Ok, so once again this picture wasn't taken by me! I have a new mobile number whilst in SA - 0027760121419, the Ghanaian oen no longer works. I need to apologise for my awful typing skills in the last few journals - I just re read one a basically had to translate it so I could understand, and I wrote it! I think I have enough time on the net now to hopefully get you up to date with my African escapades - as long as I on't spend too mcuh time on facebook that is...! So, Ghanaian logic + Tania Bell = spending 35 pound in duty free in order to be able to spend your remaining 257,000 cedis which is equivalent to about 14 pounds! I know how clever am I, I managed to cost myself 35 pound just so I could spend 15 - I'm like Carol Vorderman, you gotta love it! At least I'll smell nice in SA for all the hot guys - of which there is a distinct lack in Barberton so I think it may have been a false economy, we'll see...

I slept through pretty much all of the flight, I even nearly missed dinner! I half woke up and thought 'mm I can smell food, it must be on it's way' then I opened my eyes and everyone aroudn me had pretty much finished! I did wake up pretty sharpish though, ate my food and then went back to sleep until it was time for breakfast! Ha ha! Landed in JoBurg and once again waited ages to go through immigraton. Got my bag and then had to check in again for my internal flight to Nelspruit/Kruger airport for whcih I pretty much had to run whilst trying to understand how on earth it was SO COLD - 7 degrees C! Got on the internal flight and as soon as we'd taen off it was pretty much time to land - 50 minutes is officaly the shortest flight I've ever taken!

Arrived a Nelspruit/Kruger airport which was amazing, actually looked liek a hotela dn without fail the most beautiful airport I've ever seen and probably ever will see. It had a thatch roof, ceramic tiled floor, chandelliers in the baggage hall and bamboo everywhere. I took some pictures, hoping I wasn't going to get arrested, so when I can I'll put a couple on here. Got met by Hlengiwe - we just call her H as we can't say the rest of it! Next was the hour drive to Barberton. Met 2 of teh other volunteers and they showed me around the house and the local town - didn't take too long as it's pretty small. They do actually have proper shops here though like at home which was amazing - I've been to the supermarket everyday since!

the house is really ncie, except there's no host family but I'm not sure how well that would work here anyway. Basically there are 5 of us volunteers who live in the house, H normally lives there too except she's away at the moment, we have to cook and clean for ourselevs which is a bit of a shock to the system but it's actually quite nice to be able to make whatever you want when you want. Unlike in Ghana where we didnt even have a kitchen - all the cooking was done under the stairs or outside. We take it in turns to cook and have actually managed some pretty impressive meals - the washing up sucks though! The house is really nice, bit like a villa really. It's in town and then all of our placements are in the location which is the township. It's really bizzarre here, but I guess what I expected, how the white people live in the town in really nice houses with big gates and ncie cars and the black people all live in the township in not so nice houses and take taxi's. It's not as shocking for me as I've seen much much worse in Ghana, the township here in Barberton is like a nice part of Ghana and very similar looking to where most of the volunteers where staying in Cape Coast.

I had my introduction to the school on Monday - the headmistress was a b****! She didn't make me feel welcome at all and wasn't impressed that I'm not an actual teacher, hmm if you want an actual teacher pay one! So I wasn't exactly joyous from that but then we went to what we call the multi purpose centre. It's where some of the village kids come in the afternoon to get lunch and then we teach and play games with them. We try to make it fun as they've already been at school all morning. Its really good and I think we actually have as much fun as the children do!!

Tuesday and Wednesday I went to school and started helping with the teaching straight away, it's really handy as the school is really well resourced the teacher I'm working with Eunice is pretty much always around to help me or translate if needed. Most of what I teach them is either Maths or Literacy. There are about 45 kids in the class and its Grade 3 which has kids from 8-10 years I think, it varies because if they don't pass the year here they have to stay on so the ages differ. Some of the kids are really clever and get it straight away and some have absolutely no idea! Yesterday I arrived in the morning and Eunice didn't! She forgot to mention she wouldn't be there as she had study leave... I was like 'ok, what shall we do today...' I found loads for them to do and it was actually a lot of fun. It was nice to have the freedom to do whatever I wanted with them. One of the tasks was for them to draw their ideal house and then I got them to describe it and who they lived there with, one of the boys said he lived there with me - v.sweet and definitely the right way to get a good grade!! Not that I ahve favourites already of course, except there is one very naughty, rather big boned girl shall we say, who I already dislike. I don't think she liked me much either yesterday when I made her sit next to me, ha she'll learn! So far school is great, except today the teachers are on strike so I didn't have to go in as there would be nothing to do so instead you're getting this ridiculously long journal entry!

Let me tell you what we do in the evenings - pretty much nothing compared to my time in Ghana - we cook and then just chill either watching tv or reading etc. To be honest we're all knackered really early as we get up ealry 6.30 and then get pciked up to go to our placements at 7.30 and don't get picked up from the multi purpose centre until 4 so it's a long day, especially what I was used to - Radio in the morning, Castle restaurant or New Life in the afternoon, few beers in the evening!

Ok, best be off to the multi purpose centre for the afternoon and to prepare for my weekend in Nelspruit, the biggest town near us and then get excited about my upcoming trip to Kruger on 10th June for 5 days....

Much love as always xxx