5-4-3-2-1 BUNGY!

I can't remember the last time I wrote about what has been happening here and I can't even begin to tell you everything so I'm going to hit the high points. I still love my kids! We've gotten 1 new toddler and 2 new babies in the past month. The fact that I only have 2 more weeks here is not acceptable. A huge group of volunteers left this past weekend and it was really sad to say goodbye. Even though I've only known everyone here for less than 2 months we have forged some incredible friendships and I love all of them dearly.

Ok but high points since last time. Lets see, I went to the rugby semi-finals match and cheered till I was hoarse, hiked Lion's Head and watched the sun set over the ocean and the moon rise over the city and then hiked back down in the dark,

went wine tasting and got food poisoning from vegetable risotto, said goodbye to some amazing friends, saw an african version of The Nutcracker, attended "high tea" with my roomies,

and went on South Africa's famous Garden Route and saw plenty of baboons!

We stayed at the cutest little hostel called Fairy Knowe in a middle-of-nowhere town called Wilderness...

where we had to climb the roof and break in through the window to get into our room,

bungee jumped off the highest bridge in the world, and by extension the known universe...

twice! and backwards the second time which was a bajillion trillion times better/cooler. And the best part was that I got to go back to back. I hadn't even finished my exuberant celebration dance from the first time when I heard about 10 guys calling my name from the side of the bridge. So I danced my way over to see what was up and before I knew it, I was hooked up to another harness, and told to walk to my death for the second time that day! But I don't want to make you green with envy just yet so let's move on shall we...

Ostrich riding. You think this is a laughing matter. It is not. Ostriches are the second fastest animal in the world and are extremely aggressive - and stupid which makes this all the more dangerous. Their brain is smaller than one of their eyeballs and they have a giant, man-killing toe that, when feeling threatened, they will kick into you forward and down, thus thoroughly gutting you so that you can watch yourself die slowly while your intestines hang outside of your body. The only way to get away would be to play dead, at which point they tend to sit on you with all of their 300+ pounds for anywhere from 4 hours to 4 days. Obviously, I had to ride one.

But make no mistake, I'm working my butt off here. I get up early Monday-Friday for work to get beat up, peed/pooped/thrown up/snotted on by darling little children, then go home to work on projects for Nomzamo, and study isiXhosa. And I love every second of it.

But I guess that's all. The next time I do something insanely cool, like I don't know, play with one of the rarest tigers in the world I'll let you know! Oh wait...

You can get jealous now!

I love you all!!!

Oh man! Cape Town just keeps getting better and better! Every week brings new things to see and experience as well as new people to meet! And as always, I am loving every second of it. This past weekend was awesome. The house was virtually empty, well as empty as it's ever going to feel, until everyone got back from the Garden Route about 8ish on Sunday night. When they got back and settled a little bit they told the rest of us stories and showed us all of their bungee jumping videos. Despite a few of them saying that it was the most terrifying thing they've ever done (scarier than skydiving) and that they'd never do it again, the more videos I watched, the more excited I got! Especially when I saw the video of one of the girls jumping backwards. I'm glad I stayed home because I had a flippin ball, but now I can't WAIT! until I get to go bungee jumping with the next group. 

On Tuesday we went to the District 6 Museum as one of our many cultural activities. It was really interesting and sad to hear about the history of the people of District 6 who were forcibly removed from their homes so that the area could be rebuilt and reoccupied by whites. In a period of 15 years over 60,000 people were moved to areas which became the townships the other volunteers and I are working in today. But it was strange. Our tour guide went off on a 30 minute long tangent on global warming. One second we're talking about apartheid and the next I'm listening to how when we graduate instead of buying a car, we should buy a boat because the polar ice caps are melting and it'll come in more handy. I didn't quite make the connection...

