I LOVE THIS PLACE.

Seriously, it’s incredible. I knew it was going to be different from home, but I guess I just didn’t predict HOW different it was going to be. I’ve been pretty busy during my time here, so I haven’t put aside much time for blogging- so sorry, this might get a little lengthy trying to fit everything in. I’ll start at the beginning….

The night before I left, I was working out-- jumping plyo boxes to be exact. I was jumping the highest one, and my foot caught on the corner of it and I came down on the side of my bad ankle. Long story short, I sprained it. Leaving me with a brace and a limp. It’s my bad ankle, so I wasn’t that surprised—just a little bummed. BUT my excitement definitely overrode any negative feelings about my ankle.

What to say about the traveling time….hmm. It was long- it started at 4AM on Tuesday and didn’t end until noon on Thursday. Here are my conclusions from the travels: United Airlines is wonderful because they serve Starbucks coffee, South African Airways puts stuff in their food to stop people from peeing (seriously, I swear they must!), 18 hours is far too long for one flight, and hauling luggage around is not good for a swollen ankle. We did stay in Johannesburg on Wednesday night (Jenny Birkhofer and I got a 4-star upgrade-HOLLA), which was pretty cool. We got out to a traditional African restaurant, and I got to try ostrich—it’s very good! We also learned that restaurants do not split bills anywhere here, so having a calculator along is really helpful.

I knew immediately upon flying over Port Elizabeth that I am going to love it here. It is SO gorgeous! It was cool to see the World Cup stadium from the sky too….it’s MASSIVE. Sister Mary Jane picked us up at the airport upon landing, and took us to our apartments for the semester—Langerry Holiday Flats. I knew summertime in South Africa would be beautiful, but it was still shocking to take in the landscape of this place in person. The Indian Ocean is literally across the road from the flats….it’s always a vibrant shade of blue. There are palm trees everywhere (my favorite!), the sun is almost always shining VERY bright, and there is always a breeze coming from the ocean. After I unpacked, I sat out on our balcony and stared at the ocean for almost an hour—trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was going to be living here through May! Already on the day of our arrival, we tried going to the beach (too windy) and we went to this great place nearby called Primi’s for dinner. Since we were going to be gone at bush camp for Megan Buermann’s birthday, we decided to celebrate it that night at Primi’s—and it was SO great. The workers took her into the back, dressed her up in an apron and hairnet, put flour and tomato sauce (no ketchup here….instead it’s the really liquidy tomato sauce) on her face, gave her a pot and spoon to bang, and marched her out into the restaurant, singing the entire time. The entire kitchen and serving staff marched out behind her, and they sang this amazing song for about 5 minutes! All the while, they had Megan up on the bar, dancing and banging her pot. It was SO much more elaborate, entertaining, and fun than the quick (and usually relatively unenthusiastic) birthday song that you get at restaurants in the states. Side note- all Africans can sing beautifully. Seriously, they are blessed.

The next morning, we packed up into vans and drove about an hour inland to Umlambo Bush Camp. It was a weekend camping trip for all of the international students at NMMU. In addition to our group, there were people from Finland, Vietnam, Germany, several different places in the states…and other places that I’m forgetting right now. It was the coolest thing to look out the window on the drive there—we drove past several different townships (essentially slums). It was shocking to see such poverty firsthand. Townships consist of hundreds of shacks made out of scrap metal, cardboard boxes, anything. They are packed SO closely together….some townships are lucky enough to have a couple of toilets, but most are on the bucket system. There is trash EVERYWHERE and there are dogs, skinny cows, and skinny goats just roaming around everywhere. It was hard, but important, to see. It is just so unlike anything back home—I’ve never seen anything close to a township in the states. It made me really excited to get going on our service work.

