So it's been forever since I last posted, but really I haven't had that much to say. An office job is an office job anywhere you are so it hasn't seemed as though there was much I felt like writing about. Anyways, I decided its time again. The job is going great. I really enjoy the work although I do struggle with spending most of my time sitting in an office and my work revolving around sending and receiving emails. Getting to interact with all these international organizations doing HIV work has been great though. Its really shown me what I do and don't want to do in the future. Its also been really interesting to learn about how both huge international organizations work as well as local grassroots projects. When we do get to leave the office and go visit the projects in the field, that's when I really enjoy my work. Some of my favorite programs we visited are:

A local South African organization that is doing amazing work with children. They are training pre-school teachers in the Montessori method and working on changing the teachers attitude (a tough but very very needed job in this country). The great thing about this program is not only the training they give the teachers but also the support after the training. Over and over again I've witnessed people being trained in amazing interventions in all different topics, but very rarely after receiving the training do they get any support to actually implement what they've been taught, and without the support for implementation, it very often goes unused. This same organization is also currently doing a pilot program that I love and think is so innovative to solve a huge problem in rural communities all over the country. Most kids here come home after school to empty homes, their parents out trying to raise enough money to support the family. Children as young as 6 are left taking care of their younger siblings (and here many times school gets out at 1, so that's a long time to be left on their own). This program identifies a house in the community that has a gogo (grandmother) at home and the kids can go to this house in the afternoon. There they have paints and sports equipment and other activities for the children to participate in. This is also to take care of another problem that there are many pre-school aged kids who do not attend any type of program and receive no stimulating activities, usually due to financial constraints but there may be other reasons too. Therefore when they begin school they are already far behind other kids. This program provides them with the stimulating activity as well as gives the school kids a place to go so they are not sent home to an empty house.

This week I got to visit a farm (a farm that is growing citrus for Dole!) up near Musina, which is the border town between South Africa and Zimbabwe. Here one of the organizations PEPFAR funds has trained a local group of women to be peer educators and do HIV awareness. They were holding an event for the farm workers to educate them about HIV. It had been raining the whole morning so not as many people who would normally come showed up but it was still a great program. They sang about using condoms (in the local language Venda), did skits to show how alcohol can influence decisions, that you should always use condoms and about how to say no if you don't want sex. They also did condom demonstrations for the crowds and an interactive question and answer session. The female condom demonstration that I saw here was by far the most comprehensive, in detail demo I've ever seen, and I've seen ALOT of condom demonstrations. The more I'm in South Africa and the more methods of HIV education and intervention I see the more and more I'm convinced that skits, drama's and songs are the best way to get the message across. It works! When people can see it acted out before them or listen to it in a song it gets internalized so much more than just the booklets, posters and lectures that are so popular. In most cases the people here know the information, they know how HIV is spread, what it does to your body, how you get tested, the knowledge is all there, the behavior change is not. Its not until the tools are given, or the examples of how you can change your behavior, such as through skits, will it make a difference. Song is also a great way to get the message across. Singing is such a huge part of the culture here and by singing about condoms and sex it gets people talking about it in a more comfortable fashion for them. I really enjoyed going out to this farm and being able to witness the work being done by these women, they are making a difference. Farm workers are at a very very high risk in this country for HIV. A study that just came out late last year found that 40% of farm workers in South Africa are HIV, no that's not a typo 40%! It's nuts! And unfortunately they are really just starting to be targeted in prevention campaigns. For one they are a harder to access with messages, during season they work long hours with few days off, and as soon as a particular season is over, they move on to the next farm, so even if you do make an effort with prevention campaigns you never really know from one time to the next if they've heard the message before or not. Not to mention that just by being a migrant population it increases there risk. I hope that in the future more and more programs like this one on the farm will begin to spring up to begin to reduce the rate of HIV on the farms.

My time here is slowly winding down, which to be honest is terrifying. My contract with Peace Corps ends on the 27th of April which gives me only a few short months before its over. I've applied to a few grad schools for my MPH and am waiting to hear back but other than than I have no plans on what to do. Part of me really doesn't want to leave South Africa, its become my home and thought of leaving just doesn't feel right. At the same time I know that I can't stay forever. At least not doing what I'm doing now, at some point I'm going to have to move on and I'll probably never be ready so its just something I'll have to jump into and do.

So now that I've been working for a few weeks I figured I'd update this and give a better idea of what exactly I'm doing and how things are going. I'm still slowly adjusting to the new work and also getting used to living in town. I can tell you this much, I'm definitely not cut out for desk work! After about 2 hours of sitting in the office I'm going stir crazy. I've never had an office job before and now I know why! Part of it is that since its all still so new we're still establishing our place and a lot of the people we'll be working with don't actually know we've started yet. I think it will get much busier as time passes. The strike definitely played a role too. As government, one of the main people we'll be working with was focused on that.

Just a side note on the strike. I know it made some international news but I'm not sure how many of you were aware of what was going on here. There was a public service strike (mainly nurses and teachers) that lasted here for 3 weeks. They were requesting a raise of 8.6% as well as increasing their housing allowance to R1000. Because of this all public schools were shut down for the three weeks as well as most clinics and many hospitals. The hospitals that were open had skeleton staff. The most unfortunate part about this strike is that people were dying because of it. Many HIV patients were unable to access there medicine, leading to them defaulting and getting sick. Without sufficient staff at hospitals we were continually hearing of patients dying for the simple fact of there was no one there to care for them. At the drug resistant TB hospitals patients were sent home to be cared for potentially spreading TB to numerous people. As far as schools go we're coming to the end of the school year (December) and the students are getting ready to take their exams that they must pass to move on to the next grade. The school year had already been cut short because they closed schools for all of the World Cup but now students lost even more classroom time because of the strike. Students around the country are now protesting that they won't take the preliminary exams because they haven't been taught. Its unfortunate what happened but in all honesty they do deserve a raise. Many teachers in this country can't even afford a car and struggle to support their families. No resolution on this strike was every reached and the only reason they're back at work is the union called a 21 day suspension to make sure services were running as they try and negotiate with the government, the suspension expires next week so we'll see what happens.

So that's a little background, as this was happening things were obviously a little too chaotic for us to really meet with anyone and get our jobs going. Back to the new job. Basically what my role is (forgive me if I've already written about this, I can't remember), and Thuso's, who is my counterpart, is to coordinate between the Provincial South African Government, the U.S. Government (CDC and USAID) and the organizations in the province that are funded by PEPFAR money. This means that we work to make sure the government knows what partners are working where, that there's no duplication of services and the province is being well covered and just to link everyone up. What we're doing right now is trying to meet with all the partners (PEPFAR funded orgs) to find out what role they are playing in the province and what we can do to assist them. We've gotten to go out into the field and visit a few sites which is my favorite part. Its so great to see it in action. I've gone and visited a few sites where they're doing HIV counseling and testing, one at a university, another at a drug rehab centre. I've also gotten to go visit an organization providing HIV and orphan services to the community. Its great meeting with the organizations too because most of these organizations that are receiving money from PEPFAR are organizations I would one day in the future like to work for. Most of them are big international organizations who then fund smaller South African organizations. Thuso, my counterpart and I also get along very well and work well together which is great. He has a lot of experience having worked in the past for a private company then moved into the non-profit sector where he's been working for years. Already I've learned a lot from his experience and he treats me as an equal which is nice, so many times in Peace Corps, either because of my age of just not knowing how to utilize skills I was pushed to the background as an after thought. Now to actually have my skills and opinions utilized is really nice. As the job progresses I feel like I'm going to learn so much and am so glad I was given this opportunity, the experience I'm gaining is unbelievable.

I'm still adjusting to living in town and to be honest miss the village a lot. I've been really struggling being away from the village in such a different atmosphere. I miss being outside for the majority of the day and knowing someone everywhere I went. I miss the safety of the village, never really having to worry about anything happening and I miss the kids. Although at sometimes it was hard always having them around, its much harder not having anyone. Even when they would just sit outside my door, not really doing anything but just being there, it was nice. Now I live in a 2 bedroom apartment all by myself and don't really know any of my neighbors. I have gone back to visit which was so nice, but then made it almost even harder to come back to town. The people there are just so genuine and kind and really are interested in how you are doing, you can tell they really care whereas in towns it so easy to be invisible. I miss the simplicity of village life too, there's only so many options of where to go and what to do that decision making is so easy (something I really struggle with). Like I said, I'm adjusting and getting used to it but I miss the village more than I could have imagined. I'm sure I'll be going back and visiting monthly, if not more.

I guess that's it for now, if anyone is more interested in what exactly I'm doing in my new job just send me an email. I'd love to answer any questions.

So I've become absolutely horrible about updating this but I'm going to start trying harder! I think part of is it that for the past few months I really haven't been doing much, just been in limbo waiting for things to happen. Finally things are happening though so I should have a lot more to update you guys on.

I've been back one week now from a great trip back to the states. I went to two weddings and a baby shower so it was jam packed but a lot of fun. It was so nice to escape the cold winter here to a perfect WA summer, just the right temperature most of my visit and I got to spend lots of time outside, on the water and enjoying it all!

Last Wednesday I flew down to Durban for my first meeting with my new job. Right before I went to the states I had three days of training in Pretoria with USAID and CDC. I learned all about how they function in South Africa, the logistics of PEPFAR in this country and what really will be expected of me. It was very informative (although I did have a leg up against my South African counterparts, being from the US as I already knew a lot about CDC and USAID and PEPFAR whereas for many of them how they're connected and actually work is brand new). Anyways, back to Durban though. I flew from Polokwane, something I've never done before, I'd never been to the airport here before, and to be honest I'd be happy not to do it again. Its a tiny airport, which was kinda fun to see, the part that I wouldn't care to repeat is the flight itself though. I've never been scared of flying before, really I actually enjoy it, but the plane I had to get on here was TINY! There was just 30 seats, 10 rows of 3, there was only 10 of us on the plane that day. Taking off and landing was horrible, its so bumpy! I felt like I was in a little toy being tossed around, I'm lucky I didn't lose my lunch! The only good part was that it was about a 50 minute flight( I had to fly to Johannesburg then to Durban, the only place you can fly to from Polokwane is Johannesburg its that small) and yet they still served us food and drinks! How cool is that, coming back from the states I had a 4 hour flight from Seattle to Chicago and got nothing! Here I was on a tiny 30 seater for 50 minutes and I got food and drink, I was pretty impressed by that!

The meeting in Durban was the quarterly meeting for all provincial PEPFAR liaisons (my position) along with CDC and USAID reps. The night before our meeting we got to go have dinner at the Consulate Generals house in Durban which was really nice and we were staying at a super nice hotel right in the heart of Durban. I'm still getting used to staying in hotels, flying places and all this nice stuff! Its so different from being a Peace Corps Volunteer where you ride with 15 other people in a broken down van to get around and stay in a room with 10 strangers wherever you go! Big step up in life, yet I'm still considered a volunteer, which makes me laugh at times, but hey, I'm not complaining, its great!

I learned a lot more at the meeting and it was great to meet up with the other liaisons and here about their experiences in their provinces. My situation is a little different because in all the provinces there's only one person doing all the work. Here in Limpopo though there's going to be two of us as they hired someone just as they did in all the other provinces but then they also brought me on. It sounds like this is going to pretty beneficial though as other liaisons have already mentioned how they feel stretched pretty thin and can't keep up with all the work so we'll be at an advantage here with two of us. I really enjoy my counterpart though who has a lot of experience in working with NGO's and I think that I'll be able to learn a lot from him. Its nice too that we were able to start at the same time and learn together and really establish a good working relationship where we both have a place. Many times volunteers come into an already established position and its really hard to work a place in for them, here we'll both be figuring it out at the same time.

Like I said I hope to keep this more updated now with my new job and let you know all that is happening! Also I posted a bunch of new pictures while I was back home! Enjoy, the link is on the side of my blog.

World Cup update time! First off, I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to be in South Africa during the World Cup, its really been amazing!! For the opening match, South Africa vs. Mexico a group of us painted our faces (pictures to come) got all dressed up and headed down to the FIFA Fan Fest in Polokwane (its about a 15 minute walk from where I live, can't get better than that!) It was madness, so many people and everyone there for South Africa, and of course the vuvuzela's! Some people really don't like them, and I admit, that when you're right next to them, they hurt your ears, but as I whole, I rather enjoy them. They bring a lot of fun to the game and it really brings people together, doing little songs with them and everything, I think they're great, as long as you don't blow it in my ear. We left the fan park at half time though because we had my friends 3 year old with us and it was starting to get dark and cold so we relocated to a restaurant to watch the rest of the game and cheer as South Africa tied Mexico!

That first Sunday of the tournament I got to go experience my first World Cup game live! It was Algeria vs. Slovenia, so not the most exciting of games but still fun to go. The atmosphere is just amazing. There was a lot of Algerians at the game and a surprising number of Slovenians too considering the size of their country! (We'd even met a couple Slovenians the night before at the bar where we went to watch the USA game). The stadium in Polokwane is just amazing too, so nice and really organized. I was very impressed with the order of things. For the opening match it had taken us around 45 minutes, if not more just to get into the fan park so I was expecting long lines at the stadium to, but there weren't at all, it was so easy to get in and moved very quickly, a very nice change in South Africa where you can spend 30 minutes in line at the grocery store, more at the bank and post office!

Watching all the game on TV has been great too. I'm still not working (hope to start soon) So I have ALOT of free time, I actually don't know what I would do if World Cup wasn't going on right now. I think of all the games, there's less than 5 that I haven't watched! Good thing I like soccer! Its been really fun having tourists around, weird though. Polokwane is definitely not a normal tourist destination like a lot of the places in South Africa where games are being held so on game days here it was weird to see the city invaded! Lots of Mexicans and lots of Argentinians!

The second game I went to see live was Argentina vs Greece. Now that was an amazing game. Watching Argentina play is just phenomenal! They are amazing, such good skill and just fun to watch! There was tons of Argentinian fans too! They brought base drums and cymbals and were singing and dancing, it was a lot of fun. Some people complain about the vuvuzela's saying they drown out singing, NOT TRUE! If people want to sing, you can hear them fine! The Argentinians had no problems being heard over the vuvuzela's, and they joined in and kept a nice beat for the song. All in all, great time!

Unfortunately now all the teams I was routing for are out but its still fun. You'll here the vuvuzela's going outside during the games and can tell when a goal was scored just by listening. I gotta say though, Ghana was definitely the biggest heart break! I really thought they had it and the backing was really there from the whole continent. They definitely had a home team type advantage going into that game. All of South Africa really united behind them. It was such a stressful game to watch I wanted them to go through so bad! Oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait another 4 years.

I guess thats about it, as I mentioned earlier I'm still not working so really just focusing on settling into town and watching the World Cup. I've got a training for my new job though the week after World Cup finishes and should have a better job on everything after that!

So yes, it's finally happened, I'm now no longer living in the village but have moved into the apartment in town. Its wierd, but nice and kinda overwhelming all at the same time. Saying goodbye in the village was extremely difficult though (I can't even imagine what it would've been like if I'd been moving more than an hour away!). The school through me a really nice going away party. It was me and the teachers, they said a few words about how much work I'd done for them and how I'd assisted the school and they presented me with a really nice adidas track suit (really nice, as in for me to buy it it would have been half my Peace Corps salary, ha ha). They also cooked food and we had a lunch togther. Everyone I worked with at the primary school was so welcoming and open with me. I'll miss it there alot. The municipality also threw me a little farewell party with speeches and gifts again, saying goodbye was difficult. In some ways I think it was good it took me so long to move as it gave me plenty of time mentally to prepare to leave the village that had been my home for more than 2 years, although it was frusterating, I think it also made it easier. I know thats a short synopsis of a long process but to sum it up saying goodbye, even to only move an hour away was extremely difficult and I'm not looking foward to the goodbyes when its eventually time for me to leave the country!

So now to town. I leave pretty central to everything (I can walk to a major grocery store within 5 minutes) and can really get most anything I need without putting much thought to it, wierd! And having running water, man, I forgot what that was like! Yes I'd have access to it when I came to visit friends or went on vacation, but having everyday is so nice! Not to mention hot water! Water that comes straight from a tap hot truly is an amazing thing! I never realized how much time i spent a day fetching water and boiling it to bath and do everything, it was ALOT of time! I almost feel lost now not having to boil water on the stove just to wash, or actually being able to wash my hands with soap and water after the bathroom, for two years I've just used antibacterial liquid. The apartment is slowly coming together and beginning to feel like a home, although its taking time. Moving from 1 room to 4, the place is a bit empty, but I'm working on it and my friends Jo and Rob were kind enough to donate an old couch to me which helped alot. Still no word on when I'll actually start my new job, but slowly slowly things are coming together!

World Cup starts on Friday, don't forget to watch the USA vs England game on Saturday! Its going to be a good one. I'm going to the Algeria vs Slovenia game on Sunday here in Polokwane. Its an exciting time here. There are flags everywhere, and people are really in the spirit, its going to be a great month!

So, update time. Things are moving forward slowly but surely with my new position. As of now I am still living in the village, but thats about to change very soon. Last week I met with Peace Corps in town and we went hunting for a place for me to live. The town I'm moving to is said to be the fastest growing town in all of South Africa, and that showed in the house hunt. My friend who lives in town had picked up that mornings paper for me with apartment listings, when we called at around noon, that same day, about 90% of the places listed were already full! A little discouraging. Luckily, through the connection of another American living in town, I was able to find a really nice, small (it's a two bedroom but I've seen studio's in the U.S. that are bigger than this place) apt. right downtown, within walking distance of the shops, my new office and ... the World Cup stadium (yeah, thats not as important, but still very exciting! I will be attending two games during June, can't wait! Little side note here but World Cup fever has definitely hit. Everyone here is so excited to be hosting the WC. Its all anyone talks about and they're so excited to show off their country to the world. I think this WC is going to be amazing, don't listen to the negative press out there South Africa is ready and its going to be AWESOME!)

So now I've begun to wrap things up in the village and hope to move by the 24th of this month. Yes that's my date, so I could be being optimistic but things have been going well and moving forward.

Leaving the village is going to be so hard though. I'll only be living an hour away but I'm used to living here and the people here. I'm definitely going to miss it. Adjusting to town will be hard, exciting, but hard. I'm used to everyone knowing my name, anywhere I go, people will talk to me and ask me how I am, this was obnoxious at first but now its part of my everyday life. Not being around all the kids will be really hard to. Kids here are amazing, so full of life and happy, always running around and playing outside. I spend so much time at the primary school (where there's almost 1000 kids) and every single kid that goes to that school knows me. Leaving them is going to be the hardest thing I have to do. And just the ability to walk around the village and be outside (yes I can be outside but cement and buildings just doesn't compare to dirt and trees). So while I'm ready to go, It's going to be hard!

So, I just read back over my blog, not realizing how long it'd really been since I last wrote. Its hard to recap the 3 months I haven't written but I'll give my best shot to update you all on whats been happening. One of the main reasons I haven't written is because I've not really known whats going on, I realize that sounds kinda weird, but let me explain. As was stated in my last blog, my end of service date was the 27 of March, obviously, that didn't happen for me. Although most of my group is now off travelling and returning home, I am still in my village. I have decided to extend my service for a year here in South Africa. I've been given the opportunity to stay on as a volunteer but in a new and unique position. Its still in the works which is why I haven't really written about it because I was unsure if it would actually happen. The position though is more of an internship than what I'd be doing now. Within in the next month or so (hopefully) I will be moving into my closest town, also the provincial capitol, to begin working with PEPFAR (Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). This is the money that Bush allocated to AIDS relief in the most severely hit countries. South Africa is the number one recipient of this money. I'll be working at the Department of Health with the Provincial PEPFAR coordinator and I'll be somewhat of a liaison between the organizations that are receiving this money, the SA department of health, and USAID (if all goes according to plan, I'm still a little skeptical as we've been trying to put this in place since about January and I'm still in my village). Its an amazing opportunity and fingers crossed it all goes according to plan. Its been a very frustrating process though waiting to here if it will happen and having basically no control over when it happens or anything to do with it. I keep waiting and hoping though as this is what I really want to do.

So that's the future, as for t he past. I've spent the last couple months mainly putting the library together at the primary school. Its been a long also frustrating process, but... its now up and running! I'll take some pictures of it soon. I had to sort and label around 2000 books (it turns out the school had a lot of books, they just had nowhere to put them so never used them), then shelve them and organize the library. It looks great though and I'm working with some learners now to teach them how to shelve books correctly and take over responsibility of it. Its been an amazing process and I'm really proud of it, I really think it will make an impact for these kids. Already the school is getting praise from their superiors for the work they're doing, and the principal is always sure to let me know how much he appreciates my work, which is nice.

I've also been working with the HBC and there's a possibility that they may get some funding!!! YAY! After all this time. They're going to be busy collecting quotations, so fingers crossed it works out. They still won't get paid for their work but they'll be able to get supplies such as gloves, and medical kits as well as uniforms.