But it's ok! Because right up the street from the District 6 Museum is the most amazing place in all of Cape Town...Charley's Bakery! At Charley's Bakery there are petitfours that make your eye's roll back in your head from deliciousness. There are quisches that make your full stomach beg for more. There are cakes and tarts and brownies and cookies that all look like they were made by someone on acid especially for you so you could trip without doing drugs! It was a-mazing! It was glorious! It was a fat girl's heaven (and cheap too)!

Wednesday. Oh Wednesday it's no wonder you're my favorite day of the week! I brought my camera to Nomzamo and me and the kids had a blast with it. Especially my little ninja turtle, Siyasanga. I've been trying to teach him how to say "cowabunga dude" to no avail. He gets the dude part every once in awhile though so I know there's hope. After I got picked up from Nomzamo the van-full of us headed out of Langa to Guguleto which is one of the other townships. It was celebrating its 50th anniversary. Anyways, we met up with the rest of the house and the staff at a shebeen called Mzoli's. A shebeen is our version of a tavern but not quite. It's more like a bar in a garage, beer in garbage cans included, with an outside seating area. It was quite an experience but the food was great! We ate pup, bread, and braii. Braii just means bbq. I ate a ton. But the best part...oh this is good! The best part is that we were listening to a live African music band the entire time. I felt totally saturated by the culture and like I was an actual part of it, not just a tourist because needless to say, not many tourist's eat at a shebeen in a township. It was absolutely tremendous. But if you think the fun stops there, you're wrong. From Mzoli's we went to a community arts center to watch "Themba-African Spirit." It was a performance but a group of kids roughly around my age who sing, dance, act, and entertain in traditional African style while educating young people about HIV/AIDS. They performed for a  half an hour and it was so inTENSE! I swear I'm running out of adjectives to describe my experiences here. But this, by far, was the coolest, most moving thing I've seen since I've been here. At the end of their performance they sang 2 a cappella songs for us. There voices were so strong that the entire room was reverberating with them. And they were good. They were better than good. No joke, almost every person in our group was moved to tears. It was tremendous! I was seriously awestruck the entire time. Final word on the matter- WOW! And my week isn't even over yet. I'm so tired but we have another performance tonight at the house. And we have another birthday this weekend, and a rugby game, and a going away party...oh man I'm going to be so tired when I get back! And I didn't even tell you guys about our visit to Bo'Kaap with all the fun houses and our Cape Malay dinner!

ooooooo! But before I go, the ladies at Nomzamo want me to taste as much of their culture as possible while I'm here...literally.  So this week I tried something called African salad, some bean curd-type dish, and this bread roll thing that could/should be classified as a donut because it's THAT good! But the African salad...ok so it was the first thing they gave me - ever. I didn't know what it was. I don't know how to describe it. I think it might be made with like a chunky maize-type  meal. They put it in a bowl in front of me. Then they poured milk in it and I thought, "cool, this is easy." But then...they proceeded to pour in this foul-smelling thick cream type thing that smelled like old yogurt without the mold to give it away. And they stirred it right in. With all of their expectant faces watching me, I took my first bite. It was awful. It tasted like and had the texture of old cottage cheese - chunky and sour as all get out! I worked hard to not make a bad face. And because I didn't want to hurt their feelings I told them I liked it and ate almost the entire bowl. But they were so happy and thrilled that I enjoyed it. I'm not gonna lie, I got used to it after awhile, once all the sour had killed my taste buds. And also, remember the little boy who is my shadow, my "son" apparently? Well Breyton saved my butt that day. When all the ladies got their fix of watching me eating they left. And Breyton was sitting next to me and it was just us. I watched him watch me eat. A lightbulb was clicked on. I gave him a bite to see if he liked it. Thank Jesus he did! So when no one was looking, I would shovel spoonfuls in his blessed eager little mouth! He ended up eating about half the bowl and I ate the other half. I left before the kids' lunch time so I don't know if I spoiled his lunch. Oh well! He saved my life hahaha!

