The count down to leave is on, and the closer it gets the more emotional everyone gets.

We had our farewell brunch and evaluations today which ended with everyone on the verge of tears as our directors gave goodbye speeches. I didn't think i would be very emotional about leaving and saying goodbye. I mean we have only been here for 5 weeks. But I think that when I stop to really consider it, I most likely will not be comming back to SA and will probably never see the people I've met ever again. And that is a sad and strange feeling.



Our meeting with the Vice Chancellor went great. We ended up getting to talk to him for nearly an hour and a half, and he is quite a charismatic speaker. He had actually been exiled under the Apartheid for being a political activist, which i think is like the coolest life story. He is also fairly young to be in such a high position. But he has a lot of ideas and motivation to change not only NMMU, but the country as well. I am definately interested in hearing more about his life.



Yesterday was our last day of community service, and wouldn't you know it, I was at the tutoring center. Being the last day, I decided I was going to try really hard to enjoy it and surprisingly I did. Both of the kids I got were really nice. The first finished her homework without any situations. The second was a little less interested in doing the homework, but very interested in me teaching her some spanish and german phrases. I thought it was the funniest thing when she asked me if spanish was my real language - i have NEVER gotten that before! She also taught me to say afew things in Xhosa, and I gave her a laugh trying to pronounce them. When we had to say goodbye it was really sad. I didn't think they liked us at all, but they were sad to see us go and we were sad to have to say goodbye forever.



Our last day at Cheshire was pretty fun too. Donie, one of the residents, decided to let Christine and myself take his motor chair for a spin. It's a shiny red motorized chair that resembles a scooter. It moves pretty quick and the engine has definately got some power. At first we were taking it nice and slow trying to be cautious, but he insisted we crank up the speed and "go for it!" That was probably the best day we have had there, but I feel like it is mostly because we are finally starting to form relationships with everyone and now we have to leave them.

At the beginning of this week we set out a plan for the rest of our nites.

Monday/Tuesday: we made up a war cry for these two days, "Finish the Paper! Finish the Test! Freedom!!!!!!!!" which essentially described our plan to get the work out of the way early so we could play the rest of the week! It didn't quite work as it is Thursday and we are all in the lab finishing the final now, but hey, we tried!

Wednesday: Our last night at Toby Joes (the local spot). However it ended up being our last night at Tapas, the club upstairs, because Toby Joes decided to card us for the first time ever and we didn't have ID's. It is a bit offensive considering the age limit here is like 16 or 18, and we watched them let soooo many other people go in without being checked. But Tapas was really fun, and we met some Germans who were all stoked that their soccer team had made it to the final round for the world cup. They drew German flags on our faces and we ended up celebrating too!

Thursday: We are planning on going to Casino nite at Captains. It sounds fun, but could be potentially dangerous for Sam who is addicted to gambling . . .

Friday: We are spending all day at Addo so we may be too tired to go out, but we'll see what happens

Saturday: We will be driving back from Transkaii, East London, and Grahmstown. It is pretty far but we are doing it as a driving through, day trip tour.

Sunday: Sleeping on the plane :(

As much as I love the SA food, I am ready to go back to American dining. I can't wait to go home to lasagna and pastries - thankyou mom & dad! Then I am going to hit the gym and stay on a tread mill for a week straight . . .

It's a bit hard to describe the culture here. Something I know I will not miss the constant obsession with race. I feel exhausted by the amount of racial divide that still exist. Many people will assure us they are not racist, and then continue on with a blatantly racist comment. Sometimes it is hard to sit and say nothing when you are someone's guest and they are making comments that would be very taboo in the US. When we stayed with the farmers, it was akward to hear some tell us things like how they were not racist, they just knew that the blacks weren't smart. Or that the black political party doesn't think well and that is why the country is being run into the ground. The worst is when you hear people express how they preferred the Apartheid to current day. It's a very complex country, and I'm not at all sure how to bring about a change.

Well I can't delay finishing my final any longer so I must close. But I will home in about 5 days and cannot wait to share everything with everyone! Take care!



Love jor

So just after i anounce my big break of fame, my sister had to go up the anty and make it on the covor of socal physicians. Steal my thunder why don't you . . . :)

To see her article go to www.socalphys.com (good photo!)

Well this past weekend was by far not my favorite as Friday I got super sick and thought i was dying! I stayed in bed for half of Friday and nearly all of Saturday. That was probably the most homesick i have been this whole trip because all i wanted was my mommy! hahaha!