The first day of camp it was approximately 8 billion degrees….actually about 105, but it felt like 8 billion under that hot sun. All of us were dripping the entire day. On the way out, we stopped at Addo Croc and Lion Ranch—I got to hold a baby lion cub! It was ADORABLE. Kind of like a normal cat, but bigger and way more muscular. Once we got to Umlambo, we realized we were REALLY going to be roughing it for the weekend. It was very dry, dusty, and….African. There was a rock climbing wall and zipline into the water, but my bum ankle prevented me from doing too much of that stuff. We were all a little sketched out by the water as well, because the number one order from all of our doctors back home was a strong DON’T GO INTO FRESH WATER (parasites). It was a really murky brown color to add to the sketchiness, but as the weekend went on, people got a little more brave and hopped in. The second day we split into teams and did a very muddy obstacle course (I was designated as the photographer b/c of the ankle), and it was actually really fun. We had a dinner where we weren’t allowed to use utensils (like some native African groups), so now I can say I’ve eaten salad and rice and chicken with my hands. I also got to try some African foods, such as kudu (it’s kind of like a deer with big curly horns) and samoosas. Overall, bush camp was a good experience—it was fun for group bonding and meeting the other international students—but we were all really excited to get back to breezy PE.

Since bush camp, we’ve been pretty busy with stuff each day. Of course, we watched the Vikings game (kickoff: 1:40AM), and we started orientation at the university. We had our first community service lecture, where we heard some shocking statistics. 28% of the adult population here has HIV/AIDS, 55% (I think that was the number) is the unemployment rate, and the life expectancy is only 52 (lower for black Africans, especially men). VERY different from home. We had a city tour one day, with a man named Bradley Levack. He has had the craziest life ever. Even though he isn’t black, he grew up in the townships and was classified as black during Apartheid. Everything that he told us about his life would take forever, so I’ll just stop there.

We also got to visit our service sites—Pendla Primary School and the House of Resurrection AIDS Haven. After visiting, I think I will definitely choose my primary site to be Pendla. While we were there, we went into all of the different classrooms, and the kids sang songs for us. I knew it was the place for me when (yes, Erica, I know you’ll make fun of me for this) the tears started coming. Ok, I know I’m a little bit of a sap—especially when it comes to kids—but these kids have SO little yet were so happy, joyful, and welcoming to us. I was able to lock it up in most of the classrooms and keep it to tears welled up in my eyes, but for the last classroom (first graders), I couldn’t hold it in anymore and they were definitely pouring down my cheeks. I think a couple of the kids thought I was sad, because they were looking at me like I was crazy, but I just couldn’t help it. My heart was definitely a few sizes bigger when we left Pendla than when we came. I seriously cannot wait to start the volunteer work on Monday. I already know it is going to be an incredibly rewarding, life-changing experience.

When we haven’t been at orientation stuff, we have been at the beach. And it is wonderful. That is all I’ll say about that, because I know it’s pretty cold back in the tundra and I don’t want to rub it in too much. ;)

I know this is getting really long, so I’ll just bullet point a few things about life down in the Saf. Here goes….

*Monkeys here are like squirrels back home. They are everywhere.

*They aren’t huge on soap here. It’s not in many of the bathrooms…that’s taking some getting used to.

*Ditto for napkins. Even though all the food is really saucy and messy.

*Everything is MUCH slower paced. Like at bush camp, there was an itinerary….but it was kind of just a tentative order of events. Everything was at least 2 hours behind schedule, and we just never got to a lot of it.

*You need to be WAY more aware of everything going on around you here. It’s just not nearly as safe….it’s common to get followed around by beggars, and muggings absolutely happen too. I’ve heard that the crime here often turns violent, as opposed to other areas of Africa. For example, Martha K (no idea how to spell her last name—she spent last semester in Kenya and this semester is in SA) told us that in Kenya, they just want your stuff. She was told that here, in addition to knifing your purse, they will knife you too. It’s a little unnerving, especially because my hair is so light (I’ve been told a few times that it makes me more of a target), but it’s also a matter of making good decisions.

*Naartje water=best thing ever.

*There are 11 official languages here—in addition to English, I’ve heard a lot of Afrikaans and Xhosa. I love hearing Xhosa, with all of the clicks and whatnot- but I don’t think there’s any hope I could ever speak it. A little girl I met at Pendla had clicks in her name, so I couldn’t really address her by name—I just can’t get the clicking-and-speaking-simultaneously thing down.

*Calling people ‘coloured’ is politically correct here.

*People are extremely friendly here—everyone is always waving and talking to each other on the streets and whatnot here. It’s a really nice change of pace.

*The moonlight over the ocean makes me want to cry. Do I seriously get to live here?

Well, that’s probably all I’m going to whip out for right now…thanks to you all for reading, and I miss all of you! Until next time…cheers!