First Day of School (x2)!

Before I jump into the stories about my first day of school (x2), I will talk about my weekend. Most of it was spent doing homework. Lots of readings and notes to take. But I did go to the beach a couple of times to "read." It was good in theory until we discovered the hard way that is was incredibly windy and that sand hurts as it hits your body. A few of us brave souls also ventured to the Bayworld Museum that is close to home and got to see an octopus, sea lions, many fish, and some picture-posing penguins. There was also a ton of information about our new city that was fun to catch up on and maybe give us a head start in some of the classes. Sunday night was probably my most favorite night of being in PE thus far. A few people and I went to the News Cafe and watched some live jazz while enjoying flapjacks and ice cream. As if that wasn't good enough, the band was incredible! They let one of our friend even get on stage and play with them! After that, the guitarist played his guitar behind his head and then even with his teeth! I had never seen that and was quite impressed! It was a chill night and I had a genuinely good time. I look forward to going again next Sunday to see what live jazz they have to offer again!

Today was our first day at the mission sites that we will be visiting every Monday and Tuesday until the end of the semester. I am spending my time at a place called Pendla Primary School. I am paired with another biology major and we will be helping to teach kids in grades 4-6 about science and whatever else the teachers may need help with. Today we were able to just sit and observe how the classrooms operate. Quite different from America. The kids here were much better behaved. The teacher could leave the room for 20 minutes at a time and the kids never got out of control. Also, the teacher could assign them to read together as a group and every kid would participate even if the teacher wasn't in the room. The teachers seemed to leave the classrooms quite often. And also answered personal cell phone calls and talked with other teachers in the middle of the lessons. I was kind of amazed that anything got accomplished. I can't wait till I teach my first lesson and get more comfortable with the classes that I will be in! Recess was very fun! I learned many new hand games and dances and we were able to teach the kids how to play Tag and Red Rover. We will go back tomorrow and maybe even partake in some Valentine's Day activities!

This afternoon we had our first lecture. It was about South African Music. I found it very interesting. We learned about past music and the differences between African music and Western music. We also were taught some of the Xhosa (clicking) language and were able to sing  a song in Xhosa which was really fun. We also learned about a musical instrument called a Bow which I had never heard of before. It looks just like a bow from a bow and arrow, but the string is tight enough that when plucked, it makes a noise. It was pretty cool. We also attended a lecture made by Zoe Wicomb. I think it would have been more interesting had I been a critical literary studies major and read her books. Maybe I will work on being more prepared for our next guest speaker...