I feel bad telling you this, but I am not coming home.. Ever.. ;) It is so amazing here. I think I have decided that I will come back next year. I will ditch Australia and come back to South Africa. I am going to start off with most important instead of chronological. If I have time I will get to the less important.
I am shocked I did not mention this in the other post, must have been too scatterbrained. But, the water shortage here is crazy. Well it is not a shortage by living standards, but what you are used to. For example, I am yet to see a water fountain in any business building, hotel, mall, etc. We are told the tap is ok, so I refill my water bottle. I am frightened for Zambia and Botswana because the water is not drinkable ( I am pretty sure), but it is supposed to be around 100-110 degrees and I have been sick and need hydration. Should be fine though, because you can usually buy water. It is like $2. As much as alcohol. It is hilarious that you can pay the same amount to be hydrated vs. drunk. My roomate bought two bottles of wine for $6. We do get to shower comfortably and brush teeth and everything. It just has made me realize what I take for granted. I have always heard that there are water issues, but never really understood.
Secondly, I met an amazing girl here at Lebo's Backpacker Lodge that we are staying at. Her name is Peacemaker. She is volunteering as a receptionist sort of person while she is at tourism school. She is 20 also. She wants to open her own beautiful backpacking lodge. She took Jillian and I on a special tour to the place where she wants to build it. It is amazing. It is in the shadow of the new FNB stadium (FIFA 2010). I really want to come back and help her with construction next summer. Maybe I can get you all to come as well. I am sooo excited for her. David, Jillian and I were looking at her business proposal and everything. Oh David, is this boy in our group that has similar career goals I guess. Well he has informed me about "social business" the term that refers to my vision of owning a company that makes money, but uses it for a good cause. Also thinking about accounting and entrepreneurship which I have never heard of another person. Very helpful.
Peacemaker, Jillian, and I took the taxis that our professor recommended us not to. But they were really fun and everyone is so nice. White people are scared to come here, but everyone is so nice and loves us. They do not care what color our skin is.
Today we went to a Methodist church. Everyone stares, but they enjoy us. The service was in Xhosa and possibly Zulu. Most of the people we have met speak Zulu, and a lot speak English also. Although they do have a VERY VERY strong accent that you are not sure if they are speaking english. By the way, I am sorry if my grammar or speaking is a bit off. I am thinking in the way that I have been tlaking to people around here that do not always understand me. Anyways, the church has us get in front of the congregation and introduce ourselves. Also sit down and stand up 30 times.
As far as the gifts go, I have given out half of the sunglasses they LOVE THEM. I have given out three soccer balls of eight. The first, and only new one (from walmart) got ranover the first night. Jerks. Oh well, still plenty left. I taught a little girl how to make the vibration lips noise. Held her on my hip for like an hour. All the little girls have braided our hair. Also, we have given out a bunch of candy. You will love all of the pictures. They all say "shoot me" I also have amillion of me because the kiddos like to take the camera and take pictures. They run off for a half hour.
To answer comments: I think I get sick from the medicine I am taking, but it is fine. The weather is nice. Warmer than I expected, but I have ben wearing jeans and shorts. Maybe like 70-80 degrees. Hard to convert from celsius to fahrenheit. Same with rands to dollars, but I think I have spent less than $100. And I am so excited to see the sounders pictures. The internet is too slow for me to open the e-mail. I will try later.
I have to go now. SO that you get at least all of this. We are going to a game reserve in Zambia tomorrow I believe. So maybe there will be better internet facilities and I can load pictures.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Mikey- I miss your hugs. :)
wow erica that sounds crazy amazing. I would LOVE to come next summer. if i'm able. im glad you're having fun. they sound adorable. and im glad that you made the smart choice to take the taxi they said NOT to take. :) thats awesome that they love their gifts. im glad to hear that.
ReplyDeletemike and i went to the husky game last night. it was a blast. i think your old dorm was on fire. uh oh. at least in the car port. there were firetrucks and the fire alarm going off. and from where we were walking i could see firemens feet walking through water on the ground in the car port and then a little further down there was a crazy bright orange glow. but mike said the lights down their were orange so im not sure. he said he will look into it. but any way the game was good. we lost though. 23-33 i think. there were bad calls on us. i'm sure mike will have more fun going with you when you come back. i miss you so much. p.s. i need so much help with my budget when you get back as well as deciding whether or not to drop my 3rd class.
cant wait to see pictures.
p.s. i texted you a couple times so you have some to come back to.
i love you!!
