November 29-30, 2007

We were up early this morning to all shower and get ready in the morning. Tonya came into our room to say goodbye to us, and Bonnie gave everyone hugs. We went downstairs to say goodbye to Enice and Hazel and that is when the tears started to come down. We gave hugs and Q came over to see us all off. He waited with us for our ride from Lucky Taxi and I was crying so much saying goodbye to him. Every time I looked at Q, I would start to cry, and I just couldn’t talk to him because it made me so sad. He helped us pack our things into the Kombis and he gave all of us a hug and then stood on the curb and waved us as we drove away. Ugh! It made me so sad saying goodbye to him. As we were leaving he told us, “It’s just like you girls are going away for the weekend and you will be back on Monday and I’ll see you then. It’s “see ya later” not goodbye.” He always puts things so nice and makes you feel better about things. The plan is that we will see him again because he is planning on coming to Minnesota to visit hopefully this summer before he gets tired down with things. That would be so much fun…we already started a list of things that we could do when he comes to visit.

We got to the airport in PE and had our bags saran wrapped so people couldn’t break into them, then off we went for checking our bags, I was so worried that my bags were going to be overweight…but I didn’t get an overweight tag and I didn’t have to pay extra money for the bags which was a pleasant surprise! We got through security and we sat in the airport for three hours waiting for take off. On the flight to Jo’burg, I sat with Leslie and Christy right in the middle of the two. The flight was an hour and a half and then we made it to Jo’burg and we made the confusing walk through the airport there. It’s a good thing that we got lost there when we came to South Africa because we knew exactly where we had to be going! We waited to check in with Delta and then we did our Vat tax refund and I got back almost $100 from the taxes that I spent in South Africa. After getting our money we grabbed sandwiches and I got a pepperoni sandwich and it was delicious. We were told that we couldn’t exchange our Rand at the bank in the airport so rather than worrying about it, I did a little more shopping at a few stores in the airport and I spent the exact amount of Rand that I had left! We were able to leave Jo’burg an hour earlier than scheduled. Laura, Kasy, and I sat across the aisle from each other. I sat next to a very friendly man from Juno, Alaska and we talked for quite a while on the trip, exchanging stories about our African trips (he was in the Congo and Botswana) and we talked about nursing and my clinical experience. I learned that he is a writer and his third book was published and released last Sunday and he has interviews all next week in New York. It was neat talking to him about it, and he wrote down the names of his three books for me to check out. One of them is a memoir about his travel experiences in a humorous light. The other two books are about World War II. We were lucky on this flight because we all had personal televisions on our seats! I definitely got my use out of the TV. I watched many movies on the flight to Dakar (Georgia Rule, License to Wed, Hairspray, The Office, My Name is Earl, and I played a game and listened to some music.) I managed to stay awake for the flight to Dakar, only sleeping for 45 minutes. We arrived in Dakar at 2:10am (South African time…about seven hours after leaving Jo’burg). Then we stayed on the plane to refuel and have security come through and we were back in the air an hour and a half later. I took a Tylenol PM for this flight because I wanted to get some sleep. I slept for about three hours on this flight, and ended up watching more movies (I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry, Harry Potter IV, Evan Almighty, and part of Surf’s Up). When I was stretching my legs in the back by the bathroom, I was asked by a random man, “Do you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior?” and for 15 minutes I was given a speech about the Bible and religion and his beliefs (he asked me if I knew what the Bible was). Finally the bathroom was my turn and I was able to escape…I was not in the mood for that conversation at 5:00am.

The plane ride was dark the entire time from leaving Jo’burg which was nice because it meant that we weren’t trying to sleep with the sun coming in, and the sun only started to rise when we were coming into Atlanta. We arrived at Atlanta at 7:35am after 9 hours and 20 minutes of flying from Dakar! We got our bags and went through Customs in Atlanta and had a three hour layover. Kasy and I went to get coffee and cinnamon rolls and it was so strange playing with things in American dollars, and seeing prices cheap and not in the Rand! We changed clothes and freshened up in the bathrooms and were on our way on the final of the four flights back to Minnesota! We were told that we are supposed to get a big snow storm tomorrow…and that there is snow at home! It blows my mind tha I am going home to that cold weather! Fortunately, when we took off in Atlanta we were able to see the trees and their colors change, so we experienced Autumn for about 30 seconds!

Now, I am sitting on the plane typing away and counting down the minutes until I am home in Minnesota and able to see my family! Mom and Dane are going to be at the airport to see me and Marcus is going to meet us at home when he is done with classes. We are going to go out for Mexican at Pablos tonight for dinner because I have such a craving for Mexican food…I haven’t eaten it since the night before I left for South Africa! I can’t wait and I am so darn excited! Only an hour and a half left on this flight and I’ll be home! I am so excited right now. But is’ strange because I’m sitting in the window seat looking out at the towns below and seeing American soil, but I am listening to my South African music….you can take the girl out of South Africa, but you can’t take South Africa out of the girl I guess. I am over the sadness of leaving SA…it’s just that I am going to miss Q and all of he other people I met so much, and that is what made leaving so darn difficult! But we have internet, Facebook, and all of the other wonderful ways to communicate! That’s about all that I have for right now…Minnesota, here I come!

November 28, 2007

I woke up at 6:30 this morning and I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I read my book for an hour and finished it! I started another book (seriously I have been getting so much reading done on this trip…I love it!). The sun was shining, so I made my way down to the market to get my things from Cassius and the animals were fantastic! He is so creative and artistic! I can’t wait to show people what I got on this trip! I said goodbye to my Rasta friend Chris who I bought too many paintings from! When I got back from the market I went straight to the roof to tan and the weather was B E A U T I F U L ! ! ! I was able to lay out for two hours, then grabbed a quick lunch of yogurt and granola and then went back to tan for another hour. Warren stopped over and he invited us for a drink at Captains so we all got dressed and met him and is friends for a drink at Captains one last time. On the walk back, Christy and I went down to the beach to take pictures and walk in the sand and in the water one last time. The water was so warm! When I got back to the flat we had a manicure station set up and Laura painted everyone’s nails and gave hand massages! It was wonderful! Around 6:00, Q came over and we all hung out for a bit, he helped me make a video for when I do my presentation at St. Wence. He demonstrated the clicks and talks in Xhosa for the camera! At 7:00 the five of us girls took Q out for dinner and we went to Leonardo’s for pizza. Q had never been there and it was delicious! We all had a great time sharing four pizzas and drinking sangrias! We came home and said bye to Q on the doorstep and he promised that he will be awake to send us off in the morning. We watched a movie on TV and did our last bits of packing. It’s not time for me to go to bed on my last night in South Africa. It has been such a strange day because it doesn’t feel like I am leaving PE and SA. I am going through the same feelings that I had when I was leaving the States and coming here…I felt like it wasn’t happening until I got on the airplane, so right now, I am in denial and pretending that I am able to stay. It’s not so much the going away and leaving the country that makes me sad, but it’s the saying goodbye to Q and the other friends that we have made here. Tomorrow I am sure that I will be all tears when we say goodbye to him. Its such a strange emotion trying to explain my excitement to come home and see family, give out my presents, and find the perfect place for all of my decorations yet at the same time I want to bring home the other things that I am going to miss, like the sound of the ocean at 4:00 in the morning when there are no cars and no people out on the streets (which lasts about five minutes, but it is still worth listening for the crashing waves from the flat), the walk to Captains for Thursday Night Trivia, Q coming over just to sit around and chat, and being surrounded by my eight new best girlfriends. That is probably going to be the most difficult to give up because we won’t be living together anymore and it is going to be so strange not having them all around…not sharing rooms with, meals with, kombi rides to class, going to class and then coming home and everything in between. Ugh! It’s so bittersweet. But I am going to go to bed before I start to cry and not want to leave! I can’t wait to see everyone! Love to all and I’ll be home soon!

November 27, 2007

Today we spent some time on the roof when the sun finally came out. It was crummy and windy in the morning, so the market was closed and I needed to go there to pick things up from a guy who was making a special order for me of bead animals. Hopefully it will be nice tomorrow and I can get it then! We tanned on the roof until the sun disappeared behind the clouds and it started to rain. Leslie and I went to Captains for lunch and we were the only people there! It was strange seeing the place empty! Lunch was great and we will have leftovers for dinner! I packed my suitcases today and everything fit which was a huge surprise! I couldn’t believe that all of my clothes and gifts could fit into my suitcases! We watched movies before going to bed as a group…and Leslie and I made an ice cream run one last time!