Okay, and now for Botswana. So as all my fellow volunteers (the ones I came with anyways) left on adventures, some to Europe, some to Eastern Africa, and some home, I decided I needed to get away also. Four of us (the other 3 are all in the group that arrived after me and finish their service in September) planned a trip to Botswana. Other volunteers have been there and almost all have said its the best trip they've taken, and they weren't lying! Botswana is an AMAZING country, really, if you can go, go! As far as the landscape goes, its a lot like South Africa, but the people are great, so kind and welcoming, its so safe (unlike South Africa) and there are animals everywhere! We started our trip by going up to the Okavanga Delta, the largest inland delta in the world. Here we went on a two day mokoro boat trip into the delta. Mokoro boats are the traditional boats used by the tswana people. They're basically dugout canoes (alot like the Native American canoes) that they propel through the water by standing in the back and pushing with a pole. They fit two people sitting in each boat with the poler standing in the back. Sitting in the boat you just glide through the reeds, you can't see to far because you're so low down but the poler standing, can see everything. Riding in the boats had to have been one of the most relaxing things I've ever done. You're surrounded by nature, the only sounds are the birds and the boat gliding through the water, truly amazing. After about 2 hours in the boats we stopped to set up camp for the night. It was still fairly early in the day so we got to go swimming in the delta and then for a hike. The hike is to see the wildlife but unfortunately it wasn't the best time of year for that. Our guide was saying that right now most of the animals are up north in Angola and will return in July or so when all the water everywhere else has run out and the delta is the only source of water. It was still pretty cool to walk around the delta though and just to see it. That night we cooked on the campfire and went to bed early as then next morning we were headed out on another game walk. We were a bit luckier this time as our guide was a really good tracker, and after traipsing through swamps and forests he managed to lead us to a herd of buffalo.

We headed back in the afternoon to the village where the polers lived (all the tourist agencies in the area use the same village for mokoro boat trips so there's a lot of people! It was like a taxi rank for boats) and then on the trip back to where we were camping, got drenched by a rainstorm. The owner though took us to a bar and bought us drinks to warm us up (just one example of the kindness and hospitality of the people in Botswana) so it turned into a great experience.

The next day we took off for a long drive north to the very top corner of Botswana where Botwana, Zimbabwe, Nambia and Zambia all meet. Here we were going up to Chobe National Park. As we were driving into Kasane, the town at the gates of Chobe there was herds of Elephants along the road. Its a pretty cool experience to run into elephants, not in any park, or zoo, just grazing along the side of a main highway. There was lots of babies too which was really fun to watch.

We got up at 6 the next morning to go on a game drive in Chobe National Park, right as we entered the park we saw 5 wild dogs which was really exciting. Wild Dogs are almost extinct and this is the second time I've been lucky enough to see them (the first time was in Kruger). They're absolutely gorgeous with spotted fur and huge ears. After that we didn't see much for quite awhile though. Towards the end of the 3 hour drive we began to see more, lots of Impala, also a Puku which apparently only lives in northern Botswana and one other country (sorry, can't remember), also giraffe, and elephant, warthogs, and lots and lots of birds. Bird life in Botswana was great, so many beautiful different kinds, I thought there was cool birds in South Africa, but Botswana beats it by a long shot! After we left the park came the highlight of the drive though. Our guide was driving us back to where we were camping and turned down the road into town. Right along the main road, hiding under a tree was a leopard!!! I was so excited, my whole time in Africa I had yet to see a big cat and there was a leopard, less than 20 ft away. The guide said that the leopard had dragged a kill there, no one seem quite sure how he got it out of the park, but again, amazing to see. We drove past later in the day too and he was still sitting there.

During the day we relaxed and walked around town before going on a boat safari down the Chobe river at 3. I actually enjoyed this much more than the game drive and we saw a lot more too. The river is where all the animals come down to drink, especially in the late afternoon. There was hippo's, a herd of elephants (one was taking a bath), again many many birds, crocodiles, and... LIONS! I finally got the last of the big five, I've now seen them all. They were sitting by the side of the river relaxing, two females, our boat seemed a bit noisy for them though because they got up and slowly sauntered away, very exciting to see though. We also got to watch the sunset from the boat over the river which was beautiful.

All in all Chobe was great, and all of Botswana was amazing. By far my favorite place I've been since being here!

So I'm not sure how well that really summed up whats been going on but I hope it gives you somewhat of a picture, and if you have questions, please ask! I'll try to be better about updating coming up as things begin to change!

Hope you're all well.

So I've been trying to sit down and right for awhile now and for some reason just have not had the motivation to do it. Hopefully as I sit and upload all the pictures from my vacation I can tell you a little about it. I basically had 3 different parts of the vacation and will try and write a little about each.

Wild Coast Hike

I started my December travels with a hike along the Wild Coast. Its a stretch of Indian Ocean coastline in the Eastern Cape that is absolutely gorgeous. There was a group of 8 volunteers that went and we had 3 local guides with us to show us the way. We started at a backpackers on the coast called Bulungula. This place is amazing. Incredibly rural, right on the beach and is completely incorporated in with the village which was really cool to see. The hike itself was amazing. Most of our time was spent along the beach, walking barefoot in the sand. The scenery was unbelievable. We'd pass through remote villages every now and then but for the most part it was just us. There were a few rivers we had to cross which always was interesting, not knowing whether we'd be able to walk across with bags on our heads or have to swim. Two of them we were able to get ferried across in boats, most we could walk across, but with one, we had no such luck. We tried a few different ways across before it became obvious we were going to have to swim across. The water was really muddy, you couldn't see the bottom and the current was fast. We tied our packs up in garbage bags and got ready to float them across. Luckily almost all of our stuff made it across dry, everything but one bag. It took a lot of trips and a lot of effort to do though. Later we were told that this particular river is a breeding ground for the zambezi shark, one of the few sharks who will attack a human unprovoked. Not to sure if thats true or not though considering we swam back and forth across this river for probably about 45 minutes, but hey, maybe. Each night we would set up camp and cook over the campfire. It was so nice just to be out in the middle of nowhere, the ocean right there, just relaxing. We hiked for 5 days and on the last day went into the closest village to try and catch a taxi out. We had originally planned on hiking all the way to our next backpackers but quickly realized that the distance was too far if we wanted to actually enjoy ourselves. To make it we would have been putting in about 8 hour days at a decent pace. So we went in and our guides started talking to the locals about getting a taxi. Unfortunately a taxi strike had just started in the area, leaving us in a bad position. Taxi strikes can get ugly here, if someone drives who shouldn't be they can get shot for it, not something you want to get even remotely involved in. So now we had to figure out a new plan. There was a resort not to far away so we went to talk to the hotel there to see if they had a shuttle going out at any time. They did, but it wasn't leaving until the next morning so we told them we'll take it, unless we can find something sooner. Our guide called around and was able to find someone in East London, the next biggest town, about 3 hours away to come get us. It was a long long day of waiting by the side of the road, but we did finally make it to our next destination, Cintsa. Here 4 of the group immediately left and 4 of us hung out for 3 days, relaxing on the beach and taking it easy before starting the next part of the journey.

Garden Route and Cape Town

The next part of my travels took me along the garden route, eventually ending up in Cape Town. It didn't start out the best the. There was three of us travelling together and we were doing it all by bus. Our first bus ended up being about 4 hours late so we spent almost an entire day hanging out at the bus station. When it arrived we discovered that the airconditioning was broken (not good in the middle of summer with windows that don't open) and on top of that, it was infested with cockroaches, not what you want to hear when you've got about a 6 hour bus ride. We were originally supposed to arrive at our next destination at 11 at night and had arranged with the place we were staying to come and pick us up. Unfortunately, since we were so late, we were now expected to arrive at 2 in the morning. We tried to work out something with the backpackers but they told us that they would not pick us up until 6 in the morning and that we could just sleep at the gas station where the bus was going to drop us off. Not going to happen! We talked with the bus attendant and they agreed to let us stay on for another 2 hours and get off at our next stop, which we were supposed to be going to the next day. We got into George at 4 in the morning and slept on benches outside at the bus station until 9 when we got a hold of the next place we were staying and they agreed to come and pick us up. Not the best start to the trip. It got better from there though. We spent the day exploring George which was a really nice little town. Lots of old churches and buildings to look at. The next morning we got on a historical train to go to our next stop, Mossel Bay. Mossel Bay is definitely a resort town! The beaches were packed and it was very touristy. It was still a nice place though and we stayed on an old renovated train right on the beach. Christmas eve we arrived in Cape Town and went out to a nice meal. The next day the two other volunteers I was traveling with were headed off to Namibia and I was going to be on my own in Cape Town for the next 3 days. Spending Christmas alone was not ideal but it was pretty easy to forget it was Christmas in 90 degree heat. I decided to head up Table Mountain for the day and it was the perfect way to spend Christmas. Table Mountain really is amazing as they say. You get 360 views over Cape Town and the ocean and can just walk around. Its huge too! I stayed up there for a few hours, looking at the views, reading my book and having lunch. When I headed back down I walked around the company gardens and sat and relaxed. Cape Town has so many old buildings, its fun to walk around and look at the buildings because the old and new are all mixed in together. You'll have a building from the 1800's sandwiched in between two modern skyscrapers. My second day in Cape Town I decided to take the local train down to Simon's Town to see the penguins. I don't know why penguins are so fascinating but they really are. They're so fun to watch! There was one beach where you could go to where the penguins would walk right up to you and you could go swimming with them. All in all it was a great day, the only down side was that it was boxing day, and I didn't know that its a tradition in the coloured community to go to the beach on boxing day. The train home was packed! could not move (luckily I got on on the first stop so I had a seat), it was quite an experience. For my final day in Cape Town I decided to head down to the V & A Waterfront, a touristy boardwalk type place but fun to walk around. I also got to see the new World Cup stadium in Cape Town and I must say, it was by far the ugliest one I've seen in the country, I don't know what they were thinking. I'm definitely glad I got to visit Cape Town but to be honest, I wasn't that impressed. I think everyone had hyped it up so much about how amazing Cape Town is but really, it was just another city to me, a nice city, but still just a city.

Lesotho

The final leg of my trip led me to pony trekking in Lesotho. I've wanted to go to Lesotho since arriving in South Africa and finally got the opportunity. I went with another volunteer, her friend from the states and south african friend of hers. Lesotho was just as amazing and gorgeous as I had hoped. Our first night we stayed at a lodge up in the Mountains. This lodge is also very much in sync with the community in working with them and having a very good working relationship. The area had no electricity, only turning on a generator for a few hours each night. We left early the next morning on our pony trek. Sitting on a horse is definitely not the most comfortable thing, it actually affected my knees the most, but was well worth it for the scenery. Mountains, farming and random villages scattered about. Some of these villages are so remote they have no road access and the only way in and out is by horse or foot. The village we spent the night in was 2 hours from the closest road! I can't imagine being that remote! We also saw some herders with their sheep and donkeys carrying all their belongings, just moving around with their livestock, its a different life for sure. We spent one night in the village then rode the houses back the next day, hung out in the lodge before driving back to South Africa the next day. It was a great experience and I'm glad I was able to go and see "the Mountain Kingdom" before leaving.

I'm back to work now, actually incredibly busy with many things. My end of service date is the 27 of March so its coming up fast! The books for the library at the primary school finally arrived so I'm busy trying to turn an old classroom into an actual library as well as working on finishing up some different projects. Its hard to believe its been two years already. I'm looking into a few different options to stay in South Africa though. I've decided that this is where I want to be right now and also working in the health field, this is where I should be. Not sure what/ or how this is going to come about but I will keep you all updated.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are enjoying the new year!!!

So during the middle of my testing drive I also had my COS (close of service) Conference for Peace Corps. This is when the group that I came over with gets together for the last time and Peace Corps goes over with us basically what happens when we're done here. It was a nice break to get away during the testing drive and also to see everyone one last time. Out of the 30 that came, we're still 24 (i think it's 24) which is pretty amazing! It was weird to be sitting there talking about life after PC though, it's gone by really fast. My official COS date is the 27th of March, although I won't be leaving South Africa until July since I've got tickets to the World Cup (YAY!). Between March and June when the World Cup starts is still up in the air though, probably a bit of travelling around, not sure though. The COS conference was hard though to because it was a big reminder that its time to hit the real world and get a job, even though jobs are not to easy to find right now. Kinda scary having to go in and find a job right now. I know a lot of people who have begun applying and haven't had any luck, and they're in the same field as me, but with a masters degree, doesn't give me much hope. Anyways though I've still got a bit of time to figure all that out, although I know the time will fly. Pretty hard to believe how long I've been here.

I'm leaving next week for my Christmas holidays, heading down to the Wild Coast to do some hiking with other PCV's pretty excited about that, it's supposed to be gorgeous. Then in January I'm going pony trekking in Lesotho for a couple of days! I'll get back to my site mid-January and then only have about 2 months to go. Crazy! That time will be spent saying goodbye, wrapping up little projects and mainly getting used to the idea that its really coming to an end.

Changing tracks completely, the primary school I work out just installed a brand new computer lab with 25 computers!!! It's really nice. I spent all day yesterday there teaching the kids how to use them. School's just about finished but the principal wanted to give the grade 7 a chance to get on the computers since they won't be here next year, and this may be there only opportunity to ever touch a computer before going on to university, or work. It's weird and hard to teach people about computers when for them its so new, most have never touched a computer before, some have probably only ever even seen them on TV. For us its such second nature to be around computers so going back to the beginning is hard to teach. How do you use a mouse? What is the monitor? What is a computer? How do you turn it on? All the things we don't even think about when operating a computer. Its been great though and I'm sure I'll be working in the lab up until I leave next year. This is also the school that will be getting the library I've organized and they're talking about putting in a science lab! Things are really happening and its so good to see!

Well it's finally over, I pulled it off (with a lot of help) and... it was a HUGE success. It was a lot of work and a lot of stress but well well worth it. Over the four days we offered HIV testing, we were able to test 245 people. This is huge! Usually in a month clinics are lucky to test around 15 or 20 people. The 14th was our best day of testing, although it was also the most stressful for me. We invited some schools to come and do songs and skits (called drama's here), during the day. I heard back from 2 out of the 3 schools. The local bakery agreed to donate bread for the kids so they could have a snack/lunch. All week I was busy trying to arrange transport to get them here, and I finally managed to get the Mobile Clinics to agree to drive them, then unfortunately one of the schools backed out because the parents wouldn't let them drive in the ambulance to the event, aargh. The day of the event I arrived to find out that the school we invited but never heard from, had shown up with 50 kids, good for performance, not so good food wise. Luckily one of the Pakistani store owners really pulled through for us and cooked the kids food, he has been a big help throughout and really saved the day! As I said, it turned out to be our best day, we tested 96 people, just in that one day! South Africans love performances, dancing, drama's music. If you've got a sound system up and music going, people will flock to you, it's great. And people here can dance! (In fact, I know a one year old, she can't walk yet, but if you play music she'll stand up and dance/bob up and down to the beat, no joke, it's amazing! They dance before they walk here!) I've yet to meet a South African without rhythm, this said most of our days were filled with dance competitions with some HIV drama's and speeches by kids in between. I got some kids from my reading group at the local primary school to do some poems and speeches about HIV, they were really good! These kids are so creative and really know their stuff.

The third week of the drive was touch and go for awhile, the weather was pretty cold and it rained the entire week leading up to the testing, lucky for us though, it stayed dry the day of and we were able to go on, even though it was freezing!

The last and final day couldn't have come fast enough by this point. The week leading up to the event was one of the most stressful in my time here. I'd been working with nurses from an ARV clinic about 30 minutes away for this event. They'd been really supportive and shown up every week for the testing, really the event couldn't have happened without them. Unfortunately they had planned the opening of their ARV clinic event on the 28th, the same day as the last day of my testing drive, which left me with no nurses! I went to the local hospital and pleaded with them to help me out, mainly I needed cars to test in, as we had a few testers who had committed to coming already. I called into the nearest town also to try and get testers from there, unfortunately they were already scheduled to work that day so I had pretty much given up hope. I had resigned my self to the fact that we'd already tested around 200 people, amazing, and on that Saturday we'd just do the raffle for the prizes and call it good. Then on Friday morning I got a call from the local hospital saying they were going to supply us with 5 trucks and the nurses! Ahhh, I was ecstatic. That's very typical South Africa though, nothing happens for the longest time but at the last minute it always works out, I don't know how they do it, but it always works. So we got our last day of testing in. I'd managed to collect 23 prizes from local stores to raffle off too to those who tested and we did that at the end of the day on the 28th.

All in all it was a great event and a great experience for me. Definitely the highlight of my time here and I feel like I was really able to accomplish something. The district has also seen what I did and have now implemented the same idea in all the municipalities in the district! By bringing the testing to the people it really does make a difference. Testing sites are so hard to get to here and really far apart, but by making it convenient, people will test. I'm going to write up a report and try to get the municipality and the Department of Health to implement something like this every other month next year. Just to bring in testing units to the shopping centers and encourage people to test. It's super low budget and fairly easy and makes a huge impact!

So its been awhile since I've written but its been because things are going really really well and I've been really busy. My trip home in September was great. I got to go home for a wedding that I wouldn't have missed for the world! It was so nice to see everyone to and just be back. It wasn't really as weird or bizarre as I thought it would be too. Mainly because I knew I was coming back to South Africa I think. So I didn't try to readjust to life in the states, I just enjoyed it as a vacation. Granted there were some things that were very weird. Grocery stores for one, they are so big and overwhelming, and honestly, why do we need 25 different kinds of hot chocolate to choose from? I think the hardest part, or the biggest difference I noticed was all the little useless decisions you have to make every day back in the states. Decisions you don't even realize you're making, such as which road to take to a certain location, which store to go to of the stores all within 2 minutes of each other, what gas station to go to on which corner, what type of toothpaste to buy. Every day hundreds of little decisions. Now I've never been good at making decisions, but after not having to do make any of those above mentioned decisions in over a year and a half, I really hated having to do it. Why does it matter, why do we have to have so many choices? I like the fact that in South Africa I have one store to choose from, one kind of toothpaste (well actually there's two kinds, but still). There aren't the same kind of stores built next to each other. Life is just way more simple and you can take time to really think about the decisions that matter, much nicer. All in all though, like I said, my trip back was really great and it was good to see people.

I've been back in South Africa about a month now and things have been going really well. Back in August, I think I've mentioned it before, I started to plan an HIV testing drive for the month of November. I did some initial work and then left it with a couple people to take over while I went home. Well, when I got back to South Africa, nothing had been done on it, not a thing had been touched since I left, which gave me about 2 weeks to pull the whole thing off. I had my doubts but I've been working non-stop since I got back. Contacting different people, arranging meetings, confirming testing kits, nurses, the location, everything. But I did it! We had our first week of the testing drive on Saturday and it went really well. Whats happening is that for every Saturday in November we're bringing in mobile clinics to the shopping plaza near where I live to do HIV testing. A big barrier to people testing in my area is that the clinics are located far away, the times they're open are awkward and its just another thing to deter people from getting tested. My idea was that by bringing the testing to them hopefully it would remove that one extra thing that was preventing them from getting tested. We had 4 testing stations set up, and when we started around 10, we already had people lined up wanting to test, it was awesome. We had music and entertainment going on too, kids did some speeches about HIV and skits to educate the crowd. I did a condom demonstration for both male and female condoms and we had pamphlets and condoms to give away. The municipality has really backed me up a lot on this project and been a big help along with the Blouberg Health Center, which is not the hospital closest to me but one a little ways out who are really great and always willing to work with me. It was their nurses and counselors who volunteered to come out and work on a Saturday. By the end of the day we'd tested 40 people which is awesome, and it was only our first day. I'm hoping now that people went home and told everyone they know that we're going to be there every Saturday this month and that through word of mouth others will come to test. I'm still crazy busy trying to organize everything though. This Saturday, the 14th, we've got around 50 youth coming to perform speeches and poems and skits about HIV, on the 21st I'm organizing a 5 vs 5 street soccer tournament and then on the 28th we're having a raffle for everyone who got tested. When someone tests we're recording their name and contact information and they're being entered into a raffle for prizes I've got from the local stores. My hope was that by offering some little incentive those people that were on the fence about testing, it would give them that little extra they needed.

Overall planning and having this event has definitely been the highlight of my time here. I finally feel like I really accomplished something that I wanted to do, and that's part of my field. Its been a great experience to, figuring out who needs to be contacted and involved, what needs to be there, the materials needed, and how to have it interactive and keep people involved. Hopefully the next three weeks go just as smoothly and we can get more people tested!

So our HIV/STI/TB campaign is finally over and I think it went really well. I don't remember what I wrote about it last time so I'll just go over it all. I got money from PEPFAR to do a door to door campaign and conduct a survey finding out about people knowledge surounding HIV, TB and STI's. It was a 10 day campaign, for 4 hours a day and we covered 4 different villages in the area. There was 20 of us conducting the surveys. I held a small training with the HBC before we started to make sure they had all the health information and to teach them on how to conduct an oral survey. To be honest I'm not sure how much the got from it between my broken sepedi and their broken english we usually can get a general idea from each other but when you're trying to explain how to do something clearly, its difficult.

We worked from 9 to 1 each day (the first village was an hour walk away for me though so really its a longer day than it sounds) going literally door to door. When we go to a home we first introduce ourselves then tell them why we're their and then conduct the survey. After the survey we would give them any health information they asked about as well as making sure that they had all the correct information from the survey.

One of the things I love about South Africa is how welcoming people are. If some stranger comes to our house in the US asking to do a survey, I believe that most of us generally just turn them away. Not here, here, as soon as you walk into someones yard they go and get chairs for you to sit in and then stop whatever they're doing to come and assist you. I was worried that because we were talking about HIV and condoms that people wouldn't want to answer, not a problem though. People were more than willing to answer the questions and many had questions of their own that I was glad we were their to answer for them. One of the problems is that the clinic is pretty far away so you don't go unless you're really really sick, and even then, men don't go until they're so sick its the only option. And then when you do go you end up waiting an average of 4 to 6 hours to be seen by a nurse. So therefore if you just have a health question, you don't really have anywhere to go to get it answered. We had questions about everything, HIV, STI's, symptoms people had, high blood pressure (which is very very common here) and everything else. People really opened up to us which was nice.

