Ending the Chapter

My teaching here in Cape Town has sadly, reluctantly, or thankfully, come to an end. To recap: last week was terrible. Friday was just a long drawn out day. The kids were still not listening and the boys were getting on my nerves. By the end of the day I had had it with four boys so I first told them to separate to the four corners of the rug. They just stared blankly at them and so I pulled a mom punishment. I yelled at these boys and had them go into the four corners of the room and to keep their noses to the wall. If I looked up and saw their faces I yelled at them "I don't want to see you right now." They actually responded pretty well to this. One boy, after ten minutes of this, was behaving well so I told him that if he felt he could rejoin the group then he was welcome to do so. At the end of the day I really wanted a nice, strong drink.

Friday night we went to a Rugby game. I feel like the sport is a combination of the best parts of football, hockey, and some soccer. I figured the best idea was to throw backwards and run like hell. There was another group of Americans sitting in the same section as us so it was nice chatting with them. After the game we went to a night club called, Tiger Tiger. It was really fun. We all danced, drank, and had a great time.

Saturday was spent hanging around the house and updating my facebook a billion times. That evening, I made plans to join in a girls night with one of the student teachers at my school. She was super nice and allowed me to crash. I had such a good time being around other people. All of her friends are also doing their teacher prac so it was just like being with my group only not as loud. We went out for sushi and then watched a movie. I had been craving good sushi since I got down here so I was thrilled!

Sunday, I went to a book fair with my host family. It was pretty dull but it is always nice to get out of the house.

This has been my last week at school. On Monday and Tuesday I subbed in a grade 1 classroom. These kids made me realize how much I missed my own hooligans. The little kids just swarmed around me and would do that stupid little kid thing where they poke you repeatedly and say "Miss, Miss, Miss, Miss." I actually swatted at this one kids finger and said "Stop poking me! I hear you!" I was immune to this from working at the summer camp but it that skill has since left me. After school, I went to the boys' soccer game. The Under 9's play indoor soccer games on Monday and they have practice on Tuesday. The boys won both of their games! It was very exciting.

When I returned to my grade 3's on Wednesday I couldn't have been happier. They were actually paying attention to me for awhile which was great. Mrs. Naidoo was mostly with the class so I didn't have to do too much.

Today, Thursday, was my last day. I started out the morning with having the kids write letters for my future classroom. This way we can start a penpal thing. I went over the writing process with them: brainstorm, rough draft, edit, revise, final. In the morning I had them do a rough draft which I edited and then they made their final drafts on nice paper and were able to draw pictures. Some of the kids really got into it while others could have cared less. One of the boys, who comes from a bad home, didn't have a lunch today and I felt so sorry for him. I gave him R8 (just about 1 dollar) to go buy some food. By the end of the day, I had gotten so many chocolates and cards from the kids. They were all actually sad to see me go! The boys all kept telling me that they "will miss it when I smile". How sweet. I'm terrible with goodbyes so I didn't do too much with the staff just kind of a "Hopefully, I'll be back one day!" Then "peace out!" The kids all gave me hugs on their way out. Except for the boy who hates me, who asked if I could take him to George this weekend with me.



I still need to update you about our weekend away to the Western Coast. I fear this is going to be an incredibly long post. I'll try to do this quickly though, because I still have to finish packing, and I think the teaching stuff is more interesting.

We went to Langebaan and stayed at a resort called Friday Island. It was absolutely beautiful and right on the beach. We went to a San Village where we learned some of the clicks and some neat survival skills. It was so interesting being able to learn about the indigenous tribal people. We went to a shady white lion place. I didn't feel like the guy who "bred" these lions was doing it for the right reasons. That is why I call it shady. He didn't seem to be working for any respectable organization.

We went to this awesome fossil museum. I was hoping to do some digging, like the places in Israel, but it wasn't quite that way. We saw fossils from all sorts of cool extinct animals. There was a whale skull and an elephant skull. Those were amazing.

[edit] I forgot to add a closing. We are going to George this weekend where I get to hang out with all kinds of cool animals, climb through caves, and BUNGY JUMP!

For now, I'm trying to finish my penultimate paper before I forget what I read in the study this is about.