Week seven!

The beginning of this week consisted of power cuts in the evening, horrific thunder and lighting and a pack of dogs adopting our garden as their home and making lots of noise in the middle of the night. Since then, the storms have stopped and the dogs have disappeared and another week has passed so quickly.

I am not feeling so homesick now...I'm not sure why I was but I think at the weekends we get into holiday mode and so when we come back to Ingwavuma we get back into our routine and I have more time to think about home. I found myself willing the weekend to come quick as school was quite dull but on the whole my classes were fun to teach and those naughty grade eights even managed to behave perfectly for one lesson! Thando, the grade four who I am tutoring for maths is improving every time I see her which is three hours a week and it's really rewarding to see her gaining understanding of words and numbers. I also take three grade five boys for reading comprehension and Bongi thanked me this week as she said one of them has really improved and is able to answer a few questions now in English whereas before he couldn't. Teaching three fidgety boys with one story book can be difficult but they make me laugh all the time. My decorating plan for the two classrooms I teach in up in the high school is coming along...during sports on Wednesday afternoon I found loads of work in the English cupboard that my nine's had drawn last year on women's rights and also about war and posters titled “Welcome to South Africa” with lots of magazine pictues on them. I asked my H.O.D if I could use this work to put up on the walls and he was more than happy for me to do so. I know it's not my work or even English work but it's colourful and just sitting there in the cupboard gathering dust. One of my nine A girls brought me in some drawing pins (no, I still haven't found any!) so I put up what I could and all the students seem to love seeing their work up on the wall. It is definitely looking a lot better but I am out of drawing pins again!

This week we finally visited Fancy Stitch which is an art gallery/tea rooms/gift shop just down the road from where we live. It really is a beautiful place inside with loads of cool african art, jewellery, photo frames, key rings etc. I bought a white bracelet made of tiny beads which has the colours of the SA flag and the red aids sign (like the breast cancer sign) on it. It felt good to be supporting the local community where all of the products are made and we saw the people actually making the stuff out the back and they all greeted us. We will definitely go back there soon. On Tuesday we made the most of pancake day by going out into the garden and picking lemons from the trees in the garden where mangos and popos also grow...nothing like local produce! Our pancake making was successful although we still haven't decided if we are giving anything up for lent- although we made Rose give up chickens feet! Rose went home to Pretoria this weekend on Thursday and it was very quiet without her here! We are going to visit her family and Pretoria during the May bank holiday after Easter so we are already looking forward to visiting the capital!

This weekend the principal let us leave school after Katie finished teaching in the morning so we could get to St. Lucia in time as we were getting taxis all the way there. We walked home, packed and then waited a long time for the taxi to fill up in Ingwavuma before going to Scamelele, meeting Patrick at Manguzi....waiting ages again, getting two taxis' in very squashed conditions to Hluhulwe, another taxi to Mtubatuba and then FINALLY to St Lucia where we got dropped off at our backpackers. Getting so many taxi's was expensive and we think we might have got ripped off along the way but we were glad to be away from Manguzi for once. St. Lucia is on the coast between Kosi Bay and Richards Bay and is popular for deep sea fishing and surfing. It was like being back in reality as it is a very touristy place with people from all over the world staying there on holiday. There were loads of restaurants and bars and it almost felt like we were in Spain sometimes! The weirdest thing, as this will sound strange to everyone back at home, was being in a bar full of white people!! We have got so used to being the only white people in this area that it was like being in another world at times, especially because it was much more westernised than here. We had fish and chips and watched a South African rugby game at the 'Fishermans Bar' then moved onto a sports bar where we spent the night playing snooker (well, for me I was learning!) and meeting other volunteers with a few drinks and the music was really good. We ended up going back to the backpackers about three in the morning but it was just next door to the bar so we felt very safe walking back. On Saturday morning we explored the local craft market, which had some beautiful things, whilst constantly hearing the local sellers say “My friend, we give you a good price”. We then ventured off to the estuary where we saw our first crocodile in the water and then walked over to the beach which consisted of sand, sand and more sand! We went back to the estuary and chilled there the whole day after feeling a bit delicate from the night before just watching the hippos pass by. We even saw one emerge from the water and walk on land which was quite exciting as you can see how huge they really are. In some ways I felt like I was back in England sitting on the grass under the tree with reeds in front of the water- it reminded me a bit of Hengistbury head...until a crocodile swam past! That night we went out to this second floor seafood restaurant called 'Ocean Basket' and had fish and chips again and there were so many families there who seemed like they were on holiday and then to a cocktail bar and finally back to the sports bar for a drink before heading home for an early night (it seems to be a lot busier on Fridays). This morning we had breakfast at a local coffee shop then headed home but carefully planning our route. We got a taxi to Mtubatuba, then managed to get one all the way too Bhambanana for only 100 rand (£10) which covers such a distance and then one to Ingwavuma so it only cost us 135 rand in total whereas it was more like 200 getting down there! Although I spent way too much money this weekend! It feels great to be home now before starting another week although it is still quiet as Rose is not coming back until maybe Tuesday and we miss her!

