Tsitsikamma getaway

Hey hey, sorry for the delay! Been a while since I posted but I wanted to wait until I had something good to share. Alice and I are FINALLY fully healthy again and back to our normal routine. However, since we were sick over my birthday weekend and we had to reschedule our trip to Cape Town, I was antsy to plan a different weekend trip. So last weekend, Andrew and I had a lovely getaway to Tsitsikamma, a coastal town with a gorgeous national park about 2 hours away from PE. We stayed at a cute backpackers nestled at the foot of the Tsitsikamma Mountains and even had some beautiful weather despite the rapidly approaching winter which made the weekend that much more enjoyable! Friday night we cooked homemade spaghetti and meatballs and spent time chatting with the other guests in the backpackers (fun way to meet cool people travelling) as it poured rain outside. Saturday was sunny and we did two beautiful hikes along the coast and ended the day with a braai and too much homemade bread! Sunday morning we found a trail just near town to go running on, only to be stopped by a group of 25 or so baboons playing in the middle of the trail! We gave them time to scatter and ran past them a bit before my nerves made us turn around as baboons are known to attack people! It was a nice, relaxing weekend away and I can't wait to return with the rest of my family as we drive the Garden Route to Cape Town next month! 

Things at school are SLOW at the moment. We just learned that the whole school begins writing their exams on the 30th of May for the remainder of the term which means we don't have any classes to teach. We will still be coming to school to proctor tests and keep the library open for students who want to study, but we are nervous about how slow our schedules will be over the next 3 weeks. We are brainstorming ideas for projects we can be working on, but would love any suggestions readers might have! We are currently working on a recipe book of the foods we have loved cooking since we got here, but we're going to need something else to fill time over the next 3 weeks! 

We have a mid-year conference in Joburg in a few weekends, which is a bit crazy because that means we are almost halfway done with our time here! My family arrives in PE one month from yesterday!! I can't wait for them to meet my friends/students and get a taste of my life here! 

Hopefully I'll have a good post soon of some odd project Al and I have taken on... suggestions welcomed! 

xx

On the upswing!

After about a week in bed, Alice and I are finally healthy! Last week we came down with what we thought was just the flu, and we tried to fight it on our own for couple days before finally getting medicine which took a couple more days to finally clear it out. Our apartment was a mini hospital, but at least we were sick together (we just like to do everything together!). It resulted in a birthday in bed and bananas and white bread for dinner, but I very much appreciated all the well-wishes nonetheless! Alice and I have planned to go get pedicures on Friday afternoon, go for a drink at a wine bar in this cute neighborhood called Richmond Hill, and get dinner with a group of friends to finally celebrate 23!

It is nice to be back at school and busy this week. We found out that we received a grant from the Embassy to help fund the grade 8 and 9 projects, which has allowed us to purchase all the materials we need! The projects are coming along great and keeping us on our toes! The grade 8s are finishing up lessons and discussions on the food pyramid, recipe writing and the cost and availability of food in their community. Next week they will begin breaking into their small groups to create the cookbook and organize the community health fair. The grade 9s are well on their way to creating their own business, and have really enjoyed the freedom of working in small committees to create their own project. It has been exciting to watch them work so autonomously because their classes so often demand they simply copy, memorize, and recite. We also just trained, tested, and took on 6 new grade 10 library prefects! We are excited to get to know more learners well, as we spend so much time with them each week. It will also be a change of pace for us because their English is not nearly as good as the grade 11 and 12 prefects we have now, so it will be a good reminder for us to slow down our English and one more group to practice our Xhosa with.

Our Xhosa continues to improve and we just finished our first 10 week session with our tutor. We decided to keep taking the classes because the structure of meeting, receiving material, and having homework to do keeps us learning! Otherwise, all is well in PE. We are happy to be healthy again and have a few weekend trips planned ahead. It's going to be a busy 6 weeks to wrap up the term, but then the whole family comes to visit :) No fun pictures to post this time, but I'm headed to Tsitsikamma (a large national park along the coast) with my boyfriend for some hiking/relaxation next weekend so will be sure to get some good shots then!

Sending lots of good, healthy energy back to the US!
xx