Sawubona friends and family,

It was one cold and rainy day out there today. And to think that just two days ago it was 38 C (I'm pretty sure that is the upper 90s.) Today its more like 19 C which is a big difference in celcius. I decided to come here after work though because only one post a week proved to take too long for me.

I'm going to be honest, the past few days have been frustrating for me. Its becoming apparent that one of our room mates is a control freak without a sense of humor and its starting to cause some issues in our house. Aerin, Anne, and myself are especially feeling it and its making itself most apparent in the grocery shopping. The thing is though, I don't think she really knows best even though she insists on things her way. I feel like there is a lot of wasted money the way she wants to shop and she even admitted herself she is not used to being on a budget. I'm trying not to get too upset over it but it brings me down when someone is treating you with the attitude of, you're only 17 so I automatically know best. I a couple hours I will be getting yet another female, dutch roommate. She is also 17 so I am curious to see how that works out because we will have two distinct age groups with equal numbers. Three 17 year olds, three 24 year olds. Hopefully our problematic roommate will ease up a little. There are too many of us living in close quarters to have too much tension so hopefully we will figure things out soon.

Work has been frustrating too though. With this rain the past couple days our activities have been limited to the indoors and so all the program is done in Zulu. The people I am working with do absolutely nothing to clue me in to what is going on so I end up just standing there and watching. I have been talking with my project coordinator as well as a past volunteer who is visiting with her mother and they know exactly what I am talking about. Apparently Haniville is known for having this trouble with volunteers. I'm not ready to give up on it just yet but I am concidering joining the After Care program. My biggest hope is for this soccer tournament to work out because I think it will be the chance I need to bond with some of these kids. The prospects are better than I thought because Thabo told me in the car yesterday morning that he hadn't forgotten about it and that he and I will sit down sometime this week after work and start planning it.

I haven't really learned any more Zulu since Saturday, well I learned "Umulu Bohla," "play ball." I am starting to be able to follow conversations a bit though and pick up the jist of what people are saying. The difficulty is how fast people speak. Yesterday after our school visit I got to participate in a Haniville tradition. We nabbed some sugar cane from a truck on the side of the road and brought it back with us and ate it. I'm not sure how many of you have gotten the opportunity to eat sugar cane but it is an experience everyone should try, unless you have weak teeth. Your sugar cane won't be quite as fresh as mine though because mine came straight from a field across the street. Today I had a fat cookie. It is some kind of Zulu treat that is much like a giant dumpling. Not a chinese dumping but rather like a comfort food dumpling.

Well that is about all for now. Tonight we are going out with a bunch of people bowling and shooting pool. You can shoot pool for 1 rand which in dollars is only 10 cents. Or at least that was the case a couple days ago. I'm not sure what the exchange is like now but as of Saturday the dollar was worth almost 10 rand! You should hear from me again Saturday.

Peace