Right now we are all waiting for our Easter holidays to come...only three weeks to go and then I'm off to Cape Town. Can't wait now! From this weekend I've learnt that the best way to go travelling is like this. The volunteers we met in St. Lucia are there for four weeks and I couldn't imagine only being here for a month- it would just not be the same in terms of the friendships we are making, the work experience we are getting and everything I am learning from being here everyday. Best decision ever!

Love, Laughter and Elephants!

Last week was a lot of fun. I feel completely settled here now, except today I'm feeling homesick as I realised this morning I have been away for six weeks and as much as I love it here, I can't help but miss everyone at home and the familiarity of home. I have the same dream at least twice a week where I visit home for a short while knowing that I'm coming back here and I don't know why because I'm not coming home until the middle of July. I also realised that we only have 18 weeks left at our placement so time will fly by. I am getting SO excited for Easter now...I haven't seen Sonia in five years or so and we are going to have such an amazing week. Also the road trip with the other two is going to be fantastic as we will have a lot of freedom. Only four weeks to go!

Valentines Day was really enjoyable and over here it is not so commercialised but more about love in general which was actually really refreshing as no one is worried about “oh I don't have a boyfriend on Valentines Day so it's going to be so bad” like it is at home. The grade twelves put on a function in the science lab so that they could raise some money towards their matric dance at the end of the year. I was feeling a bit annoyed when my nine B's decided that just because it was the hour before the function started, then it was Ok not to turn up to my lesson! I went down to the science lab afterwards and they had these huge speakers borrowed from a local church and their were learner's everywhere, even sitting on the top of cupboards! The younger grade's catwalked in front of a panel of judges and in between people just got up and danced. It was great to see another side to the school and the matrics organised it so well. They made 650 rand (about £60) which I thought was amazing, especially if they can pull it off every month like they are planning to do. We wore our uniform and got lots of compliments about how good we looked! It felt so strange being back in school uniform after three years and it I got so hot- I can't believe they have to wear that everyday, especially the long socks!

On Wednesday after running around the playground with the high school girls in sports, we cooked a roast dinner for Rose and Mienky. Unfortunately, the oven in this house does not work so we had to use the one in the house next door to cook the chicken and potatoes. It took a few hours and we set the table nicely with wine glasses with napkins in and put flowers on the table. Both Mienky and Rose enjoyed it even though we forgot to put the vegetables on! It felt like Christmas or something! We still have a whole chicken in the freezer so I expect we will do another one soon for some of the other teachers' or the principal and his family.

This week at school I set all my classes tests but I seemed to spend most of the time finding people who hadn't done their homework and making sure they go it done or basically just leaving their class teachers to punish them. Even the grade eights are starting to realise they can't get away with it now. Two boys were punished by Rose who threatened them with cleaning out the jars with snakes in them in the science lab cupboard that were going mouldy! Poor things, apparently one boy nearly cried and begged for another punishment (don't worry- she's not actually that mean to make them do it) and he has been good in class ever since! I know quite a lot of names now and it's a lot easier than it was at the start. Teaching just comes naturally after a few weeks and I learn very quickly about what works and what doesn't.

