Forever remembered, unthando olungapheliyo, Forever inspired.

I cannot believe it is my last full day in South Africa. It seems like only yesterday I was crying in the Airport to my dad because I was so nervous to leave. Now here I sit 6 weeks in, and I am flying home tomorrow. I have truly learned so much from this adventure of mine. I have met so many wonderful students and have met some amazing friends. Now I have to go back to real life and I am really not ready. These children have just touched my soul so much that I am so sad to leave.

When I had to say my good byes on Friday I was so torn. When I had 5 minutes of the day left I just started to cry. The class I was with some hugged me good bye and Sofia and Roddy tried to make me stop crying but it was too late, I am not ready to leave these kids and my emotions got the best of me. One of the students went up to Claire and asked why I was crying. They do not know how much joy they have brought my heart just by being with them.

One of my grade 6 boy’s and I were talking on Friday, we talked about how exams are going and why I am going home. Then I asked him about is he excited for grade 7. He looked at me and said “ Teacher next year I am going to study so much, so I will not fail. I will not be a failure I want to make it to high school.” When I heard that I almost broke down. I was so very proud of him at that moment because you could see how much making it to high school meant to him.

Then the little girl I have been with every break and been with after school, my dear friend Bopananpng when I had to say good bye to her it was so hard. It will be hard for me to not have her lovely face to brighten up my days anymore.

It is still not sinking in that tomorrow I will be on a plane home, I am really not ready to leave. I thought I was but I am not. In these past 6 weeks I feel like I have grown so much and that I learned so much about life and what is taken for granted and what I can do to make a difference in someone’s life.

I will never forget my time here, and I will keep what I have learned to inspire me to make a positive difference in my life.

Forever remembered, unthando olungapheliyo, Forever inspired.

Forever remembered, forever loved

Another day in South Africa and sadly I am sick and at home. But for myself only to be sick for 3 days in one in a half months I think I am doing pretty well. We got a full house now, we have 3 new roommates. Claire, Natasha & Josh, they are all very nice and its going to be good to have the numbers for when we do athletics. We did start athletics yesterday, and a few of the kids actually knew about relay which was the station Josh and I were at. The children really seemed to like the relay, and a few of the children actually had the proper techniques down. It just shows that some people are just made to participate in certain sports.

Most of the children yesterday were so well behaved, but with having a high jump mat outside kind of was an open invitation for children to jump on it and not listen. Later in the afternoon we had the grade ones’ who speak very very little English not wanting to leave the high jump mat. So then other children not in our lessons joined in too. It was kind of crazy but when I think back when I was that young if I saw a mat I would go running for it.

My favorite part of yesterday was when I went out and hung out with the children at break. There was this one little girl who was following me around. When it started raining she started to use me as a shield to stay away from the rain. I went down to her level and her face was just covered in the Sugar bags dye ( Similar to pixie sticks) she gave me a hug and tried to talk to me in English the best she could. All the sudden she went to grab my hand and that when I realized she was missing 6 fingers. This other little girl came up and we started to dance, they were singing in Xhosa. Then they were teaching me some games and songs. The girls just totally just lifted my heart, everything I was dwelling on earlier and all the stress I carried was gone from these two little girls.

Im sad to think I only have 7 days left with them, I really do not know what I am going to do when I get home. Where the world is just ruled by technology and children are starting to forget how to play. Everyone here think these children are so disadvantaged and feel sorry for them. Yes in ways they have a disadvantage life, but these are some of the happiest children I have ever seen. They all want to learn, not just sports but math, English, and so much more. The children always ask about the afternoon workshops that the gvi teachers host. The workshops are just another fun class, the children learn so much and they want to learn, they are not being pushed by anyone to go. They are pushing themselves to gain more knowledge. School is not taken for granted here, school and getting an education is a privilege.

Being here has brought up so many questions in my life. So many thoughts run threw my head all day and all night. All I can think of is that I am so grateful for my life, even when times are hard and I am sick at the end of the day I have a family that loves me endlessly, I have an education, I have my health even though it might be a rough one I still have the option of living a normal life because the country I live in. I have freedom, I have the opportunities to work, I have the right to vote. There are so many things I do have, and it is really not the material things that matter.

There are so many things that I take for granted and I have not realized it fully till now, the sad part is I still probably will not see how many things I take for granted. But coming to work with these children, and learn about their culture and themselves has had a life changing effect on me. I will miss them so much when I leave, but there will be not forgetting them & this experience.