The following pictures pretty much sums up my life here so far... African dancing, some of my kids, charley's, sharks, and amazing views!

Sukubetha!

This week absolutely flew by. I can't believe it's over. The days go by slow here, but the weeks are over before you can blink. It's true. I would say I'm starting to feel more at home here but the thing is I felt at home from day 1. It seems like I've been here forever already and it's only been 2 weeks. I finally know all my kids by name! Two of them were taken away and placed in foster homes this week. I guess it's technically a good thing but I'm still pretty sad about it. And one of my favorite little girls is going to be placed with foster parents next week. It's hard because I'm already really attached and it's just going to get worse. Speaking of attached...

On Monday when I arrived, I noticed a new little boy with all the children. He wasn't really playing or talking with any of them. Come to find out, he was abandoned and his first day at Nomzamo was Sunday. And he wasn't talking with the children because he doesn't speak xhosa. He speaks Afrikaans and a little bit of English. He is the sweetest little boy. This past week he has become my shadow. On Monday we met and I didn't see a smile or hear a word out of him once. On Tuesday I got a small little grin. He just wants to be held all the time. On Wednesday I was supposed to take the younger kids (2 & 3 year olds) out to play so the older kids could have a lesson. The new little boy started screaming his head off the second I left the room so the other care taker brought him to me. He stopped crying immediately. On Thursday when I was playing outside with all the kids I went to take a bathroom break while everyone was distracted. I walked inside and down the hall. I thought I heard one of the kids start to cry. I got through the office and into the bathroom. As the door closed I wondered why the crying seemed to have gotten louder rather than quieter since I was a long ways away from the playground. I turn around and walk out to check. The little guy had followed me in from the playground, down the hall, and through offices to find me, balling the whole time. And of course, the second I pick him up, he's fine. I don't want to spoil him but I feel awful. The poor kid is so lonely. He can't understand a lot of the workers, none of the children, and he's recently abandoned. His memories are so fresh and he doesn't have a lot of distractions. Today we had to be a little firmer with him. We were making the kids race but he didn't want to run. He just wanted to stand next to me. I wouldn't pick him up and he was okay just standing there until the other worker tried to make him run. Then he wouldn't stop crying so we decided I would go inside to see if he would run. Nope. He got past 2 other workers and chased me down but I hid in the room with all the adorable infants so he couldn't find me. He cried for like 20 minutes and never did run. He just sat off to the side. I felt so bad but there was nothing I could do. So I distracted myself by playing with babies for an hour or so. I finally did go back to the older kids but I had to force myself not to look at him because I didn't want him to run to me and get in trouble. And he watches me non-stop. When he's eating, when he's supposed to be watching tv, during lessons or activities, he's always watching me to make sure I'm not leaving. And I know he's paranoid about that because his mom just did exactly that. I know that's why he's acting this way. Most of the workers and even the director call him my child. By day 3 of him being there they told me I found a son. Awkward, but I do love him.

One thing I feel horribly about, and I know I've mentioned this before, is the lack of staff. But even if they weren't understaffed, the kids still wouldn't get the one-on-one attention they crave. I do my best to give everyone a turn riding on my shoulders, or sitting on my lap, and I give more kisses and hugs than I can count. My way of doing things and the way they do things here are vey different though and I need to be careful not to step on any toes. I know all these women care about kids but sometimes it's hard. You can't show favorites, but certain kids just need more attention. And the women are able to give the kids piggyback rides or make them fly like airplanes. They are basically just left to play with each other and get yelled at IF they get caught doing something bad. It's just so different. Infants and toddlers and children alike are all left unsupervised more than you'd believe. In daycares back home I'm not allowed to leave 2 toddlers unattended for 5 seconds, and here, they leave 10 or more outside by themselves. And kids of all ages, throughout the townships, can be seen wandering around without any adult supervision at all. It's sad but it's a reality. That's another thing. The idea of a childhood, where you get to actually be a kid and play and have fun with the right to be safe is a relatively new idea (like the last 30 years) here. It's baffling to me, who grew up privileged and still tries to act like a kid as much as possible.

