I'm still alive, fyi.

I’ve recently received a few emails from people in the U.S. checking to make sure I’m still alive. I am. (Ta-da!)

I’ve just been really super ridiculously busy. January – March was a blur with registrations and filling dispatch orders. I did have a nice little break at the end of March when Terri-Lee and Michael’s friend Sharon invited us to her family’s chalet on the Vaal Dam. April was full of shopping and parties (Talia’s 21st birthday and Terri-Lee and Denise’s joint birthday party) and I was in Port Alfred for almost half of the month staying with Hester and her husband at their beach house. That’s where a lot of these photos came from.

Exactly 9 months ago today I got on a plane to come to South Africa. I’m waiting to officially hear from Global Ministries about whether I’ll be able to stay in South Africa for another 2 years, but it looks promising. To renew my visa I’ll need to leave the country for a few days, so I’d like to visit the Barnes family in Maputo, Mozambique.

So, yes, I’m still here and hopefully I’ll be here for a very long time. :)

August to December in pictures

I realize I've been remiss in adding pictures here. It takes almost an entire day for my poor internet connection to cope with uploading a few MB but I've been on summer vacation for over a week now so I have no excuse. Here are a few pictures from August to December.

I got to see a lot of Johannesburg during the college's first ever Spring Break. It was September 23 - 30 and we started it off by going to Gold Reef City, the local amusement park. I went with Debbie, Talia, Terri-Lee, Kerry, Aiden and Skyla. There were a few rides I absolutely refused to go on, but for the most part I was game. In fact, I was terrified to go on The Tower of Terror (it's like the one at Disneyland, but you face the ground while falling) but then I was the one convincing Talia to go two more times. The ride attendants cut us off after 3 times. They were concerned for our health. We bought pictures for almost every ride that offered them, and dressed up as fugitives. It was great fun.

Gold Reef City western pic


Kerry, Aiden, Terri-Lee, Talia & me at GRC


Aiden & me on the ferris wheel at GRC


Terri-Lee, Talia & me on train at GRC


Me, Terri-Lee, Talia & Debbie on JoBurg Express


Kerry, Aiden, me and Talia on JoBurg Express


Debbie, Talia, me, Kerry & Aiden on the rapids at GRC


On September 11th Debbie and Phil took me to the Bruma flea market. It's my favorite of the three I've been to.

Phil, me, & Mr. J at Bruma flea market


Phil, me, & 2 vendors at Bruma


Me and the shop owner from Bruma


Me and Bruma vendor haggling over what "great price" means


I've been to the Lion and Rhino Park twice now- once on August 29 and then again on November 13. The first time I played with a 10 week old cub and a 3 month old. When I went back in November those two had been sold to another park, but there were new lions to play with, along with sables and a cheetah.

White lions eating a horse at Lion & Rhino park


10 week old lion on my leg at Lion & Rhino park


Cheetah at Lion & Rhino park


Me and a sable


Me and a cheetah


Me and 10 month old lions


Me and 10 week old lions


3 month old lion


3 month old lion on my lap


Me & 3 month old lion


Lion & Rhino park view


November was a busy month for me. I went to Cape Town, to the Lion & Rhino Park, to Soweto on a half-day tour, I started helping in the Dispatch department of the college, and I rode in the 94.7 Cycle Challenge (which was actually 97.4 km / 60.52 miles, of which I completed 60 km / 37.28 miles).

Me and Lloyd at a shebeen in Soweto, with our JoBurg beer


Motsoaledi informal settlement street


Soweto tour


Mandela's cell on Robben Island


Limestone quarry on Robben Island


Simon's Town Penguin Beach


Simon's Town beach


94.7 Cycle Challenge morning


The Salvation Army church always has something going on. I took a few pictures at one of the practices for the Nativity play.

Brittany and Steven at the Salvation Army's nativity play practice


Salvation Army kids and teachers at Nativity play practice


And here's a picture of the library, so you can kind of see where I work for most of the year.



Those are all of the pictures that seem to want to load today. I hope everyone has a nice New Year.

Geseende Kersfees! UKhisimusi omuhle! Mele Kalikimaka! Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noel! Merry Christmas!

My first Christmas in South Africa was wonderful.

I didn't buy a Christmas tree because my garden is full of trees. This was my makeshift tree.



There was a massive thunderstorm on Christmas Eve and I was trying to upload a video to blogspot (didn't work, obviously) so I was up pretty late.

At 10:30 a.m. Terri-Lee and Michael picked me up so I could join them in spending Christmas Day with their family. It was me, Terri-Lee, Michael, Debbie, Phil, Kerry, Paul, Aiden, Skyla, and Brittany. Debbie and Skyla handed out presents from under the tree and everyone sort of dug in at once. I know I keep talking about how hospitable and kind my South African friends are, but seriously- it'd be impossible to overemphasize that quality in them. And I'm not just talking about the gifts they gave me, though those were incredibly thoughtful and very much appreciated. When I talk about their hospitality I'm really talking about how they make me feel right at home, like I've known them for years instead of months.