Forever remembered, forever loved

The children of ACJ Primary School

Good Times in South Africa

Halloween Social Night. The zombie hosts. Sofia, Myself, & Julia

From the Safari

The African skys that I have fallen in love with. So breath taking

My Gvi family. I love these ladies so much, had so many amazing times with them. Cindy, Myself, Amy, Pat, & Cheryl

My Students From ACJ

These children are some of the most sweetest children I have ever met. They have had such a large effect on me in the 4 weeks I have been here. They make me so proud every time I see them completing a new challenge we set everyday in class. They way they all want to do their best for the 30 minutes they have a week just touches my heart. They always have a smile on their face and a song in their heart. I care for them all so much and it will be so hard to leave here in 2 weeks. I am not ready to leave them, dont think I could ever be ready to leave them.

Macrocheira kaempferi = Giant Spider Crab

A night out in Cape Town

Another great weekend in South Africa. We went shopping all day Saturday on long street and I got the best shoes in the world!  Then we went back to dinner at Mama Africa’s. Dovie was our waiter that we met last time he is the owner son and he was our waiter again last night which is awesome. I shared the game platter with Anna & Rebeka so we ate Springbok, Kadu, osterage & CROCERDILE! Rebeka and I decided crocodile taste like fish and chicken mixed. After Mama Africa’s we went clubbing. We went to the Dublin, Space ( which was awesome) the the best was 31.  Dovie ended up meeting up with us at space, the he said he could get us vip at 31. 31 was a club on the 31^st floor of a sky scraper. It was so amazing. The view was priceless. We were there for a long time and we drank a lot, probably to much. But Julia came up to me and we decided to go home but get some Mc Donalds first. It took forever to get Mc D. I had no clue what time it was. When we got in I looked at the time and it was 4:30 am! We later found out most clubs are open to 5-6 am here.

This morning we all were pretty rough. But I was pretty good because I ate and drank a lot of water last night. Anna & I decided to go see a movie. We saw The First Grader and it was amazing! The two South African movies I have watched are so amazing ( The bang Bang Club) then we went to the aquarium and had so much fun there! Found out you can swim with sharks there!!! I may have to look into that. The I was happy to come home today.

Funny Stories of the week:

Thursday was karaoke night and Rebeka did not look like she was having fun so I went up to her and asked why she looked so bummed out and she said she did not like karaoke. So I said all she needs is a shot so I went and got her and myself a shot. I got tequila she got Jager. We cheers and take the shot then she chased it with her wine and she made a funny face so I said “ Rebeka here this will help the tatse go away” and I hand her my drink. She took a drink and said “ That’s even worse!” Right away I started laughing to the point I wanted to cry because I looked at her and told her what it was . “ Rebeka that’s water!”

Also Thursday night was Julia’s birthday so we went out to dinner before hand. But I went up to her during Karaoke and said “ Julia I owe you a birthday drink so let me know when you want one”, “ Im fine right now thank you, but I will let you know” said Julia. About ten minutes later Julia comes up to me and she asked “ Can you get me a drink?”, I said “sure what do you want?”, She said “ A glass of water”. It was the cheapest birthday drink I have ever got.

There was also on Saturday night Rebeka , Anna ( They are from Sweden) and I were talking about my circuit training and how I was so tired. Then we started talking about scars and bruises. Then Rebeka looks at her knees and points. “ What are these?” she said. She forgot how to say knees.

This week at ACJ we are doing Netball, but one more day of circuit training.

Love & Rocket Ships

Cowergary

Another amazing week at ACJ, I must say Harrit and I kicked some major butt this week just having us two for teaching. It was circuit training this week, so yes that means right now I can barley move without pain. It was basically like boot camp for me. 4-5 classes a day of the plank, pushups, squats, crunches, crunch twist and squat jumps. Then of couse I opened my big mouth and told the kids in 3 weeks time they can challenge us to a competition in any of the activities they learned. Not thinking that it will not just be one class to challenge us but 4-5 everyday for 5 days. Yea I was really not thinking when I said that. They kids were great some of them really pushed themselves to do the exercise properly and do as many as they can. Then today every class just did not want to do them. But one day out of 5 not to bad. The grade 7’s were my favorite this week because they got so into it and they all behaved so well.

On Thursday I had to teach a grade 7 class by myself because Harrit had to do something. When I walked into the class and saw that it was the class that really missed behaved last time I had them I thought I was going to freak. When I was trying to get their attention there was a few boys throwing text books at each other and fighting. I was trying to get them to stop and as I got them to be quiet the teacher who has been helping us out all week and stepped in to help me. To my surprise it was the best well behaved class of the day. Also it was the most fun. I was proud to have all their attention and all of them were actually doing the exercises and doing them so well.

