A 'Sound-of-Music-esque' picture from the hike in the Central Drakensberg

Highlight Reel

Since exactly 3 months have passed since I have arrived here in South Africa, I will share a little highlight reel, if you will, because my entries here are limited and I owe all my adoring fans at least a little something to keep them at bay. Me being a ridiculously indecisive person at times, I will not put them in any particular order, but it will be more of a mélange of random events – more how I roll.

14 - Lesotho: With the sun setting over the wooden goalposts on the dirt soccer field in Lesotho, passersby joining in our game of pass, cows lowing in the distance and the scent of freshly fried ‘Fat Cakes’ I was in my element in the rural country of Lesotho. All us SALTers spent about 1 week in Lesotho attending the biggest cultural festival in the country. We met some incredibly ambitious and bright individuals with some awesome stories of hope. We also got to taste a hint of life in Lesotho – which I absolutely love. Life is relaxed, people are super friendly, there is an abundance of cows, mountains, rondovals and gorgeous views.

587 – Drakensburg: I went on a weekend, 2 night hike, in the Central Drakensburg. It was an incredible experience with views that I cannot even begin to describe in words, so I will not even try. Everything from sliding down natural waterslides in the rock, yelling with/at the Baboons, seeing a herd of Eland, sleeping in a cave for 2 nights, and witnessing a huge monstrous and exciting thunderstorm. A ‘lekker’ weekend with many ‘kiff’ views.

29 – Street Kids Festival: One of my co-workers in the crèche – Sandra the white South African teacher – has pretty much the most contacts in the world and got involved in this Street Children’s Festival that her friend was organizing. Youth homelessness is a huge problem Durban’s city centre – my walk to work every day passes many of these children. The purpose of the festival was to honor the children for the day, help restore their dignity, and show them they are worthy and courageous – many have been living on the streets since they were 10 yrs old. I helped to serve eggs, bread, sausage, fruit, juice and milk to 500 children and some adults. The rest of the day had music, performances, sports and a lunch was served. Shirts were given out to each of the kids, and I see them all around town wearing them proudly. It was a really interesting event to be a part of.

98 – Getting Peed on 2 times, puked on once: At work I have gotten peed on the foot and a full on puddle on my pants. I have also got my foot vomited on by a child. These may seem purely gross, but alas there can always be good found in the most unpleasant situations. After getting peed on I had no change of clothes so a co-worker of mine “borrowed me” her African skirt (that is really just a big piece of fabric). After much time spent with ladies trying it on/attempting to keep it up by myself I had myself a new look. All the ladies thoroughly enjoyed a white person wearing such an outfit, and laughed a lot. I had to go to the store and I got so many stares, being a white person walking through Zulu-land, wearing a traditional Congolese skirt and an Old Navy tank top.

6998 – Day at the beach with the kids: One Friday me and a lady from the crèche decided that the three to five-year-olds should be taken to the beach. This seems like a relatively simple concept, however the task is ridiculously daunting and I do not recommend it. All that can be said about 40 children and about 8 adults walking to the beach and spending the morning there and walking back, is that they all made it back alive: therefore, it was a success. Although it exhausted all the adults, the kids absolutely loved it. They spend 5 or 6 days a week in the third floor of an apartment building (the crèche) with very limited space to run around in, and this group had never ventured on a field trip before.

68 – Music week at work: This week we were learning about music at the crèche. The Zulu cleaning lady got out this drum and started playing/singing some hymns. Lots of the children were dancing around having an awesome time – as was I. She tried to teach us some of the dance moves – we all had a fabulous time. The next morning I walked into work to see two boys banging on overturned boxes and some girls around them doing the dance moves from the previous day.

7905 – Aerobics Routine: I got to the flat one day last week and my oldest host-sister , Sandrine, commented “I feel like working out. I have so much energy.” No more needed to be said. I immediately turned to my “work it out” playlist, cranked the volume and did a kick-bum aerobics routine with my siblings and some of their friends. It ended with a “crump circle” where people went into the middle to exhibit their skills. No one had too many – especially me. I also was told I don’t have enough hip-hop or house music on my computer.