A Word of Advice: Baboons might seem fun but in reality, they are quite a fright!

Hopefully this post won't be as extremely long as the past two Holiday ones! Stick with me, folks! I've (sadly) only got a few weeks left!

On Tuesday, April 10, we started back in school. I was excited to see how my CT was without all the stress of final grades and what-not. Unfortunately, I have still yet to see a not stressed Mrs. Solomons. Over the break her husband had some health issues and isn't better yet. Lucky for her, I'm there to help her out A LOT in her classroom. By this I mean I'm the teacher. Not a problem at all; this is why I came here! However, it might be nice to get a little instruction here and there...maybe a textbook...a dry-erase marker? In all seriousness, yes, it has been a little stressful. In fact, during the beginning of the week, I was feeling very homesick and very much over my head. What's great about this is that all of us GV students are here doing the same thing and have been able to help each other out. I'm feeling much better about my situation. I've basically taken my classes and have begun steering them in the way I would like. My students, at first, took this opportunity to try and take advantage of my newness. Luckily we've begun working together to 1. better understand each other and 2. learn from each other. I've gained a lot of respect from these young adults and I'm learning so much more than I ever thought possible. It'll be sad leaving them in 2 weeks.

After this interesting school week was over (most of us had a difficult time in our classes for various reasons) we all headed to a beach house in Pringle Bay for a relaxing weekend with absolutely no plans. The house is right on the Atlantic Ocean. It's front yard looks straight out of a romantic movie or something with it's tall grasses, sand dunes, and ocean front. We spent most of our time reading, napping, talking, and just plain relaxing...that is, until the baboons attacked! The first attack happened when I was out exploring. A few people were in the main room talking and a massive daddy baboon opened up a window, climbed in, and sat on our coffee table. Lots of screaming started coming from some of my friends, so much so that a few people that were woken up by naps could only assume that people were being murdered by the monkeys! No one knew what to do. Luckily, Kayla H. woke up from a nap, heard the commotion, grabbed the nearest weapon (a 2 x 4?) and came barreling down the stairs hitting it against anything in front of her right up to the coffee table itself until the baboon got up quick and went out where he came from. Good news: Kayla saved the day!!! Bad news: a window was broken (shattered) in the process :S No worries, though!!

After that attack, we all thought we'd seen the last of the invaders. A few of us left early Sunday afternoon to walk the beach another time before we left. We watched as a family of 6 baboons came out of some trees ahead of us. Then we watched as more baboons emerged from the woods (15 total) and start coming towards us! We all slowly turned around and started walking back to the house. Unfortunately, the baboons continued to follow us, even walking in our exact footsteps! We got the porch of the house and turned to see all of the baboons coming up onto the top of the sand dunes and looking at us. Creepy! Finally, they left. Unfortunately for us, however, it wasn't forever.

Attack number 2 happened about 45 minutes later. A few girls were on the front balcony eating their lunches and reading. A baboon plopped down from the roof looking right at them, specifically at Laura's sandwich. Our hero Kayla H. joins us again in this scene by taking the sandwich and throwing it off the balcony. The baboon followed and the girls decided it was time to go back inside. They didn't actually make it in so quickly, however, because the daddy baboon and 2 others met them at the top of the stairs. The girls had no clue what to do since that was their only way out. They started screaming. Luckily some folks of ours came outside and started making a lot of noise trying to scare the monkeys away. They left finally and the girls ran inside and were slightly traumatized for a little bit. I was on the beach at this time but actually caught the very end of it by sitting on the top of the dune and just watching. It was a pretty helpless location at the time but we really had no other choice!

Despite all the baboon terrors of the weekend, everyone could safely say that this relaxing weekend away was much needed and much appreciated!

This week we are in the schools each and every day. Julie, Laura, and I plan on spending a lot more quality time with Phoebe, Raiatea, and Genevesa during our free time & I am very excited for that! This weekend we have a big day in Cape Town complete with a trip up Table Mountain, a visit to Robbin Island, and one last look at Green Market Square. Details of these adventures will come! 


More Later!


AB