SAwubona,

Its been two weeks since my last post but they have flown by for me and getting here this week has been difficult with something coming up everyday or just being too tired to make it here. I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving, I know I did. For those of you reading my local newspaper, don't worry too much. So far I have not witnessed or been impacted by anything in the paper and as for the crazy police here which are constantly in the paper for beating people or running people over (for those of you who don't read), I am on the safe side being white and foreign; Its a sad fact but its true. And of course I am law abiding. Still, I find myself feeling very nervous whenever I am around them.

Now lets try and catch you up to speed.

The work is really starting to wind down for the year. Work after my last post was pretty much done by Aerin and I alone because our supervisor was at a training thing all week and the two interns are very lazy. Also, school is now over for the year so our groups of kids got smaller and smaller.

Thursday Aerin and I took the day off to cook a Thanksgiving feast for our house mates as well as Sally. We started in the morning with a trip to the shop to get our turkey plus a few last minute items and then we began with the baking and continued right on through until dinner at 8. Let me say that it was quite an adventure because neither of us has ever prepared a thanksgiving dinner before. The turkey was by far the most interesting part from the bath to thaw it to the dressing it and baking it in our tiny toaster oven. But when all was said and done with in the kitchen Aerin and I were a really good team and Sally told us we could tell our parents it was a great meal. Which it most certainly was if I don't say so myself. Everyone went to bed with full stomachs that night.

Friday we had a very small prayer meeting in the morning. Then there was some quiet time until 1 when I went to go play soccer. My usual team was not there so I played on a team with the street kids. They are a frustrating bunch to play with because, for as much talent as they have, they all want to be the star of the game and because of that, they don't play their positions well. So it was often two defenders in the back (Myself and another) against four or five attackers. We had our hands full but between us and the keeper, we put up quite a defence. Even my coach who is always full of "constructive" critism of my playing told me that I was brilliant on defence that day. So I left the game knowing that I was byfar not the best person on the field, but I was finally improving a noticeable level. I returned home to a going away party for two of our volunteers which lasted much longer than it was meant to and by the end, I was beat and ready to kick back until an early to bed.

Saturday we went to the beach in durban with 65 kids from the Site 11 township. That was a very long, very crazy day. I don't really like spending alot of time on the beach to begin with because i hate having sand everywhere, but I also felt very useless. Not only did I really not know the faces of the kids I was supposed to be watching, the beach was also insanely crouded. At one point a small boy asked me to take him out to the bigger waves and as we were out there talking I realized that he was not one of ours from Site 11 but just some random kid from Durban. That was a bit strange for me. I did get nice and toasted though by this African sun. I have only had a handful of burns in my life and only one or two of those that even hurt, but this time I my entire torso was brought up to a nice bright red and now I am really peeling.

Sunday our number in the house was cut to 4 and the new quiet is very nice. It was cold and rainy so we got some movies and watched those for the day and slept alot because the weekend/week was so tiring.

Monday and tuesday at work were very different than normal. Not only did we have a very different group of kids from normal, we had them the entire day. It felt very much like being a camp counselor only we had absolutely no help from our supervisor who spent the entire day next door. Still, those turned out to be the most fun days of work I have had.

Wednesday we accompanied a group of school kids from Anne's new project to the zoo. It was a very depressing zoo, all run down and small but it was cool to see some new animals that I have never seen before like a Tapir, and something that looks like a giant mongoose but isn't. I also got to pet a very tame Giraffe. It saw us coming and walked right up to the fence and then reached out its head to us. At first we weren't sure what to do but in the end we decided to pet it. It was almost like a giant dog with a long neck. It even licked my back from above me. Their was also and Orangatang (I have no idea how to spell that) that through a branch at me and almost succeed at hitting my head.

Thurday we were back at work though only for a short time because Thabo was very busy and needed to drop us off late and pick us up early.

Friday we had what the dutch call Sinterclause or something of that nature. Its a gift exchange and we all got eachother presents which we hid around the house and went looking for. That was a lot of fun. And we also enjoyed some dutch sweets as well.

Saturday was just Aerin and I so we did some errands and got some movies.

Now my time is nearly up so I must take my leave. I'll try and post sooner next time.

Bye