Friday, March 4, 2011

Percy Mdala High School


































































Yesterday i went to Percy Mdala High School which is a high school in the middle of one of the townships.  On average they have 50 students per class and that number is still growing. There are not enough desks, classrooms, books, or teachers to accommodate all of the students.  The students were not familiar with digital cameras so they enjoyed being photographed and seeing their pictures!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Whale Wars

 On Thursday evening I went to the Knysna High School teacher talent show with Heather and her family.  Her dad teaches at the school and played the Irish Fling!

 After he played he did an Irish Dance!
 They did a version of Little Red Riding Hood and he was the grandfather.  The students loved when he woke up and chugged a bottle of whiskey!
 On Friday morning Heather picked me up to go out on her friend's boat! She ran into him at the grocery and he said he was taking out a group of tourists and asked if we wanted to go! It was so awesome!! We went out on the boat below and we did doughnuts in the lagoon. Then we went out to sea and he showed us the castles and places where famous people live right on the water.  He mentioned that they have had some whale sightings recently and I almost had a heart attack! In my head I was trying not to get my hopes up but I was so excited!! I he was pointing to the houses and whatever but I kept my eyes out to sea! Eventually I saw something that looked like a geyser. I pointed it out the the captain of the boat and we went out to see what it was and it was A POD OF WHALES!!!! They were all around the boat in every direction.  It was a pod of about  10 to 15!! One even came under our boat and came up right along side of us!!













 "I think I just saw something out there!" - Me

 "Yea i see it too!" - captain
 And then my camera died.....



 Sharon and Danie

 Saturday night we went to Danie's brother's fiance's birthday party! She was turning 21! Danie was in charge of the braai (grill) and the music! He was cooking snook.
 Michael, me, Sharon, Danie

I tried to get a picture of everyone together but they came out blurry...

 Sunday we went to two different beaches to go fishing!

 This was the bait that dannie and michael caught.  They take cans and put them over small holes in the sand by the water.  The push down the can and the pressure or something pushes out these prawns.


 I caught a blow fish!
 I tried to go swimming but the waves were so big! You could go surfing on them!
 Sharon
 Danie
 Danie's catch of the day :-)
 Danie, Michael, and Michael's friend.

 On monday I went to Knysna High School with Heather's dad who is a math teacher.  I wanted to see how a public school ran in comparison to the private school.  It was really weird to be in a school where Afrikaans was the main language used!  They do offer classes in English but all of the announcements and meetings were in Afrikaans.  It was a great experience!