So the weekend! Best weekend here by far! We went to Thobeka (the backpackers) in the evening and stayed there until very late with two boys we met. One of them is a matric at patrick's school and his friend is the same age and works in Manguzi. We just chatted over drinks and talked about the differences between our countries...they seem to find our accent hilarious. On Saturday morning I woke up and shouted 'ELEPHANTS' at Katie to wake her up and she thought I said 'pants' but I was so excited for going to Tembe. We borrowed a 4x4 bukkie from one of the teachers Patrick knows and it was about half an hour drive. We paid 40 rand each (£4) for entry and the car and set off into the bush to spot some wildlife. We saw lots of cool deer, impala and other creatures with antlers and then a lone warthog that was just chilling in the middle of the road. We were saying lion king quotes the whole day! We also saw a family of warthogs and the baby ones were so cute but they ran quite fast. There are a few hides where you can walk up to a viewing point and in the first one their was a watering hole with a herd of wilderbeast sitting under the tree. Very scenic but still no elephants! The next animals we saw were a group of about five buffalo who just stared at us. They have incredible facial expressions...these two reminded me of a couple of old ladies! We then approached a herd of about sixty and they were pretty impressive although they looked a bit angry. We weren't expecting to see Zebra but it was lovely because they were next to some wilder beast which took a fab photo. Our first sighting of an elephant after quite a long time was perfect. I felt quite tired and just closed my eyes before Patrick shouted and there was one in the bushes on our right. We were able to stop and take photos before it wondered off. The next one we saw gave us a bit of a shock as it appeared around a corner and was a lot bigger than the previous! BUT the third one nearly gave us all a heart attack...Katie was driving and literally emergency stopped as this massive elephant is facing us walking along the road. It was the strangest feeling....we were in an elephant park expecting to see elephants yet it still scared the life out of us. It must have been about fifteen metres away and all we could do was reverse as there was thick bushes on either side of us. The amount of screaming and swearing and laughing was unbelievable as we turned the car around and went to look for it again. I got a great video of it walking in front of us swishing it's tail but the photos and videos will never get across how huge it was and the feeling of being so close to something so magnificent. Luckily all the elephants we encountered were very passive but we had no idea if they might charge at us- especially when we had to drive through a herd! Luckily we were a safe distance from them. The other amazing part of the day were the giraffes. We stopped to take photos and I have never seen anything so huge that is living- they were honestly twice the size of the one's I've seen at the zoo! When we drove off I thought that there had been about five but we suddenly realised that about twenty were running along the hill NEXT to our car! It was the most amazing experience of my life until one nearly ran in front of our car and I thought we were going to die!! I think our screaming made it turn back! It was just incredible- it was like they were playing with a toy car or something. I was so grateful I was filming at that exact point. I would never have experienced anything like that if I hadn't of come here!! the way they let you drive round the park by yourself is a little risky but I wouldn't have wanted to go with a tour guide after what we experienced. We saw one other car with tourists in the whole day and it was so cheap!

On Saturday night we went back to the backpackers with the boys and had dinner and a few drinks, although I was designated driver so I was on the fanta. The attitudes towards drinking and driving here are ridiculous, it's like for us maybe one drink and we can drive. For the South African's it more like six drinks! Luckily we are sticking to our own beliefs about drink driving. The backpackers is down a sandy road just like the one's we were driving on in the park and I was still driving so carefully as if an elephant was going to appear around the corner- it was so funny! On Sunday morning we taxied back to Ingwavuma and it was good to be home and tell Rose all our stories. We are quite close with her now and I'm usually in her room chatting with her or we just watch TV and it would not be the same without her hilarious comments to make us laugh everyday. Now it is a new week at school and hopefully we will FINALLY pay a visit to Fancy Stitch! We are planning to go to St Lucia at the weekend- a beach town a little bit further down the coast. I can't wait to get away from this area now and it will have normal shops!!

I am missing home but there is no way I would want to go home, I’m having too much of a good time! Huge thank you to everyone who got me here, it was the best decision ever!

Another week, another post :)

Instead of writing up everyday of this week I decided I would write down the highlights and then tell you about my weekend. This week went so fast: I remember I was watching the grade eights performing Zulu songs in their Arts and Culture lesson on Monday period one and then suddenly I was shouting at them on Friday period five. I really feel settled into life here now even though everyday brings new challenges, especially with the teaching. I can't imagine not getting up at six and being surrounded by a net, washing with no running water and then listening to the awful music in the car on the way to school and then the beautiful sounds of the teacher's voices as they start the morning meeting with a song.

