Challenges and Fun.

Hello All!
Eric and I are really settling in at our jobs/site now a days... Its going really well. We have wonderful experiences every day and meet new best friends every other moment. Its almost impossible to go/walk anywhere without meeting someone who wants to make you their new best friend. Yesterday I made 4 new best friends! Haha! People often just confront you on the street (sometimes from across the street, or down the road) and start up a conversations. As I'm sure you can imagine, some days this is really fun, and others its the most annoying thing in the world! Usually its fun though! Everyone is so interested to know who we are and where we are from... then of course when they find out we aren't Afrikaaners they freak out and want to know everything about us! Haha! People in the village don't see white people unless they go to a big city so they are always shocked to see us in the village. In fact the Afrikaaners are just as shocked to see us here. A car full of Afrikaaner men drove through the other day (as a small highway/back highway runs through our village) and then turned around when they saw me, convinced I was lost and in need of help. It took me a good 20 minutes to convince them that I do in fact live here and I don't need help.

 Its moments like these where it becomes awkwardly apparent that racism is still a part of every decision that every person makes here. As much as Nelson Mandela and the end of Apartheid re-shaped this country, everything here is still based on race. Every comment, every story, every decision. Its heartbreaking and so frustrating sometimes. We have learned to re-phrase our sentences and leave certain details out so that people don't associate our decisions with race. For example: Eric told our host brother that we didn't bring our expensive camera to SA because we didn't want to lose it or have it stolen. His response was: "So you think all black men are thieves?" or another example: I was about to kill some chickens for diner one evening and a friend was explaining the difference between the farm chickens that you buy and the wild ones that roam around. (South Africans like the white chickens because the bones are softer) but to further her explanation she said "this one(The wild one) is like a black man, and this one (the farm chicken) is like a white man. The wild one has had a hard life, and has to work while the farm one has it easy and doesn't have to do anything."  The hardest part to come to terms with is the fact that there is no explaining that its not really like that. They don't believe you no matter what you say. No matter how hard you try to show them that there are in fact poor white people, or that Yes, I do wash my own laundry, cook my own food and clean my own house. South Africans still don't believe you. I guess this is one of the challenges that we will continue to face every day and that is part of why we are here. To help break down those barriers and grow together. I learn so much from our family and the community around us and I look forward to sharing my knowledge as well.

On november 24 we will be heading to IST (In-Service Training) about 3 hours away from where we live. We will be going with a counterpart (a teacher from our school) and going to a great hotel half way between Tzaneed and Polokwane. I've heard its really beautiful where we are going so I'm pretty stoked about it! Not to mention being able to see my friends! Its amazing really, how quickly you can bond with your cohort out here. I really miss my girls and look forward to seeing them! We will participate in a 10 day workshop (the counterparts are only there for 4 days) where I'm sure we'll have the pleasure of having a few shots, a few tests and a few looooong lectures, but its always worth it in the end. :D

Overall, everything is amazing! We are in love with the culture, people, landscape and food. We both are really looking forward to starting our teaching schedules in January and our vacation in December. Day to day life is slow and relaxed (just the way we like it) and it basically couldn't get any better! Living the dream! loves to all back home! Enjoy some photos from my phone!