Mother Bear Project Photo Album Link

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School Time!

So we just finished our first week of the new school year! It is so exciting to be IN the class with the leaners and such an amazing feeling to finally be working! We have truly enjoyed the Phase 2 part of our service (observing and helping.) We have had the rare opportunity to observe our working environment for 3 months before having to jump into the routine. We know our co-workers, we know where things are, we know what to do and what not to do. But it is sooo nice to finally have a job! and to be WITH the kids all day everyday! I thought I would break it down for you a bit, so you could learn a bit about where Eric and I are placed!

ERIC:
Eric is working at a Primary school located about 3 minutes walking distance from our house called Mokale Primary School. Mokale has appox 250 total students. Eric is teaching Grades 4 and 5. His class sizes are 24 for both classes. *they fluctuate a bit. Eric has been focusing a lot of his time on the computer lab and considers it one of his main goals to get the teachers and leaners to USE the computer lab on a regular basis. Learners start full time instruction in English in the 4th grade, so he is working with true beginners, meanwhile his grade 5 learners know a bit more (not a lot more) so its a big challenge!

LINDSEY:
I am working at Semashego Inclusive Primary School located about 1.5 km from our house. Semashego has 677 students leaving me with 76 in my Grade 5 class and 89 in my grade 6B class. As you can see I'm teaching grades 5 and 6 English. As you can also see, class sizes at my school are quite different than at Eric's School. My school was founded in 1861 and moved to its current location in 1900. So as a result of being such an old school, we have a reputation, but not enough buildings to keep up with that reputation. My principal (Malope, 65) has been the principal since 1981.

VACAY!

Alrighty, Lets just dive in ! We started our vacation with a 17 hour stressful day of South African Public Taxi Travel (Mistake!) We definitely learned our lesson about renting a car for vacation, totally worth the money and makes going long distances a lot simpler. Since it was Dec. 24th the taxi ranks were even more crazy than usual and we spent way too much time crammed between everyone and their luggage. Luckily we made it in one day all the way to Underburg where our friends Marie and Aaron picked us up at 11:30pm! We checked into our hut and fell asleep immediately. The Sani Packers Lodge is located at the "start" of the Giants cup trail, so we literally walked off the porch of the lodge and out into wilderness! It was so amazing! The first day was approx 12 Km. Even though the Giants cup trail itself is 60km, that 60km doesn't include the 2-4 km it takes to get onto the trail and the 2-4km it takes to get off the trail at the end of the day to our cabins. Our first day we camped on a huge bolder for lunch and enjoyed the amazing views! Everywhere you look is picture worthy! Finally we got to our first accommodation, located at a public camping site. There were lots of families car camping and we had electricity and running water! We made some good backpacking dinner and enjoyed the sunset. The next day was about 12km and we found ourselves at a beautiful lodge located in the middle of nowhere! we were far away from civilization at this point and it was soo amazing! We were completely alone (besides all the baboons, bugs and birds) and it was serene! We enjoyed our cooking area (no water or electricity this time) and ate a delicious warm meal. We had hiked a couple hours in the rain that day so being warm and dry was pretty awesome with such a wonderful view! Day 3 was the best in my opinion. we did 13 km to find our little huts nestled in a valley. We camped under a huge tree for lunch and truly enjoyed every minute of the entire day! Waterfalls, mountains, baboon, bugs and even a black mamba! Day four was approx 14 km and it was a long one! We gained approx 1000 feet in the first 2km. I also may have made the idiotic decision to start my day with not only soaking boots but also damp socks. (oops) so my feet were pretty sore by the end of the day, not to mention the river that we walked in for the last 2km. haha! I think at the end of the day we each had our demons. Mine were my feet, Marie had a bumb knee, Aaron popped something out in his neck and Eric was just sore all over.  It was a long long hike and sooo much fun! We're hoping to do it again at least one more time while we are here. The final day we arrived to a house, which had not only running water but HOT water which was just the best thing anyone could ask for! We enjoyed a nice hot meal and watched the sun set on our last day. We didn't do the 5th day of the hike (we never planned to) since we were to check into our hotel in Durban that day by 3 and it is 2 hours away from the end of the hike. A shuttle car came and picked us up at the end of the trail and took us back to the start where Marie and Aaron's car was waiting at the lodge. And off we drove to Durban. Durban was a nice 3 days of relaxation and doing nothing, we made delicious home made meals in the kitchen, enjoyed the sandy beach only 50 ft away from our hotel and swam in the fountain filled pool. It was luxurious and lovely and amazing. After Durban we headed off to meet up with a south African friend of ours (just Eric and I) so that her grandmother could teach me some traditional beading techniques. Unfortunately Eric was about 8 days into an stomach thing so he headed off to Pretoria to see the Doctor and I stayed and beaded. It was so cool to sit in this Gogo's house and learn traditional techniques. She gave me the ultimate compliment "you handle a needle like an African woman" so I guess I've earned my place! haha! After Petermaritzburg I took a bus up to join Eric in Pretoria where he was being treated for Giardia (he ate some cow stomach at the wedding that wasn't cleaned well enough.) He was on meds right away and was feeling good enough to take me out to European style pizza for dinner the night I got there! We enjoyed a few days in Pretoria and finally got to head home on Sunday. It was a long vacation and we enjoyed every second! I can't imagine a better way to have spent our vacation time! Hope you enjoy the photos!