Walks, Wasps and Window Shopping

Hello again!

So the week just gone was very busy! Bruce gave me the task of sorting out the medals from the Athletics Inter House. This took me quite a long time as I had to type the results up and work out who was getting a medal and then organise this in a way that would be easy for the House Captains to hand them out. As many of you would be able to guess I was in my element trying to work out the best and most organised way of doing this!

Bruce had quite a few meetings this week so I had to cover his lessons. When Idid it was the lessons which Shambs had the girls for swimming and i had the boys on the field or vice versa. Bruce didnt really tell me what to do so I kind of made it up, with the girls we did basketball and then the boys we did football (just a massive game, which they loved of course-wherever you are in the world, teenage boys just go crazy over playing football!) With the girls, especially in one lesson, they were all a bit un-energetic after a while so to change this i said-I will buy a brownie for the first person who gets the basketball in from the halfway line. As you can guess they all jumped up and practically sprinted to the halfway line and they were there to the end of the lesson attempting it but no one did get it in. Thinking about it, it probably wasnt a good idea that i was bribing them in a PE lesson with food but oh well!

On Thursday after school I went on my first service. I have joined 'Makgassa Reading'. This is where we go to a disadvantaged area called Naledi and just help and listen to people read. The ages of those we help read is very varied-I was helping a 20 year old and 25 year old and some of the other students were helping teenagers. I really enjoyed myself and it was very rewarding hour. it was especiall fun trying to explain what certain english words meant like únhappy'. My acting skills will definately improve by the time i come home!

We also spent a lot of this week preparing for the Inter House Swimming. This was held last Friday after school and was really fun. Loads of the students came to watch with each house having a different area around the pool to sit. Lots of spectators and so lots of screaming and shouting! I was one of the time keepers so had to concentrate very hard to not miss the starter gun! One very dramatic moment was when a waspdecided to land on my face (i think it was because all of us got given coke so it could smell it/taste it on my lips) So yes it landed on my face and started crawling across my lips and over my cheek, it was horrible and I just stayed very still but inside i was screaming-luckily a teacher came to the rescue and flicked it off my face. As you can guess I threw the coke away after that!

Saturday morning Tamara, Adjoa and I joined the boys boarding master on his weekly climb up Kgale Hill (pronounced Kaley Hill). This meant to avoid the sun we had to leave school at 5.30am (the boarding master normally leaves at 2.30 am! and runs up it) however it was definately worth it as it wasnt too hot. The weather apparently was perfect as well because it was quite cloudy and misty so there was no hot sun beating down on you (although that did meant the view at the top wasn't that great but we could still see the dam and around Gabs). So it took us about 45 minutes to walk up and 45 minutes to walk down (in this time the boarding master ran up and down the hill twice!). The last 15 minutes on the ascent involve literally climbing almost vertically up these rocks, it felt like we were scrabbling up a ladder. It was really fun and I am very glad I did it-reminded me of DofE and we arrived back just in time for breakfast!

Late morning Tamara and I went to Game City, one of the main malls. (Adjoa was going to come but she hurt her foot when walking back down Kgale Hill). We did nice bit of window shopping, i bought Mum's birthday present (i also bought one for myself) and then we went to Nandos for lunch! THis was very different to Nandos in the UK, the main difference being that 'mild spice' choice in the UK is very different to picking 'mild spice'here. As you can probably guesss, here it is A LOT spicier! Of course I also couldnt resist buying some pick and mix at the sweet shop in the mall called 'sweets from heaven'. In the evening we carried on with our weekly movie viewing-this week it was Life of Pi which i recommend, even if it is a bit of an unsual film. Today it has been VERY hot so havent done much- we are planning on going swimming later to cool off!

Next week is my last free weekend for a while. The weekend after next I am going on a sports trip-the U19 Boys and Girls Basketball tournment in Johannesburg and then the weekend after that it is the boarders weekend away to Sun City (which is camping, in this heat, oh goddd)

Hope you all have a good week!

J xxx

p.s. People keep asking me if i am missing any food-to be honest only roast dinners at the moment so if anyone wants to cook me one and package it up and send it to me that would be great! I also weirdly miss fruit pastilles and haribo tangfastics so if anyones feeling generous the address is on the Maru-a-pula website ;)