Dumelang!

Greetings from South Africa! I've been in country for about three weeks now and its definitely been a rollercoaster. I apologize for the rampant mispellings and nonsense words that are bound to be part of this post. Blogging from a cell phone is an art I have yet to master. So quick rundown of my trip so far.

We arrived in south africa on July 8 after two days in DC. We drove in buses from the airport in Johannesburg to our first sight two hours away. when we arrived we were all exhausted and jet lagged. We got off the bus to be greeted by our LCFs (language and cross culture facilitators) who were singing and dancing. We stayed in dorms essentially for four days. During those four days we had group language lessons in four languages, got lots of shots and safety lessons. We also were totally spoiled with massive amounts of food and several tea breaks a day. One of our last days at that site we learned which language we would be learning and I was assigned Sepedi. My group is awesome and our LCF is amazing.

On the 13th we left the college to go meet our individual host families. The first few days felt a lot like summer camp but the first night of homestay was a reality check. I love my host family but that first night was the first time I really felt like I was really far from home. Things got easier as I adjusted to living with a South African family. My host mom is wonderful and is so patient with me. None of my skills from the states are particularly helpful here. I don't know how to cook food like them, do laundry or even bathe myself. Certainly a reality check for someone who considers herself pretty self sufficient.

Now were into the thick of our PST which is preservice training. Here is a rundown of my typical day of training.

Wake up at 630 and make my lunch. Then I get my bath ready by getting water from the stove or electric kettle. I then bathe which can be a painful process depending on the temperature. Then I eat breakfast and walk with Nick to our LCFs house where we have a language lesson. Then we walk to a nearby primary school where we have cultural sessions or observe at the school. Sometimes we have another language lesson and we end around five most days. Then I walk home and help prepare dinner for my family. After dinner I do dishes and then Generations is on! By the way Generations is a super popular South African soap opera that I'm hooked on already. After Generations I usually head towards bed since I go to bed pretty early here usually. Saturdays we sometimes have classes but today we went to Pretoria on a field trip. Its a pretty hectic schedule but I'm enjoying my language classes a lot.

I will try to post more often but I'm trying to do it all on my blackberry so its somewhat of a painstaking process. More soon!