Most of our group went to Mossel Bay for the weekend, but about 5 of us stayed behind. Sunday, we went to breakfast and I had Canadian french toast which was two normal pieces of french toast with cheese and mustard in the middle like a sandwhich. Not bad, but not something i am likely to try again!

Later that day we went to the open market, and honestly we are like expert hagglers now. Trina and I worked out so many good deals we were even amazed at ourselves. Team bargaining works best because one person will be like no don't get it, you can't find it cheaper. And as soon as you start walking they cave. The best is when you are like 10 feet away and then they decide to chase after you. But if they let you walk you know you went to low, and over did it! The wierdest thing though is that some of the vendors like remember who we are from like weeks ago, and were like "california! how was your trip to cape town?" It's a bit wierd . . .

So today marks our last week here. We have to finish our community project papers by wednesday, and we get our final to start on tomorrow. Then the rest of the week will be saying good bye to good old P.E. and South Africa all together! My first good bye was at Isithambiso today. It was my last day volunteering there and it was a heart breaker! I spent most of the time with my favorite baby Doonga who is a little boy who can't be even one yet.



We played outside and then I bathed him, and before i could get him to sleep our transport came. When i set him down he started bawling and it made me sooooo sad! I kept picking him back up because it was the only way he would stop crying, but eventually i had to just leave and even now i'm a little teary eyed writing this! I hope he gets adopted by a good, loving family who will appreciate what a wonderful person he is going to grow up to be.

Although I am sad to go, there are a few things i have been missing about the states:

-Panera Bread
-In n Out
-Unlimited Internet Access & WiFi (we have a cap at campus & Annies cove)
-My cell phone (payphones and phone cards get old!)
-Roach Free Living (yes, it's still an issue)
-My Mommy!
-IHOP (specifically Belgian Waffles for breakfast -waffles are dessert here)
-Being able to go somewhere without taking a combi or a cab! Although I don't miss paying for Petrol!

We planned a last minute trip this saturday to Transkaii which is Nelson Mandella's place of birth, and one of the few places here where people still live in huts! It should be pretty exciting!

BTW, sunday was sooo warm and sunny that i got to wear a skirt out of the house! It has continued like that over to today and i have my fingers crossed for the rest of the week!




Love,
JA

We are officially famous!!

We made it on the home page of Cal State Fullerton's website which is like something i have wanted to do since i started going there! How unfortunate that the picture that was put up had me looking super frumpy with no blow dryer or straightener. Hahaha . . . love it.



Check us out @ www.fullerton.edu

There are a couple of photos and a nice article too.

We are all pretty zombie-ish today since our midterm was due this morning and we pulled a good old fashioned Titan all night study located in the NMMU computer lab! Most of the group stayed until about 130-ish AM. Trina and i however were done and home by about 10pm yet we didn't get to sleep until past 2. Not sure how that worked out . . .



We've had two sunny days in a row now! It is pretty exciting. But don't be fooled, we aren't rocking any of our summer clothes. It just means we're only wearing 2 layers instead of 5!

Missing the sunny weather from lovely CA!

Cheers!

Okay so i wanted to write really quickly about the community service we have been doing. We are at three different sites and we rotate each day in small groups.

Cheshire Home

This is a home for the severely disabled. Some are mentally disabled, some are physically disabled, and some are both. It is a unique facility in that the residents live there but are free to go out when they want to. It is pretty well organized and run. The fundraising is done internally by staff and residents. There are a few gardens on site that the residents keep up and they sell the crop to make money. I have to admit though that I am a little timid when we go there because we are just kind of thrown in with the residents and I'm not sure what to do sometimes. The other day I played checkers with a few of them, and then yesterday I took Estie for a walk (she is in a wheel chair).

Walmer Township

Basically we do afterschool tutoring at this site. And it is by far not my favorite! Hahaha! The children live in the townships but are sponsored to go to nicer schools by a program run out of Germany. After school they get help with their homework to make sure they maximize their learning experiance. The children are very . . . lively? haha! Okay, they are like any kids who like to run around and play and not do their homework.

It is a little bit difficult though when you try to make them do their homework the right way, and they talk to eachother in Xhosa about how to trick you into signing off their homework before they are done! They are very smart kids!

