18 August 2006

18 August 2006

One year down…
It is one year today that the plane touched down on African soil. Since then, we HAVE looked back, forward, and all around. And we have even looked at the same wall for hours on end. Life has changed, sure, but that is why you live life, no? All is well here. We are healthy (a few more bowel movements than anyone should expect) and happy (there are good and then the not so good times)! Culture shock has been quite the experience with a lot of head shaking and disbelief. But learning to live with it and enjoying it is half the fun. Learning to laugh at yourself, even more than normal, is essential. The thing that we have always been the most worried about is not going from home to the third world, but after the next year…coming back to the hustle and bustle of home and a job! That is the scariest thought. If I actually do three hours of solid work in a WEEK, it has been a VERY productive week. I have worked until 16:00 three days this week…very uncharacteristic!?(Yes, I put my good three hours in this week!) Just imagine having to work 8 or 9 hours in a day…NOOOOOOOoooooo! Life here has taught me how easy a life I have had growing up. Never having to worry about where the next meal will come from (it is hard thinking about how some of these kids sleep with hunger), always having the love when I get home (it’s usually tough love here…), and things to do (kids just don’t have a lot to do in the village). And I have learned that education probably is the most important thing in a kids’ life (thanks mom and dad for giving me a good one!) and that is one of the only ways to lift these kids up.

On the South African road of life, there are many potholes, bumps and bad shoulders, but with all of that…the scenery is beautiful and that is a real lion roaring at night.

“Life is a journey, not a destination” -Aerosmith

Things we miss from home
Hot showers everyday
Central heating
Fresh Bagels with cream cheese
Not crapping in a hole with flies on my ass
Brown sugar
Chocolate chips
Mama Lib’s famous chocolate chip cookies (please send some…)
My bikes
Family
Friends
Beating Les in racquetball
Meyer’s Dairy and all of its wonderful goodness
Recycling
Variety of restaurant
Barnes & Noble
Sports
Water coming out of a faucet IN your home

Things we don’t miss from home
9 to 5 work day
Only 10 days of vacation a YEAR (not every 3 months?)
Driving and traffic
Abercrombie & Fitch and the like

Things that we won’t miss after two years here
Eating liver
The village walk a.k.a. walking so incredibly slow that you are more tired than if you would have sprinted to the same location
Being lied to regularly.
Garbage blowing in the wind
Eating liver
Being offered feet, head or intestines of an animal
Having no clue what is going on
The WIND
The extreme temperatures…either it is WAY TOO hot or WAY TOO cold!
Watching where you step…you don’t know which animal walked here before you
GOATS (My archenemy here!)
Afrikaaner ‘rock’ music
Cramming 15 people into a van

Things that we will miss after two years here
Working maybe 3 hours a day (a good day)
Donkeys everywhere
Traffic jams consisting of goats, sheep, cows and donkeys
Baby chickens
Our host family
Look on the children’s faces
Being offered feet, head or intestines of an animal
Lending a much needed hand
Slaughtering dinner
Steam bread, stew, fat cakes custard and other favorites that our African mom makes!
Being the minority
Being able to say hello to everyone you walk by in the village
Having no clue what is going on
Slaughtering Thanksgiving dinner
The sunsets, sunrises, and stars
Asking what I’m eating and why
Cramming 15 people into a van


Cheers to 1 year in Africa!
Sharp,
Thabo