Sunburned from too much Fun!

Well the trip to Durban was a success I would say. The hotel was gorgeous! We stayed at the Fairmont a little outside of Durban. The grounds around the hotel were incredible! The beach was about a 15 minute walk/hike on a trail, which I do not recommend doing at night. It was like we were in a horror movie. However once we reached the pool, it was worth it. Down on the beach there was an amazing infinity pool, where we spent most of time the next day, lounging at and drinking pina coladas. Virgin of course. The hotel outside was amazing, however it was not all as glorious as the pools. We had 11 people in one room. 11! So I think it is safe to say we did not get much sleep that night. Also I being as fair skinned as I am, went home with a mean sunburn. When I say mean I mean, really really bad. I had a red beard on my face! It was so embarrassing. I put sunblock on, I swear I did. The African sun is just more intense I believe. Despite those little glitches, it was a blast for us zulu students.

When we returned home back to A.E. the next day, we didn’t have much time to rest from our little excursion. The next morning, on Friday, we departed for our battlefields tour. 5 hours plus of driving and stopping along the way to stop and look at battlefields of historic battles in South Africa. From reading this im sure you can tell it was not one of the best field trips we have had so far. It actually was really fun though, the hotel part anyways. The hotel was adorable! It had the cutest rooms and the best meals! Every room was different and so comfortable. The food was incredible! Those who know me know I am not much of a soup person, however they served us this butternut squash soup that was to die for. Im in love with it.

Our guide was a 75 year man named Tony Jones. He was a character to say the least. He lives and breathes battlefields. He was sweet most of the time. However it was hot when we were at some of the battlefields. This cause a few of us students to yawn. Tony did not like this. He yelled at everyone who yawned. Things such as “Hey! Tonsil king”. It miffed us all a little. But he was nice, just old like he said haha.

I do think the weekend would have been much better if my skin were not on fire. But all together it was a nice trip completed with nice food. It was great to get off campus.

To end the weekend we had SUNDAY FUNDAY! And boy was it fun! We had a slipping slide witch I don’t think any of us have been on since we were tots. It was so much fun! We slipped and slided for hours! We then had chalet competitions! Each chalet had a certain color and we did a rely race. The Mojo’s(thats us) were purple! And we totally rocked it. First, a team member ate a spoonful of salt and ran across the lawn and downed a water bottle, (this is the task that I was given, let me tell you that even though I love salt, I realized I only like it on my food, it was really gross.) then once I returned from the nasty salt water race, two more members did a wheelbarrow across the whole lawn, just looking at them hurt my muscles. This was done by jamie and hilary. Then when they got back two other mojo’s did a three legged race across the lawn and back, this was done by our graceful dancers, delaney and alyssa. Then when they returned carisa dug her face in whipped cream and found 6 mints. Then 5 mojo’s passed an apple with their necks, then one member ate around the apple and ran back and forth across the lawn. This was done by angie, delaney,hilary, jamie, and kristin. We came in 3rd place! Which is really good because 1st and 2nd place were taken by the 2 boy chalets. So really, we came in 1st right! Yay for Mojelefa!!! We will continue to rock the competition each week, im sure.

Well the monkeys I am sad to say have been naughty. They seem to have multiplied over night. They have been running wild around campus and breaking into rooms. I myself had a horrifying encounter with the furry creatures. I was walking back from the dining hall on Sunday, returning from fetching my morning coffee and I broke down and had a muffin. Well, while I was walking down the steps, a monkey just ran up to my feet and looked up at me. Unfortunately there was no one outside, so it was just me and this vicious monkey. He was right at my feet staring up at me with beady little eyes. I knew exactly what he wanted from me. One thing and one thing only. My muffin. I didn’t want to part with it, but I knew it was my only escape tool. So I unwillingly through my muffin to the side of the path. The little punk ran right for it, followed by 3 or 4 other of its minions who were waiting for the baked good as well. While they were chowing down I ran for the nearest chalet. Those buggers make it scary just to walk 10 feet outside sometimes. But something I have realized this week is that I can take off my flip flop and act like im going to throw it and they usually run. Or just go for the pepper spray. Both have worked effectively so far, and I pray that they continue to do so without hissing.

