Random tid-bits of the week...

                Sunday (Feb. 20^th):  On our way to and from the grocery store we go around a corner stoplight that usually has a young boy or man standing in the middle of the intersection begging for money.  He holds up his hands, stares at you with sad looking eyes, and pleads with you for just a little money.  We have been told not to give money to beggars.  If you give to one, more will flock to you and then you will have to give to all of them.  Or if you give the man a little, he may end up using violence and steal more of your money or your camera, phone, etc.  I wonder if these are just stories to make us fear people who are poor.  To separate those who live in poverty even more from the rest of society.  How often would those things really happen?  I realize it is unreasonable to try to give money to every poor beggar who asks, but still I hurt when I see them.  I feel like a cruel person, as I try not to make eye contact, and quickly spit out the lie “I’m sorry, I don’t have any money.”  I bet they know I am lying.  I hate it.

                Sunday night, Katie and I went to Mass that was put on by the Catholic student group “ACTS” on campus.  As we were walking there, we saw the coolest thing ever! We spotted 10 vervet monkeys and two baby monkeys.  They were all jumping around in the trees and the pathway.  I was so mad I didn’t have my camera.  The student Mass was very cool too.  Once again I experienced the true meaning of “catholic” being universal.  The Mass was different from any Mass I have ever been to, yet I still understood what was going on.  The songs were in many different languages to allow people of all languages to participate.  The actual Mass was said in English though, by Fr. Dominic.  Katie pointed out after Mass that God is universal, He speaks all languages.  It was really cool to experience Mass like this.  Plus, when they would sing, they always sounded so good. 

                Monday (Feb. 21^st) we had service at House again.  Our group did some cleaning, painting and sorting.  Then we got to play with the kids for a little bit.  Gosh they are cute.  In the afternoon, we had our music class.  We had someone come in and teach us how to sing the South Africa National Anthem. It is a pretty cool song.  It uses 5 of the 11 official languages of South Africa.  We also learned a few other songs in Xhosa.  We did not sound too great as a group.  Xhosa is a hard language for us because it has many clicks in it.  Haha it was kind of funny to hear us struggling.

                Tuesday (Feb. 22^nd) we had service again.  This time I helped paint one of the bedrooms.  When we got to see the kids again, I found the boy who had on the blue shirt the first day.  He still hasn’t told me his name.  He is very shy.  The entire time, I held a toy helicopter and he spun the propeller.  When I would say “good job” or compliment his spin, a huge smile crept across his face.  Ahh his smile is so beautiful and makes me so happy.  After service, we had a shorter amount of time to change, eat lunch, and get to NMMU.  Katie and I decided we wanted some fast food for lunch and so we stopped at McDonald’s.  I had a cheeseburger, fries, and a chocolate shake.  I know it is bad for me, but it tasted quite good.  Eating inside the restaurant, I did not feel like we were in South Africa.  It felt like I was just in a McDonald’s in a city a little ways from home.  It was so weird. 

                Wednesday and Thursday were pretty average days.  I had class and spent some time walking around NMMU.  It was actually the first time I have been alone the entire semester.  Katie and Heather went to go do something and I had a few errands to run on campus.  It was so weird to be alone.  I think that it is crazy that it feels so weird to be alone here, compared to last semester where I would wander by myself all the time and not have to worry about anything. 

Well that is a lot of the random things that happened in Port Elizabeth this week.  Hope you all are enjoying the snow back home.  I heard you had a snow day. Haha :]  fun stuff. 

Love & Prayers,

-Laura

Facebook Pictures link

South Africa...Embrace it....

"Good African Eyes"

           Have you ever really looked at the words to the wonderful song “Circle of Life?”  Look at the lyrics. They are great.  I think this song really fits with my semester abroad in South Africa.  There is so much more to see and do than could ever be done in one semester.  In this semester we will probably experience despair, hope, faith and love. 

