Updates

Last week I walked into my classroom at Injabulo and all my Lizards took me over to the back of the classroom saying 'Teacher! Teacher!' and pointing to something and there was a Scorpion! I've never seen a Scorpion before in my life and I've only heard stories. I didn't really know what to do so I told the children to sit on the carpet which was away from it and went to get Nelsiwe, one of the Siswati teachers. She got the scorpion out no problem haha. The children love playing with your hair and I let them because it's actually really nice when they do. It can sometimes get out of hand though...

          

Before

After

 This happens at both Injabulo and Moriah Centre haha. The kids at Moriah Centre live locally so sometimes when we go to the supermarket you can just here 'Aunty Clare! Aunty Clare!' And then see kids running up to you and hugging you. It is the cutest thing and you can't stop smiling whenever you think about it.

Lat week we celebrated 2 of the teachers at Moriah Centre's birthdays. We brought a cake since we had no time whatsoever to make one and told them to close their eyes while we brought them into one of the classrooms. Then got as many of the other teachers as we could find to come in as well and then told them to open their eyes. They were so surprised and looked so happy. We had a lot of fun and laughs while eating the cake it was such a happy moment.

Birthday Girls: Aunty Mary and Aunty Agnus

We decided that last weekend would be a quiet one but it was far from it! Friday night we ended up pushing a car for which I swear was more than 10km because it wouldn't start haha. Then Saturday we headed up to a place called Malkerns which is in the high veld for a 'beer festival' and typical me I was again unprepared for the weather thinking it would be warm and sunny when in actual fact was heavy rain and thunder and lightning. At one point we were sitting under one of those canopy tent things and then all of a sudden there was a huge crash of thunder and lightning at the same time. I still had adrenalin pumping through me like ten minutes later, I got such a fright! Then that night we ended up staying the night in hospital because our friend had broken  his leg really badly! It was a nightmare I felt so sorry for him, he was in so much pain. The next day he had to go to South Africa to get an operation but one of his friends went with him so we went back to sweet home Big Bend. We ended up sleeping all afternoon because we were so tired.

At the moment we are trying to organise the children's graduation for the end of November but we have so much to do so it's quite stressful. We need to find some sponsors so hopefully we haven't left it too late. Moriah Centre is definitely more organised than Injabulo haha. I want to start a swimming club or carry on with the football team which one of the previous volunteers started but it is really difficult at the moment because we have no transport to pick up the children so I need to figure something out. Anyway until next time. 

Swaziland

I thought since I haven't talked much about Swaziland and where I'm staying I'll take this chance to do that. Swaziland is split up into three sections: the high veld, the mid veld and the low veld. Big Bend (where I live) is in the low veld where it reaches the hottest temperatures. Big Bend is famous for it's sugar plantations as they are literally everywhere! Whenever we come back from somewhere outside Big Bend the first thing we always notice is the sweet smell of sugar cane and I swear there is nothing nicer. In the mid veld there is the city of Manzini and consists of cooler temperatures and then in the high veld there is the capital city Mbabane. We were told here it can even sometimes get up to 10 degrees lower than the temperature in Big Bend. So we like to travel up north sometimes at the weekend if the heat is unbearable. There are a row of mountains called the Lubombo Mountains which act as a barrier between Swaziland and Mozambique and are very impressive. We are now getting into Summer which means a lot of rain and big thunder storms but with very hot, humid weather. It often gets up to around 40 degrees but I am getting used to it... sort of. The thunder and lightning storms are so cool. I took this picture of lightning when it was pitch black outside so you can see how bright they are to light up everything.

Lightning

The Lubombo Mountains and Moriah Centre is just to the right of this picture

Where I live

Me in my room

My back garden

Only joking haha. I live in a school hostel so where the students board which is quite nice actually. We do live very close to a Nature Reserve though. This is the top the road which goes down to the Sisekelo High School. The main street acts as a T junction to this road and has a couple of supermarkets, a bank, a hospital, post office etc. Everything we need is a walk away which is very handy.

