New School and the Sandwich Dance
This morning the bus was not a volunteer bus, it was the lads on tour bus! We had the transport to ourselves which was slightly strange seeing as there are only about 6 staff and volunteers out of 25 that are male. So naturally it was all girls and football talk.. No not really, it's Monday morning for crying out loud!
But saying that I had probably the best day yet today. Everything at the primary school went according to plan. The kids were slightly older than what we normally teach so it was so refreshing to be able to challenge their abilities with some more complex drills. Today we focused on passing and dribbling the ball with various relay games and drills that we made up ourselves - it so satisfying to use the same cone layout for 5 different things so that you don't have to constantly change the playing field. During the lesson we also did some endurance and agility runs to tie in with the specification for physical education in schools, within their age bracket.
So we completely smashed the morning in regards to coaching, and then to put the icing on the cake the sunshine was so lovely and warm (don't worry I did put on my sunscreen) which made our unhindered view of table top mountain just stunning. I've never gotten over how unreal it looks and I don't think I will get tired of its majestic peaks even when you can see it from anywhere in the city.
The afternoon only continued to snowball my amazing morning. At Home From Home I was practicing my German dancing (benefits of having tipsy German friends) whilst making sandwiches because I was in such a good mood. So when I got into the classroom I was motivated to have a good session. As it is South African heritage day this week I had planned some craft activities for the group. However, before we got stuck in, we compared my British traditions to Xhosa and South African traditions. It's was so lovely to have a discussion with the kids and I was genuinely learning so much from them. Weddings and ceremonies about entering manhood particularly stuck in my mind and interested me.
Our first activity was to make bracelets out of craft paper and decorate them with traditional South African patterns. Some of the designs they produced were really creative and certainly reflected their country, it was just what I wanted to see. I even got to make one myself with them, seeing them so engaged and the way I was interacting with the group was perfect - just how I want the sessions I run by myself to unfold.
Half the lesson was based on this craft, and with a short interlude of an intense national quiz we proceeded to designing an outfit for the paper men I had brought with me. We managed to get some off cuts from the local textiles store, so we had a whole bag full of brightly coloured, patterned fabric. Which we cut out and stuck to the figures. Again the kids loved it and when I showed the staff back at HQ they couldn't believe how good they looked and how sweet it was that they had put all this effort in and really connected with my lesson. As you can imagine the tidy up at the end was an absolute nightmare but it didn't detract from the experience at all.
Love to all my family xxx catch you tomorrow!
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