I've been at Saltycrax for a week now, and it has become clear that most everything I'll be doing is driven by repetition....in the best way possible. Our Monday - Thursday schedule is typically wake up to surf at 8, get to school to teach by 10:30, take the kids to surf/swim/play games on the beach at 2:00, dinner at 5 or 6, skateboard/laylow/head to the town at night. There is obviously a lot of excitement and adventures thrown in between as well, but if the above schedule was all there was I'd be perfectly fine with it.
My first surf lesson was on Wednesday, and it went extremely well. I was able to stand on my third wave and rode the fifth. We're doing most of our surfing in Big Bay (a short drive from the Saltys) and after a few weeks and a lot of practice I will be traveling around the coast to hit up some of the world's best surf sports (Jeffrey's Bay is top 3). A few of us woke up Thursday morning to surf on our own (despite some heavy crosswind) and that also went pretty well. It wasn't as successful as with the instructor, but I am definitely getting the hang of choosing waves and reading the surf. A lot of surfing is knowing the weather and tendencies of the ocean and that too will come with time. Repetition.
In school we are working in a computer lab with 5 "working" computers. Our main job is to teach basic math to 4th and 5th graders, which is no easy task. Most of our students come from the township of DuNoon - your 'stereotypical' shanty town. The kids speak mostly Afrikaans, and their skill levels are all over the map. We put two kids on each computer (and break the 30 - 40 kid classes into sections), and it is not rare for one to be able to multiply and the other unable to count to 100. The lessons are mostly addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division...with the fastest students working their way into fractions. Addition and subtraction aren't too bad to teach, and the kids show progress with practice. Multiplication and division are a different story. If any of you elementary ed teachers have any pointers, I'm all ears. I'm hoping that these kids, too, will start catching on with practice. Repetition, repetition.
The after school surf-adventure program is easily the highlight of the working day. We have one group of kids that have graduated swim lessons and are working with surf boards and two groups that we work with in the pool or on the beach. The surf group kids are always excited to get their hands on a board and try to stand up, even if the end result is getting aced by a wave. After only a couple of weeks of practice there are a few kids actually standing up on their own. As with any beginning surfer, it's all about practice. The swim group kids are just happy to play and hang out with us. We'll often head to the beach to play soccer, jump in the waves (despite the temperature, these kids are like fish), have relay races, etc. Yesterday was one of the girl's birthdays so we organized a big scavenger hunt and treated them to ice cream and candy. From my perspective, anything we can do to brighten their day and show them a fun side to life outside of DuNoon is a plus. Hopefully after a few years they will have a means to pursue surfing on their own and enjoy more of what South Africa has to offer.
We have a lot of Fridays off, this being one of them, so I'm off to the beach and surf shop to look for a long board skateboard (practice, practice, practice). There is also a big braai (grill out) tonight at Saltycrax to welcome 2 new volunteers, say goodbye to an old one, and celebrate a birthday. These things usually turn into pretty big parties, so I'm sure I'll be throwing a nap in somewhere as well.
Sorry this one reads like a teenage girl's crush journal, so here's some ZA hip hop to regain some of my web-cred. Jack Parow is an older white South African with a gnarly mustache that raps in mostly raunchy Afrikaans. This song is in English and is pretty clean.
http://www.webaddict.co.za/2010/07/05/jack-parow-i-miss-lyrics/
Ciao for Now,
JB
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