November 26, 2007

It was raining today…bummer! Actually the weather was really wacky today because it would be overcast, then sunny and hot, then the wind would pick up, and then it would pour down. This weather cycled continuously throughout the day today. Leslie and I went down to the market but it was too windy so our bead guy wasn’t there to give us the statues that he made for us. Bummer! I hope that he is back tomorrow. Laura and I walked to the boardwalk to use the internet and of course the CSB site didn’t work. So that was a waste of money! Oh well, we took a Kombi back because it was raining (our last ride of the trip). We all sat in the flat today and watched movies, worked on videos, and just hung out. Q came over and spent the afternoon with us just talking. We went out to dinner at Mediterranean with Tonya and her family (Bill and Bonnie)! It was very yummy (as usual). We had a fun dinner and the conversations were funny! Overall, it was a good night. When we got back from dinner, Q came over again and had a beer with us as we sat in the living room watching a really bad movie with no plot and we talked. We tried convincing him that he should come to Minnesota to visit us next summer!

November 25, 2007

This morning was absolutely gorgeous! We put on the swimsuits and tank tops and hit the market! I was only going to buy a few more things, but I bought two more paintings, a beaded bowl, earrings and a finger piano. Oh well, that will be the last time that I get to go there and I wanted to make sure that I had everything that I wanted and needed! When we got back to Langerry, we hit the roof for 2 ½ hours and we got very tan (and a tad burnt). This was pretty much the extent of our day and night…just being lazy because we are on vacation!

November 24, 2007

This morning I was up and ready for another lazy day. I spent the morning working on my video and reading my book. The car people came and picked up the car and I had a few things to tell them about their services in regards to miscommunication and their lack of explaining things to their clients. But it was all sorted out, and even better the sun came out! Leslie and I went up to the roof and the other three came up to join us. We spent two hours soaking in the sun, reading, and sleeping while tanning. The five of us got all dressed up for dinner at Blue Waters. I actually ordered something different than the chicken stir fry…I had the venison stroganoff and it was delicious! We came back to the flat to put our leftovers in the refrigerator and we hung out for a bit until Q came over and said that he would come out with us for a bit! Today in PE in the bay was a big music festival and there are people all over the streets jamming to music in their parked cars, and crowding the streets to get into the bars and clubs. We went to Virtual Sports and sure enough Kyle and Mava were there. We danced with Kyle and Q for quite a bit and then we saw our German friend there too (I still have yet to learn and remember his name!). We danced for a few hours and shared too many laughs about one girl who just hopped from guy to guy dancing! Warren was also out, so we had to take a bunch of pictures as a group since it might be the last time all of us are together. When we were out on the outdoor patio, Q and I were talking and he put his arm around me and said, “Lady Leah, when you get back home to Minnesota, you are going to find the most perfect guy and you are going to fall in love. And he is going to be so nice and treat you so well and when you find him, you will think of me and what I’m saying right now. You have such a great personality and you are so beautiful and you will be so happy. I know that it’s hard for you to be around all of the girls when they talk about their boyfriends and get to see them when you get home, but it will happen for you.” Seriously, I am going to miss him so much…Tusie is such a lucky girl! By 1:30, Christy Laura and I were tired and we walked back home. I called Dad to tell him about the Durban trip and Q cam back with the girls and we all talked for a bit. It’s now 2:30am and I am calling it a night! I am very excited for tomorrow because it is the last market day! I hope that the weather is nice!

November 23, 2007

I slept in until 10:00 this morning! It was absolutely fabulous! It was a bummer that it was raining though and we couldn’t sit out on the beach…I was hoping for sunshine the rest of the trip to get as tan as I possibly can before coming home. Rather than going out we stayed in and were really lazy. At 12:30 Christy and I drove the other three girls to go and get their hair done, and while they were getting beautified, we went grocery shopping and to the internet café…which as so slow, I waited 15 minutes and my email couldn’t even open up. We bought some food and ingredients for spaghetti casserole and salads. We also stopped at the bakery and we bought cake for the Langerry staff to enjoy as a thank you from all of us for all of their help during our stay here. At 3:00 Christy and I went back and picked the girls up and they looked so darn cute! All of their hairstyles were different than when we dropped them off and they looked so pretty! It made me really excited to go and get mine done when I get home…I can’t wait! The rest of the afternoon was spent catching up on my journals and watching movies with Christy. We watched Rent, Pretty Woman, and one with Denzel Washington. I made dinner for everyone and we had a “family” dinner together! I was able to call home and talk to mom and tell her about my trip to Durban and now I am going to go to bed because I am exhausted!

November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!
I was sad when I woke up this morning and I wasn’t able to be going to Grandmas for dinner to eat my favorite holiday meal! We started on the road at 8:30 to go to Coffee Bay and sadly said goodbye to Durban! We started on the road and it was rainy and crummy. I read in the backseat during the drive and got pretty far in my book! We arrived at the turn off of the N2 to get to Coffee Bay, and the road was absolutely crappy. It was covered in potholes, and driving down the road was like playing a video game by swerving to avoid the enormous potholes. I was so scared that we were going to get a flat tire. If driving and trying to avoid potholes wasn’t bad enough we also had to watch out for animals and people. There were little children that would line the road begging for money, some would try to barricade us by playing chicken with the car and standing in the road to make us stop and then try to take our money. I’m glad that Leslie was driving because she just kept driving to make them run out of the way because it is too dangerous to slow down and stop. We finally got to Coffee Bay after an hour of driving on the road and it was a crap hole! We went to the backpackers and we were told that we would be sharing a room with two other people in a dorm…well we actually were sharing it with seven other people and it was a thatched roof and the mattresses were pieces of foam on the ground. It had rained that afternoon and the mud surrounding the backpackers was so gross and there were chickens running around. We couldn’t even get to the beach because it was high tide. The bathrooms also were a sad story and right then and there we made an executive decision and decided to turn back around and go back to PE. We drove the scary road back, and I have never been so scared for my life. I just wanted to get off of the road and away from the people. No wonder that crime is such an issue in this country because these people have nothing else to do, so they line the roads and congregate there and try to scare the motorists. It was such a relief to finally be back on the N2. We drove for quite a bit and then at 8:00 we stopped in King William’s Town and filled up on gas, and called Enice at Langerry to see if she had a room for us, if not we had a few back up plans to where we could stay at other hotels, the backpackers in PE, or worst case scenario we would stay at Q’s place for the night. Enice said that she would have a room for us! We drove another 3 ½ hours through rain, storm clouds, and winding roads. When we saw the lights of PE we all cheered and were so happy to be home! When we called Gert (our security guard) to let us into the building, he came to see us and said “Welcome Home!” We were so darn happy to come home to Langerry and even better news is that we were in Flat 13! My old room! I crawled onto my bed and was so happy to be back here! That was the best decision that we made on the entire trip! Leslie and I went to McDonalds to get dinner and we circled the parking lot three times until we finally concluded that it was closed…but Steers was open 24 hours so we went there for a burger and fries…my Thanksgiving meal (well that and the trail mix that I had to snack on in the car on the drive home)! After I ate dinner, I called Grandma and Papa’s and was able to talk to quite a few people and wish the Happy Thanksgiving! It was nice talking to everyone and I can’t wait to see everyone when I am home next week!

November 21, 2007

Today was or day at Ushaka Marine World. We arrived at 10:00 and ended up staying until 3:30! They had a Sea World and a waterpark that we went to. We started in Sea World and we walked through the aquariums and saw the sea lion and dolphin shows. After we went to the water park where we went on the lazy river a few times around and enjoyed the sunshine. After the lazy river, Kasy, Christy, and I went on the waterslide! We raced down some of the inner tube slides, we went on a slide that took your bottoms and tops down when you went underwater at the end, and the family tube ride! After we were tired of the water we sat at the bar and had a birthday drink with Leslie! Christy and I ordered a Mermaid’s Heaven and it was a very fruity and yummy drink! After the water park we went back to the backpackers and got ready for a night out to celebrate! I wore my new fun shirt and we went back to Suncoast to Mimmos for Italian! I had baked macaroni pasta and it was delicious! Our waiter and everyone else knew that it was our last night in Durban and they kept coming over to us and asking us how we were doing! After dinner, we went to the casino to have a drink (after not being allowed into the martini bar because we didn’t have closed toed shoes). After a drink at the casino, we went to the Globe (the bar on the roof of the backpackers) and we bought a few more drink for Leslie. But I went to bed after a while because I was tired and we have an early day tomorrow morning!

