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!