After opening gifts everyone moved out to the patio to talk until lunch was ready. The Christmas table was set with even more gifts for everyone, and lunch was amazing. Before eating we went around the table and everyone said what they were thankful for.




I especially wish I'd taken a picture of the pumpkin. Pumpkin is delicious and I can't believe how much of it I used to waste every Halloween. The pumpkin had feta, garlic, spinach, and other wonderful things in it. There was also rice, mushrooms, potato wedges, brussel sprouts, salad, asparagus, and about 5 other things I can't even remember because there was so much to choose from. For starters the omnivores had shrimp cocktails while Brittany and I had lettuce, avo and tomato. There was also ham, I think, but I've been vegetarian long enough that I don't really notice the meat. For dessert there was chocolate and strawberry homemade ice cream and fruit salad. And there was a LOT of wine and non-alcoholic beer.

After stuffing ourselves everyone sat around talking for a while longer. Skyla played with my camera.




Swimming was an option, but I decided just to watch because I had a fresh sunburn. Watching turned out to be fun when Kerry and Aiden got into a diving competition. This is Aiden trying to one-up his mom on the "Ballerina jump."



We spent the afternoon hanging out on the patio, talking.



Terri-Lee, Michael and I left around 3 p.m. They took me home so I could drop off my presents before going to their house to meet up with friends that were coming to visit. I left my camera at home so I don't have pictures of the rest of the day. Denise, Nick and Shane all came over and we sat outside on Terri-Lee and Michael's patio, talking. Tyron and Cindy stopped by for a while as well. We were up so late that I decided to sleep over at Terri-Lee and Michael's house. The next morning everyone was lazy and Michael made eggs and toast (bacon for the omnivores) for brunch.

So, that was my first South African Christmas- full of friends and fun. I hope I'm able to be here for a few more Christmases, because this was great.

My Stubborn v. Germs' Will To Live

When I get sick it goes downhill pretty quickly. One minute I'll be fine, and the next I'll have a 105F (40.5C) fever and will have to lie down on the sidewalk until I can figure out how to move again. Luckily I usually only get sick once a year, if that.

Unfortunately, this year I got sick about a week and a half before moving to South Africa. My medical insurance wouldn't kick in until August 2nd, a good 5 days away. I holed up and dealt with what I figured out to be strep throat. I was mostly better by August 2nd, so I didn't go to the doctor. By August 4th when my strep throat made a strong resurgence, I had medical insurance but didn't want to hand over the co-pay. And I was leaving for South Africa in a day and a half. I hoped it would go away.

So that's why I spent something like 14 hours crying in Heathrow Airport in London, debating whether or not I should go to the on-site clinic that isn't really on-site. I decided to take a nap in a corner instead.

On my third day in South Africa, my first day at the college, I made it to a doctor. Before landing at OR Tambo I had decided that I was going to out-willpower strep throat. I wasn't going to let on that I was in anything other than perfect health. But Debbie was sick and had mentioned going to the doctor, so I asked if I might tag along. I didn't mention that there was practically a war in my throat because I was still out-willpowering the bacteria.

Debbie's doctor agreed to see me with zero notice. He asked about my anemia (medical records are faster than ninjas, it seems) and we chatted about South Africa for a while before he looked at my throat and said "Whoa." That was followed up with a prescription for codeine. I was really excited to discover that doctor's visits and prescriptions are so cheap in South Africa. I decided I would be very healthy here since penicillin would give my willpower the upper edge over bacteria.

The college closed for summer holidays this past Wednesday. I celebrated by going home and taking a 6 hour nap, waking up and then going back to sleep for another 14 hours. That's how my parents used to tell if I was getting the flu.

On Thursday, remembering that S.A. has cheap meds, I walked to Dis-Chem. It doesn't matter what time of day it is- DisChem is always crowded. This is a problem as I'm an avoidant sick person. I don't want to see anyone, even strangers. Don't even look at me if I have a fever.

My plan was to get in and out of Dis-Chem as quickly as possible with the South African equivalent of Vicks, Benadryl and Dayquil. Maybe a thermometer if I could find one quickly. But this is where job creation and my own stubbornness ruined those plans. If there is something here that a person can be paid to do, there will be two people doing that one job. I don't think that half of the people in Johannesburg know how to pump their own gas (petrol), and I haven't bagged my own groceries once.

It turns out that if you want anything stronger than paracetemol or valerian root from Dis-Chem you have to stand in line and speak with a pharmacist, something I am not prepared to do while sick. So I grabbed paracetemol, valerian root and something called Med-Lemon that seems like Thera-flu, which was a ridiculous choice because I won't take Thera-flu. I thought maybe the germs would see I was serious and back down. Nope. They're calling my bluff.

All of that to say it's 2:15 a.m. and I just rubbed Icy Hot under my nose as a Vicks substitute.

If I'm not germ-free by Monday I'm going to talk to a pharmacist.