Four weeks in and we are all still loving it out here in South Africa! It has been an amazing experience so far. With much to talk about I’ll get on with it. On Monday we continued with school life. The early mornings are beginning to take their toll on us making those weekend lie-ins something to look forward to.
Tuesday brought a much needed rest day as we travelled back to school principal, Mr Hopley’s house on the Kroom River, near Jeffrey’s Bay along with the school prefects who were attending the prefects camp. As they sat in lectures, based around leadership skills, we lay by the river working on our colour, all of us taking in a little too much.
Yet again, we had a proper South African ‘braai’. We were given our meat and told to have a go at cooking it ourselves. To make sure not to get food poisoning we cremated the outer layer of the steaks! But the inside was definitely worth the wait. Two steaks each was a good feed. Exhausted after a long day under the sun, we headed back to the college and straight to bed.
Thursday and Friday were the school athletics days. We entered ourselves into two events; the 3,000m race and the 4 x 100m relay against the staff team, the school prefects team and the school 100m best four judged on their race times. In the 4 x 100m race, Lorcan and I had a good start getting us into 2nd place at the half way stage. But the best of the school was still yet to come and we couldn’t keep up with them any longer.
The three opposing teams had a thrilling finish, shortly followed by us. The winning time was just under 44 seconds so we knew we were deservedly beaten.
On Saturday we all had matches, both teams playing against Graeme High School. The 2nd XI won the toss and elected to bowl. On a very green wicket (much like Irish conditions) Graeme finished on a total of 93 all out. I had figures of 2 for 18 off 7. Muir looked to score the runs quickly and chased down the total with the loss of 4 wickets. Lorcan got 25 before being run out by a direct hit. Nick got six, caught on the boundary going for a raised cut shot that would have cleared the rope had there not been a fielder there.
The 1st XI hosted Graeme at the Muir. Graeme won the toss and decided to bat. They finished 175 all out with Jack getting 1 for 13 off 7. Muir chased down the reasonable total with ease after the loss of two wickets. Jack finished on a very respectable 59 not out.
The next morning we were invited to the beach by Mr Wahl and his family. After a short car journey we arrived at the Beach View on a rare overcast day. Some good fishing was cut short by heavy rain that was set to stay so we made our way back to the college where we sampled ‘boerewors’, traditional South African sausage.
This week has been quiet so far, but the school swimming gala is yet to come with two of our competitors recently swimming for the National South African team. We have had a daily routine of school, cricket training and gym sessions finished off by an intense game of pool rugby! We have little to complain about so far and hope this continues throughout our time here at Muir College.
Slán go fóill.
Tom Stanton.
Sandford Park school & Merrion CC