Back to the village

It’s week one back in the village after my long vacation. I spend the remainder of my days in South Africa travelling from place to place until I reached Cape Town. My favorite place was Stellenbosch where my friends and I went on a wine tour and I learned how to taste wine properly. Yes, I can now swish and sip. I also tried Lebanese food and found out that I absolutely love it! I still think about that meal often and crave some good Lebanese.

 Cape Town is absolutely enormous. There is much to do there and much to see. I spent a lot of my time walking about the city and getting familiar. I also made a trip up to see Table Mountain. The end of my vacation was spent in Windhoek after a 22 hour bus ride. I think that any amount of travelling I do for the rest of my life will be pretty simple…after travelling many times during this trip for large amounts of time…I can handle anything.

So, here I am back at the village. We started term two this week. I’ve decided to try some new things with my teaching. In computer class, if they all behave, we watch a portion of Harry Potter at the end. They are absolutely fascinated with this movie. I am also trying to not take things so personally. Last term was an adjustment period for both myself and my learners. I realize that they are not used to my style of teaching and I need to respect that they need some time.

This week has been so crazy. The day I got back to my village I lost my dog Hunter when I went to go get groceries in Eenhana. He followed me to the road and chased after the car when I got in it and we drove away. He was lost for two days and I had all but lost hope when my principal came to the computer lab and told me that the villagers had found him wandering around there. I realized in that moment that it is going to be very difficult to let him go at the end of my volunteering. I was so happy that he was found that I can’t imagine losing him and leaving knowing this.

I have to lead the morning prayer tomorrow. This makes me so nervous. I will have to stand and address the whole school and lead the morning assembly. I find that everything I do is under a microscope anyway so what should it matter. However, the other part of me doesn’t want to be in front of the whole school where all eyes are on me. I am perfectly comfortable in a class teaching 30 learners, but don’t ask me to address everyone and feel totally fine. Ugh, problems. You would think that after travelling to Africa by myself and being here for five months I would be more brave. I guess everyone has silly things they are afraid of no matter how courageous you can be in other areas.

I will try to post more often to the blog because I have been told that more people read this than I realize. I have been having internet problems since I got back from holiday.