Blogs from Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 7

I'm slacking on my updates.... A few weeks ago, I hiked up a mountain called the Lady's Slipper. It was awesome! In all honesty, I did try to quit a couple times, but thanks to Breymore, I kept trucking! I was all proud of myself for getting to the top - it's about 1000 ft! Then I get back to my flat and tell my roommates who tell me that it's not that high. We just ask my sore leg muscles, it's high for me. It was a very cool experience though.... read more

Started the weekend making an appearance at the Pearson High School Valentine's Day dance and showed some of my students my moves :) Ha! No, but it was fun and interesting to see them all out of uniform and dressed up! There were two bottles of liquor confescated and three packs of cigarettes, but I tried to tell the teachers that was nothing compared to home anymore! But, other than that, it was cute, nice decorations, the IT teacher was taking pictures, and everyone seemed to have a good time. Then, Saturday, we were picked up around 2:00 pm by Justin Bean. Justin is a 6th generation Bean and helps to run the Schotia Private Game Reserve. The land has been in his family since 1863 when his great-great grandfather farmed it. About 20 years ago, ... read more

I didn't expect to be picking this up again but I am about to leave for another month as a volunteer in Joe Slovo School near Kwa-Dwesi township. I am in that state of nervous anticipation which always grips you before something which is a bit of a challenge. I am looking forward to going back to the school to see how it has changed and to meet some of the children and the staff again. I think I am going to be working in the upper part of the school this time with older children which is closer to my experience. I expect to be supporting on Life Orientation which in the context of the township is outside my comfort zone. Sometimes requirements have changed by the time you arrive in the school so I ... read more

This weekend was supposed to be low key but ended up being quite a story anyways. We were told by the Go Experiences lady here in PE that before we left we had to go on a “canoe safari” on the Sunday River. Chris of CrissCross Adventures started his company taking tourists and adventurers wherever they wanted to go across South Africa. His parents have a nice little Bed and Breakfast though in Addo, where the National Elephant Park is, and he decided there was plenty to do right around there so narrowed his excursions a bit. He still hosts mountain hikes, camping trips, the canoe safari that we took on Saturday, and can pretty much design a trip including whatever it is you’d like to do. We arrived around 9:00 am, a little late but ... read more

Well, I started my soccer practices on Friday after school. I had about 30 girls sign up to play and I told them we would hold our first official practice next week when the boys started, but for anyone who wanted to come I would be there this week as well and I had about 9 show up. A couple girls played last year and have some potential, others however, have never played. It will be interesting trying to conduct a practice for all different levels but we’ll see how it goes. They seemed to have a great time just joking and playing around though so that’s what’s most important. There are quite a few boys that play and they were having a pick up game after school as well and after we were done with ... read more