                My day felt like it was right out of the “Lion King.”  We had a very long day (8:30 am – 10 pm), for a lot of it we were out in the hot African sun….but it was one of the best days of my life.  We started the morning off by getting on a bus to go to Addo Elephant National Park.  We drove through the park on the bus, getting a tour by Bradley.  While we were there we spotted over 100 elephants (and some baby ones which were super cute…we realized today that baby anything is almost always adorable).  When we got into the park Bradley told us to look for shapes and colors that stand out from the green brush and trees.  It was very hard to spot the elephants.  Then I saw this brown thing.  I thought it was a rock but it started to move…ahhh it was an elephant.  I was one of the first ones to spot our first elephant of the day.  Bradley said you must have “good African eyes” to spot the elephants and other animals. 

                After spending a few hours in the elephant park, we stopped for lunch in a picnic area.  We were told that a light lunch was provided.  Expecting bag lunches or something similar, we were surprised when Bradley pulled out glass plates and real forks and knives (not the plastic ones you use at a BBQ).  He then pulled out a potato salad, 3-bean salad, and a pasta salad.  There was also some bread and fried chicken.  It was soooo good. 

                When lunch was finished we headed off to Schotia Game Reserve to go on a safari and see some more animals.  We got to go on a game drive riding on a land rover…it was exactly like what I pictured a safari would be like.  We got there at about 3pm.  They told us we would stop for biscuits and tea at 5pm and then dinner at 7pm and then we would go out for a night ride.  We thought that sounded like an awful long time, but the time passed really quickly.  It was a perfect day.  The sun was bright and shining.  The air was warm, but there was also a light cool breeze.  All the vegetation was green.  Ahhh…it was so beautiful.  Not to mention the fact that we got to see over 20 types of animals. 

Here is a list of most of what we saw (this list is combing the animals we saw at both parks, not just Schotia):  Elephants, lions, zebra, white rhino, warthog, bushbuck, eland, kudu, yellow mongoose, vervet monkeys, tortoise, giraffe, blue wildebeest, hippo, oxen, horse, impala, nyala, Egyptian goose, red bishop, secretary bird, ostrich, blue crane, and the flightless dung beetle (which is protected in the parks haha). 

                We got to hear lots of stories about the animals from our tour guide/ land rover driver, Barbara.  It was so much fun.  The entire time we were sitting there thinking how awesome this was and how we could not believe it was real.  There were 9 of us on the top of the land rover (Heather, Taylor, Lindsay, Katie, me, Steph, Joey, Christine, Breanne).  We opted for one without a roof.  That was a good idea.  We got to see so much and feel the sun…and later at night we could see the stars.

                We stopped for dinner (which was amazing).  It was in an open-air pavilion type place that had lots of tiki-lights and a few bonfires.  I definitely felt like I was on Survivor.  For dinner there was rice, carrots, peas, potatoes, biscuits, a meat stew with kudu and impala (it was actually really good!) and a mushroom sauce.  They also had a homemade vanilla ice cream with a mint chocolate sauce for dessert.  Yum!!!!

                After dinner we got to go out for a night ride.  It was quite dark out.  We had this big flashlight that someone was holding.  We got to see some of the nocturnal animals.  We also got to see the hippos out of the water and grazing on some grass.  Towards the end of the night ride, we saw the head lion eating a bushbuck that had been injured earlier in the day.  While riding on the open land rover, I looked up at the sky.  It was indescribable.  The moon was huge and gorgeous.  Stars were everywhere twinkling in the sky.  We were in Africa. On a safari. Feet away from the King of the Jungle and his meal.  With amazing people.  It was one of the best moments ever!  I remember saying a prayer, thanking God for this one of a kind experience. 

New Experiences...

