Less than one week to go at this point, and I’ll say that the past few days have been some of the most fun. With things in the village winding down, we’ve all been able to let loose and just take in the experience for what it is, rather than worry so much about what we have to get done. Our big community meeting was a huge success, and though I’d been feeling like we hadn’t made as much of a difference as we would have liked, the meeting on Saturday made me realize that we truly inspired something in this community. I was surprised at how many of the group members showed up, and we probably had at least 50-60 folks show up despite the cold to discuss their dreams for the community. We were also lucky enough to have convinced the Chief to come, which solidified for the community that their dreams and ideas were being heard by not only UVA and Univen, but by the Chief as well. They prioritized community needs in order of importance, and decided as a group that the number one priority was water access, which was to be expected. Their second was to have a community farm. Their third priority was to have a community marketplace. Their fourth was a crèche, and their fifth was more support for Home Based Care. Based on the meetings I attended with several of the groups, this seemed to be a pretty accurate and fair representation of what the community felt was needed overall, and these are all things that are certainly possibilities for Tshapasha if the community members work together, as they have been for the past several weeks, to put these ideas into action. It is unfortunate, however, that despite telling the community members on numerous occasions that we did not come here to fund these projects right away, that many of them still seem to believe that we will be giving them money in which to put these ideas into action. Though funding in some capacity in the future is not out of the question, it is certainly not a given, so we hope that the community works together in the meantime to raise funds to make their dreams a reality.

After our day in the village, we spent Saturday afternoon and evening watching the Olympics and the Chiefs vs. Pirates soccer game, which is a HUGE rivalry around here. Cassie and I also finally decided to attempt tortilla chips and guacamole, as the abundance of avocados has gotten out-of-control with the nurses at Julie’s clinic giving her bags of them all the time. Apparently, the thought around here is that a plump wife means a successful husband, so the nurses keep telling Julie (who is very tall and thin), that she needs to eat a lot of bread and avocados so her husband ‘looks good’.

Yesterday was a lazy day around Acacia until 16h00, when our local friend Marcus had us over to his home for a braai. It was fantastic! He lives in a small 2-room house with a kitchen attached. As many of the homes outside of the city of Thohoyandou where we are staying, he has no running water and no indoor plumbing, so the water must be fetched from a tap down the street and the toilet is in an outhouse in the back yard. In addition to the outhouse, his yard is also equipped with a lemon tree, an avocado tree, and a HUGE mango tree. His home is very typical of the area and, compared to most of the homes in Tshapasha, he’s doing extremely well.  He lives there with his wife (who he explained he is legally married to though he hasn’t finished ‘paying her family’ yet—they have a kind of reverse-dowry system here), and his 4-month old son, Lufuno. We brought chakalaka wors, Russian sausages, and the beer. Marcus and his wife prepared pap, rice, gravy, and pumpkin for us, and it was a perfect South African braai meal. We all had a blast, and truly enjoyed getting to know Marcus and his family. It was so nice of them to invite 6 Americans over to their home to eat their food and obsess over their beautiful baby. I was also lucky enough to have Marcus and his wife show me how the women around here carry their babies around, which is on their backs. I have yet to see a stroller or any baby-carrying contraption in South Africa, and these women use simply two pieces of cloth. They throw their babies on their backs while bent over, wrap a towel around themselves and the baby, and voila! They go about all of their daily activities like this, including carrying huge buckets of water on their heads, cooking, doing dishes, etc. Did I mention that when I say they showed me how they do it, I mean that I had them attach Lufuno to me, South African style? He remained there for a good 10-15 minutes until the towel started to loosen and I worried he would fall. Another thing to point out is that one of the reasons they’re able to do this without the towel slipping down is that most of the women around here are much more well-endowed than I. They got a kick out of it, I think, or were maybe just being polite. Either way, it was a blast and was one of the most fun nights that we’ve had in SA thus far.

Plans for this week are coming together, and I was worried that since we were done in Tshapasha that we’d have nothing to do. Not the case! Today we meet with our Univen partners to get our last little bit of official work done, and tomorrow we have been invited to the local “Science Center”, which is having a big conference/exhibition. It will be a great opportunity to network, as well as to see the kinds of things that are being done to improve educational opportunities for local youth. We also plan to go to another village, Masisi, to see our new local contact Vince’s after school community center that he built. I’ve only met Vince once, but from what I can tell he is incredible. He is from England, and just moved himself and his wife over here a couple of years ago to build this center and help the community. I should note that he and his wife just had a baby about a week ago, and he’s still taken the time to meet with Sid and to attend our big community meeting last Saturday. I’m excited to see what he’s done in Masisi and to see how that might translate to something that can be done in Tshapasha in the future.

Wow. Less than one week to go! Enjoy the pictures! The first one is some village kids that were excited to see our bus pull up, to say the least. The next is Cassie, Myself, Mariam, and Joe while walking around the village after a meeting. The next is some of the community members after our big Saturday meeting after they got their certificates we presented. Next is our group with the Chief. The "Abortion" photo is from the market, but those flyers are literally EVERYWHERE around here, from town to remote village. It's insane.  The next few are pretty self-explanatory, and are from last night at the braai at Marcus's house.

Not really anything to write about today, but Cassie and I had to come to the computer lab so she could do some work for a class, and she happened to have a flash drive full of photos! I thought I'd just post some random ones from throughout the trip when I have free, albeit slow, internet.

The first is the hut in which we did our meeting with the Young Women's Group. The woman to the side is the one who lives there with that adorable child and was 'paving' the area with mud. It was quite impressive. The second photo is just us walking down the road that runs through the middle of the village (the only main road, really.) The third is one of the many monkeys that runs around campus. The last is some local men walking to Uncle Takies Eating House, which only serves alcohol. So really, it's a drinking house.

