Hey everyone! Here’s the weekly rundown.

Monday—Pendla was pretty normal on Monday. It was extremely hot, so the kids were all worn out and tired. In the afternoon, our jazz class went on a “field trip” to the private high school that my professor also works at. The place looked like a country club (couldn’t contrast any more with Pendla)—I felt like I was in the midst of South African gossip girl. There, we heard 11^th and 7^th graders play the marimbas—they are SO GOOD. It was so much fun to hear! They did lots of popular songs (everything from Andrea Bocelli to Coldplay to Black Eyed Peas), and then we got to try them out. I learned a part on the bass marimba, and then we all came together to play a mambo. During our “cool drink” break, I asked one of the students to show me how to play Just Dance, so I now know how to play Lady Gaga on the marimba. I also talked for a long time with another student—she is 17 years old and seems to be smart beyond her years. She was really curious to know what life is like back in the states, so we had a really good conversation about how we each grew up.

After class, we had our first taste of a thunderstorm here in PE—they need it like crazy, there’s a big water shortage because they are in the middle of the worst drought in 88 years. However, it only last a few minutes and there was a big rainbow over the ocean afterward. J Since the weather cleared up, a few of us headed to campus for the varsity rugby game. It was SO fun! There were tons of people there, and student section cheered and danced and sang the entire time. There also was a group of guys that were just like the Rat Pack, so that was fun too. Getting home ended up being quite the process because none of us there had a phone and the only cab number we knew wasn’t picking up…but it was totally worth it.

Tuesday—Again, Pendla was pretty ordinary this day. My favorite little guy (Awonke) got the ear-pull from Mrs. Ndumi and a letter from the principal, so that was sad to see (especially because I have no idea what he did!), but on the whole it was pretty standard. This picture is of a few of the boys in my class--Awonke is the second one from the right. SO CUTE.

After class, we went to a pancake dinner at the church a block from Langerry. I’m really happy we went. First of all, the food was great (pancakes here are actually crepes), and secondly, I got to talk to some cool people. I sat at a table with a couple of moms and their kids, so they were telling me about their world travels and the schools they go to. Afterward, I walked out the back door of the church and about 10 kids were there playing with a volleyball—naturally, I had to join them. I absolutely love the kids at Pendla, but playing with the Afrikaner kids at the church was a nice change for a bit. At Pendla, there are always 20 kids hanging on me at once and it’s always mass chaos; with these kids, I was actually able to talk to and play a game with them. The fact that they spoke English helped as well. J Like I said, I would never trade working with the Pendla kids, but it was just nice to get to play with kids in a setting more like home.

Wednesday---In the morning, we had our second community service learning lecture. I found out that lots of people have not had great experiences at Pendla, mainly because of the teachers. It made me really grateful to be with Mrs. Ndumi. Also, after hearing from the people at the House, I’m much more confident in my decision to go to Pendla.

Wednesday night, some of us went and saw Valentines Day at the boardwalk—it was really fun to get to a movie in the theater. It actually made me a little homesick for the first time (a couple other girls felt the same way!) because I felt like I was at home during the show. It faded pretty quickly though, so no worries. J

Thursday—Nothing too exciting on Thursday. I absolutely love going for walks and runs on the beach early in the morning here…so that was probably the highlight of my day haha.

Friday— I headed to the pool again for the late morning and early afternoon. I LOVE that place, so it’s soo wonderful. Sunburn city though, my Minnesota skin had a little too much of the African sun. In the evening, our entire group went to the PE cricket match versus Cape Town. It was so much more fun than I thought it would be! It was packed (15,000 people), the Castles were cheap, the crowd was crazy, and the weather was perfect. It actually felt like a Twins game, but outdoors (whaddup Target Field!). This coloured guy (still feel weird saying that!) sitting next to me was extremely helpful in explaining the game to me so I actually knew what was going on. He and a few girls he was with also told me a little about the coloured population down here, so that was interesting to hear.

