Sorry about the lack of blogs once again guys, in all honesty its just a combination of the internet being slow in our house and the fact that Im too lazy to wait for pages to load. I've typed up multiple blogs on my iphone, but I haven't put any on the internet. Ill spend the next half hour doing so....here's the first one, the wrap up of September.
So I initially signed up for PE, but when I arrived at the school we were volunteering at, I immediately recognized that my skills would be put more to use in a classroom. So I moved from the court to a grade 3 class (I later realized that this class was a class of all the worst kids in at that age in the school. Every teacher at the end of the year takes their worst couple of kids in their class, and boots them out. All of these "delinquents" get put into the same class, so we are left with a class of all the worst behaved kids in the grade. That was my class) and helped teaching. After 2 days though I was moved from that class to a grade 4 class. I was sad at first to leave, but after a month I have become so close with Miss Xhabsy's class (the teacher) that I could never have imagined not being moved. Not only do I always get to play with them and get to hear them laugh (which makes me tick, I love it so much), I get to grade their papers and enter marks, so after a couple weeks I could see who the bottom and top students were in terms of grades, and all the ones in between. I know my class so well that I know all 43 kids names (not as easy as it seems when the names arent derek, alex, and tim...they are vuyolwethu, athenkosi, xolile, qhamani, emihle, amahle, lihle, lisakhanya, sibabalo, nomnikelo...you get the point). And its not just my class that I love. The whole school is awesome. I can't walk 2 feet around the school grounds without hearing some little shout "Josh-ew-ah!" and wave me over, only to have him/her punch me and run away so I chase them down and tickle them to death. Every day I play with the kids so much that when I return home at 4 o clock, my shirts and shorts are stretched out, torn, and brown with dirt.
On 4 different days, all of Masi's water connection was just shut off. So, of course, Ukhanyo lost water, so on these days school was let out by 11 o clock. Its insane!! In a geographical area the size of down town Mercer Island, 45,000 people are crammed into back-to-back tin shacks, and they don't even have the gaunruntee of water. Amazing how different some parts of the world can be. And I don't mean half way across the world either...just down the street from Masi are 3 story houses with Nissan 350z's hanging out in the drive way and sprinklers spraying their freshly pruned gardens...its disgusting how people just let Masi go on existing the way it is without even considering helping the Xhosa people at all.
Every Monday and Thursday, the mulungus (white volunteers) play the pe teachers in a 5 aside match. I started out a little rusty, but as the games went on, my play has been improving and improving. The last couple games I've been scoring goals like crazy! Pastor, a 20 something security gaurd for the school, has been watching me play, and as he is an excellent player as well, he wants to bring me with him when he goes to a trial for ajax cape town...we'll see how that works out!!
If you've seen the picture of me standing with a friendly faced lady with my Beastside sweatshirt on, thats moms. She calls me her son, and promises that she wont let anything happen to me. She works in the administration with the other ladies, and is oh so sweet, as are the other ladies (Zakes, Bongz, Linda, and Belinda). I went out to Zakes house one day with Moms and Bongz and a couple Masi guys (who happened to be police officers) and we had a braii and danced to music and joked around...it was great. They taught me the song Loliwe by Zahara (look it up on youtube) which is just beautiful, whenever I listen to it when I'm back home, it will bring back vivid memories of Masi. I sing Loliwe when I walk around Ukhnayo and Masi, and everyone, from students to adults, laugh and laugh because they love hearing me sing it so much. I should record a video of me singing it in front of some people because it really makes any situation brighter and more fun.
My first month in Cape Town makes me never want to leave!!! I've learned so much its crazy...I'll post my next blogs later on today. Thanks for reading!! Once again, ask me whatever questions you want, I love questions!
Cheers
Joshua
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