November 20, 2007

This morning we woke up and it was a crummy day. It was sprinkling and overcast outside so the plan for the day included going to Umhalanga, an area North of Durban. There were beaches and rock formations that we were supposed to see but we couldn’t find where we were going, and when we asked for directions no one knew what we were talking about. Since it was overcast and rainy, we went to the big mall to spend some money! I bought a cute shirt for Leslie’s birthday and a new tank top and swimming suit top. I also bought a new duffel bag for my carry on to bring my souvenirs home in, and the best thing about it is that it is pink! We went walking by an Imax movie theater and saw that Beauty and the Beast was showing, so we went to see it! We watched the movie and ate our sandwiches that we packed with us! After the movie we shopped a bit more and I bought two new books for the airplane ride home! I’m really excited to read them because they look like good chick-lit! After our day of shopping we came back to the Happy Hippo and read our books, checked some emails, and got ready for dinner. We went to Suncoast (again) and had dinner at a sea food restaurant, I ordered a grilled chicken and avo salad with garlic bread). Then after dinner went to see another movie! It was cheap movie Tuesdays and we saw The Kingdom for R12. I absolutely hated the movie and was so uncomfortable watching it, particularly in a foreign country. I was happy when it was over at midnight and we drove back home and went to bed!

November 19, 2007

This morning we were up and ready to go to the beach at 10:00. After yogurt and granola for breakfast we piled into Big Red and headed back to Suncoast. We found chairs right away at by 10:30 we were bathing beauties all in a row! I finished the Nora Roberts book that I was reading and I started the other book that I just bought at the market last weekend. The sun was much hotter today because it wasn’t quite as windy as it was yesterday. Christy, Leslie, and I made our way through the burning sand down to the ocean. The water was warm compared to PE and we cooled down and went back to our spots in the sun. We stayed out until 2:30 and went in to buy ice cream (caramel crunch and chocolate walnut). We decided to search for the market on Florida Street, but we had no such luck. We did take a nice detour through the city and saw a pretty side to Durban with beautiful big houses and landscaping. We drove by the botanical gardens and decided to have a walk around. The gardens were beautiful and I got great pictures of some really beautiful pink and yellow flowers! There also was an orchid house that we stopped in to take pictures too. As we were walking we saw four monkeys and we tried to get close to take pictures. Christy got a little too close to one of the monkeys and they all started chasing her! Laura and I bolted and were so busy laughing at the whole situation because as she was running she kicked a flip flop at one of the monkeys and a security came and helped her get her shoe. Luckily no one got hurt or bit by the monkeys. After the gardens we came back to the Happy Hippo and I took the best shower of my life! After my shower I went out on the covered balcony to journal and read my book. I sat out on the balcony and I watched a storm come into Durban, there was so much lighting and thunder and the rain came pouring down. I don’t ever remember thunderstorms in PE, just rain, so this was my first South African storm! We met a couple from Virginia at the backpackers (the state, not the town in Minnesota) and they were both really nice. We made dinner again at the backpackers and Lee and Sarah (the people from Virginia) came back and we talked with them about their travels for quite a bit. We read our books a little bit more and got ready for bed

November 18, 2007

We allowed ourselves to sleep in a bit this morning and time to relax and read in bed. Around 10:00 we got Big Red from the garage and went grocery shopping to buy food for two at home dinners and lunches. We came back to the Happy Hippo and made lunch. After lunch we changed and found the beach! We went to the North Beaches at Suncoast (a hotel, mall, movie theater, and restaurant complex with a private beach). We paid R5 to park in their gated and secured parking lot and then R5 to use their private beach. The area where we laid our towels to tan was on finely cut grass with umbrellas and beach chairs available. This was the secured part, and then there were stairs that led down to the ocean and the sandy beach. We found a nice area and hung out in the sun soaking in the rays and reading our books. As I was sitting there I looked around and couldn’t help but feel like I was in Florida, and not South Africa. The buildings, landscaping, palm trees, and live music brought me back to Florida when Alison and I went there this last March. We stayed at the beach for three hours and decided to go back to the backpackers for dinner and a shower. We made pizzas and got dressed to go back to Suncoast for a movie. We paid R20 for our ticket and Kasy and I shared a popcorn and a pop for R16…so for a night at the movie with treats came to a grand total of R36 (which is about $5.25…less than what it costs for just a ticket at home!). We saw Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller and it was a little disappointing! After the movie we came back to the Happy Hippo and called it a night!

November 17, 2007

I woke up at 4:45 am to say goodbye to the Nomad group (Carrie, Katherine, Brenna, Ashley, and Alex). They were scheduled to be picked up by taxi at 5:00, so we all got together to say our goodbye and wave goodbye on the curb. It was sad saying goodbye to my three roommates, and I was definitely crying when I had to say goodbye to Carrie…this is the longest that we will have gone without talking to each other! After their taxi was out around the corner and out of sight, I went back to an empty apartment to sleep for another two hours. I had a hard time sleeping because the sun was up and shining in my bedroom at 5:00am but I managed to get another hour of sleep in before having to get ready for out trip. At 7:15 I crawled out of bed and gathered my things for the Durban trip. By 8:00 our car arrived and we were all ready to go. Our car is a Palio Go! and she is smaller than a Geo Metro. We decided that it is about the size of a twin mattress. We named her “Big Red” and we managed to squeeze five girls and all of our duffel bags into the trunk. It was quite a tight squeeze! Leslie and Christy took turns driving, while Laura, Kasy, and I cuddled in the back! Tonya saw us off and we were out on the open road to find a map (we were told that we were going to get a map in the car, but didn’t…just like we were told that we would be getting a four door car, but got the delightful surprise of a two door). We found a map and headed to the N2 at 9:15 am. We drove until 10:45 and had a quick bathroom stop and were back cruising the N2. We drove until 4:00 and we stopped in Mthata for gas and a lunch/dinner at the grocery store. We ate on the road and we drove the rest of the way to Durban without making any stops. During the second half of our drive we ran into really crummy weather. Leslie did a great job navigating us through clouds on the hilly and curvy mountain roads. All five of us had our eyes glued to the road too look for animals that wander and camp out in the street (cattle, goats, dogs, donkeys, and horses all line the ditches and roadways and don’t move out of the way when they see oncoming traffic). We also learned that people are equally as easy to hit along the road at dark (we didn’t hit anyone fortunately) because many hitchhike home from work and they stand on or in the road to flag motorists down for rides. Other than those few worries, we had a fun drive with great music! Thank goodness for the music because it would have been a miserable ride in the backseat where if you wanted to move, everyone had to move on the count of three! We all would sing along, belting out the words, and every now and then we would break out the dance moves! When we were driving through particularly unsafe towns we decided that country music wasn’t the most appropriate genre of music to be listening to, so we would play Soweto Gospel Choir or Lestie’s songs. When we were pulling into Durban we were so excited to see the city…the problem tough was that we didn’t have a map of Durban. All we knew was that we had to take the exits and follow the signs for Ushaka Marine World because the Happy Hippo backpackers was right next to it. We also knew that the backpackers was on Mahatma Gandhi road and we had to cross over Bell Street to get there. We took the last possible exit after seeing no signs for Ushaka and we ended up in central Durban. We made a few guesses with turns and roads to take and just when we came to a T in the road and we were going to go back to the N4, I screamed, “There’s Bell!” We looked at Ushaka was right in front of us! We were so close, we went left and circled the block back around and went right and we found Gandhi. We took a left and saw an Engen (our other landmark that we were told about) and there was the Happy Hippo right in front of us! We unfolded out of Big Red a 9:00pm after 12 hours of driving! There was a bit of confusion when we arrived, apparently there was a mix up about our booking. 1.) They only had us booked until Tuesday—we are supposed to stay until Thursday morning, 2.) Our first night we would have to split up into two double rooms and a dorm room, 3.) Our price was quoted differently. Lets just say that we weren’t very happy, but we will sort it out with the owner tomorrow rather than dealing with it at 9:00 after driving the entire day. We made it work though, because w brought the mattress from the dorm room into the double room on the floor and we were all comfy and cozy. I slept on the floor mattress with Christy and Leslie and Laura and Kasy slept in a double room next door. We talked for a bit, then read, journaled, and we were sleeping at 10:30!

November 16, 2007

Today is our last day together as a group. I woke up at 7:00am to check my emails quickly before the internet was cut off (we were told that it would be cut off sometime during the day, but we didn’t know when). Thanks for all of the emails and messages from people! All of the farewells and safe travels were appreciated and made my morning start out great! I have to say that my favorite email came from Jeff Storelee (Personal note to Jeff…I was in the middle of writing an email back to you and the internet cut out! Thank you so much for the email, it meant a ton!) At 8:30, Denise came pounding on the door for the internet router and all outlet converters. That put a damper on the morning because she never told us that she was going to come that early (and my roommates were all sleeping and were woken up). Needless to say we had many frustrated people. Everyone was crabby, so to intervene on my bad mood, Alex, Ashley, and I went to Pick ‘n Pay to buy a converter. It was quite the power walk because we made it there and back in an hour. The afternoon was spent packing the final items that needed to be in my suitcase, watching the movie Stick It, and cleaning up the flat. Alex, Carrie, and I met Q, Kyle, and Andrea for lunch at Captains as a farewell lunch and drinks. Then at 6:30 we all went out to Gondwanas for drinks with Q and Tusie. When we got back to Langerry after our night together I called Mom and I had a mini meltdown on the phone about me being nervous for traveling to Durban, wanting to be home, missing family and Thanksgiving, and saying goodbye to the Nomad group. I cried a lot but I got it out of my system. I went to bed feeling nervous for tomorrow and the next week of traveling.