This week has been bittersweet as we begin to wrap-up our project in Tshapasha. Our faculty advisor had to leave today (Thursday), so we finalized our group meetings on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and we plan to have a final community “celebration” on Saturday. On Tuesday, we had a long afternoon in the village. I met joined in on the Young Men’s group, which met at the local high school. We had a group of 10 students who were all above 18, as that was part of our IRB. They pointed out that they really wanted a farm for the village in which the money could be used to improve the school. They also expressed the need for a school laboratory in which to do their practicals. As always, the road quality was also discussed. It was interesting to ask these young men what their plans were once they graduated, as most of them want to go into farming and agriculture. There was also a young man who wanted to go into road surveying, one who wanted to be a bank teller, and one who wanted to go into animal conservation. Unfortunately, when asked if they had a guidance counselor or any kind of college or career counseling, they responded that they did not. This is certainly a need in this community, and I hope that they can ultimately partner with Univen students who could perhaps provide some kind of guidance. Univen has so many programs in which students could contribute to the school in student teaching, agriculture, etc., and it seems to be a much underutilized resource. On Wednesday, we got to Tshapasha early and I met with the Home-Based Care group again. These women continue to amaze me. They knew we were coming, and brought us some freshly boiled sweet potatoes which I happily peeled and ate right away. We met in front of their current space, which is not exactly ideal, but at least it has a roof. They do most of their cooking and such outside anyway, where there are numerous chickens and dogs running around, making it difficult to pay attention to the meeting sometimes. After that, we met with the Young Women’s group again, which went much better than last time, as they were very involved and were coming up with some fantastic ideas. Unfortunately, 30 minutes into the meeting we got a call saying that the Chief wanted a ride back to Thohoyandou with us, so we had to cut the meeting short as to not keep him waiting. Cassie and I thought it funny that all the coaching on how to greet the Chief, what to wear in front of the Chief, etc., was completely irrelevant and we just hopped into the van without acknowledging him and were on our way. He chatted with the bus driver the whole 45 minutes back to Thohoyandou so we didn’t interact with him at all, which was fine by me.
 As for Saturday, we plan to have a representative from each group present their dreams for Tshapasha to the members of the village that attend, and then we will do our final assessment/questionnaire, as this is technically a research study. We also plan to have light food and drink for folks there as a thank-you for putting up with us and for participating in our study. In the meantime, we have to get certificates printed for the participants and come up with an agenda for Saturday. Over the past few days, we’ve had many frustrations and are all getting to the point where we have clearly spent way too much time together in situations that are far from ideal (mostly with logistics and disappointments about where the project has gone and where we would have liked it to go). Homesickness has set in for all of us at this point, so I think that once we get everything done we will all feel a lot better. Hopefully, when the project part of our trip wraps up, we can spend next week doing some sight-seeing. I’m personally hoping for a couple of hikes to some waterfalls we’ve heard about, and perhaps a trip to “The Big Tree”, which is just that: A big tree. Apparently it’s super old, and…big. Perhaps I will have photos to follow.

21 days down, 10 to go!

Below are the locusts with a side of Castle Milk Stout, some of the kids we fed on Madiba Day at the OVC Center, a woman making pap in front of her hut, and a glorious (and HUGE!) avocado from our yard.

As I had imagined, dinner at Chief Ratshitanga’s was fantastic! His wife is an incredible cook, and made us two kinds of chicken, beef, stewed beans, pap (which Cassie and I agreed has been the best we’ve tried thus far), rice, greens, and a big green salad. I also enjoyed their three adorable children, who range from preschool to 7^th grade. When they greeted us, they did so in the traditional fashion by kneeling with their hands clasped together on their right sides. Despite this being the norm around here, I found it absolutely adorable and couldn’t help but exclaim in the car on the way home that “…when God forbid I have a child I am TOTALLY going to make them do that when people come over”. After eating, Chief Ratshitanga began telling us stories, which I’d compare to Aesop fables, but were about animals and plants indigenous to Africa. My favorite was about a warthog and a giraffe, and how the giraffe did not have a pattern until the warthog got jealous of the giraffe and threw mud on it, giving it the pattern it has today. When the warthog did this, people found the giraffe even more beautiful, so rather than sabotage it, the warthog had improved it even further. At one point, he stopped mid-story and went onto his front porch and whistled very loudly. Within 5 minutes, we had an elderly man named Soloman walking into the front door with a guitar. I wish I could do this man justice when describing him. When he spoke, he sounded like the African Tom Waits, and I couldn’t help but imagine his voice reading stories aloud to village children. His eyes were droopy and you could barely tell that they were open, and he had a huge mouth and teeth to match, that were crooked and had several missing. After introductions, he sat in a chair by the door and began playing his guitar and singing. I think every one of us had goosebumps within seconds. He sang traditional African songs in the native language (Venda) and played the acoustic guitar to match. After each song, the Chief would explain the story he was singing about, and each song tied into the next as he was literally telling a story via music. For a couple of the songs, the Chief got up and danced and at one point he got Sid and Joe up to dance as well. It was truly a memorable evening. The following morning, we got up early to head out to Tshapasha for 3 meetings: Builders, young males, and young women. I was in the young women’s group, which was unlike any of the others in which I have participated thus far. Every group until now, it seems, was very receptive and was happy to talk about their hopes and dreams for the village. This group, although they had many ideas on how to improve the village, were completely silent when we asked them what strengths were in the community that would help them to achieve these dreams. It was frustrating, and just sad. I found out later from Elly and Kwathiso that Chief Hendrix (the Chief of Tshapasha who is known to be quite corrupt), has told several groups what to say and what not to say, and I believe that this was likely one of those groups. It is unfortunate that the fragile political situation in the village, as well as the relationship between UVA and UNIVEN, could cause the WHIL project to disband. There is so much good that can be done in the village, and the partnership with UNIVEN (as a university, not the students we work with. They are wonderful!) has really screwed us this year, as well as in years past.