I'm not saying we didn't have people refuse us, but overall people were very welcoming. It was actually interesting. We surveyed 3 fairly traditional villages, in the sense that they'd been around awhile, everyone knew their neighbors, the family's had been in the area a long time, and then one newer area that started off as a squatter camp, developed from their and is located right next to the shop. In this particular location was where the people were a little more hesitant, and we got turned away a few times. The whole atmosphere was different than in the more rural areas, I much more enjoyed the villages.

Overall we conducted 1,480 surveys and talked to many more people than that. Right now I'm in the process of entering all those surveys into the computer, which is going to take forever and then I'll be able to analyze the results.

The whole project in was a lot of work but also something I really enjoyed. I finally got to do something regarding health and something I can really use and came out with something to show for it. I'm excited to find out the results. Overall most people have the knowledge surrounding HIV, which is almost more frustrating than if they didn't. The people in this country know the risks, they know the consequences but the behaviour change is not coming as a result of that. Something big needs to be done nation wide to change this. What that is I don't know, but hopefully they'll find it. I was just reading an article earlier today that said South Africa only has 0.7% of the worlds population but has 17% of the worlds HIV. Not a very nice statistic. Slowly though I hope things will begin to change and they'll be able to pull themselves up and out.

Its hard to write when everything here to me is just my life now. I don't feel that anything is special or different or interesting anymore, to me its just normal but I'm going to try to change that and start writing more again.

Yesterday I had the most amazing day, I worked a 9 hour day, a first and although I was exhausted it felt really good. At 7 I was picked up by a nurse who works out at a rural health center about 30 minutes from where I live. On tuesday I had been out there with the new HIV Ambassodor to the support group they have there. There was around 20 people there which I thought was really good and it was nice to finally be back in the HIV field which I've been wanting since I got here. This health center just got approved in May to start administering ARV's which is awesome. Now in my municipality there's 2 ARV centers, they still need more though, the whole north is not covered but they're getting there slowly. Anyways, I met all the nurses working in HIV there on that day and they invited me to come back on thursday, when they administer the ARV's and the doctor comes. So they came and picked me up on thursday morning and we headed out there. It was really good to be there and see how it works. They don't actually have a doctor there so the doctor only comes once a week and thats when the patients come in. These clinics are crazy though because most people end up waiting 3 to 4 hours minimum. Here they moved the patients through fairly quickly but when there's only one doctor needing to see over 50 patients, its difficult.

I really like this health center though and hope to work there more often now. The staff really want me around and I feel like I could really help out. I wish I lived closer but I'm thinking about trying to make some kind of arrangement where I go out there twice a week to work or something, I'm not sure, we'll see though. The pharmacist is great to and I'd really like to learn more about the ARV's and drug interactions.

I left there around 11 to go to the hospital next to me to do a presentation on NPO's. It turned out to be a complete waste of time but I guess thats how it goes sometimes. Health had called this meeting with 5 NPO's and asked the municipality to come present on NPO's. We guessed they must have new organizations we don't interact with but when I got there I knew 4 out of the 5 organizations and had given them all the information before. If health had just asked us about what organizations we meet with then we could have worked together and actually made it worthwhile for both us and the drop in centers who took time and money to be there for something they already new.

In the afternoon I had a meeting with the home base care to go over the logistics for our HIV and STI campaign that starts next week. After the disaster that was my World AIDS Day event last year I had all the grant money still in my account. After talking with another volunteer who had successfully done a campaign I decided to also do one. Its focusing on HIV and STI's both of which are rarely talked about here. We are also conducting a survey to get an idea of local knowledge. Our goal is 1,500 surveys and there are 18 HBC workers conducting this. Yesterday was a meeting for us to go over the health information as well as for me to teach them how to implement the oral survey. I'm a little nervous to see how it goes but fingers crossed it'll all work out. There was some confusion with the survey so I think the first day my be a little hard and I'm not sure of the results but hopefully we got all the kinks ironed out yesterday and it will go smoothly. It's a 3 week campaign where we're working 4 days a week for 4 hours a day. I got money to pay the HBC workers too which is awesome because they do so much and never get anything for it so I'm glad to be able to give them something! It means for the next 3 weeks though I'll be incredibly busy, not that I'm complaining.

I've also started to plan an HIV testing drive for November. The idea just kind of came to me one day and for once I actually followed through with it and hopefully it'll happen. What I want to do is get mobile testing units into the Plaza where all the shops are where I live every saturday during the month of november. I want to encourage people to get tested and know their status. My plan is that everyone who gets tested will get their name entered in a drawing for prizes I'm hoping to get donated from the local shops. So far I've been able to confirm the space for the testing units and I also got the testing units promised to me by department of health. Next step is I've got to put together a planning commitee and start getting donations. I'm really excited about it though and hope that it works out!

Lets see, what else is new, for those of you who don't know I'm going to be making a trip back to the states on the 15 of September to the 6 of October. I'm really excited and can't wait to see everyone.

Its started to slowly warm up here again too, the days are hot and the nights and mornings cool. I'm dreading when the summer heat kicks in again, I was just starting to enjoy the winter.

So if any of you are following the Confederations Cup back home, first off, congratulations US for making it to the semi-finals, honestly not to sure how that got pulled off since the two games I went to they happened to be HORRIBLE. But good job anyways.

So went into Pretoria on Monday the 15 to go to the USA vs ITALY game that night. There was a number of PCV's in town for the game which was a lot of fun. The stadium is not far at all from the PC office and where we always stay for PC business so it was good knowing the area and being able to walk to the stadium. I must say I was very impressed with security and South Africa's overall response to the Confederations Cup. I think they're ready for next year. Yes there's still an incredible amount of construction around all the sites but I have no doubt that it will all be complete by the World Cup. Security was great, they had more than enough people outside giving directions to where you should go. They had free park and ride shuttles and there wasn't a wait at all to get into the stadium, it was all very streamlined. I know many people have their doubts about the World Cup being here but if they handle things like they did this time I honestly think there will be no problems. It's going to be awesome! The game on Monday was alot of fun. Yes we lost to Italy but first half the US played great, if someone can tell me what we got that red card for though I'd greatly appreciate, I still have yet to find someone who has any clue why that card was given. I guess thats just the game though. I'd say the stadium was probably about 80% Italy fans though which was interesting, we were definitely the major minority cheering for the US but it was still fun.

The next game wasn't until Thurdsday but there was enough of us around Pretoria that it was fun hanging out. Wednesday South Africa played New Zealand and we all went into the square to watch it. The square is just a big open square with different bars around the perimiter, they'd set up a big screen their for the Confederations Cup so many people were coming in to watch the game their. I gotta say, watching the home team there was almost more fun than being in the stadium! Bafana Bafana (their national soccer team) is not the greatest team out there, not like their rugby who won the last World Cup, or cricket which is right up their, the soccer team isn't quite there, but they are loved! The square was full of all types of people, white, black, foreigners (I was surprised by the number of people who flew here for the confederations cup, we met quite a few americans). And everyone was united in chearing on South Africa, it was so awesome. Everyone was really into the game and cheering and screaming, I'm telling you, the World Cup here is going to be awesome!!! South Africa actually ended up winning the game too which just made it that much more fun. They've now moved into the semi-finals also along with Brazil, Spain and the USA.

So if we thought we were the minority fans on Monday night against Italy it was nothing compared to Thursday against Brazil. I'd say this time it was about 95% Brazil fans, the USA is just not respected in soccer, but then again up against Brazil and Italy how can you be. Plus Brazil and South Africa are the same colors so it was easy for South Africans to wear Brazil colors. I've gotta say, this game was miserable to watch, yes it was awesome to see Brazil play live but we were just so so so bad against them it was embarassing, we played HORRIBLE. Luckily they made it up against Egypt on Sunday winning 3-0 to move on amazingly to the semi's.

All in all the week was great. It was a really fun atmosphere and nice to see some good soccer. It makes me really excited for the World Cup, I think its going to be amazing here. The South Africans are all so excited to and so welcoming to foreigners. It's going to be great!

After now being so close in all the funeral arrangements and traditions here I thought I'd write a bit about it. My friends father died on a sunday, so the funeral was set for the next saturday. The week leading up was probably one of the most emotionally draining and culturally frusterating experiences I've had. There was so much I wanted to do, but not anything I really could. The whole week leading up the family recieves visitors at the house. People just drop by and are in and out, sitting with the family and just being there. The family is expected to provide tea and bread and in the late afternoon also a meal for those who are dropping by. They're kept pretty busy doing this providing for all the visitors. The people who come help out too though, pour the tea, clean up. As the week goes on more and more people come by. With my minimal language skills and no understanding of the culture though there wasn't really much of a place for me, although I went on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I just needed to be there, even though it was really really hard for me to be there, its definitaly the most like an outsider I think I've ever felt. On Friday afternoon the hearse brings the body back to the family home and he spent one last night in his room. That night all the family and quite a number of other people stay up the entire night prior to the funeral, they have a church service and the woman all cook for the funeral the next day. They also have a viewing that night so people can go in and see the body. Saturday morning is the funeral, it started around 7 I think. There's a church service at the house then everyone walks to the graveyard and there's another service next to the grave. The young men of the village are the ones who bury, they each take turns putting the dirt back in and the women sing while this is going on. After the burial everyone goes back to the house to eat. There was many many people who came to the funeral. I wish I could explain what its like to be at these funerals. Everyone is so supportive of each other and there is someone from every family in the area to show their respect. They're just really there for each other and its amazing to see. There is absolutely nothing that I know of back home like it.

Things are slowly getting back to normal now but being so close to the family I can see how hard it is on them still. It was just so unexpected. He wasn't sick, he seemed like he had at least 5 more years in him (he was in his mid 70's). Its just crazy how it happens.

It's been awhile since I last wrote so I figured it was time for an update. Things are finally starting to move again after about 5 months of sitting. In the beginning of May we had our Mid-Service Training (I know, I'm only half way through, it feels like I've been gone forever though!). It was really really good for me to see the other volunteers I came with as a lot of them I had not seen since last July. We spent a week in Pretoria catching up and also having our medical and dental appointments. It really gave me a good recharge though which was the best part. I'd really lost a lot of my motivation but just by going and talking with other volunteers and removing myself a bit I was able to really get my energy back. In saying that, since I've been back this month has flown by and I've started some new projects that have been going well.

Once a week I meet with a group of 6th grade girls who tell me about the books they've read. They want to work on their english (its already pretty good for being in grade 6 though) and also read stories. They love to read! I really enjoy meeting with them, they get so excited when they see me and you can tell they feel special that they get to spend time with me, which then of course makes me feel special, really its win win. Yesterday when I met with them one of the girls hadn't read a story and home to tell me about so I told her why doesn't she read a story to me now. So she sat down to read, I was so impressed, her she is reading in her second language, not the easiest of stories and she did amazing! I also told her that if she didn't know one of the words she was reading to stop and ask me. I figured she wouldn't (kids here are not taught to ask questions, they just don't do it) but she did, I don't know if she did for all the words she didn't know but she did ask me about a few of them. While we were reading there was a crowd gathering outside the windows. It told them that they could come in and listen as long as they didn't speak. So by the end we had a group of about 10, 2 more girls read stories also and I sat there with them for about 2 hours. It was so nice to just sit there and listen to these kids read, the fact that they actually are interested in stories and reading is great. Reading is not part of the culture here, mainly probably because of lack of books. The only book you'll ever find in a house is the bible. So thats one of my new projects that I'm really enjoying and hope to continue with!

The second one that is taking a lot of my time but I'm surprisingly absolutely loving is monitoring and evaluation. Back in my slump time when I was literally doing nothing, my friend Joanna who works for the district municipality talked to her boss about me doing the monitoring and evaluation of all the drop in centers and home base care in the municipality. So she came up and trained me and Clement, an intern at the municipality (who needs to be there for language purposes) to do it and sent us out. So far Clement and I have visited 5 different organizations. I love going out there and seeing where they work. We're going out into these far rural places, off of dirt roads and its so fun to see. You'll just be driving through bush land with nothing in site, then in the middle of nowhere you'll start to see one or two houses, then you'll come across the village and then just as quickly you'll be in bush land again. Its nuts! The orgs are always happy to see us, its not often people come out to see them. They all know who I am from the meetings so thats kinda cool too. I'll do the evaluation in english and if they don't understand something or want more of an explanation Clement will step in. At some of them I've had no problem with my limited sepedi and english, at others Clement has basically had to do the whole thing. The work is interesting to me though and I enjoy interacting with so many other people.

My group at the high school has begun to practice a presentation they came up with and hopefully we can get them in the classroom teaching it within the next month or too. I'm also helping them out with college applications and scholarships so lets hope they get in somewhere!

All in all things are going fairely well right now. Its finally starting to cool down a little, at night anyways and in the next couple weeks I'll be heading back to Pretoria to attend the Confederations Cup. I'm going to watch USA vs Italy and also USA vs Brazil. They should be some good games!!

Well I finally made it back to Leyden to visit my Koko after not having been there since last July. They've been calling and calling asking when I'm coming to see them so I finally made it. Another volunteers parents were in town and driving up there and offered to give me a lift too. It was so good to go back, and hard to believe that it had been a year since I'd lived there! I arrived at around 1 and the neighbor kids were outside waiting. It was so good to see them, man have they grown since i last saw them though!! It was just like when i lived there, them hanging out and around, just watching me. My koko had lunch waiting for me, of course, she always made sure I wouldn't go hungry, and then the two of us sat around and chatted. I told her about all I'd been doing and she told me how she was doing. She's such an amazing woman and so caring. Some new kids had moved in with her to help her out now. Her eyesight is starting to fail and it sounded like she won't be able to see much at all pretty soon here. that was really hard to learn, she was such an independent woman when I lived there but now, slowly she's losing that independence. She seemed to be in good spirits about it, she goes to the local hospital every month for a check up. Right now she said she can see up close, just nothing to far in front. The kids hung out with us to, doing dances and singing songs. She made me promise to come and visit her again before I go back to the states, she remembered exactly when my time here was up too! I'd forgotten how simple and easy things were when I lived there, i miss that. Granted Leyden is much more of a rural village than where I live now, but it was nice. My life was so different back then though, it was weird to reflect back. We visited for about 3 hours then it was time to head back. I've got some pictures from the day that I'll post next time I go to town of the kids.

Well I did it, I ran my first half marathon. I'm not going to lie, I was a little hesitant going in to this. I didn't start training until the beginning of March, giving myself only 3 weeks to prepare. Even then too I wasn't to good about running, my longest run only lasting about 45 minutes. Not that I wasn't in shape though. I ride my bike every day and also walk probably anywhere from 3 to 5 km in a day, but running 21 km doesn't really compare.

On Friday I left early in the morning (7 am, which is really early for me, I normally get up around 9) and headed down to Sabie. I first took an hour taxi to Polokwane, in Polokwane I got on another taxi heading to Burgersfort in the the south of Limpopo. That taxi was about 2 hours and then from there I got on another taxi to Lydenburg. In Lydenburg I met up with a bunch of other volunteers and we got on the final taxi together to Sabie. So after 4 taxis and around 6 hours, I arrived at the destination. All the volunteers coming for the race were all staying at the same backpackers right in town. It was great to see a lot of people. Some I'd never met before, others I knew well. We spent Friday just hanging out and relaxing in the town. There was a lot of us there so it was really fun just to catch up and be around so many Americans.

Saturday was the day of the race. We woke up bright and early at the ridiculous time of 4:20 am. The reason for this was that the ultra marathon (an insane 57 km or 35.5 miles) started at 6 am and the bus had to leave to get us to the top of the pass where the half marathon started before their race started and the pass got closed off. Well we headed to where the bus was supposed to pick us up a little after 5 am. We were supposed to leave before 5:30 when they were supposedly going to close the pass. We waited and waited and at 6 am. As the ultra marathon runners were beginning, our bus showed up. Our race was to begin at 7 am and we arrived at the start about 3 minutes before. The race starts at the top of Longtom pass, 2150 m above sea level. It then continues down the pass into the town of Lydenburg. We were told that it was mostly a down hill run, but thats not true! I suppose overall yes it is a downward run since we are starting at 2150 m and ends at around 1380 m but you are definitely running up some big hills during that time too. Like I said in the beginning I knew my training was insufficient (especially since I hadn't even seen a hill to run on since I've been in South Africa) so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to run the whole race. Many of the volunteers were walking it just to do it and raise the money. I decided I had to give it a shot though, its always been a dream of mine to run a half marathon. So I partnered up with someone who had done it last year and made up my mind to stick with her for as long as possible. We did it though, we ran the entire thing without walking (we did have to take one bathroom break though). It felt great too, I never really felt like I had to stop or that it was to difficult for me. The last 6 km were pretty killer though. It was mostly down hill and the pain in my knees and calves became pretty intense, those last 6 km felt longer than the whole rest of the race. We ran it in a time of 2 hours and 15 minutes, not to bad for my first major distance (I've never run farther than about 5 miles before this, ever). The rest of the day was spent hanging out at the finish watching the rest of the volunteers come in and waiting for the ultra marathon runners. Two volunteers were running the ultra marathon, crazy people I know, and completed it well. After the awards ceremony we got back on the buses to Sabie.

That night we had a braai (bbq) and celebrated. Two of the founders of KLM Foundation were there to talk with us and let us know how much we raised and more about the Foundation. Overall we raised over $4000 (That's R40,0000) which is awesome, thank you to all that donated! It makes a huge impact and helps people who don't have the opportunity themselves. They told us a little bit about the girl that received the scholarship this year. She's from a rural village, both of her parents have died and she was left with her 19 year old sister. They live in an uncompleted house, her room being the garage because it's one of the only rooms with a roof. She just completed her first quarter at Uplands College and finished in the top 10 of her class. It's really amazing! There are so many bright kids out there who may just not have the opportunity to make it, this foundation gives it to them.

So thank you again for the support! I had a great time running too (although I was amazingly sore the next day, barely being able to get out of bed) and want to run another half marathon again, it was a great feeling.

So I know its been awhile since I wrote, but once again I'm struggling to find work to do. The Home Base Care is functioning well on its own but theres not much of roll for me there. There main purpose is just to visit the patients and there's not much help I can be there. If they receive funding though, which we'll find out about this week then I'll be spending more time with them teaching them management skills and how to run an office. That'd be great, but I've got no control over that. Until then I attend their weekly meetings and help wherever I can. The Drop in Center is not open right now because they have no gas to cook the food. After waiting months and months for food to cook, they now have the food but no way to cook it. It costs over R900 to fill the tank for them to cook, and there's its difficult to raise that kind of money and get donations of that kind.

Youth Channel has yet to start working again here since they took the Christmas holidays. They keep telling me they're coming back but I'm starting to think that might not happen. If they are to return they are just going to once again have to start over which is unfortunate. The community has lost hope in them also since they have been gone for so long and look at them as just another organization that made promises and didn't follow through (unfortunately thats something people seem to expect here).

Most of the work I am doing is at the municipality, just filing, organizing papers and making databases. Not exactly what I came here to do but its better than nothing. It makes me realize that I definitely don't want an office job. I go crazy after sitting behind a computer for 2 hours!

Two new projects I've started are library related. There's a program called Books for Africa that brings books to rural areas. Two peace corps volunteers decided to run this program and we applied to have libraries put into our communities. 30 different communities are going to benefit from this project, mine being one of them. I had 2 local schools apply, the primary school in Dilaeneng and the Disabled school I visit. The primary school then got chosen to receive the books. They are going to be receiving 733 books to start a library. The teachers and principal were pretty excited when we got the process going and I think it will be really good for the community. Reading is not a priority at all in the area and hopefully by bringing more books in we can slowly change that. Right now the schools that were selected are raising money to cover some of the costs of shipping and transport. They are each required to contribute R 1,900. The rest of the costs we as volunteers are trying to raise. We need to pay for the shipping from the United States to South Africa, then transport from the port in Durban to Pretoria where we will then sort all the books then we must transport them all to the locations of the new libraries. All in all this will cost around R8000. If you would like to help us by donating to this project it would be greatly appreciated! If you go to this website you can read more about it and donate to help us get books into our villages. https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=674-053

The books are set to arrive in August of September and we'll be opening the library in October. I'm pretty excited about it but right now its just a waiting game unfortunately.

Since the disabled school was not selected to receive new books I offered to help them in a different way. They already have a library on the grounds, the problem is its just fallen into disuse. There is absolutely no organization to the books, they're mainly just stacked in piles all over the place and you can't find anything or really utilize it at all. So I offered to go there one day a week and start organizing and shelving all the books so that hopefully they can begin to use their library again. I took pictures of the before and the state that the library is in now and will post them soon so you can see.

Girls soccer is still happening, but its kind of hit a dead end until we can find other girls teams to play against. You can't just practice and practice and have nothing to aim for. Still working it out on how thats going to work.

So that's about it, the weather is slowly changing, we do have semi-cold days now thrown in amongst the insanely hot days which is nice and you can tell winter is on its way. I'm excited now for winter but I know as soon as it comes I'll be wishing for summer. I've been told that this winter is going to especially cold because we've got so much rain. With a tin roof and no insulation its going to be rough!

So the cholera is still around, in fact, its getting worse. I feel like the momentum around the awareness is dying off too which is a little scary considering its not going away. Dilaeneng, the village I used to live in (remember I moved to the township in January) is getting hit pretty hard now. I don't know what the exact number of cases is but i know its there. I know of at least one death in the village too from cholera but I'm sure there's more. The past 2 weeks the HBC has been going door to door to try and educate the people about cholera. When doing campaigns like this what happens is they partner up, or break into 3's and literally go knock on every door, giving out pamphlets and talking to whoever is home. It's a long process but really the best, and only way to get the information out here. They spend anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes at each house. Last week environmental health came and brought them bleach so now at each house they go to they are also disenfecting the water. The problem is many people have to go and collect water every day (yes its rainy season but not much rain has been falling, we have a serious shortage of water right now). So for that one day there water will be safe but what about the next day. The HBC is telling them to go out and buy bleach and teaching them how much to put in the water but I can't help but wonder how many people are actually going to go buy it.

