Midterms and Markets and Mayhem (oh my)

My embarrassingly touristy photo in greenmarket square- But seriously, I would have done this at home too.

Brigid with an awesome construction collage

This update will have to be hasty, as a pseudo midterm season has set in upon us, and my Adaptations of Family Structure in Traditional African Religions sorely needs attention. Friday I finally made it to Greenmarket Square- an awesome market where I got to practice my haggling to generally satisfactory means. Also on Friday, Sara came over and we painted on my floor (not on my floor but on paper while on my floor). I dig her ideas of a watercolor party and definitely intend to art myself up a bit. Saturday morning was Parents Day at Leap and the choir that a few of my mentees are in was performing, so Sean and I went down there to see our kids. All the other CIEE kids who were supposed to come totally bailed, but at least we had had enough to book a car the day before and thus managed to get there for free. Sidenote: I am so crazy about my LEAP girls already: Landiswa, Sinovuyo, Ziyanda, and ZiZipho. I get so excited talking to them, and I think they are so brilliant and fantastic. Plus the ones that were in the choir KILLED IT and I was glad we went. Saturday evening a bunch of us went to SushiZone for an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet-I only wish I’d been hungrier. After, Sean and I went and saw a South African comedy called David Newton (or Daniel Newberg or something like that). It was such a riot to here race and sports and politics jokes. He was talking about South Africa ‘tidying up’ or 2010. “Sweep violent crime under the rug, hide Zuma in the shower, and stick Julius in a school because nobody will think to look for him there.” Sunday was super mellow with just a little frozen yogurt (I love Marcel’s! I am craving some now), lots of paper work, and church at night. I’m so happy we found Christ Church here; it’s the one real South African environment that we always feel at home at. Yesterday was my day at the Brooklyn Chest TB Hospital, and I found out that Darren, one of my favorite kids, is going home on Friday. While I’m so happy he’s better, it kind of shocked me that I wasn’t going to get to see him anymore. Sadly, I guess I’ll need to really prepare for that on a grand scale come November. Today I met with my LEAP girls and worked on academic goals. They said they aren’t totally secure with English, which makes me hope that I can be helpful just be not knowing Xhosa. Apparently they never get to practice at home because if you speak English in Langa, you get uncle-Tom syndrome and people think you’re being stuck up (even though everyone knows at least some English!)