The school of Kingswood College rests on a hill in a quaint college town, “Grahamstown,” located north east of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. Grahamstown is home to Rhodes University, which is a “quite English” school, as opposed to Stellenbosch near Capetown which is “quite Afrikaans,” or so I hear.
Kingswood is a prestigious boarding school, I am the guest at the moment in the music department. My classes this week have been going fine. Today I was told by a third grader to “please stop using that accent.” I thought this was quite funny, but if there was any doubt that my American accent is really that bad, a fifth grader in the next class raised her had and added “I just love your accent!”
I am all safe, sound, and settled in at this point, but I must admit that getting here was a bit of a drama. I spent the day in Joburg on Saturday, (I went to the Apartheid museum, which is a must do if you are in the city for a day. Very informative and they have a great Mandela exhibit up right now) and woke up early on Sunday morning to get my flight to Port Elizabeth. I had arranged a taxi driver from the day before to pick me up at 4:30 am, and he eventually showed, but was about 20 minutes late. After a while on the freeway it became clear that my driver most likely should not have been driving in the condition he was in. Under the influence, just tired, whatever it was, he could barely keep his eyes open and was serving all over the road. I kept him awake fine enough, but just as we had almost made it to the airport, I could see it off in the distance, the car slowed, lurched, stalled, and he ran out of gas. I got out in the middle of the freeway, went to the side of the road, and flagged down another car. Frustrating, to say the least. There was no problem getting to my flight on time, but not the smoothest travel morning I have had so far.
I am only spending three weeks at Kingswood because their term ends on the seventh of August. On the sixth I will be joining the Kingswood band on their annual tour for a few nights in order to get a ride to Cape Town. I have a lot of good memories of band trips when I was in high school- so perhaps this will be a chance for me to relive the glory days? Haha.
Been missing home a bit more recently. Still focused on the project, but looking forward to being more stable for a while when I get back to the states. The road is still my home for now and I am okay with that. More students to come, more people to meet, more songs to write, more places to see.
Until next week,
-T
Kingswood is a prestigious boarding school, I am the guest at the moment in the music department. My classes this week have been going fine. Today I was told by a third grader to “please stop using that accent.” I thought this was quite funny, but if there was any doubt that my American accent is really that bad, a fifth grader in the next class raised her had and added “I just love your accent!”
I am all safe, sound, and settled in at this point, but I must admit that getting here was a bit of a drama. I spent the day in Joburg on Saturday, (I went to the Apartheid museum, which is a must do if you are in the city for a day. Very informative and they have a great Mandela exhibit up right now) and woke up early on Sunday morning to get my flight to Port Elizabeth. I had arranged a taxi driver from the day before to pick me up at 4:30 am, and he eventually showed, but was about 20 minutes late. After a while on the freeway it became clear that my driver most likely should not have been driving in the condition he was in. Under the influence, just tired, whatever it was, he could barely keep his eyes open and was serving all over the road. I kept him awake fine enough, but just as we had almost made it to the airport, I could see it off in the distance, the car slowed, lurched, stalled, and he ran out of gas. I got out in the middle of the freeway, went to the side of the road, and flagged down another car. Frustrating, to say the least. There was no problem getting to my flight on time, but not the smoothest travel morning I have had so far.
I am only spending three weeks at Kingswood because their term ends on the seventh of August. On the sixth I will be joining the Kingswood band on their annual tour for a few nights in order to get a ride to Cape Town. I have a lot of good memories of band trips when I was in high school- so perhaps this will be a chance for me to relive the glory days? Haha.
Been missing home a bit more recently. Still focused on the project, but looking forward to being more stable for a while when I get back to the states. The road is still my home for now and I am okay with that. More students to come, more people to meet, more songs to write, more places to see.
Until next week,
-T
Form 6 girls on my last day in Tanzania.
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