Weekend in Simons Town
This morning we took a 7 am train back from Simon's town, after a really great weekend of walking, eating, drinking and sightseeing. Some highlights include:
1) watching whales swim and play right off the coast
2) frolicking in the Indian ocean
3) hiking to the lighthouse on the end of the Cape of Good Hope
4) seeing three rainbows suspended in midair in front of us, right above the point where the indian and atlantic oceans meet
5) attending the local pengiuin festival.
we are now back in Langa, where we will continue with our township homestay, language classes and seminar in social change for three more weeks. On Octber 5, we move into our homestay in a rural village in the eastern cape.
Last week we took a tour of the Joe Slovo "informal settlement" which is a nice word for slums/shack town. Joe Slovo is right next to the township that we are staying in. It was difficult to see the intense amount of poverty that the residents of Joe Slovo are living in, but uplifting to see how welcoming and joyful they are.
On Friday I visited one of the local community schools, which serves the majority of the children of living in Joe Slovo. Most of the elementary-age classes I visited had an average of 60 kids in them; one first grade class included kids ranging from age 5 to age 10. The students were incredibly well-behaved and excited to learn, and I was really impressed with their discipline and patience. Discussions with fellow students of mine who visited private, white schools showed a different story, in which the kids were spoiled, horribly behaved and apathetic about education in general. It is very frustrating to see that the kids who want to learn and are willing to put in the effort are the ones who have the worst resources, crumbling facilities and the least amount of teachers, simple because they were black-only schools during apartheid (and still are, unofficially.) Its also difficult to watch these kids struggle to keep up in reading and comprehension, because they are forced to learn in a language (English) other than that which they speak at home or with their friends (xhosa). However, my homestay grandmother cant stop expressing her happiness with the fact that my little sister Tina speaks english fluently. (shes only 5, and learned to speak english at preschool.)
This weekend we'll be going to Robben Island and Camps Bay. I'll post when I manage to get some pictures online.
Thanks again for the emails-- miss you all!
1) watching whales swim and play right off the coast
2) frolicking in the Indian ocean
3) hiking to the lighthouse on the end of the Cape of Good Hope
4) seeing three rainbows suspended in midair in front of us, right above the point where the indian and atlantic oceans meet
5) attending the local pengiuin festival.
we are now back in Langa, where we will continue with our township homestay, language classes and seminar in social change for three more weeks. On Octber 5, we move into our homestay in a rural village in the eastern cape.
Last week we took a tour of the Joe Slovo "informal settlement" which is a nice word for slums/shack town. Joe Slovo is right next to the township that we are staying in. It was difficult to see the intense amount of poverty that the residents of Joe Slovo are living in, but uplifting to see how welcoming and joyful they are.
On Friday I visited one of the local community schools, which serves the majority of the children of living in Joe Slovo. Most of the elementary-age classes I visited had an average of 60 kids in them; one first grade class included kids ranging from age 5 to age 10. The students were incredibly well-behaved and excited to learn, and I was really impressed with their discipline and patience. Discussions with fellow students of mine who visited private, white schools showed a different story, in which the kids were spoiled, horribly behaved and apathetic about education in general. It is very frustrating to see that the kids who want to learn and are willing to put in the effort are the ones who have the worst resources, crumbling facilities and the least amount of teachers, simple because they were black-only schools during apartheid (and still are, unofficially.) Its also difficult to watch these kids struggle to keep up in reading and comprehension, because they are forced to learn in a language (English) other than that which they speak at home or with their friends (xhosa). However, my homestay grandmother cant stop expressing her happiness with the fact that my little sister Tina speaks english fluently. (shes only 5, and learned to speak english at preschool.)
This weekend we'll be going to Robben Island and Camps Bay. I'll post when I manage to get some pictures online.
Thanks again for the emails-- miss you all!
posted by SallySouthAfrica at 3:53 AM
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