Valentine's Day Weekend

Happy belated Valentine's Day to everyone! We celebrated in style at Blossom Street elementary. Unfortunately, a bunch of the kids were still absent because of the taxi strike so some of the festivities were canceled but we still had a big party. Collin came with me on Friday because his placement was off limits because of the taxi violence, and it was very fun to have him around to meet my class. We spent the day basically just playing outside, some intense four square, as well as soccer and jump rope. The kids all got to skip out on their uniforms and wear red and white to celebrate. So we had an impromtu fashion show, and the kids ran around trying to convince all the teachers to model. It was so fun to have the entire school together. They had a chance to buy bologna chip rolls (fries, ketchup, and bologna) for lunch as well as ice cream and doughnuts. And I passed out chocolate and valentines to all my kids. I taught them how to draw Mickey Mouse throughout the day and my map lesson for the day was about Disney World. They knew all about it and I hope they get a chance to go someday. We played a bunch of games with them, but their favorite was boys versus girls trivia where I tested them on all of the things I've been teaching them about for the past couple of weeks. Some had great memories, others not so much! The day was such a blast and I'm really glad they could enjoy such a fun day, but the lack the structure is beginning to frustrate me. The kids are all so ready and willing to learn and just need a little more direction to soak up all their is to learn. But all in all, a really great day!
The valentines I made all 70 of my kidsPrincipal Davids and some learners
Facepainting for Valentine's Day
Me and my class

After class on Friday, Kelley, Collin, and I spent the afternoon at the Groot Constantia winery just outside of Cape Town. Constancia is home to a few of the oldest wineries in the Cape Town vicinity, and there is a lot of history to the place. Apparently, Groot supplied Napoleon his wine when he was banished to St. Helena after his defeat at Waterloo until his death in 1812. Tough life, right? Also, Jane Austen mentions Groot Constantis in Sense and Sensibility. I just came for the wine and the views though and both were prestine. My favorite was the Sauvignon Blanc- it tasted like green peppers but was surpringsly refreshing. We walked through the vineyards and then had a nice dinner on the property.
Groot Constancia winery
The view from the vineyard was just incredible

Saturday was Collin's birthday and also Valentine's Day and a group of 8 volunteers celebrated by going to a rugby game. The stormers, the local Cape Town team, has a pretty big fan base and stadium. We live pretty close by so we walked to the game, stopping at some bars on the way. I sat next to a local and he tried to explain the game to me but I remained pretty confused. We met some Stellenbosch students at the stadium bar and I think we'll need to go visit those winelands next weekend. We live right near the University of Cape Town, so there were a bunch of young people at the game. Very happening place to be!
Newlands Rugby Stadium- Go Stromers!

Sunday, my friend Allie and I booked a trip down to Cape Point through Baz Bus tours. Baz Bus is a bus company that takes backpackers all around South Africa, on a hop on, hop off basis, but they also have tour trips a specific points along the way. We rode with 15 or so other travellers from all over the world (mostly Europe and the states) with our tour guide, Mario. I really enjoyed the guided tour because I got to learn so much about the history of the cape. From Cape Town, it takes about an hour and a half to reach the most south-western tip of Africa, and we stopped many times along the way. First we stopped at Fish Hook, a little harbour on the western side of the cape, to see some seals. Then, off to the beaches to chat with the "shark spotter" on the edge of the mountain. Apparently, he sees sharks twice a month and every year there are shark attacks on the beaches. I've been lucky to see some great whites up close!
At Boulder's Beach to see the penguins. This time we got to see hundreds of penguins on the bay. I have no idea where all of them were hiding last time I was there.

Next, we had a nice bike ride through a wildlife reserve at the Cape Pensisula National Park. And although the wildlife was lacking, the ride was pretty exhilirating. Actually, it was by far the scariest part of my entire trip to Africa so far. We rode on through extreme wind on this winding road, and I constantly felt like I was going to be blown into the middle of the road and hit a passing car. Luckily, we made it unscathed to a nice picnic lunch in the park.
The bikes we used for the ride through the wildlife reserve
Finally, off to the tip of the cape, where baboons roam freely. We only saw a couple, but there were warnings everywhere that they will approach you, steal your food, and open your car doors.
Then we stopped at the Cape of Good Hope - the most southwesternly point of Africa. There were tons of tourists wanting to take a picture with the sign, and we thought it was hilarious (and mildly irritating) that all the adults were not waiting their turn in line and purposely standing in other peoples pictures. So even though Allie and I got a shot by ourselves, I think this picture sums tourist spot quite nice. Then, we hiked over to Cape Point, a little over a mile away. This didn't seem daunting at first, but it was all uphill and ridiculously windy. However, the views more than made up for it!

The view of Cape of Good Hope from Cape Point
Cape Point is the actual tip of the cape, or where the mountains end. However, this tip is not the most southwesternly point (or the most southern point) so seems a little anti-climatic. But this is where the famous lighthouse resides, you can almost make it out from the picture. We hiked all the way out to the point and it felt really neat to have made it that far south. We finished the day off at a fun restaurant downtown called Rafiki's. Allie and I made some friends with the locals and had a good time learning about their lives in Cape Town. A nice cap to another awesome and beautiful day. There seems to be a lot of those here. As I'm practicing my photography skills, I keep joking that you just can't take a bad picture in South Africa, so at least it's boosting my creative confidence!

Today was an average day back at Blossom. All of the kids who were missing because of the taxi strike were back today, so it great to have a full class again. However, I kinda got in a tiff with my teacher because she was basically yelling at the kids for missing school the past week, and reprimanding them for being lazy and keeping the rest of the class behind in their schoolwork. I just thought this was entirely unfair because (a) their transport to school was on strike (b) they have no other way to get there (c) there was extreme violence in their communities and (d) they are 10 year old kids and if their parents tell them they can't go to school, who is really going to fight that? Apparently, the strike might start up again tomorrow, and she doesn't want the kids to miss another entire week. These families already paid for their monthly transport via mini-bus taxis and can't afford or have no other way to get their kids to school. I don't know what the solution is, but it's definitely not yelling at kids who have no control over it. Tomorrow, is the all-conference track meet so I'm interested to see if all the athletes will be able to make it to school tomorrow. I really hope that they can, they have been working so hard for the meet the past couple of weeks.

As my time here is winding down, I'm trying to squeeze in as much as possible. So today, I took the opportunity to wander around downtown. I've been down to Greenmarket Square and some restaurants and bars, but I still hadn't seen much of the city, and was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful company gardens near the center. The gardens were laid out by Cape Town's founding father, Jan van Riebeeck, on order by the Dutch East India Company to grow fruit and vegetables for the passing trade ships. Although they are no longer used for farming, they remain a nice bit of green trapped in the middle of the busy city (much like Central Park).
Company gardens
I love the view of Table Mountain in the background

I also walked around the heart of the city and was surprised to find 3 and 4 level shopping malls underground. (I'm assuming to keep foot traffic off the streets.) There was your fill of fast food- they love KFC here. Definitely no skyscrapers but still a hustle and bustle of people going to and from the downtown on the train.

Again, wishing you a happy v-day! My apologizes for typos as usual, trying to squeeze in a post before bed.

Jackie