Things I love.

So oddly enough, I am about halfway through my time in South Africa. Before I go travel over holiday, I thought I would do a fun little post to round off the last few months. Below are a series of photos of things I love. Many of them are silly. Most of them are poor quality (go camera phones). Some of them were stolen from online. But this series of photos is a better look into my day to day life here than any post I could write. Enjoy!

I LOVE:

Game parks you can drive yourself through and still have elephants walk that close to your car

The energy from 1,600 students singing at morning assembly 

This book! That somehow manages to do an equal job of humoring the stereotypes of each racial/ethnic group in South Africa

The fact that a "wine pour" and a "beer pour" are synonymous in this country... fill it to the rim! 

Our view

My roommate! The girl who I spent almost every breathing second with, yet still can't go 10 minutes apart without finding something to text her about. The girl I cook with, bike with, teach with, vent with, plan with- she keeps me absolutely sane. 

The fact that I have a South African running license! Almost essential to run races in this country, but also makes me feel like a real resident!

The fact that this is the name of the Christian bookstore here...

My American friends here! As wonderful as it is to befriend the locals, it has been wonderful to have a group of fellow Americans close by as well

Banana and bacon pizza. Yep, a normal combo here. They're on to something...

Apology letters from our students Alice assigned after they were disrespectful. Especially when they give you a nickname halfway through the letter... 

This flag! So colorful. And a whole lot better than their last flag (see below). The black, yellow, and green of the flag represent the colors of the ANC (the current ruling party), while the red, white, and blue represent the flag of the United Kingdom (former ruling party).  

The old flag of South Africa... No, this is not a joke. 

Trail runs that end at Bridge Street Brewery

Baby lions I can pet.

The fact that Alice and I take pictures of most of the food we cook. Above: a butternut, goat cheese, caramelized onion, and rocket pizza drizzled with balsamic reduction. 

Our prefects! The group of grade 10, 11, and 12s that work in the library, speak English fluently enough not only to chat with us, but understand our sarcasm and make fun of us (and know us well enough to do so). An incredible group of young adults. 

Stanley street! An awesome block of restaurants, bars, and shops.

Excited waiters on Stanley Street. Go America!

Rugby. (As close as I can get to American football here). And owning my own Sprinboks jersey.

These grade 8 boys: this picture says it all

Did I mention I loved our view? Normal sunset out my bedroom window..

ETA Reunion!

This last weekend, Alice and I traveled to Gauteng for a Fulbright Mid Year Conference at The Cradle of Humankind (an area about an hour outside of Joburg). It is called the Cradle of Humankind because one of the first full skulls ever was discovered here. Unfortunately the conference schedule didn't allow us any time to go see it, but we had a nice weekend regardless. 

"Mrs. Ples"- one of the oldest skulls ever discovered.

It was great to see all the other ETAs, most of whom I have not seen since we arrived in Pretoria. We also got to meet the Fulbright students and scholars who are here on research grants, as well as the South Africans that are preparing to leave for the United States on their Fulbright in August. The weekend was a great opportunity to hear what everyone has been up to in their respective parts of the country. More specifically, it was great to share experiences/frustrations with the other ETAs. There have been times, especially recently with all of our down time during exams, that Alice and I have questioned our purpose here. Are we actually making any sort of impact or difference on these learners? What does it mean to be a white American, coming in to "make a difference" and what repercussions does that have on Walmer? Are we spending our time meaningfully and thoughtfully? etc. etc. It was great to hear that other Fulbrighters were asking many of the same questions (and many even more so than Alice and I). After watching everyone's presentations, we definitely seem to have one of the more full schedules out of the group, which is nice to remember when we think we have a lot of down time.

A handful of Fulbrighters at happy hour- from left to right: Alice, myself, Nick, Andrew (ETAs in Bloemfontein), Allie (ETA in Stellenbosch), and Ryan (student researched from Denver!)

Speaking of downtime, we have had quite a bit of it. We are invigilating exams, as they call it here, which go from 9-11am ish. We spend a bit of time in the library afterwards, usually with the same group of Grade 8 boys that come in every day, and then head back home. With the rest of our time we workout (exam time is going to make us SUPER fit), practice Xhosa (which is getting pretty good btw- can't wait to show the fam next week!), put a little too much planning into our dinners, and power through books. It is nice to remind myself that while the downtime doesn't feel nearly as productive as our busy schedules did earlier in the term, the shift in schedule has allowed me to enjoy some new things. The invigilating has demanded our presence in the teachers lounge more than usual which has allowed us to get to know the staff much better (something we can't usually do because the library is normally the busiest during the long and short breaks when the teachers are in the lounge). It has also allowed us to get to know some of our students a lot better because we can spend more time with them in an informal context- more specifically this little group of Grade 8 boys that are so sharp and witty and always keen to help us with our Xhosa. (I think I'll do one of my next blog posts in all Xhosa, with a translation of course).

