Cape Town Observations and My Kids This Week

Hello all! Sorry I have been missing in action the past couple of days. And this will have to be quick because I'm leaving momentarily for a weekend excursion... but I wanted to share with you a few quick observations about Cape Town and fun things about my week.

1) People here drive on the left hand side of the road. Needless to say, it was so terrifying at first, especially crossing the street because I am so not used to looking left THEN right. I think the funnyiest thing about this though is the fact the people walking down the sidewalk also pass on the left. This obviously makes sense but is still not intuitive to me...
2) They bring the credit card machine to the table at restaurants to make sure they don't charge you some ridiculous amount. This I think is also smart, and you only tip 10%.
3) The South African Rand goes for about 10 for $1 these days, up from around 7 last year. This makes things pretty cheap around here. A beer is usually 9 or 10 rand ($0.90 or $1) and a meal runs for about R40. Cabs have been eating up money around here though because we live pretty far from the city center.
4) I've talked a lot about how seperate things are still between the races here in Cape Town, but one thing I found of particular interest. When we visited the townships where the very poorest in Cape Town live, I felt very strange walking around with a group of white Americans visiting their homes and villages. Our tour guide said the people realize we have traveled very far to be here and they welcome us to learn about their culture and history. However, she said it would be very different if a group of white South Africans were to come to the townships. There is still a lot of tension between the groups. When I've told other white South Africans here that I'm working in the townships, many have told me that they have never been and many don't know where they are even located. Sad really.

There will be more to mention as I think of it, but most of all I've had a really great week at Blossom Street. I was still not feeling well on Monday and Tuesday (and I actually stayed home on Tuesday) and in addition to the extreme heat this week, playing with the athletes outside this week has been rough! Thursday, my teacher was absent so I joined the other 5th grade class and helped teach math and English. We learned roman numerals in the morning, and the kids really had no idea what was going on. (I mean it's relatively difficult to write the year they were born "1998" in roman numerals). In the afternoon, we learned proper and common nouns. My favorite part of this was when the teacher went around the room asking the kids their favorite TV shows: Generations, Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless, Bold and the Beautiful. So hilarious! My driver had mentioned to me before that he loved the soap operas. Here they are on prime time and are the biggest hits even for the kids! No wonder they are still in production. We had such a great afternoon and it was a nice change of pace.

Today, Mrs. Abhrams was again absent (I'm starting to think maybe I gave her my stomach bug... eek!) but so was the kindergarden teacher. My 5th grade class got split up between classrooms but they put me and this other volunteer totally in charge of kindergarden, they call it here Grade R, but no one could explain to me why. We had no schedule or anything to teach them, so we spent the morning most like the days at the preschool, playing outside, coloring, singing and dancing. It was actually one of the best days I've had here! The best part was during song time, when the girls and guys broke out into one of my favorite songs. The girls made the boys all stand in a line with their heads down and hands in their pockets (like a music video) and the girl's all broke out into Flo Rida's "Get Low"... "applebottom jeans, boots with the fur, the whole club was looking at her, she fit the floor, that's when you know, shawty get low low low low". Mind you they are all 5 years old and cute as a button and I could not stop smiling the whole time.

Okay, off on another adventure. Will check in with you after the weekend.

Jackie