We arrived shortly after 10:25pm last evening! The other girls from the COST program had arrived Wednesday evening so we were pleasantly greeted! The weather is beautiful! Port Elizabeth is known as the "windy, friendly city" and that it is! It was a rough evening as the wind and new environment deprived me of my much needed sleep. I woke to every creek, every noise and I was even awake to see the sunrise (which is 5:00am). After sleeping for about three hours we woke to go look at the schools where we will be teaching. I am teaching at Victoria Park Grey Primary school. Students will travel from anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to attend school here. The South African public schools are governmentally funded and would probably be considered a "low income" school. Victoria Park Grey Primary is not a technically a private school but students will pay a tuition to attend. The school is 99% black students while majority of the teachers are white It was interesting to see the classroom atmosphere in Port Elizabeth compared to schools in the states!
After observing the school, my other roommates and myself went to get wireless internet, you must pay by GB. Everything is very cheap here! I will post some photos shortly of some of the amazing food we have eaten here! The fruit is incredible! We headed down to the beach afterwards and spent some time down there! Instead of shells, the beach is full of rocks! We climbed some rocks and met a fisherman that was fishing for sharks! We also found a shark head (the body had been used as bait for bigger sharks!)
Everyone is so helpful and friendly down here! We have been helped a few time by locals that could obviously tell we were American! We are very safe and secure in all parts of the school as well as our apartment! Tomorrow we are spending the day at the beach and Sunday we are possibly going to a soccer game between Ghana and Congo Republic! The Congo Republic soccer team is staying in our building! I think I counted about 35 cops that are also staying here for their safety, this makes us feel much safer too! Here is my address if anyone wants to send snail mail or care packages! :) Always a fan of those!
Langery Holiday FlatsAttn: Nicole Jameson31 Beach RoadHumewoodPort Elizabeth 6001
Until next time!Hope all is well back in the states! Please feel free to comment, I have opened the comments to the public.
I miss you so much Baby Tole! I a, so glad to hear you are safe in your apartment there, I miss waking up and falling asleep with you and Jeff. Nothing has changed, I still fall asleep on the couch and Jeff watches TV. Hope you are having a great week. Happy Monday to you!
ReplyDeleteLove you always- Griff