More updates J  Warning…this one is going to be a super long one…sorry J

                Thursday (Feb. 17^th) I had my first Marine Bio lecture. It was good to finally have a class more related to my major.  I felt more at home in the bio department building.  The actual course should be ok.  It is not quite about the type of biology I am interested in, but I hope that I learn to like it.  I love having class in the morning.  We will normally be done on Thursdays at noon.  That means our weekend has begun!!  Taylor and I walked back to our flat and stopped to look at some rocks and shells by the ocean on the way.  It is still amazing to me that I can even say that.  We walk by the ocean on our way home!  I love that.

                Thursday night, my flat went out to dinner at the highly recommended restaurant, Finnezz.  The meal was delicious.  We all really liked the restaurant.  It was a little more on the pricey side (but my meal was pretty decent…of course I would choose the cheapest meal I could find! J ). 

Some of my new favorite things:

-dried mangoes…I am addicted! Thank you Norma for introducing them to me at one of the first meetings in flat 11!

-Simba’s salted peanuts and raisins mix…amazing!

-anything chicken, cheese, mayo…had a quesadilla and a tramezzini when we went to two different restaurants (Finnezz and Cubañas)

-living by the ocean. I love it. It makes me so happy to wake up and be able to see the beautiful ocean every morning. It is one of the many things I am thankful for this semester.

                Friday (Feb. 18^th) was one of the best days so far. My roommates and our friends Suvi, Sari, Jan (and their friend from Austria whose name started with an F), all went with Bradley on a more focused tour of the New Brighton townships.  He picked us up in a combi type vehicle and brought the 9 of us to a woman’s home in the township.   Before we stopped at the woman’s house, Bradley took us to the location where a backpackers hostel will be in the near future.  Bradley is helping some women in the township get it started so that they will have some sort of sustainable employment.  While talking with two of the women, they showed us how women in the townships make bread rolls without an oven.  We later got to taste one of the rolls.  It was really good!!!

                 All along the way, the whole day, he would fill the time telling stories about the people and places we were passing.  We made many small stops to point out the places where specific important people lived.  Bradley made sure to point out that people in the townships have had very powerful lives that have made a difference on this community.  Bradley, himself, has lived a very interesting life.  He is colored and grew up in the townships.  I don’t know very much about his story but he sure knows a lot about everything.  He also seems to know everyone. 

                The woman’s house we stopped at was Mama Regina Mngadi.  She is a member of the iThembe women’s group.  She was an activist during the apartheid and even spent time in prison with some of the same men and women who were also imprisoned with Nelson Mandela.  Currently she runs a soup kitchen out of her own home.  She feeds many of the children in the area.  She is a very strong woman.  When we walked into her home, I was shocked.  From the outside, it did not look so great.  We were in a run-down neighborhood where poverty was prevalent.  The roof was made of metal scraps and wooden boards held down by old tires and bikes. But the inside was a different story.  It was very decorative.  There were beautiful, brightly colored curtains, fancy couches and china set in a nice cabinet.  Also the kitchen had a microwave and a large refrigerator (pretty sure it was bigger than my one at home or at least similar to the size).  I don’t know what I expected to see inside of the shack.  I don’t think I was assuming it to have mud floors and metal cots with a fire in the center, but I definitely did not expect it to be that nice.  Mama’s home may not be what some of the homes in the township are like, but it still made me realize how much I had been assuming about things I knew nothing about.  I wasn’t doing this on purpose, but now my eyes have been opened a little more and I have realized how little I know about what surrounds me. 

                After we left Mama’s, Bradley took us back to a pottery studio of a woman who lived in the township.  He brought us there last week on the city tour but we didn’t have much time to look around.   We got to spend a little more time there today and buy a few pieces of art.

                Next Bradley took us to a tavern in the middle of the township.  It was really cool.  When we got out of the car, we got many looks and stares, along with several nods and smiles.  Everyone else around us had much darker skin.  We all had a drink and sat outside to chat.  It was a great people watching place.  Once again, Bradley entertained us with more of his great stories.  Bradley said that 5 years ago white people would never have gone to that area of town, but now it is more common.  We still got a few weird looks, but people were nice.  It was a very interesting experience to see what life was like on the inside of a township. 

