Had a great evening last night, a bit of an impromptu ladies' night reunion at Papazela's, just what I needed, thank you awesome girls! You are too far and few between.
Tomorrow is going
to be an interesting day, I’ve decided to move. I have the opportunity to park my caravan in someone’s yard,
very close to where I’m staying at the moment. And I’ve decided to do it, a change is as good as a holiday
after all. And I think it
will be good. The lady who stays
there likes to do a bit of gardening and some crafty stuff, so I reckon we’ll
get along smoothly. She has also
helped me a bit this week with planting my trees. And so has Rene’s uncle who is also a camping neighbour of
mine. He helps out wherever he
can. Thanks Vince!
Another thing happening
tomorrow is a new little class I’m starting. René, the 5 year old Afrikaans girl, staying in the campsite
needs a teacher, and I’m it. So
I’ll be teaching her for 2/3 hours a day and she comes and hangs around at my
caravan any other time of the day as well. I guess this will change a little when I move.
I might miss
having her pop in every 5 minutes, but I’ll also be able to focus a bit more on
what else I’m doing. I’m not going
to miss my other neighbours, who
arrive drunk in the middle of the night and start talking as if they live alone
on a deserted island. I won’t miss
hearing their grunting and spitting noises in the shower in the mornings
either.
But René is quite
a little character. The first day
she came around she was pretty shy and almost didn’t want to say a word. That quickly changed and she turned
into a big talker and a very funny little personality. I had to chase her home a few times,
cause I was afraid she was never going to leave. Now I enjoy her company although sometimes I still
very strictly have to send her home.
She has a funny
way of speaking, she can’t say her Rs, and she is afraid of frogs, so she says
flogs (or she would have if she was speaking English, but actually she calls
‘paddas’ pallas – even though it’s spelt with d’s and not Rs)
And she’ll say
cute things like ‘what is him name?’ – that’s directly translated from ‘wat’s
hom naam?’
Anyway, little
René is one little girl from another world that seems to be enjoying herself
completely in this alien world where hardly anyone speaks her language or
understands what she says. But,
she’s made good friends with Buyana and Aphiwe and has big conversations with
them and order them around, all in Afrikaans. Sometimes they even appear to understand her. She goes swimming with them, join us
when I teach them English, plays with them all the time when they’re around and
joins us when we go to my land to plant trees or whatever. She has become fanatic about ‘bush –
wee-wees’. I’m not sure if she ever
uses the regular toilet anymore.
Hopefully we'll get bricks again tomorrow to make some building progress!!
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