I wish we could all get along. The monkeys and the humans. It is so sad that it has come to pepper spray and paintball guns.

Well I am in class right now so I should get back to being a good student. I love the teacher! He is so awesome and smart. He sounds just like rafiki! If you close your eyes you can almost hear rafiki singing “Asante sana Squash banana, Wiwi nugu Mi mi apana.”

Love you all!
-Dani :)

Life is a Short Trip

Forever Young

Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while

Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not

Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power, but we never say never
Sitting in a sand-pit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad men.

Can you imagine when this race is run
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders, we're getting in tune
The music's played by the mad men

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever, forever?
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever, forever?

Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody, some are the beat
Sooner or later they all be gone
Why don't they stay young?

It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth is like diamonds in the sun
and diamonds are forever

So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs that we forgot to play
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
We let them come true

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever, forever?
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever, forever?

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever, forever?

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever, forever?

Me and some friends were reminiscing today at dinner and thinking about how if we could do things all over, we would. How if we could be young again we would be.

I have been thinking about his a lot lately actually. Mostly because i am trying to figure out my career path and some other big choices i have to make soon. Thinking about all these things and the hard decisions I have to make, really makes me wish I were younger. That I was still a little girl. That I could do it all over again. I wish I could say that I do not have any things I would change about how I chose to live my life, but I do. However I do think the choices I have made have made me the person I am today. I am not saying that I want to go back and choose to do things differently, I just want to be a little girl again. I want my mom to make all my decisions. I want to not have to make big choices like careers and majors. I want to be younger

I guess. When things were easier, when my life was simpler.

But all of this does not matter. I cannot go back and I cannot become young again. But that is ok. I am still young and I have so much more to look forward to in life! It all goes by so quickly, like being here in Africa. It has been going so fast. Just like life. It is a short trip when it is all said and done. Hard choices are just a part of life that I have to learn to deal with because I will be making decisions for the rest of my life. And someday I will have to make decisions for my own little girl or boy. And they will no doubt be thinking the same things as I am right now when they are my age. So I suppose this decision making business is all apart of life. I suppose I just need to make these choices and whatever other choices life throws at me, and trust that God will help me to choose the right path.

I wonder if my own mother ever feels this way. I am sure she does. Im sure everyone does once in a while. Everyone wants to be forever young. But like the end of this song says, do you really want to live forever, forever, forever?

Tragedy and A Rainy Day

I have a sad story to tell :(
Sometime last week a tragedy happened in Mojo. Alyssa and i were coming home late one night and just going about our business as usual, when i went to the bathroom. I saw something floating in the toilet and the first thought to come to my mind was yuck someone didn't flush. then...it shifted and the look of it struck me kind of funny. So i leaned over more to take a closer look. and what I saw was a little bat! A BAT! what the heck how does a bat get in a toilet? well i freaked out a little at first which i mean is expected. Then Alyssa and i were puzzled on what to do. We wanted to get the poor little guy out but knowing the little we do about bats, we know they bite and may have rabies or something. So we did the only thing we could, shut the door and put a note warning the other girls. In the morning someone came to fetch him from the toilet. Poor little thing. It is still a mystery to how it got in the toilet in the first place.

Today was such good weather in Africa! It rained! It is still raining. Liyanetha! that is is is raining in zulu. Well anyhow, Cynthia, Nicole, Josh, Alyssa, and I were in the zulu room being good students and getting our homework done. We got restless though, probably due to the million cups of coffee we had. seriously we were like high on the stuff. Brilliant ones we are we decided to have a water chugging contest. I mean of corse right. Well Josh won, but only due to the fact that the rest of us could not stop laughing. The laughing caused water to end up everywhere. We did have philosophical conversations though. About ants climbing up wall carrying moths and how the can get knocked over but keep going unlike humans sometimes. We also discussed the idea of animals having a different form of language in each country. For example, in Spain the animals may speak a more spanish form of animal talk. And in Africa maybe a more zulu form. This is debatable. I think that they may, but there were many arguments against it. I am determined to find evidence though.