                As we were leaving the township we stopped at a fresh market on a corner (still in the township).  I bought a bag of apples and others bought a few things as well.  The fruit and vegetables looked really good and were super cheap.  I bought a nice sized bag of fresh apples for R8 (a little over $1).

                 Friday night a group of girls and I all went to see a movie at the Boardwalk.  It was fun.  The movie was from the US.  It was kind of a weird movie, but the ending was cute.  Over all, it was a wonderful day.  It was cool to get to explore and learn more about the stories of those living in the townships.  You don’t hear much about their stories in the history books. 

The boy in the blue shirt.

General overview:

                Monday was my first day of volunteering at the AIDS orphanage.  We are going to be volunteering Mondays and Tuesdays 8:30-11:45am. There are seven of us that go (Lindsay, Katie, Steph, Melissa, Anne, Eric, and me).  It is a small group but I think it will be good. I like having a small group because then hopefully we will all bond while we are working and playing with the kids.  When we got there we realized that there wasn’t really going to be much of a schedule for today or a structure.  No one seemed to know what we were supposed to do. We just had to go with the flow.  First we were told to go to the school to help the teacher, but when we got there the teacher wasn’t even there yet.  Instead we went back into a playroom in the house.  There there were about 16 little kids who seemed to be between the ages of 2-5.  As soon as we stepped into the door we had kids hugging us and holding our hands.  They wanted to be picked up and spun around and played with.  They thoroughly enjoyed using us as their new jungle-gyms and were determined to climb all over us.  We spent lots of time just playing with the kids.  The teacher spent a little time with them going over prayers and teaching them to count.  Then the kids got to color for awhile and then it was playtime again.  Some days while we are here we will be helping with other projects.  It looks like for the most part though, there won’t really be a big schedule. 

                Tuesday was a very different experience at the haven. I didn’t even get to see the kids.  When we got there, Renee took us around and showed us some jobs that we could potentially help with throughout the semester.  Currently they really need 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms to be repainted.  The walls do not look so good. The paint is chipping in areas and has marks from the beds and just from the kids in general.  Sometime the next few weeks we will probably be doing some painting.  After we discussed the paint job, our group got split up. Lindsay and I were taken to a storage warehouse (they said it was where Santa Claus lived).  We walked in the door and my senses were bombarded.  First off, it looked like a disaster.  They had received many donations over the years and clearly keeping this place organized had not been a priority when they had so much else to do. It was difficult to walk anywhere because there was little room to place your feet.  The room also had a slight musty scent to it.  It was a storage room so that was to be expected.  Along with the smell and no room for movement, there was also a lack of air flow.  On this hot day, the room was very stuffy.  Our task was to sort through boxes and make sure what was in them matched the label on the box.  Most of it was kid’s clothing.  Once we sorted through quite a few boxes, we decided to start to clean and organize the room for them.  We tried to sort everything and put all of the similar items together.  We did not get even close to finishing, but we did get a lot done. 

The boy in the blue shirt:

                I met him on Monday.  He is maybe 4 or 5.  When we first arrived he was super quiet.  He did not run up to us or talk or hug or climb like the others.  He sat by himself and sniffled a lot.  I don’t know his name.  A few of us asked him but he did not say (either he doesn’t understand English very well or he was just being shy).  As soon as I saw him, I knew he was the one I wanted to talk to.  His eyes had a look.  He looked so sad.  I knew I wanted to make him smile.  Throughout the morning I tried and tried but was not very successful. He would not even put on a little grin.  Then we started playing with some legos.  I was holding them while he stacked them to make a tall tower.  I don’t know if it was the legos or just that he was finally warming up to me, but he started to smile.  I was so happy that I accidently let go of the tower when another kid ran into it.  I was afraid this would cause the little boy in the blue shirt to stop smiling, but instead he started to laugh and his smile got bigger.  I was relieved.  By the end of the morning he even started saying a few words to me…not many..but he would mumble a few things every once in awhile. 

