Settled In

Hello everyone!
I feel like havent written on here in a very long time, but I have been very busy. Some of the highlights of what I've been doing are going to listen to poetry, going to a lot of rehearsals, I went on a retreat in the mountains this weekend, our show opened yesterday and it was great, i've finished up with all my classes, and so much more. so.....

First of all, I have really been working on my sesotho and I am almost at the point where I can have a conversation which is really cool! Mpho says certain phrases to me and I actually understand! Its so much easier for me to understand sesotho than to speak it because a lot of the sounds are so unfamilar so are difficult to make. My palate just isnt shaped to produce those sounds. But, the more I work on it the easier it gets.

Last week Kevin took us to the TAC (Treatment Action Campaign) for class. The TAC is located in Khayelitsha which is the second largest township in South Africa (Soweto is the first). We found out after we left that the reason there was so much loud music outside during our class is because the store right below us was being robbed at gun point. When we came out we saw the police and our teacher told us what happened. For some reason this did not have that big of an effect on me. Its wierd because everyone knows how dramatic I am, but for some reason everyone else was much more affected than I was. To be honest the only reason I am even mentioning it is so I can remember that it happened when I read over this years form now. I really hope that I am not becoming numb to the crime and violence like many Cape Townians. I just refuse to live my life in fear. I know that this is a very dangerous place, but if I was completely careful all the time I would never leave my house! Crime is a part of life here and in order to carry on a normal life you just have to accept it.

I have realy began to settle in these past couple weeks. I now feel very much like I live here. I feel more like a local than a tourist. I finally know how to how to get wherever I need to go, Im good with the public transportation, I understand the lingo necessary to communicate with the locals. I am no longer intimidated by the language barriers. I pretty much can understand what people are trying to say without having to say "i only speak english". Its better this way because when people say things I can respond with a short word or phrase without having to say anything that reveals my accent. Its just safer that way so that they dont take advantage of me because Im not fom here.But even besides that I can go to the grocery store and know exactly what to but. Things dont look so foreign anymore. Speaking of groceries, my diet has completely changed since Ive been here. Fruits and vegetables are a huge portion of my diet. I also eat a lot of pasta. I eat chicken on occasion and have eatten calamari quite a few times when ive been out to dinner. (ive already talked about how great the calamari is here in my first blog, so i wont go back into that). But thats pretty much it. I can definately say I lead an over all healthier lifestyle here than I do at home.
Because I dont have to work while im here I have a lot more time to do things that i never have time to do at home. I finally finished Iyandla Vanzant's In the Meantime which Ive been woring on finishing for close to nine months now. I have also now started the workbook Living Through the Meantime. I have been going to church consistantly. For the first time in years I dont have to work on Sundays so I can actually go to church! And not only that, but I can be involved i church activities. I did a habitat for humanities project with my church 2 weeks ago. We built a foundation for a house for a family in a township called Mfuleni. We are going to finish building the house the week of Sept 8th. I really enjoyed that experience. It was nice to work with the people that live in the township on building the foundation. I also love children, so it was nice to get to be around the kids. Most of them couldnt speak english, only xhosa, but it was still good to watch them play and spend time around them.
I've also gotten back into poetry and spoken word. I havent started writting again yet, but I've been going to a lot of spoken word events. I forgot how much I love it. Last wednesday my roomates jamal, susie, and alex came to a little place called cafe sophia with me. This girl name poetry that I know from school was performing so she invited me to come. It was so nice. We had to pay 200 rand for a table (thats only about 25 dollars), but it came with samplers of all the good food on the menu and a bottle of nice red wine. All of the performers were great. I left there feeling so inspired and satisfied. I am making that my new Wednesday night ritual.
The next day was Thursday and we had our dress rehearsal for TIE. TIE stands for theatre in education. For my drama class we had to get into groups and create a play based on an issue school kids face... ours was intolerance and discrimination. We had about 3 or 4 weeks to create and rehearse the play. This week is performance week. Each group has 3 performances. We go into schools in and around cape town and perform our shows for the students.Believe it or not this has been one of my favorite things Ive done here. The creating/rehearsing process was strenuous, but actually performing and seeing how much the kids are affected afterwards is so rewarding! Our show is actually making a difference in peoples lives and changing childrens minds about things. It feels so good to be able to say that I am a part of something like this. Its crazy because I am doing this for a class, but i mean, i get to help children and influence their lives through theatre.... thats like a dream come true for me. i love it! it really is such an amazing experience and the kids are so grateful.

