hiya peeps! been a couple of days since my last one and i finally have some more to report... today we received our timetables from dineo (our rep out here for those of you who dont know) for the next 2 weeks... some ppl are a bit miffed about theirs unfortunately but i'm quite pleased with mine altho i would've liked to do a bit of the teaching work at the skl but i'm already doing kayamandi which is similar to that so overall quite pleasing. my schedule is as follows (if your interested lol) monday (today): lectures. 10.00 African History... 12.00 Afrikaans! tuesday: cotlands hospice from 8 till 5!!! they're actually really long days so i'm not gonna have all that much spare time! wednesday: for this week i only have the kayamandi proj which is from 1 till 3. thursday through to monday is all this trip which i also have the timetable for... i am put down for a cotlands 8-5 day on friday which i think they are quite keen to keep their volunteers working through because lots of the staff are off but fingers crossed dineo will be able to get it off for us! the next week is exactly the same except that on thurs i am put down for a day at little angels which would be another long day from 8 till 5.30 so i really am chucked in the deep end with this whole care thing!!! will be tough - but hopefully really rewarding as well! from what i can gather i think that it going to be my timetable basically for the rest of the proj because the care places like to have the same volunteers throughout so its less unsettling for the kids... i'm doing them with nice ppl so thats a bonus! as for this tour i mentioned... the timetable as we have it atm is as follows: GARDEN ROUTE TOUR: 27th Apr to 01 May. Day 1: 07H00: Depart from Stellenbosch to Wilderness. Visit Mosselbay for lunch and sleep at the Wilderness Beach Hotel. Day 2: Depart from hotel to Port Elizabeth via Plettenberg bay (where the highest bungee in the world is situated - am i brave enough lol). we have a visit at Stormsriver ex. and we sleep at Road Lodge in Port Elizabeth. Day 3: Depart for a day trip to the ADO National Park where we have lunch (the extra cost of R30 - 3 pounds! oh the rip off lol). Day 4: Depart from the hotel to Knysna and at 11h45 we take a boat trip on knysna lagoon and heads and at 14h00 we go on the TJOE-TJOE train drive to george. and the at 17.30 we depart from george back to Wilderness Beach Hotel where coinsidently we sleep! Day 5: we go back to stellenbosch! so all in it sounds pretty cool to me and i really hope dineo can get that friday off for me! i just got back from the police station (which is situated in a really dodgy place i might add) and before you all get worried or think you know a mass murderer or something it was just to sign an oath of confidentiality form for cotlands to protect the privacy of the children and their families - unfortunately this does mean no/very little photography of the little kids i'll be working with but i'll do my very best to try and get the odd one to post on here!!! i have learnt rather a lot of afrikaans words today most of which i wont bore you with but i will say three things... buy a donkey and totsiens, tot later (baie dankie heehee) in english for those of u who dont speak afrikaans ;o) thank you, good bye, till later!!! so i'll leave you with that and say that i miss you all and cant wait to hear all your news! lots of love to you all emily xxx