Wow so I have been here a month now and time is going very fast! I still occasionally think, oh my god i'm in Africa...what!?! I can't even remember much as to what happened in the week, we didnt have as many lessons as the form 2's were on a residential but then i had more admin work to do so I was still very busy! This weekend was very very fun. I have joined this service called Barclay's Build which is basically a service which goes to orphanages/schools or disadvantaged areas and i think sometimes helps build things but we also paint buildings. This Saturday was the first one (its once a month) and we were painting a large storage unit at St Peter's Day Care Centre. This is for orphans and under-priveleged children, they come here every day in the week and are looked after and given a meal (for most this is the one guranteed meal they will get). Its for children aged 2-6 (before they start school) but older ones can come after school for the meal and to have somewhere to do their homework. So we had to paint this ugly looking storage unit that is in their playground. We spent the whole day there and we painted it white and then I drew the alphabet on it and we painted the letters different colours. It was very hot but very rewarding and the lady who runs the Centre was very grateful. We are hoping that we can go there and help every other tuesdays after school.
A memorable thing friday was around the late afternoon there was a HUGE thunderstorm with hail and massive bolts of lightning and lots and lots of rain.
Saturday evening was our first braai of the year (aka BBQ). This was really fun but was a bit of a mission to help organise-trying to persuade the upper sixth boys to stop sitting around and help cook the meat wasn't that easy! It was a great evening with a really fun and relaxed atmosphere-it was held by the pool and they had music playing and there was SO MUCH FOOD.
Sunday (aka today) was game drive day! It was at the local safari park called Mokolodi and it was a two hour game drive. Sadly we didnt see that many animals but we all still enjoyed ourselves immensly and the guide was really nice and told us a lot of interesting facts. e.g. a spitting cobra and spit about 2 meters and always aims for the eyes! The way you can tell the gender of a giraffe is by the size of their horns (males are slightly larger) and a males coat is slightly darker colour. We saw two ostriches a male and female (which came very close!) a giraffe but this was quite far away, a dead chameleon, springbock, fish eagle and another animal but i cant remember its name (similar to a springbock.)
This evening we are probably going to watch Les Miserables so i will have the tissues ready! Tomorrow is the first Naledi Feeding. This is another service i have joined where we take food to families who live in a underpriveleged area of Gabs. Next weekend I am going on the sports basketball trip to Johannesburg which should be fun.
p.s. COME ON ENGLAND (in reference to Six Nations)
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Sunday, 3 February 2013
Kgale Hill
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| Halfway up |
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| The only way is up (literally-see rocks behind me-thats the path) |
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| We made it (the view got better) |
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| Gaborone Dam |
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| Woo! |
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| Causal Table on a lady's head outside the mall |
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 ;)
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 ;)
Sunday, 27 January 2013
Jo's guided picture tour of the GBH
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| My room! (excuse the mess) |
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| Sweeping in the corridor |
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| Reading a mag in the sitting room |
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| walking down stairs to ground floor |
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| Take a left and you reach the toliets! Mmm |
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| Wheyhey and we have reached the showers! |
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| The lovely laundry room |
The GBH (girls boarding house)
So some of you have been asking me about the boarding house so i thought I would do a blog post on it-aren't you guys lucky! So...
There are two boarding houses, a girls and a boys both quite far apart (which I'm guessing they did on purpose!)
There are 45 of us in the girls boarding house. These range from year 7s to sixthformers. Many of the children that board are the ones that were lucky enough to get one of the scholarships so there are a few who are quite disadvantaged. (I was playing on my ipad mini earlier and one girl in year 7 came up asking to have a go and all she kept saying was "wow" "i have never seen one of these before or touched one". It put things in a bit of perspective! (cheesy cheesy)
The boarding house has two floors. Downstairs there is one corridor with about 14 rooms (two beds to a room) which is year 11s and there are the showers, toliets, laundry room and a sort of big open space in between with sofas. Upstairs there is the living room and two other corridors, one with sixth formers who share two to a room and me (but i get my own room!) and another with year 7s and 8s who share 4 to a room. Adjoa, Kelly and Tamara are all downstairs.