Yesterday I found out that one of my friends brothers had gone to the hospital with cholera. He said the cramps had been so bad that he was doubled over screaming while waiting for the ambulance to come. He's home now and okay but i know it scared my friend a lot. He was asking me every question he could think of, which I'm glad I could help with but what about others.

When someone is diagnosed with cholera here the environmental health agents go to that person's home, educate the family and give them bleach, which is good and necessary, but, like my friend, what if you're not home when they come. He was at school so the only thing he had to go off was the pamphlets they left and what his grandmother told him. I know they're doing the best they can but I feel like there has to be something more. He has no idea where his brother got the cholera from, is their water infected, did he get it somewhere else then infect their water, is their water safe? There's just no knowing. It's a scary scary thing. I hope they can get control of it soon but it's not looking to good right now. Water is such a necesstiy and here it is in such short supply that people are going to drink and use whatever they can get access to, beggars can't be choosers right? So what do you do then?

So... I got a fridge yesterday and it's got to be one of the most exciting things to happen to me in a long time, right up there with getting my toaster! It's funny what makes you happy being here. Since moving just over a month ago I have been fridgeless. I previously used my families fridge, which was also difficult. Many times I was locked out from my food and I also didn't feel comfortable stocking up the fridge knowing that the family couldn't or wouldn't buy those things and then having to explain to them why I ate this and that. Basically I just kept milk and butter in there. Now with my own fridge thought, the possiblities are endless. i've stocked up on yougurt and and juice and milk and grapes and all these other things I haven't eaten in ages. It's amazing! It has drastically changed my life, I love it! Without the fridge i could see my health beginning to fall, I was losing energy, just kinda down, with out any source of protein and no fruits or veggies I was suffering (remember it gets to 100 or over almost every day so absolutely nothing keeps). I can see it changing already though, just last night i cooked an amazing meal, with chicken, and was able to have leftovers. Before i had to carefully measure to make sure i was able to eat all that I cooked since i had not place to store the leftovers, not anymore, now I'll be able to cook for a week and just reaheat every night, amazing! As you can tell i'm very very excited about my new fridge, the possibilities are endless!

So I've really been struggling here lately with many things, not really to sure why or what's brought it on. It's always hard though after spending time with Americans on vacation to come back and readjust, it's almost like starting over. Anyway's one of the things I've been thinking a lot about and really struggling with is what work am I actually doing here. I feel like I do many random little things that I only do really just to keep myself busy. I have yet to have a really big project that I'm passionate about (except for World AIDS Day which turned out to be one of the biggest disasters ever). So I decided to put together a list of what I am doing this here this year and it actually surprised me. I am doing more than I thought (good to know) and although it may not be why I came here, or what I am necesarily passionate about I think slowly maybe I am impacting some people. The list I came up with is:

Working at the municipality; just trying to organize everything, make a database of all the HBC and DIC, coordinate between all the HBC and DIC's better and just make sure all of that is in working orderWorking with Mighty HBC. They, with my help, applied for funding from the Dept. of Health in December and we're waiting to hear back. They're doing a lot of good work and are really functioning well. I think my stepping back last year was a good choice but now it looks like I'll be able to help them more this year with administrative things and on how the organization should run. They're much more open to my ideas and help now and I think are beginning to realize how I can help themMy youth club at the high school. I'm still not too sure how this is going to pan out this year but I'm working on it. The learners I worked with last year are all in their final year now which means they are incredibly busy! They're anxious to do it though as I am so hopefully we can make time, I think they are my favorite part about being here.Libraries, this is a new project that'll I write more about when I have the mental capacity to do so. I'm working with the primary school and the disabled school though to apply for books from the states to build a library. I'm especially excited to work more closely with the primary school as I really like the staff their but until now hadn't really found a place for me to fit in.Youth Channel, the theater group I tried to host World AIDS Day with. They have yet to really start work this side this year but have been in contact with me and assure me they really want to work with me, we'll see.Girls soccer. We've started up practice again, although without a coach leaving me to give it a shot. I've gotta say, I'm not coaching material, I don't really enjoy, much rather be in the background just playing so hopefully I'll find someone to coach soon. I just talked to the school though and it sounds like they'll include them in their sports so they can go play against other schools!Finally the disabled school, another one of my favorites. Unfortunately I've only been able to go visit once so far but it was great to see them. They are just such amazing kids, always up beat and happy and I've never recieved a warmer welcome in my life than I do from those kids.So that's the list I came up with. Like I said though, it's lots of little projects right now, although if the library applications get approved and Mighty gets funded those could turn into big projects quickly. I'm hoping that this year passes as quickly as the last with as many new and wonderful experiences (I've now been gone for just over a year) and that I'll be seeing all of you again soon!

So I finally got a bed and wardrobe yesterday! YAY! A week and a half, not to bad actually! Peace Corps is supplying my wardrobe and the Municipality came through with a bed. It's much nicer now and I'm starting to feel a bit more settled which is good, although I do really miss the village!

I was able to watch Obama's inauguration which was awesome. It was actually broadcast here on the major channels, meaning anyone with a TV could see it, not just those with satellite which was really cool.Everyone's been talking to me about it, it sounds like most people watched it. I sat and watched it with my new host mom, and then the kids came and listened to his speech too which was nice. Fun to share a bit of back home with them!

Cholera! So I don't know how much you've heard about the outbreak over there. I'm sure you've heard about he Zimbabwean outbreak, but what about South Africa? Well it's definitely here, and I'm actually living right in the middle of it, scary I know. It was first in a village about 20 minutes from me starting about 2 weeks ago but is spreading, there's not to many cases right now but enough. There's 20 that have been confirmed around the area and people are now beginning to present symptoms in my immediate area. There's meetings every day about it and they're trying to raise awareness. The HBC is doing a campaign, I went to schools today to distribute posters and fliers to go up at the schools. Hopefully they can control it fast. So far it's said that 5 people have died. It isn't confirmed as cholera but they were presenting those symptoms. So as for now I'm boiling my water and washing my hands as much as possible. I'll try to keep you updated.

So I haven't really said much about this before, haven't really known what to say but now it's come to a head. I've been having a lot of issues with my host family, really since about my second month of living with them. They're have been continuous problems, peace corps came out once to deal with it, and it got better for a little, but then continued down hill again. Although they were great to me, treated me really well, they were also very controlling of me. They didn't like me visiting other people in the village, something I have to do for my work, and they didn't allow anyone (anyone from the village anyways any of my white friends it was okay), cutting me off from a lot of people. It became increasingly difficult and frustrating for me. Before I left for vacation I found a new place to live. It's not in the village, which I'm pretty bummed about, but in the township right by. It's a rented room at the back of the house kind of like how I was before, but there's also 4 other rented rooms, so I'm not the only one. It's about a 30 minute walk back to the village, so not to far, but not close either.

Peace Corps was originally supposed to come help me to move on Monday, but due to certain issues no one was able to come. I could've stayed at the house I was at longer (they didn't know I was leaving yet, peace corps had instructed me not to tell them and they would deal with it when they came) but all my things were packed and I was just very stressed out living there, especially knowing I was leaving and holding the secret inside. I decided to move on my own and went to the municipality to request a bakkie (pick up truck). I got to the municipality around 11 and then waited until about 3 before I could finally move. Peace Corps had told me that they were going to phone my host mother to let her know I was leaving but as of 3 they could not get a hold of her. This was a bad situation because here I was, going to collect all my things and the family had no idea, not even any suspicions I was leaving. When I got to the house only the kids were home and I just told them I was moving. I wasn't really sure what to tell them, they all looked confused and upset and I wasn't sure what to do. I talked to Peace Corps and they told me not to move that day, but the car was already all loaded. So what we agreed on was that I would go back that night to say goodbye and explain. Luckily Peace Corps finally did get a hold of my host mother and explained the situation. She told them that for a new project I was doing people were going to be coming by to see me a lot and that I would be getting home late and we figured it would just be better for me to move, knowing that that didn't agree with how they lived. I think they were pretty confused and angry at first but were then able to see the reasoning behind it. When I went back that evening it was a little awkward at first but they treated me fine and there didn't seem to be any anger towards me which I appreciate. I would like to keep a relationship with them, especially the kids, but it had become impossible for me to live there anymore.

So now I'm moved into my new place, the room is a bit bigger which is nice, but I have no furniture. Everything I had at my last place was the families so now I'm pretty stuck. The past 2 nights I've slept on the nice concrete floor. Luckily it's summer so I don't need blankets yet, but I'll have to get them, I had to buy curtains also. I have no bed, not really sure how or when I'll get one, no wardrobe, all my clothes are in a pile in the corner (Peace Corps is bringing me one next week though), no table, I cook on the floor, nothing, yet I'm glad to be there. To have my freedom back is an amazing feeling. Already people have been to visit me, something I never had before, I don't have to check in with anyone every time I go somewhere or return and I can arrive home when I want and not have to worry about offending someone or getting yelled at.

The family of the house seems to be really great. They've been very welcoming and helpful. There's 6 kids, a 1 month old, then 2, 10, 12, 14, 15, or around those ages, the 2 middle are girls and the rest are boys. I'm still adjusting and trying to settle in, somewhat hard without any furniture (the municipality is technically responsible for my housing and furniture but up until now have not provided anything so I'm not too sure what's going to happen) but getting there. I do miss the village but know it's just going to take time to adjust. I really liked my village and I'm sure I'll still spend a lot of time there but it'll be more of an effort now, more planning instead of just going for a stroll and stopping in at peoples homes. That's the biggest new news I guess. I've started back at work and it's great to be back. Still lacking any structure but I'm used to that now!

So I feel like this blog is going to be scattered and long, sorry about that but that's just the way it goes. I'm going to write about my trip in segments so you don't have to read it all at once or you can pick and choose the parts you want to read. Hope you all had great holidays!!!!!

The Beginning

I left home on the 17th of December amidst chaos. As I was getting ready to head to the taxi rank I received a call form one of my coworkers requesting me to meet him at the police station. Unfortunately for now I'm going to have to be very vague here because the situation has not been resolved. I'm not sure all that happened while I was gone and whats going on now. I will fill you in as soon as I know what is happening and am able to discuss it. Anyways though so instead of getting on my taxi to Pretoria I spent the next couple of hours dealing with this. Luckily I was still able to get to Pretoria that day but very late on the last taxi of the day. Not the best way to start vacation.

The next morning my bus left for Durban at 7 am and I sat the 10 hours it takes to get down there (by the end of this I was a pro at sitting on buses for REALLY long periods of time). I got to watch Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger on the way too, an extra bonus. The scenery was amazing though. Every part of this country is so different, and the landscape is always changing, it's unbelievable and amazing to see.

Durban

In Durban I was met by my friends I was traveling with. Two other PCV's Heather and Therese, Therese's friends Jeff from the States and then Heather's brother Tom joined us the next day. Our first weekend we just explored the city. Went to the beach where I got to swim in the Indian Ocean, seeing the sites of Durban and relaxing. Durban is really just like any beach side city. I could've been in Florida or Southern California, except for maybe the large Indian population that resides in Durban.

Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park

Sunday we headed our of Durban to the game park. We rented a car for this part of the trip and it was so nice to have that freedom. From Durban we headed north up the coast to Hlulhluwe. Along the was we stopped and visited another volunteer who lives in the area. I love being able to see other volunteers sites, everyone's is so different. The volunteer we visited is an older volunteer and had a really nice setup. She basically has her own house within the compound of her organization. Her NGO is very well functioning (nice to know they exist since that is not my experience) and has volunteers that come from all over the world to work there. When they come she hosts them in her home so she almost always has someone around to keep her company. It was great to visit also because back in the beginning of December the rest of my group had gotten together for a training that I was unable to go to since it fell over World AIDS Day. Because of this I haven't seen most volunteers since the beginning of July, when our last training ended.

After our pit stop there we drove the rest of the way to the backpackers we were staying at just outside of Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park. All 3 of us PCV's had been to Kruger before but we wanted to be sure that the guests got to see the African wildlife up close. The day we picked to go happened to be one of the hottest days on record, topping 44 c (that's around 111 f) this was both good and bad. Good because we were in an air conditioned car and there's not really anything else we could've done in that heat but bad because the animals hate the heat too. WE did manage to see most of the big ones though, minus cats. Elephants, two rhino's fighting, giraffe, zebra, warthogs, cape buffalo, Impala, springbok, kudu and of course lots for birds. It was different than my time in Kruger though mainly because of the difference in season. I went to Kruger at the start of spring and not many trees had there leaves and not much vegetation had come up. Now its the middle of summer and its very green All the leaves are out and plants are full grown making it quite a bit harder to see the animals.

St Lucia

Back down the coast our next stop was St Lucia, a cute little touristy town situated on the St Lucia estuary, known for hippos and crocodiles. We took a boat cruise along the estuary and got to see lots of crocodiles, hippos and birds. Hippos are pretty cool animals, one of my favorites I think. One thing I learned on this boat trip was that hippos don't' float (it makes sense I guess, they are pretty big) so when you see them in the the water with their backs out they're actually just in really shallow water with their feet on the ground. they can also hold their breath under water for 3 minutes. We got to see a 2 day old hippo also which was really cute and some other hippos playing/fighting. The next day we took a walk along the beach and estuary and were able to see more hippos and crocs in the water, definitely not a place to go swimming!

Christmas

We left St Lucia on the 24 and headed back to Durban for Christmas. The backpackers we were staying at as right on the beach just south of town which was really nice. Christmas definitely did not feel like Christmas for many reasons. First its the middle of summer here, while back home you're sitting in piles of snow here its around 100 almost every day. We spent Christmas day laying on the beach and obtaining massive sunburns (yes we were wearing sunscreen but apparently not enough). This was also the first Christmas I've ever spent aways from my family and it really made me reflect back on my year here, why I'm here and what I'm doing. I've been struggling a lot with the changes that have come about me over my 11 months being here and how the work and living is affecting me. This vacation really helped me a lot though in many ways in just reflecting and getting a new perspective. We met lots of white south africans on the trip both Afrikaner and not. This is a population that I really don't have much interaction with. It was really good for me talking to them about the country and what they see is going on. They have so much love and hope for their country that it was hard for it not to rub off on me, something I really needed.

Sorry for that little tangent, its something I'll be sure to touch on more later too though. Christmas evening we all went out to a nice meal of Chinese food, very traditional, I know. Our next couple days were spent around Durban and just laying on the beach. We went to some nice street markets, always a favorite of mine and also tried to avoid the rain (a big problem on our trip, especially since we were camping).

Like I mentioned one of the best parts of the trip was just meeting other people and interacting with people I normally don't, mainly the white south africans, two times on this trip I was really rescued by them too. The first time was leaving for Mozambique we had to be at the bus station by 5:30. Our backpackers was outside of town and the taxi was going to charge us R300 to get there (that's more than we paid for the bus to Mozambique). One of the guys at the backpackers heard this and said that was ridiculous and he'd drive us. So he got up with us at 4:30 in the morning and drove us to the bus station, refusing to take anything but our thanks.

Maputo

We arrived in Maputo on the evening of the 28th after over 10 hours on the bus. The bus took us up through Swaziland then into Mozambique, luckily both border crossings were fairly easy, you don't need a visa to get into Swaziland and we just bought our Mozambique visa's at the border. We arrived in Maputo amidst torrential rain. The roads were all flooded with about 6 inches of water causing the streets to be dirty and filled with trash, not a very good first impression. We also had to camp in this downpour which was not a fun experience. That night our tents flooded, all our clothes got soaking wet and needless to say we woke up miserable (this was just the first of many times this would happen on this trip). We spent the day walking around Maputo. The flooded roads had left a lot of dirt and trash around making the city look pretty dirty which was unfortunate. We went and saw the train station that was built by the same guy that built the Eiffel Tower and also saw a fort and the main market. We were all pretty tired and grouchy though so didn't do a whole lot. Our biggest struggle was language. You'd think we'd be used to not knowing the language but in Maputo everyone spoke Portuguese and only Portuguese, there was no English to be found. It made me realize how lucky we really are being in South Africa (or unlucky I guess too) in that language isn't as big a deal. Even in the village I know I can find someone that speaks English.Sure I miss a lot and yes I do try to use the language but it's not necessary, being in Mozambique it would be very necessary.

The next night we opted to sleep inside, not wanting to deal with the rain that was still falling and knowing we had to leave at 5 the next morning to head north to Tofo, our next stop.

Tofo

Our bus was a shuttle that the backpackers ran to get between Maputo and Tofo, a big tourist destination. The bus was, interesting, to say the least, it really made me appreciate South African transport. We were cramped in, people sitting in the aisles with all our luggage around us. About an hour into the trip, the tire that I was sitting on blew, luckily it was double tires so it didn't cause us to vear off the road but it did mean we all had to offload and wait for the tire to be changed. The trip itself was about 8 or 9 hours (all the bus trips are starting to run together) and we got into Tofo late afternoon. The place was packed! Everyone had come up for new years and it was like Mexico for spring break. People from all over world were there, all the Americans we met though were Peace Corps Volunteers or visiting a volunteer. We covered all of Southern Africa, there was volunteers from Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland and of course, Mozambique, it was pretty cool talking with all of them and comparing stories.

Tofo was a really nice area, somewhere you'd only go to for the beach though. There was no town, no shops, just a market where you could by food and touristy items. I can't imagine being a volunteer in Mozambique, I'm pretty sure I would starve, only shopping at a market. I guess I'd become a good cook though, lots of vegetables and fruits and beans, thats mainly it. I actually lost wait over the holidays, a first, mainly just because of being in Mozambique and only having the option of shopping at a market, I did kinda enjoy it though, although I would not want to go barter for my food every day! We spent the days on the beach, when it wasn't raining, and walking around the market. They bbq'd chicken right there and you could get it fresh off the grill, amazing. Mozambique also has the most amazing bread that they sell on the street, it was so good! I miss the bread in Mozambique definitely!!

We were in Tofo for New Years and unfortunately that night was another one of the big rains. That didn't really stop anyone from having a good time though. There was a big party at the backpackers and on the beach in front of the backpackers. It was a great time and one of the best new years I've had.

Vilankulo

On the 2nd we were scheduled to head north again to our next stop on the coast, Vilankulo, this almost didn't happen though. It'd been raining almost the whole time since we arrived in Mozambique, this wouldn't have been as bad except for the fact that we were camping (it was much much cheaper than staying in dorms) so every night we were having to deal with getting wet, our clothes were wet, our bedding was wet and it was just miserable. The morning of the 2nd we woke up to leave and it was pouring, again. We were all pretty sick of it by then and had to sit down and talk as a group if we wanted to continue or call our vacation quits and head back to South Africa. After awhile we decided to continue on. Vilankulo was supposed to be the most beautiful of all the places we were going and we figured we'd probably never be here again, so we better go see it. This was the first part of our trip where we didn't have scheduled transport so it was kind of up in the air on how we'd get there. Luckily as we walked into the market at Tofo there was a bus sitting waiting there to go into town, thank goodness! So we took the 45 min bus ride into the closest town, Inhumbane, stopping to pick people up and let others off along the way. Once we got there I asked around a found the "ferry" boat to take us across the water to Maxixi, our next changing point. The boat was just a little fishing boat with seats in it, a tarp over the top and packed full of people. When I say packed full there's really no way to get across how full this boat was, you couldn't move and I really thought we were going to sink, we made it though. Once in Maxixi we went to the taxi rank to get a taxi to Vilankulo. We waited about an hour then took off. In South Africa, they limit the amount of people to how many seats there are in a taxi, not in Mozambique, there its how ever many you can cram in, plus everyone's luggage, we had bags, chairs, boxes and around 16 people, which is what a taxi normally holds, but without luggage. I have to say that this taxi ride was probably one of the most terrifying things I've done in my whole life. I really thought I was going to die. The roads in Mozambique are really pretty bad, people had told us not to drive there because we'd end up paying so much in damages on the car and I understand why. The potholes are everywhere and they are HUGE. This taxi driver sure didn't seem to mind though, he raced through them. The trip that took someone else we know 6 hours to do, took us 3, yes, that's right, half the time. I was very very close to stopping the driver and having him let me off in the middle of nowhere I was that terrified. The woman next to me got car sick and vomited, I was close, the only thing stopping me was sticking my head in fresh air. Not only were there the potholes but it was also pouring with rain (surprise surprise) and the taxi was leaking so we were getting wet. Amazingly we arrived in one peace but I swore never to ride a taxi in Mozambique again. When we got to the backpackers we decided that we were through with camping and paid the extra to get beds. All of our things were so wet we knew we couldn't do it anymore (when I got home I found that some of my clothes had mildewed).

It rained the entire time we were in Vilankulo but I'm still glad we went. It was nice and peaceful there, we just sat around and slept and read our books. Took walks on the beach during the 30 min or so it wasn't raining and just relaxed. It was kind of a bummer though because the Bazaruto Archipelago is right off the coast of Vilankulo and is supposed to be just gorgeous but we were unable to see the islands or go because of the rain. We stayed two out of the three days we were supposed to and then headed back to Maputo a day earlier than originally planned.

Maputo

The bus back to Maputo left Vilankulo at 3 in the morning, not the nicest hour, but we did it. It was about a 12 or 13 hour bus ride back down the coast and another hellish ride at that. The bus was again packed, this time with people standing in the aisle (I don't know how they stood for that long) but the worst part was it was deathly hot! Of course on this day there was no rain, just unbearable heat and mugginess. We were some of the last to get seats on the bus and were therefore sitting on top of the engine adding to the heat, it was miserable. All the transport in Mozambique really really made me appreciate South Africa! Our plan was when we got to Maputo to bump our bus tickets up a day and return to South Africa a day early, unfortunately the bus was full so we were stuck in Maputo another day. This really turned out for the best though. Our first impression of the city hadn't been very great, this time was much better. It was no longer flooded, we were sleeping in beds and just took time to relax and enjoy the city, then leaving on our buses back home on the 7 of January.