Today was a day off, FINALLY! It’s the first full day we have been able to relax and do whatever we want. I caught up on doing laundry, by hand of course. I also got some much-needed lazy time in the sunshine while reading a book and watching the huge lizards scurry up and down the walls of our chalets. Julie, Miriam, Cassie, and I attempted to go to the big outdoor market, but apparently people around here actually respect the whole ‘Sunday is a Holy day’ thing, and there wasn’t much going on. Luckily for us, Sid got his hair cut beside the local Indian restaurant today and convinced them to host us for dinner at 6. It was literally one of the best meals I have ever had, in one of the must run-down facilities I have ever been in. Silverware is a no-go, and you eat everything with your fingers or you scoop it up with the fantastic butter or garlic naan that they offer. We ended up getting naan, rice, paneer with spinach, mutton, goat, butter chicken, okra, and some kind of bean puree, all topped off with some of the um…interesting...Indian confections offered at the payment counter. We are all hoping and praying that we can get to the village tomorrow, as the sanitation there is questionable at best. Joe and I were also stupid (and desperate, as it was super spicy) and drank the water that was served to us from the pitcher. Please cross your fingers that none of us die of dysentery over here. Even if we do, though, please know that it was well worth it, and I’m totally okay with going out like that.

Welp, that about wraps up the last couple of days, which continue to be focused around food, of course. Can I point out that despite the incredible culinary offerings of South Africa, I have never wanted bacon or REAL coffee any more in my life? The bacon here is actually ham. And it’s not even good ham. And the coffee, well, it’s instant. There is literally not a single place around here to buy real coffee. Oh, and tortillas. The folks here have never heard of anything south-of-the-border and I would KILL for some tortilla chips over here. Let’s face it: I have an avocado tree in my yard. The avocado-tomato sandwiches I’ve been eating twice a day can only go so far. Cassie and I dreamt of guacamole all afternoon. Everyone, take note! I have a birthday coming up!

Only 14 days left! Send happy thoughts!

Well it's been another eventful couple of days. I should immediately let everyone know that when I left the library after putting up the last post, Styles, Cassie, Sid, and I went to the local outdoor market to pick up some fresh vegetables to cook for dinner (and perhaps a couple of souveniers for loved ones...). We got some fresh green beans, tomatoes, and potatoes to cook that night. Oh yeah, and I ate worms. And locusts. You heard me. Fried moponi worms, and fried locusts. The lady at the stand wanted me to try, so I did. The moponi worms are quite common around here apparently, and can be bought either fresh or fried. According to everyone I've talked to, they're much better when they're bought fresh and stewed. Unfortunately, the fried ones are texturally repulsive and are extremely greasy and salty. I couldn't get pieces of worm out of my teeth for hours, or perhaps those were locust legs? Locusts, fortunately, are much better and although they're strange at first, they end up tasting like a potato chip. It's just getting past the texture of the legs and shell that are difficult. And because I'm such a wonderful friend and teammate, I bought a whole bag of locusts to bring back to Acacia so that everyone could try them! Cassie handled it the worst, but was adorable, as always. Joe managed to get a series of photos of the faces she made while trying to chew and swallow. Of course, I insisted that she swallow it or else it 'didn't count'.

The following day (07.18) was Madiba Day (Nelson Mandela Day), and it's tradition for everyone to give 67 minutes of community service that day, representing the 67 years of community service that he has given to the country. It was arranged that we would go to a neighboring village to perform community service, where there were many things to do in the various schools, the OVC Center, the farms, etc. As always, I picked the bit that included food, and spent the day at a center for Orphans and Vulnerable Children preparing food, which happened to be for the entire volunteer team that day as well. It was such an amazing experience. Besides being able to learn to make pap, FINALLY!, I got to talk with the many women who keep the center running. So basically, approximately 123 children use the center, but not all of them every day. They go there after school and have a huge meal prepared for them, and are also able to get homework help if they need it. For many of these kids, this is the only meal that they have all day, so their plates are truly loaded up. For that day, we prepared pap, chinese spinach, sweet potatoes, boiled peanuts, chicken, and mashed potatoes with onion. I'm not sure if they would have had all of this had there not been a bunch of volunteers to feed. It was awesome to see how they managed to pull off so much with so little, as getting water to the place where food was being prepared was at least 1/4 mile away. I got to help with that too, and was laughed at by everyone I passed because I was carrying the very heavy bucket with my arms and not on my head. One man saw me struggling with it and instead of helping, he sternly told me "I should learn how to carry things on my head". It's a woman's job around here, I suppose. I went back to the OVC with my half-full bucket of water and got back to helping with the food. After feeding everyone, the volunteer thing wrapped up with a speech from the organizer thanking everyone for their service. Then, we all stood in a circle and joined hands and sang 'Happy Birthday' to Madiba. There were at least 50-60 people and it was very moving. After that, some local high school kids did a traditional South African chant/song and dance. One of them was even drumming on a water bucket. It was really incredible, and I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to be a part of something so special.