In the 3 weeks I have been here every week more teachers are starting to come with their classes and it makes such a difference because GVI does not plan to be at the school forever. We are there to help out and hopefully they will go back to teaching sports class at some point. So its good they see the lay outs we do what activities the kids like doing and can relate it to what they want to do.

One of my favorite days this week was we had a rainy day class again. So we played who wants to be a millionaire. The game has been going so well with the kids. But this time I ran it so I got to add a few things. I told the class where I was from and Harrit pointed it out on the globe. They were so interested in how long it took me to get here. My favorite quote was when Harrit was like “ This is where teacher Rhiannon lives & this is where we are. ( as she points to the globe) Do you see how close she lives to the North Pole, that’s why its so cold where she lives and why its so hot in South Africa.” I just started laughing because of course the kids believed it.  Then we moved onto the bonus 2 million rand question which was “ where was the last winter Olympics held” it was multiple choice so I said the options were a) London b) Vancouver c) Calgary. Then Harrit asked me clagary 3 times and I said yes it spelled how it sounds. Then I turned to see her write Calgary as “cowergary”. I laughed so hard and the children started laughing at me because I just could not stop laughing.

I am off to Cape Town this weekend. I will write more about my week another time,

Love & Rocket Ships

Week 2.25

Its been an interesting past few days to say the least. I will update you on school then my great weekend.

The past few days at work have been playing soccer and its been so amazing, the kids tried so hard and it was so much fun to reff and coach because you could see how much fun they were having. A lot of the boys would steal the ball away from the girls or not include them at all. There were a few girls who kept up with the boys, but the boys learned really quick that Teacher Rhi –hanna involves everyone. Many of the kids remember my name now, but my name to them is not Rhiannon, it is “ Rhi-hanna” , I tried to correct them at first but then I was so excited that they remembered my name out of everyone’s I just stopped caring.

I had another culture shock on Monday, to the point where I just stood there and thought I was going to cry. We had two games going and there was a group of older boys who ran in between both games and then started to wresting in the middle and before we could break them off the teacher for the class went running up and within two seconds his belt was off he wiped it around and tried to strike the kids twice. I was so thankful that those boys could run. Then I realized why so many of the kids flinch if we go to try and move them to the right place or we yell a little bit louder than usual. The whole situation just chilled me to the bones.

I really find here in South Africa there are a few different cultures. Now this may sound raciest but if you travel here since the parti the South Africans still call people by the colour of their skin. So there are the Blacks who most live in the townships, there are the African blacks, coloured people & the whites. So to say I know all about the cultures down here its just a lie. The teachers do care so much for these kids and you can see it in the way they teach and talk to them. Its just not the same as home. That is the reminder I keep telling myself. That does not mean its right, I know but… well there is not but I just don’t know what eles to do about the situation.

Now onto week three we are doing circuit training. It is only Harrit & I this week, and it is going to be a challenge. Some classes are like 45 kids and it was hard enough with three teachers and playing soccer. Today we started circuit training, and it seems like whatever we lesson plan for, never really happens properly. Today we had grade 4 & 5’s and there was one class that totally behaved. That was because the teacher was fully into it though, like he always is. He is a teacher who you can tell he is physical fit, well actually he is ripped so the work outs we were doing are probably are daily activities for him. He was helping the kids learning the proper techniques  & helping us out. There was actually a boy who was not listening and he pulled him aside and his penatally was pushups.

At the end of the day though I was so tired and I almost lost my voice again. So it will be interesting to see how this week goes.

My Weekend:

On Friday it was Amy & Pat’s last day, which made me really bummed because I got so close to them in the two weeks with living with them. But we planned a fun send off. So Amy, Pay, Cindy, Cherly & I went for a sun set cruse on a beautiful boat. ( Earlier in the week we tried to go but the weather was bad. But we ending up meeting the captain of the boat, he was wasted out of his mind at the bar, and then we found out that he was not the driver his son was. But the drukin’ captain decided he wanted to join the 5 of us for our dinner and just talk about himself the whole time. It was weird at the time but a good story now.) We took off at 6pm and it was the perfect time. We ordered a bottle of champignon and the African sky’s are just so breathe taking its hard to describe how amazing it was. After the cruse there was a good bye dinner , where they play a very nice photo slide show and it was very touching. When dinner was done and we got back to the dorms I knew it was the point of the night I was dreading. It was time to say goodbye ( because Amy & Pat were leaving at 3:30 am to the airport) it was sad but it was a good send off.