                I cannot wait to go back next week. I want to find out his name and I want to make him smile again.  You are not supposed to pick favorites but he is probably one of my favorites.  All of the others are super cute too though.  They run up and give you a giant hug and then run off to play again.  They repeat this many times while we are there. 

Molweni!

(hello in Xhosa)

                Time for some more updates!  I am going to talk about a lot of the different things that have gone on and then will make another post about the service site. 

                Saturday night we had our group potluck which was fun. The food was delicious. Every flat had to wear a color of the SA flag and we were green.  After dinner, Katie, Heather, Lindsay, Taylor, Hannah, Olivia, Smiley (our friend from Bush camp who came to visit) and I went on a walk along the beach.  We explored the boardwalk which reminds me of a carnival or Disney world…it has several shops and food places, an arcade, bowling, cinema, candy stores, bumper boats, gokarts, a few small rides (merry go round), and a casino…it is really pretty.  On our way home we stopped at McDonald’s and I got a Cornetto McFlurry.  It was vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, crushed sugar cone and chocolate chips.  It was amazing! (and it only cost a little over $1!!!) Later that night Lindsay and I went over to our friend Suvi’s apartment (she was my tentmate at Bush camp...the girl from Finland).  We spent the night talking and just hanging out with her and her two roommates from Finland (Jan and Sari) and their friend Bernie, from Austria.

                Sunday morning a group of us went to Mass at Corpus Christi (the church basically in our backyard…it is like a block behind our building).  The church was quite small and the congregation was made up of mostly older people.  It reminded me a lot of St. Raphael’s (my home church).  I was excited that I even recognized a few of the songs.  After Mass, we went to the market across the street again and then walked to the Boardwalk to get a few things we forgot about the night before.  The plan was not to stay too long because we had homework to do…but we ended up spending the whole afternoon wandering around. 

                Monday was our first day at our service sites.  I will describe my first experience at House in a later post.  In the afternoon we had our first class.  South African Jazz Music.  It seems like it should be pretty interesting.  Monday was a super hot and humid day.  I think it was up in the 90s.  So, being the smart group of roommates we are, we decided it would be a good day to walk to NMMU.  We even attempted to take a “short cut”…which ended up being the exact opposite. 

                Tuesday we also started our day at the service sites.  In the afternoon we had our seminar class taught by Bruce and Norma (our faculty directors).  We decided to be smart today and took a combi to NMMU.  When we got to campus and found our building we had to walk up 8 flights of stairs (they were worse than the QUAD!).  Once we reached the 8^th floor we realized that the elevator had been right around the corner!!!! Ugh. Our classroom, however, did have an amazing view of the city and the ocean.  I will definitely have to take a picture of it sometime soon.

                Wednesday we had the opportunity to sleep in a little bit.  However, the sun and the construction noises outside our window decided we didn’t deserve to sleep in.  I woke up at a little after 7 am, and was the last one awake in my room.  Our flat had a lazy morning, taking our time doing homework and getting ready.  In the afternoon we had our SA literature course for the first time.   I think it will be interesting. 

In case you are interested…my class schedule is:

Monday:

-service (8:30-11:45am)  and  South African Jazz music (2:45-5:45pm)

Tuesday:

-service (8:30-11:45am)  and  Study abroad seminar (2-5pm)

Wednesday:

-South African Literature (2-5)

Thursday:

-Marine Biology (8:30-11:30am)

Another post will be coming soon with details about my first two days of service at the House.

Love & Prayers,

-Laura

More differences...

-noise...it is always so noisy. This may be because I am not used to living in a big city, but there is always cars and honking and beeps and voices and yelling and birds (which sometimes sound very interesting!) and it just never stops.  I am starting to get used to it though. 
-speed of walking...people walk a lot slower here...it probably has to do with the relative time thing
-random observation I made...the exit signs look different too.  You know, like the ones in buildings to go outdoors...they probably look different depending on where in the US you are but I had never noticed it before haha
-ok so this isn't so much a difference rather just another thing my friends and I have observed....people still seem to be separated by their race…especially noticeable while walking to school…whites walk with whites and blacks with blacks…this may not seem surprising but I thought since the apartheid has ended there would be a little more mixture...even at the rugby games there is a clear line separating the stands.

