The other side of the world

I started the blog and then got freaked out by it. All of a sudden I didn't know what to write or what I actually wanted to share. Should I go into more detail about 2009 or shall I start with my life at the moment? Most of the time things link together but some stories need to be told on their own.

Two weeks ago I did the bravest thing I have done in a long time. I flew to Cape Town, South Africa with a group of teachers to investigate the education system. Doesn't sound very brave I know, but it was with a group of teachers that I didn't know (and I had to share a room!) and I had a lot of panic about going away before hand - I was so nervous that people wouldn't like me or something awful would happen at home whilst I was away. I needn't have worried I had a great time and had the most amazing experiences and I honestly believe that I have made some friends for life. We did all of the touristy things - went up table mountain, did a lot of wine tasting, went to Robben Island (very sea sick!) and saw whales and penguins. It was brilliant.

But it wasn't the tourist trail that captured my heart it was the children. We visited 6 schools - all were different, some made us angry, some made us sad and some restored faith in human nature. I am positive that I will be going back to South Africa - If I get my way I will be spending 4 weeks teaching in the township school that I visited. Since getting home Ive been ordering books and DVDs about S Africa and I'm even trying to learn a little bit of Xhosa!! Drinking was also a large part of our trip, most evenings were spent in the bar by the hotel sampling the delights of South African beer and wine! How I survived on so little sleep I have no idea, but I had fun and that was the important part.

Arriving back in England was a massive reality check. Teaching pupils who don't really care about learning has been difficult and the weather has been hard to cope with. As I write this the wind is howling round my house and the heating is still broken but I will save the story of the broken boiler for another day.

I think I might come to enjoy writing a blog - not sure if I'm ever going to be any good at HTML links and labels etc but we can still have some of my general ponderings!

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