Yebo!

So much to tell as I haven't written in a while!

I guess I should start with last weeks highlights:

On Monday afternoon I gave my nine A's the task of putting on a short role play of a short story we had read together called “Karate”. It was so much fun as it was a beautiful day so I let them practise in their groups outside and they actually went off and did it instead of messing around. I sat on the step watching them and some of them really got into character, especially with the karate kicks! Everyone then performed and I promised some sweets to one of the groups of girls who made me laugh so much that I thought it was only fair they got a prize. Doing drama with them got me thinking and I was wondering why there wasn't any opporutnites for the learners to do any drama, so why not start something and put on a performance? The current idea is to do a modern version of Romeo and Juliet that has easier language than Shakespeare with a bit of a south african culture included. I later discovered on Wednesday afternoon when I thought everyone had to do sports that there is in fact a drama club in the high school so I went along. It seemed to involve a lot of shouting at each other and disagreeing, but I'm not sure over what and then some started to perform a story they had been practising. It was all in Zulu so I'm not sure what it was about but the acting was good! One of the teachers next door, TB, runs the session and I spoke to him about my idea and he seemed happy for it to go ahead, and then to one of the student's on the drama committee and I think he liked the idea although he is more concerned with getting everyone to stop arguing and have control. We hope to go through with it next term although it is difficult as breaks are only half an hour long and no one stays after school for anything, even teachers. Hopefully, Katie and I will have more time to think about it over Easter and plan how we are going to cast people and organise rehearsals. I don't think the school have ever done something like this so if we can pull it off I will be very happy.

Last week I also seemed to play a lot of games- firstly with the grade eights where we played the 'noun game'. I split the class in two and two learners from each team had to run up to the board and tick the correct column of the type of noun when I shouted it out. Whoever got their first got the point. When we were learning it, they got it so easily for example, I would say what is a house? And they would tell me it is a common noun, but when I shouted it out and two ran straight to the board in excitement they often got it wrong. They are such a big class so it got very loud that I could barely shout out the words but the class really enjoyed it and one boy came up to me afterwards to thank me for the fun lesson! When I was taking them for maths- I sit with the 'good one's' now who are all girls and two boys and it was a Thursday afternoon so the last half an hour I got out my pack of cards and played the card game with them and then fruit salad by making space in the middle of the classroom and setting up a circle of chairs. Again, I had to strain my voice but they laughed so much and I plan to do some games again this Friday afternoon as it is my last lesson with them before Easter.

One of the grade eight boys gave Katie his baby turtle to keep for the night and it was in a water bottle with a few stones and some grass. He must have got it from the swamp that lies between the high school and primary school and it was so cute! We named it Rose after our lovely friend who used to live here. However, it was such a responsibility! We didnt know what to feed it, whether it was sleeping or dead, how to get it out the water bottle (I used a knife in the end to cut it open) or whether it would survive the night. Luckily it did and we brought it into school after walking in carrying a lunch box filled with water- a bit of a bumpy ride for the poor thing! Katie took it in to her class and we found out at the end of the day it had been left in the staffroom. On monday morning, the tin foil had been opened and there was no Rose so she must have escaped. Hopefully she made her way back to the swamp!

Talking of Rose, as in the teacher who was living here with us, all of her stuff was packed at the weekend and sent back to her home. Unfortunately, she has had to leave the school as she can't leave her family. We miss her so much but have not seen her in ages now. We are hopefully going to visit her in Pretoria over the april/may bank holiday weekend still so that is something to look forward to. I'm really glad she moved in this house- she was asked to come here so that we were not alone in the house with a man which was really sweet and she did so much for us. Mienky is also sad she has gone as she was good friends with her and will be the only female living here after we go. The TV has now gone so we go over to Mienky's in the evenings to watch our favourite soapies: “Scandal” and of course, “Generations”.

We visited the tea room Fancy Stitch again one afternoon which was nice and we are hoping to go again tomorrow afternoon for my last afternoon in Ingwavuma before the next three weeks away. The people there are lovely and they have some lovely photo frames, key rings and pictures all made by the local women who live around here. They also ship their products out to Oxfam in Austrailia.

