Wow!
I can't believe it's been a whole week since I've been able to post. First I would like to say thank you for all the comments people left. Its really nice reading them. Now I'll fill you in on the week.

Sunday was the Braai. It was a cold rainy day so it kept us inside but it was still pretty fun. I gotta admitt though, I was feeling kind of shy. As it turns out there are no male volunteers in Durban either. There was a guy and his wife visiting from holland though (they work for an organization that sets up dutch volunteers with the yfc.) The two of them came back to our house to stay until tuesday morning so they could see how everything works here in maritzburg.

Monday we went on a tour around maritzburg to see where and how all the various yfc programs opperate. As it turns out we were going to be choosing where we worked. The tour started at the office a block from our house where we met one of the head hanchos around here, Derek. He reminded me a bit of Bob Marley minus the weed. Derek took us around from site to site. We saw yazini (a school health ed program) the girls shelter for homeless girls, the three community drop in centers, the street outreach office, yfc headquarters, the aftercare office, and an additional community we work in. Let me say that there is no place I have seen that is as beautiful as South Africa. However, for being such a developed country, the poverty here is appauling. Never in my life have I seen so many people living in run down shacks. Its one thing to see pictures on tv, its another thing intirely to walk through these neighborhoods in person. I am all for simple living and I think I would be happy living in a small hut like that, but I realize that those people aren't there by choice and that life is really difficult for them. They live in areas like that filled with trash and crime yet they are expected to function in a modern world that revolves around money. It creates a very difficult situation to get out of that we are expected to battle. Most of the full time staff at yfc live in these very communities. After our tour we came home for an hour lunch break to let everything sink in and then we had to make our decisions. I decided to work at the community center in Haniville, a small rural community built on a very large hill on the very outskirt of 'maritzburg.

Tuesday was my first day. I was the last of the volunteers to be dropped off due to my communities location but it gave me some time to talk to Thabo (he does most of the driving) the coordinator of the drop in centers. Thabo is a very funny man who yells at random times when he gets excited about something or is telling a story. So I arrived at the center and I had already met the people I would be working with there the day before. We left immediately to go on a school visit to meet with a particular students teacher. We needed to find out about some medication she had been taking to help her in school so that we could get her back on it because she hasn't been taking it and she is really struggling in school now. Next year she will be going into highschool and we are very worried about how she will do if she doesn't have the medication. When we arrived at the school a class of kids saw us and started yelling something in Zulu. Apparently they thought I was Jet Li. The school visit was unproductive and I had no clue what was going on because everything was said in Zulu. I was filled in later that none of the girl's teachers seemed to know. When the kids came after school they were all very scared of me. If I said "Hi" to them they would turn away and if I said "Sawubona" they would laugh and then turn away. So all in all I was unsuccessful with them on day one.

Day two didn't start out much better. There was a little 5 year old girl name Sinke who came in early because she is too young for school. I tried talking to her but she doesn't know a word of english and she was even more shy. I could tell that she was curious about me though. Some of the boys were the first to arrive and they immediately started playing soccer beacuse that is all they do here. I asked them to play but they didn't know what I was saying so they ignored me. So I sat nearby Sinke and we watched them. Eventually I think her curiousity got the better of her shyness because she started sneaking up behind me. I would turn around and she would scream and run away laughing. But it was the ice breaker she needed. It didn't take long then for her to make friends with me though it took her a while to realize that I didn't know Zulu. Nevertheless I helped her draw a picture durning craft time by holding marker tops for her. She must have decided I would be useful for that. She continued to speak Zulu to me but she learned that I understood pointing much better.

My time on the computer is almost over, but you should know that the kids are used to me now and enjoy playing games with me despite a very difficult language barrier. The girls are much more persistent then the boys though and they really like to get me involved in their games. I think they find it funny to watch me try to follow whats going on. There is one boy though who speaks english very well and he helps me as my translator. I can't wait for next monday to come.

One last thing, I may be starting my own soccer team in haniville to play against the other communitees. I really hope it works out. Hopefully I'll be able to update you in the next couple days. Bye for now