Last Day with Christelians

As I begin to write this in the Christel House staff room, I realize that this week may have been my favorite at my internship.  It's also my last week, so I really feel as though I'm going out with a bang.

Monday and Tuesday were uber productive on the musical theatre front.  Kaitlin and Andrew Finn helped with auditions for Annie Jr. by screening all the auditionees for musical ear and singing ability.  While I wrangled the kids and made sure they filled out their evaluation forms, K and AF sat in a room, equipped with a piano, and judged the students on their talent (which is nearly impossible given that every one of them deserved Andrew's "CUTE AS A BUTTON" award).

 Wednesday was great because we went around with Ms. Eunice to the different communities the students are from.  We visited Q Town, Manenberg, Langa, and some other neighborhoods.  In Manenberg, one of the mothers of a Christel House learner gave us pineapple soda, scarves, and shirts!  It was insanely generous.  She told us a story about the honor of having the first home Christel De Haan ever visited and how the community came together to welcome her.  Later we visited other homes of students we actually knew, and got to brag about them to their parents, which is always awesome.  In another house, a woman sounded disappointed that we would not be going to work on Monday because she was making delicious baked treats for Eid.  That part was a tad depressing... her cooking will be missed.  Alexis and I drove around with Eboni's friends, Tiffany and Marve, who are both hilarious slash thuper friendly, which was fun.  We even got to ride in a school bus at one point, but that's another story for another blog.

On Tuesday, Alexis did a modeling workshop with the learners trying to prepare a runway show for World AIDS Day.  Here we see one student strutting her stuff in the uniform.

Alexis put on some music and showed her runway personality.  She sauntered down the makeshift catwalk with a learner, then had to take the spotlight at the end.  It's the price of being fabulous.

Whilst this fun was going on, I was trying to get the kids to focus on their audition forms.  They had to fill in their name, grade, age, sex, character(s) interested in, and song name.  Some took a good half hour to decide on that last one, but it's all good.  "Boom Boom Pow" is a good Broadway standard.

While waiting for some learners to audition, the kids waiting took pictures.  Here is their self-proclaimed "High School Musical" shot.  You know how I so love jumping photos...

Another form of entertainment for the day was the hair salon, at which I was the main client.  They tried to braid my hair but it was too difficult to handle.  Either way, FUN!

The kids, especially the Grade 5's, are so sweet!  They never hesitate to show affection and just surround you in a huge hug.

Here are some more Grade 5's who I adore.  To my left are two of the most outgoing learners, who had me cracking up with their impressions of Americans and their ridiculously good Spanish songs (which I mentioned on the Christel House blog).  I think Ines, to my right, might eventually be on South Africa's Got Talent.  Watch out for her.

Today we were ambushed in the music room by the Grade 5B's (I am telling you, they do NOT quit).  They told us a bajillion times they were going to miss us, almost made us cry, and showered us with their kindness.

As a goodbye, the resident Beyonce sang Alexis one last rendition of "Halo."  It was beautiful.

The entire day made Alexis feel very pensive, which lead to what she calls her "Michelle Obama look," pictured above.  Get ready to see this plastered on a campaign poster near you.

Today they also had free HIV testing in the cafetorium!  It was awesome!  These are some Grade 3's that randomly walked in front of my lens and HAD to pose.  They are such naturals in front of the camera.

There were some red candles lit and red ribbons around the table.

For the day, they converted the cafeteria/auditorium into a clinic and awareness venue.

After the high schoolers ate lunch, we decided to model some more.  Here is Martha (left), me, and her friend, who abandoned me on the whole modeling front.  I should have known the effort would be futile.  Martha is the resident playwright of Christel House, who is going to end up writing the most intensely hilarious and dramatic scripts for South African theatre and television.  Don't be surprised if you see her name on a Playbill.

Some of the 8th grade boys wanted to take pictures with us, which was sweet.  We obliged.  They LOVE photos.

 Today was full of joy and pure awesome-ness.  We definitely went out of CHSA with a bang. 

