Not going to lie, I’m a little homesick. Not cripplingly so, but just enough to longingly sigh in my room when I think about Taco Bell. I had a dream last night that I was eating a pasta dinner with all my family. So tonight I’m going to make baked ziti and watch 30 Rock to make it feel a little more like America. I also recently dreamed that I had a ponytail, but there’s not a lot I can do about that right now.

My projects are coming along well. Both my ideas for the secondary school got approved, so it’s just a matter of organizing the career fair, and waiting for a ride to town to get paint for the world map. The primary school’s little field trip to the training center went well with only a few incidents, and the learners really seemed to like learning to weave and make mats. I’m hoping that we can repeat it with another grade.

Long Tom Marathon coming up in a few weeks! If you haven’t seen my spiel on Facebook, here it goes:

Peace Corps volunteers here in South Africa have a long history of participating in the Long Tom Marathon. We use this opportunity to raise money for an organization called KLM. They give out scholarships to kids in rural communities to get better educations and tutoring on the side. It’s a great cause, and I only need about $20 USD until I reach my goal! Please, go to the site and give what you can. Don’t forget to add my name on the form. And thanks to everyone who has already donated!

www.klm-foundation.org

Hope everything is good stateside!

The rain only lasted a couple episodes of Mad Men, but even now I hear it creeping back on the tin roof. To give you a better picture, I’m in my pajamas, boiling water to avoid runny tummy, listening to some music from the Ring Cycle, though it’s all blotchy because my computer doesn’t want to cooperate, and the rain is tapping again. It’s quite the cacophony.

In other news, I recently spent a ridiculous amount of money on something non-vacation related. R221 for facial lotion with SPF 30 and sunscreen that’s worth a damn. That’s the most I’ve spent on any one purchase. Now, it’s only about $34 USD, but when you only make $300 USD a month, it’s a considerable investment. But I’m happy to spend it to avoid peeling now and shriveling up later.

To wrap things up, I leave you with this little anecdote:

On Friday, all the primary schools in the area competed in a track and field competition in Mayflower. My school brought 75 learners (which is ridiculous) from grades 4-7. I was trying to keep them together in the morning because one of the schools sitting near us had like the same uniform. So I reached back, deep into my high school marching band nerd days and taught them this cheer:

Q: “Hey, Ka-Duma (name of my school), how do you feel?”

A: “We feel great, oh we feel so great. Uh. Uh. Uh uh uh”

Which was cute until they realized that they could ask it back to me. So the next day when I went to the India shop, I was ambushed by about five kids clapping and yelling:

Q: “Hey, Fikile, how you feel?”

And of course, I was obliged to answer. In front of all the drunks from the home brew garage next door. They got a kick out of it. I hope a pattern does not emerge, or I will have to go back to gruff Fikile.

- Organizing a career day for my secondary school, so that the learners have an idea of what they want to do with their lives and what classes they need to take
- World Map Project at my secondary school. Basically, we paint a map on the wall (hopefully of the library). I am trying to partner with the geography teacher, so that his learners can help label the countries once it is all finished
- Organizing a mini-field trip to a training center in the village for my primary school. Gogos (grandmas) there make mats and other handicrafts, so the learners will watch and try to make their own. The gogos are pretty excited about it, so it’s really cute.

Of course now that I have put this out there, all of my projects will fall apart. But I’m really excited about it, and I thought you guys would like to have a better idea of exactly what the hell I’m doing over here. Hope all is well,

Bri

Alan made the brussel sprouts, and proved what people in the south have known for a while: Anything cooked with bacon is automatically delicious. Jesse and Meg “made” a dutch apple pie and some cadbury chocolate. It oddly reminded me of a Checkers apple tart…

I brought cornbread muffins and cookies. The cornbread muffins were aight, but the cookies were a crowd pleaser, so that made me really happy.

After the dinner we tossed the ol’ pigskin around with some neighborhood kids. It was pretty hilarious, as they had no idea what was going on despite some quick directions. After the Americans stopped playing and the kids were left with the ball, they just started a game of netball, which was fun anyways.

It was really nice to see everyone, and even nicer to have such a huge meal. It was a great improvement on last Friday’s offal lunch at my primary school. The principal cooked up some cow innards for lunch, and being of an adventurous stomach I tried it. The lung and stomach was OK, but intestines is a little much.

Continuing with American tradition, I have continued to eat terribly in the days following Thanksgiving. I just got the package my mom sent me (thanks again!) and proceeded to eat an inappropriate amount of oreos for dinner, with immediate regret for dessert. Now I’m thumbing through the magazines and books she sent, and looking forward to watching the DVDs my stepdad sent as well.

All in all, good stuff. IST is coming up in the beginning of December, and I hope to update before that with an idea of my schedule for next year. Stay well!

