Wrapping up is spooky

Monday:

·         Last day of service! I am really sad to be leaving. The main thing that I worry about is if I leave and the program I’ve been working on doesn’t get picked up by anyone else. But only time shall tell.

Tuesday:

·         We had our big final presentation for our advocacy projects! This was sort of our final project for our Community Development class.

·         A lot of people were invited; even the provost of Marquette was there, along with some of my housemates’ teachers and students.

·         There were four groups of us, each working on one project for community development. I was in the Lotus Park group that dealt with the tutoring program that I’ve been going to on Thursdays. Mostly, we spoke about participatory development and how our project demonstrated that because it was thought up by members of LYDC (Lotus Youth Development Council), and ran through the participation of both LYDC and the community in a sustainable way.

Wednesday:

·         Halloweeeeen!

·         Mary Claire and I started the day by going to the party store with Andrew and Adolph. I ended up spending around $12 dollars for everything to decorate and for my costume!

·         When we got back home, the decorating began!

·         And the cooking. Our menu included bloody eyeball soup, mummy dogs, garlic gh(t)oast, witches brew, and copious amounts of candy!!

·         I made the tomato soup from scratch! Yup, I boiled down the tomatoes and everything. It turned out a little odd, but tasty. And then I added mozzarella balls with food coloring for the eyeballs.

·         I made a batch of fake blood, so you had better believe it was all over!

·         We invited Mama Zana (Mary Claire’s teacher at her work site) over, and she got quite a kick out of it all because she had never done Halloween before.

·         All in all, a very successful Halloween dinner!

I ended up being Katniss from the Hunger Games. Which was great because I wore my every day outfit, painted on a mockingjay, and bought a twenty rand toy bow that was the most fun thing ever!!! Ah, and the fake blood came in handy.

Saturday:

·         I had fun dinner out with all my favorite house mates. I went with Mary Claire, Burkard, Stuart, Jason, Meribeth, Sarah, and Shatevia.

·         In the course of the evening, it was decided that Sarah was my date and she made me the most beautiful bouquet of leaves and twigs.

Sunday:

·         American family dinner cookout

·         Maggie and Sam impressed us all with their homemade burgers on a proper barbeque. 

Kidlets

Monday:

·         Work Site: I just need to finish some last touches on the social work program. Also, I am rather sad because Angela, the lady I have been collaborating with, is also leaving Dance For All.

Tuesday:

·         Imbasa! Today I went with Stuart to Imbasa Primary where both he and Mary Claire teach. It was such a hectic day! Stuart works with the fourth graders and it was just a huge free for all the whole day long. Although he told me that they were particularly well behaved that day.

·         I had a blast playing games with them (hand clapping games, fire on the mountain, and tomati solisol), and we brought in some colored chalk!

·         After their break, Stuart had to go type something for his teacher (who had disappeared all day anyways) so I got thirty fourth graders of my own for the afternoon. We wrote stories and then I let them loose upon the chalkboard with the colored chalk. It turned into a mural of “I love Shannon!” everywhere, which was too cute.

·         Some variations of the spelling of my name: Shanon, Sharon, Sara, Chanin, Sanra, Shama, Sharna, and Mary. I think they called me Mary because of Mary Claire…

Wednesday:

·         For Bridget’s birthday we went to a gay bar, which was a blast. They had a drag show, and she was pretty damn hilarious. Bridget also got to take a body shot off a very muscular waiter, so she seemed pretty happy as well.

Thursday:

·         Mary’s mom is here, and so she came to Lotus when we went to go tutor. Luwando took us around and we even got to see his house and his mom’s house! It’s really interesting because they just look like compilations of corrugated metal and wood, but you open the door and he had a huge TV! Mary’s mom seemed rather nervous about where she was sending her daughter, but she definitely had a blast playing with the kids.

Friday:

·         We had all of our friends from Lotus come for dinner! LYDC  (Lotus Youth Development Council, which we have been working with) organized it, so we hadn’t met all the people that came.

·         We cooked them a “traditional American meal” that included Mac and Cheese, cornbread, chili, and pasta salad. They really liked it all, but I think we were a lot more into the mac and cheese than any of them (you can’t get it anywhere here. We’ve tried).

·         We also played a ton of games with them, and it was pretty great seeing them try to figure out charades! I was a jackal.

·         After all the Lotus people left, we were on such a high that we played a house-wide round of sardines!

Saturday:

·         So I walked for 9 hrs today. No big deal.

·         We did Skeleton’s Gorge Part II with the whole group. Only this time, we walked down the front of Table Mountain and several of us walked all the way around Devil’s Peak back to Obz! My feet were quite sore indeed, there was much barefooting.

·         Also, on our way down, we passed a ton of Indian people. A lot of them were in business suits and nice shoes. It was so bizarre to see! But someone mentioned that there was a Muslim holiday that involved people “taking a journey” so we guessed it had something to do with that. I was also quite happy that some of them pointed out my nosering and asked if I had ever been to India (I was so thrilled to tell them yes!)

·         On the front face of Table, there was a guy playing marimba. It was so perfect and beautiful. Just imagine that as your office every day!

Sunday:

·         Because we are going to UWC, we had the U dubs braai. I talked to many students, and I am really peeved at our program for doing this in the last several weeks, and not at the beginning when we could have actually seen any these people again.