MONKEY!

...more pictures on facebook....my computer won't let me add more here. Sorry

A week's worth of adventures...

             Hi again! Hope you have been having a great week.  It has been a busy and event-filled week for us.  We have had a few orientation type events at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU).  We had a tour of the school and it is huge! A gazillion times larger than good ol’ CSB/SJU.   And there are monkeys on campus.  They roam around campus looking for food.  There are signs all over that say “Beware of monkeys. Do not feed!”  It is so cool!

                By the time I go back to MN I am going to be so in shape.  We walk a lot! I love it.  We have walked to school and home a couple days this week.  It is 5k (about 3 mi) from our flat to NMMU.  The walk is super pretty. It is right along the ocean.  You can walk, take a bus or a combi (mini-van type taxi thing).  We decided we are going to try to walk there and home as much as possible.  It will save us some money and is good exercise (don’t worry dad, I won’t walk alone). 

                On Monday we had our first laundry experience.  There is a Laundromat down the street that we bring our clothes to.  They have people there that wash, dry, and fold them for us.  It is really nice.  Monday night, we went to our first rugby game.  It was at NMMU.  We were playing against a team from Pretoria I think.  It was interesting but I was so lost. After realizing that understanding the game was a lost cause, I just started looking around.  There were so many people.  The part of the game that I did think was cool though, was every once in awhile a few of guys would throw another teammate up in the air to catch the ball.  It looked like they were attempting to do a cheerleading stunt.

                Tuesday we had a little bit of a money fiasco.  Katie, Heather and I tried to exchange some US cash into rand at an American Express location and had some difficulties.  The teller stole $120 dollars from us (we had pooled our money together).  Once we realized what had happened, we talked to the people in the office at our flats and asked them for advice.  Steve (one of the owners…who just happens to be quite intimidating looking) took us back there and talked to the teller in Afrikaans. Long story short…we got all our money back and the teller said “sorry, I must have made a mistake counting the money.”  Tuesday night we made some chocolate chip cookies to give Steve as a thank you gift…and because we had all been craving them.

                Wednesday morning we got tour of two of the three potential service sites, Missionvale and House of Resurrection (aids orphanage).  Going to Missionvale left me in awe. The entire time we got a tour everyone in our group was silent.  We were shocked to see the sharp difference between the living conditions of the people in Missionvale to that of those who live closer to our flats. Both of which are in Port Elizabeth.  When people think of the poor of Africa living in shacks, they are basically picturing Missionvale. These people had no running water, no electricity, and it was super crowded (120,000 people lived where maybe 15-20,000 would live in the US). We got a tour of the care center in missionvale. The Missionvale care center was started by an Irish Catholic sister, Sr. Ethel.  She has persevered through many hardships to keep this a place for people to come, meet their needs, and be loved.  She even received a visit from Queen Elizabeth II and Mother Theresa who wanted to commend her for her hard work.  It has a school, a food shelf, a clinic, a Catholic church, a garden, and a few other things.  Their main mission is to give the people hope and not to let them feel hopeless.  For example, the garden is for the people of the township to work in.  They are given free seeds and then they must do the work to get the food for their family.  Or in order to get food from the food shelf, they must bring in something that can be recycled.   The Aids orphanage was our second stop.  There are about 30 kids under the age of 13 living there currently (22 of which are HIV positive).  They live in groups of about 6 with a house mother.  When we would be volunteering, the older kids would be in school so we would primarily be working with the preschoolers and toddlers.  We got to play with them for a few minutes and let me tell you…they are heartbreakers.  Their smiles are beautiful.  I can already tell it is going to be super hard to leave (ps- dad we might be adopting a child at the end of the semester…just fyi) J

After the two tours, we went to NMMU for a service learning workshop.  This is a class we will be having a few times throughout the semester to help us process our experiences at the service sites. 

