Interns/Volunteers in South Africa!

Christina and Emma’s South Africa Adventures! WK13

November 8, 2009 on 3:55 pm | In Christina and Emma's South Africa Adventures! | No Comments

Last week, the shipment of books and colored pencils arrived! Thank you to everyone who donated, with a special thanks to the Pingry and Christ the King communities. We especially want to thank Anna Wood, a fourth grader from the Pingry lower school, who requested GLP book donations in lieu of gifts for her birthday. We really appreciate this support and plan to start handing out the books to classes tomorrow. The kids are going to be so excited, especially given the great quality of the books!

The vice-principal of RPS asked us if we would work to create a yearbook with one of the grade 7 teachers. RPS has not published a yearbook in over twenty years, so we’ve been trying to help with suggestions and pictures. We also totaled the votes of the grade 7’s surveys, which included a “favorites” section and a superlative section, and got some very funny responses–one boy, for example, wrote that his worst nightmare is “being kissed by a girl who doesn’t know how to kiss.” It was also interesting how many of the kids’ choices were similar to those in the U.S.: the favorite food was pizza; their favorite song was “Knock You Down” by Keri Hilson; their favorite actors were Will Smith and Angelina Jolie.

We had some entertaining moments while starting to read a few of the donated book with the kids. A few grade boys spontaneously broke into rapping and beatboxing “The Lorax” (and it actually sounded good!), and a few groups very elaborately acted out “The Rainbow Fish.” With one grade 3 class, we hosted a competition between the boys and the girls. Each group had to read the full book and plan out a performance. The difference between the boys’ group and the girls’ group was hilarious: while the girls quietly sat in a circle and passed the book amongst themselves, the boys pushed each other and argued about how best to read the book. Given this, it was unsurprising that the girls’ performance won by a landslide–even the boys admitted that.

On Wednesday afternoon, we left for Durban, which is in the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa. It was great to explore a new city, enjoy the sunny weather, and eat delicious Indian food! We cannot believe that we are leaving South Africa in less than two weeks!