october 15th

i just wrote an entire entery and it got deleted! ugh! not much time so this will be short....


we are in zambia it is 110 degrees! so hot and so buggy, but so far has been amazing. zambia is very rural and completelly different from south africa. we have been having full class days and began our serviceproject a few days ago. our first day we worked at a farm helping the locals water and clear land. In the  afternoon, we helped build a wall seperating a huge room into two at a school so that there could be more than one class room. we got to work with the  kids and it  was sooo cool. The second day in the morning we visited a old folks home which was so different than it is in the US, as you can imagine. Everyone looked so  sad, and it broke my heart. The second half of the day my friend shannon and i got to teach at a local school! we had  all of the kids draw pictures of their families. the kids were all in fifth grae but ages  ranged from 10 to 17, and  i spent a good portion of classteaching the kis how to spell mom, dad, sister, and  brother. language is sucha huge barrier here. there are 76 local trabal languages spoken throughour zambia, yet  all classes are in  english,  which presnets a problem for soome kids who havent learned english. we had sucha good time interacting and teaching the  kids math, and learning about their families through their drawings. After we got back to the campsite i got really sick, i think it may be the flu...i have ben throwing up non stop! the teachers are taking really good care of me so thats good. I had to stay back from the service project today because i can't keep  water in my system, and so im really dehydrated. I have been catching up on emails, blogging and sleep though which is very good for me. Im hoping i am  better tomorrow because we raft the zambize!!! im soexcited. everything is so different here, but amazing i am learning so much. I  have gained lots of ideas about ,y sneior project and have some AMAZING photos. Being sick makes me miss my mommy a lot, but otherwise homesickness has been much better for me, epecially because i have created such great relationships with the girls here. so hard to believe we're already half way through...looking forward to seeig everyone at christmas hopefully, and to come back to snow! it will be sooo weird. the currency is kuatcha here and the conversion is so confusing!! there are 4,800 kuatcha per DOLLAR! isn't that crazy?! ill have limited internet until we go back to south africa in late november, so if i don't write until then...happy thanksgivingand halloween! eat lots of turkey and mashies for me! Love you all.

october 8th

To be completely honest, its bee nso long since the last time i wrote i lost track of what i have bee ndoing! Lets see..OH we went to a town in south africa that nelson mandela was born and raised in, we stayed at the nelson mandela hostel..or something hah. he is the only live person to have a museam made for him! We walked literally about 5 miles through a field in the HOT part of the day to see a church that he grew up going to and his house! Mandela is Zulu. and in the zulu culture poligamy is common which is crazy! his father had 4 wives! Xhosa is the language he speaks, as well as others, but it is hands down the coolest language i have ever heard with clicks! there are 3 kinsd of clicks yuo make itis crazy! We also went on a backpacking trip. The hiking was soo hard! The first day was easy we only hiked about 6 miles, an dthen camped out it was beautiful. we got to swim in a pong that funneled into a waterfal it was amazing. Then the second day we hiked 12 miles to our next cabin, where we all told scary stories and ate marshmellows. it was a great bonding experience for everyone and i feel like i have known these girls my entire life. the third day was a 9 mile hike back to our safari truck, and it poured down rain! We were soaked but it was awesome and reffreshing. every week or so, we do these thigns called "circle " where there is a topic like..."what is your biggest struggle being here" and evertyone goes around and talks about it adn revieves support from the rest of the group its a great way to let everything go s owe can all be present mentally and phyisically every day. I heard a word the first day of the trip taht i encrouage everyone to look up! i dont' have time to explain it now but it holds great meaning for everything on our trip and reflects on soutth africa as a while. The word is "ubuntu" look it up! We are in durban now after 15 hours of driving and go 2 joburg. we are learning about the worl dcups effect on SA's economy and it is SOOOOO interesting . tomorrwo ew tour one o fthe TTENNN statdiums that are here. did yuo know south a frica spend 3.2 BILLIONdollars on the world cup and only expewtced to pay 300,000? And there is so much corruption with jacob zuma (SA's presiednt) so much i wish i could talk about but people are waiting for my computer, I have been really homesick these last few days which is hard but i know ill pull through, we go to zambia on monday and start our service project! i m really excited, i probably wont have internet until we come back into SA in late november, so until then i love you all and can't wait to see everyone. thanks for all the comments its so comforting to read things you guys write. <3