Wednesday April 15 - Friday April 17

Going back to school was definitely a change in pace. I went from being in a new place every single day to being back at the school and seeing the reality of most people's situation in South Africa. On Wednesday morning there was an assembly which lasted about 30 minutes. The soccer team at Cloetesville won a nationwide tournament over holiday and got recognized and congratulated by the staff and students. It was interesting because lining up for the assembly took longer than the actual assembly. Somehow they packed about 800 students into a room that should only have about 400. After school I walked around town and looked at some of the local shops and relaxed a bit because I needed to recover from holiday. Once dinner with the host family was over I laid in bed and watched a soccer game that was on TV - Manchester United v Porto. It was great seeing sports again, because I had not watched any game or anything on TV for about 4 weeks! Thursday was a fairly boring day at school. The class periods were only about 25 minutes each so there was not a whole lot of info that could be taught. Plus, the students were busy preparing the portfolios for their end of the term assessments. However, I talked with my students about the current economic crisis in comparison with the Great Depression in 1929 and into the 30s.
Friday was a very fun day at school. The school day is always shorter on Fridays - we get out at about 1:30 on Fridays compared to 2:30 every other day. I began to prepare a couple of lessons to teach about the Revolutionary War in the United States and also I prepared to teach a lesson about Prohibition and the New Deal program in the United States. After school the entire group went to a place called Moyo. This is a traditional Xhosa restaurant with dancing, music, and plenty of food. I danced quite a bit, which was fun because I am a horrible dancer. Overall it was a great couple of days back into the groove of things in Stellenbosch. I enjoyed holiday a tremendous amount, but it was nice to be back "home" and eating homemade food for a change.