My Homestay!

My host family lives in a "security community" just outside of Fish Hoek.  They have a 3-year-old,  an 8-month-old, and 2 dogs.  It is THE PERFECT situation.

This is the view from their porch!  You can see the suburb of "Sun Valley" all the way to the ocean.

KIDS!

This is a "maths" class at the Ocean View School or children with Special Educational Needs.

Hanging out at Ocean View High School.

Hockey at the Fish Hoek High School which is in quintile 5, meaning it is in a wealthy area so it gets the lowest level of government finding.  The government gives the school (which houses 650 students) 21 teachers, and the school must raise money from the parents to pay for another 14 teachers to run their school.

Uniforms at Marine Primary school.

Visiting the Schools

We spent the first few days going around the local area visiting the schools everyone will be working at after the 2 week summer vacation.

Simon's Town school was built in the 1950s and has 500 students from ages 5-19.  Above is a picture of the hostel, where a few dozen students stay.  8 World Teach volunteers are working and living at that school this sumer.  Siomon's Town school gets money from the local maratime community, with the understanding that many of their graduates will be trained for and go into the Naval services.

Marine Primary school is where I will be working at a camp during the 2 week summer vacation.  This school is in Ocean View and has mostly "colored" students.  This school feeds into the Ocean View Secondary School (where I will be working for the final 5 weeks).

Ocean View Secondary School!  My future school!  More info to come!

Masiphumelele High School is a "no fee" school that services the black township of Masiphymelele.  

Kalk Bay

This train goes along the coast and up to the city of Cape Town.

SAFTEY 1st

Baboon Invasion Prevention Signs.

Pickpocket-Proof Money Belt.

Rocklands

For the first 3 nights, we all stayed at these cabins outside Simon's Town called "Rocklands."  We had campfires, South African history lectures, and a visit from a BABOON during dinner (a huge male baboon came in, grabbed a loaf of bread, and ran up the mountain).  We were shuttled around in 2 of these busses all around the West Cape.

QATAR AIRLINES

I met up with the other 27 World Teach volunteers at Dulles airport and together we flew 12 hours to Doha, 10 hours to Johannesburg, and 1 hour to Cape Town.

Doha is in Qatar and there were no women at the airport (beside the 24 I was with).

Bon Voyage

I am about to embark on a 24 hour journey to Cape Town by way of Doha, Qatar via Qatar Airlines.  I might be incommunicado until Thursday, when I move in with my host family.  This picture will have to suffice until then. (photo by Elizabeth Terry)