I love South Africa.

I can't believe this is the beginning of our last week here! Here's what we've done in the last few days:

Monday: After school, Marena and I went grocery shopping so I could buy ingredients to make dinner for my family! The grocery store didn't quite have everything I wanted, but I was able to scrounge up enough stuff to use for my pasta meat sauce, broccoli and garlic cheese bread. After the store, Randall and I went to the local sports arena and met up with the rest of the Michigan State crew to learn how to play cricket- a huge sport here in Africa. We were divided into two teams and given crash course directions on how to play. Needless to say, Randall thought we were pretty humorous to watch. It was a lot of fun and I even got a few good hits :)

Tuesday: School today was a little crazy. Not only did we find out about the 8 swine flu cases, but we also had to say goodbye to Catie- a girl in our MSU group who was placed at the same school as me. Catie broke her foot right before we left to come to South Africa and after a lot of frustration and pain, she decided to go home this week. It was really sad to see her go because she was one of my closest friends here, but at the same time I understood why she needed to leave. Not only was her foot getting worse through all of our hectic travels, but she is starting her first real-person teaching job the week we were supposed to get home, so getting off her crutches was a priority. After school, Marena took me to a giant flea market in downtown Cape Town. Since my accent makes vendors see dollar signs, Marena told me to pick out things that I wanted, tell her how much I wanted to spend and then she would do the talking/bargaining for me. I kept quiet and watched as she relentlessly bargained for two pieces of African art I picked out. It was hilarious to watch her! When we got home, I started making dinner for my family. It turned out really well (phew!) and they even asked for the recipe.

Wednesday: I'm getting so attached to my 6th graders here! This week I established a classroom library and a classroom helpers chart in the classroom. I created a prize box so that good behavior can be positively reinforced and brought in some math bingo games, flashcards and math dice. Everyday they ask me if I will stay in for recess with them so that they can play these educational games or read. I LOVE IT! These kids have taught me so much about the various cultures and education system here and have also treated me with the utmost respect. I'm definitely going to miss them when I go home. After school, Marena took me to meet her mother, sister and brother. We picked up Randall at his university, ate leftover meat sauce and went bowling 'as a family'. Charlie beat us all, but I came in 2nd, so I was happy with that.

Thursday: Instead of going to school today, I waited for the buses to come pick me up so we could make our way to the Southern Cape- another South African province about 6 hours away. We spent most of the day traveling and checked into the Afro-vibe hostel at nighttime in the city of George.

Friday: Today was an amazing today. We woke up early to go on a boat, tractor and hiking tour of a beautiful mountain atop of the city of Knysna. I took sooo many pictures and cannot begin to explain the incredible views we had all morning. After a fabulous lunch buffet, we rode the boat back to our vans and drove to the Kynsna Elephant Park nearby. We took a tour on a tractor and got off only to see 9 huge elephants walking towards us! I had bought a bucket of feed when we got there so when we got off the tractor, I placed a piece of an orange on my hand and felt as a slobbery trunk came and sucked it up! It was hilarious! I fed the whole container to a few different elephants and got a lot of pictures. Afterwards, we had the chance to interact, walk with and touch the elephants for an hour. It was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. Their skin was a lot tougher than I had thought and they had long coarse hair all over their skin. It was so exciting!

Saturday: This morning we woke up early and checked out of the AfroVibe lodge. After an hour drive to the Botlierskop Game Farm, we jumped on a huge 4x4 vehicle and began our safari! It was just like you would imagine it: bumpy roads, awesome tour guides and LOTS of animals. We saw ostriches, elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras, giraffes, impala, eland, rhinos, monkeys, cows, horses, kunu and water buck, not to mention gorgeous vegetation and hilly, scenic views. Needless to say, I took nearly 300 pictures. I can't wait to post, print and frame them!

Currently I'm sitting in a hostel waiting for dinner. Tomorrow we are going to an ostrich farm to ride ostriches and then to the Kango Caves to go spleunking. Monday is shark cage-diving. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are my last days in the school :( and Friday is our last night in South Africa. Saturday we leave for America in the early afternoon. I can't believe we only have a week left! Can't wait to see everyone. Hope all is well back home :)