last days in South Africa :o(

Only 4 days left and I'll be coming home...
It will be difficult to leave because I've become so used to the life here. I've become friends with many people here and the thought of not seeing them again makes me incredibly sad...

***
We had a great weekend! On Saturday we went hiking with the kids! There were about 20 people - most of them were kids from the school but also some teachers. Originally we had planned to go hiking in a nature reserve near Stellenbosch, but as we found out that they are charging an entrance fee, we had to change our plans. So, George, our project partner, proposed that we climb the Table Mountain. We were supposed to start climbing at 8 am, but because George had to pick up everyone from Khayelitsha, they arrived about 1,5 hours later. By that time the weather had become very hot already! There were no clouds in the sky and the sun was almost no shelter from the sun during the whole climb! It was incredibly hot. Climbing the mountain this time was so much more difficult compared to the first time during our first week here! Some kids were really fast, they basically ran up and were singing the whole time! It took us 1,5 hours to reach the top. There, we had to wait quite a while for some people. Coming down was easier, but quite hard for the knees. Afterwards, we drove to Muizenberg to have a braai.
It was a great day and we all enjoyed it! I'm really glad that we spent our last weekend with the people from Khayelitsha!

almost had a car accident this morning...

We were driving to school as usual. We had already reached Khayelitsha and were standing at the traffic lights, waiting for the green light. As the light went green, I started to cross the intersection, but then suddenly, a car came from the left (driving on the right side of the road!!) . Luckily I managed to break in time!! But we were really close to crashing with that car! Apparently, the red light doesn't mean anything to some people! The drivers here are crazy!

***
Yesterday we had members of the advanced web page group teach the beginners! The guys did really well, I was impressed! They were explaining in Xhosa, so we didn't understand everything, but what we saw from the board and from the computer screen was all correct! Today, a guy from the advanced webpage group, Khanyiso, has volunteered to teach the advanced group! This will be interesting!

about this blog & why I haven't been too creative lately

Lately I've been receiving information that my blog is being read by more people than just family/friends. On the one hand this is good news, but from the other hand, I'm a bit concerned about the style of my blog. Since it was originally planned as a sort of journal recording my stay here (including all activites, both personal and project-related), I didn't bother much about the style and content, therefore, it's not too 'official'. It was intended as a convenient alternative to writing emails to each friend and family member separately.
As of now, I only have 2 more weeks here, so I think it's a bit too late to change anything. Instead, I have the plan of creating a website about my experiences here in South Africa after I've returned. The website will contain photos, stories, video clips etc..

Now the other thing - maybe some of you have been wondering why I haven't been updating the blog as often as I did in the beginning of my stay. First of all, lately there hasn't been much time to do that, since all nearly of my time at school is devoted to activities directly related to the project.
Second, when I look at the entries I made in the blog at the very beginning, many of them are more in the style of a daily journal, like "today i woke up at 8, ate breakfast, went to bed at 10 etc.." - and this is not really how I intended the blog to be.
Another thing is that in the beginning I was extremely amazed at the things happening here and of the life of the local people in general. I guess it was something like a cultural shock, which is natural when you get in close contact with a culture different from your own. By now, I'm used to the life here and the things which surprised me in the beginning, are natural in my eyes now and therefore I fail to see them as something phenomenal and thus I'm not mentioning them in the blog.

yesterday..

was definitely one of my best days I've had here in South Africa..
One of the students, Mandisi, had his birthday yesterday. We gave him a cake which he shared with all of us! After eating the cake, we played music and danced in the server room! Afterwards, we (Mandisi, Thandile, Sizwe, Khanyiso, Tobi and I) went to Monwabisi beach (the beach in Khayelitsha). We had lots of fun!
But the best part of it was when the guys started singing in the car!
More pictures here.

only 3 weeks left :((((

As of tomorrow, we only have 3 weeks left here. I don't even want to think about it... it's too sad....
One thing is for sure - the time I've spent here has been one of the best times in my life.

weekend in Khayelitsha

We spent the whole weekend in Khayelitsha, which was quite enjoyable actually.
On Saturday we were helping the school with entering the data of learners. Luckily, we finished this by the afternoon. Afterwards, we went to a teacher's place to watch soccer on TV. We ate African salad there! It was our first time to try it! Actually, it's not really a salad... It's a porridge made of corn, it's not smooth but has chunks in it. It's eaten with sour milk. When I first saw it, I wasn't sure if I want to eat it, because it doesn't look too delicious... But it tastes really good!

On Sunday we were in Khayelitsha again. This time, 9 o'clock in the morning. There was a choir competition, which was supposed to start at 9. Instead, it started 3 hours later! (We should have known it by now....). Twelve choirs from the Western Cape were supposed to compete. But only about half of them showed up (by 9 o'clock only one choir had arrived!). Some of the choirs were really good, while others seemed to be singing some songs for the first time..
A major problem for many choirs and soloists was singing with the piano. Apparently, most of them did it for the first time!

New photos

Because I've been very busy lately, I didn't manage to upload pictures until now. Finally, here are the pictures!

Today is Saturday and we are at school to help enter the data of learners. The secretary of the school had been doing it for 2 weeks before the holidays and she had nearly finished... but when we came from holidays, we discovered that most of the data was gone! Because the deadline is today and the school cannot get extra time, we have to do it.

Yesterday evening we went to Monwabisi beach in Khayelitsha with some of the kids. They went swimming. The water wasn't too cold actually.
We took some great pictures!

back again!

It was school holiday last week and so we also took some days off. Now we are back at school - it's really busy the first days, but I'll update the blog as soon as possible. Also, I've taken lots of pictures meanwhile and now have the trouble choosing which ones to upload ;o)

Generally, I enjoyed the holidays. We (me and 2 German couples!) left Cape Town last Saturday and drove to Hermanus (the whale watching town). Unfortunately, the town was packed with tourists since there was a whale festival at that time. From Hermanus, we drove to Mossel Bay (we were driving east along the coast, this area is called 'Garden Route' for its greenery and nice landscape). We also drove to the southernmost point of the African continent - Cape Agulhas.
On Monday we spent a few hours in the Wilderness national park, which was on our way. I went hiking there, the nature was great! On Monday night we reached Plettenberg Bay, where we stayed for 3 days. By that time, the weather had become really nice and warm. We hired surfboards (surpirsingly, they were not too expensive) and tried surfing. The Indian ocean was still cold, but we had wetsuits. I have to say that surfing is much more difficult than it seems! I could ALMOST stand on the board in the end! (By the way, today I heard that there had been 2 shark attacks there last week!).

On our 3rd day in Plettenberg Bay I decided to drive around a bit. I drove about 170 km east to Tsitsikamma National Park (this was in the Eastern Cape already!). I decided to do some hiking in the park. The first trail I took, was only 1 km long and not too impressive. Also, it was crowded with tourists. After that, I took a 3,7 km trail through the forest - I didn't meet any people there!

We started to drive back to Cape Town on Thursday morning. We had to drive about 600 km. We decided to take another way back, not along the coast, but further north, through a dry desert area called the Karoo. I was impressed by the landscape - wide open space, a mountain range; just a few houses, lots of ostriches... it made me feel small and insignificant..
On our way to N1, the highway, we had to cross a mountain range. Unfortunately the road was unpaved (poor Beetle!). But in the end we managed to get over the mountains without any major damage to our car (just two things, the handbrake and the dashboard light broke during the holidays!).

During the last days of the holidays I already missed Cape Town and Khayelitsha. I really wanted to work again.