Returning Home

The fact that this even gets it's own section should tell you something. I was originally supposed to travel back to Durban with the other 4 then go hiking in the Drakensburg Mountains on the Lesotho border. I decided to cut my vacation short though and just go home. I was tired, I missed my village and was really just ready to get back. To do this I changed my ticket from Maputo to Durban to go back to Jo'burg instead. This meant I was travelling on my own, which didn't bother me too much especially since I was scheduled to arrive back in Jo'burg at 3 in the afternoon, giving me enough time to catch a taxi back to Polokwane. Apparently I haven't learned anything yet in the time I've been here, you can't count on anything going according to plan and this time I really got thrown off! First, about an hour outside of Maputo we blew a tire (yes this was the second time for me on the trip). We ended up having to wait close to two hours for a replacement bus to come and continue the journey. Next the border crossing was packed. A lot of South Africans vacation in Mozambique and everyone was trying to get back. It took over two hours to get through the border back into South Africa.From there everything just seemed to be in slow motion. It started getting late and although I'd known for a long time I wasn't getting to Polokwane that day, my backup plan, which had been to go to pretoria, which i know, for the night, began to look unlikely also. When I got into Jo'burg I knew there was going to be no public transport available so I was running out of choices. I could either pay R300 to get a private taxi to Pretoria (that's more than my bus ticket to Mozambique cost) of I could find a hotel in Jo'burg and wait out the night. Neither option sounded that great to me. It was the end of 3 weeks of traveling and needless to say I was running pretty low on money. Luckily I had one more option. In Tofo we had met a group of guys from Jo'burg, two of them continued on to Vilankulo with us (the other 3 called it quits and went home because of the rain). One of them, when he heard I was passing through Jo'burg by myself gave me his number "just in case". Thank goodness he did! I called him and he and another one of the guys we'd met came and picked me up. I was panicking and honestly have no idea what I would have done if they hadn't rescued me. I've never been to Jo'burg and no nothing about the city except for it's crime rate, not really something I wanted to be thinking about. So anyways, they came got me, we went out for pizza and drinks and had great night, probably the best of my whole vacation. I stayed at their house, got a nice comfy bed, a hot shower, then they drove me to the taxi rank in the morning to get home. I don't know what I would've done if I hadn't met them, as they say, everything happens for a reason. It was fun to go out in Jo'burg also and see how the "other half" of South Africa lives. Basically just like in the states which is hard to believe living in a village. the differences in this country never cease to amaze me and teach me.

So that was my trip, all in all it was a great time. Really good to see other places but also really great to get home! Mozambique is a very different country than South Africa, a great one to see though, but make sure it's not raining!

Yesterday was World AIDS Day, I hope that most, if not all of you were aware of that. World AIDS Day, in the country with the most HIV positive people in the world, is a big deal, as it should be. As mentioned in previous posts the province had decided to host their World AIDS Day event in my community. My municipality has an HIV prevalance rate of around 28% and is one of the top 3 poorest municipalities in the entire country. The poorest village and poorest ward in the country are located in my municipality, in other words we're in severe need of attention and help. Thats why I couldn't really object when the province came in booting my event out of the picture, it means they're taking some notice of us.

I've been part of the planning commitee for the event from the beginning which was a great learning experience. They bring together so many people and it was interesting to witness the behind the scenes work and what needs to be done to pull off an event of this size. They were expecting around 6000 people to be there. They were using 37 buses to bring people in from around the province and were expecting to pull in around 3000 people from my immediate community.

The weather wasn't exactly cooperating, it was incredibly windy, two of the tents got blown over and at the time the event was about to start, they still had yet to set them up. They gave up on one of them and were finally able to get the other up. The event started around 11:30 with the MEC of Health in the province running the show. They had the Premier of Limpopo speak, Mr and Mrs HIV/AIDS and a few other politicians, none of which I knew. They also had performances scattered throughout. One of the biggest singers in South Africa was there to perform and they also had a drama (skit) about HIV/AIDS.

The event went fairly well I thought, I don't know what the actual number was of people who attended but it was a good number (I'm pretty sure it wasn't 6000 though). I ended up being a marshal and directing traffic and people but it was nice to feel useful.

It was an interesting feeling being there, knowing that it could have been my event but also nice not to have to worry about anything because it wasn't my event. Through this whole event planning, rescheduling, planning and cancelling fiasco I've learned a lot and now really feel like I know what to do and what not to do next time. It should be interesting!

So again, not to sure where to begin but I'm going to give it my best shot. I've held off on writing about everything that has happened for a few reasons, one I've been incredibly busy, two, I don't think I was emotionally ready to really put it in words and three, I had no idea how to even go about explaining what I've been living the past few weeks.

It's difficult to explain all that happened but basically what it comes down to is we had to cancel the event. If you want to know more of the reasoning, and there's a lot of it feel free to ask but I don't really want to go into it here. We cancelled the event on Friday the 22nd and I've spent the last two weeks cleaning up the mess. The work was all done but there was multiple incidents that led to the cancelling of the event. Although it was disapointing, I have been working on this event since October, actually Septmeber if you consider the writing of the grant, I do feel it was the best, and really the only decision to be made at this point in time.

Picking up the pieces has been difficult though, more than difficult really, I don't think I have ever been so stressed or emotionally drained in my entire life, luckily I have vacation coming up!

The past two, or maybe it's been three weeks have been some of the hardest of my life but I have learned more about my community, my job and myself than I ever thought was possible, really more than I expected to learn in the whole two years. It's not been an experience I would ever hope to repeat or ever wish on anybody but I can't say I didn't get anything out of it. I know I'm being vague but it's hard to go into depth what I've gone through and how much I've grown and learned in the past few weeks.

Moving on from the disapointments, I was able to celebrate a fabulous Thanksgiving with great friends. The peace corps volunteers that are surrounding Polokwane all got together on Saturday to celebrate Thanksgiving. There was around 15 of us I believe that gathered at Joanna and Robs house, our gracious hosts to all gatherings, and we prepared an amazing feast. We had it all, turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, corn bread, salad, fruit salad, green bean casserole, and both pumpkin and apple pie. All of it was made from scratch with even a few substitutions (butternut squash for the pumpkin and maize meal instead of corn bread mix). It was great and delicious. I'm glad we were all able to celebrate together!

This was written on the 14. I'm not sure why it posted but I thought I'd post it now. Things have once again changed and I will be writing about it when I'm emotionally able but this is important to get he full picture.

I'm not event really to sure where to begin. The past week has led to some of the hardest moments in my Peace Corps time but being able to look back at them and realize I've made it through (for the most part) is a good feeling.

Last week Friday I was informed through my counterpart that I am hosting the event with, that the hospital (who we were working with), just informed him that the Province had decided to hold their event at the Senwabarwana Showground. That was the exact location of our event, and the province would be holding their event on Monday, ours was scheduled for Tuesday. I immediately went and asked the municipality if this was true and they confirmed. To be honest I wasn't really sure what to do, I went into somewhat of shock. This event has been my work since October. I had spent weeks writing the grant, researching local statistics, gathering community support and seeing how feasable the event acutally was. I recieved the funding, my first grant ever, and had then proceeded to work tirelessly, along with my counterpart, Raymond, in making sure we could pull this event off. The invitations were sent out (stating the showground as our venue I might add), the sound system reserved, we had volunteers to cook, to butcher the cow. The speakers were scheduled, all in all about 75% of the work was done and now we were hit with this. I was told that there was no way I could hold my event as planned. The premier (like our governor) would be coming and that they had final say in everything and I'd have to figure something else out

So the weekend came and luckily I was able to push it from my head but then came Monday, probably the worst day I've had since arriving here. I had no idea what to do and to be honest I didn't really want to do anything. I was ready to give up. Luckily the people I'm working with here wouldn't let me (although at the time I hated them for that too). We had a few options, postpone the event until a later day or switch the venue. (My option that I wanted was to say forget the whole thing, I was not ready to deal with it). The option of postponing was quickly realized to not be an option. I will be travelling starting the 16th of December for 3 weeks so that ruled out late December and come January, Youth Channel Group, who I'm hosting it with, will be starting a new theater development project and will have no time to do an event. So now we're left only with moving the event to a new location

By Wednesday I had come to accept the fact that I just had to be flexible (not something I wanted to do) and go with the flow. A site was suggested to us that is about 30 minutes from my community and is a cluster of villages. It's fairly rural but pretty populated so we be a good site to hold the event and have a maximum input. And so the changing and planning began to shift.

Now lets throw in the final little piece of information I was given today, that may lead to everything changing again. Last week (maybe 2 weeks ago) the mayor of my municipality along with some others were recalled (that's the official term here, I call it being fired but since they're elected maybe you can't call it that). Anyways she's gone and today they're just placing the new mayor in office. Apparently he has final say in where the provincial event is going to be held and since he was not in office when it was first decided, he now may change it. Basically what it means is that the provincial event may change locations, meaning my event may return to it's original venue and this whole week will be erased I suppose.

This whole ordeal has been interesting to say the least and to be honest really tough on me. Peace Corps has been incredibly supportive though and I've managed to get through the week. Monday may bring more changes but I feel ready for them this time. This has definitely been a huge learning experience!

So I just wanted to write a quick note about how Peace Corps Volunteers spent our election day. First I am so happy and excited and somewhat in shock (I don't think it's set in yet) that Obama will be our next president. Needless to say we were watching it intently here just as I'm sure many of you were at home, we had one slight problem though, time difference.

Joanna who lives in town with her husband and son was kind enough to host the pcv's in this area though for an election party. About 10 of us gathered at her house to watch the results come in. From about 7 pm on we were glued to CNN (our only option in South Africa for election results and necesarry to have DSTV). The first polls closed at 1 am here as we sat waiting, and waiting and waiting. Many of us got no more than 30 minutes of sleep. Each hour waiting to see how each state would go (we were all Obama supporters, PCV's are somewhat of a biased group although there are some republicans I know).

We were all sprawled across the floor glued to the TV and what was being said, waiting for the key states to give us the news. We all started getting a little sleepy around 2 or so but then CNN saved us, they brought on a hologram.Who knew? Suddenly we're not sure if we're watching Star Trek or the election results but it definitely gave us a little recharge and peaked our interest again (thank you CNN).

Most of us, amazingly, me included, made it through the whole night (I'm feeling it today though, whoo, not even in college was I one to pull all nighters) but it paid off and at 6 am we got our answer. Obama will be the next president of the United States.

I'm usually not to politically but it was hard, even here is South Africa, not to be caught up in this election. I'm glad I was able to watch the results as they came in and be a part of this historic election. (and yes, I was able to vote absentee!)

So along with writing about my vacation I figured I'd better give you guys a little update. First change is that Rebecca, who was my closest volunteer has been moved. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned her previously but anyways she was also working under the same municipality as me and lived about an hour away. She was my closest volunteer and since training also my closest friend. Unfortunately through a series of events at her site Peace Corps decided she needed to move and she is now living in Mpumalanga, quite a distance away. It was definitely a shock at first and a little scary knowing I'm up there on my own. There are no volunteers around me now and I have to go through town to get to anyone. I'm okay with it now (at least I tell myself I am) and I'm lucky to have Joanna and her husband Rob who live in town that I can go see. There are also other volunteers that I can arrange to meet in town it's just going to take a bit more effort on my part now. Anyways that's probably the biggest news, it's still a little weird but I am lucky enough to have established friendships in the village that I can get support from.

The grant!! Let's see, we've finally got the money and started the planning and are actually ahead of schedule! Amazing I know, we'll see how long we can keep it up. We've scheduled 3 of our 4 speakers, a nutritionist, traditional healer and an HIV+ person. Should be good. We're just working on the logistics, renting the tents, chairs, sound system toilets and all that jazz which isn't difficult but time consuming and stressful for sure. Luckily I'm working with great people who are doing a lot to help. Hmmm, what else. Oh, so the province also holds a World AIDS Day event every year, and guess what, this year they've decided to hold it in our municipality! YAY, ha ha, just kidding, this has been ever stressful for me. The first planning meeting for it was today so I'm waiting to hear back where they decide to hold it and what the deal is. I'm a little frustrated but hope it'll all work out. After never holding an event, now they're going to get two. They haven't started planning and mine is half done so it should be interesting, we're in too deep now to pull out so hopefully they'll be accomadative.

That's most of the news for now. The Internet at the municipality has been down going on 3 weeks now which is frustrating but all part of rural life I guess. The heat is climbing up into the 40's but the rain is slowly coming. We get in usually in the evenings with lots of thunder and lightning, until next time...

So I was finally able to see a little more of South Africa and it was fabulous! I went with my friend Darcy who is living just outside of Mokopane, not to far from where we trained. We started out in Pretoria so that we could pick up our Malaria medication from the Peace Corps office before heading on our trip. Although most of South Africa is malaria free the eastern side, close to Mozambique does have malaria so we had to take precautions. The next day we headed out on a taxi to Nelspruit, a long long hot ride. The heat has definitely kicked in and being cramped in a taxi with 15 other people is not the most pleasant place to be, with your back all sticky and your arms sticking to the people next to you, I guess that's life though.

For the first part of the ride the scenery wasn't too impressive, flat grassland mainly, as we got farther and farther east it began to change. We entered into rolling green hills and trees, so many trees, completely different from where I live. In my area it is flat flat and brown. Not having had rain since about February or March there's not much living. Mpumalanga was different though, green green green. When we arrived in Nelspruit we picked up our rental car and were ready to begin our adventure. We were both a little nervous at first about driving, one because we hadn't driven in about 9 months and two because we had to drive on the left side of the road, SCARY! Darcy took it on first and did it no problem, you have to think a little when turning corners to make sure you've got it right but besides that it's not to bad. I have to say, while on the topic of driving that having the freedom of a car and the ability to drive was probably one of my favorite parts of the vacation. Being in control of the radio, the ability to open your window and shutting it when you want, not when someone shuts it for you and to come and go as you please, amazing! I didn't realize how much I missed driving. Shifting with the left hand wasn't as hard as I though either, it takes a few minutes to get used to and then no problem. Darcy was kind enough to let me do most of the driving and I loved it!

Anyways, we headed out of Nelspruit and off to Sabie, our first stop. The drive was gorgeous, up through winding mountain roads with trees on both sides. This area is home to the largest man made forests in the world. Every where you look there's trees and mills, it was like being at home. It was interesting too because when you looked at the villages all of the shacks were made of wood. Before going here I hadn't seen a single house made of wood, they're all concrete and brick where I live and the shacks are made of corrugated tin. Here the shacks were leftover wood scraps from the mills.

Sabie is a little tourist village up in the hills. Gorgeous place surrounded by trees with a river running through it. We just relaxed the first day at our backpackers and got over the traveling (sitting in a taxi for 4 hours is EXHAUSTING). The next morning we got up bright and early to do the bridge swing. Now this was not originally in our plans but the backpacker offered it for a reasonable price and we decided we'd be silly to pass it up. I wasn't really thinking though, or if I was I'm not sure what I was thinking. I'm pretty scared of heights and here I was agreeing to jump off a bridge! So what exactly is a bridge swing? You get all harnessed up and jump off a bridge backwards and after a few seconds of freefall you're just swinging under the bridge. You're harnessed so it's like you're sitting in a swing and you swing our and under the bridge, having jumped from the opposite side the ropes are attached too. Sounds fun, right? Darcy went first and it looked awesome but then it came to be my turn and I froze. I got all harnessed up, stepped over the railing of the bridge and freaked out! I was terrified, I don't know what I was thinking, I can't jump off a bridge (the swing was about 30 meters up, not terribly high but way high enough in my opinion). So here I am hanging on to the bridge for dear life as the guy who's in charge counts backward from five, and then he counts again, and again. I would not let go of the bridge. I just keep crouching lower and lower as the weight of the ropes pull me down(Darcy has pictures of this that I'll try to post as soon as I get them from her). After who knows how long he finally just tells me I need to let go, and this time I do. The free fall is brief (as I'm screaming at the top of my lungs) and then it really is a pleasant swing. You swing out towards a waterfall over the river. My heart of course was racing but I'm really glad I did it and did enjoy it once I got over the initial fear (it took about 45 minutes for my heart to start racing after).

After the bridge swing we headed out to seem some of the local waterfalls. In Limpopo right now all the rivers are dry so it was really weird and nice to see these gushing waterfalls and big pools at the bottom. There was a lot of them in the area though and I have to say by the end of the trip we were pretty sick of waterfalls.

By the time we finished all this it was only maybe 1 o'clock so we decided to go check out the Sudwala Caves which weren't too far away. I'm so glad we did! They were really cool. The Sudwala caves are some of the oldest (if not the oldest, I wrote it down but don't have it with me) caves in the world. They're 20 million (I'm not sure, maybe 200 million, something like that with a 2 and a million) years old. Pretty crazy. We got a guided tour of the caves which are these massive caverns with amazing stalagmites and stalactites and calcium formations. I definitely learned a lot from it and was just really cool to see. The pics for that are also on Darcy's camera, but don't worry, I'll get them.

Next day, hmmm, we headed up to Pilgrims Rest and Graskop, which was our next stop. The drive again was gorgeous but windy, good thing I was driving or I'd be very carsick! Pilgrims Rest is an old gold mining town that they're turned into a historical/tourist site. It was good to see but difficult also. There was so many people trying to sell you things (macadamia nuts mainly) that unfortunately it really took away from the place, it was a cute little historical town too.

We stopped at a few waterfalls on the way to Graskop then settled into the next backpacker. That afternoon we went to see the beginning of the Blyde River Canyon, going to the Pinnacle, God's Window, and Wonder View. Unfortunately after unbearable heat, it was pretty overcast and foggy and we were unable to really see the views.

Next day, Blyde River Canyon. We tried God's Window and Wonder View again without much luck so headed farther up the canyon to Bourke's Luck Potholes. Really cool to see, something about the two rivers that meet here and the swirling of the water has formed them (sorry don't have more info). Oddly enough we ran into another PCV there who was touring with his mom, guess it's not such a big country. We continued up the canyon stopping at view points here and there. It was really gorgeous and just so different then where I'm living! Blyde River Canyon is the third largest canyon in the world and the only green one (it's covered in trees). It was a long day but nice to see the scenery and we sat and enjoyed some good chats.

Kruger day!!! We woke up early Saturday to leave Graskop and head towards Kruger National Park. Kruger was awesome. We saw so many animals, only missing out on the lion and hippo which was a bummer. (Again most of the pics are on Darcy's camera, hers had a better zoom but I'll be getting them from her). There was tons of Impala, Kudu and all the other deer like animals along with many giraffe and elephants. the Rhinos were pretty excited to see too. We also saw a jackal, vultures, buffalo and best of all the wild dog. I guess the wild dog is pretty rare to see so we got really lucky. We were at a watering hole when all of a sudden these Impala come running in front of us, it was pretty obvious something was after them. We got really excited hoping it was a lion but then out come these two dogs with incredible markings. They took off down the road so we decided to follow them (by the way, ignorant us thought they were hyenas because of their shape and ears, we couldn't believe how gorgeous they were, always thinking hyenas were ugly things. Later that night Lonely Planet corrected us, turns out hyenas are ugly things). We followed the dogs as they trotted down the road, not caring at all about us as we followed about 5 ft behind them. Our stalking them paid off. We were able to watch as they hunted a herd of buffalo. The two of them working together to bunch up the buffalo and try to attack. They didn't end up getting one but it was really cool to see. Seeing the animals out in the wild like that was pretty amazing and really cool to do. It's exhausting though! Spending all day in the car driving 20 km an hour trying to spot animals, defiantly couldn't do it for more than one day in a row!

That night we spent the night at another PCV's house, Kaitlen. She lives about 30 minutes south of the Kruger gate and about 10 minutes north of the Swaziland border (lucky I know!) In her village (it's more like a town than a village, massive!) there's also two other pcv's so we all got to get together. It was really good to see them, we haven't' seen each other since July and just catch up. It's also nice to see how other pcv's live since all our situations are so different. We spent 2 nights with them before heading back home.

All in all the vacation was a great one. A good recharge and nice to see more of the country!! I can't wait until my next one in December. The pictures are all posted and you can get them at the link on the side of my blog!

First, before I forget, so lucky me got ring worm about a month ago (pleasant I know, I have no idea how i got it). Anyways though, here it's called pudi (the word for goat) and apparently what it means is that someone I'm close to is pregnant. It's on my forearm and extremely visible so needless to say everybody keeps asking me about it. Every other day someone is telling me this belief about how someone is pregnant. So my question is to all of you, who out there is pregnant. I've got plenty of recently married friends, any of you expecting? Maybe a cousin or someone, hmmm, I want to know, one of you over there has got to be pregnant because it's no one here, unless they're hiding it which i suppose is a possibility. Anyways, I was just curious...

So the rain has finally arrived, only a month late yay!! Rain here is amazing, I've lived in WA almost my whole life and I know rain, here it's different though. It involves all five senses and is an experience that is hard to describe, I'm going to try though.

