Chris and I left on an epic journey to the Kalahari desert with a school team of 5 teachers and 32 students on June 28th at 7pm. We managed to load the plane with 46 bags of supplies for the school in Ganap, South Africa. We then endured a very long 2 days of travel (11 hour flight, followed directly by 10 hour bus ride) to finally arrive in Kuruman where we would stay for 2 weeks at a hostel (an empty intermediate Afrikaans boarding school).  The hostel had no heating and had pretty rough accommodations, but it certainly made everyone appreciate what we have back home.

We spent the next 2 weeks teaching beautiful children in a little village 90 minutes away from our hostel, in a remote village called Ganap. We had teaching teams for each grade and we worked every night on our plans and prepping materials for the next day, which would start at 5am, leaving the hostel at 6:30am for the very rough ride into Ganap. Chris and I were assigned a ‘Dean of Students’ role so we often had to deal with any incidental problems that arose with our ASP students as well as managing discipline issues etc. We also drove the truck (‘bakkie’) and picked up the bread every morning. With extremely rough terrain and road construction, driving a standard on the opposite side of the car and opposite side of the road was a fun challenge that we enjoyed every morning in the complete darkness when we left for our teaching day in Ganap.  An additional challenge was the donkeys, goats and cows the would block the road on our journey every morning.  However, watching the sunrise over the desert every day was a highlight on this drive.

Each night we would hold a teacher meeting, and then a ‘Circle Time’ with all of the students, and we would eat dinner, then plan our lessons before packing the bus with all of our materials (we brought them back and forth daily or they would be stolen from the school), then there was time for a 2 minute shower and lights out at 9pm.  The schedule was rigorous and many people in our group ended up sick with a bad cough or a gastro problem. Two trips to the doctor were necessary for different students.

When we first arrived, we had 3 days to visit the village, attend church and go on an intense hike up Mount Gullable, not far from our hostel.  Then after 5 days of teaching, during the first weekend, we took our bus to Kimberely to visit the famous Diamond mine (‘The Big Hole’) and a Lion Rescue Centre.  Then we went to a lovely restaurant on the Sunday for brunch and a hike.

After another 4 days of teaching we said our goodbyes to the children of Ganap and began to pack all of the materials for next years group that would stay and be used again. We left our hostel at 5am on Friday the 14th to travel to Pilanesburg to a hotel called the Sun Down Ranch. We arrived there at 12 noon and had lunch and a rest before jumping into safari trucks for a 3 hour Game Drive in Pilanusburg Game Reserve.  We were very lucky to see elephants, lions, zebra, water buffalo, impala, rhinoceros and hippos on this drive!!  The lions and elephants were right next to the safari trucks, so I was able to get some good photos!  After a nice banquet dinner and slideshow that night, we packed our suitcases for the drive to the airport the next day.

The next morning, on the way to Johannesburg we stopped at a craft market to shop for African items and then visited the Hector Pieterson Museum, in Soweto, where students protested Apartheid in 1976 (June 16) which led to the fall of Apartheid.  It is a very significant date in South African History and is now known as ‘Youth Day’.

We arrived home this morning after a 10 hour flight and we are very tired, but so happy and grateful we were asked to help lead this service learning experience. It is something we are already very reflective and nostalgic about. It has changed our view on how we appreciate opportunities we have in our lives, after working with children who have nothing and yet exude such vitality and joy. They appreciate the smallest of things, and we learned about ourselves through them in such memorable ways. I also learned some Tswana in order to communicate with some of mine, which was more fun than trying to speak French all the time in Paris. Soon we will be in Canada to reunite with Gregory, Brianna and all our family and friends! We can’t wait for summer to begin! Here are some photos from our time in South Africa: