Valentine's Day celebration at Blossom Street Primary

Friday was a big fund raiser day - organized by the teachers, not the parents, to supplement federal monies and school fees to help pay for basic school needs. There was a "market" with things to buy, food goodies, drinks, etc. And then there was the contest for Mr. Valentine and Miss Valentine (both lower and upper grades) of Blossom Street Primary School. Those children who entered, by paying a fee, were placed on a "stage" in the interior courtyard formed by plywood boards placed on tables, where they preened and strutted their stuff, in their Valentine Day attire of choice - red and white suggested. We volunteers were the judges, and it wasn't easy. All the children were charming.

Saturday was supposed to be a hike into Skeleton Gorge up Table Mountain with Michael Arrowood, who is spending a few days in Cape Town at the end of his tour - but he didn't make his plane from Jo-burg. So I took the train to Simon's Town to see the penguins again and stood there transfixed for several hours. Much of the courtship behavior is finished and the females are either scratching their nests in the sand or already sitting on their two eggs in very basic nests. The males take their turn as well. Both parents must be watchful or a crafty kelp gull will make off with their eggs. I actually saw this happen - and saw the gull drop the egg on a nearby rock to crack it and devour its contents.

Sunday was the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain with Michael - this time with plenty of time to wander and ponder. Even saw a dassie aka rock hydrax - most closely related, they say, to the elephant. A lovely elderly hiker-type led a guided walk and was very informative. Then on to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, which never seems to amaze me with its varieties of the indigenous fynbos plants of this region - the proteas, the ericas, and the restios (horsetail grasses).

They are keeping us very busy after placement this week. Yesterday we attended a special performance in the township of Gugulethu of singers and dancers who teach about HIV and how to prevent it. Today we went to two museums (the Slave Lodge and the District 6 Museum) and then came back to language lessons. I had decided to switch from isiXhosa to Afrikaans (since I have gone as far as I think I can with isiXhosa) but the Afrikaans teacher didn't arrive today. IsiXhosa is one of South Africa's eleven official languages - and the one mostly spoken by the local blacks. It was thought that it would prove useful for me at school, but all the children understand basic English. Afrikaans, however, is spoken in the staff room. It is the language in which the teachers crack their jokes and I would like to be able to understand it a little. It shares some vocabulary and sounds with German, so I might catch on. IsiXhosa, on the other hand, is very different from anything resembling English, with clicks for C, X, and Q - and different clicks, mind you, from a cluck, to a sound you would make calling a dog, and another you might make calling a horse. Difficult, to say the least. Will tell more about the Slave Lodge and District 6 (one of the areas from which black and coloured South Africans were forcibly removed during Apartheid) another time...

And today it was back to work! But I am having such a wonderful time working with these children.