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I have arrived.  Safely.

And now comes the fun part; adjusting back to a new time zone and new culture.  Reverse culture shock is an actual thing, as much as I tried to deny it in the past.  But I'm doing my best to take things one day at a time and reflect on all the amazing experiences that have just happened in my life!

So, here is a quick recap of my last week in South Africa.

Friday: This was my final day of school.  The school knocked off at 12 pm to give students extra time before the Holiday, so there were 8 students absent and not much was accomplished during the day.  I was observed teaching a lesson today, and it actually went pretty well.  The students lacked a little concentration, but teaching 16 rather than 24 made it pretty easy on me :).  Also, something about having the principal in the classroom keeps students a little more focused as well!  Then I read a book to them called God's Dream, and I am amazed how perfect it was for our last day together.  Then we made a rainbow out of all of our hand prints and spent time saying goodbye to each other.  Wow, am I attached to these students.  One boy came to me while everyone else was coloring and cutting hand prints.  He walked straight into my arms and buried his head in my shoulder and started crying.  "Kelly, what am I supposed to do when you don't come back anymore?"  It's about that moment that a small dagger pierced straight through my heart.  I was at a loss for words.  These kids are too special for me to begin to explain, and saying goodbye was a little rough.
    But then the school knocked off and I stayed with Cecilia, my cooperating teacher, for a while to get documentation completed before we left.  Then we headed to her house for the weekend via the taxi.  That evening we were to attend the Metric Farewell dance at Tshikevah Christian School, the sister school of Gondolikhethwa (where I have been teaching).  This serves as a celebratory dinner for the grade 12 students where their parents accompany them to this dinner and dance.  They dress up much like students around here dress for prom, and its quite a special event for them.  Cecilia, surprise surprise, was a little worried that I would not be dressed up enough and she didn't want me to be embarrased (or she didn't want to be embarrased) so we headed to the store to find some nicer clothes for me.  We needed to be leaving, but she insisted.  After a while of searching and realizing how drastically different our style tastes are, we compromised and walked out with a new outfit she liked.  Then we drove the 2 hours to the event and showed up 2 hours after it began.  I was an honored guest and ate with the principal and the board members as well as some other people, and it was so fantastic to meet everyone.  I was so blessed to meet these people and would love to have been able to spend some time at this school too.
    (On Monday before heading to the national park we stopped by Tshikevah so I could see the school.  Wow, it was beautiful.  Its less of a dry area so there is some grass, and the school has twice as many students.  What a gorgeous place!)
    Then it was back to Cecilia's house where we stayed up until 1:30 just talking with everyone.  Gogo (the Venda way of saying Granny) and I, though she could speak no English, became fast friends.  Cecilia's sister in law had also just shown up on a whim (by God's leading) with her 2 children as well, so I was able to talk to her and get to know her too.  It was a wonderful night.

Saturday:  We got a late start to the day and ended up making food and leaving with the whole crew (Cecilia, me, Gogo, Hlenge(the sister-in-law, and 8 kids) around 11.  The principal had expected us around 9 am, but we ended up arriving at noon, which frustrated me a bit :).  Oh the difference in time!  But we all got together and packed all the kids in the back of the principals truck and headed out the the "Holy Forest."
   Wow.  It was stunning.  We ended up driving for about 6-8 hours through the mountains with stick-shift cars and gorgeous views of trees and mountains all around. We stopped on occasion to see a river, eat lunch by a waterfall and pool, see some amazing potholes, explore a soon-to-be forest resort, or just to watch baboons run wildly through the trees.  It was so amazing, I kept just staring out the window.  I was in a car with Hlenge and Gogo, and wow did we laugh.  Gogo is 88  years old and full of life.  She said that she is coming back with me to the US and never going back to the Venda.  If she were educated, she says, she would have left this place long ago and moved to live in America.  So funny, she's a piece of work!  But then it became dark and we took the long trip back home.  We made it back to Cecilia's house around 11pm and then headed to bed.

Okay, I'll finish the last four days later, but for now I will post this so you aren't too overwhelmed by a mile-long post :).  Again, thanks for still reading.  It's nice for me just to think through the last weeks events a little bit.  I'll tell you more details in person, but this overview will help keep you in the loop!

