On Monday I went on a field trip for my IsiZulu class! It was our first field trip for that class and the ten of us were quite excited to finally get our chance to go somewhere. 

We went to our teacher Wynn’s eleventh grade class at Grace College to meet our pen pals. I was a little worried that we would have to speak a lot of Zulu to them, but of course they could speak English and Wynn didn’t make us speak an Zulu :) We have been writing to our pen pals for a few weeks. I’m sure my letters have been written basically at a first grade level. 

    It was really cool to meet the students in person. They made us traditional Zulu food which included a pumpkin dish, Zulu bread, a green been dish, and COW TONGUE! The bread and pumpkin tasted pretty good, but I did not particularly enjoy the cow tongue. The texture was horrible, but I managed to get it down. 

   The students also showed us around their school and we had a chance to talk with our pen pals one- on-one. It was really fun talking with my pen pal. His name is Nhlaka and he told me he likes Jay-Z and asked if I had seen him before. I was sorry to disappoint him, but I told him that no, I have never seen Jay-Z. He also introduced me to “the best basketball player on campus”, “ the coolest guys on campus” (who are the guys he hangs out with, of course) and “the biggest pimp on campus”. The students showed us all the classrooms and buildings and they did a Zulu dance for us, which was really fun to watch. This whole experience was one of my favorites so far! It was interesting to hear what the students thought of Americans and to learn more about the way they live. 

   On our way back to AE we asked Baba Philip to take us to McDonald’s. An oreo mcflurry and french fries have never tasted so good :) 

On Tuesday night we had D-group (our small groups here). My group is called the Dark Chocolate Divas and we went to a coffee shop called Mug and Bean and got coffee and shared the biggest most amazing piece of chocolate cake ever! I love these 8 girls and it was incredible to meet with them this week, they are such a blessing to me! 

Zulu and the Lion King

Today I woke up to a group of girls encouraging each other while using pepper spray on a bunch of monkeys outside my chalet. They were yelling at the monkeys and banging on the door trying to scare the monkeys, which obviously was not working as the monkey are not afraid of girls... so they got out the pepper spray and were cheering each other on as they used it. This is my life in South Africa. I was just lying on my bed laughing and thinking about how much I love these girls! 

Writing a blog is a great way to procrastinate. I should be studying for a huge Zulu test right now (its only on everything I have ever learned in the class) but instead I decided to blog. This is called productive procrastination. 

Zulu class is getting easier and harder at the same time. Sometimes when we speak or read something in class we sound pretty good and some things are really starting to click haha. However, we get more and more vocab everyday, and the language is getting more complex!

I LOVE our Zulu teacher! She truly is great! During the day she teaches at a high school (which they call college here) and then at night she comes and teaches us American students Zulu. I have such respect for Wynn! She is very patient with us and encouraging and just a sweet lady overall. On the first day of class we asked her if she could give us Zulu names. So for the past few weeks she has gotten to know us better and observed us in class and this week was the revealing of our Zulu names!!! All of our names are pretty insightful. My Zulu name is Thando (the “h” is silent). It means princess of love. I promise I did not give myself this name, however from now on I will only be responding to my Zulu name. Just kidding! These are other names: Hillary- Khanyi (shinning), Alex- Siphiwumus (we are given kindness/ mercy), Staci- Zamavezi (proof/evidence in trying), Josh- Lethukuthula (peace bringer), Logan- Lindokuhle (good is expected), Cynthia- Ntombenhle (pretty maiden), Daniele- Nonhlanhla (princess of luck/ goodfortune/ happiness), Alex- Sibonelo (example of others), Allie- Minonhle (pretty fingers). 

Yesterday, we went and hiked a mountain. The Drakensberg mountains were absolutely beautiful. The beauty of God’s creation here in South Africa never ceases to amaze me. As we were driving to the mountains the scenery and especially all the colors of the scenery were just incredible! The blue sky was one of the bluest skies I have ever seen and the clouds only added to this. I have never seen shadows on the grass created by the clouds. In fact, I did not even know this was possible. The hike in the mountains was my favorite part of the day. It was like living in the Lion King!! We walked by this stream and everything was just so green. It felt too beautiful to be real!  Everything I saw reminded me of what a powerful and wonderful God we have who would create such beauty. 

Another part of the day was seeing the San Bushman paintings on these caves.  Two things I learned about the San Bushman tribe is that they never killed anything unless they were going to eat it and they also never killed anything without painting it. 

Overall, it was such a good day and I simply love South Africa! Hope you enjoy the pictures! 