Top of our street

Sunsets are amazing here

 It is part of the Swazi culture that everyone is really friendly which makes this country so safe to live in. It is a Christian country so Sundays are usually quite quiet here. At the moment everything is transforming from the very dry and dusty land to lush green grass and trees. It is so beautiful here. Not sure what else to tell you  about Swaziland but if I think of anything don't worry I'll let you know.
   

Midterm Break

The other weekend we were off for the midterm break so it was a long weekend which was much needed! We were off early on Thursday then back to work again on the Tuesday. We decided to venture outside the calm and relaxed Swaziland into the chaotic and noisy country of South Africa. Nonetheless you cannot stop yourself from falling in love with this amazing place. We thought we'd visit the quiet town of St Lucia to go whale watching first. During this time of year they guarantee that you will see a humpback whale or you get a 40% refund so we thought this was a must! This time I looked up the weather forecast when we were booking it and it said it's supposed to be sunny so we went with it. Then go further down the coast to Durban for a couple of days then back up to Swaziland.

We had a bit of a complication with the hostels because I was very tired when I was booking it. Since we were going to two places I accidentally booked the Durban hostel for the same time we would be in St Lucia. The funny part was when I was booking the days it came up with the Thursday which was when we got to St Lucia and I thought it was psychic for 'knowing'. Payed the deposit and everything and only realised later when we were looking at it and we couldn't stop laughing but thankfully it was pretty easy to sort out.

We traveled down to St Lucia with one of the Sisekelo teachers by public transport and took about 4 hours. We were with good company so the journey went quite quickly. When we arrived it was raining!! Typical us booking something which needs good weather and it to be wet and cold! The next day we found out that our trip was cancelled due to 'poor visibility'. We hadn't paid so it didn't matter too much but we were really looking forward to it. We decided to go on a hippo and crocodile boat cruise instead. It was a bit boring at the start because it was cold and we only saw boring things but then we came across 2 groups of about 20 hippos with their calves (which are adorable). It was pretty cool they were just chilling in the water though. Next morning we went on a kayak down the same river which initially sounded dangerous and exciting but was actually the opposite but was a nice row on the water.

About to kayak

Later on that day we traveled further down the coast to Durban. It was quite sad to leave everyone at the backpackers because we met some quite cool people there and don't want to sound cringey but inspirational haha. Took about 3 hours to get to Durban where we were hoping the weather would change and could spend some time relaxing on the beach in the sun. But no. Was still wet and cold. Durban was crazy though! A lot different than Swaziland. When we arrived in the kombi we had no idea where we were going and just kept on being transferred from one kombi to another. There was pumping music everywhere coming from the kombis and people randomly dancing. I loved the energy in this city so much. We eventually got to where we were staying after what seemed like a tour of the city.

We met the two boys whose project was just outside Durban in a place called Boystown which is a school where some boys are orphans, some are sent by court and some are sent by their parents if they're too much. Their project sounded quite tough but pretty cool. They invited us to a VIP event where loads of schools around go to which has fun things to do like sports, talent show contests, face painting, hair stuff and lots of other things. And also free food of course. It was amazing to see their kids and hearing about the stuff they go through. It was also nice to meet the Durban boys and get to know them a bit better.

A group at the talent contest at the VIP event

First time ever at the Indian Ocean!!

The next morning we had to get the kombi back to Big Bend. We left the backpackers very early at about quarter to 8 and was thinking we would get back at about 2 o'clock at the latest. We got onto our kombi and waited for it to leave the station. And waited some more. And more. Five hours later we finally left and didn't get back home until about half 6. The kombis have to wait until their kombi is full before they leave the station and alongside that there was a bit of a kerfuffle about luggage because somebody wanted to take a wardrobe and mattresses in the trailer but the driver wasn't sure in case he got stopped by the police. In the end he took the things and there wasn't a problem so it was all good. Overall although it was a very rainy weekend we both enjoyed it a lot.