Then what else is there to do in the rain in Africa but play rugby! it was so much fun! you slip and slide and fall and glide. it was a great way to get some exercise for sure. You have to be willing to tackle and be tackled in this game. i was unsure of that whole part at first, but once you do knock someone down or get knocked down, your ready to push from there. It was a lot of fun!

Tomorrow is Durban with the Zulu kids. Cant wait!
-Daniele :)

Daniele, Daniele, Daniele of the Jungle

This weekend was a great weekend! It was a fabulous, relaxing, fun weekend.

We went zip-lining on Saturday! It was a blast! It was scary at first when they would say oh just break about 15 kilometers away from the end. Excuse, what the heck is 15 kilos?! I only know feet. But it worked out and we all got the hang of it. Looking at the pictures makes me really want to do it again! My arm was really sore the next day though!

This week is going to be a good present from studying all last week for zulu. We do not have classes all week! Woo hoo!

The zulu kids are going to take a trip to Durban and stay the night there at the beach. It is going to be a blast!

We got a service sights! I am a place called RivLife. Im really excited to start working with the community and talk with the people. I cannot wait to start. I think everyone else here feels the same way. When we visited the sight it was a little hard to understand what exactly we would be doing, but I really liked it still. This is the information that I have gotten on it so far. RivLife International is a community center that focuses on holistic community development by addressing spiritual, social, economic, emotional, and physical needs within their neighborhood. They seek to alleviate poverty and decrease risk factors in their community by working with health, economic, youth, nutritional, social, and gender issues. Specific service opportunities may include volunteering at a drop-in center, helping with economic projects, raising AIDS awareness, and assisting unemployed persons.

So this is where I will be spending 4 weeks while I a here. Im really excited to be in a smaller group of people, and I really enjoy all the girls that are going to RivLife as well. Oh well heck, I will just tell you who there are.

Me, of course

Nicole Herrman

Bianca Portal

Alyssa Wiebe

Carisa Hoogenboom

Staci Buekers

Emma Cooke

Sarah Moll

I cannot believe it is March already! Time is really flying by here in Africa. It is such an amazing place to be and we are all so blessed to be here. I cannot wait to see what the next two months have in store for us :)

Love you all :)

-Dani

Mountains and Cow Tongue

Well it has been another week that has shot past. I cannot believe we have been here for a whole month! That is insane!

This past weekend we went on a hike to the Drankensberg Mountains. They were breath-taking! It was so much fun. We got to see the San Bushman cave paintings which really looked like graffiti at first. We got to hike all around these beautiful mountains, it was a blast. On the way down we walked next to this river and a bunch of us decided to jump in it was so hot. The water felt amazing! And there was a little rock slide for us to all slid down on. Some areas even reminded me of Mariposa, like the river. These mountains were so pretty. When looking at them, and every where else in South Africa, I wonder how anyone could ever see this place and not believe in God.

The food has gotten to be a little annoying. All we eat is MEAT, MEAT, MEAT, and more MEAT! I have eaten more meat in this last month than I have eaten in this past year. The meals have gotten a little repetitive. We have the same 7 meals every week pretty much. This includes a weird mystery meat and rice, noodles, ground beef, and cheese just put together in some sort of casserole, dry roast beef, and soggy french fries and pizza ( this is one healthy meal huh). It really isn’t that bad I just long for grilled chicken, a good salad, and burritos! To be fair we did have chicken enchiladas last week with guacamole which was amazing! I dont think I have loved a meal so much in my life. On Friday we did go to an italian restaurant and I got a fantastic pizza! Omg was it delicious!

Ok so I complain about the food on campus, but nothing compares to what I ate yesterday, absolutely nothing.

So I am not sure if I have mentioned this before but in our zulu class we have zulu pen pals that go the Grace College. They are in high school and we write back and forth with them in zulu. So yesterday we had the privilege of going to Grace College and visiting our pen pals. They were so sweet that they even made us traditional zulu food. Well this was an adventure for our mouths. Everything was pretty normal, like the bread which is delicious! And there was some sort of beans, and a really good pumpkin thing. It was when our zulu teacher got to the meat we all got nervous. You wont even began to guess what it was, COW TONGUE! Im cringing at the thought of eating it again. I couldn’t even chew it. I tried to but then realized that the texture was horrifying and just swallowed it whole. The flavor was good but the feeling was just gross. Slimy and bumpy and nasty. We all put on brave faces as we tried not to offend them, but it was definitely a challenge. My pen pal was really sweet though, they all were so nice! They showed us around their campus and even did a dance for us. I hope that we get to see them again. And i promise that he was happy to see me even though he is not smiling in the picture haha.

