Acceptable forms of Corporal Punishment?

You know, this one doesn't seem so bad. The teacher is not hitting the child and then they learn how it feels to hurt and build some muscles.

Hmmm...still on the fence.


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Morning run :)

So I sort of promised some friends that I'd run the Soweto Marathon in a few weeks with them. I'll debating it given I haven't trained at all...

But, this morning I decided to go on a long excruciatingly painful run just to see if I had it in me. I probably ran only 8 to 10 miles (the sandy roads always throw me off my normal tar road pacing). I finished and felt greaaat, a little dehydrated but really good like I could run another 10 miles no problem, so should be ready if I do decide to run the marathon in 3 weeks.

But we'll see...it's a qualifier for the Two Oceans Marathhon which is the biggest pusher to get me to run.


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Nutrition Week kick-off!

We are kicking off Nutrition Week at our school :)

All the dramas, songs, poems, posters, newsletters, organization and hard work...have paid off! Here the program director of the nutrition programme speaks, tell us we're doing a great job!

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Birthday Love Like ...WOOoah!

Starting from about 11 PM on the 10th (the day before my bday) the phone started buzzing off the hook...I have the best friend and family (or at least the most connected friends and family) in the world. Through the day yesterday I started to receive phone calls, emails, Gchats, Whatsapp messages, FB messages and posts, YouTube videos, text messages from across the globe from over 8 different countries (US, Canada, Perú, España, Switzerland, South Africa, La República Dominicana, Brazil...shoo the list goes on).

By midday all the 2nd graders had sung me happy birthday in English and Setswana. I received hugs and blessings from students and staff. After working on a drama I wrote with the kids about nutrition for this large school programme I helped organized for some officials from the Northern Cape Department of Education, I left to visit Naomi. Naomi, my life skills counterpart, has been out of school following a surgery for over a month and she has my same birthday. I went with my friends Masego and DK, and we sat talking for hours about the school projects I was working on and gossip from school.

Soon it was dark and after a HHHHUUUGE slice of Bar One cake, I got a lift home through the dark in time to catch watching Generations (a South African soapie) with my host family. My host mother Thenjiwe was waiting for me with a tiny little vase filled with a few roses from the house garden.

After Generations, I signed onto Skype and talked with some friends back home who wanted to wish me happy birthday.

Even as I jumped into bed, my phone buzzed throughout the night.

What you realize after a day like this though at time you may feel very alone at site far away from your friends and family, yet despite the distance people still reach out to you to make you feel special. You my friends and family have been there for me, some more than others, but it gets me through the day and makes me smile. I couldn't feel luckier in this moment and more connected to some of you on the other side of the world. Thank you for being there and taking the moment to reach out to me :)

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School Programme

So yet again I've been put in charge of something which I'll be curious to see how it turn out...a School Nutrition Programme. I saw told that we needed to make posters and songs and dramas for the kids to perform for this people when they come from the State.

Everything is completely vague and obscure to what the real motive is. I looked at the sheet that had been faxed to the principal and it just looked like the role out of maybe a new way to present material to the kids. Yet some how from this they got that we need to put on a performance or as they say "programme." So I've drawn posters, made up scripts for the kids to do about good eating, written a newsletter for the event and then today I made an actual "programme" sheet. I showed this to the other teacher I've been working with and then told actually we're supposed to make that, "the district will come and tell us." Not very clear but ok....

Will be curious to see how Friday goes.



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Coooool time

When you're sitting in a hot taxi for several hours, sometimes the most relieving thing you can do for yourself, besides find the nearest cold shower, is reach out the taxi window with your hand and say: "1 Cool Time!" (This is of course while you wait for your Kombi taxi to fill at the taxi rank).

This was a life saver for me the other day as I sat heating up, my legs soaked in sweat and pasted to my seat, as I waited for the taxi to fill. I have a tendency to faint and when I've been dehydrated or lack of food or sugar I'm more vulnerable. So reached out the window and ask for Cool Time and bite open the plastic covering and that thing was gone in just minutes. I instantly felt out of the red zone and sat back as the taxi finally filled and rolled out of the rank onto the road and I listened to the John Legend that played on the radio. A cool breeze began to flow through my open window and it just felt soooo fabulous to feel comfortable in 100-degree Weather.

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Racing Feet

Contemplating running Comrades ultramarathon with a 56-miles course...

Just love this picture I took of my kids at the start of their cross-country meet.

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