Home!

I'm home and officially reachable by cell phone. Pictures are up on facebook too, check them out!

Last Post from S. Africa

This is my last post from S. Africa. I can't believe the trip is over already. It went by sooo fast but I'm also feeling ready to go home.

The soccer tournament this weekend went soooo well. It's a huge weight off my shoulders and I couldn't be more happy with the job that all of us did. I was really worried that something was going to go wrong. We had 30 jerseys borrowed from Shiviti to keep track of as well as 200 plates. Luckily everything came back and both days of the tournament were great.

The speakers from Tinswalo Hospital did a great job with the health day, DJ Bravo was the entertainment for the first day and the huge coke truck the second day. Young Stars from Utah won the Men's Championship and a hluvukani team won the women's championship.

This week is just good bye parties and tying up loose ends. Last night we went to Robert's house for a party. Today we have to make bookshelves for the Shiviti Library.

We will be leaving the communities Friday morning for Joburg and then I land in Dulles at 3:40 on Sunday. I can't wait to talk to everyone!

P.S. Happy Birthday Emily and Micaela!

It's the Final Countdown

Okay so sorry I haven't posted in a while. One night this week the security gaurd at Manyangana has thieves break in with guns and steal the computers from the lab by breaking the windows and pulling the metal bars out so we haven't had internet all week. The security gaurd went and got Elvis, the principal and Elvis chased them in his car. When the thieves noticed they were being followed they ditched the truck w. all the CPUs in the back and took off into the bush. So, Elvis stayed with the computers and the police followed the men into the bush and caught them. Craziness right!??! Elvis is like the batman of Utah.

Besides that excitement we went to the Zipline in Hazyview at the beginning of the week which was soooo much fun. It's the longest zipline in all of Africa, 1.2 km. That's pretty far but not nearly as far as the 12 km that Nowell and I have been running to the Gowrie Gate of Sabi Sand this week. It's by far the biggest achievement of the trip haha. I've also been teaching computers at the primary school and English class to the 8th graders at Manyangana.

The soccer tournament is coming together sooo well. The community memebers on the coordinating committee are awesome and get like all the work done. Angie(my recruit from Utah) might be my favorite person in the whole world, she always tells me exactly what she thinks about absolutely anything; so her own woman. Coke is coming out for the second day of the tournament so that was a major sponsorship score. They are bringing this huge truck that rolls out into a dance floor and has a huge sound system.

The Final Countdown: 14 days!

The Turning Point

In the last 24hrs Team Utah has managed to rebound from what was a really bad beginning of the week. We struggled to get members of the community to show up for meetings and just got blown off entirely for some. It's frustrating because you are trying to understand the best way to go about things through cultural norms; like the fact that everyone runs on Africa time-at least 30 mins late for anything. Global Development is a slow process to begin with and I think we all know that I am not a patient person, it's just one of the many things I am learning this summer.

As of yesterday meetings started going better, our host sisters came home from their grandmothers and they are completely comfortable with us now so they asked all sorts of questions and I helped Melbourne read a book and write her numbers out to 100. It's so nice to have some noise in the house again.

Dear Dad,
I do my own laundry! I actually did it this morning and almost rubbed my hands raw in the process. It's actually kind of suprising how clean you can get things.

The Turning Point

In the last 24hrs Team Utah has managed to rebound from what was a really bad beginning of the week. We struggled to get members of the community to show up for meetings and just got blown off entirely for some. It's frustrating because you are trying to understand the best way to go about things through cultural norms; like the fact that everyone runs on Africa time-at least 30 mins late for anything. Global Development is a slow process to begin with and I think we all know that I am not a patient person, it's just one of the many things I am learning this summer.

As of yesterday meetings started going better, our host sisters came home from their grandmothers and they are completely comfortable with us now so they asked all sorts of questions and I helped Melbourne read a book and write her numbers out to 100. It's so nice to have some noise in the house again.

Dear Dad,
I do my own laundry! I actually did it this morning and almost rubbed my hands raw in the process. It's actually kind of suprising how clean you can get things.

4 weeks in

It's been 4 weeks since I left the U.S., it doesn't seem like that long at all right? We are making more progress on the soccer tournament. It's looking like we will definitely have soccer balls, food, water, and teams are already signing up. Thanks to Robert AKA DJ Bravo we are also going to have a couple performers.

