Return of the Magical Potatoes

So, I believe I left you all in Mthwalume, working on my ISP. There's a lot to update you on, but imma keep it short and sweet, don't you worry. I've spend the past few days writing a 67 page ISP, so I don't feel like typing out a super in-depth blog post.

Well, first of all I successfully completed my ISP period at the Bangibizo School. It was sad to leave all of the teachers and learners behind, but it was even harder to say goodbye to my host family and my mama!

On Monday, the teachers at the school threw me a goodbye party! I got a cake, some snacks, and a lot of juice!!! Also, reason for the title of this blog post: Remember those magical potatoes I told you about that made an appearance at my first dinner in Mthwalume? Well, they returned. It was monday night. I sat down to dinner. Mama gave me the warning that she hadn't measured out the curry powder again and apologized for the spiciness. I looked down at my plate, dreading the experience, when I was pleasantly surprised by the MAGICAL POTATOES! SO GOOD. They were even better this time. I'm gonna have to experiment in making them. hmm. Anyways, Tuesday, the educators had a teachers union meeting, so school ended early. I was coming down with a cold so I celebrated by taking a three hour nap!

Me and some of the staff of the Bangibizo School at my goodbye party!

I really enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with my host family in my last few days there. Especially this little munchkin, Tutu. We developed the fun game of "lets go through all of Andrea's stuff and point to each thing and ask what it is and act out what we think it is for!" We also continued our tradition of singing songs and chasing each other around the house and yard.

Tutu and one of the 2 year old twins!

I managed to successfully make it through the time period without falling into the river! Below you can see the river, relatively calm, with the stepping stones used to cross!

random cow acting all authoritative on the way home

cool picture of the sunset I though I'd share

 Wednesday was a sad day for all, as it was my last morning in the school. I went to school until 11, got a ride home, packed, and was shipped back to the dirty durbs (Durban).

My 6th grade class singing a song to say goodbye!

Funny family pictures. From L to R in the back, Abongwe, Tami, Andisiwe, Asanda, Anele, and me!
front row is Mama and Gogo!

Upon my return to Durban, I promptly saw the Hunger Games movie, which I could write an entire blog post about, so we'll just leave it at that.

Thursday and Friday were spent writing writing writing, eating eating eating, going to Victoria Street Market, going to the beach, getting ice cream from Milkylane.... you know, being productive.

Oh yes, I'm staying in the Windemere again,  right across from the beach. I'm in a new room with new roommates, well Crazy Cara was in my room before, but this time I'm living with Jenny, Sara, Maalika, and Liora as well. Good times. Made rice krispy treats. A lot of pages were written between the 6 of us over the past few days.

sums up the general attitude about writing our ISPs.

This morning (Saturday), I woke up at 5:30 to finish up my ISP and then was picked up at 7:30 to head to school! yay! I handed in my 67 page paper, printed it out for binding, and gave a 20 minute presentation about my findings. Now I am officially done with all of my work for the semester! Bring on Summer!

Tomorrow we leave for St. Lucia to go on a few safaris and go to the beach and all that fun stuff! We get back on Wednesday, and then Thursday I fly out of South Africa!!! No no, don't get too excited. I'm not coming home yet. First I gotta go to Victoria falls, check out Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, say a brief hello to Jo'burg, endure a longgggg flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and THEN, never fear, I will make my triumphant return to the United States.

As a result of the end of my formal study abroad program, I am not sure when/where my next blog post will take place. It may infact end up being posted from the US! Who knows!? Stay tuned to find out.

Missing you all.
I'm ready to be back in the US, but also not ready to leave Africa or all of my amazing friends here, which is leading to a strange mix of feelings.

Anyways,
Salani Kahle!