Hi hun. It sounds like your having alot of fun and alot of eye opening experiences. Now you know why i used to tell you girls not to waste the stuff you eat and drink cause there's people all over that dont have anything. Im glad that your feeling beter. I know that you feel that everyone is so nice there but please be carefull. They may not care what your skin color is but you all still stick out like a sore thumb and make you a target for people that may not be so nice. Sorry, im just being a dad. Anyhow, maybe you can get sum names and addresses of people there that you trust and we can send them sum goodie packages throughout the year to pass out to the kids. it is so good to hear from you. i check the computer about 5 times a nite to see if you've posted anything. Luckily mike and katie give me a heads up whenever you do. Its raining big time here so just another crappy holiday weekend here. I watched the game last nite and the dawgs actually did alot better than alot of people thot they would. i beter save some space on this site so il just say I LOVE YOU!!! and be safe please! Dad & Sonja
ReplyDeleteI am so glad to hear from you. I have to say I really do not like the fact that I can not just talk to you all the time like I am used to. I really miss you. Awesome though that you are getting to do all of this. Getting to see all of that can get those ideas flowing (I can see you brain working from here) on directions you want or can go with your business plans. It's great also that you have connected with someone with the same type of goal.It would be cool to go there next year. What an awesome family trip that could be! You will have to remind me how much it cost all together so I can start saving my pennies.
ReplyDeleteHow did the kids like the soccer balls? Maybe the trip could be planned for when the FIFA cup is there:). Funny thing in case you didn't know,the Open cup is a qualifier for CONCAF Cup,which is qualifier for some other cup which eventually leads to FIFA Cup.
As for the taxis over there I did some reading. pretty scary from what I have read. There is a Facebook Group called Genoeg is Genoeg (enough is enough) that is all about the the bad taxis over there. I guess in February a little girl was killed by one of the taxis and wasn't going to even be punished until the Facebook Group was formed and people started raising a fruckas. ( where did that word come from?) SO BE CAREFUL WITH THE TAXIS PLEASE!
What have you done so far as the business aspect of the trip? What companies etc. have you talked to?I can't wait to see the pictures either and hear more about the kids. It sounds like you are enjoying yourself.
School starts on Monday. We went to the open house and met his teacher and gave her the scoop. I can tell already that she is going to be way better for him. I also realized that you can tell if a teacher is a good teacher by the way they talk to the kids individually. If they engage them in real conversation and listen to what the kids are saying. I realized that when I was in the class, his teacher last year did not really ever talk to the kids, she talked at them. I guess I will have to interview his teachers from now on. Anyway he is excited for school to start which is a good thing. Oh an I got my Financial Aid Award amounts and it looks like eveything is covered ( I have to double check )with the Grants alone. In addition they have me down for 1600.00 in work study or something. Which I will do some of since I can now to supplement income. They are supposed to possibly be able to get jobs in the area of study at some point in the process as well. No loans, which is great. So that is all very exciting to me.
Alright I have to go take care of some things. Talk to you later. Love ya!
Hi Erica!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy to hear you're having such an awesome time. Nice time to be down there in the good weather, too! To update you, here we'eve been having an insane amount of rain, even a bit of hail. Yesterday a tornado rolled through Enumclaw, luckily i don't think anyone was hurt, just a couple of barn and greenhouses torn down. It's been a pleasant stay with Vicky, last night we went to Rachel and Andy's house for dinner. Rachel cooked some excellent cedar plank grilled salmon. So delicious! HAve you tried the bunny chow yet? The husky game with your sister was a lot of fun. I yelled so much that it gave me a super sore throat the last couple of days, a swollen gland, and I woe up with morning with a tonsil stone mine in the back of my throat. We are off now to see District 9, maybe you'll be in it! :) Very cool that you've had the chance to meet other people that have similar entrepeneurial spirit as you. I'm so excited for you. How soon do you get to go bungie jumping and shark diving? Thinking about you a lot. Miss you, love you.
Liebe, Mich
p.s. a.j. likes his new back-to-school sweatshirt a lot :)
ReplyDeleteHi Erica! I am just reading your blog and enjoy hearing about your time so far. Sounds like an excellent adventure!! I will look forward to reading more and seeing pics when you return. I trust you will load to Facebook at some point. Had a nice evening with Mike at Rachel's. The cedar plank salmon WAS delicious. And I made blueberry cream cheese pie that was pretty darn tasty too. :) District 9 was really really good. Didn't notice you in the mob scenes! Rick and Chris met us there. I am interested to hear that the temps there are 70-80's. I guess it would be winter going into spring. Sounds great. Continue to have a wonderful fantastic time. Be safe. Feel better. Love, Vicky
ReplyDeleteHey erica,
ReplyDeleteMe again. so i just thought it'd be funny to tell you that I jinxed myself. You know how i asked if you'd be able to fly back if there was an emergency? well it wasn't an emergency but it could've been. Rhonda got a flat tire. luckily i was just leaving kyles so it wasn't to dangerous but i had to replace the whole tire. my bad.
I also really cant wait for you to come back. i need help with my budget. i think i still wanna keep my 3rd class when school starts so ill have to pay the extra money for the credits but my room mate said she gets financial aid and they covered it. but i need to hear your input. i also need help with books. i found a couple people on craigslist selling books i need for real cheap. but of course i wanna talk things out with my smarter half (you).
ugh i wish you were back here. but at the same time im so happy you did this. you're gonna have stories out the yang. haha. i'm with mike on that question... when do you get to shark dive and bungee jump?
i know you're really busy but i hope we hear from you once or twice before you come back.
i hope you've taken plenty of pictures.
hows jillian? is she having fun as well? i bet it's all just jim dandy.
i love you and miss you er ti cah.