Another Week In Africa

I cannot believe it is already my fourth week here in Africa! This past week went by incredibly fast, but as always, it was great! A few things that happened... I got an A on my Zulu test, we watched Bride and Prejudice in Intercultural Comm haha, went start tripping at night and one day a monkey growled at me! We were innocently inside working on hw and he just came in and scared us! Wednesday night we went to dinner for ladies night and the food was great (and also half off)! Another highlight of the week includes founding this board game called 30 Seconds, its similar to Catch Phrase and I'm guessing its a South African version because a lot of the words are people and places of S.A. This makes things slightly more challenging and even more funny! Anyway, there have been several nights where this has been our entertainment and it is absolutely hilarious and the competition gets intense! 

This Saturday we went to Durban for the day! We went to this market for a couple of hours and did some shopping, had our PB &J sandwiches for lunch and then hung out at the beach for awhile. It was very hot, but the water felt great and of course there was ice cream involved. Beach days at the Indian Ocean are so much fun! On the drive back to AE there was a thunder storm. Even though it rains often and this is certainly not the first storm, its still kind of exciting! Only in South Africa, is it blazing hot one moment and pouring the next. 

Valentine’s Day was surprisingly really fun! It started off with going to church, which I had to wake up early for but was totally worth it! The church I went to was a charismatic church and I loved how the people were so joyful during worship. They sang and danced and even jumped during one worship song :) On Sunday night we all got dressed up for our special Valentine’s dinner! Upon special request the kitchen made chicken fettichini and garlic bread. This was such a great treat. I am really missing food from home. We also had a secret valentine exchange and the room was decorated quite nicely with candles and roses! There was some dancing after dinner and then a bunch of us watched the movie 50 First Dates. Bascially, Valentine’s Day in South Africa was a success!

Well, I am about to go study by the waterfall! Hope you all are doing well! Love and miss everyone back at home!   

Indian Ocean!

This weekend I went “camping” for an Intercultural Communications field trip in a city called Pennington which is past Durban. Apparently, camping for this trip did not mean sleeping in a tent and sleeping bag. We were at this camp site and stayed in chalets which had beds and even a TV. The weekend began with a drive that was supposed to take 2 hours, turning into a 5 hour drive. It was one of those days where things just kept going wrong! However, we did make it to our destination on Friday night and went to bed early because the next morning some of us wanted to see the sun RISE over the Indian Ocean! 

 

So, Saturday morning we woke up at about 4:30 am and yes, we watched the sun rise over the ocean and it was beautiful! We took lots of pictures and a few of us were reminded that although the sunrise was great and all, we really aren’t morning people! 

On Saturday, our first cultural experience of the weekend was walking around an Indian marketplace. All of us 53 white, American students definitely stood out as we walked along the street. Also, an extra element I have yet to mention about the weekend was the heat! This weekend and so far this week has been VERY hot and humid! It definitely is summer here! We literally never stop sweating! The upside to this was that at every gas station we stopped at (which turned out to be quite a few considering our bad luck with driving) we bought ice cream! There is nothing better on a hot South African day than ice cream :)  So... seeing the marketplace was pretty cool and I enjoyed talking to a few of the people there and getting a little taste of the way they live. 

One of the highlights of Saturday was going to the INDIAN OCEAN in the afternoon! We were all very excited for this and as soon as we got to the beach we all jumped in the water. We had to stay within a certain area of the water because they have shark nets and also the water in the Indian Ocean is very salty. My eyes started burning because of the salt, but of course we stayed in the water for awhile despite our red eyes. Going to the beach with 50ish people is quite fun and a few of us took the most epic jumping beach picture ever! 

On Sunday, I went to an Indian church in the morning and it was such an amazing experience! Inside the church it was about 90 degrees and the service was supposed to last 3 hours but it only lasted about 2.  Worship alone lasted over an hour but it was incredible. It was amazing to see the passion these people had and what devotion it took for them to come to church every Sunday knowing how hot it was going to be. I could truly feel God’s presence and although I was uncomfortable, I am so glad that I got to be a part of this. The Indian people at the church were so welcoming. They all greeted us with sweaty hugs and I was reminded of how big the kingdom of God is!

After church we went to the pastor’s son’s house and they cooked us Indian food for lunch! It all tasted so good, especially the curry, and they treated us with such hospitality! There was so much food and they continued to serve us asking if we wanted more Coke or ice cream and if we had had enough to eat! The pastor then told us that if we came to South Africa and needed a place to stay we were welcome to stay with them! I will never forget the kindness and hospitality of the Indian people. 

 

This weekend I was challenged because there wasn’t ever a set schedule and we never left on time to go anywhere and I never knew what was going on. To be honest, this was very difficult for me and I found it pretty annoying (especially when you are waiting somewhere in the heat!). However, this taught me a lot about the Indian culture and I saw firsthand how relationships and community is much more important to them than a time frame. Being thrown “into the deep end” this weekend was something that I will probably always remember and I am so thankful for everything I experienced!

If you are still reading this, you must like me a lot or be really bored! So thanks for reading about my intercultural weekend!