Saturday—Jeffrey’s Bay! We crammed 14 people into two compact cars for the hour long drive to Jeffrey’s Bay, one of the best surf towns in the world. It is SO BEAUTIFUL there! I absolutely loved it. The ocean waves are massive, the beaches are a beautiful white, there are tons of sand dunes, and there are mountains on the outskirts of the city. It’s not huge by any means—it’s actually relatively small—but that is part of what gave it a really cool feel. I felt like there should be speakers everywhere in the town blasting Jack Johnson. People with surfboard are everywhere, and it’s just super chilled out. Billabong hosts their annual surf competition in JBay, so there is Billabong stuff everywhere (we definitely did a little damage at the factory outlet store). There were lots of cute little ice cream shops and whatnot, so it was a lot of fun to walk around town.

Unfortunately, the ocean was too rough and choppy for us to try surfing. Instead, we got some lunch, explored the town, shopped a little, then headed to the beach outside our hostel (Surfpackers) to climb on the rocks and search for seashells. For dinner, we went to this AMAZING place on the beach called Walskippers! Expensive, but worth it. The floor of the restaurant is all sand…you can just walk around barefoot. It’s lit by candlelight lanterns, and you can see everything being cooked—a great atmosphere! I had crocodile and calamari (yes mom, I voluntarily ordered seafood), and it was sooo so so good. Jake and Lauren split a meat platter that had everything from springbok to bone marrow (yes, bone marrow), and Jedlicka and Kenefick split a seafood platter…I’ve never seen so much food on one plate in my life.

On the drive to Walskippers, we passed the most run-down township I’ve seen since I’ve been here. We all were shocked to see such terrible conditions, but the real shock came about 30 seconds after we passed it—all of a sudden, we were surrounded by these unbelievably huge, extravagant homes. There was even a moat going around the estates (not kidding). It was just a really clear illustration of the political and social climate in this country.

After dinner, we went back to our hostel and hung out with some guys from Argentina that were also staying there. We were going to head into town, but we were having so much fun that we decided to just stay at the hostel! We just played games, talked, and had a blast. One of the Argentinans (is that what you call them?) taught me how to salsa, so that was a lot of fun. (Anji—they were very impressed with my knowledge of Spanish songs! They even knew david bisbal—we sang ave maria. YES.)

Sunday—We all got up early because some of us were going sandboarding and some of us were going horseback riding. I was in the horseback riding group, which I was really excited for because I had never ridden a horse before. My horse, Baby, was pretty good—she would buck around a little bit but stayed pretty calm for the first half of the ride. The scenery was BEAUTIFUL! We started up at the base of a mountain, overlooking the ocean…went through the sand dunes (I felt like I was in the desert and should have been riding a camel or something)…and ended with a long beach portion. Baby went CRAZY when we got to the beach, and it was soooo scary. I could handle it when she trotted quickly, but on the beach she launched into a full-blown gallop. Pulling the reins didn’t work in the least, so I just held on for dear life and prayed that my brain didn’t hemorrhage. All in all, it was a good experience, but the horses were a little crazy. A couple people got thrown off their horse, and one girl’s horse decided to launch into a full-blown sprint in the opposite direction. It all makes it more of an adventure though, so I’m really happy we did it.

So, here I am, back at Langerry for another week of classes. This week is going to be crazy on the homework front, so I doubt there will be anything too terribly exciting to blog about next week. Until next time, cheers!

This week will mark my one-month mark in South Africa—I can’t believe it! The time has flown by so quickly. I’m settling into a routine, which feels good.

Last Sunday evening, I went to a student worship service at the university called Livewire. It was absolutely wonderful. The music was great, the speaker was charismatic and engaging, and there were SO many people there. For the next few weeks it’s actually going to be at the Boardwalk, which is only a 10-15 minute walk from my apartment, so I’m excited for that.

Classes were really good this week. On Monday, we learned traditional Xhosa music and the national anthem, and it was SO fun. Their national anthem is actually made of four different languages: Xhosa, Zulu, Afrikaans (very hard to read and speak by the way!), and English. It’s a beautiful song, and I hadn’t actually heard it before. We also had a blast learning “The Click Song.” It’s a traditional children’s song that has about seven million clicks in each word, hence the title. We got the hang of it though, and by the end we were out of our seats and incorporating the dance too, so it was a lot of fun.