                Thursday we got to ride on a double decker bus for a tour of PE with our tour guide, Bradley.  He showed us a lot of the historical areas of PE, the nicer, more modern areas, and then also some of the run down areas and townships.  I always thought Plymouth was large because you can drive around for quite some time and still be in Plymouth….but PE is much larger!  It really surprised me.  We made a few stops on our tour at the RED location, Sacramento trail, and Pendla elementary school.  The RED location is a museum that showcases the stories of many of the men and women who played some sort of role in the fight against the apartheid.  The Sacramento trail is a beautiful trail along the ocean.  We didn’t get to stay long or take many pictures but I will definitely be going back there some time soon.  Pendla is the third service site.  It is an elementary school where we would be paired up one on one to be a teacher’s assistant.

                Friday we had nothing going on.  We ended up spending a lot of time at the beach (little did I know at the time, but this was turning my back and back of the legs into beautiful and painful tomatoes...apparently I missed a few spots when applying sunscreen)!  It was such a beautiful day.  However, it was super windy and we ended up getting sand everywhere.  We ended up having to leave because we couldn’t stand the sand being blown into our faces any longer.  Instead we went up to the roof of our building and had a picnic.  In the afternoon, we went grocery shopping and then got ready for another rugby game.  This time we went to the World Cup Stadium to see the Southern Kings of the Eastern Cape play.  I don’t really care much for rugby, I just really wanted to go to the stadium to see it.  It was awesome!  It reminded me a lot of the metrodome.  This game was a lot more interesting than the last rugby game. Katie and I ended up sitting by Eric, a guy from our group, who explained a lot of what was going on to us. 

                Today is Saturday.  We are planning on doing some baking this afternoon.  Our study abroad group is having a potluck tonight and my flat is in charge of the desserts.  It should be fun.  We also found out which service site we will be going to.  We had to pick our top 2 choices and then the directors chose who would go where.  Missionvale and House of Resurrection were my top two choices. I could not decide between them.  I ended up getting put at House.  I am excited. There are about 8 of us going and it should be a good group. 

                Well sorry once again it is so long. I feel like all of my posts are going to be long. Oops. Oh well. Hope you are having fun back home.  More pictures will be up soon. 

                Love & Prayers,

-Laura

What I have realized is different so far:

-driving…you drive on the left side of the road...it is kind of weird but I am getting used to it

-money…they use the Rand… about 7 rand = $1.00…I am finding my mental math skills are not the greatest…but I am getting lots of practice

-time…time is very relative here and saying you will be somewhere in 10 minutes doesn’t mean you will actually be there in 10 minutes…it makes it very difficult to plan things...this is teaching me to relax a little more and live in the moment

-ketchup…it is really runny here and kind of gross tasting…I may be eating my chips (french fries) plain

-MONKEYS..there are monkeys!! We saw some at bush camp and were told that we will see a lot on campus….they are kind of like the squirrels of South Africa (but I like them sooooooo much more than squirrels)!!!!

A Whole New World.....Don't you dare close your eyes...

…Sorry I have the Aladdin song stuck in my head and then realized that it kind of fit with what I was going to write about.   Warning: Since this is my first time on the internet in 6 days, I have a lot to tell you…so much has happened….plus I usually tend to ramble a lot anyway and so this could get kind of long. Sorry ahead of time.  :] You can skim it if you want.

