Monday, July 22

Last night I received a text ‘I am still very sick and wondering if you wouldn’t mind teaching my munchkins?” This was from the Grade R teacher.  And so today, I taught Grade R all day.  It was really enjoyable as I only had one grade and also had some plans of what to do. 

This is a class of seven students, with five of them being here.  We started out the day with singing.  They were all quite shy and I’m not very musical and so that took a bit of effort.  However, after a few songs they were not quite as shy and so we were able to sing a few like “This Little Light of Mine” and the national anthem and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”

After singing, we read from “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.  The kids love this book and we talked about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday . . . and also counted the different fruits.  They love the last page of the book “Teacher, I will eat everything – the cake, the cheese, the lollipop, everything.”  We then moved over to practicing the alphabet – A, ah, apple; B, b, ball, . . .  Along with this, they had a placemat with the alphabet on and the letters of the alphabet from A-H to place on the mat.  As the students were not used to me, so I had several of the students pretend that they didn’t know it.  Students must be the same everywhere!!  We also practiced our numbers in the same way and did some practice printing. 

After lunch, we had nap time.  In the end, this didn’t consist of actually napping, but reading books quietly.  It was cute as they were making up stories in English. 

Play time

Breakfast time

Math time

Fine motor skills

Lunch time

Nap time

By 2:00, the day was over and the students were out the door and then it was time for a new adventure!!

This adventure consisted of going to Pretoria to pick up a rental car!!  I have never driven on the opposite side of the road and have only driven a standard in Fort Macleod once, so I was a little bit nervous about it.  Two of the Americans decided to come with me and keep me company on the ride home.  But I think I might have scarred them for life. 

Starting out from the rental agency – I only stalled once.  However, as soon as I put the signal light on, the wipers went on instead.  The ‘stick’ for the signal lights and for the wipers are on the opposite side of the steering wheel.  I then proceeded through my first round about and made it through that safely and ended up on the main highway called Zambesi.  Safe so farJ  However, I needed to go to the grocery store to pick up a few groceries and get more airtime.  This meant I needed to go off of the main road.  I flicked the single lights – oops there goes the wipers again and turned off of the main road and made it to the parking lot of the grocery store.  I parked the vehicle, pulled the e-brake and locked the doors.  As I walked away, I looked back to make sure I knew what I was driving – a white Hyandia L20.  After groceries, we found the car and I started it up.  I put the car into reverse (or what I thought was reverse) and tried to back up.  But I went forward.  So I readjusted the clutch and I still went forward.  By this time, I was getting pretty close to the truck that was parked in front of me.  Then one of the girls with me said, “Umm, when my fiancé drives his standard, he has to push a button to put it into reverse.”  Well, there was a button and so I pushed it as I put the clutch into first and I went backwards.  That was close.  I headed out of the parking lot and onto a side road. Well, that was our next problem.  The light was red and I had to stop but we were on a slight hill.  Well, I knew that could cause problems . . .  and it did.  I started rolling backwards and had someone honk their horn at me.  They moved out of the way and then I made it up the hill – no problem.  Now I was back on Zambesi.  I knew I had to merge off of this road onto the Mulatto Road that would take me home.  However, I was focused on shifting, driving on the left side and making sure that I flicked the signal switch and not the mirrors, that I took a wrong turn.  After about two or three minutes, one of the girls said “This doesn’t sound familiar”, but I was convinced I was going the right way, so kept going.  After about 10 minutes, I started to realize that we were heading in the opposite direction than we were supposed to be going.  However, it is impossible to do a flip-a-uey and so I had to keep on going.   Finally there was a road that we could turn around on, but we had to pay a toll to get on that road and then a toll to leave that road – they wouldn’t let us just turn around.  Once we paid our double toll, we were headed in the right direction and off we went.  I had hoped to be home before dark, but it didn’t happen.  The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful and we made it home by 6:30.  That was an eventful trip, but we made it home safely.  Now I have a car and can be a bit more independent (but I will make sure that I have a map with me and know where I am going)

My car, a Hyandia L20

Left hand driving?!?!?!