Isithambiso

This site is my faaavorite because it is the home for the abandonded babies. We get to hold them and play with them and occassionally bathe them. It is much more relaxing and fun at this place because the babies are so quite and usually fall asleep when you hold them. I love this one the most though because i know how important being held and loved is for a child during early development and I want to make sure they all feel cared about! They are super cute. They just got a new 3 month old who was taken to the hospital after a domestic dispute and got left there. It is pretty heart breaking to imagine someone abandoning their baby. If anyone is looking to adopt a baby from Africa this would be a great place to get one from! The home is supposed to be a transition for them into adoption, but the social workers like to leave them there as long as possible because they know they receive good care and they worry about relocating them.

Well that is a short little summary about what we have been doing. I have to go do tutoring today so i need to go prepare myself with a little snack. Maybe some chocolate cake . . . hahaha! The food here is way to good . . .

<3jor

Okay well we are back in Port Elizabeth now after our 4 day weekend in cape town! We drove all nite thursday and arrived at 7 AM! The ride was pretty rough because one of our girls was sick and we had to stop quite a few times. But we made it eventually! when we got there we were sleeping in the van and these kids started knocking on the windows shouting "wake up tourists!" because they wanted money. welcome to cape town - haha!

The hostel we stayed at was called carousel court. It was pretty cool but quite random because there was a public bar on the same floor as our room and bathrooms. So when we took a shower the first night it was like "hey, im getting ready to go to bed and you're having your nite out here . . . wierd."

We tried to go to robbens island friday, but the weather wasn't safe to boat in. So we bought tickets for sunday and began crossing our fingers for good weather! The rest of the day we went shopping, and found their open market is even better than the one in PE. The people bargain like crazy and its way cheaper. At one booth i stopped to just look at this little drum, and before i knew it the lady had it in a bag trying to put it on my arm and dropping the price of R200 to R100. I was a little shocked because I hadn't even wanted it or tried to bargain with her at all! I eventually got away though and found some other things i did want!

We made it up to the top of table mountain which had a great view, but was FREEZING cold! We took some fun photos, and hung out for a while but didn't stay too long because we were way cold!


We took a tour of the city on saturday that was a lot of fun. We drove aaaaaall over and saw a lot of the sites. Then we bicycled (which as you know i am not very good at, but i made it without getting runover or falling off!)to our lunch stop.
Then we went to this musuem which had 4,000 penguins on the beach! I dont know about you but i never expected to see penguins in south africa. they were so cute and this one actually came up to my camera!





We also made it to the Cape of Good Hope which is where the two oceans meet, and it is absolutely beautiful.

The street we stayed on (Long Street) was pretty crazy at night. We went out saturday night and turned in at about 3AM, but could still here everyone else from our room. Some one we met told us that some people here dont even start going out until 12 or 1. The city is a lot different than i imagined. Its a little bit hippyish and a lot of people like to blaze pretty publicly. And Che Guevere's (however you spell his name) face is everywhere. We even went to an ice cream shop / bar called the che bar.

On Sunday we got to go to Robben's Island and i was so excited! The boat ride over was a lot of fun for me and mel, but less for others. It made a lot of people sick because the waves sloshed us around quite a bit. But the tour was really amazing to me. I kind of kept back a bit and wandered around a little taking photos. The whole time i was thinking how much you would have loved it Jess, and i wish you could have been there! But i took tons of photos and one by mandela's cell with my copy of his book! The cell was pretty small and it is hard to imagine someone living in there for 18 years. I don't think many in our group really enjoyed the tour much. I think i felt more of a connection to it because i had been reading Mandela's book before coming and while I've been here so actually standing on the island was kind of emotional for me.

The rest of our trip was pretty much shopping and eating out. We ate at an Indian place, this one place called Lola's, and a mexican restaurant.
All were exceptionally good minus the mexican food. It was nothing like mexican food, but i guess we should have guessed as much considering we are in south africa! One thing that was really cool about Cape Town is that it is extrememly vegetarian friendly! some of the restaurants, like Lola's, had nothing but vegetarian items. So steph and I definately had a good time eating! :)

Well this weeke we have a lot of studying and homework to do. We have our take home midterm to do, a couple of reaction papers, and a paper on our community service which i will try to post about later tonite or tomorrow! And the school computer is being uncooperative and not letting me upload photos! So i will try to do that later tonite as well!

I missed being home for fathers day for the first time ever! I hope you had a good one daddy!

