Sunday, January 31, 2010

Weekend in S.A.

As I sit here staring at about 50 flashcards of Zulu verbs, I’m starting to wonder what I was thinking three months ago when I decided to take Zulu here in South Africa. Surely, I had no idea it would be this difficult! We have our first test on Tuesday night and I can only hope that I will start to remember some of the things I have learned. We have to know the verbs from English to Zulu (which I can assure you is not the same, but much, much more difficult than Zulu to English!). Besides study for Zulu, today I went to Northhills Church in Pietermaritzburg. It was a charismatic church and the people were very friendly! Of course, there was tea and refreshments after, which is always a plus :) I really enjoyed experiencing something a little different from what I’m used to on Sunday mornings. Today was pretty hot, so we hang out by the watering hole for a little bit. There wasn’t much water in it, so we couldn’t really swim, but there was this little rockslide that was fun to slide down. 

Yesterday was quite an eventful day! We started the day off by going to placed called Birds of Prey. There was a bird show and we got to see all kinds of birds including many different owls, vultures, storks, and some other birds I can’t remember the names of. One highlight of Birds of Prey was watching them feed the vultures. 


After this we went to a lion park, where most of our group saw lions. It was just my luck, that the bus I was in did not get to see the lions (its a long story)! We were pretty bummed since everyone else took pictures and stood right on the other side of the cage of the lions. 


We then took a tour of Pietermaritzburg. We went to a train station where Ghandi was throw off the train and saw some other parts of the city. They took us to a look-out point where we could see the whole city. The view was incredible (and it was obviously a great picture opportunity)! 


And finally, on Saturday night a bunch of us went out to dinner at this pub and restaurant called the Keg. Its pretty close to where we are staying and the food was great! It was so fun to just relax and laugh together and was one of the best parts of the day!


Well, that's my first full weekend here in South Africa! Hope you all are doing well!

 




Friday, January 29, 2010

Sawubona!




Sawubona! After being here at African Enterprise for a few days now, I can whole- heartedly say that I love it here! I just cannot get over how beautiful it is and the fact that I get to spend this semester with such amazing people at this amazing place :)


This morning a bunch of us went on a morning walk and we saw ZEBRA! Three zebras and a baby zebra! We were all so excited and it was a great start to the day! We all have been going to bed super early (by 9 or 10) and then wake up nice and early to go walking or jogging or journal or talk to God. My friend Daniele and I found this really cool path that has three bridges and we feel like we are in the jungle with Tarzan! 


Classes started this week and it is definitely difficult to get in the mindset of studying. There are ten of us that are taking 8 units of Zulu and it certainly is going to be a challenge! There are three different clicks in the language and its unlike anything I have ever learned! At the end of our course we are supposed to be at an 8th grade level. In the next couple of week, our teacher is going to give us Zulu names!


It is interesting to hear about the differences in Zulu culture from our culture. For example, the men will always walk in or out of a door in front of the women because they are facing the danger first. Also, children never look adults in the eyes and they do not speak to adults unless the adults talk to them first. 


Yesterday, we studied a little bit by the waterfall and found a chameleon! It was this tiny little thing and we all passed it around because we were so intrigued. You are probably beginning to see why it is not easy to do homework here! But, oh well, TIA (This is Africa) and sometimes we are actually productive and I’m sure we will get done what we need to!  


Miss you and love you all at home! And thank you so much for all the prayers :)



Monday, January 25, 2010

We're Here!

So after a very long couple of days of traveling (we left APU at 2:30 am on Thursday and arrived around 6 pm on Friday) we FINALLY arrived in Joburg, South Africa! The second flight was about 17 hours but thankfully I was able to sleep for some parts of it. 


This weekend we spent time in Joburg and stayed at this hotel. We all were (and still may be) completely jet lagged and out of it. For dinner on Friday and Saturday we went to restaurants in the area and that was pretty fun. Just a random fact, the ketchup is sweeter here! On Saturday we went on a tour of the city. The people of South Africa are very friendly and would wave to us as we drove by on the bus, welcoming us! Just a side note: after being here for a couple of days it still is weird to me that the driver is on the right side of the car and that they drive on the right side of the rode. We’ve had several good laughs about this when we forget how its different than in the U.S. We also went to a mall and saw different parts of Soweto and were really able to start seeing the people and culture of S.A. We had lunch at our tour guides’ restaurant, where some African children came and danced for us! There were so cute! Then we went to the Apartheid museum, where we learned a ton of history about South Africa. 


On Sunday we took another flight from Joburg to Durban. And we are all pretty much tired of flying by now, but it was only a 55 min. flight. As soon as we stepped off the plane it were greeted by hot and humid weather! I feel as if growing up in Fresno has prepared me for this time in S.A. (except that the humidity is a new concept). The drive to our new home was incredible! South Africa is BEAUTIFUL! There is green everywhere! I cannot believe I get to live in such an amazing place. We finally reached our new home, African Enterprise :) There are trees and green everywhere, and a waterfall and swimming hole right by us. We live in these chalets and I can hear and see the waterfall from our room! 


Today (Monday) I woke up at 6am and went on a run slash walk through the game reserve in hopes of seeing zebra. We only got a little lost and had to ask for directions twice but we did see an antelope! Oh, and route we ended up taking was about 5 miles.


Today was the first day of class but it’s hard to think about studying here! We had our first tea time, which we have two times a day in addition to three meals. Tea time is simply great; they have tea, coffee, and some type of muffin, cookie, scone, etc for us. They feed us here so much! 


As you can probably tell, I am so excited about this semester! It has been great getting to know everyone in our group and I cannot wait for all we will learn together and for all the fun we will have!  You can be praying that my body adjusts to the time change and to being here (it would be nice to sleep past 5 am!) and also that I would be prepared for all the things I am about to experience and see!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

My First Post and Address

As many of you know, this spring I am studying abroad in South Africa! I could not be more excited for such an amazing opportunity and cannot wait for my adventure to begin! I have already said goodbye to my family and to many friends and I know it will be difficult to be away from everything I have ever known. But I know that God is going to teach me so much this semester and that I will continually grow as I see and experience so many different things in South Africa! I will be updating my blog so that you can see and hear about what is going on in my life while I am away. 

The past few days I have been back at APU and it has been great to be with my friends here! We had the first day of orientation for our trip today and it was so fun seeing everyone who will be going to SA and to hear the details of our semester. We leave very, very early Thursday morning and as you can imagine, I cannot believe this day is finally almost here! 

Here is my new address (for mail and not packages)! I will only be in Pietermaritzburg for the first part of the semester and they say it will take 2-3 weeks for mail to reach us, but I would love to get letters!

African Enterprise Center
Attn: API Alyssa Wiebe   
1 Nonsuch Road
Pietermaritzburg 3201
3200 KZN
South Africa