Again...More Photos

More Photos

Here are some photos!

The first photo is the sunset at Pringle Bay. The next photo is Mt. Stellenbosch. I woke up to this mountain just outside my window on my first morning in South Africa.

Back in the US

After about 30 hours of traveling, losing luggage in Minneapolis, missing a flight in Minneapolis, finding all of my luggage in GR I am back in Charlevoix! It was sad to leave everyone in SA, but it is great to be back in the states. I missed a lot of people and I was very happy that Janay and my parents were able to meet me at the airport. I had such a great time on my trip and I would like to thank all of you who read my blog over the past six weeks. I know that some of you may have freaked out because I was unable to post blogs a whole lot during my trip, but I am back and I am safe so....no worries! I survived 60 hours on a plane, bungee jumping, shark diving, zip lining, absailing, mountain climbing, being outnumbered by girls 5-1, and being in another hemisphere on a different contintent. I honestly have no regrets from the entire trip. I did everything that I wanted to do and then some. So it is great to be absolutely content in knowing that I took advantage of every opportunity I had. If anyone has a chance to travel to South Africa take advantage of all of your time there because there are millions of different things that you can do while you are in the most beautiful country in the world.

So Long, Farewell.....

Sunday, April 26......Pack! It was difficult to pack all of the stuff that I bought into a suitcase, because I bought soooooo much stuff. However, I found ways to fit everything in and I did not have leave anything in Africa. It was an absolute beautiful final day in SA, and after packing we had our final dinner with the Taylors and thanked them for everything they had done for us over the past six weeks. We got "fetched" at 8:00 pm to leave for the airport. I was very sad in the bus on the drive to Cape Town. I kept thinking about every individual person that I will miss and that I built a relationship with, and it is still hard to think about those people even now...a few days later. I hope to never forget the people that I met on the trip.

Farewell Brunch

This morning we had a farewell brunch where we all invited a couple of guests in order to thank them and make some "American" food for everyone. Every host family was there and a couple of teachers from Cloetesville were there as well. We made everyone some american pancakes with all sorts of toppings. We also made some scrambled eggs and bacon and whatever else sounds good for breakfast. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food. I helped make the pancakes....I made about 100 of those things so I don't need to bake or cook anything for a long time. I believe there were about 50 people there for the brunch, which was a very high number. After the brunch I hung out at the house for a bit and relaxed a bit. For dinner tonight we decided to go to Moyo for our last group activity of the trip. This was our last night in SA so we had as much fun as possible. Jeff and I actually went up on the stage and participated in a traditional Xhosa dance. The girls got a video of it and I actually did pretty well, maybe I am not as bad of a dancer as I thought I was!! ha.

April 23 and 24

Our final two days at Cloetesville..... For the first part of the day I talked with my students about the election and whether or not they thought that Zuma was good for the country. Their responses were very interesting and it was great to see how involved they all are in politics. For dinner tonight Jeff and I went to Mr. and Mrs. Siljeur's house to have dinner. They made soooo much food for us. It was absolutely delicious and it was great to see some of the teachers outside of the school. We were at their home for about 3 hours talking and drinking coffee/tea and it was one of my favorite nights of the entire trip.
On Friday we had our final day at Cloetesville Secondary School....this was a very sad day for everyone. The teachers gave us all a glass with the school logo on it and also a t-shirt with the school logo on it as well. Also, they bought a bunch of food so we had a little send off party as well. Jeff, Kate, and I all felt very glad to be a part of such a great school and amazing group of teachers at Cloetesville. It was very difficult to say goodbye to everyone and I believe that I got about 20 or so different email addresses from teachers and students so I will try to keep in touch with as many as possible.