''I can feel the rains down in Africa...'' -Toto

Ok well Bethy passed the torch to me. So Sunday was lovely, and we went to bed earlyish to wake up bright & early for KUSASA. The weather took a turn for the worse on Sunday night though and it's been raining/hailing ever since. We had all sorts of plans for sports with the kids this week but they can't play when it's raining so we've been limited to working with the teachers to teach English & Math.

Monday we helped teachers with classes then held our own after-school tutoring program. Tuesday we got to school at 7am for Breakfast Club where we helped serve the kids protein shakes and fruit for breakfast, (they serve all 420 kids breakfast & lunch every day!) then taught our own classes throughout the day in English & Math. After school we held an art class since the teacher who usually does it cancelled. We had the kids draw their favorite animal and write a few sentences about it in English. My favorite was a boy who did a fish entirely in glitter and only wrote ''This is a clever fish.'' Other favorites: ''This Cate (cat) is my friend'' and ''This evil Panda is dangerous.''

Today we did Breakfast Club again and used the drawings from both art classes we've taught while here to decorate the walls of the library we organized. We also read an African story to a class and they laughed at us every time we tried to pronounce the African name Mpuyasana (or something along those lines). At lunch time we went to the grocery store and stocked up on necessities like Pampers, toilet paper, soap, food, etc. to deliver to Ms. Umdaba at the nursery. When we walked in to deliver these she kissed our hands and said how happy she was. This is still my favorite place in Franshhoek, when we walk in the kiddies attack us and all want to be picked up.

This afternoon we stopped by a travel agent that lives near Anne and asked about tickets to Tanzania. It turns out that to travel the way we want to it would be over $1000/each just for the tickets. We decided to skip this and we're going to explore by car as this is the best way to get around. He's helping us put together an itinerary for South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Don't worry parents, he is very experienced (and knows Anne), so he's going to help us pick a very safe route... we'll keep you in the loop as we nail down the itinerary. We're staying in Franshhoek until next Tuesday so we can finish volunteering this week and enjoy the food & wine of Franshhoek this weekend and Monday, then head to Cape Town for a few days before starting our road trip.

The last few nights have been mellow, we just stayed in, made delicious meals and watched movies. We're itching to get out again though, so tonight we're meeting up with Vivy (Doug's sister-in-law from Chile) for dinner then heading for card games at E&B. We stopped in yesterday and our buddies there said they missed us so it's time. Write more soon!

xoxo,
Gossip Girl