Friday was another sports day, but down the road from the school at a primary school called Magugu. It was extremely hot and I had planned to do some games with those who were not platying any matches but it turned out that they were all more interested in supporting their school on the netball court and football pitch. Katie and I were really excited that they had a roundabout and we went on it with loads of kids and it was so much fun- even if we are meant to be teachers! Katie reffed all the netball matches from under ten up to ages thirteen. We won three and lost two and there was much singing and cheering and dancing amongst the girls. I sat with some of the teachers and chatted but the sun can make me SO tired and lethargic. Londiwe drove us to Manguzi after school where we went back to Patricks before our friend Johno picked us up in his car and we began our weekend in Sodwana....

Mbazwana and Sodwana are pretty much the same place but one is the town and the other has the beach. When we arrived it was dark and we went into this place called the “Wild Ditch Bush Camp”. Johno knew the owners and we met the uncle (they call elder people here aunty and uncle” and went to our flat which we got for a tenth of the normal price. We had a braii and a few drinks and I ended up going to bed a bit earlier than the others as the sun had made me so shattered. The next morning we met the aunty who was lovely and their horses, Biscuit and Lover boy, who wanted to come in the flat! They also had chickens, goats and pet dogs. We used their pool and then got in the back of their cruiser (to me it was just a posh bukkie) and she drove us to the spar and then to the beach. The beach was stunning and it actually had some waves! The water is warm as it is the indian ocean this side and the coast is something I love about Kwa-Zulu Natal as the beaches seem to be deserted. Eating chips from the kiosk kind of reminded me of being back home and on Highcliffe beach, although without the monkeys which are huge and tip the bins over. One made me laugh when it just stared at me with half a chip in it's mouth! Sodwana is supposed to be one of the most famous places for snorkelling but Patrick went in and didn't find much so I think we were in the wrong part. We spent the whole afternoon there and Johno and Jacques met up with some friends of Johno's. We went back to the camp and started to get ready for our night out and of course, braaied. Yes, I am getting a tiny bit bored of them now! When we finally ready and free of sand and I put make up on for the second time since I've been here we went to Maak n Jol, a bar with pool tables and a dance floor. It was a really fun night despite it not being very busy and we danced and played pool/snooker (whatever the difference is- I'm still rubbish!) and got back about three. On Sunday we drove to this craft place which had loads of cool african arts and crafts and then Jacques locked the car keys in his car so we had to wait until the people there managed to get it open! I then drove everyone to the beach and even us girls joined in with throwing the rugby ball about by the waves, which was fun until the boys chucked us in the sea with all our clothes on! Johno drove us back with Patrick all the way home and we made them dinner before the returned back to Manguzi. All in all, I loved the weekend and the weekends here just make it for me.

This week has been all about preparing for my holidays! I am off to Cape Town on Saturday so I have been washing all my clothes and putting them in piles and starting to pack. I am not taking all of them but it is good to be sorting things out and getting ready. We are going down to Manguzi on Friday where we will probably meet up with boys and go to a lodge for dinner and drinks. On Saturday morning, jacques has kindly agreed to drive me to Durban airport as I was a bit nervous about getting taxis all the way on my own. It shouldn't take any more than five hours and we are going earlier than needed just in case. My flight is just after six pm and Sonia is meeting me at Cape Town airport around half past eight. I can't wait! Not much has been happening at school except the grade nine's have been doing a test on the future tense and a new boy has arrived in grade eight. We welcomed a new teacher who is replacing Rose and he seems lovely and went to a teachers meeting with an official to do with schools in the area who told us what we need to work on but what we are doing well. We have been feeling a bit bored recently at school which is why we want to put on the play to fill some of our time and make the most of things but I have also been thinking about approaching the social science teacher in the high school, who is lovely, as he seems to teach a lot of history and I would like to have a go at teaching that too. Next term I want to start teaching the more interesting side to English- literature. It's something I have always enjoyed more compared to the grammar we have been doing this term but I am finding it hard to come up with ways to explain it and also texts I am going to use as the library does not have much choice. Something to think about over Easter.

I'm not sure when I am going to write next, it might even be in three weeks when we come back from our travels in Cape Town, the Drakensberg and the East Coast but I will let everyone know how I'm getting on. Glad my post cards are getting home and thank you to everyone who is sending me letters- I love getting post, it's so exciting!

