Mine was spent a little bit differently than usual. For one, it's cold. It's the first time in my life that I've ever worn a jacket on the 4th of July. It's weird, because it's not a big deal here (for obvious reasons!).
We didn't have class Monday. Instead, our program had set up a service project for us to do, sort of a taste of what Option 2 has been doing for the last few weeks. Early in the morning we boarded the train in Stellenbosch station (yes, that train again). We took a first class plus car to Lyndoch, which is just two stops away in the countryside.
Lyndoch is a primary school. It started after Apartheid as a sort of social experiment, putting children of different races together in the same community and class. In that way it's been successful, however the school is struggling financially.
We met up with Grant, the leader of the Option 2 students, who also happens to work at the school. He took us around the school, and we helped out with the sweeping, weeding the vegetable garden, mopping, and cleaning up the school. It doesn't sound like much, but after we had finished you could tell a huge difference. We also walked along the railroad tracks outside the school and picked almost 20 bags full of trash that people had thrown out of the train. After several hours of this we were really tired and sore (bending up and down for hours on end will tire you out!) but it really felt good to help out. After working for a while, Grant brought in a big pot of vegetable soup that his elderly mother had made for us when she had found out that we would be helping out. It was so good!
Around 4 in the afternoon we took the train back to Stellenbosch. Dirk and the South African guys began building the braai fire, but I had special plans for the night. A small group had managed to get reservations at Moyo for one last night. (The tree restaurant!) It was really cold outside, but we were able to sit near a fire. There was lots of different food that they didn't have the first time I went. I tried ox tail (I couldn't get past the fact that it was a tail). I also had kudu, springbok, and ostrich. I also got some souvenir shopping done at the restaurant store! I'm really glad that I got to go back there one last time. I tried to get some pictures, but it was too dark outside. Hopefully one of my friends got some good ones that I can put up. Dirk drove us and picked us up in the school van, and when we got back the braai was still going on. We couldn't do fireworks, but we had some sparklers and those popper things that you throw on the ground, and we sang the anthem. It was fun. It was a different experience to celebrate it so far away from the US!
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