because we really had to think about where we could put our feet and be careful of the tiny loose rocks and bits of earth that made it slippery. When we finally got to the top the view was so impressive and we were facing a sharp pointy rock in between two large mountains which I though was called Devils toe but is actually either devils hand or tooth! We stopped there for lunch and the extreme quietness hit me. After taking lots of pictures and peering over the edges and scaring ourselves we walked to the top of Tuluga Falls- the highest falls which is measured in five drops. It was basically just lots of pools on the top of the mountain which was not very exciting but then we met these three shepards with their dogs. They were dressed in blankets and hats and apart from that just their underwear! They were very happy to let us have our pictures with us and stayed with us the whole time before we moved on to get back down the mountain. This involved climbing down two very long and wobbly ladders. It's something I would have never done before but being here has made me want to try things and I had no other way down so I did it! On the second one I was very nervous so Sim put a harness on me which made me feel a lot safer but I'm glad I did it! The walk back down seemed to take forever and by that point we were all feeling tired. It was a fantastic day though and I got some great photo's.

On the Wednesday we were up early again to go on another tour...this time to Lesotho! This is the small country in the middle of South Africa and I never expected to visit there so i'm really glad we got the opportunity. Again, it took a few hours to get there and the number of people in the group was so big that we went with the new receptionist, Rowanda, who we had chatted to the night before in a 4x4 following the mini bus in front. So many potholes! It was a steep climb to the Lesotho border and when we got out it was freezing! We got our passports stamped and then drove into the beautiful countryside. The best thing about Lesotho that it appears to be almost untouched by western culture which is something that is somewhat ruining the traditional South African culture. The Basotho people still dress traditionally wearing wellies and blankets, apparently something the British gave them when they were fleeing from King Shaka and had to stay at the top of the mountains. The backpackers gives some of the money that we paid for the tour to one of the schools there so we visited the three building school, one of which had been paid for by them. Our guide, Zeccy, gave us a talk on the school and a bit about the country and their principal gave us a thank you speech for coming to visit. We then did some walking through the hills and stopped for lunch whilst Zeccy explained to us why Lesotho had been separated from South Africa. The British helped the Basotho people in one of the Zulu wars and after trying to let them become the responsibility of the cape people, which they strongly refused, they let them become a separate country. (or something like that!) We then walked down into a village after seeing some very faint rock art that had been mostly eroded away. A white flag outside of a rondavel signalled that there would be some traditional beer for us to try...which we did and it was horrible! It was thick and lumpy and so acidic! At least I tried it! We explored a bit more of Lesotho, trying a traditional meal of pumpkin leaves and pap (maize meal) which I had had before here which reminded me of what an advantage I have had over those other travellers to be living in a culture for a longer amount of time that simply peering into it for a few weeks. Lastly, we met a Sangomer which is a traditonal healer. He was very quiet and could only speak in Sotho, so our guide translated for us. He was wearing traditional clothing with objects around his neck such as sharks teeth which he had acquired when he was training. To become a Sangomer, you have to possess a 'gift' that is passed down to you through your ancestors. This gift is recognised by their family at any age and then they have no choice but to go for training. Sick people will come to them but will not say what is wrong. The sangomer will then talk to their ancestors and find out what it is then will use herbs and traditional medicines to help that person for a fee. It was interesting to hear but also quite hard to believe this new cultural belief about talking to ancestors- not just for Sangomers' but for lots of the tribal people in South Africa it is a way of life. They believe that they must honour their ancestors by talking to them and sacrificing gifts or they will not be rewarded. After a long day, we only just made it out of the country by four, which is when the border gate closes! Overall, our time at the backpackers was worthwhile and we would definitely go back there.

The next few days were unplanned and therefore we didn't actually do much except drive! We were heading from the northern Drakensberg down to the central Drakensberg to a place called Sani Pass. First we visited Giant Castle, an area that contains a mountain that looks like it has a giant lying on top of it. Unfortunately, it was more of somewhere to stop for lunch and we did not have time to hike up there. I was struggling that day with missing home and feeling very confused about my placement and it all got a bit too much so I had a long chat with my Mum and begged her to come out here for a week! It was really bothering me because I didn't want to run away from somewhere I liked being, but I was desperate to know if maybe there was somewhere else I could go and maybe do something else and be of more use. In the end, we walked up to the top of a hill and sat watching a family of baboons...something I love about south africa is coming across the wildlife in unexpected places! Unlike the ones in cape Town, these were passive towards us and the little baby ones skipped about on the rocks looking very sweet. We made our way to our backpackers and ended up getting ridiculously lost for hours on a very long dirt road through the mountains. It got dark and we couldn't see anything for miles which was quite scary! It was the first time I have felt really scared in this country when there was probably nothing to worry about as there really was no one around as everyone avoids that road! We managed to find our way out and pretty much just went to sleep once we got to the Sani Lodge. Not the best day!

In the morning we tried to find somewhere to horse ride but instead stopped at a quaint little tea rooms on the side of the road before going into Underberg which had shops! We decided to drive up the Sani Pass, a road up to the Lesotho border. I was not actually sure what the place was but this is what google says.. “Once, the Sani Pass was a rough mule trail descending the Eastern Highlands of old Basutoland into Natal. Tough drovers brought wool and mohair down the Pass on donkeys and mules to be exchanged for blankets … clothing … maize meal … the essentials for life in a remote, impoverished country.” For us it was pushing our small hire car to its limits up a steep dirt road to get to a point where we could go no further without a 4x4. Saw some nice little waterfalls though! That evening we had planned to stay with another volunteer, Johnny, who is working at an outdoor education centre in the area. The weather turned quite cold and rainy but we were met by all the people he works and lives with who were mostly there for short periods of time as interns in between studying. We compared placements with Johnny who has not had much time off to see the country and has to work very long days but is also enjoying it. We felt like we were at the extreme opposite: lucky enough to have had weekends off to explore the top part of this country, plus school holidays but also with too much free time in the week so we get bored! We braaid (so fed up of them now!), toasted marshmallows and slept in their living room by an open fire- so nice!

Overall, the Drakensberg was a great place to visit- beautiful and impressive scenery, some great hikes, learning more about the African culture and getting very very lost! I think I enjoyed the hike up Sentinel Peak the most as it was an adventure and the view at the top was overwhelming.