Upon returning to Acacia, it was just beginning to get dark and I'd just gotten the stew for dinner simmering on the stove. Cassie and I then decided that we wanted to get more avocados from the tree that's right outside our door (had I mentioned that we had one of those?). It was a sight to behold, and after throwing shoes at them, finding a rake to try to knock them off, and Sid boosting me up onto the tree and me trying to shimmy up it...unsuccessfully...Cassie got on Sid's shoulders and knocked some off with a rake. It was funny. Guess you had to be there.

The following morning, we went to the village for a couple meetings. I sat in on the Elderly Women's group again, and we wrapped things up with them. Their #1 priority is getting a creche up-and-running, so I truly hope that the rest of the community finds that to be a priority as well and that somehow, we can make it happen for them in the future. The Water group also met again, which is clearly a big thing, and there was also an Agriculture group and a Business group. We all needed some release after that, so we went to the local gym to exercise for the first time since we'd been here. Long story short, I ended up in a spin class with 12 middle-aged African men. The only female. The only white (well, red) person. They all enjoyed my color-changing abilities and I had one man tell me I looked like I was going to pass out. I'm not sure if they thought it was humorous that I had joined their class, or if they were annoyed that I'd intruded as they all clearly knew each other pretty well. I got a good workout, anyways.

After the gym, we headed back to Acacia as we had to get started on the big dinner we were making for our Univen partners. I made Southern American-style mac and cheese, butternut squash with cinnamon, green beans, and rice. Sid threw some chicken on the braai, and Lipika and Jessica made some beets. We also tried a new beer here called Hansa Pilsner, of which I am a huge fan. The 5 Univen students came over, and dinner was a success! We had a blast, and I learned a dance from another guy who came over named Marcus who was part of the project from the year before.

Today was much less eventful, and we've spent most of it doing logistics things and having meetings. Tonight, however, we get to go to dinner at a Chief's house who works at Univen and has been helping with the project with UVA for years. I'm looking forward to it, as I hear his wife is an incredible cook. I'm going to be the only person ever to come back from Africa fatter than when I left. Well worth it, though.

Love you all!

Yes, finally. An update from your beloved ‘Mpopi’. What an incredible three days we have all just had…two of which were spent at Kruger National Park on safari. It’s still surreal to think about the fact that we have all just been on safari in Africa. Never would I have thought that I would have had such an incredible once-in-a-lifetime chance to do such a thing with the most incredible people.

We headed out on Saturday morning for Kruger, which is about 70km from Acacia. We entered at the Punda Maria gate and headed towards Shingwedzi (the lodge where we were staying), which was another 70km. Of course, this took us a couple of hours as we crept through the park at about 20km/hr trying to spot animals. After getting through the gate, we almost immediately came across several elephants on the side of the road, followed by a couple of giraffe. We also saw many various types of antelope, an ostrich, monkeys, tons of zebras, herds of water buffalo, herds of waterbuck, and even more elephants (one of which we got a little too close to, and he made it clear that it was time to back off). Once we got to the lodge, we had to get checked in and ready pretty quickly, as we had a guided sunset safari tour that started at 15h45. Our tour guide was fantastic, and gave us a ton of insight into the various animals, as well as their poo. Miriam thoroughly enjoyed that part of it. We saw two hyena cubs, a huge herd of water buffalo, more impalas and waterbuck, zebras, elephants, and a couple giraffe. Besides seeing the animals, we were able to see the most incredible night sky, completely filled with bright stars. I’d never seen anything like it before, and was completely blown away.After the tour concluded, we had a nice dinner outside at the lodge restaurant, complete with a couple bottles of delicious South African wine. It was an early night, however, as we had an early-morning sunrise safari tour scheduled for 04h45.

The early wake-up was well worth it! Besides the opportunity to see the breathtaking South African sunrise, we saw some jackals, warthogs (which are my new favorite, as they remind me of my dog, Guinness), more giraffe, some ground hornbill, a mongoose, and pale-spotted owl, a lilac-breasted roller (the national bird of Swaziland), and…oh yes. I almost forgot. TWO LIONS! As the sun had just risen, we came across two young males just strolling down the side of the road. The tour guide said they were likely headed back to their den to sleep after a long night of hunting, which he believed was probably successful as their bellies looked pretty full. We followed them for quite a while and were so close that we could have literally reached out of the vehicle and touched them at some points. We were all thrilled to have had the opportunity to see them, as it is pretty rare compared to all the other animals there. It was a fantastic way to conclude our tour.

After having breakfast at the lodge, we packed up and headed south along the riverbed to try to see some more animals on our way out of the park. We first saw a HUGE crocodile sunning himself on the bank of the river. A bit further down, we came across one of the most beautiful scenes of the trip: 18 elephants (including 3 babies), 5 zebras, a herd of impalas, a herd of kudus, and several waterbuck all in this riverbed. We were incredibly close, and watched the scene for quite a long time. It was amazing to see the baby lions playing in the water, some of the older ones competing for places on a rock in the middle of the bed, and so many types of animals existing in one place harmoniously. After leaving that scene, we saw some hippos further down and got to hear them grunting at each other, which is quite an interesting noise. Sid was a big fan, and I’m sure will be reminiscing about it for years to come. Upon finally deciding to pick up speed to get out of the park, we hit an elephant road-block. This one, very large, very…excited…male elephant was just standing in the middle of the road, which is not atypical. What is a bit out-of-the-ordinary is the fact that he did not move his legs for at least 15 minutes (maybe longer, as we finally turned around and went another route). He also had a ‘5^th leg’ going on, which was pretty humorous when it began flipping around. Unfortunately, that was the only part of him that would budge.

