Christmas Break

Sorry about the long amount of time between posts, I’ve been incredibly busy. Christmas break was great! We started off Christmas break with a camping trip to a place called Assegai Trails. Brother Josias and I took all the teenage Sunday school kids and kids from the monastery. It was pretty interesting. We stayed up late around the camp fire they would sing and dance in Xhosa throwing in some Beyonce and Akon every once in a while. We spent the days hiking the trails around the site swimming and canoeing in the “pond” next to the site which was more of a giant puddle. i taught them some American games likes duck duck goose and red rover, both they got a kick out of. Then on the last day we met up with a bunch of the younger kids from the school and one of my digs mates Nstika who teaches at the Sunday school, and we all went to the sea for the day and had a braai. by the end of the four day needless to say i was badly sun burn and warn out.

I spent Christmas with the brothers at the Monastery. I spent the 3 days before Christmas with them then Christmas day and left on the 26th. It was really nice. The Christmas supper we had was amazing! A good friend of mind who had been spending Christmas break at my house and is also from the states spent Christmas with us at the monastery. The hospitality of the Brothers never seizes to amaze me.

The rest of the break i spent traveling. I spent a few weeks backpacking up and down the coast of the eastern cape between Coffee Bay and Jeffrey's Bay. It is an absolutely beautiful past of the country. One part of where i was is called the Wild Coast because there is no national highway that runs on the coast. There are many villages and I learned quite a bit about Xhosa tradition and culture. I spent a lot of my time at the ocean surfing and swimming. Two days after I left East London where i had stayed for a few days with friends surfing and enjoying the small city. There was a 21 year who had been surfing and had barely survived a shark attack right off the coast of the city.  I spent New years in Kenton at a all day concert on the beach which was unbelievable there were 12 bands and the shows started at noon and went to midnight then a DJ went on till 4 in the morning, it was quite the experience. Two days before that I went to a thing called Oxbraai in Bathurst which is only 30 minutes from Grahamstown.  It was a giant braai or barbecue that they cooked 10 oxen over an open flame that went from noon on the 27th to noon the following day. It also sort of like a giant tail gate. there were somewhere around 20,000 people there it was incredible. It was the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here, I met people my age from all over Southern Africa.

I had to be back in Grahamstown for the opening of the new school on the 7th of January which was very exciting. We opened the school up with out a hitch, the kids have been having a blast and are learning so much. We go the playground built at the bottom of the hill from the school and they absolutely love it. The brothers have just finished the plans for the new school house that they are planning on building later this year. I'm just sad i wont be around to see it.

 

 

Still Walking,

Robby