10k’s in purple flats

Monday, March 10, 2014

            I’ve been in South Africa for one month! I’m getting used to the weather, although that wasn’t too hard to warm up to, and the culture and lifestyles. African culture doesn’t really have personal bubbles. Africans greet everyone like they are your closest friend. It makes warming up to one another quite easy. The staff at CATCH is quite diverse. I am learning names, although this is pretty difficult for my English tendencies. Xhosa is a marvelous language, and I’m grasping it slowly. Xhosa and English aren’t the only language floating around CATCH. We also have Zulu, Afrikaans and recently German and Polish. I feel so behind sometimes because the majority of people are at least bilingual. I can speak one language. I can understand Spanish and Sign Language, but I’m not fluent. I really want to learn an African language.

            One hundred and fifty two little balls of energy came flooding into CATCH for Bible Club today.  We played a game, shared the story about Joseph and the colorful cloak and fed their little tummies. CATCH has a very talented cook who provides meals full of African zeal. Sometimes I attempt to help her in the kitchen. Although she chops and peels twice as fast as me, I try my best! After Club, a new friend accompanied me on my run. Her name is Analisa and she came to find me at 4:30, because she knows that is when I go running daily. She was dressed in jeans and purple flats, but she was set on coming along. It gave me such joy to have a running partner. She is thirteen years old, although she looks much younger. I actually felt quite protective over her as we ran down the street, along the ocean and through a residential area. Lots of cars honk when I’m out running, and I cannot figure that out. In America, if a car honks at you, it means either you are gonna get hit or it’s a car filled with too much testosterone.  The honks make me jump sometimes because they are so sudden and I don’t know what they mean. I just keep running. It was a long run tonight with Analisa, but she was a champion. When we got back, there were six other kids that wanted to stretch with us. I started to lead our stretch to the tune of the Hokey-Pokey. You put your left foot forward, and your right foot back, and you stretch it out like this. You hop your left foot back, and put your right foot forward… and you hop hop hop. The kids laughed and laughed. Even when I feel stressed, or I have mixed emotions about the day, when the children take my hand and smile up at me, it makes everything worth it.

I have been thinking of people back home… so shout out to all my Americans! I miss you guys.

Goodnight!

xoxo