I play mini-cricket every Tuesday. It's not much fun. I play tennis and it is super-de-duper fun because I hit the ball a lot. My tennis coach's name is Janeen. She is so nice. Even when you do something wrong she says "That's okay, let's try again." About 2000 kids play mini-cricket with me. We get to play real cricket games. My favorite position is the bowler (like the pitcher in baseball). It's different because you run at the batsman and about 6 feet before you get to him you slam the ball hard on the ground so it bounces back toward the batsman and he tries to hit it with the cricket bat and block the wicket. It's harder than it sounds. Then the guy who hits the ball can decide to run or not. I have been collecting the South African cricket magazines and cricket cards from crisp bags. The World Cup Cricket matches are being hosted in South Africa and some in Zimbabwe. Some games are even being played here in Port Elizabeth.

School is super-de-duper bad in South Africa. You have to wear a uniform: it makes me feel ugly, the heat makes me feel hot, and the socks make my legs itch and are so, so, so ugly. We are eating lunch at 10:30 in the morning when you are still sleeping. The best thing about school is the tuck shop. You can buy candy floss (cotton candy), crisps (potato chips)-my favorite flavor is chili. Other flavors include snook (which is a kind of fish). One of my mates passed these out as a birthday treat but I haven't tried them yet. Actually I just did and they are great! You can also order hot dog (R3.50 or 40 cents), hamburger (R6 or 70 cents), and chicken burger (R6 or 70 cents). There are jars with all sorts of candy to choose from and fingers and freezers with juice, water, pop, frozen juice bags, and frozen icees. The flavors of juice are mango, guava, litchi, apple, and others, with loganberry being my favorite. You can also buy large and small donuts, chips (French fries), and a lot more I haven't discovered yet.

In the morning I get dropped off at the sidewalk by the gate of my school. Bekah gets dropped off next. My Mom and Dad walk her into her school. The I put all my stuff from my backpack (we call it a "suitcase" here) in the cloth bag hanging on my chair, then go out to play on the wooden play ground. When the bell rings we line up outside the classroom door. A prefect (an older girl) is there to help us and keep us quiet. Girls in one line, boys on the other. The teacher lets us in; we sit down, and in unison say "Good morning Mrs. McKay" (pronounced mick eye). There are these letterland people and they look like the letters. "A" is "Annie apple" and also the "apron man", "C" is "clever cat" and "D" is "Dippy the duck". Letterland is what we do for phonics. The workbook I bring home is about 20 copied pages stapled together and slid into a plastic sleeve. The reading book I bring home is made of copied sheets slipped into a flip file. As each paper is slipped in, I start from page 1 and keep reading every page. We are on page 8. My homework is written in my diary (day planner) each day by my teacher.

I am going to bring back a cricket card and magazine for Parker. The cards are different as they are small square laminated cards that when you collect six of them you can snap them together to make a cube. When you have three cubes you can play a game.

I stayed home from school today because our car was in the shop and Katilee had her hand stung 4-5 times by wasps or bees or something in our garden last night and so she stayed home too.