Wednesday, March 10, 2010

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 :)



Sunday, March 7, 2010

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?

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

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