Xxx

P.S: one of my grade nine's made my week when she was polishing her shoes in class and then started brushing her hair with the same brush! I asked her why she was doing that when it had just been on her shoes and she told me that it would make her hair shiny. I asked her why and she told me it was because she was going on a date! She said it in such an obvious way like I was supposed to know these things that it made me laugh, a lot. So, thank you Halaliswa for being your crazy self!

Highlights of this week!

Eight weeks- sometimes it feels like we have been here forever and sometimes like time has flown by! Highlights of this week:

The staff braai was held after school on Monday to celebrate the excellent matric (A level) results achieved last year. In the afternoon we helped prepare the “chakalaka” which consists of shredded carrot, onion and baked beans cooked together. The school has a feeding programme so the cooks prepared the meat for us all in their kitchen and we all sat round the staffroom with a steak, chilli worse, maize meal/mashed potato and chakalaka presented to us each on paper plates! It was so much that I couldn't finish but it was really good and most of the teachers attended. It was great to not have to cook in the evening. Mr Magagula picked on me to pray before we ate and I was totally wordless as I really don't remember the last time I was asked to pray out loud- probably in primary school! I kept it short and sweet but I really was thankful to be there with them. The teachers are almost like our family now as we see them everyday and are getting to know them well.

I have played a lot of netball this week as we were preparing for a match against another school held this weekend. Our netball team consists of both males and females and I am not the best, but it's still fun to take part. We usually play against the grade nine or grade twelve girls and Eugene, one of the teachers just makes it because he is so hilarious throughout. He gets very enthusiastic but constantly makes up his own rules. Mr Mbereki is a great shooter and Katie also used to play a lot so they make our team work better. The only thing with playing netball at lunchtimes is that by then it had reached about thirty degrees so it is exhausting!

This week, Katie had just about had enough with her grade eights as they seem to behave really badly in Maths and not in science so we talked about it and I offered to take half the class for maths from now on when I'm not teaching- so she will only be by herself for one maths lesson a week. I am not the best mathematician but it will be good to do something else for a change and I have been getting a bit bored at school this last few weeks. We are trying it out until Easter to see if it works and Thursday last lesson I took the 'good ones' who are mostly girls whilst Katie took the 'naughty ones' into another classroom. They had been learning about the perimeter and area of shapes and had to complete a worksheet so I basically had to sit there and help them if they needed it. We had just played netball and it was extremely hot but they were actually very good! They started asking me how to work out the areas of a triangle and something was going through my head like “base times height divided by two” but I still told them to times the wrong measurements and it basically meant they all got the answers wrong....woops! Some girls started playing with my hair and did some braids on the side which I probably shouldn't have allowed but I wanted to see what it would look like if we got it done (we have to wait until winter because my scalp will just burn in this weather!) Because last lessons are an hour and a half it usually ends up that the last twenty minutes the learners never stay focused which is understandable.... although, next time I am going to make sure I know how to do the work!! Katie had a successful lesson with those that were struggling as they actually did the work and the ones in my class were happy that they didn't have to be punished for once as a whole class because of the ones that do disrupt the class. So hopefully it's going to work out well from now on as long as I can start remembering my maths!!

On Friday afternoon I found out I didn't have to teach my two lessons because Miss G who is in charge of sports was letting the students practise for the matches on Saturday. We played netball for a bit then walked up to the high school behind the older grades classrooms where I discovered they have a huge football pitch. The whole school was up there and there was such a great atmosphere watching the teachers play the nine boys and girls were singing and cheering them on. Londiwe, one of the intermediate teachers, made me laugh so much because she is also as scared of being hit by the football as I am and every time it came remotely near to us she screamed and ran in so many different directions behind me. I wish I had my camera with me because it still makes me laugh now. This weekend has been the first in seven weeks we haven't rushed off somewhere on a Friday afternoon and it was actually a relief to come home and just relax. We visited Fancy Stitch where we had lunch and it was really nice to eat out in Ingwavuma! There was another family there we sort of know who run a school behind spar and the people who work there are lovely.

Before I write about the weekend, I just want to say that I have been feeling sad this week as Rose, who is like our older sister, has still not returned from her home in Pretoria as her Mum is very ill so she has to stay and she doesn’t know when she is able to come back, if at all. I am just praying that she will finally come back and that her Mum does get better as she is in a very difficult position and it can't be much fun any of them. I miss her loads and we call her nearly everyday. It's funny how we take things here for granted now when we wont be here forever.

