The Rest of the Week & Cape Vidal

First I just have to let everyone know how much your comments mean to me, they are making me cry. They are TOO nice!

So, the rest of the week went well but of course very exhausting. I was able to teach 2 HIV classes. 5 women showed up for them (usually there are about 12 people that come each session) so the numbers are low but I am still excited to have ANYBODY. The HIV education classes are a series of 6 classes that take place Tuesday-Thursday for 2 weeks. Participants are expected to attend all 6 and at the completion of the last class they receive a certificate stating they completed an HIV education course. 4 of the 5 women came all the way from Mtubatuba which is about a 20 minute drive. Very impressive. They all seem very eager to learn, and they all take notes and ask questions. I teach the lesson and Theo translates for me. He is a local person that speaks english as a second language so he helps us with all of our communication with people in Khula. He is also our tour guide. He is wonderful. Theo is FASCINATED with wildlife and he used to be a tour guide in St.Lucia so he is very knowledgable about plants, animals, insects and local history. Anyway, he translates for me and that way I am able to answer questions as well. This has been my favorite part of the project so far.

My work at the daycare center is very frustrating at times so I hope this week goes a bit smoother. It is so challenging to teach Zulu speaking children without a constant translator. The daycare center is free so everyone working there is a volunteer. Some days there are three teachers and some days there is only one! We divide the children into 3 groups; the Lions, Zebras and Tigers. We have enough volunteers to work with each group but without someone to translate not much gets accomplished. It is very difficult and by the end of the day I am just emotionally and physically exhausted. I must say that I really appreciate the weekends here. I am enjoying my work of course but like I said it can be draining. I am not sure if I could work on this project for more than a month. I think one month is sufficient and then I will need to return home and regroup. One volunteer is going on her 2nd month here and it seems she is kind of burnt out so I think spending too much time here may not be the best idea.

Although it has only been one week with the children we all have our favorites already. I love them all of course but there are a few that I just ADORE. I will be very sad to say good-bye in 3 weeks.

Friday night all of the volunteers went out for a few drinks which was very fun. The night however took a surprising turn and ended in a terrible way. Theo and Ndimisso (another African Impact employee from the area) came out with the group Friday. 2 of the female volunteers were dancing at one point with them and a local man came over and began screaming at the girls for dancing with black men. He told them they were disrespecting themselves by dancing with them and he made some very serious threats if Theo and Ndimisso did not leave. Of course we left abruptly but we were all so upset by this. The white people in St.Lucia are extremely racist. Black people in St.Lucia work for all of the white people. One thing you notice here right away is that a white person will never serve you at a restaurant or do any physical labor. While we were farming on Friday in Khula a black woman stopped Katie and told her she had never seen a white person work before. She invited her to her home for a drink because she was so impressed with her. ((Sidenote: Khula is the name of the Zulu village we work in--which is a 10 minute drive from St.Lucia))

After the dramatic Friday night we all woke up early Saturday morning to head to Cape Vidal. It is about 45 minutes from St.Lucia and the entire drive is through a Game reserve so you see a great deal of wildlife. We saw several Impallas, some large monkeys, a few zebras, and many many wildabeasts. Theo of course made us stop every few minutes to explain everything from the anatomy of the dung beetle to the history of the area.

Cape Vidal was gorgeous. We just laid on the beach and swam in the ocean. We were going to snorkel but just ended up playing on boogie boards in the waves. Toward the end of the day the waves were pretty harsh so we stopped swimming. It was a wonderful day and we all got a great deal of color. I collected a lot of sea shells for Noelle. Jeremy would love this area. It is untouched. No homes are built on the coast and it has been left in its natural state. Not something you see very often in the states. I was stung by a small blue jellyfish which hurt REALLY bad, like somebody holding a match on your skin. Theo said he would go find a plant that helps with the pain and he ran off into the trees. He came back moments later with a plant (I can not remember the name of course) with a pink flower and he cracked open the stem. A clear fluid came out that he rubbed on the sting and within 5 minutes the stinging had ceased! It was great.

Today the whole group went on another game drive to see the Big 5. I stayed back because the trip was from 5am until 5pm so I really wanted a day to rest and also save some money. It was a very expensive trip. Also, when you go on these game drives you don't always see a ton of animals so many hours are spent sort of looking for the animals. Hopefully they see some giraffes and elephants. Katie is taking a lot of pictures so I can see. I woke up early instead and went for a run in the rain, which actually felt very refreshing. I then walked into town (still in the rain) to use the internet cafe but the internet was out. I went to a nearby cafe and had a latte and some soup and then came back here and it was working! thank goodness

I feel like I am forgetting so much. Aunt Kathi called last night and I was so excited because that was the 1st phone call I have received! I think my mom is calling me this afternoon too so I am thrilled. I think I will go buy some more pineapple and bananas from the women on the street because I am out. The pineapple is fantastic here and the bananas are sweet. :-)

I almost forgot something very exciting. Michelle (one of our project managers) mentioned to us at dinner the other night that she had a meeting with the principal of the primary school in Khula. She said they discussed introducing HIV education into the primary school for the 13-14 year old students. It sounds like we get to help develop the curriculum. We probably won't be here when the teaching begins but I am so thrilled because this is such a huge step in the right direction for Khula! :-)

I LOVE YOU AND I AM THINKING ABOUT EVERYONE! Time is running out ...
I made a new album of pictures, this link should work for EVERYONE. I also sent an invitation to my album to many of you through email...
http://picasaweb.google.com/KateBuntenbach/SouthAfrica

I have taken many pictures but only shared a few in this album due to time and the slow speed of this computer!

-Kate