About a week ago I dreamt this poem, woke up and wrote it down, and rediscovered it today:

 “Christmas cards.

At the end of the night

All you’re staring at

Are pieces of paper on the window-sill

Tell me brother

Do you want some birthday cake?

Or is it time for you to go to bed?”

 Who knows.

 On another note, here are 10 things I’ve noticed thus far.

   1) Stoplights are called “robots”

   2) Lettuce/greens on a sandwich are called “rocket”

 3) What we know as Cheetos come in 2 varieties:

**Simba Puffs (‘healthy’ and good as hell) or Nik Naks (3^rd ingredient is MSG)

4) Mini-buses are called taxis, taxis called are cabs, and cabs are expensive

5) Students are called “learners”, and teachers are called “educators”

6) There are bins for dog waste. They are literally called “poo-bins”

7) Conversion from R to $ is stupid and cannot be done in my head very easily. Ok, just divide everything by 7.6, right? BAH.

8) There are fake boobs everywhere, especially at the gym

9) Best thing ever= Devil’s Peak and Table Mountain and Lions head are all around me, and the beach is only a 10 minute cab ride away. I’m surrounded!

10) Worst thing ever = FALL ALREADY HAPPENED, YALL. IT’S SPRING. Which is ok because it’s really beautiful here, but I really, really, REALLY have an insane, Earth shattering law-defying love for fall in North Carolina. To me, September= an Earth, Wind and Fire song and FALL. So this is the biggest/worst adjustment.

So now it is Sunday. Laundry day. Thus I take my computer to the laundromat (where the first time I went I was greeted by an old crazy man who looked at me inquisitively and yelled “ARE YOU AUSTRIAN!?”) and do incredibly important things like 1) pretend to finish my paper on China, Sudan and DRC 2) Write this in a word doc which I will later copy/paste onto the webbbbb. (I’ll do my paper when I get home, for real).

 Since I last wrote, things have been first exhausting, then wonderful. Work with Molo varies, I’m either at a high school talking about HIV with the learners or in front of a computer for hours typing up surveys which will be sent to the Dept. of Education. 

Extra fun story- my fellow Molo Songololo-er and new BFF Anne Marie had a great experience the other day. For those who don't know, "Molo Songololo" means "Hello, caterpillar!" in Xhosa (or Afrikaans.... we dont know which one. puddin for brains). The other day while giving interviews, a teacher walked into the room Anne Marie was in and said, "Molo." Anne Marie nodded happily and replied with "Songololo!!" But he was not asking who she was affiliated with, he was simply saying, "Hello." And she replied with "Caterpillar!!"

ANYWAYS, my dear friend Monica sent me this link, which gives great insight to where I am and what I'm working with. Molo works in Khayelitsha.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/world/africa/20safrica.html?hp

Friday= 2 class presentations back to back. BAHH. Went well. As Jaki would say, “It’s whatever.” Go home, chill, go to bed. Long week over. Whew.

 Saturday= officially my day off, always has been. No homework allowed, PERIOD. So I took it upon myself to gather a group to go to Camps Bay, what a friend of mine calls the most “chi-chi” part of Cape Town. Boy, was he right. I seriously thought I was in Malibu. It looks IDENITCAL. All these nice restaurants, glistening blue water and mountains, equipped with fake looking white people, expensive cars and things of the sort. The water was freezing but that didn’t stop Anne Marie and I from hopping right in. The water felt great!! It was so nice to soak up some sun (with SPF 45, of course) and relax on the beach. As soon as I got home I went on my first outdoor run around my neighborhood, Tamboerskloof. It is quite hilly but also safe, so I just let it rip! I only lasted about 10 minutes, but I was proud of myself. Running with Table Mountain right next to you is quite an inspiration. I guess it was a combination of a full day in the sun and a hill-filled run that made me pass out at 8:30 pm with the lights on. I woke up at 6:30 am and thought “YEAHHHHHHHH GET THAT REST”

Now for a full week at Molo Songololo, in which I will most likely be writing a proposal with my co-worker Masixole to train young men to be “community HIV educators” which will probably take some time. No more work at schools this week, mainly computer work. Oh well. Maybe one day I’ll sneak off and help my roomie with the musical she is working on at her internship….

Afterall, they totally need gymnastics in “Annie,” RIGHT?!