So that's my sad, depressing spiel. But don't get me wrong, I still love my time at Nomzamo, and all the kids, (especially my new little guy!), and everyone who works there. But right now, I have a huge empty, dark house to myself and 5 other people (everyone else is gone for the weekend), calling my name for a game of hide-and-seek to cheer me up!! Peace!

P.S. Sukubetha is "don't hit" in xhosa

Great White's Ain't Got Nothing on Me!

So it's been a whole week since I've been here. Time has gone by so fast but I already feel like I've been here forever. I'm starting to recognize streets and know my way around!

My kids are still great but they are definitely a rowdy bunch and can be very hard to control at times, like most kids. I adore them though. I've been at Nomzamo for 6 days and have already been pooped on twice. Well pooped on once, gotten poop on me twice! It's a glamorous life I live, I know! But every day there is great, even the not so fun ones. It got a little more challenging last week when the kids got crafty. They now fake cry to get me to pick them up so they can then proceed to put me in a Hulk Hogan-like vice grip while laughing hysterically. These kids are surprisingly strong, especially the little girls. I'll have one kid in my arms and they'll grab my free arm and dead lift themselves up an then crawl/scramble onto my back. Luckily it's pretty easy to tell when the kids are faking it so I usually just tickle them and run away. It's hard because I don't have enough arms.

I'm starting to get the hang of their names. I have all but a few down and I must say that's quite a feat in just over a week! I have my favorites but I make sure that I don't show it. One of my little boys, and I swear I'm not exaggerating, looks exactly like a ninja turtle! He's so cool! His name is Sayasanga but he's my little ninja turtle (and we all know how much I love turtles!)! On Friday we had a birthday party for all the kids who had birthdays in September. They were so cute in their party hats eating their cake and singing happy birthday in xhosa and then english! I could sit here gushing for hours and pages but I have other things to brag about. Brag or gloat? I don't know what word is better so read on and you decide!

I got to go cage diving with great white sharks! Neener neener neener! Oh my gosh it was such an amazing rush! I was the very first one on the boat to get in the cage. 6 people could fit at a time and we stayed in 30-40 minutes each. It was awesome. We had 4 big ones and a baby shark. The biggest was about 10 feet long. Being in the water with them was so surreal, especially when they are feeding literally inches away from you. Shark week has nothing on seeing them in real life. They are more graceful than you can imagine and you just want to reach out and touch them. Which, was almost a problem for me because we all know how I have a hard time resisting random urges (Daron can attest to that)! Seriously though, one of the times the sharks got close I caught myself reaching out before I knew I was doing it. Luckily I'm not as dumb as some might think and realized what I was doing. I decided since I'm quite attached to my right hand (no pun intended), I should probably not feed it to a ferocious 10 foot shark. When my turn was over I spent the next hour or so taking pictures and pretending I was a National Geographic photographer on location capturing man-eaters in their natural habitat. Yeah, I'm a tard I know. But let me just reiterate myself - absolutely breathtaking and you should all be jealous!

When everyone had their turn we went a few miles away to where whales from all over go to calve. It's right off the shores of a cute little town called Hermanus. We literally came within 10 feet of a mama whale and her baby. We were worried because we didn't know we could get that close but they were fine. The only word that came to my mind was majestic! After whale watching we went back to shore, disembarked from our boat, ate lunch, and then passed out in the van for the ride home. But when we awoke we weren't home! Our driver, the coolest driver ever, had driven us to a beach to watch the whales from shore. The white sandy beach was gorgeous, it was 80 degrees, and the whales were playing in the distance. We stayed there a couple of hours swimming, laying out, and walking along the beach collecting perfectly intact shells in varying shades of blue, purple, pink, and yellow. It was absolute perfection! I couldn't have asked for a better day. It was exactly what I imagine heaven to be. And I was in Africa!

