Hello Everyone! This is Tim Curran, a senior CHE/IOE student on the Cape Town VA trip. I am writing a blog post to first briefly talk about my experience volunteering, and then to talk about some of our weekend adventures, specifically Friday night and Saturday.
As Vicki mentioned in her previous post, I am working along with her at an elementary school near downtown Cape Town. While she has been placed in the 1st grade, I am in a class of 42 6th graders, which has been an exciting but exhausting experience! I have been helping wherever the teacher needs assistance, whether that is teaching a science lesson on photosynthesis (I did that two hours into my first day), grading math quizzes, or typing up English assignments for the kids to complete. So far it has been a great experience, and I look forward to continuing to volunteer again starting tomorrow!
On Friday night, we had the opportunity to go to dinner with an EGL alumni named Ryan Purcell who lives and works in Cape Town. We went to dinner at a place called Mama Africa at the heart of downtown Cape Town and enjoyed a delicious meal. The more adventurous of us tried delicacies like warthog, crocodile kebabs, ostrich steak, kudu (antelope) steak, or springbok (gazelle) steak, and everyone had a great meal and a fun time meeting Ryan [editors note: there was a combo plate for ~R250, so instead of ordering that the business savvy EGLs each ordered one of the meats for R125 and just shared, because EGLs rule]. The evening showed us that the network of EGL alumni truly extends everywhere!
On Saturday the schools were closed, but we still had an early morning, as we had a full day touring Cape Town and seeing the sights. We started the day with a beautiful scenic drive through Cape Town along the ocean, and we eventually reached Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost western part of Africa. From here we had some spectacular views, especially from the lighthouse on top of Cape Point. After driving to an area nearby and enjoying lunch at a seaside restaurant, we went to an area called Boulders, where we were able to see a multitude of African penguins. They were even smaller and cuter than we had anticipated, and it was difficult to restrain ourselves from trying to bring one home as a pet! In addition to the penguins, some other animal sightings for the day included several ostriches and a group of baboons, so we were able to see plenty of South African wildlife. After seeing the penguins, we ended the day with a tour and wine tasting at Groot Constantia, one of the wine farms in the greater Cape Town area [editors note: don't worry, everyone was of legal South African drinking age]. Our guide, Eon, was friendly and funny and made the day even more enjoyable, and we are excited to have him as our tour guide for the rest of our weekend activities!
And now to talk about today's activities, it's back to Nathan!
Luckily for us, we got to sleep in till 8:30 am this morning! It was amazing, since we all went to bed before midnight. We started the day off with a quick trip to the oldest building on the island, the castle (it's really a fort). This was built by the Dutch and then occupied by the English, then the Dutch again, then the English again, and finally it's now occupied by South Africa. It housed a lot of 1700s war memorabilia and was a very interesting relic of the Colonial era. We then took a short boat ride over to Robben Island, where many policial and regular prisoners were held during the aparthied era, including Nelson Mandella. We first toured the island in a boat, and then walked through the prison itself. It gave many of us a chance to reflect on the suffereing that some people went through to give the freedom that all South African's enjoy today. Nelson Mandella, specifically, was imprisoned for 27 years, which is longer than all of us have been alive. I personally felt touched at the sacrifices made by people like Mandella in the name of equality and freedom. After that, we took a ferry back to the mainland and drove up to Signal Hill, since Table Mountian was closed. We had a mini EGL photo shoot with lots of crazy pictures (which I promise I'm going to post later... seriously) and got to enjoy a very nice view of Cape Town. We then headed back to the house, excited to spend another week volunteering and helping our awesome learners out.
Look for another guest blogger from South Africa tomorrow, and maybe even some pictures.
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