Meet AyaBonga

Meet AyaBonga.

She is South Africa's Next Top Model. 

haha you gotta watch this video. You will die of laughter. 

Week 3

Ladies and Gents I can’t believe I just finished my 3^rd week and am about to start my 4^th! Ya’ll should probably just prepare to hear something like that at the start of everyone of my weekly posts because time is literally flying. So this week at the crèche we learned all about our EARS!! I must say it was much more successful then the eyes went last week. Less poking if you know what I mean. Haha. We mainly talked about how ears are used for listening and how everyone needed to really practice using there’s. J For our crafts we colored pictures of ears and then every day we practiced wiggling our ears. The kids were so funny trying to do this and when I tried they thought it was just about the funniest thing they’ve ever seen.

            This week I also got to teach all by myself for the first time. I was in no way alone in the room with the kids because that would probably result in the kids attacking me and then I would probably get hog tied by little Wuchen, but I got to run everything by myself. It’s kind of a huge deal because it means that Teacher Beverly is finally starting to trust me! It was exhausting though, I have no idea how Teacher Beverly does it when she is all alone. There is so much to do like teaching, passing out supplies, cutting A LOT of fruit, serving and cleaning up 2 meals, and ensuring that no one kills each other over toy cars. Needless to say we need more volunteers, especially in the childcare program.

            This week on Friday we weren’t able to go the crèche and work because there was a riot happening in the Townships. Basically there is a board of trustee’s in the community who are responsible for lots of money, and some of that money is supposed to trickle down into Capricorn Township as long as the people who live in the township abide by certain rules or laws. I have no idea what these laws are, but I do know that apparently the money has not been trickling down. Therefore the people of the township are really mad and they want there money. So on Friday they had a HUGE RIOT. Okay I didn’t personally see it, because we weren’t allowed anywhere near the township but we were told that it would not be safe for us to be walking anywhere near that general area. It was nice to have a day off, but honestly the whole time I kept thinking about whether or not my little ones were safe and stuff. I’m looking forward to tomorrow to find out and make sure they are okay!

           

  Overall it was a great week at the crèche! I can’t wait for the rest, but please time SLOOOOW DOOOWWWN. It’s unfortunate that the South African government will kick me out after 90 days. That’s all for now. Cheers!

Poukie & Hake

I know that some of you may not believe this post when you read it, but I’d like to start by saying that everything I am saying is 100% truth and that no stretching of the truth has been done here.

            Now that I’ve said that I’d like to start by saying that I officially made it 2 ½ weeks in South Africa without having to eat anything outside of my comfort zone. Now we all know that I’m a very picky eater when it comes to meats. I’ll eat ANY fruit or vegetable out there, but when it comes to meat I’m a strictly chicken, turkey and ground beef kinda girl. Well when I decided to come to South Africa I knew that there would be things I’d have to eat that were outside of my “comfort zone” but after being here 2 ½ weeks and not having to eat anything that I don’t eat at home I thought I was good to go. Well all of that went down hill Wednesday night when I went to scoop up some Stew to be served over rice and I found GIANT BONES in the pot. No joke, giant bones people. Bones that weren’t your typical like straight bones, these were bones that resembled vertebrae. Like the kind one would have in say your neck or back. I instantly was like “WHAT THE HECK ARE BONES DOING IN THIS STEW?!?” and all my fellow volunteers looked at me like I was crazy and told me it was for flavor. Huh. I’m pretty sure we have seasonings that get ya the same result. But I told myself I could do it and scooped up some Stew on rice being very careful not to get any bones in the mix, swallowed all my fears and then literally swallowed the food.

            So tonight (Thursday) I went over to the Hawthorn’s like I do on Thursdays for dinner and Institute. After finishing with the computer upstairs I walk into the kitchen and hear “Come on over to the table we’re having fish for dinner”. Instantly I freeze, because as we all know I don’t eat fish, heck I’m terrified of them when there alive, so there’s no way I’m putting it in my mouth. Let alone the past experiences that I’ve had with seafood. Like crab for example. :-/ So in my mind I quickly think “oooohhh man” And it was in that second that I realized that I would in fact be eating fish for the first time in my life that night. So I did. And I did it like a champ. I did tell Michelle that I had never eaten fish before which completely shocked everyone, but she told me it was Hake (or something like that) and that it didn’t have bones, but if I were to find one I shouldn’t try to swallow it because I would choke. Ha ha. Comforting right? But I dished up a serving and ate it like a champ. It kills me to say this but it wasn’t bad at all. I actually quite enjoyed it!