Thomas and Josiah's Excellent Adventure (+CD&DI 4eva)

Edit: I wrote this last week but failed to publish until this week... sue me.  Kidding.  I just hate to disappoint the fans.

I spent this last weekend (with 3 weeks to go as of yesterday) on a sweet road trip with three friends from the house... it ended up being my FAVORITE WEEKEND SO FAR.

Allow me to explain: I had already been on the Garden Route, to the same destination (Storms River), and I had already bungee jumped.  Bungee is not the only thing to do near Storms River, however, since they have MONKEY LAND right nearby.  For a few weeks now, Josiah and I had been perfecting our imitations of monkeys (amongst other animals), so I was more than compelled to visit a sanctuary full of these little creatures.  It turns out that the small species we saw squeaked more than hooted or yelled, butwhateveritwasstillgreat... minor detail.

As our car pulled away from the curb, the farewell committee did a fabulous job of dismissing us from Hillcrest. There may or may not have been tears.  Or screams of joy as we rolled out of Brownlow Rd....

Caroline is pretending to hide how absolutely nervous we were about Thomas and Josiah driving.  Slash she was trying not to scream every time I dug my nails into her arm/leg out of terror.  At least she looked fabulous.  PS: She is  three missed showers and a pair of Chacos away from being a hippie.  Check out the scarf.

Here we see Mr. Irvin paying attention 110% to the road.  Determination 09.

I've passed this graffiti numerous times, but I never realized it read "Third World Beauty."  Might have to try to get a better shot of it...

Pictured here is the Golden Arrow, which is the Cape Town city bus, whose motto is The Bus for Us.  Pretty  cute.  It's cheaper than a minibus taxi --- tell your friends.

I fell in love with this sign (I may be biased, as an O+ Red Cross giver): "STOP THE BLOODY EXCUSES!  Give life.  Donate blood.  For more information, SMS "BLOOD" to..."

Along the N2 exiting the city you see shacks (though the city tries to obscure them).  We thought these were double-decker, but eventually decided they were just on a hill.  They need to remedy the housing issue before the World Cup, though there's talk of just covering them up.

This guy trying to sell giant soccer balls (a hot commodity here, I've noticed) had on a University of Florida Gators sweatshirt!  Shout out to Gainesville.

Caroline decided to whip out this winner around lunchtime.  BBQ chicken "ideal for lunch boxes!"  Life is sweet.

I naively thought this trip would bring me peace from my www.freetetris.org addiction, but how wrong I was. The blocks fell before my eyes perfectly...

South Africa has some insanely good graffiti artists.  Here we see dogs hanging poolside.  One is at the bar.  It was great.

"Bahhhhh."  Farmlands flank you on either side, so we saw lots of sheep.

Push it to the limit.  Having the speedometer in kilometers per hour made Josiah a tad too excited.

The sunset from the car was glorious.  Then we noticed another bright object in the darkening sky...

GAS FLARE!!!  I'm guessing there was a gasoline processing plant around here.  Basically they were flaring natural gas and the giant fire was so cool.  It was hard to get a decent photo of it.  We drove on past this spectacle, through small towns (such as "Wilderness"... yes, that's the name of the town) and ended up at Tube n Axe Backpackers Lodge (which you may remember from Garden Route Part I) in Storms River Village.

Early Saturday morning we made the journey to the promised land MONKEY LAND!  Immediately upon arrival we were greeted with these squirrel monkeys who wooed us with their squeaks and features.  How can you say no to a face like that?!

Soon we realized these crazy kids were EVERYWHERE.  It was fun to just step into an enclosed forest and be surrounded by them.  Almost as fun as it would be to have a pet ape and a pet dog and the pet ape can walk the dog, but they both belong to you.  Thank Caroline for that gem.

This precious gray monkey sort of reminded me of a wise grandfather, or Yoda... can't decide.  Anyway, he looked quite angelic bathed in sunlight.

I believe this is the white gibbon, which was crossing the path ahead of us.  Why did the white gibbon cross the road?
Sorry, I had to.