We don't have too much planned this weekend- the Euro soccer tournament is going on so Andrew and most of our Grassroots Soccer friends are excited to watch that most of the weekend. Saturday is National Youth Day here so Alice and I will got an event in the location that some of our students are participating in that morning. And Sunday will start bright and early with a trail run- Alice, Andrew, and perhaps a few of our other friends are running a 5k and I'll be a few hours behind them after 18ks! I am registered for a half marathon the weekend after my family leaves (great planning right?) so I'm excited to get a long run in on a beautiful trail through a valley that ends at a great cafe/brewery... we'll see which I feel more up for after the run, coffee or beer!

Bridge Street Brewery- one of the only places in town that sells craft beers! Also has great food and is tucked right into Baakens Valley, has become one of our favorites! 

My family arrives one week from today!! Couldn't be more excited to show off this awesome country and spend some good time with them. Our travels start in PE before spending time on the Garden Route driving from PE to Cape Town, a few nights in Cape Town, a night in Jozi, and a couple nights on safari in Kruger. Should have some great stories and photos for the next blog post! Cheers, x

Protests, proctoring, and planning

Good morning from Walmer!

We are now in full exam mode at the high school and the atmosphere has become very quiet and studious. We are only 2 days in, but it appears that our schedule will entail proctoring exams from 8-10:30am, and then working in the library so that students have a place to study after they finish writing. It gives us a lot of downtime, but we have a few smaller side projects to work on including initiating conversation with local businesses that may be able to help the school refurbish some classrooms, and planning the community health fair we have scheduled for the third term. It's a bit slow work-wise, but we are finding little activities to keep us busy! We have upped our Xhosa lessons to twice a week, so studying has definitely been more of a priority, and we are finding road/trail runs, yoga classes, etc to entertain us as well!

Last week was a bit hectic and slow at the same time. Tuesday of last week, the township started large protests regarding housing, electricity, running water, and faster deliveries (things the municipality had promised them months ago) right in front of school. The commissioners office is conveniently across the street from school, hence the location. The protest was quickly growing in size and involved the burning of tires/black smoke, so school was cancelled that day. On Wednesday and Thursday the protests only escalated, forcing school to remain closed. It was spectated there were as many as 5,000 protesters on the edge of the township blocking off 3 major roads. A few buildings caught fire and police responded to the masses with rubber bullets and tear gas. By the end of the day Thursday, the municipality had made some temporary truce with the protesters, promising to deliver a more detailed plan of how they will address their needs by the end of the month. Streets were quiet Friday, but we still had no school so that the staff could asses damages and write a new exam timetable for the learners to make up for missed days. It will be interesting to see if the municipality does deliver on their promise (they were using a classroom at school to meet and discuss plans yesterday), because township residents have made it clear that they will not keep quiet if the municipality does not deliver.

Alice and I live approximately 8ks away from school, so were in no threat of danger at any point, but it was concerning to know that so many of our students would be caught up in the mess due to where they live. The most shocking thing to me, is because of the location of the school (just on the edge of the richest part of town)- protests, fire, and tear gas were consuming 3 blocks of the main road that divides the township and the suburbs, where literally 2 blocks across that road into the rich suburbs, you could be eating lunch at a cafe and have NO idea that there was turmoil around the block. Life was just continuing as usual. It is not only the gap between the rich and poor that is so hard to digest, but how "normal" it is here for these 2 two extremes of living conditions to sit right next to each other and for these people to coexist daily.We are happy the protests have settled down for now, but it was certainly a wake up call to us/the government/South Africans how terribly unequal living conditions here are for most people.

So after a slow week of not working all of the last week, I was excited to have a few things planned for the weekend. Friday night, Alice and I went with my boyfriend Andrew and his friends to watch his soccer team play and then we all went out to dinner on Stanley Street- a great part of town with restaurants/bars/shops. Andrew didn't play in the match because Saturday, him and I ran a gorgeous 11k trail run through Baakens Valley. It was my first time racing a trail run and I loved it! The scenery and change of terrain kept me distracted as I ran and the time passed quickly! The run ended at a great (and the only) brewery in town where we had a good beer, dinner, and watched rugby. Sunday was the Comrades marathon, an 89k race through KZN, and we spent most of the day watching that on TV. We ended the weekend with a braai (similar to bbq) with Andrews family. Relaxing, enjoyable weekend.

On Thursday, Alice and I are off to Joburg for the mid-year conference. We can't wait to get together with other ETAs and hear how everyone is doing! The conference is taking place in the Cradle of Mankind (a site near Joburg where some of the first ever human skeletons were discovered) so we are hoping to get to do a touristy thing or two as well. When we return home from that trip it will be less than 2 weeks until my family arrives! I have been busy planning little things to do with them/show them as well! Will try to get one more post up before they arrive and then I am sure I will have lots more to share once they leave!

Lots of love,
xx