Thursday’s Special

Thursday’s Special: Spring is in the air!

I feel tired and down.

I came across Paula’s Thursday Special.

Spring is in the air and

the beauty of first blossoms.

I did my piece of writing for

It’s write easy

last Friday about things that make up you/me

I feel I want to share this piece of writing and also an old clipping from 1973.

1.Things that make up me…

1972 – starting a new year, in an unknown town and a whole new way of living for me.

After coming back from an awesome 3 weeks of touring South America I had to leave my parents home and start a whole new life on my own.I had been living and teaching for four years from home near Pretoria.

I got a teaching job in Potgietersrus,starting January 1972. My first year there I had to stay in the hostel as part of my contract. Coping with teaching grade 2 in English(me as an Afrikaans speaking person) and looking after children in the hostel stretched my nerves to the full.

The hostel had two floors. The ground floor was the easy floor. Children from farmers who lived too far out of town were hosted there. They always went home during weekends.

The first floor had children from Johannesburg or Die Rand who were taken away from problem parents. They never went home during the term. They could only go home July holidays and then December. These poor children had many problems. They were from broken and poor homes.

Why I am writing about 1972 and my first year in Potgieterus has a twist!

On Facebook, I am taking part in, posting a photo a day. A topic is given for each day of the month. Monday the topic was trees. Someone posted a photo of a dead tree next to Moorddrift monument. The camel thorn tree burned down some years back. A young tree is already growing there, very slowly There is a historical background to these trees. There were two big thorn trees growing on the side of the Nyl River. It was a good spot to camp for the group of Voortrekkers-Pioneers. During the night/day a nearby tribe came and killed the whole group. There were 6 children in the group. These childrens heads were bashed against the two trees killing them. This is why the trees are historical importance.

May,1973 I took my std 1 class to this monument and gave them a lesson on the historical background on the moments there. A magazine, Die Landbouweekblad took a photo of us with the two big trees still growing at that time.

I told the person who posted the dead tree, about this picture. She asked me if I could show it to her. After some digging in my boxes which I haven’t unpacked yet, I found the clipping and I sent it to the lady who posted it on Facebook.

I am very proud of myself because I first had to scan the picture and upload it to my computer, then I had to upload it onto facebook.

Now I am going to paste it onto my blog too!