Happy Birthday JENNY!

Wednesday after class I read outside and worked on my tan. :D haha

Thursday I took the Jammie (school bus system) to class with my neighbor, Dave. It made me never EVER want to walk to campus again. My social anthropology class is interesting, thank god, or I wouldn’t really have much motivation to leave my house at 7:15 every morning! In my philosophy class there was a bird just randomly flying around, it was interesting ha. After classes I went to the store to get food to make Anna and I for dinner, we take turns making each other dinner. We eat chicken here a LOT. I also live off of peanut butter/notello(chocolate spread) sandwiches… It’s the easiest thing to make. There are tons of fruits, because of its exotic climate so I eat a lot of that as well. After dinner we of course lost power because it goes off a “pay as you go” system, just like the phones, and internet. So we had to call Andrea to have her buy us electricity lol. We ended up going to Hemisphere, a club in the City Bowl District (CBD) it is randomly located on the 31st floor of a high rise building. Anna used her connections yet again to get us on the VIP list, so not only did we not have to pay cover but we also were in an amazing section. The club had an amazing view and was very upscale.

Friday classes came WAY too early, and by way too early I mean with my one hour of sleep (more like a cat nap). I’ve come to notice that everything on campus starts EARLY and ends after lunch time. We have periods, and it’s interesting to say that we have a lunch period. Meaning no one has classes from 1-1:45. It’s your lunch period. Students sit on the Jammie steps outside with all their friends, read, eat, and hangout. In classes students also participate a lot more often. Even in huge lectures, like mine, you have at least 5-15 students asking questions in our 45 minute period. Anyway we decided that we were going to go on a sunset booze cruise, with “free” Champaign all night. The weather was perfect, and we had sooo much fun. Anna and I were soaking wet at one point because a huge wave splashed us while we were sitting on the net. After the cruise we stayed at the waterfront and went to Mitchell’s a restaurant/bar. It was fun and the food was great. The semester at sea vessel docked at the waterfront on Thursday so a girl in my program met up with her friend in the program. We got to see the boat from the dock..haha it looks amazing.

Saturday I woke up extremely early for my SHAWCO- STEP training. I am so excited that I got accepted to volunteer through that program. Training consisted of more indepth details of our specific program, and then my program had a few extra hours of training because it deals with very young kids in the two poorest townships. I met up with 2 of my sorority sisters, they both go to Michigan and the one, Kara and I are actually volunteering through the same EXACT program (days and times) which was werid! So far I have met 3 Adpi’s here, oh how small the world is. So I am volunteering every Monday for 3 hours tutoring 5th graders in math, English, and life skills at Khayelitsha… I start Monday! So excited! When I came back I had to get more air time and on my way back as I was walking on my street I witnessed a homeless man going to the bathroom on a tree near my house. I won’t lie….it was disgusting. But they don’t have anywhere else to go…which is the sad part… During the evening we went to a house party where people were jumping off the roof into the swimming pool....safe…NOT! It was entertaining but scared to hell out of me watching people act so stupid.

Sunday I went to breakfast at Coco Wawa with Anna, we gossiped as we usually do and then we went grocery shopping. The girls in the back house and everyone in my house went to see soon to be president Jacob Zuma speak. (He is the president of the ANC and unless a huge upset occurs he will be the next president, almost everyone here supports the ANC, even if they don’t agree with the president of the ANC at the time.) He spoke at Khayelitsha and there were over 12,000 people who attended. They told me that it was extremely overwhelming at first because Khayelitsha is a “black” township so everyone was black. Of the 12,000 people they were the only whites. Some people loved that they were there, and others well didn’t. Some mocked them by painting their faces white and said racist comments. Other than that and the overwhelming crowd they said the experience was amazing. He spoke in Xhosa, so someone near them was generous enough to translate for them. I didn’t go for two reasons: 1. I didn’t feel safe, because there could have been a riot (in fact they were lucky that there wasn’t one) 2. I had tons of school work to last me through the afternoon and evening. So no worries, I am being smart and staying safe! :D Later in the evening I went next door and watched a movie.

Monday morning, along with every morning that I choose to walk to school is a bit of a challenge. Not only do I have to walk forever but once you make it half way to campus there is a lawn with a walking path directly through the middle, which has a sprinkler system surrounding it. EVERY morning I have to dodge the sprinklers so I don’t get wet. It’s quite a hysterical sight, except when you get drenched, which has happened to me on a few occasions. Then, by the time you get to class not only are you soaking from the sweat but you are also dripping with water ha. Classes went smoothly today and then I had SHAWCO. I will admit I was nervous and when I stepped off the bus we were immediately surrounded by so many children. It was a bit of a mad house at first because they had to get everyone’s attention (haha which never actually happened) and then we had to split up by grade and then by class. So needless to say it took quite awhile. After my group and I split up we went in search of a classroom….and of course there wasn’t an empty one so I had to share a classroom with another class of 5th grade learners. Eventually we got started where I met my learners- 10 of them. Usually there are suppose to be 2 volunteers with your group of learners, but Monday was an unpopular day of volunteering, so there aren’t as many volunteers…meaning I was by myself, which I would prefer. I went through the lesson plan, where we worked on filling out questions about each other and then we worked on counting and addition and subtraction. They all spoke English, but I knew some didn’t understand what I was saying. They all speak Xhosa as their mother tongue so their English level varies. The school itself was not at all what you would think of when you think of “school”. It was more like a whole in the wall room with broken chairs and tables, some were useful, some not. Everything was messy with a big pile of trash swept up in a corner. When we were working on our excises only 2 of them had a pencil, so I had to break the rules and let them borrow mine (we have to follow certain rules). A few of them didn’t have shoes and most of their clothes were not fitting and dirty. If you didn’t know what to expect it could have been a real eye opener. I loved volunteering and when I walked on the bus to go back to campus I was exhausted! It was amazing and I can’t wait to go back next week. Tonight I have to finish a paper that is due tomorrow night, but tomorrow is my BIRTHDAY so I have to finish it today!!!

Tomorrow for my birthday Anna is making me Ostrich for dinner :D and then we are going bowling to pregame and then off to tigertiger….where I have a guest list for my birthday! From 8-10 drinks are free but because it’s my birthday me and my best friend get in free and I get a free bottle of Champaign. Therefore Anna and I are getting in free!!! And everyone whose going is buying me a drink…I am going to end up giving lots of drinks to Anna ha…sucks for Wednesday’s 8am class. As of right now at least 27 of my friends are coming, and everyone is really excited for me! It sucks I won’t be home to celebrate with Jenny but I am glad I at least have people who want to celebrate with me! I plan on calling Jenny at 7am tomorrow (right as I walk out the door to class) to wish her a happy birthday at MIDNIGHT USA-East Coast time!

Jenny:

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday dear JENNY!

Happy Birthday to YOU!!!! AND MANY MORE!!!!

Cheers!