I will be home in about a week and a half! Before then we have our meeting with NMMU's vice chancellor, and our finally big safari and farewell lunch. i can't believe how fast time is flying. I will be back before the computer can even finishing loading this post! hahaha :)

Fred02, hahaha, sorry for not updating quick enough! miss you friend!

icarealittletoomuch, stop avoiding my phone calls! I'm sick of your vmail! :)

peace & love
ja

Well we went to Tsitsikama yesterday which was a pretty fun adventure. We rented two cars and drove there in about 2 hours. While we were on the way we saw something on the side of the road and we thought it was a dog, but when we got closer we saw it was a baboon! crazy! We saw a few more along the way and it was the randomest thing ever!

So we finally arive at the bunjee jump site so melanie and rosie could jump and then i decided . . . . . what the heck -I'll jump too! After all, it was the worlds highest bunjee so why not! So then Laura, Stephanie, and Rachel all decided to do it too!

So we all get weighed and go to get our harnesses put on. I asked the guy who was putting mine on if he had ever jumped before. He just laughed and said "no, you guys are crazy." Not too reassuring! Then we met the guy who basically walked us through the jumping process. Everyone was all hyper and giddy from nerves. But then the worst part began. We had to walk all the way accross the bridge to the bunjee site and the bridge did not look sturdy!
I didn't want to get psyched out so I walked right behind the guide trying not to visualize the bottom breaking out and me falling over 600 feet to my death . . . The bridge was really long too, so I was glad when that part was finally over!
When we got to the top it was a lot less intimidating then i thought. They had a dj booth up there and they were playing music so we were all dancing and excited. And their staff was way nice and tried to keep us talking and pumped up so we couldn't chicken out.

Rachel went first and she didn't even hesitate to jump so I felt like I had to be brave after that! So they bound my feet (I tried not to think about how I was surprised that the bindings would be enough to actually hold me in . . .). Then they set you on the edge with your toes hanging over and make you do the diving pose, and smile for the camera that's filming you! Then they count down 5 . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 Bunjee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I jumped! And quite literally screamed my head off the whole way down! It was a crazy wierd feeling free falling for that long. But once I stopped screaming it was totally quiet and it was really peaceful, in an I'm the only person in the world kind of way. hahaha . . .
After a little bit, "spider man" came to rescue me and pull me back up!


It was so much fun and it was a really awesome bonding experiance for all of us that went together!
I never had any interest or intention of jumping until we got there and I saw the guiness book of world records sign. Only in South Africa! I swear, this trip is bringing out the adventurer in all of us. Everyone has done something they have never tried before, and often something they never thought they would. It's been so amazing and I love it!

So sorry to spring that on you Mom & Dad! I thought about your reactions the whole time, and I yelled "Hi MOM!" while I was swinging around! I knew Jess would think it was the coolest thing ever! Didn't she do one in France????

Anyway, the cultural ceremony was a little bit of a disappointment only in that we didn't get to see much. Luckily they slaughtered the animal before we came, and all we saw was the pile of its skin and a few feet on the ground. Yes, I tried very hard not to throw up, and succeeded in controlling the gag reflex! But they let us go into the house where they were going to be calling the ancestors too. Our guide told us a little bit about what was happening, but then we had to go wait in the bus for about an hour because they didn't want us to watch the next part. And then we only got to watch them talk for about 5 minutes and then we had to leave. So we got to see the pole that they put up in front of the house, and we saw the beer that they have to make, and they whip it until a foam comes to the top which is a sign of significance. It was interesting to see, but I wish we could have seen a bit more, or had someone translate for us.

Tomorrow we are going to see the burial site of Sara Bartmen who was a KoiKoi woman who was put on display (while she was alive) because of how different her body build was. After that we are going to Jeffreys Bay which is supposed to be one of the best surf spots in the world. Pretty Cool!

Anyhow, it is really late and I have to wake up in a few hours so good nite!

Love jor

Today we took the tour through the townships which was an absolutely eye opening experiance. There is really nothing i have seen thus far in my life that can compare to the poverty in the townships. Basically under the apartheid black south africans were forced to move into specific areas to live. While there was a lot of improved houses built when Nelson Mandela came into power, many people still don't have running water, or electricity. One we went to has one water pump for the whole area and they only had outhouses. I can't even pretend to imagine living in a place like this. Let me clarify though that not all of the townships is like this. There are more wealthy parts of the townships like any city you go to. Luckily the townships have schools and even preschools so many of the kids can get an education which really I think is a basic right. So my faaaaaaaaaavorite part was when we went to the preschool and got to see the kids!!!
When we got there they sang us some songs, most were in Xhosa but they sang my Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean in English and it was soo adorable!

