They said it would happen, and this past Wednesday, it did. I felt homesick. To put this in context Wednesday was “a day”. My grade 10s still were having trouble telling the identifying distance, speed, and acceleration (for the 3rd week in a row), and even my grade 11s were chatty and distracted. It was hot, and I was in a bad mood. However, before you start feeling bad for me, on Thursday things turned around. Teachers in the staff room and I talked politics and education, and one teacher has offered to be my official tour guide to South Africa (he is putting together maps and an itinerary this weekend and other teachers can join in too). My co-teacher for Physical Sciences (she teaches grade 12s) and I finally had time to look at our portfolios, and we did a lab together in the new laboratory on Young’s modulus. I helped her with this grade 12 practical investigation (lab), and she is going to help me next week with my grade 10s lab on acceleration of gravity. Even my grade 11s finally seem to get gravitational fields. (My grade 10s still struggling with velocity, ARRGH!, but you can’t have everything.) Overall, a much better day.
And things kept getting better…
Friday was Athletics Day (track and field day) no classes, kind of like a field day, except the winners go onto the next level of competition against other local schools. The day began with assembly, there was some singing and the Lord’s Prayer, then students went to their teams: Cheetahs, Zebras, Bulls, Lions.
It took some time to get things started, but everyone was relaxed and had a good time. There was a tent for teachers to cool off and a large stereo system with speakers that played music throughout the day (learners were the DJs). At noon, we took a short break for lunch, which was catered for the staff (chicken , beans, and lots of pap). Then, the day ended with the King and Queens of the Cheetah team walking around with the crowd cheering, and final sprinting and relay events. The winner… the Zebras!
And better…
Saturday, the Aphane family and I went to Bela Bela Warmbaths (sadly, Abram had a principal’s workshop). The Warmbaths is a resort area with hot springs. It was basically a waterpark with one of the main pools coming from the hotsprings. The day was perfect, blue skies, not too hot. We took a picnic, swam, went on waterslides, and the girls even went on a zipline (I chickened out, maybe next time) and rode a mechanical bull. I began teaching Refilwe to float on her back and swim a little, and she did great for her first try, she is fearless. It was a really fun day since I love the water, and the views on the drive there were amazing. We passed a whole field of sunflowers in bloom and the mountains were green with trees, and I saw ostriches too. Tomorrow is moving day for me, I move into my new home, just 3 houses down, so I will have my own room. For now, I’ll pack up and watch TV (Saturday night they play American movies).
[side note: TV here: lots of soccer, the Africa Cup is still going on; I watched the exciting end of the semi-finals as Ghana took 3rd place, 4-2 over the Ivory Coast. Also, I have started watching this nighttime soap called Generations. This week a young couple was broken up by her father who didn’t like her dating a rapper, and another couple that was engaged broke up because the man’s uncle told the girl that she would never be suitable to marry a chief’s son since she does not come from a good family, has no education, and doesn’t even know who the father of her baby is. Stay tuned for next week’s events.]
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