I have been thinking about writing something about my Afrikaans classes. We began our classes on 25th of February. Our teacher is a nun. She is from Germany. She has been a missionary in south Africa for her life time. She had been teaching in different schools. Now she is retired and now in the old age home near to our house here in Aliwal North. She comes daily at 10 in the morning. Our class goes till 12 in the noon. In between we have 15 minutes of break. After a week of classes we have asked her to conduct a test. I got 80% of marks. My companion got100 out 100. I think he is very good at it.
On Monday too we have to write an exam. But I do not know how I will cop up with it. Because yesterday there was joke. In two days there is going to be SCJ African bursar’s meeting. So we got an email telling that one of the African conferrer is arriving in Bloemfontein. So soon after the class we started our journey to pick him. We reached there in 3 hours. After reaching there, we all are hungry and we decided to eat something with him after he comes. By the time we had some potato chips. As we sit there we could see the flight coming down and people coming out of the air-port. But none comes for us. Ha-ha what is this??? We come to the counter and ask about the person. Yes there is a person in the detail who has come to SA, but did not get into the flight from Johannesburg. We come back home in the night.Later we found out that he missed his connecting flight in Johannesburg.
One strange thing that I experience here in South Africa is the distance between places. From one place to another, one city to another distance is very huge. Hours of ride in the car. Very rarely there are public buses. As we go in the car, one can see people waiting and showing their hands to stop the car for them. Its very strange for me to see that huge empty land. People call farm. Lots of cattle there and here. Once you leave the premise of the city, there is only huge empty fields and cattle. May be that is the only cultural shock that I have got so far.
OUR DEAR TEACHER:SR:ANETTE FROM THE HOLY CROSS SISTERS