On weekdays the bell goes off at 5.30am to wake us all up to ensure we are ready for breakfast at 6.10 (but as you can guess there are always a few girls who are only getting out of bed at 6!) All meals for boarders are served in '"the caf" as its called here and it is situated about halfway between the two boarding houses. This is like a typical canteen, get a plate stuff, it's plopped onto it, grab a drink and sit down on tables with long benches for chairs. The girls and boys both eat in here but sit seperately (apparently thats just the way it is!)
After school they get some relaxation time when many girls watch tv, walk to the local supermarket which is about 5 minutes away or just chillaxxxx. Dinner is at 6 so its back to the caf and then prep starts at 7. This is when all the girls have to be in their rooms doing homework. They are not really meant to leave their rooms until 8 when there is a 10 minute break. Then the second hour of prep begins. For the TA's we normally make ourselves avaliable as if any students need help they are allowed to come and ask us. So far i have helped with maths (yes Will I know, very funny) and english which was creative writing (not laughing now are we Will!). I really enjoy helping the girls with their work and they are always really gratefull.
During prep there is always a teacher on duty who sits in the office on the second floor. There job is just to oversee and then to do the 'sign in'. This is at 9.30pm on weekdays and they have to go from room to room making sure everyone is in there. Its basically another version of 'lights out'. Most of the time the girls do as they are told but occasionally they do get up and walk around, and when its bad this is when us TAs have to step in. So far this has not had to happen!
On Friday and Saturday there is no prep, breakfast is at 8.30am and sign in is around 10.00pm. I cant actually remember, should probably find that out....On every other Sunday we have a meeting and this is run by the GBH mistress called Ms Mange. Also every Sunday for one of the hours of prep everyone has to clean, sweep and mop their room and then the years take it in turn to sweep and mop the stairs, and the living room. Also each week a different year group sweeps the stairs and living room each day before school.
Ok so a picture tour of the fine sites of the 'GBH' will follow shortly where I make a fool of myself so stay tuned viewers!
If anyone has any questions about the GBH or anything else feel free to email me or just post a comment on here!
There are two boarding houses, a girls and a boys both quite far apart (which I'm guessing they did on purpose!)
There are 45 of us in the girls boarding house. These range from year 7s to sixthformers. Many of the children that board are the ones that were lucky enough to get one of the scholarships so there are a few who are quite disadvantaged. (I was playing on my ipad mini earlier and one girl in year 7 came up asking to have a go and all she kept saying was "wow" "i have never seen one of these before or touched one". It put things in a bit of perspective! (cheesy cheesy)
The boarding house has two floors. Downstairs there is one corridor with about 14 rooms (two beds to a room) which is year 11s and there are the showers, toliets, laundry room and a sort of big open space in between with sofas. Upstairs there is the living room and two other corridors, one with sixth formers who share two to a room and me (but i get my own room!) and another with year 7s and 8s who share 4 to a room. Adjoa, Kelly and Tamara are all downstairs.
On weekdays the bell goes off at 5.30am to wake us all up to ensure we are ready for breakfast at 6.10 (but as you can guess there are always a few girls who are only getting out of bed at 6!) All meals for boarders are served in '"the caf" as its called here and it is situated about halfway between the two boarding houses. This is like a typical canteen, get a plate stuff, it's plopped onto it, grab a drink and sit down on tables with long benches for chairs. The girls and boys both eat in here but sit seperately (apparently thats just the way it is!)
