Last Day with the Preschoolers

Yesterday I spent my last day at Silvertown Educare. I was supposed to finish on Friday but I got to sneak back the beginning of this week because my placement at the elementary school doesn't start until today. The staff was very grateful for the time I'd spent at Silvertown and wrote me the nicest note. Natalie and Karan are still there this week and we are going to print out a bunch of the pictures we all took and make a poster for the classroom. The walls definitely need some decorating!

Yesterday, we also had our last X'hosa lesson. X'hosa is a tribal language spoken by most blacks in Cape Town. However, it is very difficult to learn. There are three distinct "clicks" associated with different letters (I think they all sound the same) and the words are long and hard to pronounce. We've been having fun with the teacher learning some songs and simple sayings. So far I've really only learned "molo" is "hello" and "unjani" is "how are you?". Also, most X'hosa people name their child a X'hosa name that has a special meaning. So many of the kids at our schools are named the X'hosa words for gift and light. One of my favorites, Ongebiwe, supposedly means "be cautious you don't get stolen." Our teacher said no parent would name their kid that, but he said like in our country, people are getting creative!


Natalie playing with the bubbles


These two are best friends (and cousins) and one was feeding the other during breakfast time
They look so happy to get their picture taken

The last day we brought out some bubbles during playtime and everyone just loved them. I will really miss all the kids, and I pray that they will grow up happy and healthy. I was so fortunate to spend time here with just happy kids and hope to stop back again before leaving Cape Town.

However, I am very excited to start my placement today at Blossom Street Elementary. I look forward to learning about curriculums in the schools here and helping teach the children. I think it will be wonderful to build relationships with kids that are a little older.

I'll fill you in soon. Don't freeze over there, please!

Jackie

Smile and wave, boys

Hello friends! Another adventurous weekend, to say the least. I'm having such a blast filling my days with incredible things to do and see. On Friday we took off right after placement to a small coastal village called Kleinbaai ("Little Bay" in Afrikaans) to go shark cage diving the next morning. I really love going on roadtrips here, always setting off to somewhere I've never been. We took the scenic route there winding between the steep cliffs of the Hottentots Holland Mountains and the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Quite pictureqsue. In the winter here, you can see whales from the road. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the bay at a seafood restaurant. (The service here was horendous paired with mediocre food... oh well). Then we went back to our hostel and were simply shocked by the most beautiful stars we had ever seen. You could see the entire milky way reaching its way from horizon to horizon. Absolutely gorgeous!

We had to get up bright and early to get on the boat for shark diving. The bay we dove off of has the highest congregation of Great White sharks in the world. There were 8 of us in total and we were all pretty excited for the trip. However, they forwarned us that the visibility was terrible (only about 0.5 meters) so were pretty nervous that we wouldn't see any sharks. But low and behold, right when we got out on the water, our skipper (who has the most face time in the world with Great Whites) found us some sharks. They are completely wild animals but he drew them in with these stinky tuna fish heads. Sounds like a great breakfast to me.
Is that Bruce???The shark splashing his tailOur shark cage

Then, we spent a couple of hours looking for sharks but couldn't find anymore. In the meantime, we all got really sea sick and there were many pukers off the side of the boat. Not me, surprisingly. But later, they tried going to a part of the bay they hadn't been to in 6 years to find sharks for us, and I finally got to go in the cage. It was so cool to be in the water right next to the sharks, even though they were really difficult to see. However, they lured a shark right next to the cage and I got to see it right in front of my face. All in all, a pretty nice adventure, minus the seasickness, it would have been a very pleasant morning.

After the trip, all worn out

That night, we came home and met up with all the other volunteers. We went out in Observatory, a town right next to ours, to a reggae and sandbar. We even got to play my favorite bar game, photohunt!
Leigh, Gina, Katie, and Ellery

Then today, we spent another day at the beach. But this time we half way down the Cape to Simon's Town, famous for it's penguin beaches. Simon's Town is beautiful, full of precious houses and shops. The water was such a beautiful shade of blue-green, too!


Here are the penguins! They just come up right by you, and the people and penguins are just hanging out all day on the beach. The train ride, bus ride, and 1.5 mile walk to the beach was definitely worth it. I definitely want to come back and spend some more time on the beach here. Another wonderful day and getting ready for an ever better week here!

Keep in touch,
Jackie