Hello,

I hope all of you are having a happy Halloween. We don't have Halloween here in South Africa, so I don't get to celebrate. It is the beginning of summer right now and the weather has started to get very hot. The rainy season has also started. The school year is also ending. Kids go to school here from the end of January to the beginning of December, so right now they are taking tests and getting ready for summer break. At schools in South Africa parents have to pay a fee to send their children to school and they also have to buy all of their own books. They also have to buy a uniform to wear to school. Most children work very hard in school because they know that their parents will be upset with them for wasting their money if they don't.

South Africa has 11 official languages - English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Pedi, Tswana, Ndbele, Swati, Tsonga and Venda. Here in the North West Province people mostly speak English, Afrikaans, and Tswana. Most children in South Africa speak three or more languages.

Please e-mail me if you have any questions about South Africa. My e-mail is jenny_nickels@yahoo.com

I will try to write again soon.

Love,

Jennifer

Dear Willowfield Students,

My name is Jennifer Nickels and I am 25 years old. I am currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa. That means that a U.S. agency called the Peace Corps has sent me to South Africa to help people here improve their lives. There are a lot of really poor people living in South Africa, and we try to help them improve their lives by providing people with basic things like food, clothing and blankets and by making sure that children go to school and are living in environments that help them lerarn and grow.

South Africa is located at the very bottom of the continent of Africa. The country is in the southern hemisphere which means that the seasons are opposite to the seasons in the U.S. Right now it is September and it is spring here. I am living in a small town called Potchefstroom, which is in North West Province, South Africa. South Africa has Provinces instead of States. North West Province is a very rural Province with very few towns and cities. I live in one of the few towns in the Province. There are a lot of farms here where people grow corn, wheat, and sunflowers. The Province looks a lot like the Great Plains in America where there are large flat plains full of farms. We are currently at the end of the dry season in South Africa and the rainy season should start soon. It is really dusty here right now though since it hasn't rained since March.

I hope to be able to update this blog every week or so, so I will write again soon. If you would like to write me my e-mail address is jenny_nickels@yahoo.com You can write me from your computers at school or from your computer at home if you have one. I'm looking forward to writing you. Hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Jennifer