Transition Day

We went to mass at St. Mary Cathedral. To our surprise, the mass was in many local dialect languages. Today's procession also included a flag celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of Africa Day. 

 

The mass was great! It had traditional music and songs were sung in Shona. We were very lucky to have the words translated for us on the mounted television. We left the church feeling blessed to see the culture and religion of South Africa. It was a great feeling gathering around Catholics from different regions. It's another glimpse to what unities us to South Africa. 

After church we had lunch and went to the V&A Waterfront. We shopped for the projectors for St. Mary's Primary School. 

We came back to the hostel and began to discuss our first day of teaching. We are so excited to begin working with the teachers and students. We have so many questions about the school. What are their teaching styles? What behavior management techniques are used? What services are available for students with special needs? Are centers a part of the classroom environment?

Most importantly, what can we take from this experience? What will we learn and use for our future classrooms? What will we learn of ourselves? How can we grow as teachers?

We have prepared the books we will be giving each of the teachers. We cannot wait to be in the classrooms! 

We are also very fortunate enough to have Sister John Marie with us to guide us! Here she is managing the group. 

Let's be honest, what would we do without Sister? As we say, she has really been a champ and done so much for us on the trip! We are lucky to have her! 

Guest Blogger: Sister John Marie

Dear parents, siblings, friends, and blog followers:

Our days continue to be filled with many wonderful experiences. Today, Saturday, topped them all. 

We finally went on our famous African safari and it was marvelous! 

We started the safari by climbing into the land rover; we entered the reserve and immediately encountered two beautiful giraffe whose slow majestic movements were a thrill to watch. And then the day unfolded with towering elephants, grazing zebras, dusty rhinos, elegant lions, springboks, antelope, and so many more!

We have been incredibly blessed and we are so happy that you share our joy. 

May God bless each of you!

-S.J.M.

The Big 5

Our destination for today was Inverdoorn, a game reserve, where we had a safari tour! Inverdoorn is home to South Africa's Big 5. The Big 5 animals are selected for the size, strength and survival skill. The animals identified a the Big 5 are the lions, buffaloes, leopards, hippos and rhinos. 

We had an awesome tour guide! He told us facts that we never even knew! Did you know that under the lion's mane are his vital organs? Did you know an elephant's tusk can regrow depending on where it was cut? Did you know that a giraffe only sleeps 30 minutes? Did you know cheetahs are the hardest animals to breed? Did you know their skin is only used for royalty in South African culture? 

Our tour guide really opened our eyes to the importance of maintaining an ecofriendly environment for the ecosystem. Animals are part of the circle of life. As much as it sounds like the Lion King movie, we all are important to each other and man is possibly the biggest threat to the equilibrium. This is because of the pollution that we create. The tour guide explained to us that the toxins in many of the plastic items are found in the females' milk which then effect the babies. This has a major effect to the animal population because the toxins in the milk kill off the next two generations. 

Luckily, yet sadly, South Africa is way ahead of America in terms of maintaining an ecofriendly environment. Soda cans are turned into art whether it be a plane, car or used as a roof in their paintings. 

We were so lucky to see the animals and support the game reserve. The animals were rescued for various reasons. One of the elephants were once a movie star. The other was a part of a circus. The rhinos are well taken care of and protected from pochers. The game reserve maintains the natural home of the animals and offer their guests a glimpse of the beauty in animals and their environment. 

Tired feet, full bellies

Today was filled with sightseeing. We had the privilege to meet Harry and Niki, who happen to be Clare's sister, a DeSales alumnus! Day after day we just keep finding new connections to South Africa. Harry and Niki began our walking tour through the city. Our first stop during our walk was at St. Mary's Primary School! 

This is the school we will be teaching and helping the teachers and students. We stopped in for a quick hello and we were greeted with bright smiles. The children were standing at the windows waving to us. This absolutely made us look forward to the week ahead. We can't wait to be with the children. In just a matter of minutes, we were greeted with open arms, friendly smiles and love. We have a purpose here and they have confirmed it for us, just look at the picture below. 

We continued our walking tour to Charly's bakery, a local and popular bakery. Harry told us this bakery is equalivalent to our Cake Boss in Hoboken, NJ. Charly's Bakery even has its own reality tv show! We couldn't jwalk away without trying a cupcake! They were amazing! Rich in flavor and decorated so well! 

We quickly ate our cupcakes and began to walk to the District Six Museum. The museum houses the newspapers, clothing, photographs and many other artifacts that came from the time period in which colored residents had to move out from the district in order to pave way for a whites only district. Again we see the dark times that South Africa has experienced and we see the messages of those who visit and write of love, acceptance, forgiveness and hope that the horrors of the past remain in the past. 