Well I should be studying for a zulu test I have in a few hours. I do not know enough to be ready for this test! But I just found out the grading here is different than at home. Apparently a 75% here is an A at home. So if I get anything above a 75 I am ok. I have been getting A’s on all my previous test so this makes me happy. However this is not a motivator to continue studying. Pray that we all do well!

Sizobonanna!

Love you all :)

-Dani

Monkeys, Coffee, and Zulu.

This last week went by really fast. I guess we had a lot to do homework wise it is all a little bit of a blur. I have realized one thing though, I have a little more understanding on why people hate the monkeys as much as they do.

Upon returning from our weekend in Pennington, the monkeys were menaces. I think that they got used to us not being home for a couple of days so they decided to become freaks and run all over our chalets. This was a problem when we got home. They were very feisty on Monday to two girls and surrounded them. They were able to get away. Then a some point Jamie and I were in our room and our big window was open and a monkey tried to get in! I yelled at it “get away” but it just looked at me. Then I lunged forward and hit my chair and this did the trick. It ran away. The next morning on our walk we come up to the nature reserve gate and behold, a gaggle of monkeys. There were like 10 mulling about. They saw us and started to disperse but everyone was scared to walk in. I really thought it would have been fine. Monkeys don’t scare me. Yet anyways. Well we turned to take another route and good thing we did, because when they saw us leave they all went back to their spots and about 20 more came out! It was MONKEY MADNESS! Really there were like 30 monkeys! It was cute to see the babies! They would hang under their mamas. It was adorable. Then we went on our walk. I still didn’t understand why everyone was so afraid of these creatures. Until.....

Later on in the day me and my friend Alyssa were doing homework in the dining hall. I look up in the doorway and what is there staring me right in the face! A monkey!!! I didn’t act scared because your supposed to act tough and jump towards them a little and yell. I really wasn’t scared though. I knew what to do. There is a saying that a lot of people use, “Futsac” im not sure what it means but I think it might be a bad word because someone said it in zulu class and the teacher said never to say that to a zulu person haha. Anyways I yell “Futsac” and hit the chair expecting it just to run out the door. But no. It stands up on its hind legs and jumps towards me and Alyssa and growls!!! It GROWLED!!! We then continued to scream and run to a corner until a man came out of the kitchen and scared it away. We were both shaking for a long time after. Now I understand peoples fear of the monkeys. I still dont think I would throw a rock or shoo them with a paintball gun. However I do like them a little less. I suppose I may throw something in protecting myself it it were to attack me.

Another thing that I have beginning to realize is how much coffee I am consuming. I know that I drank a fair amount at home, but here I seriously drink it all throughout the day! I think because it is always there so im like hey why not have a cup of joe. But I wonder if it is getting to be to much. Im still able to sleep. So I guess when that becomes a problem I will stop. I miss starbucks!!! The coffee here is good, especially when you add some hot chocolate, it becomes like a mocha. But still nothing compares to a white peppermint mocha.

In Zulu tonight we got our zulu names from our teacher! It was exciting. My name is Nonhlanhla, it mean princess of happiness. From now on I want everyone to call me this from home too. Haha no im just kidding.

I am so excited fro all that is happening this semester and so excited to share it with you all! Love and miss everyone! Sizobonana!!! ( see you later in zulu)

-Dani :) or should i say Nonhlanhla!

