Cape Town

Day 1 & 2: June 6th, 7th

Holy moly I am in South Africa! Honestly it still has not hit me yet, I think I am still in a state of shock. Yesterday I had only slept one hour on the red eye from London to Joeburg and due to my sleep deprivation I was not acting like a normal, functioning human being. (AKA No one was home.) Cape Town itself does not look anything like I thought it would look like. Obviously I pictured a desert with zebras eating grass and antelope prancing around a waterhole with a huge elephant waving it’s trunk. Cape Town, from what I have seen looks like it could fit right in America, nothing too out of the ordinary. Except for the townships, where I will be working. Driving out of the airport all along the highway is a township with an estimated 2 million people living in it. This is also where the orphanage I will be working in is. They literally are living in shacks. It was quite shocking driving by and I have yet to even go in. More about the townships to come after I go tomorrow.
I was dropped off at the flat I will be living in for the next two weeks. Typical apartment three rooms, a kitchen, living room and two bathrooms. We overlook a picturesque harbor to the south and have a stunning mountain range to the north. I don’t really remember anything else that happened on the first day because everything went right over my head, like I said (No one was home.) I went to bed at around eight o’clock while everyone else went out for drinks, typical Allyson right?
Today was training day and information overload. I found out I will be teaching 3-4 year olds for the two weeks and I am told they are the hardest bunch to teach. Wonderful. I have no teaching experience except for throwing some tennis balls at kid’s rackets and hoping they bounce off the strings. This should be interesting. Our themes for the rest of the month is teaching about plants and grow. Later on in the week I am dressing up like a flower, I can’t wait for that. Seriously. We also attempted learned some of their language today, it is call xshosa. The x is a clicking sound. OMG they actually click, so cool! We learned to say hi, good morning, what is your name etc. My favorite word is ndiyavuyaukubona which is glad to see you. Not to say I am an expert after my 30 min. lesson on xshosa but I think it is a lot easier then Chinese because you can sound out the word. What a concept!
Elle, you will be proud to know I cried yesterday. This may be one of hardest things I have challenged myself with. I am halfway around the world and I am living with people I have met for a few hours. I am completely out of my element. To be honest I said to myself, “What were you thinking?” But the more I hear about the children and the more I realized the type of impact I am capable of I feel more confident and like I might survive these too weeks.