Yesterday during political science we had a guest lecturer that came to talk about the four main players in the South African political scene (the NP, ANC, IFP, and PAC). What made it interesting however, was that he was a proud Afrikaner member of the National Party. It was possibly one of the most biased lectures I’ve ever heard, but it was interesting to hear from someone of the NP. Virtually everything that I’ve seen or read paints the NP to be the “bad guys” and the ANC to be the “good guys,” and this guy was definitely trying to change that view. It was very frustrating at times to listen to, because he was SO defensive of the NP. He skirted questions and only told us good things about the NP and bad things about the ANC. He tried to justify a lot of the really crappy stuff the NP did during apartheid, and that was a little frustrating as well. He also made a couple of outlandish statements—for example, saying that the apartheid police murdering 69 people in just one massacre wasn’t a big deal because in the four years after Mandela was released from prison, there were 20,000 black-on-black murders. All in all, even though it was biased, it kept me engaged for the whole lecture.

This week has been pretty chilled out. We had another group potluck last night, which are a lot of fun—we go out on the roof and enjoy the food, view, and company. Today is Katie Brown’s birthday, so this morning a few of us went to have breakfast at Tiffany’s (yes, there are pictures of Audrey Hepburn all over the place), then we went to this beachside pool that is about a 2 minute walk from our flats. It was so fun (we got creative with the waterslides there), and the view of the ocean waves made it even better. Most of my group (that didn’t leave PE this weekend) is out celebrating her bday right now, but I decided to sit this one out to have the flat to myself, relax, and get a couple things done (like this blog). But it was such a fun day at the pool and everything, we decided to declare her birthday a national South African holiday, to be celebrated every year. J

Pendla was absolutely chaotic this week. My first day was normal—I’m starting to really get to know the kids in the class now, which is great and makes that experience SO much better. I’m learning some names too, which has been quite the battle! Luxolo (yes, that x means a click), Kolekha, Khanya, Awonke, Asemahle, Zola…they’re much different from the Mallorys, Clays, and Paiges I hang out with at home, so it’s a little hard to remember them—but it’s coming, slowly but surely. I have a really hard time with Luxolo because of the click and Asemahle because there’s this really weird sound that I just can’t make my mouth produce. They think it’s hilarious though, and LOVE to laugh at me trying. Awonke cracks me up SO much—he is kind of a little jokester and is always trying to trick me. When he laughs, he gets the funniest look on his face—it’s kind of scrunched up with his eyebrows raised....when it's mixed with his absolutely massive head and his lack of front teeth, it's pretty adorable.

The second day was the crazy one. The grade 1 (and apparently one of the grade R?) teachers were not there that day, so we ended up with 30+ additional 4, 5, and 6 year olds on top of the 30 grade 3 kids. All in all, there were 63 children in the room for the entire day. Megan Buermann was in the class with me that day, because she works in one of the classes without a teacher. All of the little ones sat on the floor in the back while Mrs. Ndumi tried to teach her normal lesson. Essentially, my only job for the day was to keep the little ones under control and relatively quiet—not an easy task when they don’t speak a world of English and the only Xhosa word I know is hello! Eventually Mrs. Ndumi just had Megan and I take the kids outside, which became SO stressful. Some were running away, some were fighting, and about 10 of them were hanging on each of us at all times. It was really hard for us to communicate anything to them because they speak no English and they did not pay attention to any nonverbal attempts. At one point, one of the kids had another kid pinned to the ground, strangling him. I pulled him off and wanted to at least talk to him and let him know that it’s not ok, but it was a lost cause. Eventually, we were able to get them doing races, and that kept most of the mob under control for the time being. The day ended back in the classroom, with Mrs. Ndumi, Megan, myself, and all 63 kids marching around the room, singing different African songs. Even though the day was stressful, it was a really nice way to end it.