When they finished singing we got to talk to them and play with them and it was sooo adorable!
I took a picture of a couple of them and showed it to them and they were so fascinated, but then they all started swarming me to get their picture taken and see themselves on the camera! It was really cute but a little overwhelming. Here is the heartbreaker though, some of their parents have AIDS and the instructor told us that she is pretty sure them some of them have AIDS as well. Yesterday in class we watched the documentary Angels In the Dust (which I think everyone should watch!), and there was not a dry eye in the room. Its about a couple who sold everything they had and took the money to open up a home for children who have AIDS or their parents have AIDS. The crazy thing is how many misconceptions are fed to people here about the disease. The government is telling people not to take their ARV's (anti retro virus) and to simply eat things like beats, potatoes, and garlic. One of the professors we had talking to us about the history of South Africa told us that he believes the government is afraid that western drug companies are trying to poisen south africans. What I find absolutely incomprehensible is the fact that their minister of health is an MD, so why is she is not conducting her own research on the meds before telling people they dont work I can't understand. It is absolutely mind boggling. The statistics are really sad as well. Its estimated that 40% of NMMU have Aids, and 1,500 people dying a day from
AIDS. At one point, the government had outlawed the ARV's, but luckily there was a law suit brought against them and they had to give the people access to them again. However, with the government telling people not to take them it is extremely counterproductive for their health.

After visiting the township we went to a musuem located in the middle of the township -which side not is totally controversial because the government spent R26,000,000 (divide by $7 to get the US amount in dollars) on this musuem when right next door tons of people were living in these tiny shacks. Completely unethical - Anyhow, there was an entire room devoted to the AIDs Epidemic.
It was pretty overwhelming. The musuem also had an exibit telling about a day when many black south africans were killed because they were trying to attend a funeral for boys who had been unjustly killed by the police. The police basically lied, and said that the people incited into a threatening riot, and they opened fire. The funny thing is that the police were armed with lethal weapons only -they weren't issued any of the normal equipment used for breaking up a crowd without injuring anyone. The saddest part is that the first shot fired was at a young boy on a bicycle.

The reality of it is, the longer we are here the more truth we see. At first, everyone we talked to basically avoided the subject of the past. But the longer we are here and the more people we meet, the more we hear. Especially with the new professor we had. He really wanted to inform us about the truth of what is going on here so we can take it home and share it. One thing he stressed to us is that for every tourist to come to south africa, seven jobs are created. So come to south africa! He told us that simply pouring money into the government or giving it to individuals begging on the corner is not effective -in fact its counter productive. He recommended donating to non government organizations or simply being a tourist!

Okay so I got a little preachy there, but I feel like we have finally started experiancing what I came here to see. We start community service next week and we will be rotating between an Orphanage, AIDS Haven, and i think one more place. I will let you know what. And Jess, I got our professors email address so we can hit him up with all the questions we come up with because basically he is a fountain of knowledge on everything political, historical, or health related and I know he would be a good resource for you too.

A few other things I wanted to talk about: First, so the rest of the world does not believe in toilet seat covers. I know it is kind of a random thought but it still shocks me everytime I use a toilet here. Yeah, they just call the restroom the toilet. And the stalls are like individual rooms with full length doors that sometimes go up to the ceiling. The other day the lock on my door was like a little bit jammed and I was so afraid I was going to be locked in there . . . Also, this place is like heaven to me because the south africans looove sweets! Everything is sweet here : ketschup, hot sauce, just about everything. And they have really good candy too. Yeah I thought I was going to starve here and really I think I am gaining weight like everyday!

Tomorrow we leave for a place that I have trouble pronouncing and have no idea how to spell! But we are doing a 3 hour zip line tour over water falls, and i think a couple of us are bunjee jumping. So it should be really fun, and then on saturday we are going to a traditional Xhosa ceremony. I think they are sending boys out to the "bush" which really means they are going away to get circumcised. But I am nervous about the ceremony because we heard they are going to slaughter an animal -like in front of us. So we'll see how that goes. . . .

Hope everyone is doing well! I am so excited for America now because Obama is going to be the president and we are going to change the world! I got a newspaper here today and they were all about the American election! I thought I was going to be all out of the loop on the happenings but luckily they are really interested in it to!

Miss you and love you!



P.S. I absolutely love their safe sex campaign posters! Nothing we would ever be allowed to have in the states!

Peace & Love

JoryAfton