Blogs from Mpumalanga , South Africa, Africa - page 27

Hello! It’s morning; I’m typing with fingerless gloves and wearing long underwear under pajamas with wool slipper socks and a fleece jacket. It’s our winter, and gets quite cold once the sun goes down at 5:30 until it comes up at 6:30. It’s the end of term 2 and I look forward to a 3 week holiday (when I will attend district curriculum training and teach extra class sessions for Gr 12) . And most importantly, it will soon be a year since I arrived in South Africa. I attended a short training for those of us who plan to host SA28’s, due to arrive in two weeks. Peace Corps Trainees will shadow an experienced PCV (that’s me!)for one weekend of their 10 week training. They will meet my host family, walk around my ... read more

This blog has taken a bit longer than we had expected as we have been without Internet access for a week while we have been in Kruger National Park area so there is a bit to catch up on. Buckle in for a long read or skip to the pictures. Spent Sunday just lazing around the Garden Court Hotel in Johannesburg catching up an bit of sleep which we had lost to jet lag and talking to an Aussie couple who we met at the hotel. Monday morning we were picked up by a safari company to drive us to Kruger National Park and headed north across the high veldt. It took about 6 hours to get to our lodge which was on the edge of the park. As soon as we arrived we headed out ... read more

Every once in a while I am reminded that I am indeed in a different part of the world. When I am tired and stressing about work, I may not see everything with a good sense of appreciation and humor. At these times I get frustrated.....for example, I couldn’t take pictures of the school (my excuse for no school blogs yet) because I have no batteries. I bought AA’s at KwaMhlanga, but the camera said the batteries were exhausted. One of my learners told me that I had to buy Duracell to work in a camera. The next time I was in the grocery store, I could only find this generic kind (I guess they are only good for clocks and such things). While there, I ran into Laze (Lazarus) Ramolefo, a teacher at Sele who ... read more

Geo: -25.4797, 30.9699This morning we had a slow start to the day. We started the day with enjoying a huge breakfast on the deck. Today was planned to be more relaxed than yesterday. On the way to the National Botanical Gardens we stopped at a large Cape Union Mart store. Here we bought few things that we would need for our upcoming camping trip to Mana Pools National Park. We arrived at the gardens at about 1pm. The next three hours were spent slowly walking around and enjoying various themed gardens. I really enjoy visiting parks and gardens, a very peaceful time. Among the plants there was a sculpture exhibition of large, metal bugs. At the Nels River viewpoint we could see where the Nels River meets with the Crocodile River. There were also many Strangler ... read more

Geo: -25.4797, 30.9699Finally just after midday we left Johannesburg. To celebrate John's birthday (Paul's dad) we were going away for a few nights to Nelspruit. Paul and I were ready to leave at about 9am, but by the time his parents John and Noreen were ready it was about midday! We drove north and in a few hours we arrived. I was looking forward to this trip as it was a chance to see a new part of the country. Nelspruit was a large city. The BnB was very nice- a large, big open partly thatched house. By the time we checked in and went to our rooms it was already after 4pm. I loved our room, it was very unique, it had its own deck and a huge bath. We relaxed at the BnB for ... read more