I haven't really experienced much homesickness or anything so far--how can i in such a cool place?--but i have heard that usually it doesn't hit until you've been here for a longer period of time. Even though I haven't gotten homesick, of course I miss my family and friends! Love you all. Working with the kids at Pendla reminds me of the kids I work with at home, so they are missed as well! Jasmine’s mom wrote on my Facebook wall the other day, telling me that Jazzy told her new PCA that she might have to fire her when I get back from my ‘field trip.’ Things like that, I miss! But it’s hard to think about those things for too long, because I’m in such a great place and doing so many great things.

We were going to be heading to Jeffreys Bay this weekend, but we’re actually going to postpone it until next weekend. It should be a blast—lots of surfing and hoseback riding on the beach (romantic, right? J). I’m not sure what’s on the agenda for tomorrow, but I’m sure we’ll find something to do. I want to find a cage diving place to do a shark dive! We’ll see where the day takes me. Until next time, much love from under the African sun.

hi all!

I have one week of classes under my belt, and whoever said abroad classes are super easy LIED. I literally have hundreds of pages to read for this week—so it’s a good thing most of the classes seem interesting haha. I’ll just give a quick bit about my classes so I can move on to something all of you might care about a little more.

Mondays: South African Jazz. This is absolutely going to be my easiest class. The prof is SO high strung and scatterbrained—but in a good way. She seems really funny and very approachable, so I look forward to her class. Monday’s class was about traditional Nguni music—not exactly the jazz I thought we were going to be looking at, but fascinating nonetheless. We listened to different traditional instruments and types of singing—one of which sounds like an extremely low frog croak. Probably the weirdest sound I’ve ever heard come from a human being. Cat and I were having a hard time keeping the laughter locked up. I also learned how to do the different clicks of the Xhosa language, which I loved! There are three main types: against the palette, against the front teeth, and with each side of the mouth. I can hope that it will help me a little bit with the kids at Pendla, but we’ll see. J

Tuesdays: Senior Seminar. I guess I wasn’t expecting to have tons of work for this class, but we were assigned a LOT of reading. Sections of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography alone are about 300 pages each class period, which is addition to all of our other readings. Although it’s a lot when thrown on top of our other stuff, most of the readings are really interesting and I actually don’t mind reading it. We only have a couple long papers for the course as well, so that’s not too terrible.

Wednesdays: South African Literature. WOW, it has been a long time since I’ve had a lit course, or even an English class in general (what up Mrs. Marco’s 11^th grade Brit Lit?). Even though I’m extremely rusty on the whole read-ponder-find symbols-find meaning-thing, I’m looking forward to this class. My prof seems SO smart and knowledgable about both the literature and history of the apartheid. We will mainly be looking at literature written by white South Africans about the racial struggles of the country, so I think that will be very cool.

Thursdays: South African Politics. To be completely honest, this class scares me. I’ve never had a poli sci class before, the prof is funny yet intimidating, and there seems to be a LOT of work (18 page papers, 10 readings for next class period, etc). South Africa has such a unique and complicated political history and present, so I’m really very eager to learn about it—I just know that this class will require the most work out of me.

So, to sum up the class thing—I’m really looking forward to gaining a comprehensive understanding of South Africa while I’m living here, regardless of how much work it takes. At least I get to do all the reading on the beach. J

I also began my volunteer work this week at Pendla Primary School in the New Brighton township in Port Elizabeth. I am working in Mrs. Ndumi’s grade 3 classroom, and I love it. I wanted to be with the younger kids, and one of the people from last year told me Mrs. Ndumi was the way to go. The kids are just learning English (most of the lessons are taught in Xhosa, and that’s how they communicate with each other as well), so I’m not able to have extensive verbal conversations with the kids—but I can definitely talk to them, and I’m getting much better at my non-verbal communication skills. These kids seriously warm my heart to no end—each visit is a constant flow of hugs, high fives, hand-holding, and any other contact the kids can have with us. I spend a lot of time with children at home, so I'm really excited to work with them in a different cultural context.