School has been great this week and I am really enjoying teaching the grade 9's especially the 9A's. I didn't like them at the start and now they are my favourite class! They respect me and do their work and I know all their names so we can have a laugh. This week we did all about the past tense and it's the sort of thing I didn't really like doing at school so I hope I taught it well. If I ever have to say 'past participle' again I might go mad! The grade eights on the other hand are a complete nightmare and I have had enough of them. Most of them want to work and do well but unfortunately the class is so big that they get distracted by just a few who ruin it. They have been spoken to by another teacher about their behaviour so maybe I will see some changes next week but I'm feeling doubtful- I'm glad they are not my only class! Katie has them everyday...I don't know how she does it! I am getting to know them though and secretly know they like me...hmm, maybe.

I have seen so much of the traditional Zulu singing and dancing this week- it seems every grade was out in the playground at some point practising and I love just sitting and observing- they get so into it and some of the girls are really good singers. As for the boys, they get so into the dancing which is hilarious! One of the grade twelve's asked me to come up and join them but I politely declined as I just wanted to watch but maybe next week I will give it a go!

I have started tutoring a girl called Thando in grade four who cannot read and also needs help with her maths. I take her for English once and maths three times a week. She is very quiet and shy but is learning quickly- this week we went through how to spell the numbers one to twenty so she can recognise them if they are written in maths. I'm really pleased with her progress and I enjoy the one to one after having classes of thirty plus normally.

I have a little project of my own...the walls in the high school classrooms are completely bare and I think this is so wrong. I asked Bongi, our mentor, about it and she said that they are supposed to have stuff on the wall but they just don't have the funding for it. I teach in two classrooms: G2 and G3 and my mission is to get the huge boards at the back covered in the students work. So far I have managed to get two of my classes to produce colourful posters and Bongi also found some old posters that I can use the back of because they are just white. I bought some coloured paper in Pep which was SO cheap but my only problem is that I desperately need drawing pins and more blue tac! The office did not get any supplies this year so I have put in a request for drawing pins as I can't find them anywhere! It's so frustrating when you don't have access to these simple things!

Home life has been fairly normal but lots of fun as always. It is great finishing school at half two because we have so much free time to do the things we need to at home such as washing as it's still sunny outside for it to dry. On Monday I cooked dinner- sausage, mash and vegetables- all by myself which I consider a huge achievement because we didn't die! I also booked my flights to Cape Town at Easter which was exciting. We are STILL suffering with bed bugs so my feet look horrible all covered in bites but I think maybe they are starting to disappear as we are having less bites than before. Rose is being a babe as usual making us laugh all the time and on Wednesday we helped her take her braids out because it had taken her the whole evening which was quite fun but also really fiddly. I often find myself looking at a student and thinking “you look different” and I realise that they've changed their braids or taken them out or shaved them off- they have different hair every day! We have watched a few movies on the laptop this week to fill the evenings including “Trainspotting”, “Memoirs of a Geisha” and tonight “Slumdog Millionaire”. We also had pancakes for dinner one evening as Rose likes them now we have introduced them to her! Where there has been no rain for ages, all of our water tanks except the one behind the far house ran dry which was a bit worrying when they had nearly run out of water in Spar too! Luckily the rains came this weekend...