The first thing that happens is you can feel a change in the air. It gets muggy and the air is thick. Normally it's a hot dry air but not thick or heavy. You know the rain is coming when the air changes. The next thing that happens is you can hear the thunder in the distance. Not the nice low rumbling thunder like we get but the loud bangs that sound like there's a war off in the distance. Once you hear the thunder you begin to look around and see which direction the rain is coming from. Off in the distance you can see a wall of grey falling from the sky moving towards you at amazing speed. Up in the clouds are the flashes of lightning, racing through the sky. As the wall moves steadily towards you you can begin to smell the rain. You know that smell when it hasn't rained in a while and right after it rains you get that smell of freshness in the air? Well here it comes before it rains. You can just smell the water, the water that has been missing for so long and now it's finally racing up to you. Finally as the rain begins for fall, the big fat drops hitting your hot skin and then you can finally taste it. A cold natural taste that seeps in to you and consumes you. It's really amazing. Completely different rain than what I'm used to. And when it rains here man does it rain. I have yet to experience rain without intense thunder and lightning. The thunder so loud it shakes you house and makes you (at least me) want to hide under the covers. Lightning that shoots across the sky with it's jagged bolts, lighting up the entire village like it's the middle of the day.

Headed off on my first vacation this week, I'm super excited although it feels weird to be leaving my site. I'll be sure to let you know all about it when I get back!!!!

So my grant was accepted and I'm receiving funding from PEPFAR (through Peace Corps) to hold a World AIDS Day event. I got approved last Friday and should receive the money the beginning of November. I'm pretty excited, first of all it's just nice to write a successful grant, I had to write one as a school assignment and I did one for my internship on the Lummi Reservation but neither one was turned in. Now I've written one, turned it in, and been funded, pretty cool. With this grant though I'm responsible for all the money which is kinda scary. It gets placed in my personal account and I'm accountable for every cent. It would be easier if it had it's own separate account but here bank fees are so high that to do that you'd end up losing so much of the grant to bank fees so it's gets all mixed in with my personal money. I'll definitely learn a lot about money management and budgeting! Now comes the work though, arranging everything and putting it all together. I can tell November is going to be crazy busy and stressful but I know I'm going to learn A LOT. Holding an event for 1000 people is going to be great experience. I'm excited (and also terrified it I'm being honest). Unfortunately it means I'm going to miss my next Peace Corp training. They're holding our life skills training in Durban from 30/11 to 04/12 where my whole group will get together. We haven't seen each other since the end of June. I won't be able to go though obviously as World AIDS Day is December 1st (I'll be holding my event on the 2nd though because the province will hold one on the first and the municipality does not want mine to conflict). All in all it's pretty exciting and I know I'm going to have a lot of work for the next month. Hopefully it goes smoothly but I doubt it!

For the past almost 2 weeks my municipality's Internet has been down, I have no idea why but theydon't seem to be in too much of a rush to fix it. I didn't realize how dependent I was on it but it's been rough. Right now I'm in town using the internet because I had some emails for the grant that I had to attend to. It's expensive and hard for me to get to town though so it's been really frustrating. We also had a day where there was no electricity at the office, no fax, no typing, nothing. It was difficult.

Speaking of electricity the village next to mine does not have electricity and they are in the process of electrifying it right now. It's pretty cool to witness. They're putting up the poles now and are beginning to string the wires. The reason (I'm told) that they're finally doing this now (it should have been done long ago, it's connected to the municipality and shops and is the most "urban" in my area yet is the only place without electricity), is that election time is coming up so all the politicians want to be reelected and are completing or doing the projects that should have been done a long time ago. One of my coworkers told me that it's always like this, right before election time is when everything gets done. I'm sure the people living there are really excited though, to finally after all this time be receiving electricity in their homes.

Next week I'm headed off for a short vacation, finally. After six months of working on site it's about time. I figure I better go now while I have the chance before my grant money arrives and i get too stressed and also as a little recharge before all the craziness begins. I'm going with my friend Darcy and her and i are going to rent a car and drive around in Mpmualanga. We're going to Sabie and Graskop and to the Blyde River Canyon which I'm really excited about, it's supposed to be gorgeous. We're also going to spend a day driving through Kruger Park, hopefully we'll see some lion and elephants! I'm pretty excited to go and get away for a week and see more of the country I'm living in!

My short weather update: Although the rainy season is supposed to begin in September we still have yet to see a drop, hopefully soon though, I can't wait. I got my first sunburn here last Friday and now will never again forget to apply sunscreen, it was painful!!!! I live with my fan on and really am unable to sleep without but luckily so far, since there's been no rain, there's no mosquito's, definitely one benefit.

I've got some more pictures posted for you to check you too! Hope you're all well!

I've got some new pics posted and more to come soon! The link is on the side of my blog.

Good news is the soccer team is back on track! Funny how things work out like that. There's not a huge number but we've got about 10 girls that are pretty dedicated. The change came when I got them a coach (YAY!) One of the guys I'm working with at the new NGO offered to help me and it's been great. They love him, he knows what he's doing and I'm no longer stressing out about it. Now I can just sit back, relax and play. I'm so glad that's it working out because this girls team is something I really want. I think it'll be good for them in so many ways!

Things with the NGO are still going well. I just finished writing a proposal to host a World AIDS Day event, lets hope it gets funded! Talk about stressful though. After not really having any type of stress in my life, at least not deadline and work stress, for about a year, I'd forgotten what it was like. As those of you who knew me in college know, I'm a stress case. I can't not be stressed about things, but that's how I function. Apparently not anymore. I did not know how to deal with coordinating all of the papers we needed for this proposal, writing it and getting it in on time, it was hell, I did it though and got it in two days early!

With my club I've changed it a bit and I think it's going to be really good. We're still volunteering around but now at our weekly meetings I'm going to begin training them in HIV so that they can go and do presentations in the schools. I want them to be the experts and be peer educators in the area. We started last week (this week is school holiday so we didn't meet) with just an introduction. They were shocked by many of the things I told them. Only one person knew that South Africa has the highest HIV+ population in the world (how many of you knew that, it goes back and forth with India). They looked at me like I was crazy when I told them we didn't have Orphan Drop In Centers in the United States, they asked me how the orphans eat and I told them we don't have orphans like here. I still don't know if they believe me. They almost fell out of their chairs when I told them the comparison of funerals. Here there's one pretty much every Saturday, that's normal to them. When I told them that I'd been to less than 5 in my whole life before coming to South Africa it wasn't a concept they could grasp. Little things we take for granted and things that are such a part of their life here they assumed were a part of everyone's life world wide. It really hit home to them how much of a silent impact HIV is having in their community.

I know I always comment on the heat but I'm seriously dying. It rarely goes below 30 now (mid 80's) but is usually around 35 sometimes 40 (between 95 and 105). It would probably be more managable if it cooled down at night, but aren't I lucky, it doesn't! I have a fan but sometimes it's still pretty difficult to sleep. (Remember that I'm not even in summer yet, this is still spring) I'm hoping my body will adjust but everyone here always complains about the heat too and they've lived here their whole lives!

So I feel like basically everything has changed since my last post, (and I thought things happened slow here). My soccer team is on the verge of falling apart. I'm not giving up on it and am trying to come up with a plan but right now I have about 4, if that, girls who show up for practice. Great I know, and I had such high hopes. Like I said though, I'm not giving up, I just need to re-evaluate and see where to go from here, how to get the motivation back again. One problem is that the school is writing right now (which basically means they're taking the standardized test that is going to tell them if they passed or failed the year) so the kids are all busy studying and stressing about that. We'll see what happens, I really want it to work. I got a donation of cones and four nice soccer balls so that'll help too.

The biggest change has got to be that I finally have work though! I'm not sure how in depth I've gone in the past and I know I've made it sound better than it was but basically for the past 5 months I've been riding around on my bicycle trying to find something to do and only being semi-successful. That's all changed now. It's been in the works for awhile but I was to scared that it would all fall through to say anything, I didn't want to jinx myself. Basically what has happened is that a new NGO has moved to town. They started in 1998 in Tembisa (Gauteng Province near Jo'Burg) and are a theater production group. I know, those of you who know me are thinking, what does she know about theater, and the answer is absolutely nothing, but they do more. Basically in South Africa the best way, and in someways I feel the only way to make it stick, is to put messages into plays (drama's as they call them) and perform them for groups. Youth Channel (the name of the NGO) does this. They perform about HIV/AIDS, child abuse and every other issue concerning South African citizens. They've been incredibly successful in Tembisa and wanted to branch out to rural areas so are opening a new branch where I'm at, lucky, I know. So when they were scoping out the place they heard about me (one of the guys mom's is in the HBC) and contacted me. They asked me, to work with them!!! YAY!!! We've sat down and had a few meetings and they want to work with me in all aspects, any projects I want to take on they will support me, it doesn't matter if it's in line with their projects or not, they just want us all to work together. We started on Monday, it's 3 guys who came from the Tembisa office, me, and my friend Ablonia, she lives on my street and they were looking for an administrator so I recommended her (she's awesome and I LOVE hanging out with her, we have a blast together!). It's so nice first of all to have an office to go to, to have a scheduled work day (we work from 9 to 4), but most of all to be working with people. I have spent the last 5 months working almost entirely on my own and let me tell you, it's difficult. I never want to have to do it again. I know some people love it, me though, no way, I hate it. To be able to bounce ideas off people and get feedback and brainstorm, I finally feel liking I'm doing something and that I'll be able to make the impact I wanted to make in coming here! (Not to mention they all speak English, I know, I know, I'm supposed to be learning the language, and I am improving but I'm not fluent. Having a meeting in a language where you understand every 5 words just isn't productive. They're teaching me too though and switch back and forth but if I don't understand I just have to say and they'll explain, oh man, I can't even explain what a stress reliever this is!) We've already started planning an event for World AIDS Day (December 1st) and I get to use the skills I learned in school and got a degree in, YAY (thanks Dr. Lindsey). If you couldn't already tell I'm so excited about these changes and just have a really good feeling about it all. I know it's only been one week but I just see things finally starting to fall into place for me. I feel like I paid my dues and now it's time for the real work to start. I gotta tell you though. This week was stressful! Going from making my own schedule, waking up and thinking, where do I want to go today to all of a sudden having a place to be at a certain time is HARD! I felt like a chicken with my head cut off. Because even though I didn't have much I was doing before I did have a few commitments and had to squeeze them in with my new office schedule, not that I'm complaining though.

So yeah, other news. The weather has changed, well it did for a bit. We had 2 days where it was over 35 (remember I'm in Celsius now, you do the conversions, it's HOT though) and then the next 2 days were down around 10. Not really sure how that works but hey. Remember though too that it's still only spring here. We're already hitting 35 and it's not even summer, basically I'm terrified. I finally figured out why everyone here walks so slow. It used to drive me crazy! It takes effort to walk as slow as some people do, walking around with the HBC drove me crazy. Now I understand though. When it's that hot out, you physically can't move any faster, you just can't. So that's how slow they're used to walking, even in the winter when you don' t need to. It makes me feel better knowing that and a little more understanding.

The new group of volunteers just swore in. I got the opportunity to meet them all last weekend for VSN (Volunteer support Network that I'm a part of) and they're a fabulous group! They're all education volunteers so will be doing different work than me but many of them have the same shopping town as me so I'll be seeing them (unfortunately none of them live remotely close to me, it's still just me and Rebecca isolated way up north here.) It's weird talking to other volunteers because many of them are just fifteen minutes or a few villages over from multiple volunteers whereas I'm an hour from the nearest volunteer, with transport only at certain times and no one else remotely close. Hmmm...

I've really settled in now and love my area, I have friends here which is great and so necessary, many people told me before that it would be difficult to make friends because the cultural differences are so huge. That is true but I do feel like I've got a good base, even if it isn't quiet the same as a friendship would be in the states. People seem to be used to me now and are very accepting of me. I've started planning some vacations to go see more of the country (Woo Hoo!) and feel like these two years are going to fly!

Hope you're all doing well, I miss you!

Things have definitely been moving right along as more and more things begin to pop up. The soccer team was announced at the local secondary school and there was an amazing response. Now instead of the team I was envisioning, it looks like we're going to have a league. There's 4 teams! On the Monday of our first practice 29 girls showed up, and that's just in my village. The secondary school serves 4 of the local villages and girls are starting to practice at two other sites, the school is being really supportive and encouraging the girls to get involved. We're going to split the girls in my village into two groups and then we'll have four teams. All the girls are really excited and the school has promised to host games between the teams on the sports days! It was pretty overwhelming the first day, I had no idea what to do with 29 girls and one soccer ball. We ended up just playing a game, one of the boys from the team whose ground we were at also came and kinda took over the leading which was nice. Some of these girls are really good and some of them have absolutely no idea what they are doing, it's a huge range which will be interesting to work with. Tuesday through Thursday I'm trying to get them out running with me to get them into shape. Running and exercising is just not done here. There's about 10 girls who have been showing up which is pretty good I figure and they're slowly able to run farther and farther without stopping (the 3 I've been running with have no problem though, nice to know I've helped with something). What I'm hoping to do in the future is get boys from the local teams to coach each team. Originally I was going to coach but I don't think I'd be very good and all four teams want me at their practices so I don't think it would really be fair to spend all my time with only one team. If we can get the one boy to coach each team I think they can learn a lot, both the boys and girls. It will give the boys some leadership skills and also something to do. I've been lucky enough to get a donation of balls with help from a friend of a friend and am just waiting for them to arrive. I'm not sure how many or what else we're getting but every little bit helps. Eventually if the teams really take off and it all works out I'd love to incorporate some life skills and education into it, but that's not going to be for awhile.

The JCSC is also going really well. The CEO of the hospital finally got back to us and unfortunately the kids are unable to volunteer there. The hospitals are not allowed to accept any volunteers. The Disabled School was very excited to have us though. Last Friday a group of about 15 of us walked over to play sports with the kids. It started out a little shaky, none of the students really knew what to do or how to get it started and just huddled together. I split them up to just go talk to some of the disabled students and some were able to get a game of soccer going. Once they warmed up though the day was absolutely amazing! They played tennis together, we got a cricket game going and of course soccer too and the students joined in and got the kids from the disabled school to participate. It was really really cool to see. Everyone was having such a blast you could tell. We were there for about 2 hours and then had to leave so we could get home before dark. As we were walking home though some of the students suggested going again tomorrow. I was unavailable but they decided they wanted to go on their own. They took the initiative and went back again on Saturday to spend the day with these kids. I was blown away and so glad that they really enjoyed it and wanted to continue. The kids at the disabled school also really appreciated it. The smiles on their faces and they didn't want us to leave, they asked why we couldn't come hang out every day because they rarely get visitors. All in all it was a great experience. We plan on returning every Friday so I'm sure it will just continue to get better.

Today I had a meeting with the special needs school. They would love to work with us also and have suggested we go on a Saturday, help the kids to bathe and clean and then play sports with them. I'm going to bring it up at the next club meeting and see what they think. I would really like to work there just because of my history of working with autistic kids and with special needs, I would love to get involved in it here too. We'll see where it all goes.

This past weekend I spent Saturday to Tuesday in Pretoria. I had to go in for a VSN (Volunteer Support Network) meeting at the Peace Corps office. I am now on VSN which is basically peer mentoring and support between volunteers. I will be assigned about 8 new volunteers (the new group swears in early September), and be their mentor, or support person that they can use to talk to. It's a good program and I'm really excited to be a part of it and be able to help out.

Going to Pretoria was a great escape and nice to see so many other volunteers. On Saturday night we were able to go to the Kaizer Chiefs and Moloka Swallows soccer game. It was a blast! The Chiefs are one of the best teams in the Premier league here and I was really excited to get to see them play. Tickets were only R20 (under $3) which I think is great so everybody is able to attend the games and see their teams play. When we walked in the noise was unbelievable, after being both to English Premier League games and now South African Premier League games, South African fans could really give the British a run for their money! We walked in and here there's no assigned seating, you just sit wherever you want, which was an interesting concept, but we started walking up the stands to find somewhere we could all sit (there was about 13 of us volunteers). As we were walking past everyone started applauding us and wanting to shake our hands and were so happy to see us there, as I looked around I realized that besides maybe 5 others or so we were the only white people in the entire stadium! (this is not a small stadium, it is one they are going to use for the world cup, although it wasn't full there was probably at least 15 to 20 thousand people there). It was definitely bizarre to get a standing ovation just for coming to watch a soccer game. The game itself was great, the Chiefs won 2-0 and there was a lot of really good play.

Going to Pretoria can also be really hard though because there everything is like it is back home, sometimes nicer. You sit there in these cafes and bars and these fancy buildings and you can't help but get frustrated that it's all right there yet the majority of the country has no access because of financial situations. Another volunteer also made a comment that really made a lot of sense to me and I completely agree with. She made the observation that we no longer fit in anywhere. It's not bad or good, it's just a fact. We were walking around a mall in Pretoria that is absolutely massive, bigger than any mall I used to go to in the states and she was right, we didn't fit in. We don't fit in completely in our villages, how can we really ever 100% fit in, we can't, but we don't fit in in the first world any more either. Walking around the mall, which would have been a totally normal and fun thing to do in the states is now hard. You notice everything and think, oh, where I live now they can't afford that, or is that item really necessary, i know 100 other things that would be more useful. And it really makes it difficult, we are our own group now, not really anywhere but skirting around the edges of everything.

The whole time was great there and coming back to the village is always nice. When I got back on Tuesday evening (my taxi ride, including the waiting and driving took me 5 1/2 hours to get home, yuck) my family was so excited to see me and every one of them came up and gave me a big hug. At that point in time I just felt so accepted and it really felt like I was coming home which was a great feeling. To them I am just another family member and it's a great thing to know that.

Last weekend I headed out and took the 3 hour taxi ride NorthEast into Venda territory. Venda is one of the tribes here who, throughout the countries changes, has maintained a lot of their culture and traditional ways. I went to visit another volunteer who is living up there and meet up with a couple other volunteers.

The taxi ride up to Thoyando was beautiful! We were just driving through flat brush land and then you come up over a hill and you're in these lush green hills with fruit orchards stretching as far as you can see. Venda is known for it's fruit and it is growing EVERYWHERE. Orchards up the hill sides and fruit stands dotting the sides of the road. It was interesting to see also because the area, although not to far, was drastically different from where I live. Not only was the scenery different, being very green with trees everywhere, it was also much more developed. Where I am you can drive for 20 min and never see a village whereas in Venda it was continuous houses, village after village all running together. I'm not sure why it's like that, maybe something to do with the homelands during apartheid but it was very interesting!

Wildlife sightings: On the taxi ride I got to see a herd (I don't know if that's the correct term or what) of Giraffe, some ostrich and we also had monkeys run across the road in front of our taxi!

Once I got to Thoyando (the capital of the Venda area), I met up with the other volunteers and Christy (who lives in the township outside of the city) showed us around. It was so different than any other place I'd been in South Africa, much more like what I'd pictured as an African city. It was made up of passageways and side streets and everywhere you turned someone was selling something. They have stands set up, or just blankets laying on the ground, selling clothes, shoes, fruit, household items, really anything you could want. I loved it! There was also no other whites around besides us. Usually when you go into the city there's quite a few Afrikaners but not here, Christy says every now and then you'll see someone, but not to often.

Saturday our plan was to go on a tour and see some of the important Venda sites. Unfortunately that didn't work out (things never go as planned). Luckily someone Christy knew was able to arrange transport for us to a "resort" outside of town. The road there was beautiful as it twisted up through the hills and villages. You could look down over the valley's covered in fruit trees and pass by the locals on the side of the road carrying there supplies on their heads, it was gorgeous.

The resort they took us to was a local hot spring that they'd built pools around using the water from the hot spring. I'd never been to a hot spring before and it was so relaxing to be able to sit and put your feet in this natural pool of water and have the water be hot! The pools they had made were really nice and there were quite a few people there swimming. Unfortunately none of us had known we were going to a pool so we were not prepared. I was pretty bummed that I only had my jeans or I would have been in that water right away! I miss swimming so much! We had to be satisfied with just sticking our feet in the water. The day was very lazy and relaxing, laying next to the pool side with vervet monkeys and baboons running around us (they were everywhere there and I got to see the cutest little baby monkey).

Sunday I had to leave early in the morning, you never know how long you'll have to wait for the taxi to fill and sometimes on Sunday it can be more difficult since there are less people traveling. I only ended up having about a 45 min wait though (I was ready to be waiting at least 90 min so it was a nice surprise) and headed back down through the hills. The whole weekend was great and it was nice to finally be able to see another part of South Africa.

This was the first time I had travelled out of the Sepedi speaking area (they speak Venda there), and it made me realize that I have actually picked up some of the language. I found it frustrating to not be able to use any of the local language and not understanding any of the words being spoken. When I was on the taxi back and could actually understand parts of conversations I came to the realization that slowly I am beginning to know some bits and pieces. A very nice realization to come to since I would say language has probably been my biggest and most frustrating challenge.

I'm going to start taking more vacations soon and can't wait to get out and see the country I'm living in. I'll also be sure to get some pictures posted as soon as I can! Hope you're all well!

So another long stretch of time, but this time it's because I've actually been really busy!! YAY! Things are really starting to fall into place and I'm feeling like I fit in more and more (as much as you can anyways having a celebrity like status).