            Now back to the bones in the stew story for a second. At dinner I brought up the bones in the stew and was told that it’s a quite common dish here in South Africa called Poukie. I brought up how the bones looked like vertebrae and was then informed that it would look like vertebrae because Poukie is meat from the neck of a lamb. And that when you cook the stew you put the entire neck in, and then as it cooks the meat falls off. GROSS. I mean really vertebrae in stew? That’s just too much. But then on Sunday the Hawthorn’s made Poukie for me to try again and I ate it and I actually enjoyed it! What is this world coming too?!? Crazy right.

            Anyways, I definitely have eaten things I never thought I would. And I handled it all like a champ. I feel quite proud of myself. Hence the blog post about it. I’m sure some of you will be quite shocked. That’s all for now!

Water Shortage

Sometimes in South Africa they like run out of water.

It’s strange to me because there’s a giant ocean like across the street from my house.

But when they run out of water, they shut our houses water off.

Sometimes for an hour. Sometimes for 4 hours.

And Sometimes for 3 DAYS!!!

When this happens we don’t get to shower, and brushing your teeth becomes really tricky. But even worse is that the toilet doesn’t flush, so to go to the bathroom you have to walk to the store or to another house. If you can find one that has water that is.

But there’s really no need to worry because they will park a giant truck with a water tank on it in front of the neighborhood where you can go to fill up jugs of water and carry them back to your house. And when this happens you’ll definitely find me trying to balance it on my head, because after all this is Africa. I think it’s hilarious and such an adventure. J

21!!

I’m officially 21!

 I feel a bit old, but a bit like I did when I was still 20. Needless to say I’ve lived yet another year and I have so many more incredible years to look forward too. I feel so incredibly lucky to have been in South Africa for my 21^st too! I may have done a wee bit of celebrating too.

It consisted of:

A Trip to the Waterfront

A Sunset Cruise on a Pirate Boat. Where I may or may not have gotten

several birthday kisses from a few pirates. Don’t panic peeps, it was just on the cheek.

Dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant. Where unfortunately no pictures were taken L

 A fantastic Brii/ Birthday party thrown for me by the Hawthorns. Lots of people came from the ward to celebrate with me. It was so kind of them and they even made me a cake! It felt just about as close to home as you can get when you’re on the other side of the world.

And then after a fantastic day I came home only to find that my friends Brooke, Molly and Kate had made me a cake too! It was so sweet of them and it definitely ended the day off so great.

I don’t think I could have asked for a better birthday so far away from home. However after two years of being away for my birthday I think next year I am going to try my hardest to be home J