Last night a group of us went to dinner at Sidney's private lodge. His mom, wife, and two daughters were there are they were all so nice. His staff and his family made the best dinner for us. The main dish was sausage, beef sausage and wild game sausage, which I tried and actually liked. Everything was awesome, we saw and elephant while we were eating dinner.

Today we have some evaluating meetings with the Manyangana soccer team and KD. Xitsonga lessons are tonight and we are breaking up for the first time into faster and slower paced class, I'm thinking I'm going to do the faster paced class but I'm not really looking forward to the homework that goes along with it.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Pension Day

It's Pension Day here in Utah which means that the government is handing out their aid to everyone in the village. So, of course now that everyone has money to spend they are having this huge market that lines the streets of uptah ( the hillside of town). There is like chickens, water, potatoes, tomatoes, clothes, scarves, electronics, tons of stuff for sale and that is literally where everyone is. We had like 20 kids at camp this morning because everyone else was at pension day. Besides that we have more soccer/health day planning to do today and Xitsonga lessons are tonight. Hope everyone is having an awesome summer.

So much to do!

So, we had a meeting last night about soccer day/health tournament stuff and 3 people from the interns had to be on the coordinating committee to act as the in between of the soccer committee and the health committee. So, I volunteered to do it and the tournament is only 3 weeks away so there is so much to get done. We need major sponsors and things donated, I barely know where to start. Besides that monitoring is still going on, we have to start evaluations, day camps are until the end of this week and we are doing other little things here there.

Safari

Okay so the day here at Djuma has only gotten better since I last posted. Safari was amazing we saw all of the big five except elephants so tmrw on safari I want to see them and giraffes. Dinner was better than anything I will ever be able to make in the villages but I was once again reminded of the disparity that exists 5km down the road; the chef working in our kitchen is from Utah. I interviewed her last week as part of our capacity inventories. I felt kind of awkward having her serve me, this sure as hell isn't shared austerity. Don't get me wrong I am soooo glad I came but one day is enough then back to the villages.

Djuma!

so, we just got to the five star game reserve that we get to spend a night at and I am like giddy with the ridiculousness of this place. It is sooooo nice! I just had the most amazing meal, Dena and I are sharing like our own compound area with an outdoor shower and a little pool, it's crazy.

The hard part is I know the reality that just minutes away there are impoverished living conditions that the tourists that stay here don't even think about. Djuma trucks drive through our village all the time and stop and take pictures of the kids like they are a show or something, it's really frustrating.

Camps are still going on this week along with computers, but instead of interviews in the afternoon we have moved on to monitoring and evaluation of past SMRC projects. This can be really exciting in some cases when projects have taken off and really depressing in others when they have failed.

Overall, everything is still going really well. I want to adopt this 10 yr old girl that hangs out with me at camp everyday, her name is mpfuneko. She is adorable! She can barely say my name because nobody can say my name here so i've tried to get them to call me Nat but somehow it comes out Nata? I'm not really sure how that happened at soccer the other day but I'll answer to whatever works for them.

Safari is at 4!

Week 2 in Utah

So, this week has flown by. We are doing summer camps for the kids because they are on a three week recess by now. They are absolutely exhausting! We do computer training for the older kids in the afternoon and we've been doing interviews with community members to identify skills in the evening. We also started taking Xitsonga lessons from Deppa this week, I'm a pro already.

Last night we went to an ANC meeting at the high school. I was so pumped to see that most of the room was women and 3 of the 4 leaders were women! The girls can sometimes be MIA in this town so it was great to see them involved.

I went for a run in the freezing cold this morning because the off balance diet I have been eating is starting to get to me. Don't worry I went with my team leader and another intern, I'm not running alone.

There's probably tons that I'm forgetting to tell you but next week is just as crazy as this one and I'll be on the computer again Friday hopefully!

-Natalie

P.S. I did hear about Michael Jackson. We were at the local elementary school for opening session the day it happened and the Prinipal Albert made us have a moment of silence for the "fallen American Hero" (his words not mine). The wierd part is we were just talking about him the night before when we were killing the chicken, the kids here love him!