...So I'm thinking gloating is definitely the word. Gloating is so much more refined than bragging! Have a good day all!

9/29/09-The Day I Fell In Officially Fell in Love

Today was my first official day at Nomzamo. Considering I'm sharing a bathroom with 5 other girls I had to get up earlier than I would have liked to shower, but it's okay. I woke up before my alarm went off and just hung out in bed until it was my turn. Then it was a quick blow dry, a quick bite to eat, and out the door to the van with the rest of my group off to the Langa township...finally! 

I was the second-to-last one to be dropped off. I wasn't able to meet with the lady I was supposed to meet with because she's in meetings all week supposedly so I was immediately thrown in with the toddlers. i LOVED it! There were about 10 little kids running around, all under the age of 6. Only one of them spoke English so I had 9 little ones running around screaming and clicking at me. Luckily, that little guy stayed by my side and would tell me what the other ones were saying. They were absolutely obsessed with my hair. I had it in a ponytail but the very first time i knelt down, i was mobbed by all the girls who pulled out my hair tie and started petting me. All the little boys joined in and I had 20 little hands - dirty snotty drool infested beautiful loving little hands - playing with my hair. It was almost impossible to get them to let go. I was left alone for quite a bit of the morning so it was kind of hard to communicate with the children. We managed mostly with gestures and facial expressions. Before I knew it, it was breakfast time. We took the kids into the kitchen to eat but before they did  the teacher had them all line up against a wall. They said a little prayer ("God is great. God is good...") in English! and then bum-rushed the tiny little tables where their breakfast waited. Then it was time to play outside where I became a human jungle gym for the next 3 hours. My day was filled with piggy-back rides, flips, somersaults, more hair playing (and pain!), a grass fight, monkey bars, and oh-so much more! 

When we were done playing we went inside to get them cleaned up for lunch. I was waiting in the room with all the kids and watching a movie when the door opened and babies starting streaming in! Ok, so it was one baby at a time seeing as how someone had to bring each one in, but that's not the point. The point is the toddlers and I were joined by 6 of the cutest babies on the freaking continent! And can I just tell you, my heart melted to see the older kids immediately go to the babies on the floor, pick them up, and take them to their seats. They were so good with them, holding them and playing with them, comforting them if they started to cry...oh my gosh! It was absolutely priceless! I barely got to hold any of the babies because the little ones would get mad if I took the babies away from them! But at lunch time while the other kids were eating I got to hold all the babies and feed them so it worked out! The time to leave came way too soon. I could've have stayed there much longer and been totally fine with it. I could probably just move in with the kids and sleep on one of the tiny little beds they sleep in and be totally happy. I might just do it. Seriously. 

Tonight I had my first xhosa lesson. It's the harder of the two languages but it's so much fun! I already know some of what my kids were yelling at me today haha! I recognized the words quickly so I'm hoping I can manage to pick it up fairly quickly. Not that I'll ever sound good speaking it because their tongues have to move in ways that mine just finds impossible. No joke. There are 3 different clicks in the language and every one is more complicated and harder to do than the last. And there are consonant sequences that you've never seen! "NdinguTiven mna" means "I am Tiven." They also don't like spaces in xhosa apparently! But I really enjoyed learning it and our teacher was a lot of fun and very accommodating when we asked for ridiculous sequences of clicks and what word had the most clicks, or the greatest combo of clicks. Needless to say we all got ahead of ourselves trying to pronounce these suckers!

