The weekend of June 14th was extra special for it was a 3 day weekend in honor of Youth Day on Monday the 16th. To start the weekend off right, SAEP volunteer Liz planned a student hike on Saturday in a cool part of Cape Town known as the Newlands Reservoir. After making 7 loaves of peanut butter or cucumber & cheese sandwiches, SAEP volunteers Liz, Jane C., Asanda, Seychelle, Heloise & Ryan (me) led 19 students from one of the township high schools from Newlands Reservoir into the city's botanical gardens. As you can tell from the photos below, the hike was beautiful:
It was also fun to experience the trek with children that have never hiked before or been hiking only a handful of times. A few just came to get out of the house, but many were excited and interested in all of the nature and outdoor goodness. The mentality behind planning the hikes is to allow the children of the townships to experience nature, as many never get to, and to maybe spark their interest in careers or studies in science, preservation, or other environmental avenues. Some of our outdoor adventurers:
Bottom: Sandwiches!!Sunday was rainy and grey... Breakfast was had at a local cafe, Settlers of Catan was played, and a trip to the cinema followed... All great rainy day activities.
On Monday, Sanford and I did a bit of urban adventuring. As the ladies visited a local spa, we hiked about downtown. First we ventured through Greenmarket Square, a market featuring local goods and many vendors very eager to take your money. Next we walked up to an area of Cape Town known as Bo Kaap. Similar to Rainbow Row in Charleston or La Boca in Buenos Aires, this part of town is known for it's brightly-colored houses. It was a bit of a cloudy day, but the buildings were still very cool to see:
The colder weather has begun to cramp our style a bit on outdoor activities... Not that that is impossible to get outside, but backup , rainy day plans have become essential in planning any outdoor adventure. (Remember this when I get to the update about the rugby game!) Other than somewhat dreary weather though, I'm loving every minute of being here and am already dreading the thought of leaving in 6 weeks...Other updates: I will be teaching trigonometry in a local high school next week! Wish me luck as I try to remember sines and cosines from 10th grade... I will blog in further detail later, but the political situation in Zimbabwe has had an incredibly troublesome week. If you haven't read anything about the elections, it's worth checking out... Rugby is awesome!... So is (most) South African food...
much love,
Ryan
2 comments:
ryan, good luck with your trig class. i did two guest lectures on america and the cold war in a 12th grade history class last week, so i know how much fun it is to try to quickly relearn something and then try to teach it. it actually was pretty fun...
also, i enjoyed checking out all of your photos - you all are in such a cool location.
also, part II - i'm hearing some nasty rumors that you might not be in LR for the aug 21 presentations - say it ain't so. tentatively i'm looking at arriving on the 20th or 21st and staying through the 24th or 25th.
please say hi to sarah and sanford for me, and i'll talk to you all soon.
jay
Love the photos Ryan! Looks like you guys are having a great time with awesome scenery!
Post a Comment