On Saturday It was the safari which was amazing! It was only on a game reserve but were Gordon’s bay is you would not see many of these animals you would want to see while being in Africa. We saw almost all the big 5, so we saw Water Buffalo (which is the most dangerous for kills of humans out of the big 5), elephant, rhino, lion. We also saw zebra’s, spring bok, a bunch of antelope, turtles, and a few more animals. The best part of the whole trip was we got to see the two elephants have a mud bath, the tour guide talked about how rare of a sighting we saw because it was not a really hot day. I caught the whole thing on video and it was just amazing. After watching them play around in the mud for about ten minutes we then moved on but at one point our tour guide stopped the truck and we all turned to where the elephants were playing in the  mud and one got up and started walking towards the other safari truck who was also watching the elephants. Then we realized it was not walking but charging at the truck. Luckily the other tour guy just got to start the truck in time to drive it a few feet further. Our driver said it was lucky no one was hurt or killed by that charge. Then we got to back to the safari. I was so excited to see the lions, we got to see the alfa male lion, then we went to were the new cubs were held so they were not killed by the other lions but their sent was in where they live. They cubs were so cute. Next was the rhino, the tour guide did warn us about the male rhino and how he is a bit of a brat. We learned out quick when we turned off the engine it was like he knew, all the sudden he charged the front of the truck, Denis ( our tour guide) must have known because all the sudden we were in reverse and going so fast, then the rhino backed off. I felt like I had a little heart attack, it was a rush for sure.

After the tour we saw that the elephants were open to go see in a holding pen, and of course the stupid tourist I am I went over. We were able to get pictures with them which was so cool until one went and smacked cherly so hard! Then it just kept hitting her with his trunk. He calmed down enough to get a few pictures then Harrit went to go get a picture, she put her bag down and before we could say anything the elephant picked up her bag and put it in his mouth. He continued to try and eat it for a good minute, at the same time one of the tour guides was hitting his trunk to make it give it back. Finally at one point he brought it out enough that he pulled it out. Harrit got her very broken bag back, luckily the only thing that was ruined was a water bottle.

All in all it was an amazing day. Later on in the night when we got back home a few of us watched a movie. We watched Dirty Dancing, it was the first time I have seen it and it was an amazing movie. Made me think about all the great 70 & 80’s movies.

Sunday we went wine tasting, and I can officially say, I really don’t like wine. But it was a great time. We went and got lunch and it was so great, like the best food I have had in so long.

That is all for now,

Love & Rocket ships

Penguins @ Boulders

The penguins has been probably one of my favorite activities yet. It was a windt day when I went to see them but they were all so cute. This guy kept posing for me, he was my favorite.

ACJ

So its my first day sick in South Africa, but at least I am feeling better after watching Lord of the Rings all day and resting and getting caught up on a few things. I am also missing my first camera day with the kids which is upsetting me a bit. I also feel bad for not being there to teach the kids.

Yesterday we ran Soccer games all day and it was amazing! I lost my voice but the kids actually listened better to me, I thought I might just fake not having a voice every day. The kids were just so enthusiastic yesterday they were all so excited over the games. The games I was reffing went so smoothly and I got a few of the teachers involved.  Until the sky’s opened up and it started to pour! We had to do one of our classes inside, so we played a sports/healthy living who wants to be a millionaire. It was a blast the kids did so well and the teacher was very interactive. The kids got all the questions right then all the sudden they all starting chanting 100% and there was a bunch of girls who danced and there was people banging the desk like drums. The funniest past is the teacher was the one who encouraged it! Shows how much dance and music run through all these kids.

It stopped raining and we went outside to host the after school sports, it was soccer so Ebonie and I went outside. There was no children, a school which is never quiet was deserted. The teachers let the kids leave early again. There was a few boys who were still there and we started playing pass. They were laughing at my non soccer skills. We got enough kids to play 5 vs 4, but then the boys asked me to play. So we played for a bit and a few other boys showed up so the game turned out to be amazing. There is no need to reff because the boys lived soccer you could just see it in the way they played. They ran everything by themselves basically, I just had to make sure they did not switch teams.

These children have such a grasp on me already, makes me not want to leave in a month. I wish I could stay longer and hopefully I will be able to come back some day. I know though I need to go back and finish my studies and come back when I have a good start on my future again. But being with these children make me think about my old dream of becoming a physical education teacher. Im doing a lot of soul searching out here and Its turning out pretty successful so far.

I will write more of my weekends and after school social life one I catch up in my journal. Only can do one passage at a time.

Love & Rocket Ships