After school they get some relaxation time when many girls watch tv, walk to the local supermarket which is about 5 minutes away or just chillaxxxx. Dinner is at 6 so its back to the caf and then prep starts at 7. This is when all the girls have to be in their rooms doing homework. They are not really meant to leave their rooms until 8 when there is a 10 minute break. Then the second hour of prep begins. For the TA's we normally make ourselves avaliable as if any students need help they are allowed to come and ask us. So far i have helped with maths (yes Will I know, very funny) and english which was creative writing (not laughing now are we Will!). I really enjoy helping the girls with their work and they are always really gratefull.
During prep there is always a teacher on duty who sits in the office on the second floor. There job is just to oversee and then to do the 'sign in'. This is at 9.30pm on weekdays and they have to go from room to room making sure everyone is in there. Its basically another version of 'lights out'. Most of the time the girls do as they are told but occasionally they do get up and walk around, and when its bad this is when us TAs have to step in. So far this has not had to happen!
On Friday and Saturday there is no prep, breakfast is at 8.30am and sign in is around 10.00pm. I cant actually remember, should probably find that out....On every other Sunday we have a meeting and this is run by the GBH mistress called Ms Mange. Also every Sunday for one of the hours of prep everyone has to clean, sweep and mop their room and then the years take it in turn to sweep and mop the stairs, and the living room. Also each week a different year group sweeps the stairs and living room each day before school.
Ok so a picture tour of the fine sites of the 'GBH' will follow shortly where I make a fool of myself so stay tuned viewers!
If anyone has any questions about the GBH or anything else feel free to email me or just post a comment on here!
Weekend round up:
Ok people! This weekend was very fun. Saturday was the big day, the inter house athletics. There are four houses, J,K,L and M and the way they put people into houses is just by classes (forms to us). So there is 1L, 1K,1J and 1M, 2L,2K,2J and 2M all the way to 6. (1 is year 7 to us.) Ok so I think that is the best way to describe it, it's a bit confusing I know. We (the sports department) had been doing a lot of prep work for the inter-house and luckily it ran smoothly. Thursday and Friday after school were the field events so Saturday was just the track events. We started at 8.30 am to avoid the midday sun and midday temperatures (on Thursday it got to 40degrees!) there was a really great atmosphere with lots of shouting and cheering! What really impressed me was that the head teacher got involved, he was the person who signified when the time keepers were ready by raising a white flag. Then relays were the last event but before this we took a short break. the teachers (and the teacher aides!!!!) went to the staff room for some snacks. Now we aren't normally allowed to have the teachers food that they get in school break time so this was a real treat especially as it was a better than a normal spread including pizza, cupcakes, scones with jam and cream mmmm. After this we headed back out for the relays and then Bruce announced the winner which created more screaming and running around in celebration!!
Later that day Tamara and I went to a nearby shop called 'botswanacraft'. This was mentioned in my lonely planet book courtesy of Auntie Gill, Uncle Steve and Chris so I couldn't wait to get some good bargains. It was massive and specialised in the classic African crafts as well as traditional Botswana gifts too! As you can guess I came away with more bags than I went in with! Hopefully they will fit in my luggage on my return...
That evening we watched Anna Karenina which was actually really good. We have taken to watching one film a weekend, Tamara's brother has downloaded a load of movies from 2012 that Tamara has so that's really fun. All in all a busy Saturday with a chilled evening!
Today I have actually had quite a lot to do! I have been researching places to stay for when I travel after MaP. This is very headache inducing as there are so many different options and packages! I also Skyped home, replied to emails and am updating my blog (as you can tell). Me and Adjoa might play tennis later as well if the heat dies down (we were inspired after spending the morning watching the final of the Aussie Open, poor Murrey!!)
Next weekend is still open. We plan to join the Form 1 boarders and a teacher, (can't remember their name) who are walking up the large hill called Kgale Hill on Saturday morning. We leave in the dark and get up there for sunrise!
Ok, I will leave you with an interesting fact Adjoa told me-in government run schools in Botswana it is still perfectly acceptable to whip/cane kids! This is done for small or large offences which range from being late to class to missing a detention. So kids next time you complain about school in the UK, count yourself lucky you don't go to school in Botswana!
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