OneVoice, Lots of butter....

On Tuesday, Valentine’s day, we went on an NGO visit. I visited One Voice, which I was very excited about because they do a lot of work in schools across Kwa-Zulu Natal. They run workshops in the schools for 14 weeks out of the school year supplementing the school’s life orientation (the equivalent of health class for us) programs. They go over HIV/AIDS, TB, life skills, and then finish with a project that will be used to spread the information that they have learned throughout the school and community. The information that they presented to us gave us the impression that they are very organized and efficient with what they do. They seem to know their limatations and don’t try to spread themselves too thin. They only work in 15 schools so that they can focus on making a difference in those communities. I also really liked the idea of the advocacy project that they do with the kids and how this helps to spread awareness in the communities and to the other grades (they only work with 8^th graders), and it also helps to solidify the information for the kids in the program.

After talking to the manager of the NGO for two hours, we then walked next door to the mall! Katherine and I split some amazing muffins at a coffee shop downstairs. We got a blueberry and a cappuccino muffin and they warmed them up for us too! They were so delicious. At 11:30 Zed picked us up and we went back to the SIT house. I went for a swim and spent some time outside before having lunch at 1:30. We then had a lecture and discussion about our projects we have to do at the end of the semester and our day at the NGOs. I went home, did some laundry, did some journaling, homeworking, etc., had dinner, and went to bed at 9!

This morning I woke up, went for a run, had breakfast, and now I’m at school! Very exciting I know. Surprisingly, our Zulu lesson this morning was actually bearable. Bev had people learn to Zulu dance at the front of the room (see pictures, please). I had promised you a picture of the Bev-ster, but luckily for all of you, not only do you get to see this marvelous lady, but you get to see her in action, as she participated in the Zulu dancing. There is also a picture of Mike getting fancy with some clap-under-the-leg action!

Mike showing off his Zulu dance skills

Bev in action

Tonight we are going back to the world cup stadium, but this time to see a soccer game!!! Apparently the teams aren’t that popular, so there might not be that many people there, but hey, for 10 rand, I’m not gonna complain! I look forward to telling you all about the experience in my next post.

Another update on Cato living:

• Every sandwich I have eaten in Cato has butter on it. We get butter and jelly; peanut butter, butter, and jelly; butter and paloney; butter and leftovers… butter, butter, butter…
• Mayonnaise is used very liberally.
• They buy oil buy the JUG full. And use so much of it in cooking
• My mama has started making me pasta or noodles with my dinner (along with rice and potatoes obviously), and it is AMAZING. Maybe its just because I haven’t had any in such a long time, or maybe it’s the amount of oil used in cooking it… to be determined.
• People play music extremely loudly. Both at their homes and out of their cars. Like.. so loudly that I’m surprised any of them can still hear anything. The other night while watching tv, a car stopped outside of our house blasting its bass. The whole house was shaking and the windows were rattling and if I was deaf and couldn’t hear the music I would have thought it was some weird pulsating earth quake. My mama promptly got up from the couch and yelled at them to turn it down cause they were going to break her windows and if they didn’t she was going to give their license plate to the taxi company (apparently they handle dispute in a …