Though speaking in Afrikaans so Courtney, I, and
the three other passengers couldn’t understand, it was easy to tell our ranger
was getting excited and we were getting close to something. Then, just in front of us appeared two
cheetahs, gracefully walking through the savannah bushveld, beautiful and
majestic creatures. For three days now
we had been searching for the cheetahs which seemed to be leaving no traces or
tracks around the reserve, and here they were finally. “Now we can go,” Courtney and I agreed.
Our cheetah sighting marked the end of a three
night safari Courtney, my friend from home, and I had at the Thornybush Game
Reserve in South Africa. We both were
blown away by the amount of animals we saw: rhinos, elephants, leopards,
cheetahs, lions, warthogs, impalas, giraffe, wildebeest, zebras, tortoise,
kudu, monkeys, baboons, water buck, buffalo, mongoose, inyala, steinbok,
jackal, crocodile, vulture, hippo, and even a chameleon. It was hard to complain about much of
anything during those few days. We would
get woken up at 5am, have tea and coffee, go on a 3-4 hour game drive until
about 9am including a tea and coffee break out in the bush, return for a
breakfast buffet, have the entire afternoon free to relax poolside and watch
visiting animals at the nearby watering hole, another safari drive at 4pm
including sundowners and then returning to the lodge for a three-course
dinner. Our lodging was amazing, the
staff amazing, delicious food, incredible animal sightings sometimes getting so
close it makes you a little nervous, a truly amazing safari experience.
After the safari, Courtney and I headed to Cape
Town for the rest of the week. I was
totally not prepared for such an abrupt arrival into a first world city! Immediately upon getting picked up from the
airport by the Konkols, a family my parents met on a trip to Poland, I quickly
realized this was no longer the Africa I was used to. There were real, paved, multi-lane highways,
grocery stores and shopping malls, huge houses, it was strange hearing so much
English and not being the only white person around!
Spending the evening with the family, I soon
noticed that the pace of life I had grown accustomed to was much much slower
than theirs; just their speech and conversations were so much faster and wilder,
I had a hard time keeping up! They
discussed popular culture that I had heard nothing about, seemingly confused
when I, an American, didn’t know that such and such an American celebrity was
getting married or had not seen that episode or movie that just came out.
I was sitting there, still in Africa, but in a
house that could not be more different than mine in Murrupula. Yes, it was a nice break and I am in no way
complaining about having had hot running water, constant electricity,
television, wi-fi, a refrigerator, washing machine, dish washer, etc., but it
was all a little overwhelming to walk in to.
Honestly, it’s a feeling that is really difficult to explain, and it
took me a few days to really feel comfortable living like that again. Just a preview for when I return to the USA
at the end of this year.
With the Konkol’s generosity, Courtney and I were
able to do and see so much during our five days in Cape Town. We went to the famous Long Street which
reminds me somewhat of San Francisco with its narrow streets filled with
clothing stores, antique shops, and cafes.
We went to the W&A Waterfront (a big shopping mall) and rode the
ferris wheel, drove to beautiful Hout Bay and Camps Bay, walked through the
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, took the cable car to the top of Table
Mountain, one of the new seven wonders of the world. We went wine tasting and drove to the southwestern-most
point of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope. We
visited the historic Robben Island and saw where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned
for 18 years. We window shopped, ate
until we could barely move, explored, and relaxed. Cape Town is really an incredibly beautiful
city, complete with beautiful beaches, incredible mountains, great food, and
friendly people.
Then it was back to real life again in
Murrupula. I guess after a three month
summer break, it was time to leave vacation mode and start working again. And so began my second year of teaching.
The first week of the school year 2013 was no
different than my experience last year, only this time I was more prepared for
what to expect – no students the first week and about half starting to show up
week two, an undetermined school schedule and students still enrolling in
classes, and the usual surprises you can’t do much about. I went to my schools during the first week to
find out what grade and even what subject(s) I was going to be teaching. Turns out, this year, I am teaching only computers,
six classes each with about 50 10th graders.
Last year, I loved my Biology classes and some of
my favorite memories involve those students and teaching them about the living
things that exist in the world around them.
I was definitely disappointed when I found out that the school no longer
needed me to teach Biology. It just kind
of felt like I was a wasted resource, a wasted free resource at that.
But I am trying to and am going to make the best
out of my situation. Standing in front
of my classes last week, introducing myself and discussing the plan for the
year, it really was pretty amazing how much easier everything was. First off, I could actually communicate
confidently! I still warned the students
that I was fairly new to the Portuguese language and that I would inevitably
make mistakes, but I didn’t have to write out my entire lesson word for word
before class and could just…speak. What
a relief!
But most importantly, this year, I know what to
realistically expect from my students. I
gave a survey my first lesson hoping to learn a little about their backgrounds
and interests and, not surprisingly, the vast majority of students had never
even seen a computer before. Though
dealing with unpredictable electricity issues, a ridiculous student/computer
ratio, and students who’s learning method has never included practical
application skills will all be challenging, I really am excited for this next
year as a computer teacher. With
computers, you can see a physical improvement in the students’ abilities and
it’s a practical skill that, perhaps not many, but some will hopefully be able
to apply in their futures when they someday own a computer.
This week, we have a conference in Maputo, our
mid-service conference where they do medical and dental check-ups. More excitingly, it will be the first time
all the volunteers from my Moz 17 group will be together again since last
January! This mid-service conference
officially marks us as being over halfway done with our service!
