Bafana Bafana!

Tuesday 28 Feb 2012 (Continued)

So, sorry its been so long. SO much has happened since my last blog post so I'll try to keep it short so as not to bore you, but also include enough info to give you a good idea of whats been happening.

Sunrise in Cato

So Tuesday after school, life quickly got exciting. I happened to be at Becca's house with Katie when Dr Salim Karim showed up to pick her up for dinner. He invited both of us to go along with her, so we jumped at the opportunity. Him and his wife are two of the leading HIV/AIDS reserchers in South Africa, not to mention the world. They have both an urban and rural clinic that they do research out of for both HIV/AIDS treatment and also its co-infection with TB. The wife, Dr. Quarraisha Karim so helped to design the original life orientation curriculum in SA and does education based research in the rural area their clinic is.

So first of all, they pull up in a Lexus, which is by far the nicest car I have been in in South Africa, not to mention the first automatic. And then they took us to their home, which is probably the nicest house I have ever been in in my life. Their view of Durban and the city is amazing. They made us an amazing dinner of curries and salads and roti, and then for dessert they brought out so many freshly cut oranges and cupcakes and Turkish Delight from Turkey!!

Wednesday 29 Feb 2012

Today we went to the Bafana Bafana vs. Senegal game at the world cup again! Again it was a lot of fun and caused us to stay up so much later than we usually do. Sdu brought his hugeeee vuvuzela, so that was entertaining and deafening at the same time. Anyways, I'll keep this one short, but below are a few pictures of highlights I guess you could call them!

Chinese fire drill while waiting in traffic by the stadium

the stadium with the moon over it!

Sara, Jess, Me, and Becky!

it started to rain...

Friday 2 March 2012

Love my Cato family

 














Thursday first of all seems so long ago, but also nothing really eventful happened I don't think, so we are just gonna leave it out. Friday we had two lectures after Zulu, which were incredibly boring as always. Especially it being friday. But afterwards we went home to get ready for the goodbye party! I couldn't believe that our time living in Cato Manor was already over.

After school we went home. Smu and I went to silence foods for the last time with Seth and Katie before getting ready for the party. Smu wore her purple dress that I had bought her. W were shuttled to the hall where we then sat at a table and waiting or everyone else to arrive. Thula gave an introduction and then we all took turns standing up to say thank you to our mamas and the rest of Cato Manor.  Then, before the meal, we stopped to say a prayer, and what would you know, the Cato Muslim lives right behind the hall, so as one of the mama's said a prayer, the muslim prayer was wailing away in the background. It was all my brother and I could do to not burst out laughing. Then it was time to eat. The fruit was almost instantly hoarded so mama had me sneak up and get her some before it was all gone. The dinner was pretty good, but not nearly as good as my Mama's cooking, which made me realize how much I was going to miss living in Cato. Anyways, after dinner there was lots of dancing (my old Mama even got up and danced!!)

After the party we went down to House of Curries to hang out with our siblings. It was a good time as always, dancing and singing. I don't know why we didn't hang out with them more often! Like, I've been a lot closer with Lungelo because he comes over pretty much every night to hang out, but Bhuwa is so much fun and such a great person. I ended up staying there with them and everyone much later than i had intended, but it was just so much fun! Anyways, I'll stop rambling.

The gist of the night was that we never wanted to leave South Africa. I love Cato Manor, my family, my friends, everyone. Everyone has been so kind and generous, and there are a few special kids who I am going to miss so much! My brothers said we will still hang out a lot when I get back from the rural homestays, so thats something to look forward to!

Two of my favorite girls :)

My house! (the yellow one on the right)