In a way, it was a good thing we took another route, as we came across a tree that had a dead antelope about 15 feet up, slung between two branches. It was clearly a fresh kill, as rigor mortis had not set in yet at all. We all tried spotting the leopard that was undoubtedly responsible for it, but never saw it. There were several cars there, and I’m pretty sure that guy was not going to make an appearance until he had some more privacy. It was still a pretty incredible thing to see on our way out of the park. All in all, it was an amazing trip and I’m thrilled that we had the opportunity to do such a thing together. The drive back was nice as well, and we drove through hundreds of orange groves during sunset and reminisced about our trip and the various things we encountered. We managed to keep the talk of the project to a minimum, which was nice to have a break from. We got back pretty late and threw together some rice and veggies for dinner. We were all exhausted, and headed to bed.

The following morning, we were scheduled to arrive in the village at 10h00, which of course didn’t happen as we were told we had to ride on the Univen bus again. Due to lack of organization, we didn’t head out until about 09h40, and still had to stop so that the nursing students, who we were sharing a bus with as they are now going to work in a neighboring village (Tshabvumo), could swing by KFC to get themselves lunch. The Tshapasha team was not happy, and decided to have a meeting with our advisor about organization and communication upon our return from the village. While in the village, the guys met with the business group, and then the rest of us went around the village to recruit folks for upcoming groups. It was a success! So the day was not lost. When we got back to Univen, we met with our advisor and voiced our concerns and frustrations. I’m certain that things will get better from here on out, because we basically said that if things are not taken care of, we’re going to do our own thing and handle business ourselves. I’m so proud of my team!

Last night was great, and we all were able to hang out at Acacia together and have a home-cooked meal, from yours truly of course! Spinach, chick pea, and tomato curry with rice, and Sid threw some sausages on the braai. Complete with some Shiraz, it was a nice evening. Sid, Joe, and I also went out to the Khoroni (a local casino/hotel) for some drinks and gambling. Don’t worry! I only lost about 50 Rand, which is only about $6. Sid, however, was out R500. We got him out of there and came home.

Ah. Goodness. I’m so sorry again for the novel. It’s just been such an eventful couple of days. I’ll try to keep it shorter from here on out, as I can’t imagine I’ll have as much to write about as I did going to Kruger. The plans for this week aren’t too crazy, and just include village visits/meetings in Tshapasha, and a Mandela Day dinner at a local chief’s house (who is also Univen faculty and works very closely with UVA). Sending love and happy thoughts from SA!

Despite the implications of Friday the 13^th, today was beyond wonderful. We met up at Univen at 0800 and piled into the two cars to head to the village. We arrived a bit before 0900, and Anita, Cassie, Miriam, Kwathiso, and I found our Home Based Care group sitting by the bridge between Tshapasha and Tshibvumo. Sid, Styles, Elly, and Joe headed out to do some recruiting for the Business group and to make some connections, as we have found Sid does best, while the women had the first meeting with the Home Based Care group. We found out that these women, who come from several villages around there, are absolutely selfless and are pretty much strictly volunteers. They saw a need for helping folks in their homes around not only Tshapasha, but in 9 other surrounding villages, and banded together to care for them with zero training or funding. We even heard a story of them walking down the road one day, and being summoned into a home where a woman was giving birth. They assisted her in the delivery and then contacted an ambulance to take her, as well as her newborn, to a clinic to receive care. We were also told that they once saved a man who they were visiting who was a diabetic. He did not answer his door when they knocked to do their weekly visit, and they broke down his door with a shovel and found him unconscious. They found some concentrated squash which they fed to him, and essentially saved his life. We were also told that they have expanded their care to children, and have a place where they cook for them, help them with their homework, and clothe them after school. Luckily, for this project, they receive a tiny bit of funding from the Social Development Department, although they had said they had not received any money in the past 5 months. Many of the children they serve are orphans, or their mother has died and the father does not do the best job caring for them. Again, I cannot express how amazing these women are, and how much they do for their communities.

The women of the group had a lot to attend to, and were concerned that the people they care for would be wondering where they are, so we wrapped up the meeting after an hour or so. We planned to meet again on July 25^th, at which time we will go 2-on-1 (one UVA female student and one Univen student per home care worker) to shadow them/help them for a few hours. We think that this will give us some real perspective on their needs and issues. We headed back to the Chief’s home to meet up with the rest of the team, as well as two of the male villagers (one of which used to be the Chief before his brother came back and took over. Long story.) to hike to the water source. It was one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever been on. We found the water source and Sid did some troubleshooting. We then decided to keep hiking to find a waterfall that they wanted to show us. Despite the hike being pretty strenuous, it was well worth it. We took a lot of pictures, took in all the scenery, and headed back to town to debrief.

We found out that Sid, Joe, Elly, and Styles had a pretty productive morning while we were in our meeting, and have two groups set-up for Monday morning. Sid also did what he does best: Network. We all look forward to what the next week brings, after we get to enjoy some time at Kruger of course. As of right now, we’re relaxing, having some South African wine, and feeling happy that the week has gone as well as it has, despite some turbulence along the way.