I'll write more soon.

Coming Back

Hello to all my faithful readers.
        In the next few days I will be posting a few more posts to put a close on some of this past weekends events, some of my overall thoughts, and some pictures to share.
      But I am currently sitting in a McDonalds, drinking a really bad cup of coffee that I put a piece of chocolate in to attempt to give it some taste, and have gotten a pretty good internet connection.  Oh yeah, I'm in Amsterdam!  It's really crazy.  My mind is pretty blank, so I don't really feel like I'm feeling anything, but this will all come in time.  The first flight was smooth and went very quickly.  Now this next flight is only 9 hours, so it will be doable.  It's hard to believe that I'm so wide awake and I need to start getting my body to think that its 4 am, not 11:30 am.  But with this coffee in my system and with a few good movies on the airplane (Madagascar 3 Escape to Africa...) hopefully I can trick myself into a new time zone :).
       But I suppose I should go now and head to the gate.  Don't want to recreate a scene from the movies where I'm rushing like a madwoman through the airport only to see the plane lifting into the sky without me.  Next time I write i'll be back in Chi-town.  Crazy.

Thanks for the prayers for safe and smooth travel, I greatly appreciate them!

Update

I would just like you to know (assuming you just read the previous post, and if not, go read that one first :)) that the mosquity/flyito has seen better days.  The fight is over and I reign victorious!  I have an owl hooting at me in congratulations and a cow dinging his bell out the window telling me he's proud, so I feel like the animal world has been positively affected tonight now that one less mosquito is flying around.

And its now 12:30... I guess bed would be a positive life choice :).  Goodnight!

I have no good title ideas for this post...

There is one mosquito that must be a mix between a fly and a mosquito.  Maybe it’s a flyito, or mosquity.  But this thing has speed.  We’ve been after each other for the past hour, both going for each other’s blood.  I will win. In time J. 

But it’s another busy night here in Dzanani, or Nzehele, or Makado, whichever place you choose to call it.  I’ve come to realize that these towns all overlap in this area, so I really don’t know which one I am a part of.  But I am sitting at my desk having just finished dinner (interesting thick soup that we have nightly along with some boney hake and bread to help the bones go down).  Tomorrow is the big “farewell” day with my class.  Friday, we knock off at noon and will be with grade 1 again the whole day, so tomorrow we are sending the grade 1’s to a different classroom and taking off for the day to a nearby park.  For the first half hour of the day I have to teach a lesson and will be formally observed by my principal.  Then both my teacher and principal will fill out their final evaluations of me, so I guess it’s a little nerve racking, but I think I’m ready.  The students will behave better with the principal there, too, so that’s an added bonus!

So today after school I missed my taxi because my teacher was busy telling me what to get for the cookout tomorrow.  So again I stayed until 4, but then the bus didn’t show.  So then we walked to the road to catch a taxi.  But sure enough, we ended up hitchhiking home.  While I realize this sounds funny, it is actually quite normal.  People have trucks and there is no rule about riding in the bed of a truck.  So when a truck drives by and has room, it stops and fills up with people.  So I hopped in the back of a truck and rode to the bottom of the mountain I live on.  There is a woman, the one who works in the financial office, that lives near me.  She has to stay until 4 every day, so she goes home with me on the days that I stay since grade 12 learners no longer have to stay late.  She is such a sweet woman, so I really appreciate the time I get to spend with her.  By the time I got home, it was nearly 5 pm.  I walked in the door and convinced Ronewa to come with me for a walk down to the grocery store ready to go get some meat and snacks for our party tomorrow.  After an hour of going back and forth and back and forth (with quite a bit of chit-chat in between) I found what I needed.  Then it was back to the house in the dark.  Ever since then I have been scrambling to write notes to all the kids, not really realizing before that 25 is actually a larger number than I had anticipated J.  But thanks again to packages from my mom and grandma each kid will be getting to have one new school supply as a gift, too, so thank you guys!  Before they took their ANA exams, I gave them each a new pencil I had picked up at the dollar store back home with a colorful eraser to put on top (not sure if I wrote that earlier or not, so sorry if I did).  And based on how they have reacted and treated those pencils I can’t wait to see them get their new school supplies.  Ah, they are such special kids. 