The first day was a little bit unorganized—they were bouncing us around from room to room, some rooms didn’t have teachers that day, and we just didn’t know what was going on in general. However, the second day was MUCH better. The kids alternate between having math and reading in the mornings. For the math lessons, they count to 200 in both English and Xhosa, and also count by different numerical increments (3’s, 20’s, etc). Since they do this all as a large group, I don’t feel like much of a help—I simple count along during the English part and follow along on a counting chart during the Xhosa part. During the reading lessons however, I am pretty much teaching the class independently. Katie was joining me in Mrs. Ndumi’s classroom for the day because her teacher wasn’t there, so we both read a book in English with the kids (the kids read along with us), then we did a TON of flashcards of English words that the kids read for us. After the lesson, we were able to play some games with the kids—they LOVE rhythm-based games, and they are so rhythmically talented it blows my mind. Although many of the games are in Xhosa, I’m eventually able to pick up on them.

I get to go out for the recess break with the class as well, which has been a blast. On my first day, I organized a game of soccer with about 40 eight year old boys….it was chaotic, but so much fun. AND I scored a goal (WOOT!), which I was actually pretty proud of because these kids are amazing soccer players. It was really nice because the language barrier was not really an issue during the game. My second day during recess was quite a bit different—I had showered right before we left for Pendla that day, and left it down to air dry. The kids were OBSESSED with it. Even while we were still in the classroom, I had about 10 hands on it at all times, stroking it, braiding it, twisting it. When we went out for recess with the kids from the other young classrooms, I ended up with about 20 hands on it at all times. Literally, the kids were pushing each other over to play with it. It was SO bizarre for me—but I wasn’t complaining because having my hair played with is probably my favorite thing in the whole world.

I think it’s going to take some time to get used to how drastically different Pendla is from our schools back home. Obviously, there is a drastic difference in the physical state of the school, but that’s not what is going to take time. The overall functioning of the school is what is so different. For example, if a teacher doesn’t show up to school that day, the classroom of kids will literally be left alone all day. It seems like there is so much less time where the teachers are actually teaching—for example, Mrs. Ndumi is always dealing with the money of the school (they don’t have a clerical worker or a bookkeeper) while the kids simply sit there or I play organized games with them. Another girl I’m down here with said her teacher assigned some math problems, then left the room for about an hour and a half. One-on-one work is nonexistent, which is partially because there are 30-40 children in a lower-grade classroom. There is so much less structure to the classroom…it seems like the mentality is “if we do the lesson, great—if we don’t, that’s cool too.” I hope that our group can help these issues a little bit, but part of it is just understanding that this is the culture here, and it’s just not possible for these township schools to function like the suburban American schools I’m used to.

The kids are SO WONDERFUL. Besides being absolutely adorable, they are welcoming, funny, and so much fun to talk to and play with. I laugh so hard while I’m with them—for example, Katie and I took the class to the bathroom for break, and while we were all waiting for everyone to get done, they all started dancing like Michael Jackson! Moonwalk, crotch-grab-and-thrust and all. AND some started singing Beat It and Billie Jean, which was pretty hilarious. I guess MJ really is the universal language. They love to sing and dance, and are always trying to teach me moves. Like I said, they are so affectionate, which I love. It breaks my heart to see some of them without lunch at breaktime—even though Pendla is wonderful and provides a vegetable-filled soup for them, it still stings to know that their families can’t afford to send a sandwich or piece of bread with them. It’s a reminder of the realities of poverty in this country, which is so important to keep in mind.

Yesterday we had a day-long group excursion to Addo Elephant National Park and Schotia Game Reserve. It was absolutely one of the best days since I’ve been here! We loaded up the bus with Bradley Levack (coolest, most interesting man on the planet) as our guide, and once again headed inland to the over-100 degree heat of the African bush. Addo was incredible, as we saw almost 160 elephants in their natural habitat. Since it was so hot that day, the herds needed to come out to the watering hole. We saw fights, near-drownings, parents with their babies, and some elephants trying to make babies. Besides all of the elephants, we also saw lots of kudu and warthogs at Addo.

