lots of updates

So I don't remember what all went down in my last blog post. So I'm gonna go from Saturday, with pictures.....someday in the future. :) Sorry guys, I'm bad at taking pictures. Just go with it.

So Saturday we took a tour up to the townships. It was bittersweet for me, driving through and seeing all these black faces watching our van crawl past their bright aqua-painted mud hut houses. There was trash littered EVERYWHERE, no gutters, not even paved roads everywhere. Our guide told us that most of the houses had running water and plumbing, but there were still houses without. There were dogs everywhere, and people walking slowly across the street, women doing laundry, and children playing in their tiny yards. But as we drove past nearly everyone sitting outside every house waved at us, smiling. How could they smile and wave at me as I sit in my diesel charriot, rolling through their neighborhood? But they did. It never ceases to amaze me how much love these people have in their hearts. That so many of them can live through the worst years of Apartheid and still look at me, a privileged little white girl, and treat me with kindness. Maybe the Truth and Reconciliation commission did a better job than I thought it would. Maybe they know that more hatred won't move the country forward. Maybe they just want to live their quiet lives, have work, money for food and clothing, enjoy a few simple luxuries like a warm bed, electricity, clean, abundant water, and medicine when they get sick.

Well, I finally got internet in my room, after four days or so of living in Canterbury house without. I've made a few friends, and for the most part people here are accommodating. The university itself is one massive breakdown in communication, I feel, and although everyone is ready and willing to help, often it takes a long time to get an answer I find straightforward, or the person in question has to send me to a different department. I've resolved not to add or drop any classes for the sheer time it would take for me to wander from department to department trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to be in school yet; For heaven's sake, its July. I've never had such a short summer break. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things rather quickly. Also my building is a five-to-seven minute walk from the main part of campus. Unfortunately my classes are often on the complete opposite side of campus, so as luck would have it I will not have to join the gym because my constant cross-campus up-hill trekking is more effective than any tredmill I've ran on.

Another stroke of luck: I was in the Rat and Parrot (a local pub) the other night for a rugby game, and I met a woman named Karen who taught me all about it. It turned out one of the men at her table was actually the choir director at Rhodes, we got to talking and voila! I'm a member of the RU chamber choir. I'm still considering whether or not I want to go on the tour with them during September break, since that is my only opportunity really travel around for an extended peroid of time and see whats up. But I am grateful for the chance to sing and keep my skills honed. I was worried I wouldn't sing all summer and all this semester and would sound like a toad when I go home. Thank God for small favors.

Well I suppose this is all I have to say for now. I'm settling in, getting over the small frustrations provided by living in a new country and attending a new university. But overall the experience has been relatively easier than I thought it would be. Not nearly as big of an upheaval as moving to Hawaii.

Cheers!