Because it was the last full week of term before the summer holidays, Santa paid the Grade 00s and Grade 0s a surprise visit. Sadly Santa's beard was a bit too big for his face and kept falling off, and from that some of the kids worked out that it wasn't actually Santa but the director of sports... But apart from that minor slip the morning was a huge success. All the children loved going up individually to get their presents and getting a turn to sit on "Santa's" knee. After that the week was completely Christmas themed and I spent a whole day with the Grade 00s making little Santas, decorating trees with glitter and playing Christmas games. I'm pretty sure I was loving it as much as they were - if not more.
On Thursday we had the EC Christmas concert and after weeks of preparation it couldn't have gone better! All the kids managed to stand up in front of everyone and perform, which for some of them was a huge achievement. The costumes and stage props that we'd been working on for days ended up looking great and the compliments were rolling in by the end of the show.
One of the older boys from Lifeskills will be leaving us after Christmas to study at a local music college so he decided to stand up and say a few words before the concert was over. The speech started of well but then started to deteriorate when he just started thanking everyone in the audience individually. It was very funny but we had to step in when a child ran across the stage and he ran after the kid thanking him for making an appearance.
After such a hectic and exciting week I was very much looking forward to spending the day at the Buddhist retreat. I thought it was going to be a very relaxing experience but I couldn't have been more wrong - it was actually the most exhausting day of the whole week!
We started the morning by getting picked up outside the hostel by Niki, one of the teacher at the school who had trained to become a monk for three months. He was telling us that he also spent ten days training in a cave, not able to see daylight, having to go to the toilet in the same space and just being alone with your thoughts in the dark for the whole time. I can imagine it must seem like a lifetime. A psychologist has to be on hand because the experience can actually be maddening, but you're allowed to leave whenever you want.
After getting picked up by "The Plum" (Niki's small purple car), we drove for an hour until we reached the jungle in which the Buddhist retreat is situated. The roads through the jungle are the roughest I've ever experienced and the bottom of The Plum took quite a bashing. At one point we all had to get out of the car so that Niki could drive up a particularly tricky road... About another hour later we finally arrived at the retreat.
The farm building in which the Buddihist retreat was held was absolutely beautiful. It was like we were in a completely different country. The contrast between the setting of Polokwane and the farm was huge. Compared to the hot, dry and dusty landscape surrounding Mitchell House, this place was misty, cool and lush with vegetation and when there was a break in the mist you could see the surrounding valley from the porch of the farm house. Down the road a little bit from the farm, there was a small area of pine forest and that really reminded me of the woods we have up in the north of Scotland. You couldn't ask for a better place to meditate!
We started the meditation at 8am and carried on until lunch, with small medication walks in between. As well as silent meditation we practiced chanting and learned more about the Buddhist culture. In total I think we meditated for about 7 hours and I found myself drifting off at various points... But apparently in Tibetan Buddhism the monks fall asleep all the time so I didn't feel too guilty.
After a surprisingly tiring day, we started to pack up and get ready to leave. Sadly when we tried to start up The Plum we found out that the bashing she took was more serious than we thought so Niki had to do some quick mechanical work. That's when we came up with the phrase "monk by day, mechanic by night."
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