On Saturday morning we were up early to meet Miss G to walk down to the hospital where five taxis were meant to be ready to take all the learners going on the school trip down to Manguzi. As usual, things never happen on time here and we were late walking and I spotted a massive African snail on the side of the road! It was so cool to see something like that because people at home keep them as pets in tanks and I had not expected to see one here. We dressed for hot weather however it looked like the news of the cyclone arriving that night was wrong as the wind was picking up and the clouds were quite dark. Once all the students had arrived, they were shuffled into taxis and I travelled with Londiwe in her car. The students treated the taxis as party buses and the drivers turned the music up SO loud so that the students could have a rave in the back which Katie was experiencing as she was sat in the front of one. It is unbelievable how relaxed the rules are here that they will allow students to stand up and dance around in taxis but there we go- TIA. We seemed to stop at every major town to go to the shops and spent a lot of time in Manguzi where Londi and I ran from the car to the garage in the pouring rain laughing and screaming before getting something to eat and waiting to find out where the school actually was! It turns out that it was on the way into town so we had to go back on ourselves before finally arriving at Hambisanani school two hours late. The school was very hospitable providing us with snacks and lunch but I was quickly whisked off to the hall after Miss G asked if I would represent the school as being one of the judges for the debate. Mr Mafuleka, the school librarian, was also asked so we went into this hall where we met two other teachers from the other school who were acting as judges. The students quickly filled up the hall as I tried to work out how we were marking each of the teams. The Hambisanani team was actually very good, especially their english and it was clear that they had put a lot of preparation into it, whereas our school team had been picked that morning! The topic was “Is the government to blame for the crime rate in South Africa?” with Nansindlela arguing for it and the other team arguing against it. The Hambisanani students I actually thought were so aggressive, especially the girls! I couldn't believe how rude they were being at times! Our school was a lot calmer and polite but did not have such a strong argument (I wonder why!). At the end of it I was selected to give some comments and reveal the winner with Hambisanani achieving 78% and Nansindlela 79% so obviously we were happy and loads of students from the other school were even hugging me!

It was still raining when we finished the debate but the girls still wanted to play netball and so Katie umpired the matches. I'm pretty sure that our school won which is not surprising as we have two strong teams. The netball court was made of mud and sand so I have no idea how they judged the lines! Every time we scored we all ran on to the court which was fun although I got soaked. We wanted to play as teachers but the other school refused because of the rain so that was a bit disappointing but understandable. We watched the male teachers from our school play the other school in football and I think we won that too although after a while we went inside as we were so cold and wet and our umbrellas were even breaking because of the wind. We had lunch and waited for the grade nine boys to finish their match which they were insistent on playing and after what seemed hours of taking shelter in front of a taxi with some of my nine B girls, we finally left for home about half past four. I was squashed in the middle of the front of the taxi with two other girls and it was incredibly uncomfortable and cold but still the students wanted to dance around in the back. There had been rumours of some students drinking and it was quite clear when we stopped for petrol in Scamelele that quite a few students were drunk. It actually broke my heart to see some of my grade eight girls stumbling around in a petrol station but no one knew who had bought it/where it had come from so there was not a lot the teachers could do. I found a warmer, more spacious seat next to Miss G in a different taxi for the second part of the journey and it was dark by then. We had a long wait at the taxi rank in Ingwavuma as people were swapping taxis and it was still pouring with rain- I felt so sorry for Miss G who was trying to round them all up! I had no idea what taxi Katie was in as we had got split up and didn't know whether anyone would be home. Luckily Mr Magagula had just arrived in his car so I could get in the house (Katie always has our keys). It was SO good to finally be home and dry and Katie came through the door about ten minutes afterwards. Overall, I enjoyed the day, especially the debate and I didn't spend too much money after last weekend so that was a bonus.

I have definitely got that end of term feeling as I now only have two more weeks of school before my Easter holidays start. Today we had a lie in and a bit of a pyjama morning watching TV and not much else. Today feels like the first time we have stopped since we got here and the weather has cleared up a bit although still windy and gloomy. Hopefully it will have cleared up by next weekend as we have plans to go to Sodwana beach. Missing everyone xxx