The End of Feb and Beginning of March

Heather and Desmond Tutu

Before Matric Dance

A converted Canadian

Mungie and Heather at Global Breakthrough (He was slightly over dressed!)

DJs at Global Breakthrough

Marina and I before going out!

I am writing you all from a very sunny and muggy cape town today- March so far (yes, all three days of it) has been beautiful and they are predicting a whole month of sun and lovely temperatures :) :) Supposed to be an improvement over the EXTREME heat of Feb! Today is also the beginning of parent-teacher interviews- Horray! (just as bad for the teachers as the students I have now realized!) so everyone is very busy and we, as the Gaps, get to pick up the slack. I had my first experience running a grade 4 classroom this afternoon... very interesting to say the least and although they were supposed to be quietly working without interruptions for 2 hours I still read none of my book!

Last week was not too eventful. However Friday was a very exciting day! On Friday morning I had the honour of attending a service held by Desmond Tutu at St. George's Cathedral in Town. I was accompanied by my Boss, Jenn Wallace (thankfully! apart from not knowing where I was going in the church I also realized cape town is almost as dangerous early in the morning as it is at night- the logic being that people are more likely to be alone and have more money on them than at the end of the night). We were part of an intimate (and international!) group that gathered in the lady chapel where the service was held. Sitting in the front row (there only was one row) next to Archbishop Desmond Tutu as he performs a service was a pretty unreal experience. My favourite part was during the service when you get up and shake hands with everyone and he went to each person individually and spoke to them. I was lucky enough to talk to both him and his assistant, Mrs. Browne who were VERY kind and welcoming and of course I got a picture (Jenn took one by an accident before we were ready and it was QUITE frowned upon!). Also his granddaughter came on exchange to St. Cyps from her school in the states for a year so he is very affiliated with the school and spoke very highly of it which was nice. Jenn and I followed up our cultural morning with chocolate muffins and a much needed catch up on how work is going.

That morning was also the Gr 1-3 gala (AKA DANGEROUS!) so i got over there pretty fast to lifeguard.. some very close calls. It was really fun though and the kids loved it. Pretty cute to see 10 little gr 1s doing the "doggy paddle race" and having 27 parents video taping the event. We also finished off with an impromptu staff race which was me against the PE staff- all fully clothed. I am pretty proud to say I won- although I think it has something to do with me and marina's daily laps.

We had a fun and relaxing weekend with a couple trips to town and a night out at this big DI-ing event called global breakthrough- where up and coming djs get together and perform. It was pretty cool since they are becoming like world-renound and Marina and I felt we had been very cultured in house music by the end. It was also one of the boarding matron- Carmen's 23rd birthday so she had a pool party and braai on sunday which was a good time all around.

Tonight I am going out with Nicole Uys (Girl who goes to st cyps who did her exchange at sedbergh) and her family for her birthday dinner. I am quite excited to escape boarding house food and to see all her pictures of Canada. (i am giving her some mayple sugar candies for her birthday- she talks about how much she misses them all the time!)

This weekend is lookign pretty packed- we are hoping for a clear day one day so we can go up table mountain in the cable car. Also spending one day with the librarian who Marina works with and is going to show us some parts of town that are hard for us to see otherwise. We are trying to get some of the "warmer temperature" things in this weekend as Uncle Eric and Auntie Marlene are coming the next weekend and we will be busy with them and then its holidays!!! (VERY EXCITED!!)

Alright off for a swim- Hope you enjoy.. Thanks for the comments, not getting too many. perhaps only 5 people acctually read this blog??

xx Heather