Day 1!

day number one...feels more like it is day number four or something! i'm absoluntely exhausted but could not be happier.

my flight to cape town was 12.5 hours (leaving 30mins late) and i sat beside a medical professor who told me about a doctor who is now living in alberta somewhere who used shock therapy on homosexuals in south africa in the 1970's. i'm going to leave it at that and we'll just say it was an interesting plane ride.

i arrived in south african and was immediatly hit by a wave of heat and humidity, even though today was fairly clowdy and "cool". I can not put into words the smell here. it is something you can not describe...truly incredible. it feels so good to be here.

i got my baggage, which all arrived!, and then went out into the airport only to find that my driver had forgotten about me so i waited around for a couple of hours and people watched. once he arrived i went to drop my bags at the steyn residence (thank you!!!) and then off to the orphanage. on the drive over we passed by two different townships (slums) and the memories of my last trip started to come back. i am remembering how easy it is to forget. you come home and you forget about the four children you see who are dressed in rags and playing on the cement on the sied of the busy highway. you forget about stopping at a red light and having 3 boys no more then nine years old come up to your window trying to sell you everything from santa hats to garbage bag replacers. you forget about the little things that make africa what it is. i'm glad im starting to remember.

i arrived here around 2pm and it turns out they had no idea i was coming! simphewe is the man i was dealing with and he was off today so we had a bunch of sorting out to do. i was originally going to stay in one of the cluster houses with the children but i am now staying in a flat (within the orphanage) with some AVIVA members. they are other volunteers and are here from germany, holland, and norway. there is another flat housing 5 germans and they are who i will be working with most of the time.

once my housing situation was sorted out i got a tour of the orphanage and i was immediatly surrounded by children who all wanted to hold my hand and know my name (which is apparently pretty hard for them to pronounce). the cluster house that i was supposed to stay in had 12 children and they all sang a welcome song when i came in...the song was in english but there was so much giggling that i didnt understand all of it which was wonderful. they then told me all of their names...i have no idea how im going to learn all these names! but i have made it my goal to learn a few words in the native language and so far i know 'hello' and 'brother' and 'sister' yay me! haha

it's great to be here but i was reminded that i am also in a place where many people have incredible stories. walking with sophie, one of the germans, she told me that most of the girls who are over the age of ten have been rapped at least once. there was also a baby who was only a few hours old brought here this morning after someone found him in a ditch. it's a hard life here and i admire the people so much.

anyways i am off to have a much needed shower and then bed because i feel like i am no longer making sense. the internet here is iffy so im unsure when i will be able to connect again.
g'night =)