It's A Kodak Moment

As I sit here alone in my room, I am listening to the pider pader of the rain on my roof and the drip drop as it hits the floor; I thought that I would post more pictures for those of you who do not have facebook. Hopefully there will be some never-before-seen pictures as well. So here is a hodgepodge from the previous six months in South Africa.

This is Kim and me on a weekend getaway. Both a little chubbier than before, and somehow we always manage to dress alike. We have actually been mistaken as the same person on several occasions.


During the month of the World Cup the kids were on Winter Holiday. As part of Noah, we put on a week long camp for the kids. This is a picture of some of the kids and volunteers.

As part of the camp we had a soccer (football) tournament.


For our In-Service Training we were back up in Mpumalanga so I got the opportunity to go back to Bundu and visit my host family that I lived with during training.
Kabelo & Mibebeza


Ruby & Kabelo
(Ruby is still as fat as ever!)


And then of course it would not be complete without a couple pictures of my adorable (yet sometimes terrors) nieces.
This is Akona showing off ALL the hair stuff that Ashley mailed me


And this is Wandile enjoying the musical birthday card my sister sent me

My Creative Side

As I have probably mentioned before, I have a lot of spare time on my hands. Many PCVs use this time to take up new hobbies such as learning to knit, sew, sing the alphabet in reverse, juggle, and even compete to see how long they can grow their armpit hair. As for me, my most resent endeavor has become building shelves using scrap materials. I saw a need for shelves because I have a lack of storage space in my rondival. My first goal was to build a spice rack for my kitchen. All I used was some cardboard and string and BAM, I have a spice rack that hangs from the beams above. I was so proud of my spice rack/shelf that I decided to try my hand at building a bookshelf. My books were not getting used; I just had them stored away in a suitcase. So yesterday I gathered up wooden boards and bricks to construct a little bookshelf. After adding the final touches to my bookshelf this morning, I brought my host mom to my room to show her my new amazing shelves that I was extremely proud of. I guess she was not as impressed because she just stood there and shock her head in disapproval saying, “We must fix this” and then turned around and left. After about ten minutes she returned with newspaper, bigger boards, and better bricks and got to work building me a better bookshelf. After she completed that she moved on to my spice rack to make it look more presentable… whatever makes her happy. I think she just enjoyed helping out her new daughter, so I just let her do what she felt needed to be done. After all, mom knows best!

I have now lived in my rondival for four months and this whole time there has been some sort of animal body part hanging from the ceiling beam. I never took it down because I knew it had some significant meaning. So today, while we were constructing my better bookshelf I asked my host mom why exactly I have an animal part hanging in my room. She continued to tell me that they slaughtered a goat in here as an offering to the ancestors. That body part symbolizes the offering and now the ancestors watch over my rondival. Mom and Dad, you know longer have to worry, I not only have a guard dog and burglar bars, I also have goat intestine (ancestors) to protect me.

As for my armpit hair…it’s getting pretty long.

Pictures:
1)Spice rack in my kitchen
2)New and improved bookshelf (resource library)
3) Goat intestine protecting my rondival.