Last post I promised a more tangible report of where I was at, and like Karl Malone on every day of the week besides Sunday, I will deliver (for those of you for whom this reference is lost, Karl Malone was a player for the Utah Jazz in the 1990’s was consistently great every day except Sundays, thus earning the nickname “The Postman”). So, in various mediums to keep me concise, here is what I’ve been doing down here…

Days of the week…

- Monday – Solo Adventure Day. My favorite day of the week. I have off of both classes and service to explore wherever I please.

- Tuesday – Service Day One. I teach a 7th grade reading class in the mornings, a 6th grade computer class around noon, a 4th grade reading class at 1:00 (4th graders who have just learned English, but have always known how to raise havoc), and an HIV support/awareness group at 3:00.

- Wednesday – Class Day. I have 2 classes at the University of the Western Cape. The first is Multilingualism in Society and Education and Social Problems. They are both engaging, rather non strenuous, but in the end, class – and so prone to sleepiness.

- Thursday – Service Day Two. Same as “Service Day 1”, except with Kindergarten for computer class (imagine a room full of kids who have literally never seen a computer before and who speak a totally different language, and you’ll begin to get the picture).

- Friday – Class Day, but Friday Class Day. Two classes (Grassroots Leadership and Theology of Reconciliation). The former is interesting but overly wordy and taught by a nasally voiced woman, the later is more of a weekly retreat taught by a lovely man. The rest of Friday is spent in typical Friday fashion.

- Saturday – Group Adventure Day. Fun to be had by whole group, where the lack of foresight is usually balanced out with beautiful surroundings.

- Sunday - Dinner Day. Lazy Sundays followed by a “family dinner”, where 2 people in the house make dinner for the other 19 of us. Dignity of the cooks is on the line, and so results have been delicious – stuffed peppers, jambalaya, and homemade pizzas.

Where I live…

- Number 2, Kimberley Drive, Observatory. Observatory is a hip and pleasant town, with sunny cafes during the day and “happening” bars and restaurants at night. It reminds me a bit of Milwaukee’s east side. Number 2 Kimberly Drive is equally as hip, but only because I am living there. There are 11 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, 21 beds and 21 students. This means it is quite a full house – full of 18 Americans (12 Marquette students, 6 from other, lesser universities) and 3 more potential roommates to replace the 3 South Africans who just left. I live in a room just outside the house, which means I am woken up daily to an orchestra of birds singing, children from the school down the road, the train on the tracks behind our house, and dogs barking. I like where I live very much.

Top 5 things I’ve done (in some particular order)…

1) Jumped off a 66 foot cliff into a stream fed pool in valley surrounded by mountains.

2) Eaten at a Braii (South African word for Barbeque) in a township. Lots of meat, lots of people, very little restraint of eating.

3) Built a fire in a cave. Illegal, but so prehistoric.

4) Hiked in Suikerbossie. A five hour hike that, of the 6 I’ve already done, was my favorite.

5) Eaten a pancake with caramel and banana. Not very culturally diverse, but it really hit the spot.

Top Three Places I’ve Sat…

1) On Judas Peak, above the cloud line and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

2) On a bench at the train station next to a dock worker named Lionel.

3) In a police car because I got off the taxi a few stops too early and was in a pretty sketchy area at night.

South African oddities I’ve noticed that deserve exclamation points…

1) The escalators down here don’t have green lights between the cracks, they have red lights!

2) They don’t call them traffic lights down here, they call them robots!

3) They call it “Where’s Wallie?”, not “Where’s Waldo?”!

4) I saw a Green Bay Packer’s jersey! (It was Corey Bradford!) (Go pack!)

Phases of the skin on my back…

Phase One – Normal, moley as ever.

Phase Two – Peeling in a grotesque fashion. Sheets of skin literally 6                                              square inches.

Phase Three – Current phase, covered in mounds of mosquito bites.

Phase Four – Stay tuned…

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