November 15, 2007

This morning was a morning where I actually wanted to sleep in, and could have because I didn’t wake up before the alarm went off, but we decided to go to the mall today and we were leaving to catch the bus at 9:30. We walked to the bus stop and it was gloomy and misty out. While at the bus stop there was a guy who has his artwork at the market and he asked where we were going and he was able to cut a deal with a kombi driver to drive all of us directly to the mall (and his drop off near his house) but we would pay R10 instead of the usually R5, the driver agreed and he brought us to the entrance to the mall. We were going to be at the mall for a short time because the only thing many of us needed were rugby things. We went to the store all excited and when we walked into the room there was absolutely nothing. It was so disappointing, so we asked around to see if there were other places in the mall that may have rugby attire. We were told that there were no other stores, but Sportsman’s Warehouse was “close close.” So we decided to walk the six blocks to 6th Ave where the store was located. We learned that “close close” really is translated to “far far” and a 45 minute walk through the drizzling rain through Central PE (not very safe) to get the rugby things. We also learned at a moffet is not the name of a nursery rhyme character and is not a hill, rather it is a mall. When we made it to the sports store we were thoroughly disappointed because there was no selection and things were expensive. I did buy a t-shirt and luggage tags while we were there, but the trip was still as B I G waste of time! We were too frustrated to walk back to Green Acres to catch the bus, so we called our friends at Lucky cab company and they came to pick us up and bring us home. I spent the afternoon doing everything that I needed the internet for because our connection is being cut off tomorrow. I lounged around on the rainy afternoon in sweatpants watching TV shows and working on my computer. We went out in the evening for dinner to Blue Waters for our last group dinner together. We each were given R100 to spend on our meals (compliments of our program budget) so we were all able to have an appetizer (we split nachos between five of us), a main course (chicken stir fry), and dessert (chocolate mousse with ice cream). It was a delicious meal and we all had a great time together. As we were walking back from dinner it started to rain, so we were soaking wet by the time we got home. I’m not trying to cram as much internet time in as I possibly can to write emails update pictures, and update my blog. I won’t have internet access in my apartment after tomorrow and I won’t have access through the rest of my trip (I’m home in two weeks), I will try to get to an internet café to update my blog after I am home to PE from our trip to Durban, but if not, I will update things when I am back in Minnesota! Thanks so much for reading my blog! I am very excited to come home and see everyone! Miss you and love you all!

November 14, 2007

This morning we had meetings with Denise about our final grades and overall evaluations, it went well. I was a little disappointed, well more frustrated with one of my finals because I was docked points because the question was worded poorly and I should have “assumed that was what the question was supposed to be.” Ugh! Oh well, I ended up with a 97% so it didn’t really matter. After the evaluation I got ready for class and went to our last political science class. We did paper presentations, so we each talked about our final papers for five minutes and class was over! I am officially done for the semester! It feels really weird that it is the end of the semester because there is no snow on the ground and I am not leaving campus for Christmas! I spent the rest of the afternoon packing and organizing my bags! This will be interesting at the airport because my bags are packed to the brim and are a little heavy! Oh well, if I have to pay the extra weight fee so be it! We had a wine and cheese party with our group before going downstairs for the Langerry braai. The staff at Langerry decided to have a braai for all of us, so we all put on our NMMU polos and went down to chit chat and have drinks before dinner. The meal was amazing, and they had the room decorated very nice for us! It was a fancy and classy set up and it all was amazing! After dinner I finished packing and we decided to go out dancing! All of us girls (well, everyone except Christy) wore our NMMU shirts to Toby’s! We had two guys come up to us and one asked me which sports team we were on. I told him that we didn’t play a sport and we were just wearing them for fun! Let me also say that the back of the shirt has the NMMU logo and it says, “Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Interational” on it! He didn’t quite get it but he continued to dance with us! We stayed out for a bit and then came home and tried to find pajamas that weren’t packed and now it’s off to bed!

November 13, 2007

Let me just start by saying that today was a great day!

This morning I woke up at 7:20 and snuck into Katherine’s room to decorate the wall in her room with a birthday sign, paper flowers, the birthday card I made, and pictures that we had printed. We also put her present on her desk! She was in the shower as this was happening, and she also got a surprise in the shower…we filled it with balloons after she went to bed last night because we knew that she would be the first one up in the morning! She was surprised by everything!

After getting ready and studying for a few quick minutes, we went to campus to take our very last final for the semester! The final went alright…there were a few questions that I don’t think we ever read about or took notes on, but oh well, it was a great feeling to be done! After class we all met at the Boardwalk at Dulce for lunch to celebrate Katherine’s birthday! We were able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine and eat our lunch! I had a tram for lunch (could be my last one L) and it was delicious! We came back home and I was the lucky winner and I got a postcard saying that I had a package waiting for me at the post office! I walked the windy walk (it was the windiest it has ever been) to the post office and to my surprise it came from J. Krasinski (aka Aunt Kathy)! She sent a card with the St. Ben’s Sacred Heart Chapel (reminded me of home and school) and an Office package! There was I heart Jim post-it notes and paper, Dwight note pads, magnets, and pens (which by the way are the greatest pens in the world because they are fine tip…love those!). it made my day and made me smile as I was opening it! When Alex and Brenna came back from shopping I ran to show them because they are also Office fans and they loved it!

I spent some time beginning the packing process of y souvenirs and figuring out which things should go in my checked luggage or my carry-on. At 6:00 Tonya, Alex, Leslie, and I took Katherine out for a birthday drink at Gondwana! Katherine and I split a two for one and it was one of the best fruity drinks that I have had in South Africa! We came back home after a drink and after about an hour of sitting around in our room the power went out! We all grabbed our flashlights and conserved computer power because some people were still writing paper that is due tomorrow! We walked in pairs through the hall because it was dark and creepy! We think that the power outage is due to a large fire that happened in a township by the airport. We don’t have any details about it, but it was all smokey all over PE this afternoon and some people drove past the airport to go to Walmer and they were told that it was a fire in the township. Hopefully everyone is alright. The power was out for an hour and when it came on we all jumped around because we could finally see and not rely on two small flashlights!

At 9:30 we walked down the hall with a chocolate cake with candles singing Happy Birthday to Katherine! We all ate the yummy cake together and sat around talking…then Ashley announced that we got the email about our clinical placement for next semesters Capstone class! We all ran to our computers and I found out that I am at North Memorial Medical Center on the pediatric unit!!! I seriously am the happiest person right now! I was jumping around the apartment with the roomies and we were all giddy and excited! Carrie and Katherine are at Children’s and Ashley is in the schools for the St. Cloud School district! All of us got where we wanted and we were all so darn happy! I was so excited that I had to call mom at work to tell her and we talked for less than a minute but I was so excited! I tried skyping Dad but he was at work already! I was waiting for Marcus to sign on to AIM so I could tell him and it made me happy to have him excited with me too! He was asking me all kinds of questions about it and it made me all excited! It seriously has been such a great day today!

November 12, 2007

This morning we had our Public Health test and it was a piece of cake! It was an essay exam and the questions were very easy! It was a great feeling to walk out of the room and be done with that class…now just one more final tomorrow and I am done with the nursing classes! On the way home from school, Ashley and I stopped at Pick ‘n Pay and I bought a few groceries and bought a cake for Katherine’s birthday tomorrow. We also got picture developed for her birthday present and bought a picture frame for her! As we were walking to get a kombi back home the “wingman” flagged us over and asked if we were going to “Town Town!” and we said yes. Well then we ended up going back to campus to drop people off and then we were brought home. Ugh! It was a long drive home with groceries and a cake on top of things! We came home and I studied the rest of the afternoon for our last final in mental health. For dinner I made spaghetti casserole for the last time in South Africa, and it was one of my better recipes! After supper, Katherine, Carrie, and I went through the focus questions for the exam. Q brought over CDs for us and Lestie brought our South African music CD and I was so excited to listen to the songs! We danced to a few and relived the memories from singing in music class!

