I had no clue what to expect, or what things would look like, so I just had no mental image of what here would be like. But now that I know, let me tell you one thing - it is more than I imagined. It's larger and richer and brighter and better than I ever thought. I love it.
And I realize that I'm in the honeymoon stage, and once culture shock sets in, I won't think of it the same way I do now. But if first impressions mean anything - and I think they do - then this place, with these people, is what I've been wanting all along.
I look at the ocean (which is a 10 minute walk from our house), and I ride in the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road, and I pay 21 Rand for a meal, and I eat the food here, and I drink the tea here, and I breathe the air here, and I feel the wind here, and I lay in bed here -
And I can't believe that I ever thought about not coming.
It's amazing what not knowing can do to you.
I went to a school today, with Joey and Carolyne (two AIMers from last year's team). It's where they go every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday - and soon Saturdays. The school was called Island Forrest, and it's in a town called Seaview, about 30 minutes away from where we live in Port Elizabeth. The kids are separated into two classes - Grades 01-3, and Grades 04-07. They also have something called Grade R, which is our equivalent to preschool. I would guess that there are about 20 in the younger class, and probably 20 in the older class, and about 10 in Grade R. We were just teacher's aides really, except the younger class's teacher wasn't there, so the teacher of the older class (her name is Ntosh - pronounced "in tawsh") took over that class for a while. We helped the kids with their math (I struggled a little with it, because it's been SO long since I've done that kind of adding and subtracting on paper! Plus, their methods are a little different, so if you do it "the American way" they get confused), and graded their work after they were done. It turns out kids here hate math too. :)
We spent some time with the younger kids too. There was this girl, Andisiwe (on-dee-see-way), and she loved sitting on my lap and playing with my hair. They all loved playing with my hair! They would just stroke my head (sometimes kinda hard!) and touch my hands...it was funny and surreal. Like they'd never really seen a blonde white person that close before. They were pretty onery sometimes, and you'd have to be firm with them, but for the most part they were sweet and curious, and fun.
The only problem was that we couldn't understand each other. The older kids spoke some English (some of them), but the younger kids only spoke Xhosa, one of the official languages of South Africa. They click their tongue when they talk, and it sounds very native and definitely cooler than English. :) But it's so interesting, the sounds they make. I want to learn more of their language so I can talk to them if I go back!
I probably will think of more things to talk about later. But for now, I'm going to go take a nap before church tonight.
If you have any questions, or if you want to know more about what it's like here, don't hesitate to post a comment and ask me. It's easier for me to describe this place if I know exactly what you want to know about.
Love you guys.
