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!
No comments:
Post a Comment