I've started a club at the local secondary school. Actually the students approached me and said they wanted to start a community service club and would I help them. I said of course I would and it's been really good. There's about 20 students right now and we're in the process of finding places and ways for them to volunteer. In our area there's actually many opportunities because we have a hospital, a school for the disabled and a school for special needs students. We have had meetings with the CEO of the hospital about opportunities and the disabled school social worker. Right now we're still waiting to hear back but it looks very promising. They have also talked with the local Drop In Centers and are going to start helping out there. Yesterday I spent the day at the DIC (they're teaching me how to cook, ha!) and after school some of the secondary students came over and were serving the kids and hanging out, it was really great to see. They're also going to start assisting in the mornings, getting food to the kids, bathing them and things like that if needed. I'm hoping to be able to set up some sort of tutoring program with them and the orphans, pairing them up and getting the secondary students to help with homework and just be a mentor for the kids, hopefully it works out. Our club meets every week (they came up with the name Junior Community Service Club or JCSC) and we discuss what needs to get done and who will do what. Right now it's all mainly still in the planning stages but the kids seem really dedicated which is so great to see. Community service is not a part of this culture at all so when they came to me with the idea I was shocked but really happy to help and they're really sticking to it. I'm hoping we will be able to get in at the disabled school as well and do some projects with them, for now the special school is seeming a bit more difficult, but we're working on it. Today I'm supposed to go with one of the students to inform the chief of what we're doing (you need to let the chief know everything that's going on and ask for his permission) so that will be an experience but I'm sure he'll be supportive.

Another project I've started working on is trying to get a women's soccer team going. Right now I've just been training with about 3 other girls but it's been a lot of fun. On Friday they're supposed to announce it at the secondary school so we'll see how many we get to show up. We only have access to fields on Monday and Friday which is hard because the guys teams practice Tuesday through Thursday but we're just using the other days to run and get in shape. It's pretty funny though because although right now there's only about 4 of us older girls we've got maybe about 20 little kids who like to come with us. They all wait for me on the corner of the road and as soon as I walk out in my running gear they get so excited. It makes it difficult sometimes to run with such a mob around you but they love it! I'm working on getting some donations of soccer balls, right now we just have the one that I was sent from home but it's looking like we'll get them and I should know within the next week I'm hoping!

So let's see, what else have I been up to... I've been working with both the DIC and HBC on just day to day things and am going to try to get them all organized now that we have places to file things. I'm also going to help them to write proposals to try and get funding (it's never ending). I've also reorganized all the files on DIC and HBC in the municipality ( I know, really exciting but they were a DISASTER). I was able to get a donation for the HBC from a local store of R500 of groceries every month to give to their patients which is awesome!

The weather is beginning to change as we head in to spring and the mosquitoes are beginning to reappear (oh joy). Apparently august is "windy time" which I can definitely agree with but it keeps a nice coolness and freshness to the air (along with an incredible amount of dust) that I really like. I figure I better enjoy it now before it becomes too hot to step outside!

We finally got rain!!!! It rained for the first time since April a few nights ago. I couldn't believe it, I think I'd forgotten what rain sounded like. Unfortunately it was during the middle of the night so I didn't get to fully enjoy it. I'm excited for the rainy season to start though, I miss the rain!

So some really exciting news is that yesterday my HBC that I work with finally obtained an office! The primary school in my village is letting us use a building they own that is next to the school and right across from the DIC. It was used for storage so yesterday we spent the day moving things into one half of the building and then cleaning. It's small (we actually don't even all fit) but it's something and a start, we finally have space that we can call ours! The chief of one of the villages has also given us a plot of land to build an office but we need to raise money and resources to be able to build, that'll be the next step.

As I was hanging out in one of the shops yesterday and talking with some friends (one an Afrikaner) two white men walked by outside. We all looked at each other to see if anyone knew them and none of us (there was 3 of us whites there, 2 of them are managers of the store and then me) had ever seen them. It's funny because it's now just as weird for us, as whites in the area, to see whites as it is for everyone else, we stare just as much, actually probably more than the blacks here. You just never see them around. In my shopping area there are 6 whites. Besides me the 5 others are all managers at stores and they all live in a town that's maybe 20 to 30 min away, so really I'm the only one that actually lives here and the only one you see walking around. So when a white person is around and we don't know who it is it's hard not to be curious, funny how that works.

It's hard to even convey the impact that HIV/AIDS has on life here. Lifestyles that we can't even begin to imagine are the norm here. Kids raising their siblings, lack of teachers and funerals every weekend. Why I bring this up is because of how funerals are arranged here which I think is both wonderful and sad. Our village is divided up into 3 sections, how it works is that if someone in your section dies, you are expected to go to the funeral. In this way the village is supporting each other yet you are not going to an overwhelming amount of funerals. I would say there is probably a funeral almost every weekend, sometimes up to 3 in one weekend. It doesn't mean that if the person isn't in your section you don't go it's then your decision based on how well you knew the person. Why I say it's both wonderful and sad is that I think it is amazing how the community comes together to support each other here, but it's also sad the fact that they even half to have a system like this. A system to deal with all the death and funerals, it's definitely a different world.

Well I have now been living here for a little over 5 months which, for me, is pretty hard to believe, and during this time bread prices have already changed twice! I don't know how evident it is in the US of the increasing food prices, but here it's hard to miss. When I arrived in South Africa the price of bread was R5.50, right before moving to my permanent site that price jumped up to R6.50 now after another 3 months, the price has gone up again to R7. It's getting easier and easier to see the strain these higher food prices are putting on families. Talk is always about the higher prices and although it's not immediately apparent I know that more and more people in my community are suffering and going hungry because of these price changes.

The past two weeks I have been away from my site at IST (in-service training). The 30 of us that arrived together (amazingly we're all still here!) were brought together in Polokwane (which happens to be only an hour away for me but for some was a two day trip) for 10 days to discuss our first three months at site and to get more training. It was so nice to be able to see everyone again and find out about everyone else's experiences. It's amazing how different they all are! Nobody is really in the same position, some people's organizations are functioning so well and are made up of a large number of staff, for other's it's just them and there supervisor. The climate and living situations vary greatly also. Down in KZN (Kwa-Zulu Natal) people are complaining about how cold it is and how much they're spending on their heaters, while up here where I am it's still boiling hot and I'm wearing t-shirts and skirts!

The first week of training was all technical training, we discussed grant writing and organizational management as well as just talking with Peace Corps about our experiences. Our supervisors came for two of the days and we went through a workshop in planning events with them. It was very helpful and great to be given a framework to work with along with our supervisors so they were able to see what some of our goals were in being here.

During the weekend we were able to go visit our families that had hosted us during PST. I returned to Leyden and got to spend the day with my Koko. It was so great to see her! I'd stayed in contact with her but not well after having lost her number for awhile. She cooked me lunch (I'd forgotten how amazing her cooking is!) and we just sat in the yard and chatted. Unfortunately it was school break so many of the kids I had grown close to were off visiting their parents in Gauteng (I don't know if I've said this before but it is very common for kids to be raised by their grandmothers in the village while the parents are off in the city working). I did get to see Tetelo though, the 9 year old who lived across the street and followed me everywhere and Oupa who was a good friend and I've kept in very good touch with over the past three months. He's about my age and works in the mines at Leyden. I was only able to see him very briefly though because he returned from shopping in town as it was time to leave. It was a very short visit but nice to go back and I plan on visiting again in August or September.

The last three days of training was dedicated to language and culture. All of our language instructors returned and we got to brush up on our skills. It was so good to have them there, not only to see them all again but also to be able to get more lessons. My language is severely lacking and probably my biggest frustration here so it was good to be able to get a structured lesson and have my grammar questions answered. The LCF's were also busy getting ready for the next group to arrive. A new group of volunteers is coming on the 15 of July and will be in training in Mpumalanga. It is a group of education volunteers (my group was all NGO) so they will be working in the schools around the country, I'm excited to see if I'll have any new neighbors!

On the last day of our training we went and visited a Home Base Care and a Drop in Center. The two that we visited were model organizations doing amazing work. It was so nice to be able to see well functioning organizations. I've been here 5 months and had yet to see what a HBC and DIC was actually supposed to look like. Because of this I had no idea even where to begin in getting the ones I am working with on track. The DIC we visited was amazing! It was started by a retired principal after seeing the great need in her students. They offer two meals a day, homework help, they have a playground and there own garden that the kids maintain as well as providing seedlings so that the kids can have gardens at their home. They are also teaching skills such as sewing and beadwork to the kids so they have marketable skills and they sell these things to keep the center running. It was so great to see and really gives you hope that there are the people out there who want to see a change in their country and are willing to work hard to make it happen. The HBC we visited covered 15 villages and had their own wellness center as meeting point. It was started by a retired nurse (notice the trend) who said she just could not sit back and watch as people suffered around her. They train many of the carers to go out and keep amazing statistics that really shows the difference they are making in the community. Overall it was just a really positive experience to finally see what these organizations are really supposed to look like and what I'm here to help with.

IST ended on Thursday and many of us continued on to Pretoria to celebrate the 4th of July. We did have to say goodbye to the LCF's though which was difficult. It's hard to know if we'll see them again and they have been such amazing support being with us and teaching us as we adjusted to their country. Joel, who was one of the Sepedi teachers (not mine but the other group) lives in Polokwane so Rebecca and I had seen him many times over the past 3 months (in fact I don't think I'd been to town and not seen him). He showed us all around and took really good care of us. He's off to PST though now to train the new group and I can't even imagine going into town and not seeing him! I know he'll be back in September but it's still weird to think about.

Pretoria, where to even begin! It's basically just like any other big city really, I definitely didn't feel like I was in Africa, maybe somewhere in Europe. There was probably about 20 of us that went and we stayed in a Backpackers in a section of town called Hatfield. A backpackers is pretty much what we think of as a hostel, cheap place to stay and dorm rooms, but at the same time completely different. They're more like renovated houses. Ours was really nice, I was in a room with 5 beds but there was only 3 of us in them, there was a pool (apparently that's fairly standard) and then rooms in what used to be the garage and what looked like an old tool shed as well as cabins in the back. The people who ran the place were great and so so helpful. Apparently Peace Corps are pretty common in the backpackers around and they all know us, (the PC office isn't too far so all volunteers are in at some point and staying at the backpackers, there's about 3 in the area). The first night 6 of us went out on the town and I think it was the first time I've felt completely normal in 5 months. We had a great time and got to meet all different people, spending most of the time talking to some people from the DRC and Gabon. It was interesting talking to them because they all speak French as their first language, then English, then their native language. In South Africa the native languages are much more prominent and is always a person's first language and the one chosen when speaking among themselves, here these guys always preferred to speak in french and said that the only time they use their mother tongue is when speaking with their parents.

For the fourth of July the Ambassador to the United States held a big bbq celebration for all the Americans living in South Africa. It was surprisingly bizarre to be around so many Americans, to be honest it's gotten to the point now where I'm much more comfortable surrounded by black South Africans than anywhere else, I suppose that's a good thing though. The bbq was a lot of fun, it was interesting to meet other Americans in the country and great to have hot dogs and hamburgers, not food I normally get here. It was a nice sunny day, probably about the same weather I would have had had I been in Washington yet here it's the middle of winter, funny how that works (I'm absolutely terrified for the summer, I think I'm going to melt!).

We stayed in Pretoria until the 5th and then it was time for everyone to go their separate ways again. It was hard to say goodbye, I don't know when I'll see people again and one of my closest friends lives all the way down in KZN, not an easy trip. At the same time though I was really ready to get back to my site and see everybody. I spent the rest of the weekend in Polokwane after an eventful taxi ride back. The drive from Pretoria to Polokwane is a little over 3 hours and not to long into the beginning of the trip the passengers started yelling at the driver. With my minimal language skills what I was able to get was that they were accusing the driver of falling asleep at the wheel because he was swerving, the driver was not happy about this accusation and began yelling back at them while driving along the shoulder at about 20 mph. We continued like this for probably about 20 min until both sides gave up and we pulled back on to the road (Rebecca and I were in the front with the driver but unfortunately both of us had been asleep when it all started so we couldn't say either way what had happened, the driver seemed fine to me though). Then when reaching Mokopane and letting some people off we got pulled over by the police. He accused the driver of picking up passengers (we didn't) which he was not allowed to do. When we heard this, all of us as passengers told the policeman that he was just making it up and we hadn't picked up anyone. He let us go after awhile, thankfully but it was an experience, police function very differently here than in the US.

I spent Saturday and Sunday night in Polokwane with a friend of mine Joanna. She is a former PCV (SA13, I'm SA17) who got married to someone she met while in service here. She now works here doing the same job she had as a volunteer which is pretty cool. Both her and her husband, Rob, are amazing people and I love spending time with them and their 14 month old son who is the cutest thing ever. It was also really nice just to be in a home! I didn't realize how much of a difference that can make and how relaxing it is! I'm so glad to be able to have that opportunity as a get away to go stay with them when I need it! It also helps that Joanna has been through it all and knows exactly what the experience is like!!

So sorry for the rambling of this and the fact that it doesn't really flow. I just want you all to be able to have some idea of what I'm doing and the life I'm leading. The US is beginning to fade more and more and I want to be able to keep in touch as best as possible!

For many weeks now the local Drop in Center in my village has been trying to get me to come in and I just haven't had time, this week though I was finally able to make it a priority and it was so much fun. Drop in Centers are set up in many villages in order to feed the orphans. The local government provides them with food parcels and then there are people who run the centers who cook the food and interact with the orphans. In my village the Drop in Center (DIC) is fairly new, there are 10 carers running it, all are volunteers and the DIC has no funding at all, they function solely on the government food parcels. In some communities the DIC, along with providing food have life skills programs, homework help, counseling and just general support for the orphans. Unfortunately at this time my DIC just does not have the capacity for that. They are operating out of a room donated by the primary school and have just enough space to cook, they often run out of gas and are then unable to provide the meals for the children, something I hope to find a solution for.

They provide two meals a day, one in the morning before school and one in the afternoon when the kids are done with school. In South Africa many schools also provide a meal because it may be the only meal some kids get. The DIC provides meals so that the orphans are able to go to school with a full meal and go home after school with there stomachs full, many times this food provided is the only food they will get. I once asked the principal of the primary school which the DIC is located next to if he noticed a difference in his students since the DIC started. He said "yes, there is a big difference, when children are able to come to school with there stomachs full they concentrate more and are able to learn more". These DIC are necessary because of the large amount of orphans due to HIV/AIDS. At my DIC there is around 140 orphans that come for meals. Some are now living with there grandmothers or there is the case of child headed homes where the oldest child (sometimes still very young, 10 or 12) takes on the responsibility of raising their siblings.

I had stopped by the DIC at their request a few weeks ago and they wanted me to teach them games to play with the kids so returned to do that Monday. The 10 carers that work there are all so dedicated and really want to help these kids and be there for them, they just don't know what to do or have the means at this point to do it. I decided to teach them tag, what kid doesn't like tag? So through hand gestures and moving the kids around I was able to get a game of link tag going (none of the kids and most of the carers don't speak any english). It was amazing, they loved it! I don't know if they have any games like tag here but we played it for 2 hours before we had to send the kids home because it was starting to get dark. It still amazes me that the little things we take for granted knowing, such as tag, a game most of us play from early childhood, can make such an impact of the lives here. All the kids kept asking me when I'd be back so I made the commitment to go again, it's hard since it's right in the middle of the day (2:00 is when the kids start showing up) but I really want to help out here.

I'm returning to the DIC again tomorrow and will teach them another version of tag and continue to do so until I can't think of anymore (any suggestions would be great, so far I've got tunnel tag, blob tag, fire in the forest and red rover, I know there's more fun games out there though). I hope to spend more of my time at the DIC now also, I think there is a lot of help I could offer there such as starting after school homework help or just a club to spend time with the kids and making the center more of somewhere for the kids to hang out, instead of somewhere where they just go and eat then leave, I think that it, as well as the carers have a lot of potential. Along with this I was wondering that if any of you have any old kids books, sports balls, jump ropes, markers, crayons, coloring books or anything like that that you would want to send over for these kids at the DIC that would be greatly appreciated. I just want to give them fun things to do and make it a type of haven for them. If you are going to send something (really anything would be great) Just let me know so I can be expecting it and also pack as tightly and lightly as possible (I have to pay the customs on everything) and declare it under $10 PLEASE, then the fee is minimal. Thanks.

I'm going to try and get more pics up this weekend, hopefully get completely up to date so you can see what my life is really like!

So I know it's been awhile since I've written and there are many reasons for that. The main one being that the Municipality that I work for and that has the computers I use has been on strike for two weeks now and there is no signs that it will end any time soon, I guess we'll see. I've been keeping busy though with many different activities.

Last week I spent the week in the neighboring village going door to door to do TB education and testing. There has been an outbreak there and they wanted to make the village aware that TB is curable if you get on the medication and what the signs to watch for are. The home based care that I work with teamed up with the local clinic to do the campaign. We split into groups of 2 or 3 and went door to door knocking and talking and giving informational booklets. I was paired with a nurse who was my same age so it was a lot of fun. We would go to the house and he would talk with them and I would give them the information. If they or anyone in the home was showing symptoms we would test them for TB. A TB test consists of the person coughing into a cup two mornings in a row and then the sputum is tested, it's pretty easy. We did this for two days and then on the third day collected the tests. After we had collected the tests, me, one other home based carer and six nurses went to the local prison. There we went cell to cell to do TB and STI education and TB and HIV testing. It was amazing to interact with both the nurses and the prisoners and I really felt like I was here doing what I am supposed to be doing. There were four cells at the prison, each one containing between 7 and 14 prisoners. We went cell by cell and would start by one of the nurses talking about TB, the symptoms, how it's transmitted and also that it is curable. After that they'd talk about STI's and answer any questions the prisoners may have had. Once that was done they offered HIV tests. I assumed that no one would want to be tested, one because they would have to speak up in front of all their cell mates, two, the stigma is just so high here that I thought they wouldn't want to know. Luckily I was wrong, many of them wanted to get tested, at least 5 in each cell. They just took them out in the hall and did the test right there. In South Africa they use the rapid test so they just prick your finger and you have the results within 5 to 10 minutes, it's pretty amazing. In the last cell we went into there were three men there from Zimbabwe so they did not speak the local Sotho. The nurses call on me and tell me to just go tell them the information, talk about being put on the spot. It was really cool though to be able to help out (until this point I'd mostly just had to observe since my language is not very good). I'm still learning a lot about TB, I don't feel as though I know all that I should about it but the STI part was easy after doing education on it for the past three years. The whole week was really great, I was so busy and this kind of door to door campaign and really reaching out in the community and to the prisons is really the kind of work I want to do as a career. The village we were working in is just so poor, half of it does not have electricity and you have 8 to 12 people living in a two-room tin shack, it's pretty crazy and can be hard to see at times.

Besides doing the door to door campaign I've been working a lot in the schools, especially with the high schools. There's three in the area (the area being about a 30 min bike ride to each school) and I've been going and talking with the Life Orientaiton (like our health class plus some) classes about why I'm here and also HIV and teen pregnancy. It's been amazing! The kids ask so many questions and want to know everything and there is such a lack of knowledge about STI's, pregnancy and all things related to sexual health really. Since this is the area I know the most about (after doing sexual health education for 3 years I would hope it's the area I know most about) it was really nice to just start talking about it and to share my knowledge with them. Also this way they are able to know what I can help them with and really why I'm here. They're begining to use me to which is nice. The 12th grade at my local school had a project on TB and HIV last week and I had two of them come to my house for help and I worked with another group on it at school (the day before it was due, procrastination is worldwide in students!). It's so nice to know that they are beginning to trust me and come to me for assistance. I'm also begining to work on college applications with another girl. They have so much potential, many of them just don't know how to go about doing things.

After so long, I'm not going to lie, this is pretty overwhelming to write. I want to be able to share all that I'm experiencing with you but know that is not possible. So some other small things, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, it was great. I didn't really do to much on my actual birthday but on the 4th my family brought home a cake and cooked me dinner and we had a little party with was nice. It was definately weird being so far from home on my birthday though!!

I've got new pictures up also, sorry that they're not labeled, I just don't have time now, I will try to do it soon though and let you know who all these people are!! The link is http://picasaweb.google.com/bethmalla/

Last weekend I went to visit Rebecca, the other PCV who is working with the Blouberg Municipality. Her village is about 45 min to an hour away from me depending on who's driving (the majority of the way is dirt road so you can't go to fast). There was an event going on at the high school in the neighboring village that we wanted to attend. It was an event put on by LoveLife which is a national campaign in South Africa focused on the youth and HIV/AIDS prevention. I've been in contact with it a few times now in my time here and have always been impressed with their work. The event was a collection of different things done to mainly to give the kids something fun to do and to bring them together and get out their message. They had dancing, poetry (the youth's poetry here is amazing! They have such powerful messages and are so strong in their speaking, it's really amazing to hear), drama and a debate. The drama (or skit as we call it) was about how you shouldn't mistreat the disabled. It was amazingly well done. The kids were so into it and you could tell had really rehearsed it and put a lot of time into it. The debate they did was about abortion and was really interesting to listen to. None of the kids had ever done a debate before and earlier the group from Rebecca's village that was pro-abortion had come to us for help. They wanted us to explain more to them how a debate worked and what they should say. They had really done their research and knew what they were talking about which was really cool to see. We helped them out and went over all their points with them and answered their questions about debates and they ended up winning the debate (yay!). I was so glad to be able to work with them and that they felt comfortable enough to come up to us and ask for our help, that's why we're here. Rebecca has been working in the schools in her village so they already knew her and I think that made a big difference. After all the dancing, poetry, drama and debate they had a netball and soccer tournament. Net ball is kind of like our basketball but there is no dribbling and you can't run with the ball, maybe more like a mix of ultimate frisbee and basketball. It's the sport that all the girls in school play here while the boys play soccer. I'd never seen netball actually played before so it was fun to see the game. I also was able to meet the area coordinator for LoveLife and talk with her. LoveLife isn't in any of the schools in my area so I'm hoping maybe I can work with them and see if I can get them here and also do events with them. There is another event in a neighboring village (when I say neighboring I mean about a 30 min drive) in a few weeks that Rebecca and I are also going to go to and they want us to talk to the kids there about why we're here and what we're doing.

