Happy Friday!

It's the end of my work day on Friday and I thought that I would update everyone one the past 2 days. The weather has improved greatly. Wednesday was a beautiful day with the sun shining and temperatures in the upper 70's. Thursday was a bit cooler in the morning and I had to walk to work in an annoying light drizzle. Since then, it has cleared up and become another great day. Today has been gorgeous all around.

My Wednesday began with getting to work and being asked if I wanted to accompany a co-worker to a rural school. I, of course, said yes. We left at 9:00 and walked a heft 30 mins into town. It was actually my first time heading in that direction. If you put the house where I'm staying in the middle of things, I always turn right to go to work. Yesterday was the first time that I had gone to the left. We passed the mall and the busy shops filled with butcher shops, cell phone stores, churches, KFCs (2 in the span of .25 miles) and many other stores. We then walked down a mud path that had small, shack shops on either side of it. Fake watches and  Man U jerseys on one side and delicious sausages and meats being grilled on the other. At the bottom was the taxi hub. We found one going in the direction we were headed and piled into a 15 seater van with all the seats filled. Very reminiscent of times in India. We then headed out of Eshowe and down the hill that it is set on. As we would head down, people would get off and we would pick people up. Once we reached our stop, we then had a 15 minute walk to the school. The back drop was quite something. Since it was cloudy and raining when I drove up to Eshowe, I didn't get to see the surrounding areas. Green hills for as far as the eye could see! 

We came to the school and went to the principal's office. Inside was a girl having a conversation with the principal and it was evident that she was crying. My co-worker talked with the principal and with the little girl. My only contribution was when I saw her searching her purse for a pen and I pulled one out of my bag. At the end of the conversation, the principal asked me if I was American? I responded with a dutiful, Yes sir. He then asked me if I was going to try and learn Zulu in 3 months? I laughed and told him that I was going to try. His smirk and eyes told me that I had no idea what I was doing. Afterwards, we left and headed back to the main road to  catch a taxi back into Eshowe. I asked my co-worker why the girl was crying. Apparently, she was an orphan and has been her entire life. The problem is that she doesn't have a birth certificate or any kind of identification. They were trying to get her one but were not having much luck. Luckily, that is the kind of work that we do hence the reason my co-worker was talking to her and got her info.  

After about 10 mins of waiting in the sun, a van came along and we got in. Once back to Eshowe, we were both tired. My co-worker said there was no way she was going to walk another 30 mins back to the office so we went back down the mud path to the taxis. We got one and went back to work. All of this and we were back at the office by noon. The rest of the day was spent working on the manual and making paper airplanes with my supervisor's nephew. After work, I walked on over to the mall. There is a grocery store there so I went and picked up some supplies. Once I got back, I found Inception on the television and plopped myself down. Once Lwazi came back I began making my dinner which was pork fried rice. Turned out well but was definitely missing some Siracha sauce.

Thursday I got into work late due to the fact that my alarm was set for 6:30 pm and not 6:30 am. Why does technology have to ruin my life? I arrived at work and was asked if I wanted to go to an Eshowe town hall meeting for people with disabilities. I was at first insulted and wanted to say that being very hairy is not a disability! I then read the invitation and it asked for members from non profit organizations to attend. After calming down, I agreed to go with my co-worker Sifiso. We walked to the same area as yesterday and was exposed to Zulu Time. This is similar to Indian Standard Time or ENTER ANY ETHNICITY STEREOTYPICAL LATE Time. The meeting was at noon, we showed up at 12:15 and the meeting didn't start until 12:45 pm. That was impressive. There was a lot of argument about this Disability Forum being included in the HIV/Aids department of the local government. Apparently a man in a wheelchair, who everyone kept shaking their heads at, was saying some very inappropriate things. Around 2:15 pm Sifiso and I decided it was time to leave. We headed back to the office and hung out the rest of the day.

Today was time to buckle down to work on this manual for this program. Sifiso and I worked all day researching, typing, reading, editing and BOOM we are done with it. It looks fantastic. Did take a break today because a guy in a VW pulled up and was talking to Sifiso outside. Everyone knows everyone in this town so it was normal. The guy called me over and was trying to confuse me while speaking in Zulu. After realizing that he was just pulling my leg, we laughed and talked in English. He told me that he is going to bring me some South African beer later today. Met the guy for 5 mins and he's already offering to bring over a 6 pack. I like this guy. It's Friday so we get to leave at 3 pm today so I'm getting ready to leave.

Thanks for following the blog and I wish I had someone to console me during the break up of Peyton Manning and the Colts. I was fond of the Colts because of Peyton. Oh well, still hoping the Redskins get RGIII!

The side of the school we visited Wednesday

On the walk back from the school to the main road. Love the hills!