I liked this photo of a yellow squirrel monkey looking up into the sun.  I bet she/he is thinking about life and things like it.  Or APPLE APPLE BANANA HUMAN!!! ROCK.  BURGER.

I forgot the name of this species (what's new) because it creeped me out too much.  It needs to calm it down with that death stare.

What did the snail say on the back of the tortoise?  "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" --Josiah

Soon we came to find out that these cute brown ones (don't ask me to name the species, good sirs and madams) were the spawn of Satan himself.  Stay tuned.

I couldn't get a good picture of this one, but it was really furry and half white, half black.  I actually had a chance to get a close-up, but this was when it was peeing on the roof of the entrance to the sanctuary.  I had to protect its' dignity.

This black lemur reminded me more of a dog than a monkey.  Oh evolution.

Lemur then decided to hop the fence over to the food table, which was a good call.  It looks so human-like it freaks me out every time.

You get a sense of their personalities in this one.  Food makes them tranquil.  Until they get the taste of human blood, which Thomas believed to have already happened given later events.

The white gibbon decided to show off a bit on the limbs of this tree.  How relaxed and joyful.  Oh, to be a monkey on my own land...

Thomas and this one got down.  The bromance was flourishing and there was nothing that could stop it.  That or the monkey wanted human blood.  Choose your own adventure.

This one had to have its tail amputated because of an accident (otherwise it would be trailing behind).  It's got to be a severe blow in the balance area.  At least it could run like the wind, as seen in this action shot.

There was a random bog in the middle of Monkey Land.  Just FYI.

Then all conception of what was once cute and not cute was destroyed before my eyes when I saw this baby on the back of its mother.  It took all the willpower I had left not to touch it/put it on my back/adopt it.

See what I mean?  It's torture.

The lemur baby tail was the best because it was this little striped column that would sway in the air as it walked.  Here mama is taking care of her young one.  A Kodak moment if ever there was one.

Contradicting his own guidelines, the guide decided to get dangerously close to a lemur.  This was also near one of the food towers, which may or may not have been a misstep.

Inspired by the guide, Thomas made me get dangerously close as well.  Here is me with two lemurs.  Check out how the one stage right is sitting (on the left, for you theatre muggles).  Close-up follows.

We decided this was the grumpy Thomas of lemurs.  Too hilarious.

The Storms River area has many a suspension bridge.  I believe I have traversed the majority of these.  They are all about some high-altitude shortcuts.

Making our way out of the main area of the park, the monkeys were crawling on the wooden fence all around us.

Our friend here was looking away so I decided to get dangerously close and snap this one.  Isn't the hand so human-like?

Here is a little-known fact: the restaurant at Monkey Land is entirely OUTDOORS.  Right up against the sanctuary (inside it, really).  

Soon we were being attacked from all sides (seriously... including from above) for our home-made burgers and chips fries.

Sign reads "PLEASE KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED ON ACCOUNT OF THE MONKEYS."  How very true.  If only they didn't have the taste of human blood...

They monkeys gave us a good farewell. This one is just chilling on its elbow, which is adorable.

Here is the suspension bridge in Tsitisikama National Park.  I may already have a similar photo from earlier.

We sat by some rocks that contrasted really nicely with the water below.

I then found this perfectly egg-shaped rock.  Maybe there was T-Rex DNA inside!!!

The boys decided to ponder life and things like it (not unlike the monkeys) on the rocks.

I had to post this for mom.  Look at the first warning.

Puts things into perspective.

Thomas was feeling good, feeling fine as he was harnessed in for bungee jumping.  And by that I mean he had a headache.

Here is Josiggity (Josiah) hanging out.

The view of the souvenir shop from the Bungy Restaurant/Bar viewing area.

Last but certainly not least, here is Thomas taking his dive.  Quite amazing, eh?!

I had more to say but forgot since I got tired from adding so many darn captions.  I will try to post some more before I leave, since there are only TWO WEEKS left tomorrow!  Ahhhhhh!!!