hanging in africa

WOWee, has it been a long four days. First of all- my three plane rides. The first one to Canada was a breeze.  From there, then 6 hours to London. In London, I had a 12 hour layover, so I was able to head into the city, which was nice! When I stepped out of the underground, it was raining, actually pouring! That worried me, but the rain eventually stopped, so I enjoyed my day. I stayed near the Westminster area, so I got to see Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, the London eye, Buckingham palace, and Big Ben. I also met a new friend named Donny while hanging out on a bench. He is a sweet 75 year old Italian man and he shared his life story and many nuggets of wisdom about life in general. Thank you, Donny. I also saw quite a few odd birds to later be tagged as Sara Tye.

 So, eventually I hopped back to the airport (no taxi, just hopping) then hopped onto my plane, and settled into my huge seat with SO much leg room ;) for the 12 hour flight ahead of me. I sat next to a South African man who now lives in London who was sadly headed home to bury his father. He told me lots of things about South Africa, and told me over and over again what an amazing and beautiful place it is. I also watched 21 jump street and dolphintale. Both really good movies and Mary- dolphintale made me cry and now I really want to meet Winter! I tried to sleep, but it was tough.

We finally landed, and I headed to baggage claim….round and round the luggage goes….no suitcase to be found. I know Lauren Anne feels my pain. I was worried, but they were extremely helpful at the airport so that made me feel better. I worried about it all that night while waiting for a phone call from the airport, but then I realized finding my baggage was like finding true love. Once you stopped looking for it or thinking about it, it will come. And happily it arrived the next day, wrapped in plastic wrap and so happy to see me.

Back to leaving the airport. The program’s driver, James, came to get me. Nicest, funniest, sweetest guy. We headed to the homebase. As you drive through Cape Town, you see huge and beautiful Table Mountain and it is just an amazing sight. You should probably google it. It is really just what makes this city so beautiful. We will be hiking it on Wednesday. When we got home, I met a few people in the program who had already arrived. Everyone is the program is great, excited to be here and ready to see and do as much as possible over the next few weeks. The ages range from 20-65 so it is a cool mix. People arrived all throughout the day, and we just settled into the house, looked around and talked about how amazing it was to be here.

 Later, we walked to the nearby little village, called Rondebash. Late that night some people went out and though I was exhausted, I decided to go. We went to bar on Long Street ( a very long street). Some of the people who started the program previously picked a bar they had already been to so we ended up at an Irish bar that had a band singing America cover songs. As I stood there, raising my glass because Pink told me to, I laughed with some of the other people about how this was not at all what we thought our first night in Africa would be like. A lot of fun, though. The next day, we had our orientation (safety precautions, going over the schedule, etc.) Then we took a trip to some sites in Cape Town, including Signal Hill, where you get a really beautiful view of the city. I can’t wait to explore more of this city. Tomorrow we will go into a township and see a very different side of south Africa.

Miss and love you all!!!!