Farewell • April 26, 2012
This will be my last post from South Africa. Today being Thursday was my last day at Kayamandi High School. I never thought that I would feel so sad to leave a school that I was only at for 6 weeks. I came into today thinking it would just be a normal day and then I would just return to the states. That was not the case! Students were thanking us all day and giving us hug after hug after hug after…
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The Fight for Freedom • April 24, 2012
The rest of the week was very interesting at school. When I thought we figured everything out and had a plan for the remaining time here, the school decided to throw a curve ball at us. The gave our classroom an actual substitute teacher and then split us up into different disciplines and classrooms around the school. One day I actually started to teach Hospitality. I had to come up with a lesson…
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Planet of the Baboons • April 16, 2012
Finishing out last week’s classes went well. However, by the end of the week the other teachers in the school started to take advantage of us. At one point I was teaching an 8th grade Biology class. I am glad it happened because it was a great experience to see and teach subjects that I will never be able to teach in the states. On Friday, I delivered the letters from my students at Forest Hills…
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Where's Our Teacher? • April 10, 2012
The last days of holiday went by way too fast. After shark diving we headed to Aghulas. The reason we went here was because this area is where the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet up. We went to this exact point and it was beautiful! There was also a very large lighthouse there and we got to go to the top of it and look out over the two oceans. On our way to the top of the lighthouse we…
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Hang Loose • April 04, 2012
On April 2nd I woke up early to go to an Ostrich Farm. This may sound lame but it was actually very interesting and very fun. At the end of the tour I was privileged to ride an Ostrich. It was so awkward and while I was riding the Ostrich I almost ran into another Ostrich. At the end of the tour they gave me an Ostrich drivers license. So I am certified to drive an Ostrich. That will go far in my…
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Holiday (March 25th – April 1st) • April 01, 2012
This was not actually on holiday but I thought I would share this. Right before holiday we went to a restaurant that let you pet cheetahs! I pet one of the cheetahs and I was scared the whole time. The cheetah actually got up while I was petting it and I had to get up and walk away from it so it wouldn’t get me. Scary moment. The first place we visited was called Knysna (Nice-Na). We went to this…
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The Township • April 01, 2012
We toured the Township in Stellenbosch on Saturday, March 24th. Sorry for being so late on my post! I thought that this deserved its on post because of how amazing it went. The Township is basically a shantytown in Kayamundi. If you have read my earlier posts you probably recognize the name Kayamundi. That is the high school I am teaching at! So I got to tour where many of my students live. When…
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Molo! • March 23, 2012
Many of you may be wondering why I titled this post Molo. Molo is a Xhosa (Kho-sa) word meaning Hello. This is the language that all of my students at Kayamundi High School speak. I was very confused the first day of school because I was expecting the students to be fluent in English. This is not the case, and is why I pulled 5 students aside to teach me the basics of Xhosa. For many of you who do…
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First Day • March 20, 2012
Hello Everyone! I have arrived in South Africa and it is beautiful here. Everywhere you look there are mountains. I also got to meet my host family, and they are awesome people. They are willing to do anything for me and my other roommates. There are also two other students living with us. Ryan who is 17 goes to high school in Stellenbosch and Nickita is just graduating from college in…
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