               I left my house for South Africa bright and early Tuesday morning, Feb. 1^st at 3:15am. I had many flights and several layovers.  I had to fly to Chicago by myself but then met up with Heather and Katie and we flew to Washington DC. There we met up with 3/4 of our group and had a nice and lovely layover waiting for our 17 hr flight.  On that flight we made a stop in Senegal to refuel and then headed to Johannesburg and then to Port Elizabeth (PE).  The flights from DC to Johannesburg were LONG and I did not sleep much.  I did happen to look out the window though and realize how beautiful the stars were. They looked so close and so pretty! On the flight we had our own personal tvs that had a variety of shows and movies you could watch.  There were a lot of episodes of Bones and so I had a Bones marathon (wish you could have been there Nancy!) and then watched a few movies. 

                When we finally got to PE, it was about 9:40pm their time Wednesday night (it is about an 8 hr time difference from MN).  We were exhausted.  Who knew sitting down and doing nothing could be so tiring.  We got to our flats and started to unpack and get settled in. It was some good roomie bonding time.  I live in a flat with 4 other girls. We have a small living room, kitchen, and bathrrom.  I share a bedroom with two girls, Heather and Katie.  Lindsay and Taylor live in the other room and it has a balcony. You can see the ocean (which is basically right across the street). 

                Thursday, Bruce and Norma (our faculty directors) took us into town to go shopping. We had lunch at a restaurant called “Wimpy’s” and then went to the grocery store.  When we came back we decided to go to the beach and go for a walk along the ocean. That night we had a roomie pasta dinner.  Later my roommates and I went out with the rest of the group that night.  It was pretty fun.

                Friday through Sunday (today) we were at Bush Camp, which is a camp put on my NMMU (my school here) for international students.  It was a very interesting weekend to say the least. A lot of people were miserable and did not like the weekend. I didn’t love it but it wasn’t horrible.  A few things that made it so miserable were that it was super hot, humid, it was the ant capital of the world, we were in the middle of nowhere and it rained…no…it POURED!!! I have never been so wet in my entire life. It was raining over 3 inches of water in an hour…and we had tents. Yea…they flooded.  Overall, even though it was a very interesting weekend I think it is good that we went because we did have some fun and we met some awesome people.  I shared at tent with a girl named Suvi, from Finland. We also met people from Germany, Ireland, Sweden, and some others from the US.  They all live pretty close to us here so I am sure we will probably see them again.  My favorite part of the weekend was when a few friends and I were sitting outside and one girl decided to start doing yoga.  She was leading us through some poses. People kept coming up and joining us. Soon there was a huge circle of us doing yoga. The whole time it was pouring and the rain kept getting heavier and heavier.  If you would have talked to me last week, I never would have imagined that I would be doing yoga in the rain in South Africa. It was so much fun! 

                 On the way to the camp on Friday we stopped at a reptile center.  We learned what snakes were found in South Africa and which ones were poisonous.  I also got to hold a blue-tongued skink (I think that was the name..maybe..it was kind of like a iguana).  They also were passing around a giant python. I held it!!! Can you believe it? Well, ok I actually held it with my four other flatmates….but still nonetheless it was sitting on the back of my neck (and there are pictures to prove it)!  We also got to touch a crocodile. I was amazed with how excited I was to do all of this.  I actually wanted to do these things and I was not as nervous as I thought I would be. 

                Today (Sunday) when we got back we went out to lunch at Cubañas.  It is a restaurant that overlooks the ocean right by our flat. I had a chicken mayonnaise quesadilla with pineapple in it. It was delicious!

                In summary, I am having a great time so far. My roommates and I talk frequently about how it hasn’t hit us yet that this is for real.  This is where we will be living for four months!  It feels like maybe we are just on a 2 week vacation.   

Okay, well sorry this got so long.  I warned you :]  Hope everything back home is wonderful.  I miss you.

Love & Prayers,

-Laura

PS- When I was packing, a lot of people and websites said to pack half of what you think you will need…I attempted to follow this advice and left a lot of things at home.  Well, in the 6 days I have been here I have needed and wished I had brought about 3/4  of the things I took out and left at home!! Ugh. Not cool.  :[  Oh well, I can learn to live without these things, but I really would have liked to have some of that stuff.