So much has gone on this week I can't even remember everything. I'm not at the same homestay I talked about before, I'm staying with Richard and Doris. Which is awesome, Doris is soooo sweet. She works in the bakery in town which makes the best bread I have ever had. Richard works in Nelspruit so he isn't home during the week. Pearl and Melbourne are their daughters. Pearl is in high school and kind of shy but Melbourne barely speaks english and isnt shy at all. She did my hair for me this morning, I looked quite beautiful by the time she was done. ahha, not that it mattered because I haven't showered since Tuesday. Tuesday and Saturdays are shower days and even then you can't even imagine what the word shower means here ahah. It's awesome though so the lack of cleanliness doesn't really bother me.

We killed two chickens last night for dinner. We went and bought them at this random person in the villages house and I carried one of them back to our house alive by its wings. Then, these kids from the community Forget and Arise (yes those really are their names) pulled and cut their heads off. Arise cut his with a knife and blood went everywhere and then Forget just pulled his and it like stretched out for a minute and then just pulled off. Then, we put both of them in a bowl to dump water on them so that we could pluck them and when we poured the hot water in one of them jumped out of the bowl headless! They were literally running around like chickens with their heads cut off! Regardless, the chicken was really good once it was cooked.

I'm playing soccer too! The women practice everyday at four and another intern and I have been going to practice. I've scored twice so far and managed to get one bad bruise on my knee. It's so fun though.

I'm kind of on a PB & J diet right now. We eat it everyday for lunch. Every morning for breakfast I have oatmeal. For dinner we can make stew, rice, sometimes we have chicken or baked beans. It's pretty much bland.

43 days until I come home!

I miss you all!

Last day in the City

Hey Everyone!
So I've been completely vague about what I am doing I know. But the truth is that it's really just been training so far. We talked about the issues of poverty and disparity today at training and are finishing up stuff tonight. We leave for the villages tomorrow morning.

Did I mention that we have met the most awesome people from the Buffleshoek Trust, they work with us in the community. The first guy, Sidney Frankel is this realllyyy well connected South African business man who took us all out to dinner and told us stories about his role in ending apartheid and knowing Nelson Mandela. It does not get much cooler than that. The other guy Campbell (I forgot his last name) works for Djuma Game Preserve but volunteers at the community and gave us some great advice on settling in and stuff. We've still been eating pretty well in the cities and the hotels are really nice so besides the occasional odd event you would barely know I was in Africa. I'm sure all of that will change tomorrow.

More updates from the village, probably in like a week!
Love,
Natalie

Nelspruit

Nelspruit today!! I found out that my homestay is going to be awesome. The woman is sooo nice and will apparently cook for us and offer to do our laundry. The four girl interns all staying in Uta are staying there. She works at the local preschool which will be awesome. I'll give more details from the village.

I'm Here!

So I've been in Johannesburg for a couple days now! So far everything is ammmmaazing!!!! I'm more than excited to get to the community because from what everyone has to say it's going to be the best experience of my life.

The plan ride was a little bit grueling and exhausting but I made it in one piece, got a good first nights sleep and woke up this morning ready for training and the apartheid museum. They had Nelson Mandela exhibit that was soooo interesting.

For dinner tonight we went out with the Founder of the Trust that is run near the community. That man we had dinner with, Sidney, Had some of the most amazing stories. He was in South Africa for some major historical moments in during the apartheid and had so many great stories to tell.

They say that internet access is going to be around once a week in the village so look out for more posts. I miss you all!

Last post from U.S.A.

So, I leave earlyyy Monday morning and I know I'll be too nervous/anxious/excited tomorrow to even think about writing on this. My bag is completely packed (the crisis of the bag issue only escalated since my last post but its been averted now). I really don't know how often I while have access to the internet while I'm there Student Movement has been kind of vague on that. They say every 2-3 days but sometimes that won't happen. In the first couple of days we are going to be in Johannesburg and Nelspruit so maybe I will find an internet cafe there or something. I promise I'll post ASAP and hopefully everyone will leave comments and thoughts i between posts. I'll miss you guys!

You can stop worrying now

I know you all were insanely worried about what I was going to do with my suitcase dilemna. Have no fear! I figured it out. I'm using this huge duffle that my Dad had for snowmobiling. Its a little heavy and hard to carry and my brother and my Mom had a good laugh at my expense last night watching me trying to pick it up. But, SMRC is right it will be wayyy easier than a rolling suitcase. I can't believe I never thought of that.

