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