Appelsbosch aka The ‘Bosch’ (Part 3 of 5)

Appelsbosch is a remote area of KwaZulu-Natal (funny how easily that flows off my lips in just a month when in the beginning I thought, “how would I ever begin to pronounce the Zulu names”) in one of the Republic of South Africa’s 9 provinces. It is approx. an hour and a half from the 3rd largest city in SA, Durban aka eThekwini which is the Zulu name they are trying to change to. Translated it means “as the place where the earth and the oceans meet.”  The RSA is in the process of changing all the provinces names back to  original Africa names, but as yet everyone still calls it Durban. KwaZulu-Natal is home to the Zulu people

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and lies between the Indian Ocean to the east and the Drakensberg mountain range to the west . There are miles of beaches,

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Big Five Game Reserves  

(the “Big Five,” includes elephants, leopards, lions, water buffalo and rhinos),

 

and beautiful gardens. (KwaZulu-Natal is known as the garden province because it is so green.) Since we got here 5 weeks ago we see everything becoming greener, but necessarily hotter. :) I will blog some photos in November, so you can see some of the changes. A moment for my passion please…they have a purple blossom tree with the name Jacaranda – beautiful, absolutely beautiful,  

 

 

 

 

 

and one called yesterday, today and tomorrow that smells divine       (Mom it smells like lilacs and makes me think of you). Being that Spring is here we get the pleasure of seeing many things come into bloom – I’m in ecstasy! The weather here is known as a “subtropical” climate. What that means to me, is one day, or part of it, it can be a balmy 30 degrees Celsius and the next moment (it seems) I can be wearing the down jacket a friend gave me, with a scarf, hat and layers!@#*??? NO KIDDING! Apparently, This Is Spring, so no more complaining Vancouverites, okay! lol (keep in mind of course, this is coming from the person who wears long johns into Spring at home – ha ha ha!) Having said that, however, they are experiencing a serious drought here. There has been hardly any rain for more than 3 years (I have heard varying comments on the time factor). River beds are dry, vegetation & trees are dying, rolling hills of sugar cane farms are half their normal size producing minimum amounts of sugar and the amazing animals that live in hectares of game reserves aren’t getting the water they need to survive :(. We are all praying for rain – please join with us. Anyway, again I digress (there’s just so much to share with you :));  back to Appelsbosch.

In 1994 (hence the reason for the old fashioned keys :))  Swedish missionaries came to Appelsbosch and together with the Apartheid government  built Appelsbosch College of Education which was used to train teachers.

 

 

 

 

In some of our offices where we have the Academy based, there is one way glass where observations of teachers were done.  It was used for less than 2 years and closed.

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It has a huge gym with equipment; including, a trampoline, javelin poles, nets etc. (our gym teacher is beside himself :)),          dining room,

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large kitchen with stainless steel appliances(our chef is ecstatic);          

 

however, stainless steel seems to be what they used back then as our toilets and sinks are also stainless steel. There are 4 dorms, each with 3 floors,

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a Tuck (snack) shop,  many, many offices of which we’ve been able to block off a whole section for the Academy including a biology and chemistry lab (complete with chemicals and specimens left in formaldehyde) which is a huge plus for us as there is so much our Science teacher can’t do on the ship being that we are not allowed to have fire (Bunsen burners, candles etc,) of any kind on the ship. The kids are having a great time here with all the field trips being planned and taking place, the extra learning curves that have been included in the curriculum and generally just being able to run around without being told their not allowed! We have already  had 2 broken arms (one from falling out of a tree :)), ticks, scrapes and bruises to the extent the nurse has already run out of bandages and even a maggot that had to be squeezed out of one of our student’s legs – Yuck! Our clean-up included getting rid of paper that was still on shelves and in filing cabinets. Basically, when the doors closed back in the 90’ everything was left behind other than the teacher’s personal belongings!

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One thing I might mention is their colour choice for the entire college was gray, not my favourite colour to live in I’ve learnt. Everywhere has a dull, lifeless effect.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my office A friend of mine made me a whole bunch of sunflowers (on my request) and put some of my favourite quotes (her idea, which coincidentally, I have a file full of quotes :)) in the head of the flower.    It brightens up my office a lot and I think the kids like it when they have to go through to the library (door to the right, behind Danae –grade 4 & 5 teacher). She’s a fun artist and she blessed me so much by doing that. I share my office with a temporary assistant while we are here at the ‘Bosch.’ Within the families there is a primary caregiver and a full-time working parent. The primary caregiver has to have a minor job equalling a certain percentage of time according to how large (maximum 4 children allowed and no single parents) the family is.  Deb normally heads up the Patient Care program for the crew and patients onboard the ship, but being that we do not have a hospital at this time she is helping in the Academy. She works mornings as a teachers assistant to grade ones and in the afternoon with me. We have some good times working together and manage to laugh a fair amount, so all is good.

Unkulunkulu Akubusise!  (Zulu for May God be with you!)

Love,

Carol xox