I can’t believe that this week is our last week at Langerry and all of us being together! We leave on Saturday and it just blows my mind that the end is right around the corner! It doesn’t quite seem real. Today after our class, we had a meeting with the International Office and they talked about reverse culture shock and they helped us prepare for what it will be like when we get home and what to expect. It just seems strange to think that I will be more shocked culturally when I come home, than when I arrived in South Africa. It is tough to think that I will be surprise about things back at home, since I think about home everyday and what it is like back in Minnesota. I guess that the most difficult thing that I will have to adapt to is 1.) the cold weather, 2.) life at St. Bens and getting in the swing of things when everyone has been there for a semester, and 3.) just catching up with my family, it will be strange to see how big Chrissy has gotten, and seeing Jane’s tummy, and just everyone else! I feel that time should have stopped back at home and when I get home, it will be right where it was when I left, but of course that isn’t the case!

November 11, 2007

Today was a gorgeous day outside! Barely any wind and the sun was shining! The market was in full force and every vendor was there…it hasn’t been like that since when we first arrived. I went with Carrie to the market and I bought a pink ostrich egg! And I bought a few more little things for gifts for people! I was talking with our favorite painter brothers and since I bring all of my friends to them to buy paintings they gave me a free painting, and it is my favorite one that I have gotten! I also spent some time on the roof getting some sun! Alex and I went to lunch at Captains and I finally was able to try the lasagna! It was so yummy! I had every intention of studying today…but it just didn’t actually happen! The roomies and I did look through the outcomes and that was the extent of our studying. Now I am sitting with Katherine picking out Christmas presents and playing the “How hot on a scale of 1 to 10?”game with pictures and we would quiz Alex, but he didn’t appreciate our game and told us that were horrible people. I have a date with Harry Potter tonight before bed!

November 10, 2007

Today was so boring, all I did was sit in my room and do homework. I studied and wrote my very last paper of the semester. That literally is all that I have done. So rather than boring everyone with all of my exciting details from the day, I thought that I would add some thoughts that I have experienced during the trip.

A few things I’ve learned since coming to SA:

let people know how much you care. if your flight plans change, go with it, it’s all part of the experience. being stuck in a five-star hotel in Jo’burg isn’t the worst case scenario. money in your savings accounts is supposed to be used. if there’s no money, suck it up and ask dad & mom for a loan. dream big. keep lists. don’t sweat the small stuff. wish upon stars…sometimes the city lights don’t allow you to see them but they are there. take the road less traveled, sometimes a detour can open your eyes to something you would never see. slow down, things won’t pass by in such a blur. no matter how much you plan and prepare, there will always be a hiccup that can’t be cured with peanut butter. don’t hold back, sometimes you just have to hold the six foot long earth worm, because when else will you have the chance. don’t take for granted your own bedroom. waking up to the ocean will never be old. so you gain a little weight, it doesn’t mean you should stop eating the food. when you think that you had a bad day, it isn’t anything close to what half of the country has to deal with everyday. it is a long walk to freedom. you can’t change someone’s opinion, even if they are blatantly wrong. don’t rely too heavily on technology to do the work for you. it is a long flight home. the language may be the same, but doesn’t mean that we hear each other. no matter what people say, Xhosa and clicking is not easy. it’s inevitable, you will get seasick when out on the ocean and no amount of ginger or Dramamine can prevent it from happening. shark cage diving is nothing like the movie jaws. bargain at the market, you can usually get things half priced. McDonald’s ice cream is always a cure. accept the fact that you could have won R100, but left two minutes before your name was called. don’t wish the minutes away, it will get to the end and you will want to stop time. so your suitcase may be a little overweight, it doesn’t mean you should stop buying things to bring home. rugby is life. wearing green and yellow doesn’t mean you’re cheering for the Packers, those are Springbok colors too. no use crying (or throwing a mini temper-tantrum) over spilled milk, even if a whole carton spills in your backpack and soaks through your jeans. smiling is a universal language. when in doubt, take immodium, it cures everything. accept the fact that you will never be on time anywhere, an hour late is still “on time.” you will wear the same clothes over and over, this can be due the fact that you have to walk three blocks to get your laundry done, or you just didn’t bring enough clothes. don’t bring lists when grocery shopping, you’ll only leave disappointed when they don’t have anything you needed. as soon as you are acclimated to driving on the right side of the road, you need to go back to the left. if you go to the beach on a windy day, sand will accumulate up your shorts. always have aloe in the refrigerator. there’s nothing topdeck chocolate can’t fix. pretzels and nutella should be staple foods in the food guide pyramid. two-for-ones doesn’t mean that you still order your “regular amount” of drinks and just get double, share with your friends. some people don’t get the concept of returning money when you have borrowed it to them. don’t look back on the time here and become solely focused and upset with the healthcare systems, family dynamics, poverty, and the lack of education…the tearful thank you from one patient means that you made a difference.

November 9, 2007

Unfortunately there isn’t much to report about today, but I’ll try to make it as interesting as possible! I had my last nursing class this morning and I had the honor of teaching the last part of class with Carrie. It could have gone better because we were facilitating class discussions and the class was just not having it. You could tell that everyone was antsy and wanting to leave and be done for the day, so it didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped, but all in all, it is over and done with. I came back home and I spent the afternoon being very lazy by reading a book for fun and working on my video that I am making with my photos. I took a nap while listening to Harry Potter on tape and finished book one! Tonight before bed I’ll start book two! I talked to both Mom and Dad tonight and we had a few laughs and were planning the first few days of when I will be back at home (which includes dinner at Pablo’s since I am C R A V I N G Mexican food, key lime pie yogurt, going to the Johnnie Blend Christmas concert, and seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Chanhassen!). The girls and I made a quick run to get ice cream and the rest of the night was spent relaxing! I also talked to Marcus and he told me that they got snow in Menomonie! I keep forgetting that I will be coming home to winter, which is so hard because the weather is getting so nice here! I can sleep with the windows open in a t-shirt and shorts, and not be bundled under the blankets! It’s going to be hard to leave this weather behind!

November 8, 2007

This morning we had a site visit at Dora, a public hospital in PE. This hospital was much better than the psychiatric hospital from yesterday, but it was still not up to par compared to the United States. We visited the labor and delivery unit, and nursery, the pediatric ICU, the medical wards, the theaters (or the operating rooms), the pediatric burn unit, and the adult burn units. The burn units were the most difficult to visit. In pediatrics we learned that all of the cases that they get are burns that resulted from domestic violence, most of the times the burns are from scalding water that is thrown at the children. Very few cases that come in are from burns not sustained in a domestic conflict. It was very hard seeing little children wrapped in dressings all over their body. The pain that they are in is unbelievable and the dressing changes are even more traumatic for the children, and the adults. We went to the adult burn ward and there was a patient who had been necklaced the day before. This gets a little graphic, so this is the disclaimer that you may want to jump to the next paragraph…necklacing began during the Apartheid era and continues today as punishment and gang violence in many parts of the country. A tire is dowsed in gasoline and filled in the inside rim of the tire and then the tire is placed around a person so it will get stuck on their shoulders and pin their arms and the tire is lit on fire. It is a very brutal and violent act that is used to “punish” people or just to torture people for no reason. This particular patient was 13 years old and covered in burns. It was the most difficult thing to see, the only skin that was visible was his lips and nose that were covered with the oxygen mask.

I left the hospital frustrated with healthcare in South Africa and the illnesses and lack of resources, staff, and support that should be available to people. We had a discussion about differentiating the right to health and the right to healthcare. These people aren’t even given an opportunity, their right to living a healthy life just gets sucked away from the cycle of poverty. It is so upsetting.

When we came back home, I took a nap and at 3:00 Carrie came into the room to wake me up for post conference…our last one! We had our weekly post conference discussion and then I have been hanging out in the room just reading and relaxing for the rest of the night. I am very tired from a late night yesterday so I am going to go to bed early.

November 7, 2007

Today we had a site visit at Elizabeth Donken Hospital (EDH). EDH is a public psychiatric hospital and we were given a tour of their different wards. It was out of this world. The only way to describe the hospital is to compare it to a prison. Patients are locked in their wards (for their safety) but the wards are musty and smell of urine. The only things in the room are beds that are bolted to the ground, and the linens on the beds. They have isolation rooms which were about the size of Mandela’s jail cell on Robben Island. Patients were crying and banging on doors, the paint on the walls were ripped and chipped from patients peeling it off. I couldn’t imagine sending someone, particularly a psychiatric patient to that hospital.

After the visit, we had a quick hour long roof party where all of us went to the roof to tan! It was one of the most beautiful days we have had in PE! After our relaxation hour we hopped on the Kombi and went to take our political science final. It was very easy and I felt very good about my essays when leaving the classroom! One down…two to go!