After the museum, we walked to Doppio Zero Restaurant for lunch. The food here is so good! We were so full! The best part about that is that we had food leftover and decided to give it to those who were homeless. We have had many blessing and needs that were meet. It was great to see each other quickly say yes to the idea and see the gratitude the people had when we gave them food. 

We also had a chance to visit St. George's Cathedral. For many of us we had another chance to reflect and grasp the blessings that we have had during this trip. From the beginning we arrived safely and were welcomed from people that made us truly feel at home. We have experienced wonders many have never had the chance to see. There we stood and gave thanks to God for the privilege he gave us and the opportunity we had to say yes and board that plane. 

As we started to make our way back to the Backpack, we walked through Company Gardens and admired the beauty around us. South Africa has a country surrounded in beautiful nature. 

Our dinner was at Mama Africa! This restaurant is a stop every tourist makes. On their menu is crocodile, antelope and ostrich! We all were hesitant to try it but were only in South Africa for so long! So we each dared to take a bite of each and to our surprise, we loved it! We wanted more! Being on this trip means to integrate oneself in the customes, food and culture and that is exactly what we have accomplished. We ate so many things we thought we would never even try! It's such a pleasure to say we immersed ourselves in the South African culture. Who would have thought we would have liked crocodile! The dessert was amazing! I'm sure it didn't last 2 minutes on the plate. Mama Africa is just another reason to visit the beautiful country of South Africa. 

We couldn't leave Mama Africa without saying and singing happy birthday to Lori! She was not expecting it! 

Happy birthday Lori! 

Surprise Guest Blogger: Miss M

Surprise sixth grade!! It's Miss M!! Miss you all and I hope you all are doing well. Do well on your finals for me and have a great time on field day! :) South Africa is amazing and I am learning so much! I've been going on a lot of exciting adventures so make sure you keep up with the blog to see what's up next! So far we have done Table Mountain, Camps Bay, Robbens Island, and I SAW THE PENGUINS! :D It was incredible and I most certainly did my "eeee" noise! The weather has been great so far! Today, we rode bikes to the Cape of Good Hope and then hiked a mountain to the lighthouse. Can you believe it?! No high heels but flip flops were probably not the best choice either. Looking at the pictures, what looks like the best part to you so far? (See I can even create a journal question from another continent!) Enjoy the next few weeks and trust yourself with studying. You all will do just fine! 

So close yet so far

So many of us never thought they would be in South Africa. Many had fears before arriving and phobias they believed they were unable to overcome. Yet, here we are! We have done so much today. We went on a hop on hop off bus tour and viewed the natural beauties of South Africa. Many of us now believe we have encountered a beauty that many did not know of or did not believe it existed here in South Africa. 

Our first stop was at Hout Bay. We had the option of going on a boat ride to see the seals or shopping around the local market. Many of us took our time seeing the view around us. Amazing isn't it?

We continued driving to Boulders but we had to make some stops to see the scenery around us! We were so happy and felt so lucky to have the opportunity to see true beauty!

We finally made it to Boulders and saw the most adorable penguins! Many of us wanted to take them back on our carry-on! But Dr. Rance-Roney put a stop to that. 

You really can't blame us for trying to bring them home right? 

We continued to Cape of Good Hope and could not believe the scenery! Here the Pacific and Atlantic meet and we were there! Yet the best part of the adventure....we biked there!!! For many it was a fear they overcame and were able to say the mountain biked on Cape of Good Hope! 

We are truly lucky and blessed to have arrived at such a beautiful location and be welcomed the way we have. Just look at Sister John Marie's expression!

We decided that we would take the funicular up to the light house on Cape of Good Hope. Riding the bikes was enough exercise for many of us. There were a few who braved their way up to the lighthouse. I'm sure we will all feel it in the morning. 

At the top of the lighthouse there was a post that had various cities and their distance from the lighthouse. This just made us reflect that we are so much closer to different cultures, countries and people. To think that we are just 12,541 km from New York and 6,066 km from Rio de Janeiro truly makes us reflect and amazes us that we were once in New York awaiting to arrive at South Africa. We braved the 20, feeling almost 30 hours, to arrive at a new location, makes us want to experience more. How close are we to other countries? How many of us would dare the flight? Would you? Would you be willing to stand here and look up and see the various locations on the post and say,"I will be there one day"? 

We were told to beware of the vicious baboons that were around us during our tour! Yet we didn't see any. 

We were lucky to some zebras at the side of the road, back to Cape Town!! This just topped the day! Penguins, bike rides, beautiful scenery and zebras, what will tomorrow bring?