This weekend we were back to Manguzi for a low cost quiet weekend and we got a lift with another teacher, Londiwe. She drove us near to where she stays at her sisters which is about twenty minutes taxi ride from Manguzi. We had a nice chat in the car with her and she has offered to take us to Sodwana bay with her one weekend. We got a taxi straight away and this was our first experience of one. The taxis here are not like the one's at home. They are basically mini buses that wait to fill up before they leave and pick people up and drop them off along the way. There was hardly anyone in the taxi and it only cost us 13 rand each- less than £1.30! It's so cheap to travel here. We met Patrick, did our shop at Spar then went back to his, cracked open the drinks and started the braii- can you tell we are getting into a bit of a routine? That night there was a horrendous storm- I could not sleep for about two hours because the rain and the thunder were SO loud and there was constant flashing from the lightning which lit up the whole room! On Saturday, it was cloudy but still warm and we called up the guy with the bukkie and he took us to the Kosi mouth. He dropped us at the lodge, we bought our permits and began the walk down. I actually enjoyed the walk this time because it wasn't too hot and we knew the way. When we got to the mouth we found a place to settle under a big palm tree and just chilled for a few hours before walking up to the actual mouth. This is where the water from the four lakes across the whole area goes out to sea so there is a fairly strong current. We let ourselves go into the current (it was very shallow) and be taken along until we could reach the sand again and before we went out of the mouth. SO MUCH FUN. There were quite a few people around this time which was nice as we got chatting to a South African couple about our travels and found out they were building a school for the poor in this area. I also got quite sunburnt despite factor 50 :/ On the walk back I saw a really cool crab- it was black but with bright red pincers. I imagined it to be Mexican with red maracas because I'm a bit sad like that. We stopped at the lodge, and Ken the owner let us use his pool and we waited for the bukkie man who had fortunately put the cover on. It poured it down with rain so much that the driver could barely see out the windscreen- it was actually a bit scary at times! There were loads of drips so we still got a bit wet but we would have been like drowned rats without the cover. The storm caused a power cut and the house is quite dark anyway so we lit candles. There is an outside shelter where we could braii but where the wood was so wet it was incredibly smoky so our clothes smell lovely now! We bought some sweet potatoes this week and also toasted marshmallows which was fun! We stayed up quite late just chatting and it was too hot to sleep.

This morning we had to wait half an hour for the taxi to fill up and I got really squashed in the back. It took us an hour to get to Bhambanana and then another half an hours wait there before we left for Ingwavuma which took half an hour. 60 rand for the whole journey- so so cheap and we had no issues with the taxi. It actually felt really good afterwards to have travelled by ourselves. We were back at lunchtime and today has been really chilled, just doing our washing, watching a movie with Rose, experiencing another power cut so lighting candles and cooking our dinner on a gas stove and toasting marshmallows over candles! Luckily the electricity is now back but it was really fun in the dark. We now have our own water tank just behind our house which is amazing as we don't have to walk as far! Thank you Mr Groundsman.

Next week is full of plans. On Tuesday the grade twelve's are raising money for their year as it's is Valentines Day so they are selling food and wearing their own clothes and the teachers wear the school uniform. We are borrowing some from two grade twelve girls. I think it will be a fantastic day. On Wednesday night, Katie and I are hosting an English evening for our house mates and anyone who wants to come and are cooking an English dinner but I'm not sure what yet- maybe a roast if we can use the oven in the house next door. Next weekend we are hopefully going to the elephant park as we now have a car to use! As for my students, I'm giving them all tests... not such a good week for them! My aim for the week is to get the boards in the classrooms started and to come up with a way to deal with the grade eights.

Random facts:

-I haven't worn make up since we got here, yet I used to wear it everyday.

-I've been in a hot country for five weeks and no, I don't really have a tan (for those that keep asking!). I do have some colour though, especially on my face.

-I enjoy simple living. Not having running water is sometimes a slight issue, but when we have it at the weekends I realise that it's not such a big deal. It's teaching me a lot to live like this.

-There is no one else that I miss more than my Mum and it's really weird not seeing her everyday.

-I literally have no idea what is going on in the world except that it's snowing in some parts of England.

- I am starting to actually seriously think about what I want to do with my life after uni after putting it off for so long.

With my boy, Sibongilile.

Sunny Days...

Monday 30th January:
People will be saying at home “I can't believe it's nearly February” but I'm still thinking “How is it January or even February when it is summer here!” I really can't get used to the idea but I'm loving this weather! I heard that it might be snowing back home. The pre- R's and grade one's launched an army onto me as they wanted to braid my hair and hold my hands and I found out from one of my 8's that they were saying “we have never seen anything like this before” which I think is a BIT of an exaggeration unless I really do look strange! This afternoon, I was teaching the grade 9's last and for the first time since I have been here I got a whole class to be quiet when they were doing their work for about ten minutes and even the rest of the time they were quite good. When it got to 2pm and we still had half an hour to go they complained to me “Miss the sun is too hot” and after asking them what they would like me to do about it I let them have a five minute break AND they came back on time- even the boys at the back! I couldn't believe how good they were. We got given our new timetables which includes helping out in lessons for those learner's (they call them learner's here) who are struggling in grades 4-7 for English, science and maths. Now we only have one free lesson a day so it's going to be so busy everyday! This way we won't get bored and also it will be nice to work with some of the younger one's with smaller groups. We stopped off at the shops on the way home and there was long queues outside spar which confused us but then we realised that the people were giving in their welfare slips that give them money. We got stuck behind a drunk in the queue for the till, as always.

