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!