Crossing Off The Top 3

Today I finished my list of South Africa cuisine that I had to try during my time here.
1. Chickens feet
2. Fatcook
3. Smiley - today's lunch!

A smiley is the local nick name for a boiled then braai barbecued sheeps head. After having read the book Khayelitsha, in which smileys are mentioned often as a delicacy and a socialable dinner that is fairly common in the township, I had to try one. It's amazing that I was able to try this meat and for such a good price - particularly after sharing the cost between 5 other people. I was a little disappointed we couldn't carve the meat off the head ourselves but unfortunately we didn't have a knife to do it with. Instead it was already butchered after it was cooked and we got to dig into all the pieces. I found it really interesting to know which part of the head I was eating. But the girls who weren't trying it were less eager and made faces throughout!

Personally I found that I enjoyed the cheek and tongue the most. The cheek was the most like a normal cut of lamb meat, whereas the tongue was very similar to the consistency of liver. Each mouthful we got to season with a special mix the came with the similey which comprised of a lot of salt and some other red spices like perhaps paprika or chilli/curry powder, I'm not sure but it sure tasted good!
The part that I had the most trouble with was the ear - it was manly cartilage which was in a layer between two layers of meat/fat that was only very thin. The crunch was very unusual and was a bit difficult to follow through with. All I could do is remember the crispy pigs ear we used to treat my dog with when I was younger.

Monday

In other news I've had a great past couple of days - Monday saw the arrival of new volunteers. It's so fun not to be the newest anymore! I get to share my knowledge with them instead and I love to talk so I'm really enjoying it! For example two new people joined me for HomeFromHome so I taught them the peanut butter and jam sandwich ritual! This week we made King/queen crowns after having a quick chat about English monarchy and how it links to politics in the UK. It got real messy real quick but I had a blast making my own crown with them.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a mixed day - in the morning we had to stay in the classroom to complete the end of term PE tests with the kids. I tried to make it more fun for them by doing actions for the coaches explain atoms but I'm the end I was stuck marking all the papers, but I was in the company of a really funny coach who was in a talkative and cheeky mood which created a fun atmosphere for us.. Fortunately HomeFromHome made up for the morning. Accompanied by the new sports volunteer we proceed to facilitate a really fun and engage sports lesson where all the boys and girls were playing together really well with good sportsmanship. 4 corners worked well as a warmup especially as I added anew command called 'break it down' which got the kids dancing! They love to dance so it went down as well as I had hoped so much so they we used it Wednesday too!

Wednesday

Smiley was the obvious highlight but project was super fun today too. I really enjoy doing multiple classes for 30mins as we can get them running around exercising amd playing games. 4 corners, the numbers game and buddies up was so much fun!! And the new volunteer loved to learn the new games like Sharky Sharky. Which was fun as always - Mingle was a very popular game today which got everyone involved and singing. And as I was captain I lead the game which strained my voice just a little! Then I spent the rest of the day playing cricket with the grade 2-3s which was really enjoyable in the Cape Town sun / rain! Yes it was a bit cold and wet today, reminds me of home.

Until next time xxx love to all my family xx

So then in the afternoon it was GAPA