Tuesday 31st:
So here is the end of the month and after what I said about the weather yesterday it decided to rain this morning. However, the day turned into a beautiful hot and sunny one and again I wish I hadn't of worn jeans to school! This morning the high school had a talk which was supposed to be about twenty minutes and I was teaching the grade eights who finally came back with about twenty minutes of the lesson left! I was actually quite happy about this because I really didn't feel like teaching a group of forty five first thing this morning. Their behaviour was shockingly bad! I set them a simple task that they could finish for homework and with the exception of the usual few who always do the work, the rest would not sit down, stop chatting, stay in their places and then most of the class ran out at the end of the lesson. I asked TB who lives in the house next to us to have a word with them as he is their class teacher because both Katie and I are fed up with the way they treat us. So it was not much of a lesson! We are now helping out in the lower school with learner's who are struggling in English, science and maths. I seem to be with the grade fours a lot and I asked Bongi who their maths teacher was and then she asked me if I could please take that class because the teacher was away! Katie was also free so we took it together and the grade fours are so cute and such a nice change from our stroppy teenagers! They had to do their times-tables in a race and some of them worked so hard to get it right. I can't believe how tiny some of them are! They begged us for stickers when they got the work right which was funny and I'm looking forward to getting to know them. My 9b's last lesson were good as usual and I'm starting to learn their names. We did a shop on the way home and it was so hot outside it made me really tired. We met a guy in Spar who works at 'Fancy Stitch' and he recognised us as the 'gaps' straight away- it was great to be recognised as real people! This evening I have been marking books and watching generations with the girls. Also collecting a lot of water and explaining to TB the English money and showing him the currency I still have in my purse!

Wednesday 1st:
We have been at our placement for three weeks now and I truly can't believe it's only been that amount of time- it feels like so much longer! So much has happened and yet we are still only at the beginning and settling in. On Saturday we would have been in South Africa for a whole month! It was extremely hot today from when we woke up and I had had a restless night. I think I have bed bugs because I wake up every morning with new bites on my feet...it's always something here!! I gave both my classes today sheet work and I felt a little bit guilty because I haven't done much teaching this week but they really work hard at the texts and we usually read them through together first. I'm starting to like both my grade 9 classes, I just cannot be bothered with those grade 8's any more! I now know 9 names in my 9A class- this is such an achievement! The most common surnames here are 'Mngomezulu' and 'Gumede'.One of the grade twelve's has asked us if we can help with the school newspaper as they don't have access to a computer or printing so we happily agreed to type anything up for them. We walked home early after lunch and the high school students were walking that way to the sports grounds in Ingwavuma so it made the walk less tiring as we chatted to them. We bought more internet time at Spar and then just chilled with our house mates in the afternoon in the living room reading our books. It was too hot to do anything! I helped Katie mark her grade 8 maths books this evening and we stayed up quite late putting our classes names on spreadsheets so we can track their progress.

Thursday 2nd:
Today was such a good day!!! I went to bed feeling so happy- something I haven't felt in a long time. I kept in the boys at the back of my grade eight class for ruining my lessons for fifteen minutes at lunch and had a 'chat' with them about wasting their education and saying how smart they were but they were choosing not to use their talents and all that and I tried not to laugh as I heard myself saying these things but it really worked! They said they were sorry and asked if they could sit at the front from now on. I was shocked to discover that none of them are retakers- they are in the right year but we thought they were older. In my 9A class I learnt everyone's name (I can only remember if they sit in the same place!) and they cheered me on which was funny. I'm happy that I'm finally getting to know my students. The lower school were outside preparing for their athletics day tomorrow and in the afternoon the teacher's gave them a really long break so it was a bit of a different day – it felt like being back at school on one of the last days of term when it's really chilled. This evening has been spent marking half of my grade 8 books, washing up and a bit of washing- it's surprising how much more motivated I felt after having a good day! We had spaghetti bolognase for dinner. I felt this needed to be included. Happy Days!

