Sawubona!
This week has been a very overwhelming yet exciting week. I can’t believe how quick yet slow days move here.
Monday we started classes and we haven’t stopped running sense! The problem is we are fitting 14 weeks of school into 6 weeks. Therefore, we are reading what seems like the whole continent of Africa! I have NEVER experienced this intense and overwhelming amount of continous class and reading. We don’t have a ton of class, but the days we do have it are long periods.
For you academic types (my parents and the Monsons) I will go into details about class. I am taking Intercultural Communications from a colored professor, Clive Lawler. (Colored means he has one Indian and one white parent). This class is actually pretty interesting and very useful for being in a country I know very little about! I also find it applicable in my time in Mexico and so although reading 200 pages by Thursday was NOT my idea of fun, at least it is something that I will be able to apply in my futures. My second class is Life and Teachings of Jesus which is from Reg (White professor-dutch mom british dad). Reg is the “head” figure of this whole program. I have only ever had one other professor in college at this point that I respect and love to the point as Reg. Thank goodness that Reg is my bible professor and in fact for once not making me angry about bold statements that APU can make at times about the bible! Reg is extremely intelligent and I just pray that I can soak up some of his knowledge about the Bible. We also have a seminar time which meets later in the week which splits us up into groups of 5, someone has to do this large paper over things they have researched (which is the downside) but Reg is there helping answer questions. This week we discussed Jesus’ resurrection and I saw that story in a totally new light. When we talked about the persecution Christians would have felt at the time it meant something new to me after talking about the Apartheid since the day we stepped food on South Africa’s soil. Our History and Culture Class is being lectured by Reg but our actual professor is Quinton (Who met us in Joburg) and will finish the course with us in Capetown. Until then we have a common string of a lot of reading and some reflection papers!One night a week we are able to go to Zulu class which is IMPOSSIBLE. Goodness, I thought Spanish was hard until I walked into this class. I have trained my tongue to role r’s and in Zulu you make different click sounds for c,q and one other letter. The only thing that is saving me is that vowels are said similar to Spanish. Moral of story, anyone who can speak zulu I have tremendous respect for. I want to be able to do simple sayings for our work site but that’s all I am interested in. My final class is Theology online which could not be any harder. I have never read so much and realize now why I have never taken an online class, you need to go to class! Thankfully a lot of us are doing this together in efforts of passing the class and helping to understand. I am a people person and therefore need a professor and discussion. I am trying to remind myself that school is not EVERYTHING and I need to enjoy Africa. I will enjoy it a lot more once this class is done and I get to do service projects. We will continue with Community Engagement and History class through the semester but most of these classes are completed in 5 weeks! This week we signed up for committees to be apart of. I signed up for activity committee to plan events and also chapel committee to help plan our monday student chapel.
Monday we were able to visit one of our service site options. For four weeks we will be able to volunteer in one of four sites. Monday we saw Gateway, which is a school and women rehab who have been beaten or need to be treated because of HIV aids infection. I loved the site because I love kids and a school naturally drew me in, I don’t know what I will end up doing though, it’s way too early to decide. Put me at any work site in Africa and I will be happy so whatever ends up happening for me is fine.
Most mornings this week we have been running at 6am in the game reserve which has been such a treat. We have yet to see the zeh-bra (yes, pronounce that the African way) but we are on the hunt! We have ran super early, gone at walks near dusk, they are tricky animals which everyone but kat and I have managed to see!
This week the boys in the chalet next door caught a HUGE HUGE spider that they named “Crackin”. This spider was put in someone’s lunch box which I saw as no problem until yesterday when Kat and I were minding our own business doing a yoga work out tape and suddenly we heard our door open. The boys were plotting to release Crackin into our chalet. After a massive chase sequence we thought we had gotten rid of the boys forever. However, if you look on facebook you will see a video of them releasing Crackin into our desk drawer during dinner and our chalet mates (We also call them our RA, they are seniors and kinda like our older sisters) Christina and Emily are screaming. Let me just say, revenge is in the working.
Tonight was "girls night"-34 of us piled into a room. We drank hot chocolate, painted nails, and watched a movie. So fun! We head to Durbin tomorrow for Intercultural Communication to SWIM IN THE INDIAN OCEAN and to go through an Indian Village.
Struggles:
I am convinced that the cars are driving on the wrong side of the road
Showers-they go hot and cold
Weather here! One day it is 100 degrees, the next is freezing and rainy!
Theology. Ugh.
Being focused when I want to go sit by a waterfall, go run on a hill!
Finding a Zehbra
Not snuggling with the cat's here, they are very cute kittens
I am exhausted all the time-I literally go to bed at 10 and think it's late
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