Week 13 - 08/11 - 14/11
Sure! I'm abit behind on this blogging thing....hum de dum! Good thing I make notes as the weeks go by!
This week: We did origami with the residents of the rehab centre....there were a lot of new residents so there was almost no one who had done the activity before. lots of fun!
The rehab centre got even more weird this week - with the manager resigning, our supervisors role coming into question - and other staff members leaving left right and centre.
So our role there has been limited (limits put in place by our supervisor and the fact that we don't really know how best to deal with the situation). So we are only going to go into the rehab centre to do the arts and crafts group for the rest of placement.
Got creative with the residents of the disability home and made some handles for cutlery so that some of them would be able to eat meals unassisted. We made the handles out of pipe insulation. The handles also double up as pen grips.....this is why I love OT...!
Did a lesson plan with the children - that didn't go great initially but ended up being very successful after a few tweaks!
Went to movies and watched Eat, Pray, Love - which I wasn't a huge fan - but hadn't been to the cinema for awhile so that was quite fun.
Had an awesome Skype conference call with P and J :)
Finally got round to going to the weekly prayer meeting at church - which I'd never been to before; it was cool.
This week at the school I felt like I was getting into the swing of things with the lessons and that it was easier to see the process which the facilitators are there to facilitate!
The weekend - We ran a few errands on Sunday morning and then headed up to Silvermine - part of the Table Mt national park. We had a picnic at the reservoir and then walked - I don't think we did the route which we set out to do but we had fun anyways - was really good weather to walk...sunny with a breeze to keep you cool :)
In the evening we chilled out and rented the next DVD disc in the prison break season we've been watching. Our housemate has Prison Break season 1 - which we addicted to for a while before moving on to season 2 and having to rent them out from local video/DVD stores!
On Sunday I drove to Nia; a big race/walk thing going on so driving took quite awhile - but really enjoyed class :) Then we headed down to Boulders Bay and had another picnic there - then just chilled out on the beach and bought postcards and ice-cream. Went early to church to chat to our friends and then headed out to have pizza after church - v.nice pizza & great company!
Week 14 - 15/11 - 21/11
Second last week of placement; lots of things to do and plenty of busyness and drama. Amazing week of weather and glorious sunshine Mon-Thurs :)
Had the last life orientation lessons before the learners started exams, helping the rest of the staff with entering coursework marks onto the system, making dream catchers with the residents at the drug rehab centre (which I was admittedly, totally rubbish at!)
Played transport-related games and made boats out of orange slices at the creche.
Started making photo frames with the residents of the disablity home.
Then worked hard with paperwork and the requirements for finishing our placement during Thursday and Friday. 2nd last supervision in which I made sure that my supervisors were happy with my learning contract and checked out that I would be on track for passing the placement (I trust that they would have let me know before this point if I wasn't on track - but there's always this background of nerves when you ask the question!)
Outside of placement we had a busy week too; went to the aquarium and V&A Waterfront on Monday afternoon, prayer meeting and DVD watching on Weds, cell group on Thurs, another haircut and 2hr Nia session (for me) and prison break on Friday :)
On Saturday we had plans but they never materialised so we had a chilled morning, S got back from her garden route tour and we went to watch Despicable Me (loved it!) then S and Gail went to a dance show at the school that S had worked at.
During this week we had a very random mishap with our rear view mirror in our car (it fell off...) and we had to stop at a local hardware store. While we were there I saw a couple I know from the UK walking past our car.
Kinda blew my mind because I hadn't seen them since the summer of '07 and had no idea that they were in Cape Town at all!! Turns out that they were on a two week holiday visiting the work of a local church :)
So on Sunday I went down to the church that they were visiting which was quite near us in a place called Bridgetown and enjoyed a loud and vibrant service with some teaching that was right on the mark :)
After church we had a chilled out afternoon at home - it was pretty cold by Cape Town standards before going to a music concert at Kirstenbosch gardens. This is a summer tradition in the gardens; we listened to the talent of a South African band called 'Just Jinjer' and ate a picnic!
Week 15 - 22/11 - 28/11
The final strait!
Soo many mixed feelings about this week - very ready for placement to be over and to have a break. A lot of work left to do before that point could be reached! A lot of socialising to do, presents to be bought and packing to be done.
Monday - Morning at Jubilee Health Clinic (attached to Jubilee Church) with R and B, a doctor and counsellor there. Amazing prophecy and prayer time - so encouraging to see all the work that they're doing. might wanna work somewhere like that when I 'grow up' :P
Afternoon on Clifton 4th beach with Shannon...really lovely day, really nice beach. Unfortunately all the security guards on the beach and round the posh houses there couldn't stop the radio being stolen from our car! Luckily no windows were broken and there were no obvious forced points of entry; this might sound crazy but the rental car we drive/drove is a Citi Golf and is a) ridiculously common in SAfrica and b) a very easy car to break into if you know a little bit about what you're doing.
So we spent the evening filing a report at the police station and have to fork out for a new radio.....but luckily it doesn't cost as much as the insurance excess on the car..
Tuesday: Went late to school as we had to pick up materials for the drug rehab craft group and the disability home. Chilled morning of doing our written work for placement and then off to the rehab centre to do card-making with the residents. Meal out with S (before she left CT to travel Europe) and a few other friends.....chilled out and plenty of lush food!
Weds: Singing games with the children at the creche, painting and photo frame making with the residents at the Disability home, meeting back at the creche for Gail, afternoon of work at the school
Thurs - Morning of work at the school, trying to finish off all the placement paperwork; me being me had left it all till the last minute! Remix Dance Company visit to the disability home in the afternoon - so much fun and so inspiring! Final cell group.
Friday - Last day at the school! Meeting with the principal - cake and farewells....left the office after a half day - paperwork signed off and farewells said.
Went to a spa in the centre of town - my birthday present to Gail - we both had treatments and relaxed with very nice staff at the spa, v.chilled out.
Saturday - Paraglidiing from signal hill, meeting Gail's friend, A at the waterfront, meeting the head of occupational therapy in Cardiff in a very, very nice hotel in Cape Town for drinks and a very good conversation/meeting about placement, life in SAfrica, the funding situation in British uni's and life in general, graduation ceremony at the creche in Langa, followed by chilled out evening at home - waay too tired for anything else!
Sunday - Brunch at Camps Bay, packing and cleaning the car, car gets picked up late from the house, going to the church picnic and saying goodbye to all our friends there.