Katherine and I went for a walk when we got back, we did the route to Pick ‘N Pay and we did it in 45 minutes (a new record for us!) We had a nice chat and the time went by fast! We came back and we grabbed Ashley and Alex and went to Nandos to get dinner! Then we all came back and watched the History of the Miss South Africa pageant as we ate dinner! At 9:00 we all went to Toby Joes for two for ones and Ladies Night! We sat around talking and laughing and then the dancing began! We danced until 1:00am before the last group of us decided that it was time to go home and get some rest! Our German friends met us at Toby Joe’s and they were on the dance floor dancing with everyone until we all left as well! It was a fun night! As we were walking back, a car almost hit us…but Brenna went all traffic cop on the car and directed traffic and the rest of us pedestrians across the street! This was probably the highlight of my night!

November 6, 2007

Today I had public health and it was a little boring…so to pass the time I made a Soduku game (I filled in the boxes, created a puzzle, and the solved it) and I made a crossword puzzle with South Africa memories! It was a lot of fun! Class was two hours long, and by 11:00 I was done with class for the day! I came back to Langerry and worked on my teaching plan for Friday’s class and did a little more homework. We went to the backpackers to see David to make sure all of our things were booked for our trip to Durban! We are ready to roll! I can’t wait! Anyway, it was more homework for the rest of the afternoon and then girl talk in the evening! Katherine and I were laughing so hard and playing “What would you rather!” We had some good ones…many were a little disturbing, but we got a good ab workout from laughing! Now it’s a little reading for leisure and off to bed!

November 5, 2007

Today is the first day of the last week of classes! We had our last mental health class via DVD and it was a great feeling to be finally finished with those videos! I got a lot accomplished during class…other than taking notes from the lecture, I wrote my practice essays for my political science final this Wednesday! Scratch that off of the list of things to do today! After class my roommates and I grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the computer lab. We got computers right away which was great to get started on papers and readings right away! I proof-read my final Political Science paper and finished the Reference page and printed the twelve page paper! It’s all ready to be handed in next week! We also had our last music class today! It was long but it ended well! I came back to Langerry where I made muffins…but ran out of ingredients so I had to improvise. They turned out alright but I wasn’t too hungry by the time they were done. They will get eaten between the four of us though. I was so productive with working on homework today! I read my reading for my presentation for Friday, I finished my online course discussion questions (just one more paper to go!) and sent out emails to people. Brad Skyped me and I got all excited…except our connection was crummy so I didn’t get to see him or talk to him live, instead we messaged and he updated me about Cece and all of the new things that she is doing (crawling everywhere and starting to pull herself up!). I can’t believe that she is almost a year old! I was excited to hear and they will be making a trip North to Minnesota after I have been home, so we will be able to see them and see how grown up Cece has gotten since I saw her this summer! I quickly called home and talked to Mom and Dad before she brought him to the airport. Tonight has been very loud outside because it is fireworks day in PE! It’s a national holiday where they set off fireworks (but it’s nothing compared to New Prague at 4th of July…or Dad and Jeff’s Cedar Lake Fireworks Show!). Ashley, Alex, and I went up to the roof to watch the fireworks set off across the street on the beach. It was fun, but a little chilly on the roof, so I went in early! We’ve been told that people set them off all night, so hopefully it will end soon so I can get some sleep! Well, I have to do a few dishes and then it’s off to bed!

November 4, 2007

I woke this morning at 5:30am again! What is wrong with me?!? I stayed in bed until 6:00, and got up to go out side and see the sun and run to the bathroom. Then I crawled back to bed, where I was in and out of sleep until 8:00am. I finally crawled out of bed at 8:00 when the rest of the room was beginning to show signs of life and I got dressed and packed my bag for the trip home. We went to breakfast and had great rolls with jam and hardboiled eggs with lots of fruit to choose from! The pineapple was delicious! We sat on the bench overlooking the lagoon and ocean and it was so serene. Our ride came to get us at 9:30 and we drove the four and a half hour drive back to PE. When I got back to PE, Carrie and I went to the market and I bought the last of my gifts that I needed to get! Only one more person to buy for and then I am done! I can’t wait to come home and give all of my gifts to people! I have spent the rest of the day working on my blog, updating pictures, and working on homework. I am going to call home in a few minutes and hopefully I’ll get to talk to both Mom and Dad because it was home in Minnesota for the weekend!

November 3, 2007

Happy Birthday Grandma!
This morning I woke up at 5:30am and from my bed I had a beautiful view of the sun rising. I watched for a little bit and then went back to sleep for another hour. Ee were up and eating breakfast at 7:00am ready to start our long day. We ate out on the deck overlooking the lagoon and the ocean! It would be so nice to wake up to that scene every morning. At 7:30am we met Michael and Tobaya at “Big Green” the big green 4x4 that we were going to take on the tour of the Transkei. The vehicle was an old 1969 military vehicle which served the medics. We all piled in and bounced back and forth in the backseats. We stopped at the Great Kei River (pronounced Kie…like pie) and we walked along the flood plains to the ferry that would take us across the river to the other side. We drove Big Green onto the ferry and we rode across where we went to see another river that has much religious symbolism for the Xhosa people and Sangomas (their witch doctors). After more driving we came to another river where we hiked up a large hill to get to he pools off of the river. There were large rocks and cliffs surrounding the pools. All of us changed into our swimsuits at the top in the middle of a field with towels wrapped around our waists! We climbed down the first rocks and went into the water! It was chilly but we got used to the water, then I climbed the rocks on the opposite side of the pool to the top of the cliff. Brenna and Katherine were up there, and Christy and I met them up there. They were too scared to jump, so they made me go first. I stood at the edge, with my toes hanging over, took a deep breath and jumped! I couldn’t even count to three because that would psych myself out! As I jumped, I thought, “What the heck was I thinking!?!” but I slapped into the water and it hurt the bottom of my feet because I didn’t point my toes! It was a lot of fun. Christy jumped after me, and after much coaxing Brenna then Katherine jumped. Christy and I climbed back up again and did it one more time! The second time it was much more graceful! We swam under the little waterfall for a bit and then had to climb back up the steep rocks to go and change. We all went to our “changing spot” and got dressed. We walked back to Big Green and we drove to a nice overlook to sit by the water and have sandwiches for lunch. It was peaceful sitting by the water and listening to the waves slap against the rocks. The Wild Coast gets its name from the dangerous currents and tides along the strip of shoreline in the Eastern Cape. It is ranked in the top five more dangerous pieces of shore for ships to sail. It is dangerous because there are three different currents coming to shore, one from the North going South along the Eastern coast, another coming up from Cape Town going South to North along the Eastern coast, and finally a current coming from the South Atlantic into shore. There were large waves that break out very far from shore.

After lunch we went to a Xhosa Village where we met Mama Tofu and she taught us about the Xhosa culture. We watched the young girls dancing traditional dances in their outfits. Then Mama Tofu explained the symbolism with the outfits that the women wear. She taught us about the role that each person has within their clan. Her daughter then told us about the slaughtering of animals, a cow is slaughtered when a man dies, and a goat is slaughtered when a baby is born. The hide of the goat is then used as a blanket for the child when he or she is carried their mother’s back or when they sleep. We watched the women make mealies and grind corn. Then we had the chance to buy beadwork from the women. I bought a purse and some jewelry as well as some gifts that I am really excited about giving to people! When we were finished with our shopping we were served a small meal to sample some of the traditional foods. It was so delicious! The stew was incredible! Tonya and I shared a plate and we really enjoyed that part of the meal! It started to rain and thunder, so we went into one of the huts to listen about marriage rituals before taking a few pictures and going back to the backpackers.

We arrived at the backpackers and before dinner I read my book and just relaxed. Dinner was served at 7:30 in the guest house and we were served a traditional Xhosa dinner. We had soup, beans, meat, sweet potatoes, squash, and spinach. It was very delicious, and the dessert was very yummy as well. After dinner we all went back to our room and we all sat around talking and reading, then we went to bed! It was an early night for all of us!

November 2, 2007

This morning we were up and ready to go the Wild Coast. We went to Cintsa in the Eastern Cape and stayed at the Buccaneer’s backpackers. It is the last weekend away where all eleven of us will be traveling together. We arrived at the backpackers, grabbed lunch, and claimed our beds. All of us stayed in a twelve person dorm with four bunks and four beds. After we got our living arrangements sorted out, we walked down to the beach and looked at shells. It was very windy down at the ocean so we came back along the trail and passed the lagoon that was below where we were staying. We got back to the backpackers and we waited to be picked up to go horseback riding on the beach. We waited, and waited, and then got a phone call that said that they had to cancel because it was too windy for the horse ride. I was a little disappointed, but it saved me some money. We went to the bar and we played pool and had free wine! A group of us played “killer pool” where you have to get a ball in on every shot that you take, and if you miss you lose a life (and you have three lives). It was pretty fun! We met three people from England and they played with us. Then we played Christy’s game of rolling the ball and trying to knock it in with our hands, and it ended up making everyone laugh so hard because Brenna’s face was priceless (as it seems to be every time we play games or go away for weekends). She would get so flustered and it was worth playing the game just to see her face and watch her!

