Sawubona!

That's "HELLO" in Zulu. I suck at Zulu, by the way, for anyone who was wondering. I can't follow anything anyone says and whenever I try to say something cool like, "How are you?" they laugh!
So I am here in South Africa, in an Internet Cafe in Hillcrest which is about ten minutes from where we live. We get about half an hour but it's so slow so I am going to forgo lunch just to tell you all about my trip so far!

It is absolutely GORGEOUS here, the weather is so nice during the day but since it's winter, it gets dark pretty early, around 5:30. After the sun goes down it is absolutely FREEZING, and no one has central heating so we end up so cold and going to bed with like five blankets. Well, I only have three, but even then I was pretty cold last night. And then you wake up all hot because the sun is already out. But the scenery is so nice. Once i find out where to upload pics and stuff you can see the view from my room and it's awesome. The accomodations are really nice, too nice, in fact. I actually feel really guilty because it is way too comfortable. If I still feel like this in a week, I'm gonna ask if I can live at the AGAPE orphanage instead. AGAPE is where we spend most of our time although there are some other orphanages that we go to and a medical clinic called Dream Center. I'm going there for the first time today to talk to some patients. AGAPE is fairly nice, but very cramped quarters...about thirty kids and only three bedrooms the size of a res room at UW. But the kids seem mostly happy, and you cannot really tell which ones are sick and which ones aren't...but most of them either have or HIV or have parents that died from HIV/AIDS or both. It's really scary. Today they had music lessons and while they were having those I played with the little kids (about seven of them) and helped Richard in the garden. Richard told me that the cabbages would grow really well now because of my woman's touch. Guess he doesn't know me that well yet. I told him he should tell my mom I am doing this much work in the garden because she'd be proud. Then one of the kids (Sezu?) asked me what a mom was, and then asked if I was his mom. It was really sad...

Yesterday we took the kids from the Savannah house (another orphanage) to the beach. The hardest part so far has been learning all of the names...there are 30+ kids at AGAPE so I am so lost there, but I know most of the Savannah kids now. I had Sepho write all the names in the sand so that I could remember them better. There was a little two-year-old named Nonjabulo who kept having to go to the bathroom but was never able to actually hold it till we got there and would end up just squatting and peeing wherever she was. A little gross at first, but I've gotten pretty used to it now. Besides which she is adorable and it's hard to get her to play with you because she is so shy, so you take what you can get! The beach was so pretty though and everyone (for the most part) is pretty pleasant. However, there's large remnants from the effects of Apartheid...Shradha warned me about that one, but it's much more severe than what I first thought it would be like.

At the pool yesterday a random man was telling me and Corena (one of the other volunteers) how he has 3 wives and countless girlfriends and nine kids. It's perfectly normal and legal in the Zulu culture...he couldn't believe that I don't know how to cook. It was quite amusing for a bit but then it got a little disturbing.

I guess I'm not saying anything in any sensible order here. The trip here was fine, no major problems, except in Johannesburg where I was supposed to catch a plane to Durban. The connection was so tight and me and my naive self thought that these two random people were trying to help me. Instead, they gave me the wrong directions, but I figured it out pretty quickly and made my flight.

What else...gosh, there's so much to tell. But my time is now up (eek!), and Aron or Sephile (our drivers that pick us up and drop us off at the projects) should be here any minute. I want you all to know that I am safe and well and am missing you all sooooo much. But don't worry, I will be home before you know it...time flies!!!!
I don't have the office address where you can write me on me, but the phone number is in an email that you hopefully all got...if not, just ask around, someone will have it!

Love,
Resh.