A Warm Welcoming

We were finally able to enter the school and began our mission! We woke up very early and were very excited to arrive at the school. The school was kind enough to have a breakfast for us to start the day! We had such a great timer meeting the teachers. Many of them were able to recognize us! 

We had our own student tour guide and he was very proud to be given that role. He let us see the playground and even visit the Reception classroom, what we would call the kindergarten classroom. 

As we reentered the school building, we were greeted by all the students. They held American and England flags, to represent our group and a British teacher. As we walked into the auditorium, it was hard to hold back tears. They waved our flags as our national song was played. We felt welcomed and accepted into the school. 

The students prepared dancse and songs for us! They were beautifully done and represented their culture. The showed us their culture with great pride. We were very fortunate enough to have a deeper understanding of the culture here in South Africa. 

After the assembly, the student leaders each took us to our corresponding grade. The school serves up to grade 7. We have two DeSales students or faculty on each class. As we entered the classroom, the children were excited to see us! As their warm up, they worked in a news book and we were the center of it! According to one of the students, we are the best! 

It's been really great learning with and from the students. We are learning so much for both students and teachers. This is a great opportunity to grow as future teachers and expand our techniques and skills we have. 

We even had a chance to learn more of the Afrikaans and Xhosa language after school with three wonderful seventh graders. We may need more after school tutoring but we managed to remember thank you very much, bye-a-danka. Now let's just hope we don't get a test tomorrow because we may not do very well!

Hearing the goals and stories of the three girls really allows us to see the wonder and curiosity of children regardless of age. We wish to continue a relationship with the girls. They even wish to study in New York City as future a doctor, fashion and graphic designer!

This week may pass quickly but the imprint the teachers and students have made will forever be with us. We just hope to learn more from them as the days go by. 

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!