We hung around the bar and talked with people as we waited for the braai to start. The dinner was very delicious, we had lamb (which I didn’t eat because it is so difficult to eat with all of the fat on it), kudu sausage, and chicken, potato salad, green salad and garlic bread. We hung around for a bit socializing with others who are staying at the backpackers. As I was sitting there talking with Ashley the song, “Around the World” by Daft Punk started to play! I got very excited and thought of Jane and the wedding this summer and I did our dance and sang the song! I wish that you could have been there Janey, because I was laughing and just dancing as Ashley rolled her eyes at me when I told her that I was paying tribute to you back at home! After a while we were tired and we all crawled into the room and went to bed.

November 1, 2007

It's already November...holy cow, where did October go?!?

This morning I woke up and it was my last day of clinicals for the semester (and basically the rest of the year!). I happily got ready this morning and went on my way. Leslie and I both brought books to clinical and we enjoyed an hour and a half of non-interrupted reading time before the nurses were ready for us. Sister called us back to her office and our day began. It was the best day of clinical so far in the psychiatric clinic because we saw some interesting cases, and most of them were in English! Double bonus! I was actually useful today in clinical because I took blood pressures and did weights of patients and I even was able to give IM injections. I was a little nervous at first because I have only given one IM injection before and today’s injection was in a location that I had never administered it in…so it was a learning experience. I also was able to have my own patient with Leslie without one of the sisters with us. It was fun being able to do things productive at clinical rather than sitting in the corner and listening as people spoke Afrikaans for four or six hours.

After clinical we had our post conference and then the rest of the afternoon was ours! I made a quick trip to the 7/11 to get cereal for our weekend away to the Wild Coast. I worked on my political science paper and I finished it! Katherine and I were in a friendly competition with each other over who would finish theirs first…and the gold medal goes to me! Now I only have one more paper to write for the semester! The best part about today is that I only have one more week of classes and then two finals the following week. And exactly four weeks from today I am home to Minnesota! I am sad that the time is coming to an end but I am also excited to see people and be home! It’s a little bittersweet! I was able to talk to Dad on Skype today without connection problems, and I got a few messages from Sheena today. I tried calling her, but no answer…oh well, better luck next time! Its after midnight now and I have to be up in six hours to leave for a weekend away…our last one as a big group! Goodnight!

October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween! South Africa doesn’t celebrate Halloween, so we didn’t dress up and there were no trick-or-treaters. Unless you count us dressing up as “nurses” to go to clinical as a costume!

We started the last week of clinical today (thank goodness!). And of course, Leslie and I sat in the psychologist’s office for an hour and a half before the nurse was ready for us to listen in on her sessions with patients. It was a little more interesting today because we had a new patient to the clinic and I could watch her do the initial interview and I was able to talk about what my diagnosis would be for the patient. Sure enough though, all of the patients spoke Afrikaans, and when they would speak English they would default back to Afrikaans and I wouldn’t be able to understand what was being said. At 11:50, Leslie and I want out to wait for our ride…and we waited…and waited. Finally at 12:30 I went into the clinic to call Denise to tell her that I think we were forgotten about. Denise made a few phone calls and a half and hour later a kombie came to pick us up. It was great fun sitting in the parking lot in Central PE, in not the safest of areas. Let’s just say that we were a little frustrated and it wasn’t a funny Halloween trick.

We made it home to Langerry with only a half hour to grab lunch, change, and hit the road to NMMU for a three hour lecture on the democratic negotiations from 1990-1994. We were all dreading the class, but it actually was very interesting. We had a guest professor teach our class, and we have had him before and he gets very long winded, but he kept my attention the entire time! After class we came back home and Alex started a fire in our braai pit and we all cooked our meat and he made potatoes and we all brought our own veggies to have a Halloween dinner! We listened to spooky music and sat around and ate dinner! I spent the rest of the night working on my political science paper (the last one for classes for the semester!) and then went to bed!

I hope that everyone had a happy and safe Halloween! I want to see pictures of cute costumes!

October 30, 2007

Today is the five year anniversary of my emergency appendectomy! Five years ago today, Mom didn’t believe me when I told her that I was literally dying and in the most extreme pain that I have ever been in. She brushed it off as cramps or “it’s just gas.” It wasn’t until I told her that I was driving myself to the emergency room at 4:00 in the morning that she realized that I was serious. I arrived at the hospital and by 8:00am, I was in the operating room!

Now that the stroll down memory lane has come to an end…I woke up this morning and I had to get ready and professional, because I was teaching class today. I got to the classroom forty-five minutes early to write things on the board but the room was locked. I stood outside waiting for everyone to arrive and unfortunately I didn’t get to do the board things for class, but it went well anyway. I taught the class for an hour and a half about domestic and collective violence and overall it went well. After class we came home and Carrie and I walked to the Boardwalk where we bought Robeez shoes for a bunch of people at home that Carrie had collected a list from. Then we went jewelry shopping and I bought a necklace and a very pretty bracelet for R100 (not too bad!) and I found a chain for my tanzanite necklace that I bought in Cape Town. I was pretty excited because it was a good deal and now I will be able to wear it on the airplane ride home, rather than keeping it in my carry on. I came home and I worked on some homework, then Alex came in the room and told me and Katherine to get up and go run in the ocean with him! So I put on my suit and we walked to the beach and ran into the ocean! It was a little cold at first but we got used to it after a bit! We stayed out there for fifteen minutes and I went back to the beach after a huge wave swept me up and dragged me across the bottom of the ocean half-way to shore! My stuffy nose that I had all day was cured with the salt water…now it just really itches! I still feel crummy today with a cold, but better this than what everyone else has. Six of the ten of us have gotten a stomach virus and within the last two days they got sick and it lasted 24 hours. This morning it attacked our apartment with Ashley and it moved to Katherine later this afternoon. Carrie and I have been decontaminating everything in the apartment. We have alcohol wiped every surface possible (computers, microwaves, door handles, light switches, telephones, etc) and I hope that I don’t get it. I don’t want to be sick at clinical tomorrow and I don’t want to get sick this weekend when we go to the Wild Coast.

I talked to Brooke today for a long time and it was nice talking to her! I can’t believe that will see her and everyone else in a month from today! It’s crazy how fast the time is flying here! Our finals are in two weeks and I have two more papers to write and then I am done for the semester! I registered for classes for the last time yesterday and I got all of the classes that I wanted. I only have class on Tuesdays (from 1-4 then 6-9) and Wednesday night (from 7:30-8:30). The rest of the week will be filled with work and filling it in with clinical hours for my Capstone course. I am very excited for it! Well, I think that its time to go to bed and try to get some rest before my last week of clinicals!

October 29, 2007

This morning I woke up and I felt absolutely crummy! I thought that I had a temperature because I was so warm and uncomfortable. I had a headache and just felt terrible…but I stuck it out and went to class because I had to give a presentation in Mental Health. I sat through a long class of presentations, DVD lecture, and a guest speaker. Then Katherine, Carrie, and I grabbed lunch and headed to the computer lab to work on homework. I think that I stood waiting for a computer to open up for about fifteen minutes. Ick! I can’t stand going to there because it is always so darn hot and busy! I worked on my class presentation tomorrow and then we went to music class. It was a better class today because some of the songs were fun to listen to, and Lestie let us out of class early (one fifteen minutes, but it was better than nothing). I came home and just felt lazy, so I made a quick dinner of apples and bread, they worked on homework. I met with Denise about my presentation for tomorrow and now I am going to bed at 9:45pm! I will probably read for a bit, but I am exhausted!

October 28, 2007

This morning I didn’t want to crawl out of bed…first of all, I was so sore and bruised on my backside and my shoulders were a tad tender from getting sunburned. I managed to crawl out of bed and made it to breakfast with everyone. It was so nice eating with everyone, it felt like we had known our “family” for much longer than three days. We would talk, laugh, banter, and tease each other! I would have loved to have stayed for a few more days, and it would be so nice to be able to go back to visit them! After breakfast was finished, Brian herded us into the buckey to go to Mine’s house to meet everyone. On the drive we saw a zebra in the field! We arrived at Mine’s and a few more people joined us in the buckey, then Brian took us on a game drive where we saw five different species of animals. We saw black wildebeest, springbok, blesbok, redharted beest, and one other type of deer. We returned to Brian and Colleen’s after an hour drive.