Luckily, I've been able to get into the computer lab again! Unfortunately, that means I can't post any of the incredible photos I've gotten over the past several days, and today particularly Last update was yesterday morning, I think, and a lot has happened since then so I'll try to keep this interesting. We met yesterday afternoon with our Univen students, which has now been taken down to the 5 original players that are truly invested in the project (as I had hoped for and predicted). The nursing students were supposed to come to the 1430h debriefing yesterday but none of them showed, so it was clear that we were moving forward without them. We finally had a highly productive meeting and debriefed about the meeting with the water committee from the day before. They voiced that their main concern was water accessibility to the whole village, not necessarily the cleanliness, and the flow of the water which has also been an issue. Many of the villagers have access to water via pipes that are present in their backyards, or their neighbors', but there are still many households that have no water access and must fetch it from far away and carry it to their homes. It is believed that the size of the water pipe (which is currently 50mm) is too small, so they want to install a 100mm pipe so improve flow and accessibility.They also discussed that they wanted the roads to be improved, and for a creche (preschool) to be built in the village, as right now they must transport their children to a neighboring village, and pay to use theirs.We also strategized in the meeting about logistics and plans for the community visit we did this morning (Thursday), and developed who would work with which group. It was decided that the original folks would stick with the water group, and that Kwathiso, Miriam, and I would conduct the Elderly Women's group at the same time. Joe, Foster, and Elly were assigned to go around the village to folks that they knew and recruited men for the business group.

We wrapped up our meeting and headed back to Acacia, where we hung out for a bit and then, as per usual, I got started on dinner. We wanted to use up as much of the fresh stuff we have as possible before we head to Kruger for the weekend, so I made a sweet potato and carrot mash with orange and local spices, rice, and green beans with garlic and ginger. I should note that I mashed the potatoes and carrots with a liquor bottle. Very classy, I know. Sid went to the store and got a case of the Castle Milk Stout, which was delicious! Sid, Joe, Julie, Cassie, Miriam, and I played cards, had dinner, drank beer and whiskey, and called it a night.

This morning, we had to be up early to meet our Univen partners to load into the van (yes, van. Not bus. Thank God.). The van was also on South African time, so we were late to the village again. I was less than thrilled. Luckily, the folks coming to the meetings hadn't come outside too early because it was quite chilly, and many of them arrived when we got there. Miriam, Kwathiso, and I joined the elderly women on the ground under the big mango tree at the chief's house and introduced ourselves.Kwathiso introduced the project and explained things to them,and we got started by asking them how they pictured their community if it was perfect. They discussed the water accessibility, and how they wanted everyone to have water, first and foremost. They also expressed that they wanted to be able to knit and sew for the community, and how they needed a sewing machine to be more efficient. It was fascinating to hear them brainstorm ways in which to purchace a sewing machine, including sewing and beading things by hand to sell at the markets and using that money towards the purchase. They also discussed how they could see if everyone could contribute a little bit of money towards the purchace, and that they would sew clothing for those people. What I found to be most exciting was their desire to have a community garden/farm, where anyone in the village was welcome to the food grown on it and then whatever was leftover could be sold at the market. The money made would be used for community projects, as well as to keep the garden going. As with the Water Committee, these women expressed the need for a creche, as well as road improvement to the creche that is being used currently. It was enlightening to hear these women discuss these things, particularly because the ongoing theme was that they wanted to do things for their community. Every personal contribution that they suggested was ultimately for community improvement, and I found it to be so inspiring that these women are so selfless, and that the community seems to be pretty selfless in general. I would love to see an attitude like that, even in the slightest, in many communities in the US.

After the meetings wrapped up, we all walked a ways to look at the pipe system currently in place. We ended up in a woman's back yard while she was using the system to wash some clothes. She had two children (assuming they were grandchildren) in the yard with her. While the men were checking out the pipe system, I got distracted by the kids, who loved my camera. We played with them and took pictures, and showed them the photos. They were delighted! One of the male villagers, Jonas, also wanted to take pictures with me. He was kind of creepy about it and was reluctant to let go of me after the picture had been taken (he had his arm around my shoulder). I'll upload photos as soon as I can. Promise!

After a long morning in the village, debriefing with the team over lunch, and sneaking into the computer lab to write this novel (sorry it became so long), I'm pooped. Hopefully I'll be able to update after going on Safari this weekend complete with pictures. And of course epic stories of me saving my entire team from an angry elephant bull, park police discovering a lion cub in my suitcase, and giving a bottle of whiskey to a monkey to see what happens. Signing off, ya'll!

Yay! Cassie and I finally weaseled our ways into the computer lab at the library at Univen, so I can actually take my time and catch up on e-mails, and this thing. The past couple days have been interesting and eventful, as has the rest of the trip thus far. Yesterday morning, we headed to Univen to meet our partners at 0800, as we were scheduled to meet our first group in the village at 0900. All 20 of us (yes, 20) piled into a bus and headed towards Tshapasha. It was not a smooth encounter, to say the least. First of all, the bus was late, meaning we were late. Since the beginning of this project, meaning months ago when we began planning, it was drilled into our heads that it was of the utmost importance to be on-time, every time, when dealing with this village. Secondly, there were twenty students engulfing this tiny village all at once, which was clearly overwhelming to the villagers. Cassie and I had been very clear with our advisor, as well as the advisor for the 10 nursing students that joined last-minute from Univen (I'll get into that fiasco later), that it was a bad idea to all show up at once. Despite our efforts, we were not listened to and we showed up to a very unhappy Water Committee, which was the group that had planned on meeting us that day. Apparently, Mary (the Univen advisor), despite not being at the meeting on Sunday when this was planned, thought that every group that we had formed at our Sunday gathering would be meeting that day. It was decided by the Committee as well as by the UVA and original Univen students, that a few of us would do the Water Committee group and the rest of us would just...kind of...hang out on the road until it was over. Cassie, Sid, and Styles had a very successful group session with the Water Committee, and it was decided that we would return on Thursday for a follow-up. Upon the conclusion of that meeting, a female elder approached us and asked if we would meet with the Elderly Women's Group on Thursday as well. Miriam, Kwathiso, and I will be running that meeting while the Water Committee has their follow-up.

