My Host Mom from Training

This is a photo of my host mother from training, Irene. She's in the kitchen cooking. I trained in Moletji some six months ago, and my family was wonderful. A mother, father, 12-year-old sister, and 5-year-old brother. They helped me get my legs in South Africa. They also taught me about chicken feet (eating them). They gave me my African name, Lebogang. I am forever indebted to them, and I miss them a lot.

Mango Farm

This is a photo taken in the abandoned mango farm near my house. It's one of my favorite places in the village; I always show it off when I have visitors. So those of you who are planning to visit will get the tour. The farm was government run before the end of apartheid, and then was forgotten in all the reshuffling. I think people in the village must keep it up, because the trees all look well pruned (and you would be hard pressed to find any mangoes hanging unclaimed from their branches). Maybe mango trees just naturall look that way though.

This is a photo of the second born of my host parents, Maathari. I hung up the calendar in the kitchen area and we put a little day marker on it. Now she moves the marker every day, it says "Lehono," which means "today" in N. Sotho.

Fam and Friends,

Things are wonderful in Africa. The weather is growing downright cool, which is a lovely change. Everytime I'm outside it makes me happy. I went south to Sabie over the Easter holiday and even witnessed some leaves falling from trees, it's a truly amazing wonder of God. Some of the other volunteers and I hiked from Sabie to Grasskop along the Fannie Botha Hiking Trail. The hike at it's longest is five days, but you can tailor it to your desired length. I opted to tailor mine to four days because I was weary. Some of the other volunteers managed to stretch the hike into six (crazy folk). I thought I had been hiking before. I thought Fotenell Forest and Mahoney State Park were relatively good preps for whatever South Africa could throw at me. I was wrong, but I really enjoyed the hike any way. It was like an intense extreme sport with tons of climbing over rocks and crossing rivers. I only fell into one river, but I jumped into a couple pools with water falls falling into them. It was a good bonding experience for us all. The weather was mostly overcast, which is good for walking outside all day. On day four we were met by a storm that rolled in and spat hail on us for about half an hour, but I think I came closer to God through the experience. At least close enough to ask him why he was trying to kill me as I hiked down a sixty-five degree decline in rain and hail, and with thunder crashing all around me. After that the sun came up and dried us nicely before we reached the hut. I should have trusted. This is a photo of Kelsey and I taken to commemorate surviving the hail.