Gymness updates

I thought I'd write a quick post seeing as I'm at the gym! Why waste a good opportunity! I haven't been up to much lately actually so this is going to be a really sort and probably boring post, but since I hit the 1000 veiws mark this week and my veiws per day has increased significantly (although it's probably just my parents checking every day from each of their multiple gadgets-they've gone from being technophobes to totally dependant!)

Yesterday I went ice skating at Grand West casino which was really fun, but once you've been skating in circles for 2 hours one leg is really beginning to ache! I'm also thinking about a holiday in January to go travelling because that's when the summer holidays are here.

Oh and the final thing is I've scored 3 nightshifts next week! I'm so excited! I've got loads of films downloaded from other volunteers and I have so much sewing and stuff to do! There is no chance of me accidentally falling asleep at the wheel so to speak!

Whales in Hermanus

Yesterday I went Whale watching! Its was really good fun :) It took us an eventful 2 hour drive to get to Hermanus in which we had to go through a police road block, went the wrong way and all fell out the car several times excitedly thinking we had seen a whale only to find it was actually a rock, or a boat or a wave. But once we finally made it, we did actually see whales! There were maybe 6 or seven there and most of the time all you see is their spine and then tail as they breathe and dive but one of them started breaching (jumping) and it jumped probably 3 or 4 times once after the other and once that whale had jumped, another one seemed to want in on the fun so we got really lucky!

Then on the way back, we decided to see if we could make it up Signal Hill to see the sunset. We didn't make it, but Cape Town looks beautiful at night all lit up!

First Hand Washing Experience!

Ok, so I'm posting this so everyone can laugh at me! And if it hadn't happened to me and had happened to someone else, I would probably be laughing at them!

At DCH we get our laundry done for us, but we can't hand our underwear in because everything gets washed with the children's clothes so I guess it would be unhygenic or something. Anyway, this means we either have to take our underwear and whites and anything we value and don't want to be shrunk or changed colour etc to the local laundrette, or wash it my hand ourselves. Seeing as I'm a volunteer I decided to try and hand wash because it's cheaper, even if it does take longer! So I'm sat in the bathroom with my bucket of soapy water and everything I need to wash and (after I've left it to soak for a while) I start scrubbing it like we were shown on Coll. Maybe 20 minutes later I've finished scrubbing it and my knuckles are SORE. I change the water and don't add soap this time so hopefully if I leave it to soak again, I won't have to scrub the soap out (yes I'm that lazy). And I leave it again. Basically the final result is some mainly clean clothes and I now have no skin on 3 of my knuckles. Maybe I did it wrong, but I know one thing for sure...I'm going to the laundrette next time, it might be more expensive, but I get to keep all my skin!

My day-to-day routine.

Every day here so far is much the same, not that I'm complaining! I work a Monday to Friday shift but most volunteers work the 2 week shift (you have a long week and a short week and over 14 days, you only work 7 but you have to be at work at 6am). I work from 1pm until 4pm then I have a 1 hour break while the kids have their outside time. I then work from 5 until 9pm which involves an hour or two (depending which child-care worker is on duty) sat in the corridor outside the childrens rooms partly to make sure they stay in their own rooms and go to sleep, and partly so they feel safe that someone is making sure they're ok. Then at 9 the nightshift arrives and I get to go chill :) Most nights, I'm pretty knackered so I just have something to eat then go to bed, but sometimes on a Friday or Saturday a bunch of us go out to the Beer Garden-an outside pub type thing or to Stones or Rabbit Hole both neither pubs or clubs but a sort of combination.

Life in South Africa

Today is our first hot hot HOT day here in SA. My watch tells me it's at least 30 degrees outside, but I'm not entirely sure that's true, it sure is hot though! Everybody is just lying around on blankets in the shade-some of the kids have been allowed in the pool I think, but the volunteers aren't allowed. Some volunteers went to the beach, and the rest of us are jealous of them! We don't have access to DCH's cars, but we can hire some if we want, so there are 2 cars that have been hired by different groups of volunteers. One car is in Cape Town because one volunteer has a friend from Japan staying so she's been taken to see the penguins I think, and they managed to get 7 people in the other car!

There was a massive sports day yesterday which all but the youngest kids went to (and all the volunteers). DCH hired out 2 coaches for around 150 people-each coach taking around 50/60 seated-and we were wondering how they were going to get so many people into so little space, but we forgot we aren't in England with their rigorous health and safety laws and what-not, so a coach which had 50/60 seats could actually fit around 100, especially if the small ones were sat 3 to a seat!

Other than that, not much is happening! I go to work every week day and I absolutely love it! I've taught the kids in my house some songs, so whenever I'm there they want me to sing 'That song with the rabbit' And I've had to stop wearing my watch because the kids love playing with it so much, making it beep or turning the backlight on, they've nearly run it out of battery!

First South African post!

Wow, I've made it! I'm actually in SA! We arrived Friday 31^st in Johannnesburg and stayed in a backpackers there for 2 nights. We got to visit the Hector Pieterson museum as well as the Apartheid museum and a township called Soweto. On the Monday, we separated and all went to our individual projects which for the 6 of us meant flying to Cape Town where we were picked up by another volunteer and taken to DCH. I started work on the Wednesday and I absolutely love it! I'm never coming home!

I'll do a longer post when I've signed up to the gym which has free internet! :)