Overall my first day was great. Better than I could have ever thought. When I got back to the house, my roommate told me it looked like I had just come back from war because my hair was up and I was covered in dirt and food and snot! I absolutely loved it! It was amazing to see the warmth and love in the way they welcomed me. I didn't have enough arms, or kisses, or hugs to go around. As soon as I picked one kid up I had 5 more grabbing on to my legs or arms in the air wanting a turn. These kids are so much smarter than me too! They pick up words so fast. It only took me saying, "up!" 3 times before they figured out what it meant. And that's all I heard for the rest of the day. I think the best part of my day though was just watching how much the older kids looked after the little babies and seeing how gentle they were with them. Boys and girls alike were so loving. Yes, these children have been abandoned or orphaned, but by no means are they alone. They have their only little community family. One thing that was hard to see though was how understaffed the shelter is. I am so glad I can be here to help. I know I'm not the first and nor will I be the last but I know my time here is appreciated. 

Lesson of the day: do NOT shower in the morning. Shower in the afternoon when you're all done getting dirty and snotty!!! 

I can't wait for tomorrow!

London to Cape Town!

Oh man oh man oh man! Where do I begin? There's so much to tell, so many little anecdotes that I feel need to be shared even though I know the don't. Luckily, I'm not too sleep deprived and jet lag hasn't really effected me too badly but things have been crazy hectic ever since I arrived in Cape Town. And London for that matter. So let's start from the very beginning! A very good place to start! In the beginning there was the word...hahaha just kidding! 

In the beginning I got on my plane. But before I got on my plane I had to wait until 30 minutes efore boarding to get a seat assignment. Good sign. I was hoping that I would get my usual window seat. I was one of the last passengers to get called. Great sign. Then I got on the plane, find my seat between an old British couple on their way home from holiday and an Indian couple. Yay. The old British man immediately hits on me in front of his wife, while the Indian lady is glaring at me because I practically had to straddle her to get to my seat. Two more great signs! Nothing super eventful happened on the flight. The first 2 hours was the kind old British gentleman regaling me with stories of his life in the military. It was hard to hear because he talked so quietly. Then I fell asleep for 30 glorious minutes and got woken up by a smack to the face. At first I couldn't figure out what (or who and if who, why?) hit me and what smelled so nice. Then I got hit in the shoulder and I found the culprit. That lovely (and I'm not being sarcastic because despite having a bad case of sour grapes this lady was gorgeous) Indian lady  in the seat next to me had hit me with her extremely long-longer than mine!-hair. Twice. And every time she woke up from her cat naps and came out from underneath her blanket, she'd do it again. For some reason I didn't say anything. I guess I just figured if I had to get hit by something, it might as well be by something beautiful that smells good. 

Anyways, London was awesome! I got in 45 minutes early, got through customs, headed out to the Tower of London (like a pro I might add), and prepared myself to walk in the footsteps of historic figures like that syph-infected king we all love to hate, King Henry VIII, his conniving mistress/wife Anne, and then the cool ones like Isaac Newton and Thomas Moore. I had an awesome tour guided by a "beefeater." Don't ask. I did and he didn't even know why they were called beefeaters. I have to admit, it was a weird feeling to know that I was walking on the same streets as all those psychos I learned about in history. Then it was off to see the crown jewels and the whole survived armory of King Henry VIII. I could go into crazy amounts of detail (and I did in my journal) but I want to talk about Cape Town! Let's just say, I used to hate London, now I kinda like it after my day of wandering around.

Ok so now for the good stuff! Cape Town! I arrived at 9:30 in the glorious morning and met up with Kiemmie, my driver, and Diana, who was on my flight-not that I knew that. We hopped in the van and proceeded to what will be our home for the next few months. On the way we immediately saw the stark reality of the townships and the beauty that is Cape Town. The house is awesome! It's a 150 year old historic protected house, meaning it has some history (something about a famous woman who had a scando affair). And it's yellow!!!! I love yellow! We were met with a very warm welcome by the staff and fellow volunteers who have already been here for a month or so. The day was pretty much just hanging out around the house, trying to get unpacked, and getting to know the other volunteers while trying to stay awake and beat the jet lag. Everyone is so nice. One of the girls took a few of us newbies into Rondebasch so we could pick up a few things we needed. It's only about a 10-15 minute walk and about 5 minutes away from the house it started sprinkling. By the time we got to the store we were drenched. By the time we got back to the house it looked like we had jumped into a pool. Hahaha! I loved it. It was great! I know I've only been here a couple of days but seriously, I feel like I'm going to love it here. The group in the house is one freaking sweet group! Our ages are mostly from 18-26 with a couple of outliers in the 40-60 range.