Friday 3rd:
It was extremely hot when we woke up- it reached 30 degrees today! Katie taught first lesson then walked up to one of the high schools where the lower school were having their athletics day. I wanted to go but I had to carry on marking my grade 8 books and then had to teach lesson four and five. The 8's were ok but annoying as they kept questioning my marking- we have set up spread sheets for all our students to mark their progress so it's easier for us to see who needs more help. In their books I had written: what they are doing well, their targets, a number out of 5 for effort and a number out of five for their level of english. It's a similar system to back at home and I think it is going to work well. The boys even sat at the front and most of them are trying hard not to chat! I asked the principal if I could take the week off before Easter (we are allowed to negotiate holidays because we are volunteers) to go to Cape Town to see my friend Sonia who has that week off from uni and he said yes!! I was so happy! We got a lift to Manguzi with Mr Mkonto but had to pay petrol this time but it's so much better than having to get taxi's! One of Patrick's neighbours lent us their braii and we bought some wors (like sausage) and burgers at spar and some drinks and had an awesome braii in the sunset :) We watched a few movies and then tried to sleep but it was ridiculously hot!

Saturday 4th:
This morning we were going on a boat tour to see hippo's at the Kosi Lakes- I was too excited! We got a lift to Thobeka backpackers and met our guide there- Steven- and a Dutch couple who were also going on the tour. We sat in the back of his land rover and it has to be the most uncomfortable journey I've ever endured! The weirdest feeling was sitting in a car full of white people- it sounds so odd but I have become so used to hearing black Africans chatting away in Zulu and being the only whites that for a moment it was totally weird to be talking in English all the time! So hard to explain! When we got there it was just as beautiful as I remembered and we met four more people also going on the tour- a couple of Afrikaans guys biking around Africa and an older South African couple on holiday. The boat fortunately had shade and we set off round three of the lakes to spot some hippo's and also some beautiful birds! There are four lakes in the system but boats are not allowed in the fourth one as it has so many hippo's and crocs. The first sighting of a hippo was a mother and her baby and I was just so happy to be seeing these amazing creatures in a natural habitat- not like the one's at Longleat! They are so fascinating to look at and when they both popped their heads up it looked so good! We moved on and did a bit of snorkelling around the man made fish traps where the locals who still live in the reserve catch their fish and it was so peaceful swimming through the hot water and watching all these pale coloured fish waiting by the sticks- it looked like they were all waiting for something to happen! During the tour we saw a lone bull hippo but we couldn't go too close because they get quite angry and he stayed under the water the whole time. We then saw three together which was pretty special and we got quite close. A truly amazing experience! We did a bit more snorkelling and on the way back I chatted to the older couple about the country and places we could go and they were lovely. We got back to the backpackers in the evening (we spend a lot of time there just chilling) where there is a pool and a bar in a hut sort of thing- I'll try put a picture up! Then we headed home and still having the meat from yesterday we had another braii- although it took longer to build the fire this time because it had rained so much the night before so the wood was damp. An awesome day!

Sunday 5th:
Today we were not sure what to do but decided on planning our easter holidays which we are SO excited about! I am going to Cape Town the week before Easter and then meeting the other two in Durban where we are hiring a car for fifteen days. We researched hostels in durban and then in the Drakensburg (mountains) where we will spend about a week. It was really exciting to be planning! We are hoping to spend some time in Mozambique the second week as we are so close to the border. I can't wait! Afterwards, we walked into Manguzi and got a few bits from spar and some lunch and then just chilled back at the house chatting about what to do in the weekend between now and Easter. We are trying to have a few low budget weekends as we seem to go through our money so fast- I'm scared I'm going to run out after Easter! We got picked up at half three and the drive back was beautiful- today was the first time I appreciated the scenery that surrounds us, it is just incredible in these mountains. I saw cows drinking from watering holes and small children pushing tires along the road- so South Africa! Tonight we are just back at home with Rose and her husband has come to visit which is nice as we rarely have visitors. I have had such a good week and it's just made up for all the rubbish I was feeling a week ago. Although I do still miss my Mum! Hope everyone's alright and not feeling too cold ;) xx