Last Conference Call

I had my last conference call today with SMRC. We did last minute reminders and got a chance to ask any questions. A couple of the things on the call suprised me. Like, for example, out of the blue they are like "oh! pack your stuff in one of those big long camping backpacks that have the metal structuring in them." AHHH! I don't have one of those, who does? I'm not a camping kind of girl, we dont just have those lying around my house. To buy one would make no sense because I'll never use it again. So this one girl mentioned that she was going to just pack her really big duffle. I thought I could do that, but then I went and got my biggest duffle and it's toooottaalllyyyy not big enough to fit everything that I have in my suitcase in there. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet.

Also, they mentioned that we might be able to stay at the game preserve that is next to our village for a weekend. That would be really cool. Its a five star place that is realllyyy expensive and beautiful, they got us a student rate to stay there but it's still going to be $250-$300 a night and we would go for the weekend so that would be $600.I feel like if I spent that much money on one weekend I would feel like I couldn't spend any more for the rest of the trip, I would feel guilty. So, as cool as it is I'm thinking no.

4 Days!

The New To Do List:

1. Find oral rehydration solution packets
2. Find a shammie
3. Get copies of all my photo ID
4. Find my yellow shot record sheet, its around here somewhere.

I just weighed my suitcase and im pretty sure its over 50lbs so I moved some stuff over to my carry on but I don't know if its enough soooo

5. Minimize suitcase!

The Suitcase

The Suitcase if officialy packed. I don't think I can fit anything else in it and I'm more than a little concerned that when i put it on the scale its going to be over 50lbs. I got the rest of the stuff on my list at walmart yesterday and I even have the clothes I am going to wear to the airport layed out. I just kept packing yesterday because I didn't want to think about the LSAT so I got alot accomplished. The LSAT is today at 1230 and I'm going to run and shower before I drive up to USM to take the test. I can't wait for it to be over with!

International Volunteer

I got my international volunteer card in the mail today! How legit is that??!!? I didn't even know it was coming to me in the mail and i definitely didnt know that I was getting this official piece of plastic with my name on it. I thought that Student Movement just registered us as international volunteers and that got us insurance and paperwork was passed somewhere but this is wayyy cooler. I don't even know what I do with this card; I'll probably never have to use it but its still cool. Mail in general is exciting to me but with 9 days until my trip this makes reality set in. I get all these good discounts with the card too; on things like airlines and hotels. I also got a phone card from them with some free minutes. I'm thinking maybe I should put some more minutes on it just in case I wind up somewhere that I can use it. What do you think? Would you want me to call you? haha.

Suzy says...

Suzy posted again, her posts are the closest I get to personal advice so I kind of feel like im stalking her. Anyways, besides all the amazing stories she has she mentioned that it rains all the time. I don't feel like Student Movement ever really talked about the rain but now im wondering. I never really thought about bringing an umbrella. All the little things that you are just used to having access to at home you have to think of to bring with you. It's going to impossible to remember everything. 9 Days!

Suzy Riggs

Okay, so if you have time you need to read Suzy Riggs blog. She is the girl that is in Africa right now that's the daughter of the guy my Dad works with. Reading her blog gives me soooo much optomism about my trip. Her second post from there is especially good, she tells the cutest story ever. If I have even one experience like that while I'm there I will count the trip as a success.

Two weeks from today!

Two weeks from today is D-day, my suitcase is way over half full, and I still have a long list of stuff to get. I keep reading it over and over thinking I'm going to forget something. For example, I recently noticed that I didn't have hair ties. What would I have done?!?!

Walmart

As I noted previously as I start to pack Walmart trips ar inevitable. Last night I went with a huge list of things I needed and $140 later I had filled half my suitcase and gotten a significant amount of stuff that I needed. The one thing I have yet to get is a shammie (is that how you spell that?). I was in Walmart last night going back to my swim team days trying to remember what you called those little towels that dry you off in like an instant because that is what student movement suggests we bring. Anyways, I couldn't remember so I called Katie and she filled me in. The closest we came to it was a shamwow and I didn't know how I actually felt about those haha. We are going to try a sporting goods store next but if we don't have any luck shamwow it is! Hahah can you imagine?

This is just pathetic...