Sunday and Monday was orientation. Sunday morning was just the typical policies and rules but in the afternoon we went on a tour of the city of Cape Town. We stopped at Cape Town Castle for a quick photo-op and then made our way up to Signal Hill which has got to be one of the most gorgeous look-out points ever! You stand on this mountain in between the ocean, Cape Town, and Table Mountain and just stand there in complete awe. Absolutely breathtaking and the pictures can never do it justice! Fun fact - from Signal Hill you can see where they're building the stadium for the 2010 World Cup. It's sitting in the middle of a golf course that they tore up because FIFA wanted the backdrop of the stadium to include both Table Mountain and Robben Island. So they tore up the oldest golf course in Cape Town. Typical. 

Today (Monday) was more orientation, but the good stuff. We learned about South African history and talked a lot about our placements which pretty much just served to get us all even more excited to start tomorrow. All of us are now very antsy in the pantsy. After a wonderful lunch of bbq chicken, sausage, and some other type of meat with salad, and pup (maize) covered in a tomato sauce, we headed out for our tour of the townships. Our guide was Coceko (clicks included!), or Richard. We went to 3 different ones, Langa, Guguleto, and Khayalicha. In Langa we went inside some of the homes and saw how the locals live. The house we visited used to be a mens hostel during the time of apartheid. There were 3 men to a room, and 6 rooms to a house, 18 men in all. When apartheid was over, and the men were allowed to be reunited with their families, they brought their families to live there with them. Imagine 3 families sharing a single room and 18 families sharing a single home. That was the condition they lived in. But walking through the townships, we were swarmed by children. Let me just say, they are characters! They loved getting their picture taken and were absolutely hamming it up for the camera! It was great! A lot of them kept asking, "Sweet? Sweet?" 

After going into the homes we went to a preschool were about 30 of the most adorable kids sang and danced for us. One of the songs they sang for us in English said, "This is my body. I love my body. I respect my body. It is not okay for anyone to hurt my body." They are taught this to help break the cycle of abuse, in the hope it will be easier for kids to tell their teachers when they are experiencing some kind of abuse. These kids are crazy smart though. They sang the South African national anthem for us...in TWO languages! I can barely sing ours in English. Ok so that's not true but still, I was jealous. We were able to play with the kids for about 20 minutes or so before Richard had to drag us into the van. The preschool just got me even more stoked to start tomorrow! 

Next we went to Guguleto to see an African medicine man. We went into a dark shop with animal skins and bones hanging everywhere (and what looked like a couple of voodoo dolls) and got blessed to bring us "many many boyfriends" haha! Then it was off to Khayalicha where we stopped at the very first bed and breakfast ever built in the township. Across the street there was a shop where ladies made rugs from t-shirts that had been thrown away. The money they make helps support one of the local preschools. One thing that absolutely blew my mind throughout the day was how resourceful the people here are. In the townships, everything from a payphones, barber shops, to schools and appliance stores inside of old shipping containers. Even some of the houses are. 

It was a lot to absorb in 4 hours and I know I'm leaving a bunch of information out, but I'm exhausted and excited so you'll just have to forgive me. I swear I'm keeping a better account in my journal so you can get a more detailed version when I have time or when I get home. I don't know if any of this was interesting or if it makes sense but I don't care because I get to meet my kids tomorrow! 

P.S.

If you really truly love me, or have the time and inclination, please please please keep me updated about football season, especially the Packers, and of course, my beloved Sharks while I'm gone! Thanks!!!