At Brian and Colleen’s we all walked to the dam and we were going to have a picnic lunch there. Nine of us climbed onto this floating raft (it resembled a diving platform that wasn’t anchored) and we started to paddle out around the dam. We didn’t get very far, but it ended up with us all jumping in with our clothes on and we went swimming! We treaded water for about twenty minutes and swam together! It was cold but a bunch of fun! We finally swam to shore and went to dry off in the sun. We ate our lunch of sandwiches and juice. Then around 12:30 we rode the buckeys back to Colleen and Brian’s to change and we took a few pictures with our host family then we drove back to Mine’s to go to the van to leave. It was bittersweet leaving the farm and waving bye to Robert, Colleen, and Brian with the dogs sitting by the fence as we drove away. I felt that I really got to know them and that we were saying goodbye to family.

We went to Adelaide to visit the hospital and take a tour. As we were walking through the general ward, we saw the young girl from Friday who was brought by ambulance for her burns. It was so nice seeing her there and knowing that she was being cared for. I saw her and waved, and she waved me into the room and I walked up to her and she pulled the blanket off of her legs to show me and Denise her dressings on her legs. She also had a maintenance IV running with antibiotics which was nice to see. She motioned that she was in very little pain. I was very relieved to see her in the hospital, because I thought of her often this weekend.

After the hospital visit, we left to go home to PE. We came home did the picture swapping, journal updating, and ordered pizza! It was a very fun weekend that was very relaxing and cured the homesick bug for the time being!

October 27, 2007

We woke up this morning and had what Marcus used to refer to as a “farm breakfast” with the whole family. Brian (Colleen’s husband) joined us and we had a very nice meal with everyone. The quote of the trip was when Brian yelled to the kitchen for someone to please bring the tea to the dining room, then he looked at us and said, “That is the nice thing about Africa, we can still have servants!” He meant it in a nice way and he takes care of his help and farmhands, providing them with a home on the property and with work, but they way he said it was shocking. After breakfast we all climbed into the back of the buckey and stood up and held onto the bars as we cruised to Mine’s house where we met everyone else. At Mine’s house we joined the rest of the group and we drove in the buckey to the club where we met with more families. The club is the tennis club that everyone is members of. All of the farms are about fifteen minutes from each other and they don’t get to see one another often, so they created a tennis club (complete with newly refinished tennis courts) and a barn with a pub where they host parties and dances. The women play competitive leagues on Wednesdays and everyone gathers at the club on Saturdays for dinner and games all day. They can go and play whenever they feel like hitting a few balls around. It was very neat!

We gathered a few more people and we went to Barry’s farm to watch the sheep be sheered. Barry explained the sheering process and he introduced us to his team who all sheer, and sort the wool. We were able to watch the team sheer some of the sheep by hand and then the tossing and sorting of the wool. It is amazing how those who were sheering can keep the pelt (if you call it that) of wool in one piece. Then to sort it, a person tosses it and throws it across the table and the sorters divide it up into the different parts of the sheep. It was very interesting watching the whole process happen.

After the sheering, we went on a drive through the mountains. We all piled into the buckey (along with Louisa and Libby, one of the little farm girls and her friend from boarding school) and we began a two hour drive! It was so much fun! The only problem was that we kept banging into the metal bars and it left bruises on our hips and butts! We were driving through the cattle pasture and we got stuck in the mud! We had to have the other buckey come and try to pull us out at well as four girls were pushing! We all were laughing but eventually Gary got his buckey out of the mud and we all climbed back in. After the drive we all stopped at Gary’s house (Louisa’s dad) and as we were talking to him, he told us that he played Rugby for England and for the Springboks, and he was on the 1995 team that won the World Cup. So when we were in his house (which was absolutely gorgeous and huge!) we saw all of his old rugby jerseys and all of his pictures taken during the game and other rugby collectables! It was so neat!

After leaving Gary’s we went to Eleanor’s school to listen to her students sing songs that they had rehearsed to perform for us. We sat in the shad and listened to half a dozen songs and then went into the one-room school house where Xhosa students age seven to fourteen attend classes to learn to read and write. After the school tour we went to Eleanor’s house for lunch and the best chocolate cake dessert that I have ever eaten! After everyone’s bellies were full we went to the barracks were the Boers stayed during the Frontier Wars. It was interesting walking around the fort and taking pictures. After funny poses and lots of laugh about velvet car seat covers, and mangers, which led us to sing Christmas songs (particularly “Away in a Manger”) we went back to the club. We played badmitton without a net, went on the teeter-totters and played many round of mafia! We taught our host families how to play. Norma, Candace, Mine, and Nandi all joined in and they held their own during the games! We had another braai complete with our favorite fried bread and of course, there were wonderful desserts! Around 10:00 Brian gathered our house up and took us home so we could shower and get ready for bed! Laura and I were a little more talkative tonight and we read for a bit before heading off to bed.

October 26, 2007

This morning we were awake and downstairs of Langerry to catch our van at 8:00am to leave for Post Retief in the frontier of South Africa. We were riding high class with a 23 passenger van (compared to the 14 person Kombi we generally travel in!) each of us could spread out and actually sit comfortably…except for the broken air conditioning and the excessive heat! We stopped in Grahamstown to visit the African Musical Instrument Factory. We were able to see how instruments were made that are traditionally used in South Africa when playing music. We listened to four men play the marimbas and they put on a good show for us! We left Grahamstown and went to Bedford to see the gardens that are on tour. We met two of our hosts for the weekend, Mine (pronounced Mi-nay) and Colleen. We walked through the gardens and all of the flowers were so beautiful! I took tons of pictures for Mom to enjoy! After we went to the gardens we went to where there was a cricket field that held a championship game. We were able to walk onto the field and they we stopped in the pub (a converted old mill) for a glass of wine for R5 (or roughly $.75). After our tour of the grounds, we went to the farms. They were quite a ways out of town, we drove through the mountains for an hour on gravel roads until we arrived at Mine’s house for a braai. We met the other three families who we would be staying with (Colleen’s family, Eleanor’s family, and Michelle’s family). As we were waiting for supper to be served Colleen came into the sitting area that we were in and asked if anyone knew anything about burns, because one of the farmhand’s daughters were burned by the bonfire. No one made an effort to get up and go to the kitchen, so I went (despite my lack of experience with burn patients). I got into the kitchen, thinking that it would be a minor burn that a cold compress and Tylenol could cure…I was wrong. There was a thirteen year old girl shaking and crying on a bench in the entrance to the house, with burns and blisters all up the inside of her right leg, starting at her ankle and going up to her thigh and on her left ankle she also had many burns. The blisters were very large, and some were the size of an egg. Carrie came back into the kitchen and she went to get Denise. Denise came, while Carrie and I went to find gauze and dressings to cover the open blisters to prevent infection. We found gauze, surgical tape, and an antibiotic ointment to put on the open sores. Denise dressed the wounds and Carrie and I handed her things and rubbed the young girl’s back. She didn’t speak English so we did the best to calm her. We gave her meds for the pain and tried to help her relax. The ambulance came an hour later and took her to the hospital in Adelaide.

We spent the rest of the night dancing (Kasy and I taught everyone the Cotton-Eye Joe dance) and eating a delicious dinner with amazing dessert! Finally, around 11:00 we piled into Colleen’s car and we went to our “home” for the weekend. Laura and I shared a room (Robert, Colleen’s 21 year old son was kicked out of his room for us to share) and we literally fell asleep as soon as our head hit the pillows! We were so darn tired!

October 25, 2007

This morning we had yet again, a clinical with Smokey! She was in a better mood today and we were able to see more patients and interesting cases, but for the majority of the time we sat in the back of the room and just watched for six hours!

Two o’clock could not come soon enough and we were in the kombi back to Langerry. When we got back, a few of us walked to the daily market and they had the statue that I wanted! I was so excited and I got it for a good deal! I also bought a large tapestry with a two giraffes on it. It is large enough to make a twin quilt out of, so I will be busy sewing over Christmas break (Grandma, and Papa, I just volunteered you for helping me to tie the ties again…just like last time I made the quilt!). I made a poor attempt to work on homework before post conference for clinical. Then at 6:00, Carrie, Alex, Ashley, Brenna, Katherine, and I went to Gondwanas for two for one cocktails and appetizers! Carrie and I split our favorite strawberry colada and ordered nachos to share. We also decided that we should try a new drink so we chose a chocolate drink called, “Death by Chocolate” it was like a milkshake with alcohol…much better than a Dairy Queen ice cream treat! After we ate, we went to Captains for trivia. Only Kyle and Q were there, and they were very excited to see us to help out with the questions. We started the night with an interactive game of guessing heads or tails by indicating our choice by putting our hands on our heads, our “tails” or one of each to represent the two coins being flipped. Carrie won and she got us a pitcher of beer! It was a great way to start out the night! We rocked trivia (well at least the first half because that is when us girls left) and we were able to answer all of the questions but two! Whenever we knew it our faces would light up and we would get excited and Kyle would just pass the score card down to us to write the answers! At the halfway mark us girls decided to come back to pack our bags for our weekend away. It was a good day!