This morning, we slept in until the very late hour of 7am. Today was our change of pace day! After enjoying our breakfast, we were given an hour of free time to spend painting, chatting, practicing our acts for the upcoming talent show, or even designing the sign for the Crèche! Once our free time was over, we then moved into our Baraza groups to reflect on our time in South Africa so far, and assess the lessons we have learned. We discussed the highs, lows, and both practical challenges of our project, such as motivation, as well as more holistically, such as the cold weather. After our Barazas, we ate lunch, and prepared for our afternoon activities.
After lunch, we were taken on a captivating tour of the Tiger Kloof campus. We learned about the history of Tiger Kloof’s buildings, the schools founding, and witnessed the amazing views of the surrounding landscape. We were then separated into three groups so we could go through three different stations where we had the opportunity to get fully immerse in the South African culture. We listened to an amazing marimba performance done by Tiger Kloof students. We also had the opportunity to learn how to play “In the jungle”. After that, we learnt how to do Gumboot dance, which served as a communication form for miners. Lastly we witnessed a performance of a Setswana cultural dance, which we then had the chance to perform.
After finishing, we headed off to dinner and enjoyed a nice pasta bake with lots of cheese. Then some barazza groups had a meeting to plan out the day tomorrow, as 2 barazza groups are going to paint the walls tomorrow with different motives, while the others either talked, played games or did the dishwashing. Some of us played “Mau” after finishing either of the things above, which is a complicated game, where you have to figure out the rules while not speaking. Lastly each of us got a part of the circle symbolising round square, where we could draw something in about our culture, our country or ourselves to give it a nice personal touch. These parts of circles are then taped together to create a big image of circles symbolising not only round square but every individual that is taking part in this experience.
Emily, Luana, Midori, Claire