Jelly Fish

I must say that normally I feel like my “luck” in life is pretty average. I wouldn’t consider myself a super lucky person, but I normally wouldn’t say that I’m unlucky either. However here in South Africa I think my luck has kind of been in the dumps. Let’s take this last Friday for example. I started the day off great, volunteering at the crèche, working with the kids and just loving life. Since it was Friday we got off early so a group of us decided we were going to go surfing! I was super pumped and couldn’t wait to get out there and give surfing a try. We made our way down to the Surf Shack, suited up in our wet suits, received the safety talk from the owner Dave and headed down to the beach. We had an informal instructor who walked us through the process of standing up and we practiced a few times on the sand and then we headed into the water. At this point I was 100% positive that this was going to be the best experience ever and that I’m gonna fall in love with surfing and as a result insist on living near a beach for the rest of my life. So I paddled out about 100 feet, turned my board around, waited for the wave to come, and tried to stand up. CRASH. EPIC FAIL. I fall into the water, my first attempt not as successful as I’d hoped. As I come out of the water I realize that my face is literally burning so bad it feels as if some one is holding a hot curling iron to my face. In my mind I’m thinking “What the heck! I think I got stung by a jellyfish!!” but then rationally I know that the chances of that happening so close to the shore are so incredibly slim. Sure enough though my face won’t stop burning, so I turned to my friend Brooke and say “My face is burning is something wrong with it?” and then before I knew what was happening my eyes started swelling and it was getting tougher to breathe. At that point I knew I had to get out of the water, so I held on to my board, lifted my feet up and let the waves take me to shore. The next little bit is a blur but I somehow made it out of the water, up the beach, across the road and into the Surf Shack without being able to see anything. Dave instantly realized something was wrong either from the sobs that were escaping my mouth or because my face was swelling and was crimson red. Haha. Instantly they started treating me for a jellyfish sting, but what was hard was that it wasn’t just a small sting, it literally covered my ENTIRE face. I guess that’s what happens when you face plant into a Jellyfish’s tentacles. I had hot towels then cold towels on my face, they were smearing cream all over it and I even had some little African kids offer to pee on my face for me. Haha They gave me an antihistamine when I told them I couldn’t feel my arms and then they tried to offer me alcohol, insisting it would make me feel better but I quickly turned that down. I instantly knew that I wanted a blessing so I asked them to find my phone and dial Michelle for me. All this time I am still 100% unable to see and I was in SOOOO much pain. I was trying not to cry, but huge sobs kept escaping out of me. I talked to Michelle, said I had been stung by a jellyfish and that I needed a blessing and she said she’d be there in 20 minutes! What a blessing and a relief it was knowing they’d be there to get me so quickly. Then I started to panic because I still couldn’t feel my arms, so I said “I NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS WET SUIT”. Well.. I don’t know if any of you have tried to get out of a wet suit when you CAN see, but getting out of one when you CAN’T see, and your in excruciating pain is possibly theeee most difficult task I’ve ever attempted. I stood under the shower for a bit, put my dress on over my suit, wrapped up in a towel and waited for Michelle to get there. I’d being lying if I said I wasn’t thrilled to see her, and I think I practically fell into her arms when I saw her. Anyho… Bishop and Michelle took me back to my house to get a change of clothes, then off to their house for a hot shower, some Aloe Vera caked onto my face, and a blessing. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the pain to go away. It took a good while (like 7 hours) but with time it slowly started to fade and by the next morning I was 100% back to looking normal, with just a little tingling and sensitivity left. Needless to say anyone at the beach should really look out for those Jellyfish. They are viscous little creatures who can cause an individual a great deal of pain. Don’t for a second think that this will keep me from surfing again though. That one little attempt has me hooked and I can’t wait to get out in the water again. However… If I get attacked by a Jellyfish again though I think I’ll take it as some kind of sign that maybe the oceans not for me. That would break my heart though, so let’s all keep our fingers crossed that that won’t happen.

Week Two

I can’t believe Week Two has already come and gone! Time is going so fast!! TOO FAST!! I’m already playing around with thoughts in my head of how I can find a way to stay in the country longer without having a visa and getting caught! Ha ha. This week was a UP and DOWN week at the crèche. It seemed like so many kids were sick! I’ve never wiped so many runny noses in my life or changed so many runny diapers (sorry if that’s too much information). Also I’m not sure what was up but none of the kids seemed to make it to the potty in time, resulting in a lot of little ones running around without pants on. Good thing diapers are in style at the crèche. J This week the kids were learning about their eyes. To be honest it was like a lot of Teacher Beverly and me talking about eyes and the kids just poking out other kid’s eyes. Throughout the week we did different activities all revolving around eyes. We made eyes out of glue and yarn. Colored pictures of eyes and cut pictures out of magazines of eyes. We also talked about how some people need glasses to help them see. Only it’s so cute because all the kids call glasses “spectacles”. When they say big words like that I can’t help but laugh cause they are such little people. This week we also had Valentines day and I wanted to do something cute for the kids so I made them chocolate chip cookies! They were so excited and when they saw them they started chanting “Biscuits! Biscuits!” Overall it was such a good week at the crèche! I am so excited for the up coming weeks! I can’t even imagine if I had chosen to stay for a shorter time period. I already feel like I don’t have enough time with the kids! Hopefully next week goes just as well!