Now tomorrow for the picnic, each student is bringing something to share.  Now there are a few moms and grannies that are going to come through big time for this, I can only imagine.  One boy’s granny gives him fruit or a snack for me and my teacher every day and tells him it’s important to thank your teachers every day.  His after school hugs are pretty special, and his attitude and character make teaching pretty fun and rewarding too.  If she had her choice, she would probably come and cook an entire feast for the whole class!  But I went and used some money we collected to buy a bunch of (you’ll never guess) chicken.  I got a little bit of beef too, along with a few bags of Simba’s, which are basically a chip or cheese curl sort of thing.  Some kids are in charge of fruit, juice, bread, and snacks.  Needless to say, we will be filled to the brim and in need of playing some soccer to work off all the food!  But I also have some fun ideas for wrapping up our “seasons” unit and “pollution” unit, so it will be pretty fun.  I’m so excited to have this time with just my grade 3 kids again.  I love all the kids, but these are the ones that are my buddies, so it will be good again.

But just one more quick update on this next week.  In 7 days I will be sitting in the airport at this time, waiting to get on my plane (DV J).  But here is the tentative schedule, I’m pretty excited.

Friday: leave and go to Cecilias for the next few nights (my teachers house).  Then go with 4 teachers and the principal to Tshikeva Christian School (Gondo’s sister school) to attend the Senior banquet, which is kind of like a farewell, congratulations dinner and prom all combined.

Saturday: A visit to a few different spots in the mountains with Cecilia and the Principal.

Sunday: Whatever Cecilia has planned for me… J

Monday: A trip to Kruger National Park (YAY!) with the principal, Cecilia, and 2 other teachers that offered to chip in extra money so they could come with.  I’m very excited to spend time with these teachers, they seem like pretty fun people.  I can only imagine how much I will get mocked about the level excitement I will show if I actually see an elephant.

Tuesday: head back to the Sibadela home for one more night.

Wednesday: get all packed up in the morning and be ready to head to Johannesburg and the airport.

So if I stay busy like this, I’m sure the time is going to fly.  But I’m excited for each day, so it will be a pretty great final week.  The only bummer is not being able to see my kids one more time before I leave.  Saying goodbye on Friday may be a struggle.  But come Friday I may be without internet for a while.  I may be able to reconnect on Tuesday to update you all on how things have been going, but we will have to see.  Take it one day at a time, right? 

Hump Day

Hello from Gondolikethwa school today!

I’m currently in the principal’s office, and this time not because I misbehaved :).   My computer is having some technical difficulties, so this will have to do for now.  But I wanted to fill you all in on how I am doing, since these last few days and this next week are going to be a whirlwind! 

Yesterday was the first day of school for the week, and it was amazing to me how good it felt to see my kids.  I think we all missed each other quite a bit.  But we had a lot of fun finding ways to act out their weekend adventures, and then ended the day with some “dance groups” where I learned a few new things about my students, haha!  (wow, are they flexible!)  

But then today was another fantastic day.  The morning was a little rocky, but then after we got started on a project it went better.  We are learning about the seasons and weather this week, so they each made “season signs” to hold up when I ask them questions about the seasons.  They were quite creative, and I was able to use some colorful popsicle sticks from a package from my mom and grandma to give them handles.  They were so pumped, it was great.  Now they are stuck all over the classroom with poster puddy.  Then after break I busted out a new toy; sidewalk chalk!  We went over to an area that has good cement and is fairly large chunk, right at the bottom of the principal’s office and the library.  All the kids paired up, were given a piece of chalk, and they sat on the wall as I demonstrated.  I took Cecilia, my cooperating teacher, who was not all that willing until the kids cheered her on, and had her lay on the ground.  I traced her, which they hadn’t seen before and the kids were all laughing and screaming, naturally making me laugh as well.  She was a little frustrated with how weird her head looked… I kind of made it a little too small for her body, J.  But then she had the chance to get back at me and trace me.  So all 40 kids spread around and traced each other, writing their names and drawing clothes on their people as well.  Up in the corner or the area I wrote in big letters “GOD made me SPECIAL” and then drew a couple stars.  It was so sweet looking.  Then Cecilia ran away… I didn’t know where she was going.  In about 10 minutes, she was back with 6 different paints.  Yep, I am now forever painted on the cement at this school.  And so are all my students, and Cecilia, and the words.  It was so much fun.  The paint will wear away in a year or two, but its going to be a great place for kids to come and learn body parts, play games, and just have some extra color around.  So fun! 