I am currently laying on my couch. I woke up at 10:30 with my quads still sore, just like they were yesterday. I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary in my workout routine so the only thing I can think of that would have caused this is gardening with my Mom on Monday. Who knew that pulling weeds, planting flowers, and spreading mulch would make me sore? I think it's kind of pathetic to be honest. To add insult to injury I started a new ab work out yesterday so my abs are sore too. Clearly running everyday is far different from actual physical labor so, as I read over my pre-departure guide for South Africa for what feels like the millionth time ( I'm trying to absorb everything) I am wondering how sore I am going to be the first few days. Remember the girl that is the daughter of the guy my dad works with that went to Africa? Remember, she gave me the idea to start this blog? Well on her blog she writes about how the well in her community is this massive whole in the ground that is insanley deep and the bucket is huge so hauling up the water is realllllyy hard. I have absolutely no upper body strength. Yes, I would consider myself in better shape than I once was but I'm definitely not doing one hundred push ups a day. So I'm pretty sure its inevitable that I will be sore the first week of the trip. There's nothing wrong with having a little bit of muscle right? haha. Anyways, I am seriously contemplating whether or not I want to run today because my quads hurt! I should just stop being a complainer and get up and go. I need some motivation and Bayleigh is not helping. She's not being her overhyper self; she's been sleeping all morning!

Working on the To Do List

I finally started reading over the packing list today. I realized that about half my suitcase is going to be a varying degree of cremes, pills, and bandages to address any possible minor health concern while I'm there. I started making a pile of clothes in the corner of my room that I want to bring with me. ANDDDD most importantly, I officially booked my ticket from Logan to Dulles where I will meet up with the rest of the group. I leave Boston at 8:30 am ( don't ask me what time I will have to leave my house to get there on time, insanely early!). I get to D.C. at 10:07 to be exact and I don't have to meet the group until 2:30 so pretty much I'm going to have four and a half hours to make all of my goodbye phone calls and people watch in the airport. On August 9th our flight from Amsterdam doesn't get to D.C. until 3:40 so I didn't get a flight out until 7:30 and I have a layover in JFK so needless to say I technically won't be back at my house until August 10th because my plane gets into Boston at 12:10 am. So there is all the specifics because i'm sure you all were dying to know haha. I'm so excited to just be there already, the extensive traveling part not so much.

Toms!

Everyday last semester at the Senate I would come in and do my morning routine in the office and then sit down and read the New York Times online. One day I stumbled across this article about Toms shoes. This young, goodlooking entrepreneur had started this company to provide shoes to those people that lived in extreme poverty. Since then AT&T I think it is is using him in their commercials. So, maybe some of you have seen him. Anyways, I really really really want a pair for Africa and there is a local store in Portland's Old Port that sells them so I need to get up there before I leave. For the most part you aren't going to find them being sold in any major stores they're kind of a grassroots thing. The website, www.tomsshoes.com can give you locations where they are sold and you can purchase them for shipping to your house their too. My personal favorite are the blue swing canvas. Anyways, I thought you all should know that i've heard great things about them and I think they would be great for summer. Plus, it's just a small way for you to be the change.

U ya Kwihi?

Title translated: Where are you going?

Well, I'm going to South Africa!!!!! The local language is Xitsonga. I'm having enough trouble pronouncing that let alone the actual words that are a part of it. I mean seriously, is the X silent or do you pronounce it? Where is the emphasis? I just praying that I pick up a few words before I go and then the rest comes naturally while I'm there.

Oh Jeez!

So, I just made this blog because some guy that my dad works with has a daughter going to Africa too and she did it. It's a wayyy better idea than sending out seperate emails, I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before. So for all of you that I told I would email-scratch that! Just check the blog!

I'm ready for the trip in the sense that I go my hepatitis A and B shots, got a tetnus booster, already took my typhoid medication, have my malaria medication filled, have my travelers diahrrea filled (gross right??), and I've bought some new clothes. But am I ready?!!??! I ask myself this everyday and usually come to the same conclusion: that it's going to be AMMMAAAZZING! But I still don't think it's hit me that in three weeks I'll be there.

Between now and departure day I'm going:
-attempt to learn some of the local language (student movement gave us a suggested list)
-Make what I'm sure will be multiple trips to walmart with my mother who already has like 5 post its around the house of stuff she thinks of for me to bring. Thanks mom, love you!
-Book a flight to D.C. where I meet the other interns!