Week 10 - 18/10 - 24/10

OK, so I'm working on catching up with all of this. Week 10 was a bumpy ride. Plenty of good times with some interesting times thrown in for good measure(!)

Monday we got our act together with some good friends from church so after our half day at the school (as part of our placement we have a half day study day a week, the idea of 'studying' is often subjective you understand :P) we went on a tour of the UCT campus and went on a short walk to Rhodes Memorial which looks out over Cape Town. Its a beautiful place with plenty of statues and amazing views. Its abit odd in that it commemorates one rather egoistical man (John Rhodes no less!) who essentially built the whole place in memoriam of him and how amazing he was!!
There is also a site nearby which was the home to many lions and the sport of lion baiting in years gone by!

We had a lot of fun exploring and tried to decide on something to do in the evening; but suggestions fell to the floor so we went home and chilled instead :)

Tuesday we started making paper mache with the residents of the rehabilitation centre. For those of you who know something of my irritational issues with balloons and the bursting of said items you will realise that this was not an easy session for me to be part of. Especially because the residents are perceptive and will play on whatever they say which annoys you/makes you jump...
I just tried to keep myself busy...and Gail and our supervisor were aware of my ridiculous anxieties and cut me some slack which I greatly appreciated :)

Wednesday was an interesting day. In the morning we did different activities with children at the creche (mostly involving playdough), did puzzles and played skittles while I continued in information collection for the wheelchair assessments being done next Monday.

Our lesson plan for the week (anonymously putting a fear/struggle into a hat (read box) in class then discussing issues as they arose went well with the two classes we had that afternoon. 

Gail didn't feel so great that evening so it was only me who went to small group. While parking on a kerb I inexplicably managed to burst one of our car tyres....cue much relief for the males in our group who were more than happy to help out and change to the spare for me! (I really do need to learn how to change a tyre but it was a dark, so this was not the opportune moment...)

Thursday was characterised by the purchasing of a tyre, more good lessons and a distinct lack of organisation when it came to evening activities; as everything we had semi-planned to attend ended up being sold out!

Friday - Gail didn't feel well enough to go to placement so I once again braved SA roads by myself(!) There was an event known as 'the wishing well' for those in their final year at the school so instead of lessons I was treated to a morning of gumboot dancing (a Xhosa tradition), dancing, singing, acting and other good things.

Once the afternoon lessons were done I came home, persuaded Gail that she would love to drive to the car rental place with me again (as the car was positively eating oil...total number of cans purchased now = 8!!) This time the mechanics paid us more attention and took our 'something isn't right' slightly more seriously; which felt nicer.

This time there were six mechanics stood around the car (yes, six!). They once again tried to blame the oil cap but that argument didn't stand for long once they saw the plumes of purple smoke being emitted from the exhaust pipe!

They said that we needed to swap the car so they could take the time to get it fixed so we'd need to come back early next week; so they filled the oil and we drove away satisfied and hoping that Whitey would make it safely through the weekend.

After such an car trouble filled afternoon take away pizza and a rented dvd was of course required...

Weekend:
We chilled out in Stellenbosch, visited Spier vineyard, Gail still not feeling 100%, considered visiting Chinatown and ended up just having another chilled night in. I never complain about that - I love chilled out evenings!

Early on Sunday morning S and I (along with a couple of friends) climbed Lion's Head. In reality it was only S and I as the other two walked much faster and so left us trailing. This was alot of fun - with some really spectacular views until it started raining and hailing while we were at the top!
I had very wisely left my rain jacket in the car (it had looked so promising!) so we got soaked and freezing cold as we slipped and slid for the hour it took to make our way down.

The rest of the day was spent recovering from said experience by showering and curling up with many blankets before heading out to church in the evening.

So that was that... working on catching up with the blogging I promise!

I love Table Mt 

Peace out x