After an incredibly elaborate lunch courtesy of Bradley, we headed to Schotia to go on a full-fledged African safari. IT WAS SO COOL. We loaded into canopied land rovers and got unbelievably close to lions, crocodiles, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, warthogs, zebras, meerkats, wildebeasts, kudu, all sorts of bucks…it was so awesome. I felt like I was right in the middle of the discovery channel, just watching these animals doing their thing. At about 7, they brought us to this restaurant-type-area that was halfway outside and halfway inside, where we were served drinks and an elaborate African meal. It was so much fun just enjoying the meal and conversation with others from my group. Plus, Sister Mary Jane had a Castle and told us about how much she loves her beer, so that was unexpected and pretty funny. After dinner, we headed out for the night spotlight portion of the safari…we got to see lions eating a wildebeast, which was really disgusting but pretty cool. The best part of the night portion, however, was the night sky. It was unlike anything I had ever seen—we could see the entire Milky Way, completely unpolluted by light. I’ve never seen so many stars in my life. It was absolutely majestic.

When we loaded back in the bus for the ride back to PE, I started thinking about how amazing the day was, and how I got to see so many amazing things—the beautiful stars in particular. The first thing that popped into my mind was how good God is, and what a beautiful word He has created. However, as we drove past township after township—the shacks, the dirt, the garbage—I became burdened with the thought of the extreme poverty down here. I’ve never been a person to question bad things that happen, because I guess I’ve always trusted that there is a reason it is happening, even if it isn’t apparent to me. Seeing the poverty down here has changed that slightly though, and it’s been a personal struggle dealing with it. How is it fair, or even possible, that these people are living in tin shacks with no running water or electricity, while I am sitting at Langerry Flats across from the ocean, typing on my personal computer? How is it fair that these people are SO stricken with HIV/AIDS, have little to no educational or job opportunities, and deal with terrifying threats like rape and murder on a regular basis? It’s even crazy to see such devastating conditions in such beautiful surroundings—the sun, the ocean, the palm trees. It’s just a lot to take in, and I’m struggling to see how there could be any sort of meaning, purpose, or reason behind it. Although I am kind of battling with feelings of guilt, frustration, and confusion, I am happy because I know that it’s what I need. I know that by seeing the situations down here firsthand, it’s eventually going to make me grow into a better, more understanding person.

On a lighter note, I’m finally starting to get settled in and used to life here, and I’m absolutely loving it! Combis aren’t such a foreign means of transportation, I don’t feel like SUCH a lost weirdo walking around the university campus, and I’ve met a ton of really cool locals. I love going for walks in the morning, just taking in the sights, smells, and sounds of the early morning ocean. I’m learning to work the rand a little bit better, and don’t have to whip out my little calculator quite as much anymore. I’m still in love with the accents down here, but they are definitely becoming less noticeable and more understandable. I’m getting used to not being anywhere without guys past sunset (our guys have been absolutely wonderful in going places with us and watching our backs by the way!), and I feel like although we’re VERY clearly American, we’ve been able to tone it down quite a bit. All in all, I know I’m going to be a different person when I get on the plane in Port Elizabeth in May than when I got on the plane in Minneapolis in January. Much love to all of you until next time!

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!

Getting ready!

I can't believe that it's just over two weeks until i leave! Unbelievable. It has been almost a year since I found out that was accepted into the Saf program, so it always seemed so far off in the future...so it's crazy that it's actually so soon! I suppose I should start packing and whatnot, but I'm sure i'll procrastinate on that as much as possible. As of right now, it's just a matter of getting random things done--renewing my license b/c i will be gone for my 21st birthday, getting vaccines, etc.

I leave on January 19th on a 6am flight to chicago, then to Washington DC, then I will hop on a big boy for the 18 hour trek to Johannesburg. We're actually staying the night at a hotel in Johannesburg, and catching a short flight to Port Elizabeth in the morning. I'm traveling with eight other people, so that will definitely make things a little less boring! All in all, it's going to be exhausting-- and the very next day, we have to go on a camping trip for the international students at NMMU (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University-- where I'll be studying). I'm looking forward to it, but it will be SO nice to get settled in and try to get rid of the jet lag i'm sure we'll all be experiencing.

I'll try to keep this updated relatively regularly down in saf, but it might be difficult with internet connections and whatnot. We'll see! ta ta for now. :)