After this situation, it was very clear that things had to change. Cassie and I were very firm with our advisor on the bus on the way back that we absolutely could not have 20 students involved in this project. Miriam had also informed me that the 10 nursing students that came on last-minute did so as an alternative to doing 'research', and were also told that they would be receiving breakfast and lunch every day. It was clear that the original Univen students (Styles, Elly, Kwathiso, Foster, and Walter), and the 5 UVA students (Cassie, Miriam, Joe, Sid, and I), needed to be the core group to figure things out, and communication and coordination were impossible with such a large group. Anita met with Mary, and it was decided that the nursing students would be on the project on an 'on call' basis. We were finally a little less stressed out about the whole thing, and relaxed by kicking around a soccer ball for an hour or so while having a beer. We were also able to plan for our trip this weekend to Kruger Park for Safari, since Acacia is booked for Saturday night for a wedding. Why anyone would want to have a wedding in that place I will never understand. We are all very excited to head out for Safari, as most of us have never done it before, and will likely never be able to do it again.

I thought it would be a good idea to have the 5 Univen students over for dinner and to strategize, so last night they all came over and we discussed plans for our return visits, as well as discussed a time-line for when we want certain things to be accomplished. I made dinner (of course!), which included a sweet potato, white bean, and swiss chard stew with lots of ginger and garlic. I also threw in some vegetarian sausages left over from the night before. I served it over rice, and it turned out really well! The spices here are fantastic, especially peri-peri, which is super spicy. Sid grilled some steaks, and when I realized that these folks eat a ton, Cassie and I prepared some spaghetti and fresh tomato and garlic sauce. Good thing we did, because there was literally not a single bit of food leftover. We wrapped up the evening with some South African macadamia nut and fruit liquor that Styles insisted I try, and headed to bed.

This morning, we got up somewhat early to come to Univen, as there is a conference going on here (PASA, which stands for Population Assessment of South Africa, and is focusing on Reproductive Health Awareness this year). The Minister of Health for the entire country was going to be speaking, and we were invited to check it out. It was supposed to start at 9, but it has been very clear since we arrived that South Africans don't really have much of a concept of time. Unfortunately, when Cassie and I heard that we could come to the computer lab at 10 to FINALLY be able to catch up, we walked around campus to look at the monkeys and the rugby stadium and came to the beautiful oasis also known as the computer lab. With internet! That's free! Yay!

Hopefully, I'll be able to come here periodically to check out e-mails, update this nerdy thing, etc. Keep your fingers crossed for me back home! Sending lots of love.

The past couple of days have been many things, including exciting, fascinating, eye-opening, and of course, awkward (because when am I not awkward?! SA is no exception). We got up at 0600 on Sunday morning to leave Acacia Park for Tshapasha, as we had to be there at 0730 for their weekly community meeting at the Chief’s home. As we hit the dirt road that led to the village, we noticed several police cars and a group of people standing around a ditch. We didn’t think a whole lot of it at first, but when we arrived at the Chief’s house, he told us that he had a party the night before (which was obvious, due to all of the trash in his front yard), and this man had gotten very drunk. He was found in the ditch that morning, dead. People were not sure whether he passed out there and died, or if he had hit his head upon falling. Either way, it wasn’t the greatest mood in which to arrive for the first time. It was also strange to arrive in the village and have to meet the chief so soon after arriving. We were not given the opportunity to learn proper greetings, or anything for that matter, so when Vhonani (our Univen advisor) got completely on the ground at his feet to greet him, we weren’t sure what to do. Luckily, he could tell that we were fish-out-of-water and chuckled at our attempts to bow in a proper greeting.
The community meeting took place in the Chief’s front yard under a mango tree. The villagers knew we were coming, so they set out plastic chairs for us while the villagers sat on the ground or on tree stumps, and the elders of the village sat in front of us in chairs. The women and men are separated on each side, and the women almost always sit on the ground, while the men sit up a little higher. There were probably 30 or so people that attended of all ages, and everyone was very nice and greeted us with smiles, though most of them spoke no English.  The meeting began with a prayer, and we were then introduced to everyone and our project was also introduced. They were receptive, and they formed focus groups that they thought would be beneficial to our project (including elder women, youth, businessmen, builders, water committee, home care workers, and middle-aged women). Near the conclusion of the meeting, we realized that many of the women in the community had congregated in a group behind us on the road and had begun cheering and yelling. They then formed a line, and began chanting/singing, led by a woman with a huge leather drum. It was absolutely fascinating to watch them dance and sing, as it was literally like something you’d see on the Discovery Channel. We learned that it was a celebration of the young men returning from their month in the bush, which was their first step to becoming men. Apparently, a circumcision ceremony was soon to follow.
We left the village, hit up a roadside stand for some sweet potatoes,  and were able to go grocery shopping. We hadn’t gotten dinner the night before, or breakfast that morning, so we were thrilled. We went to the local ‘ShopRite’, which reminds me a lot of a small-town IGA type grocery store or something. The selection of stuff was pretty interesting, especially for this foodie!  We ended up with a lot of rice, lentils, potatoes, bananas, oranges, onions, spices, yoghurt, tomatoes, etc. Sid also got a bag of chicken for the braai (grill). We got back to Acacia just in time to unpack groceries and then headed to Univen to meet our partner students there and for a brief orientation. There were about 15 Univen students, and everyone was so nice, and thrilled to meet us. A few of them were also thrilled to play with my ‘doll hair’, as they put it, and had many questions about how often I washed it, how I styled it, etc.
Finally, we were free for the day, so our new friend Styles piled into the car with Joe, Sid, Miriam, and me, and we went searching for beer. Since it was Sunday, almost everything was closed, but Styles knew of a place that sold illegally on Sundays and we went there. It was literally the sketchiest place I’ve ever seen, and I was told not to even get out of the car. We were in the middle of a parking lot surrounded by men grilling, drinking, smoking pot, etc. Luckily, Styles and Sid made it out with 6 tall-boys of Zamaleg and we headed back to Acacia. I took charge of dinner (of course), and made a lentil and potato stew that I seasoned with ginger, garlic, peri peri, and some other spices from around here. I served it over rice and Sid grilled some chicken. It went over well with my little family here and I will likely be making the lentil stew again tonight. We drank beer and whiskey and Styles taught us a South African card game. Overall, it was a good, but exhausting day, and we called it a night pretty early.
Today (Monday), was pretty laid back. We went to Univen at 0900 to meet with our partners again, and had an Appreciative Inquiry workshop (AI is the process we’ll be using for our study here). It was laid back, and we got fed a fantastic lunch of sweet potatoes, beef stew, pap (kind of like grits, which is the local staple here), beet salad, and cole slaw. We’re now back at Acacia, being lazy and discussing plans for the rest of the week. While Joe and Sid napped for a bit, Styles and I hung out on the porch discussing differences between the US and SA, which was extremely eye-opening for both of us. Apartheid in SA and segregation in the US are a lot more similar than I’d realized, and although Apartheid is technically over here, it truly is not.
Well, that’s about it for now. I miss everyone back home so much, and have certainly not had time until today to become homesick. Sending  lots of love, happiness, and good energy from Limpopo!

