Thatha ixesha ukunikisa imbali

Teaching the 6th grade class about solubility

On Monday, Liz and I had the wonderful opportunity to teach a lesson to a class of 5^th graders. We taught them about solubility. We worked very hard the week before to come up with a great lesson plan and demonstration and it paid off! Not only did we teach both 5^th grade classes, our teacher also asked us to teach the 6^th grade as well. It was a great time and I think the kids learned a lot as well! Such a rewarding experience!

On Thursday, we spent our time at Lwandlekazi (the high school we volunteer at) teaching the kids how to dance. In return, they also taught us some new dances. It was a very fun dance exchange. We also exchanged English and Xhosa idioms. The title of this post actually means “Don’t be too busy to enjoy life.” These kids are teaching me just as much as I am teaching them. It is great!

Volunteers happily full after the Braai!

After being at the high school on Thursday, the group of volunteers all had a braai. However, this was definitely not your typical braai. We were in the middle of the township, which already gives everything a completely different vibe. We bought our meat directly from the butchery and went around the back to where the grills were. The only rule of the place is: “don’t take your eye off your meat.” That way no one else takes it, and you can also see if someone tries to sneak a bite. Once the meat was ready, it was thrown into a big cardboard box and put in the middle of our table. The 15 or so of us did not have any plates, napkins, or silverware. We ate the sheep, chicken, and sausage with just our fingers and used bread as plates (if you really needed to put anything down). And the only thing that we ate was the meat, there were no sides whatsoever, something that is different from the States.  It was a great cultural experience and we already talked about doing it again before we leave in May!