April Fools!

It’s been a few days! Tuesday I had my last class of the term in which basically all the foreigners in the class were given the stage to discuss what they thought of South Africa now and what we had predicted it would be like before we came. Some of the things that were mentioned were that here in South Africa it is a lot more dangerous than at home. Here, each house is surrounded by a wall about 8 foot tall with an electric fence or sharp edges so that no one can get in. Everything here must be accomplished before darkness falls otherwise you run the risk of being mugged. During the day though, everyone is very friendly and willing to help anyone. The driving here in completely different and it is almost more aggressive than driving in New Jersey. Everything here is prepaid, which is almost better because then you don’t have as many people in debt from not being able to pay their bills. Although it is very annoying because when you run out of electricity in the middle of the night it really sucks. I am now done with all my classes from first term which was 7 weeks long, but I don’t take the finals for those classes until June. Another annoying thing is that the final exam schedule doesn’t come out until the middle of May, so it prevents us from planning any trips in June because we cant schedule. After class I laid out all afternoon and relaxed. Once it started getting cooler I had some dinner and then started to research for my Xhosa Culture paper. My topic was the rites of passage that boys and girls must go through in order to pass into adulthood. It was very interesting to read about, but I also still had the writing part to accomplish. I waited until Wednesday night to do that. Wednesday I laid out all day with Becca by the pool after our short run in the morning. Then volunteering was at 215. Today was very quiet and loud at Masifunde at the same time. It was quiet because we didn’t have much to do since they start their holiday from school in two days, but loud because since there was nothing to do that means the kids were running around and screaming! It was organized chaos because for the kids who did have stuff to do, we got it done. The kids who didn’t have anything to get finished sat in a different room and drew pictures and listened to a story, while anyone who needed help came to the usual study hall room. I worked with Zenela first, and all she had to do was paste some pictures she had colored into her book. It was simple for her, so we did a lot of chatting while she was working. She asked about celebrities in the US and if I knew any of them. While we were chatting, Noni (I have to figure out how to spell her name properly) came in a gave me a picture she drew of me. It is currently hanging in my room! I then drew a picture of her, which got some laughs from the other kids seeing as I can not draw. Noni had a little bit of homework since she is in grade 7 and it isn’t as easy as what some of the other kids are doing. We got it finished pretty quickly and then we just chatted the rest of the time. She told me all about her “traditional work” that her family is having in a few weeks which is when everyone in her family gets dressed in their traditional clothes and they slaughter a cow and make great food. It was interesting hearing all about it and she was most excited to see all her cousins that would come to her house to celebrate with her family. She is also excited for her birthday which is right around the corner! She will be turning 14 and she already has a boyfriend that she is going to see this weekend! Then we talked about how she wants to travel around her country first then around the world. She said that she definitely wants to visit America and I told her that she should study abroad there for a semester similar to what I am doing in her country. She is a very bright, hardworking girl and I don’t think she will have any problem getting into college and doing well. I think today I helped Noni realize that if she works hard enough in school that she can do any imaginable, like visiting all the countries she wants to see. I think this goes along with the guiding principal of empowering Noni in which I mean that when I told her that she could study abroad just like I am, her eyes lit up with excitement. She is already looking forward to college at the age of almost 14. I didn’t know where I wanted to go to college until about the month before school started! I don’t think that I can really answer the question of what needs to change in the way I volunteer from this session because I basically just chatted the whole time. It was a free day to hang out and talk with the kids. They really enjoyed our company and stuck around even though they could have gone home. There was an intense game of jump rope happening outside as we waited for our transport to arrive. Once we got home I got right to work on my paper and ended up basically finishing it around 130am. I still had to include my sources, but I just inserted them in on Thursday morning. Thursday was a normal Thursday. I read through my paper a few times and sent it in. Chelsea and I took a bus down to Pick N Pay to pick up some stuff and I really wanted a pineapple. We went a round about way to get there because we picked up a lot of people along the way. We ate lunch at Friends, which I haven’t been to since the first few weeks I was here. I made some dinner when we got back and then we started getting ready for ladies night. Ladies nights are always the same, but no matter what they are always fun! I woke up this morning with the intent of getting a lot of odds and ends things done and I think I am doing pretty well so far. We unfortunately aren’t going anywhere this weekend although I really wanted to, but it is probably better because the weather isn’t all that great anyways. April is going to go by way too fast. The first weekend if the irongirl race which is only 10k and a lot of girls in Annie’s are signed up to run! Then the actual Ironman is on Sunday, which I am so excited for!!! Cheers!