New Time Zone

It is currently 9:15 pm and the house is asleep, accept for me, tapping away at the keys to my computer, wishing I could be in contact with you all.  Its 2:10 in the afternoon in Chicago, and I feel like I’m missing out on something by going to sleep right now!  But, here is a quick rundown of my day.  It’s been a great day now, looking back, but I’m having some difficulty adjusting and feeling fully comfortable here.  I guess that will come in time, but its been hard and quite lonely feeling.

5 am: wake up, bathe (no shower, just tub), get ready for the day, and eat breakfast.

6:30 am: The principal of the school arrives to pick me up and take me to school.

7:00 am: arrive at the school, meet a few people, and prepare for the day.

From then until 1:30pm, I met many people, including my 24 students.  The Grade 1 teacher is very ill so her students were also in our Grade 3 class for part of the day.  I have to say, just about everything I was taught in school about strategy, lesson planning, discipline, and teaching in general are going to have to be thrown out the window, which is going to be hard for me.  This is South Africa; things go a little differently here!  My students are fantastic, full of life and energy, but not as much energy as their teacher J.  She has so much fire for teaching, I am going to learn a lot from her, please pray that we can find a way to work well together.  My requirements for school are going to be hard to fulfill completely since so much of teaching here is “go with the flow.”   But I was welcomed with letters asking if I loved them and telling me I was beautiful, a song students randomly made up when they were supposed to be writing a story about me, and hugs as they left out the door for the day.  I was told I can’t dance, that I was very bright, I mean white, and that I need to stay at least til the end of October so I can take a trip with them J.  Oh, I could literally go on and on for pages about everything that happened while at school today, but that would only drive you away from reading posts later on J. 

2:30 pm: Home from school, really not sure what to do.

From then until about 6:30, I did my best to push myself out of my comfort zone.  The family I am staying with has a daughter in Grade 2, Grade 9, and Grade 12, and a son in Grade 7.  The neighborhood kids are very friendly, and they get together to play often.  One of my students came over to play with the Grade 2 daughter and say hi to me.  I went outside with them and played for quite a while.  Then the daughter in grade 9 and some of her friends came outside.  We all played for a long time, jumping rope and playing tons of games outside, many I had not heard of before.  I even stubbed my toe!  (something I haven’t done in years, but it felt good to feel like a kid again J)  Then we all went for a walk down the mountain to bring everyone home for dinner.  I was very much on display for everyone.  When we passed by people, especially kids, they would just stare, often with their mouths open, so I would say hi.  They would often respond kind of robotically, somewhat surprised that I was a normal human being, haha.  2 girls needed a picture with me, and others just stared.  The grade 9 girls had some questions for me about Chicago and home, so it was fun to surprise them with a few things (snow, squirrels, driving differences, etc.).  Then back for dinner and tea, and now I’m here in bed, ready to fall asleep. 

Tomorrow I hope to try and find some internet access, the girls said they would take me along to some shops nearby, and there may be wireless internet at a café near there, so I hope there really is!

All in all, I’m trying to stay busy and not dwell on how many days I have left.  This seems like such a long period of time, but I know I need to just adjust to this culture, and to build relationships with the people around me.  First impressions and meetings are always a little awkward, right?

Have a great day, and I’ll be contacting you all soon!