Let me just start off by saying that I absolutely love it here! I have been able to meet some amazing people and do some really awesome things during my time in South Africa AND I still have a little over a month left to go! I can't wait to see what else happens! I have been extremely fortunate to have been placed at such a wonderful school with a great staff and an absolutely fantastic mentor teacher! Thank you so much to all of you who have made that possible!
Today was quite an eventful day! At school this morning the Grade 7 classes did their Go Kart races down the hill and everyone was able to go and watch. There was lots of excitement becuase one of the boys in my class actually got hit on accident...but he's finenow, don't worry. The Grade 7's were on 3-man teams with 1 driver and 2 pushers. The pushers would run with the go kart up to a certain point and then let the driver take it down the hill. As the pushers released one of the karts, the driver did not have complete control of the steering rope and veered straight towards my Grade 4 class sitting on the curb. Luckily everyone jumped out of the way except for one, Jacques. It hit him on the side of the leg before crashing into a tree. Thankfully he only suffered some brusing and of course complete shock, but he was most certainly a trooper!
After talking to Mrs. Hobson today, it is now official that I will not be moving down to Grade 2 (Junior Prep) until next Wednesday. I was supposed to be starting down there on Monday but I get to have 3 more days with my Grade 4's! Of course I am excited to go down to the little kids and get to have some girls but I'm really sad to leave my boys and most certainly, Mrs. Hobson. Luckily the schools do most things together so I will still be really involved with Senior Prep!
After school I had the priviledge of going with Susan (a missionary from the States) out to the township to serve soup to some AIDS orphans at the Jabez Health Clinic. Well that's what was supposed to happen but all of the kids weren't there due to school holiday so I just got the tour. I was extrememly humbled by "Mama" the lady who cooks the soup with her strong faith and generous spirit. She has chosen to do this soup kitchen with her own money that she recieved from her retirement fund and gets nothing in return. Once a week she makes soup for 69 children who have lost both of their parents to AIDS. Not only that, she has over 12 people living in her 2 bedroom house at any time and she calls all of them "her children." It was a very eye opening experience that I am very grateful to be a part of. I hope to be able to go back again!
To finish off the day, all of the ladies who work at St. Andrews got together at one of the teacher's houses to celebrate all of the September birthdays! Of course they somehow remembered that I was included in this as well so we all were serenaded on the piano. It was really neat to be able to hang out with the staff outside of the school context; of course we had to talk about the kids a few times. It was a fun evening of drinks, snacks, and chatting!
Highlight of the day: After school was over one of the boys, Brian, came up to me with a Dr.Pepper in his hand! Of course, I immediately freaked out! His mom actually went to high school in the States and we had talked about how much I missed Dr.Pepper so she brought me one. I was so excited! Apparently they sell it in East London, a town about an hour from here, so I will definitely be making a trip up there in the very near future to stock up!
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