Friday our program coordinators took us all on a retreat to Montagu. It was awesome! such a contrast to cape town. Its a really quiet mountainous town in the counrty. Its really clean and quaint and absolutely beautiful! the whole time you are just surrounded by this huge beautiful mountains and the clearest blue sky. It even smells different there. The sky is so clear at night that the stars seam close enough to touch. It was really a nice little get away. But, the thing I loved best about montagu was the FOOD! the food was so frikkin good!! Food in south africa tastes better than at home period. its just tastes fresher and everything has more flavour, but in montgu it was like exceptional! The first night we ate a the restaurant in the lodge we were staying in. We had a butternut and carrot soup to start. The main course was some sort of chicken on a stick on a bed of pasta in a creamy white sauce. dessert was chocolate mousse! There are lots of wine vinyards in montagu so we also drank two of the local wines with our dinner. Not only was it delicious and amazing, but it was FREE!!!! all that for F R E E!!! and not only that but our program coordinators also paid for our lunch and dinner the next day!
Anyways, so we arrived on Friday. The lodge was so cute and comfy. We ate that delicious dinner downstairs then all the students went out to a bar. We found the only bar in the quiet town of montagu and went for drinks. We havent all hung out together since the first week we arrived so it was nice to all go out together and have a good time. The next day was saturday. we woke up and everyone, including the coordinators (andrea and kevin are their names) went on a tractor ride up a mountain!! I have encountered traveling up and down so many mountains in south africa. i think its a metaphore for my life. but anyways, we rode this HUGE tractor up this mountain. It was so beautiful. The thing that was different about this mountain was that its in a huge mountain range so as we traveled up we could see deep low beatiful valleys and also other mountains towering on each side. The plants were crazy up there. you have to see pictures of all the unique vegetation. they also grow apples, peaches, and pears in that region so I got to eat an apple on the ride back down. It tasted like someone had infused it with sugar. it wwas the best apple ive ever tasted. now dont get me wrong i eat A LOT of fruit here and its all so delicious, but THIS apple was just incredible. When we got down to the bottom of the mountain they had this traditional cook out thing for us, i forgot what its called, but i know it starts with a p. anyways, we had stuff like fresh baked bread and fresh pressed jams, lamb, chicken, lamb curry, fresh veggies, mala pudding etc. It was all delicious! After that we all went home, watched a little bit of the ruby game and then took a nap. One last thing about food.... after we woke up from our naps Andrea and Kevin took us all out to dinner. Now, I not a big red meat eater, but number one this meal was free and number two SA is known for having awesome meat. So, i ordered a sirloin steak with chips(fries) and veggies. This steak was the bomb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldnt even speak after the first bite because it was just so tender and juicy and full of flavour. That steak has convinced me that I need to eat more red meat while Im here. It was just soooo gooodd!!!
Anyways after dinner we went to the hot springs. it was pretty cold so we didnt stay for long. then we went home and went to bed.
Sunday was our last day in montagu. I slept in because I could. I never really get to do that at home because I always have school work to do or my house mates wake me up with all their noise. We then got ready to leave. One of the girls in the program is named Samantha. It was her birthday on Sunday so on our way home from montagu we stopped at this wine vinyard and had lunch and wine. We sat outside and it was really nice because the landscape surrounding us was so beautiful. It was a little chilly though. The food was all pretty good. There was this mince(ground beef) curry dish that was really good. For dessert we had malva pudding which is this delicious traditional south african dessert. Its one of my favorites! and then we had teo bottles of the local wine made right on there on the vinyard. They were very good. Because the wine industry in south africa is so huge, we've had the oppurtunity to do a lot of tastings and learn a lot about it. Its a lot different from in the states. People drink wine here just like they drink tea.
So we returned home that evening I went to church and then to rehearsal and then passed out sleeping. My friend Siphu slept over because we had to be up at 6:50 pm the next morning for our performance, so she just slep here since I live closer to the venue.
So.... yeah. thats pretty much what ive been up to lately. Im doin really well. A lot of my roomates are starting to miss their families and stuff a lot, but I go 2 months without seeing my family all the time so this isnt that hard for me. I do miss the shelter a lot. I miss the kids. Im not used to being away from them. This past week my family (Courtnie especially), Hannah, my kids, Nevada, my bests (T,D,&L), my YEA friends and Ani have all been on my mind a lot. I miss all of those people so much. But besides that I am doing great!! I have to stop writing now so I can go to bed. Im waking up and going to see Mpho's show in the morning. So, goodnight all!