Well, after 19 hours of traveling, we finally made it to the hotel in Johannesburg, Gauteng, on 7.6 at about 1030 in the morning. After power-napping and getting lunch, Cassie and I joined Joe, Sid, and Miriam on an adventure to the Apartheid Museum, which was about a 30-minute drive from the hotel. We were able to see a lot of Johannesburg, which is an interesting city to say the least. Everything is surrounded by huge cement walls topped with barbed wire, which makes sense considering the high crime rate (Sid mentioned it being the #1 murder capital in the world). The museum was fascinating, and reminded me a lot of the Holocaust museum in how it was set up. After that, we came back to the hotel and showered up before heading to dinner at the casino. Because JoBurg is so dangerous, the hotels in our complex connect to this enormous underground casino and ‘boardwalk type’ area with restaurants, a movie theatre, etc. We had dinner at this buffet place, where I was determined to try anything different. I went with ostrich stew, stewed chicken livers, pickled fish, and of course rice and various vegetables.Considering it was a buffet, it ws quite good. I also discovered my go-to South African beer called “Black Label”, which the waiter taught me was called “Zamaleg” in Zulu. Of course it didn’t take long for me to locate the best local beer. You all know me, right? Post-dinner, Sid, Joe, and I played some black jack in the casino with a Portugese Afrikkaner, who said that my accent was ‘different’ from most Americans. I told him I was Southern, which he did not understand in the slightest. When I used the term ‘Redneck’, he was well aware that I hailed from the land in which KFC was born. Apparently they love that stuff here!
This morning, after hitting the local mall for cell phones and modems, we set out from JoBurg to Thohoyandou, which is approximately 6 hours. At first, the view was very…brown. The terrain was stereotypical or the American view of Africa (or at least mine), with fields of sparse trees and low, brown grass. We passed several shanty towns as well as a couple of ostrich and cattle farms right outside of JoBurg, and slowly the ride became more and more mountainous and green. Right after passing the Tropic of Capricorn, we stopped at a petrol station and gassed up and ate burgers before finishing up the last two hours. They were absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We drove through the mountains, surrounded by banana, avocado, and grapefruit trees, and drove through some true rural South African towns with produce markets, women carrying baskets on their heads, and children playing soccer in red-dirt fields.
At about 1800 tonight, we arrived in Acacia Wildlife Resort (which is hardly a resort, as I’m currently assigned to sleeping on a pull-out chair. Not couch. Chair.) in Thohoyandou. After semi-unpacking, I’ve finally been able to shower and unload a bit. Have I mentioned that the water here is undrinkable? Meaning that you can’t even let any get into your mouth while you shower? Try it, folks. It’s much harder than you’d think.
Currently, I’m hiding out in Sid and Joe’s room because they’re computer geniuses. It’ll be an early night, though, because we were informed upon our arrival that we have to be in Tshapasha (the village we’ll be working in) tomorrow morning by 0730, and since it’s about 45 minutes away, that means It’ll be quite an early morning.
Thanks for checking in, ya’ll! Sending lots of love from middle-of-nowhere, South Africa.

I never thought that I'd be a blogger. I've always thought it was completely self-indulgent to assume that people care at all what's going on in my day-to-day life. Admittedly, it's not very exciting. However, I figure the next month will be a bit more atypical, and that this would be the best way in which to update family and friends on what I'm doing in Thohoyandou, Limpopo. (No idea yet how to pronounce it). It's located in the upper-mid right side near Kruger National Park. I hadn't realized until I looked it up this morning how close we're staying to the park, which apparently is considered one of the best places to go on Safari in all of Africa. I can't wait to go help nurse baby lions, dance in the rain with monkeys, and enjoy a cocktail on the back of an elephant.

Today is the last day of packing, and then I get to spend tomorrow and tomorrow night in DC. I suppose it's appropriate that I'm spending July 4th in the capital, and then leave all things American for a month. Starting tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, no phone! So e-mails (akb8879@gmail.com) and Skype (akbradshaw) are how to find me until August 6th. I welcome messages with words of encouragement, drunken ramblings, or details of your most recent make-out sesh in Denmark.

Love to all!