This week I spent a lot of my time going around and visiting the schools. It's something that we are supposed to do right when we get to the community but up until this time, for various reasons I have not done. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before or not so I'm just going to say it again, sorry if it's a repeat. The village that I live in is somewhat like a township to the greater shopping area. The home based care that I am with works in 5 villages that surround this shopping center, so basically my work takes me in these 5 surrounding villages. In these 5 villages there are 4 primary schools and 2 secondary schools. Some kids have to walk very far in order to attend school. For some there are also buses to take them to school (two of my brothers go to secondary schools that are not in any of these 5 villages so they ride a bus every morning). There are 2 schools in the village that I live in, a primary school and a secondary school both with enrollments over 1000. I visited both of them and introduced myself to the principal and was able to set up meetings again to be able to meet all the staff and the learners (students). It was really great to get into the schools and hopefully I will be able to work more closely with them now. I also visited the secondary school in the neighboring village and one of the schools one of my brothers attends. They have been bugging me since I got here to go visit their schools so I finally did. It was a ways away and when I got their all the learners were outside on break, more than a little intimidating! Everybody of course was staring and pointing and swarming around me, it's always much more intense with the kids. Nobody can ever believe that I ride my bicycle everywhere for transportation too. They think it is so funny that I don't have a car and I walk and ride everywhere. I really enjoy it though because it means I meet many more people. Every time I go somewhere though they ask me what my transport is and I just point to the bike and they usually are amazed.

Right now there is also a Norwegian living in one of the villages in my area. She is working with a local band here teaching local kids how to play instruments and working with the band. We met at the municipality and yesterday she invited me to their practice to see what she does. The band is made up of students from the local schools and is funded by DeBeers mine. I think they've been going for about a year now (somewhere around there) and they are really good! It's brass and percussion and they also have dancers. They are practicing for a competition, like our marching bands that takes place in Jo'burg in October. It was really cool to see and just sit and listen to. After rehearsal Marit, the Norwegian, came over and we were able to discuss our projects and compare stories. She's been in South Africa for almost two years now, in different areas of the country and is unfortunately only here for another few months. It was nice to be able to talk with someone also working in the same area as me and with the local youth. I guess she gets called my name all the time in town she was saying and they get us mixed up, not surprising I guess when there's just two white young women living in the area.

Just a little reality check here that I found and thought you all might enjoy. I was looking at a report for the local animal pound this week. When I think of a pound I think of stray cats, dogs maybe a few other different kinds of animals. I was reading this report though and it was about the number of cows and goats and sheep in the pound. Just a little different. I started laughing out loud when I was reading it. Just one of the small differences between here and there.

I know this post is fairly scattered and there's a lot I've left out but my mind is not really flowing right now so I'm just writing as I think of it, hopefully it makes some sense and gives you a small idea of what i'm doing.

I've also got some new pictures posted, they're of my time now. I decided to put up the more recent ones and work my way backwards so you can see what I'm doing now and my family.

I attended my first funeral this weekend in my village. The person had died in a car accident just outside of Polokwane. Car accidents here it seems are almost just as common a cause of death as AIDS and other illnesses. You constantly hear about wrecks and the injuries and deaths associated. It's really sad to hear about and I'm not sure what the country is doing to tackle this problem.

The funeral was on Sunday and my sister woke me up a little before 6 to get ready to go. It was a ZCC funeral (the church of my family) so I had to cover my head, wear a long skirt and a jacket. I'm not sure if you do for all funerals or not but for ZCC you always must. We left for the funeral a little before 7 (it was my sister and I). She didn't know exactly which house it was at but she said if we just followed the singing we would find it so that's exactly what we did. Once we got to the house we stood in the yard with the other women as people arrived. There was lots of singing and we just stood in the back. After maybe 30 min the ZCC men's choir (I'm not sure if thats what they are but that's the best way to describe them, it's a group of men all dressed in the khaki suits and they sing and dance, it's really cool to see) started to make a procession into the yard along with the hearse. Once they were all in as well as the womens choir (they wear khaki with green sweaters and green hats) the service began. I couldn't hear the priest from where I was there was so many people but they spoke and the choirs sung and then after maybe another 30 min we started filing out to walk to the gravesite. The procession was led by a group of local men, from what I could see the majority, if not all of them were the local soccer players and they were wearing their jerseys. They led by singing and then were followed by the hearse which was surrounded by the ZCC men's choir, following them was everyone else and then the Women's choir brought up the rear. The cemetary was on the opposite side of the village from the house we were out so it was quite some distance. Along with the people walking they also had a bus to transport people, cars and taxi's. There was many, many people that attended the funeral. I walked and the whole time people were singing, some times we would have to pause for the ZCC to do a dance and then we would jog, then walk and continue, it was pretty powerful. Once at the cemetary we paused for everyone to arrive then entered. We all gathered around the grave and they placed the casket in along with quite a few other things (I could barely see, I was pretty far back so i'm not sure what it was). Then there was more singing and a few priests said some words. They lowered the casket into the ground and the ZCC men began to shovel the dirt in followed by the soccer players. While this was happening the men were singing as well. Once they finished we left the gravesite and went back to the house to eat. They served the regular South African food, pap, rice, cabbage, chicken, beans, sauce, beets and we ate and then went home. The service ended around 9:30 and then we went and ate and I got home around 10:30. It was amazing how many people were there as well, I have never seen so many, it must have been around maybe 500 people (I'm not exaggerating here, there was an amazing amount of people). The whole community really pulls together and supports each other and it's really good to see.

I'm slowly beginning to be able to put pictures up. Just so you know though they're ALL the pictures I've taken, no editing involved, sorry about that, I just don't have time. As of now there are also no labels, I'll work on that though. Right now there's just a few up from training, I'll try to get more up next week that are more recent. I have over 300 pics right now though so it'll take some time.

The web address for the album is:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bethmalla

Things are still going well here, I went to the local soccer tournament over the weekend, they didn't get to finish the finals though because it's starting to get dark so much earlier now (around 6) since we're headed into winter. Monday was a holiday as well as tomorrow (thursday) and then everything is closed friday also, I think just because nobody wants to work for only one day so it's a very short work week, only two days (the schools also are only open for tuesday and wednesday). I did a huge clean on Monday and my sister and brothers had me polish my floor. Definately a first for me, hard work, down on your hands and knees polishing, I know how now though so I'm sure I'll be doing it more often (my 18 yr old brother had to show me how and then him and my sister proceeded to laugh at me as I did it).

I'll work on getting up more pictures, especially of my home and family so you all can see them!

My new life feels like it has finally really begun. Routines are starting to form and it's beginning to feel like home in my village, kinda weird! I've finally started work, there was a few glitches and panicky moments but I am now working and things are beginning to fall into place. The home based care that I am working with is called Mighty Home Based Care and it has 18 carers working for it. Unfortunately they have absolutely no funding, so none of the carers are paid, they don't have anywhere to meet and walk very far distances (they cover 5 villages) because they have no transport. Last week I spent with three of the carers doing home visits. Home visits mainly entail just going to check on the patient, see how they're doing, make sure they're taking there meds and if they need anything. Along with HIV/AIDS, TB is a HUGE problem here, on the first day every patient that we visited was a TB patient. With TB it's very important that the person take their medicine every day, otherwise that is how the strains of multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB) and extremely multi-drug resistant (XDR-TB) TB have formed. There is a program that is worldwide called DOTS that is set up to make sure that people take their medication every day.

Language has been a huge barrier for me and has led to many frustrations. Right now my vocabulary consists of being able to greet people, tell them where I'm going, what I want and what I'm doing, that's about it. As far as doing health work and really even communicating with my coworkers, it's just not there. Many of my coworkers speak no English and those that do, it's very limited. We are able to communicate at a very basic level but it's definitely made work even harder. Hopefully I will be able to pick up the language quickly (so far it's not going so well, language is not my strong point) so that I am able to be more effective and work better within the organization.

On Monday I went with some of the carers to the next village over to visit patients and do some education. It happened to be pension day that day so everybody was out. Pension is like our social security, everybody over the age of 65 is eligible to receive it and at around R800 a month it is what many families rely on to survive. The grandmother is very often responsible for raising her grandchildren as the mother goes to the city to work (usually the father is not in the picture) and this money is what gets her and her grandchildren food and other necessities. Because it was pension day there was a huge market set up in the street selling everything you could imagine, food, household goods, anything you needed you could probably find. It's really smart because this is the one day these people are going to have money to spend so they bring the goods to them. The pensions (other government grants are handed out at this time too such as disability, foster child and others) are handed out in a locked compound, you go into the compound in the morning and just wait around for the trucks to arrive. There are three trucks that come, one is a generator, one is set up like an office and the third is the money. Once the money arrives there are multiple armed guards (it was pretty intimidating, they had huge guns) and the fences are locked. I'm not sure if they people are locked in until everyone receives there money or if they are let out one by one because we left once the trucks arrived. It was very interesting to see though.

Right now my main objective with the home based care is finding them funding. For the first 3 months I'm only supposed to be observing but the forms are due and they need the help, so that's what I'm working on with them. Like I said before, none of them are paid, they have no where to meet and it's been like this since 2005 when they first started. They just got their certification from the government as an NGO which will allow them to apply for government funding. This week has been spent sifting through forms with them to try to get the funding to get them paid. All the forms are in English and have to be filled out in English, pretty difficult if it's not your first language. We've also gone around to all the local business's to ask for their addresses to send out letters asking for donations, hopefully it all starts to fall into place so we can get working. It's hard to motivate people to do their job if they're not getting paid for it and haven't been paid for it for years. They are very dedicated though (you'd have to be to do what they do) and they're really excited to be able to work with me and hopefully I'll be able to help them. Since they have nowhere to meet though my week has been spent sitting in a park across from the stores, actually really relaxing, it's a good central meeting point since everyone lives in different villages. As far as meeting goes, we set the time of 9 and people usually start rolling in around 10, 10:30 and we usually begin working around 12. This is going to take a lot of getting used to for me, I'm one of those people who hates being late. They all make fun of me because I'm always on time, sometimes early, I told them to give me two months then I'd be on there schedule, we'll see though.

Switching from work to home life, I still absolutely LOVE my family and where I live. I could not ask for a better living situation. I'm really part of the family, they treat me as though I am their daughter and sibling and I love it. My family is members of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) which is a church that was started in South Africa and has a huge following here and throughout Africa (at least southern, I'm not sure how far it extends north). The headquarters Zion City, also called Moria is just outside Polokwane, the nearest city to me. They meet outside under a tree (really cool!) and when you go you must where a jacket and the women must cover their head. I've gone the past two weeks with my family and it's been a really good experience. My dad is a priest or minister, something high up in the church and it's fun to see him. When you go before you can enter they throw water in your face (we're not talking about a sprinkling here, it's a lot of water) and then you turn around and they through it on your back. I kind of like that though because although it is starting to cool off at night (it's really getting cold, I'm sleeping in sweats and a long sleeve shirt with two blankets and still wake up cold) it's really hot during the day still. Wearing a long skirt, a jacket and covering your head does not really go well with the hot weather so it's nice to get a little cool down. Last week was a big event and church was held at someones house, they were placing a topstone (gravestone) but I'm not to sure all about it, I couldn't really get a straight explanation. Anyways, there was a ton of people there, the night before my brother and dad had spent the night at the church (remember when I say church that it is literally just a tree with a wall around it maybe a foot and a half high) dancing and singing all night. I was meeting one of my coworkers at church also but walked from my house over with my brothers and two nieces. All the men were out on the street singing and dancing in their church dress which is kind of like a khaki suit, of course everyone turned to stare as I walked by, a white person with a head scarf on going to church carrying a little 3 yr old black child, probably an interesting site to see. Inside the compound all the women were in a circle singing. It was really cool, the singing here is unbelievable, I love listening to it. I joined the women with Mpho and Vanessa my two nieces (somehow I ended up being left with them) and stayed in the circle until Mpho (the 3 year old) fell asleep standing up so I took her out and held her. I got there about one and the singing lasted until about 2:30 which is when church started. There's about 3 or 4 priests (my dad included) and they, along with other men who I'm not sure there roll, sit at a table up front, everyone else just sits in the dirt. Here everyone sits with their legs straight out in front of them, trust me, it's really hard and really painful to sit like that for a long period of time, not fun. I didn't really understand any of it so I just sat there with the girls and listened and thought about how uncomfortable I was sitting and how hot it was. When it was my dad's turn to preach he introduced me to everyone and also had someone interpret what he was saying. The week before when I went to church, it was a much smaller service and they had interpreted the whole service for me. Anyways, in the middle of all this it started to rain, at first it was just some sprinkles but then it was pouring along with thunder and lightning, everyone got up and started making a rush for the house. I have never seen so many people fit in such a small space, it was nuts, you literally couldn't move. Church ended around 5 and they were serving pap and beef but it was a really long line so we decided to just go home. It was a very long day but really neat to see, I don't know how often I'll be going to church but it's a big part of my families life so I'm sure it will not be the last time.

Oh! The most exciting news, I don't think I've posted this before but maybe, there's GIRAFFES that live in my area!! Between Rebecca and I (45 min drive mainly on dirt road) you can see giraffes pretty regularly. Every time I've driven it in the past two weeks we've seen herds of giraffes, usually 4 or 5. It's unreal, they are so gorgeous, somewhat majestic, every time it's super exciting and you can help but think, holy cow, I'm really living in Africa, its amazing!

I realize this is a really long post but I know there's things I've left out as well. I hope you are all doing well back home and that it's starting to warm up and turn to summer!

Quick note on sending packages:

1. I love them, please send them!!

2. When you're filling out the customs form declare it as no more than $10 even if it is worth more. I have to pay a tax on them here and it's based on what you declare so it's easiest if you just declare it as a dollar and write that it's used materials or candy or whatever

3. If you can fit it in a padded envelope DO! I don't have to pay for padded envelopes

Thanks bunches!!

Well I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! Swearing in was held in Mokopane at the original place we spent out first few days in South Africa. The U.S. Ambassador came along with our country director, a representative from the mayors office and the National Youth League. It was short but nice. We gave speeches in Sepedi and Venda which was really cool to hear and also had our language teachers sing a song. After Swearing in everyone started to go there separate ways. It was pretty weird to say goodbye, most people I will not be seeing now until the end of June. We are on travel restriction for the first 3 months and are required to stay at our site. At the end of June though we have an in service training that will bring us all together.

One development since I last wrote though is that Rebecca, my closest friend here, ended up switching sites from KwaZulu Natal and is now placed with me! It's pretty great, we were both really excited. So Thursday afternoon the 2 of us were picked up by our supervisor from the municipality and headed to our site. Rebecca's house wasn't quite ready so she ended up spending the weekend with me.

I am living in a room that is attached to my families house but has an outside entrance so I am able to remain fairly independent. In my room I have my bed, a dressed, a bedside table, a small table that holds my hotplate and electric kettle and some drawers for my food. I also have 3 tubs, one for the dishes, one for my face and one for me to take my bath. It's a pretty good set up, we'll see what I think after six months though!

On Saturday Rebecca and I went into Polokwane to get a few more things we needed. We figured out the koombi's and everything and made it there and back no problem. The exciting thing was that on the drive we saw ostrich, kudu and impalas grazing on the side of the road, it was awesome, i think everyone in the koombi thought we were a little crazy though! That afternoon when we got back there was another soccer tournament going on (like last time I was here) so we headed over with my brother. Now that there was 2 of us it was double the stares we got last time. They ended up calling the game early though for two reasons, one, 2 players got in a fight and were punching each other and the second was it was starting to get dark. It was a 0-0 tie so they went to penalty kicks to determine who would move on. When they do penalties all the fans form a huge circle around the goal and you just have to get in there to be able to see, it's pretty crazy and fun to watch, the fans here go crazy for there team. By default (because of my brothers) I support the Tigers, my cousin plays for them (he's really good) and they won the game and moved on so that was exciting. On Sunday they made it to the finals and we went to watch (it also went to penalty kicks) but they couldn't finish because it got to dark. What they end up doing then is just sharing the prize money. Normally the winner would get 3,000 rand and second R1,000 but since they couldn't finish each team got R2,000 (in case you're wondering that's a lot of money here!).

On Monday Rebecca and I got to meet the mayor and all the local ward councillors. It was somewhat intimidating but also really cool, they all seemed excited to have us here so that was nice. After that we took Rebecca to move into her village, she is about 45 min from me so even though we are working for the same municipality we're not that close. She will have to come to my village though to do her grocery shopping so we'll probably see each other once a week and I'm sure we'll end up doing projects together.

I was supposed to start work with my home based care on Tuesday but it is now Thursday and I have yet to start work. Some problems arose and they want to sort them out before I begin, right now I'm set to start work on Monday the 14. So unfortunately no news yet on what I'll really be doing.

I've spent the last couple days just hanging out with my brothers. Luckily it's school holiday right now so they're around, otherwise I don't know what I'd be doing. Yesterday we played a soccer game out in the street which was a ton of fun! We didn't have a ball so my brother made one out of bread bags and a mesh bag, it was really good! I've also been going running with my 15 yr old brother, I always wonder what people think when they see the two of us running together, we must look pretty funny.

One major thing that I've been having to adjust to is the electricity. South Africa is under a major electricity crisis right now and they don't have enough to go around. Our electricity usually goes out around 6 every night and is out until 8 or 8:30, sometimes later. You never really know when it's going to happen though. Basically I have to remember to cook dinner before 6 or it's not going to happen and then my evenings are spent playing cards in the house by candlelight with my brother. It's different but not to bad, some volunteers don't have electricity at all!

So far my new community is great, I'm anxious to start work but know that it will come, what's one week over the course of two years. I'm loving every minute of it though and will try to post some pictures of the past two months as soon as I can!!!

I wrote this on April 1st thinking that I would be able to post it the next day but this is the first access I've had. I figured I'd post it anyways though and also write about my new experiences.

As I sit and write this it's pretty hard to believe that I've been living in South Africa for two months! It has been filled with ups and downs and too many changes and experiences to even begin to explain.

As training comes to a close I am excited to begin my work here but also sad as I have to leave the village I have been living in for the past two months. On Thursday I will officially be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and leave for my site to begin my two years of service.

some new on where I'm going, I'm still not really sure exactly what type of work I'll be doing but I will be based at a Home Based Care facility that works out of a clinic in the local hospital.

There is one grocery store about a 45 min walk from where I'll be living which is nice so I won't have toake the 1 hr 15 min koombi ride into Polokwane every weekend to get my food. My village isn't as rural as where I've been living but is still considered rural with all dirt roads (I'm a 5 min walk from the tar road though) and in the bush. The village is much larger and it's formed in blocks, much like cities in the states. I think of it more as a township than a village, there's just no town that it's near. I call it a city of houses in the middle of nowhere.

Last week when I went to visit I got to meet my new family that I will be living with and they are amazing. I'm really excited to get to know them. It is the mother and father and they have 9 kids, 5 of which live at home. The father works in Polokwane so he lives there most of the time and is not often around (this is VERY common in South Africa). I was able to meet him while I was there though and he is a great guy, very friendly.

The oldest child lliving there is a 28 yr old girl, she has 2 daughters that live with us as well that are 6 and 3. We got along very well and I'm excited to get to know her better. She runs the entire house, the mom works all day so she is responsible for all the cleaning and cooking, it's pretty amazing. The next oldetst is a 25 yr old boy. When I was visitng he and I went to a soccer tournament in the village on Easter. It was a lot of fun. It was all local teams (soccer is really big here, yay!) and they started with 8 teams on Saturday and on Sunday we went to watch the semi-finals and final. The field was dirt with some grass patches and the lines were just drawn in the dirt. The play is fast and the players are very skilled, it was amazing to watch. Going there was interesting as well though, not only was I the only white person (this always causes a lot of staring) I'm also a young female too, I was glad to be with my brother so he was able to take all the questions. Everyone was really nice though and I got to meet community members which was good.

The rest of the kids living in the house are 3 boys who are 18, 15, and 10. Only the 10 year old doesn't speak English. The 18 yr old was gon for a church gathering since it was Easter weekend but I got to know the others fairly well. We played cricket in the yard and they helped me with my Sepedi (I'm pretty bad and both!). They also have an amazing garden! It is huge with corn, oranges, avacados, tangerinces, lemons, guavas, spinach, mango and more that I don't know or remember. Right now it's the middle of guava season, mangos just finished and oranges are just starting to be ripe.

Where I live now we have mangoes and pomegranets in the yard. It was so amazing to be able to walk out into the yard and pull mangoes off the tree to eat. they are really good fresh, I can't wait until next year when I get to eat them again!

I'm very excited to get to know my new family and community but it's also really hard to leave. I have made some great relationships here and will miss everyone very much! There's a lot of kids that I have become close with that I visit everyday, my koko's grandchildren always come to say hello and the neighbors across the street, I think I spend more time with them than anyone else. There's also a guy around my age that comes and helps my koko around the house and we've come to be friends, he's taught me a lot, he works at the mines so it's been really interesting to hear about and then of course my koko. I can't even begin to describe how amazing she is. She has been nothing but kind and accepting and it's so hard to leave her. I will definately be coming back for visits! Some other things I'm going to miss are:

-the dirt paths winding through the village

- cows sitting in the middle of the road on my morning run

- donkey carts racing by

- knowing everyone on my street

- everyone knowing my name (cuts down on explaining to everyone)

-the 7 other PCV's I live with in my village now

Some of these things I'm sure I'll have in my new village too, it'll just take time and adjusting.

The day after I wrote this I left my original village and it was by far the hardest thing I've had to do here in South Africa (I finally shed some tears)! It's now been a week and I'm glad to say that I've been able to talk to my Koko on the phone (she called to check up on me and make sure my new family was treating me right, I told you she's amazing) and a few others in the village. I know that they will be part of my life for a long time!