1. A lack of electricity and other minor annoyances that are now being sorted out at site.

2. A lack of Internet during the majority of training.

See? Totally not my fault, or due to my incredible lack of personal responsibility. As I have time now, I thought I would write a few words about the two months I spent on the other side of Mpumalanga province, in KwaNdebele.

For the majority of my stay, I lived with a very generous and very understanding host family around Siyabuswa. They were very patient with me, and some days I find myself missing them. I lived with a host mother (who was really a grandmother/gogo) and a little brother in grade 5. My host mom is a really lovely woman, who humored me when I tried to feed her banana bread and peanut butter and banana sandwiches. My last day she dressed up in traditional Ndebele bead work and took photos with me (which I hope to post sometime soon).

And then there are my fellow volunteers, who suffered in silence (and not so much silence) with me, and who I came to find are all great people. It’s bittersweet sometimes at site because I don’t get to see them as often as I used to, and am instead stuck with two losers near me. But I know everyone is keeping well at site, and that I will see them in Decemeber.

But I am actually pretty zen about the whole thing. I had resigned myself to a leaky, noisy roof even before the storm had started. So take that South African weather.

Example of my site’s weather: As mentioned on my august Facebook page, the wind this weekend blew the roof off the pit latrine at home. I won’t call it a toilet, as a friend pointed out that it’s more of a tin box with a little wooden box inside. But my host brother has cobbled it back together again (negative: the door still doesn’t close and there is roofing leftover; positive: now we have a skylight!). It’s a little creepier than it used to be, as now when I go at night I feel like I’m re-creating that scene from Jurassic Park where Newman dies. Well, at least I can go at my own house.

Today was actually pretty mild at my school. The learners are writing exams, so right now I am helping my buddy the secretary to put together the tests, and hunt down missing exam originals. We learned how to top feed the copier and make multiple copies, and my unjamming skills acquired at the Alligator were put to good use.

Good stuff coming up for the holidays, and thanks to everyone who has been sending mail and whatnot. The podcasts, gossip and candy are amazing; and your letters make my day.

Briana noma Fikile

your leaving the place where you grew up with everyone to go to some far off country you’ve never been too.

it’s scary but when you get past the scary part

it’ll be fine

God bless that girl. But I’m getting out of order. First there was my last home-cooked meal. Mom, Steve and Becky cooked up a lovely feast for my last night at home, and Bub, Aunt Cindy and Steph came over for dinner. Becky made the traditional grey poupon green beans, and mom made the potatoes we always have at Thanksgiving. We had Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake afterwards, and I really hope that becomes a tradition in my life because that is a delicious and entertaining dessert.

After we cleared out plates I said my goodbyes to the family, and we got to packing up my life. Really, all credit goes to Mom and Becky for organizing my clothes and neatly folding everything to allow for maximum clothing capacity. If I was left to my own devices, I would have shoved a few rumpled shirts into a hobo bindle, pinned my passport to my collar and set off for the airport. But pretty much everything is together now, and we are going to Publix tomorrow morning for a final weigh in.

Steph and James came round later and we sat around. It was pretty strange having these two kids I’ve known for eight years stop by my house and joke and kid like we used to. It reminded me a little of high school, and that was another twist of the small knife in my heart. It’s good though that we are all moving on and becoming somewhat productive members of society. I mean, I wouldn’t wish an eternity of Coral Springs on anybody, but I think it would be nice to pull all-nighters and be generally idiotic again like we were in high school.

So now everyone is gone, and the family is asleep, and all is quiet in the O’Sullivan household. It is just me here, hunched over my computer trying to keep up with this blog and tire myself out. But I can’t get rid of this buzzing in my head, because I am purely happy. Really looking forward to Philly, and dreaming of South Africa.

I still have a mountain of packing to do, as everything I have bought for my time in South Africa is now strewn about my room like the wreckage from a tornado. I know what luggage I’m going to bring with me though, so that’s being counted as a step in the right direction. I have very few things left on my packing list to check off as well, so there’s another positive.

But while I am so ready to go and start serving, it’s starting to sink in how much I am going to miss my family and friends. I’ve had a few “this is probably the last time I will ever see you” goodbyes already, but that’s pretty typical for graduating college and moving on to your adult life. I’m just now starting to have “see you in a year, maybe if I take my vacation time,” goodbyes with those I am close to, which are really rough. I’m not going to be able to communicate with those stateside regularly, and although I am notoriously bad at keeping in touch, to not even have the option is frankly very sad.

I don’t mean to seem like a downer. In fact, I’m really excited for my service to begin. The more I learn about South Africa and what I will be doing over there, the happier I am. To think that two weeks from now, I will be settled on another continent, it’s awesome. And the opportunities and experiences I will have will probably cause my head to explode.

Mainly, I’m just happy now, and starting to plot my future abroad.