7:46 right now, it was dark before 5:45 today already… It rained a bit – (and my washing got wet eeeeee!) so I guess the clouds caused it to go dark earlier. Or maybe that’s just the time it will get dark from now on. I must still get used to that. Sometimes by 8 already I’m ready to go to sleep!
Today was a good day, I’m trying to get my weekly routine worked out. Being Monday, I thought I’d start with the washing, I’ve had a bit of a backlog cause I went to Ports St Johns last week and I didn’t get around to it. So, I did most of it today, still need to do some sheets tomorrow if it doesn’t rain again!
Then I thought, I’d better get to the other side of the river to see what I can do for the day. I wanted to meet the bead ladies to help me with a bit of Xhosa, so I walked from my side, crossed the river by Coffee shack (it was low tide) and didn’t find any of my old Xhosa teaching mamas, so I walked up the hill to see what the Montessori little ones are up to.
They had 2 German girls reading stories for them, so I waited until they were finished and sat outside with the kids while they ate. They were talking about seeing someone getting hit by a car and die, this morning. Some of them were rather upset. I wish I could understand Xhosa better already!
Snooks remembered that we haven’t finished the lion story (Lion King) that I was reading for them before, so I checked which books I had with me, but only the only Xhosa storybook that I have, besides from the Ibaybile Yabantwana, which I must remember to take tomorrow.
They were all super eager to hear the story and everyone wanted to sit on my lap. I’m definitely not very good with being authoritive towards children and they got a bit out of hand, so I tried moving inside and making them sit in a circle, but also not with much luck. There was more fighting going on over who sits closest than me getting a chance to actually reading the story. It was fun anyway and tomorrow I might pop in there again.
When it was time for them to go home, I met Sarah at Bomvu (the one backpackers where they’ve started a drumming workshop on their ‘stoep’ facing the road. I had to go over and took a few pics of the drum-making and some guys playing a bit. I realized that I had to go back to my caravan and fetch my own djembe which my friend, Moto from Cape Town, skinned for me about 6 years ago and which I know probably has got a better sound than most of the local drums, not that their drums are bad, there’s just something different about mine and everyone wants to play it.
So, I walked back home, took a few more pics on the road, got the djembe, dressed more warmly and drove back. I had only a short time to play a little rhythm myself (I only know very few basic rhythms…) But it was nice, one of the other guys joined me and we had a nice little session…
I had to leave to go teach then and felt very excited about playing my djembe for real for the first time in years. It was good.
I gave the guys their new rulers and they were thankful as expected. One of the guys’ elder brother joined the class and asked to be a part of it as well. I realized quickly that his English was of an extremely low level and at the moment I almost didn’t know what to do with him, he’s basically a beginner. So, I got his brother to start explaining to him about the shapes he’s been learning about In the past week. He kept making excuses to explain in Xhosa, but eventually he was explaining quite well in English.
I was also very proud of him and the way he completed his handwriting exercise I gave him last time. He did it so neat, I could almost not see the difference between his handwriting and mine! That was a good feeling and he asked for more of that kind of exercise, so I gave him 3 times more!
The other guys I showed my ‘Where’s Wally” book and had them writing Present Continuous sentences about what they see the people doing in the pictures. They enjoyed that and then I also let them read from the Xhosa storybook, which the really enjoyed, Moses didn’t want to finish and in the end I had to drag the book away from him, I just can’t take the chance for it to get lost or something…
Was quite upset this morning when I realized my pencil case with all my pens, pencils, eraser, sharpener, special markers and flashdrive is missing! (I must’ve left it behind at Saturday’s teaching, together with the little book I used to interview the students….I pray that I’ll find it all again!) That’s a rather big loss for me. Luckily I still have another pen, pencil and my ruler and scissors… Better look after those more carefully!
I realized that I was possibly making a few mistakes around here. Perhaps I was being too public with my camera today, I’m not sure. Pretty much everyone here has seen me with it now, I hope no-one wants to rob me. Another thing I realized again is that you really can’t trust everyone out there. Most people you can, but sometimes you’ve got to be careful.
I’m thinking a lot about getting a dog, but I’m not sure if I should get something like a staffie, how long till he grows up…or adopt one of the local dogs, which might also take a while to train efficiently… I hope I don’t make it sound too dangerous here, it’s mostly safe, just now and then a bit of a dodgy feeling.
Tonight is pretty chilly and I don’t feel like going out in the cold for a shower, so I guess I’ll do the tub wash thing again. I did get an electric kettle for the caravan on the way from Port St Johns, so at least heating up water is slightly quicker now!
Oke, I think that’s all news for today. Tomorrow is another day. Happy birthday my friend Colla!!!
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