Weekend spent with the Indian Ocean :)

So our weekend in Pennington was a pretty good weekend indeed. We had a little car trouble on the way there. It was a little frustrating. A trip that should have been a hour and a half about, took us.....almost 7 hours! it was a little annoying just because it was sweltering hot and me being a red head can only take so much. But it all ended up being ok. We are a fun group so we made the best of the situation. We arrived at the camp site later than expected but it was all good. We were all super tired so we really just ate our dinner or pizza with vigor, then crashed into bed. We awoke the next morning though super early, because we wanted to see the sunrise over the Indian Ocean. Which as you all may know doesn't happen in California. The sun only sets over the pacific. It was really amazing and there were crabs the size of my fist scurrying around in the tide! I guess those are their sand crabs haha. Unfortunately I do have to admit that though it was very pretty, I don’t know I it was worth waking up at 4:30 for haha. Im glad that I did though I guess. But like my friend Nicole said, “its just like a sunset, but backwards.” We had a little giggle on that one. But really it was gorgeous and we got some cool pictures. The crabs were really cool too.

After that we went back to camp and had some breakfast. Then we spent the day walking around an Indian community and market. It was sort of like a street in downtown L.A. But way more crowded. The people were so friendly and a lot asked us how we were liking South Africa and how long we were staying an what not. We were very hard to miss, considering our group was a group of 53! We were noticed everywhere we went.

Then was the best part of the trip! THE BEACH!!! It was amazing! The water was so warm. It was kinda too warm in the shallow parts but out towards the ocean it was perfect! The waves were massive! The water was really salty too and burned my eyes a little but I was too busy having a blast to notice. All 53 of us were crammed into this one section. We had to stay in a certain part because of sharks! Scary huh! We all came out alive though. It was so much fun! We were in there for hours.

That night we had a barbeque with some of the youth from Indian churches. We had curry! Well it was called Bunny Chow. I think they made it less spicy than usual so I really liked it. It was really interesting to see how much the Indian kids in S.A. Were like us from the states. I guess it just shows that kids are kids and everyone has the same problems.

The next day we were split into groups and sent to different churches. Myself and about 7 other students went to an Indian Church. They treated us kind of like we were famous! They reserved front row seats for us and they were taking pictures of us throughout the whole service. Even when we were praying haha. Me and my friend Angie were like do we smile? haha. They had us stand in the front and they presented us with a S.S. keychain and they prayed over us. At the end they had us stand by the door so everyone could come shake our hands and kiss us. I have to admit it was kinda of awkward at times, especially the picture taking part. But they were so welcoming and loving towards us! It was so nice. Then we went and had lunch at the pastors house afterwards. It was an interesting meal for sure. The food was very delicious though! And not to spicy. The women didn’t eat with us though. They just served us. It was different being in that culture. The pastor we realized liked to talk a lot. He had many opinions on politics and how pastors are these days. I felt that none if us were able to get in a word edgewise. Talking it over with my intercultural communications class afterwards I realized that we were treated like a minority. Which I know we are here in South Africa, but we have not yet experienced it. At lunch we did. Our opinions didn’t seem to matter. Everything he said was right, while what we thought, if it contradicted him, was wrong. He even asked us at one point if we knew what salt was? Seriously? That like my favorite spice. It was a very different experience, one that I will always remember. Despite this lunch, which was not as bad as Im making it sound, the Indian people were a pleasure to meet. I will not forget the kindness and hospitality that they showed us. I hope i remember to treat all visitors to my church at home the same way. Anyone for that matter!

Overall this weekend was a look into the culture here and how they live. There is a saying here, “T.I.A.” This Is Africa. Which means that time is not as important as it is back home. The people take their time in doing things here. Schedules don’t really exist, and plans are not always made. That was hard for a lot of us to handle. We have been on schedules our whole lives practically! It was definitely frustrating to be waiting as much as we were this weekend. My professor claims they had so many things go wrong on purpose, and moved slow on purpose, and stayed off of schedule on purpose. He also claimed thats why we didn’t have a schedule at all. Just to help us be immersed in their culture and way of doing things. Bologna! I mean I guess towards the end we were all like we will just do what they tell us, and go with the flow. I guess thats how south africans live. But it was really hard! Not to have a schedule and a plan, especially with so many people. I didn’t realize how much I need structure and schedules! I didn't think it was that important haha.

Altogether it was an amazing weekend! Especially the beach! It was a great experience that I am so blessed to have been apart of, even along with the delays and waiting.

Love you all!

-Dani :)