Arrived in South Africa!!

Hello friends and loved ones, I have just for the first time made it to the internet since I arrived on Thursday. After 3 flights and 20 hours of flying (which wasnt too bad with gravol) I made it and got picked up by Tessa (our project manager) and taken to our house. We are living in a town called Waterfall, about 30 minutes outside of Durban, South Africa. It is up in the hills away from the water - but absolutly stunning. The 6 volunteers live in a house together about a 5 minute drive away from Agape - the child care center we are all working in. My family for the month is Margo, Jeremy, Karen, Nika, and Sabina. (all of them are from Holland except myself and margs - so we're picking up some pretty hilarious terms that they say in English and we're teaching them some funny ones too) I will post photos of us soon - you'll love them. We all just got back from a weekend in the Drakensburg mountains about a 3 hour drive north of us. They told us to bring warm clothes but we didnt realize how cold it actually was going to be. We left our house at 1pm on friday in 25 degree weather with the sun shining and made it up into the mountains where it was between 0 and 5 and freezing cold - we slept with about 4 blankets each! We met up with 10 other volunteers from other Be More projects around Durban and all stayed at this movie-esque log cabin at the foot of the mountains. On Saturday, we went up the mountains by this tour bus, up 3000m above sea level where it was snowing. To get up into the mountains picture this sketch bus that definitely should not be going up cliff paths and me almost once shedding tears . It took about 3 hours to get up and I swear I almost jumped off the bus like 10 times. To get to the top of the mountains you actually cross a border into a different country called Lesotho. It became its own democracy in 1978 and was previously owned by the British. They were given the land by the British in the 1800s when the Zulus wanted to fight them for territory- so the British gave them the land in the mountains for safety. It is the only country in the world that is surrounded by only one other country; South Africa. So by the end of the day we had our passports stamped 4 times for leaving/entering different countries which was pretty neat. Up at the top of the mountains it is freezing and snowy - we met some of the villagers and saw how they lived in their huts with fires burning in the center. They are known for their exports of wool and beer actually. For lunch, we went to the highest pub in Africa - right at the top - and clearly Margs and I had one of their beers to toast the occasion. We traveled back down the mountain but not before I actually did jump out of the bus once. We werent even climbing the cliffs at this point, we were on a flat road and I was sleeping with Margs next to me and I felt us stop and this one lady for some reason jumped out because she felt unsafe and I woke up and saw her jumping out and decided in a daze to follow suit, and margs followed me - and then the bus drove away! We didnt realize he was turning around because one of the girls' passports didnt get stamped but all we saw was him drive off, leave us on this dirt path by ourselves but about 15 minutes he came back to get us. Its been the ongoing joke that I just woke up and literally jumped out of the bus and had no idea what was going on.

We are now on our way to do some grocery shopping for the next week and relax at our house before the week begins!

I'm excited for my first full week at Agape and we have quite the schedule - from helping to feed the little ones in the morning, making lunches, homework session with the older ones and obviously some time for fun and singing. 10 of the older children are heading to London, UK at the end of the month to sing at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday event and we are so excited for them and helping them get ready. Twice a week some of the older children come for dinner at our house and hang out, watch movies etc - and on Fridays the little ones come swimming at our house. The little ones dont know what day of the week it ever is, but somehow they know fridays = swimming.

I'm sorry I havent written very often but those of you that wanted to know I arrived safely but I'm here and everything is fantastic. Most of you are close to me and know my work with KCA (Keep A Child Alive) and how passionate I am about it but already in the couple days I've been here, I'm feeling closer to it than ever. If you never have check out www.keepachildalive.org and the work that we are doing at Agape and the ongoing help these children and families still need.

Just to quickly explain how I ended up here which a lot of people have been asking - I started working with KCA back in August of last year as a chapter leader for McGill. Through their work raising funds and awareness for antiretrovirals for children with AIDS/HIV across India and Africa - I found out about Be More. Be More is an organization based on sending volunteers to different projects across South Africa. There are different sites from Isaiah 54 which helps with emergency care for children before they are sent to foster families, to Bobbi Bear, another child care center and Agape - where we work - check all the sites out at www.be-more.org. So after finding out about their volunteer opportunities I decided Agape where KCA works is where I was meant to be!!

Margs and I raised some money before we left as our gift to the children and aunties of Agape but we still have yet to decide how to donate it - a new driveway so the children arent tripping along gravel, clothes, medication, grass for the children to play on - there is an ongoing list! So we'll let you know as soon as we decide what to do and post photos soon!

I will write again soon - love you all and hope everything is well back home.
-Lou xoxo

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