Good Evening,

I was up and at em today at 6 to get the kids breakfast before school.  The only problem with that was my ride never showed up.  Yikes.

I did more English with the 3rd grade today and Maths with 6th and 7th.  I'm finding this to be very rewarding.  I just hold my breath when the teacher posts the answers as I wait to see if the problems I work out with the kids are correct.  So far I have 100%.  No big deal.  I left one kid to work out a problem on his own and said I'd come back to check up.  Upon arriving, I saw that he multiplied 6x7 using tick marks.  No problem there.  However, where did he make the tick marks?  Up and down his arm!  42 blue lines of ink on his arm.  I thought I had seen it all.  I guess not. When I asked why he didn't use his notebook, I just got a puzzled look in return.

The highlight of my day was down at the preschool again!  One of my 4yr olds was sleeping on a nap/yoga mat and it was time to go.  I proceeded to pick up the mat with Emuhle on it, and put her on a bookshelf.  She never woke up.  If she had, I'd have put her on the spot and asked her to marry me.  The whole scene was beyond adorable.  Don't worry, I took her down from the bookshelf before I left.

This afternoon, we took our honors high school kids to the movie theatre here in town and watched Slumdog Millionaire!  I think they enjoyed this far more than study hall.  I forgot just how good that movie is.  If you have not seen it, check it out.  At the crescendo of the movie (sp?) , there came a thunderous noise that made me think the theatre was about to collapse.  I jumped from my seat to take a look what was going on outside.  We were under attack!  Hail storm!  The timing of it all was incredible.  There was freezing rain and hail the size of golf balls.  I kept being told that the weather can be unpredictable here in the mountains of Franschhoek.  Case and point today.

I just walked through the market and a few of the little ones that I have in class ran over to me with their parents in tow screaming Mr. Mark! Mr. Mark!  That was really cool.  I wish I could have said more than Malo (hello) to their folks.

The kids are now on holiday for a few days.  Tomorrow marks the 18th anniversary of President Mandela's election!  Quite exciting!  I'm guilty as sin when it comes to recognizing the true meaning of the different holidays back home in the states.  Truthfully, I don't pay much attention to any of them aside from Veteran's Day.  I think celebrating the significance of what tomorrow means here in South Africa, will serve as a friendly reminder to me when I return to the states.  I want to be more cognizant of our history and honor and respect the different strides and sacrifices that that have and continue to be made, which have ultimately afforded me many liberties that I have done very little to deserve.

It is 7pm here.  I am still sick as a dog.  This is getting annoying.  I thought I just bought orange juice but it turns out that it's some milk/dairy based product that is flavored orange.  umm, probably going to pass on that.  Waste of $27 Rand if I ever saw one.

Tomorrow marks the first day since leaving the states that I won't be up and at them at the crack of dawn.  This may be a good thing because I'm hurting.

Time to go light another bunkbed on fire to keep warm here tonight.

Cheers,
Mark/Chops

The Future Is No Place To Place Your Better Days.