But now I have to wrap things up and get ready to head out to the bus.  My one-eyed bus driver will be ready to pick me up!  What a great guy :).  And no, he does not have an eye patch, Eric.  

Haha, the financial coordinator here who has the office right next to where I am just busted out some classical music for about 30 seconds on her computer.  Again, I laughed.  Not sure why I laugh so much, I guess everything is so surreal to me that it just keeps me smiling.  I try and remember every day that yes, I actually am in Africa!  It’s becoming easy to forget since I have adjusted now.   Seeing a cow next to me, being chased by stray dogs, stopping for a donkey or goat in the road, kicking trash around, seeing all dark faces, hearing crazy languages, and eating with my hands don’t seem like anything out of the ordinary anymore.  As much as I love that, I don’t want to forget each and every thing I experience.   I’m sure the memories will all come pouring back when I get back to the culture of the US.  Be in touch soon!

Family!

I have to take a minute just to tell you about the excitement happening in the VandenBerg family lately.  I know this is a blog about my experiences in Africa, but I think this counts as part of my experience, too, even though I can't be right next to them experiencing it first hand.  But, my family is growing.
Eric is marrying Jess, so I have another sister on the way (nice ring choice, btw :))  And Mike and Sarah just brought baby girl #3 into the world yesterday, and both Sarah and Emma Hope are healthy and doing well, praise the Lord!  And then Brian is now officially back in the United States, and I can't wait to see him soon, too.  I can't believe all the things that are changing at this point in our family, but wow, we are so blessed.  So thanks for sharing my experience in Africa with me, but I hope it is okay that I strayed from my stories to share my family excitement.  God is good, all the time!

Weekend Update

Good Morning J

(I wrote this post over a few different days, so sorry if it’s a little confusing J)

It’s Saturday, at about 6:45 am and the sun is up, so I might as well be too.  It’s going to be a hot one today… I woke up sweating already, so this can’t be a good sign.  But my body just has to get used to it, that’s all.  So, it’s been a big week, and was officially my last full week of student teaching.  This coming week we have a holiday on Monday, called Heritage Day.  Then the four day school week follows, with Friday being the end of the third quarter.  Then comes a week break for students and teachers, and I leave from the airport on that Wednesday night.  Wow.

Friday:

We had a short day of school, knocked off at 12pm.  Since the holiday is coming on Monday, they let students out early so they can have a long weekend in case they are going to travel.  So I headed back and was home by 12:30.  This was great, but I actually would prefer to be at school for a full day.  Sometimes it seems that time here at home can crawl by.  So when we got here, I asked Ronewa if she wanted to head into town with me.  So despite the intense heat, she walked down with me to the taxi and we went to Louis Trichardt for the night.  When we got there, we had a good few hours left before all the shops closed, so we went looking around.  Now, I do enjoy shopping, but not enough to want to do it for hours on end, so by the end, I was very tired.  Ronewa had fun trying to convince me to buy crazy things, but I again left with nothing.  Most shops are fairly Americanized, and yes, the prices are a little cheaper, but there was nothing really that I thought was a necessity.  As far as gifts go, again, there really was nothing, so I apologize to you all.  But then we headed to find a taxi, since it was starting to get dark.  But what did we pass on the way to the taxi?  That’s right, a pizza place.  So in we went, and I bought us a tiny pizza, a triple decker, with none other than chicken.  So it was actually pretty good, but chicken is starting to turn my stomach funny, so I couldn’t eat too much of it.  But it came with choice of “cold drink,” so I picked Coca-Cola light, pretty close to Diet Coke, and I was a happy woman.  Then I sat in the taxi with Ronewa, eating pizza, drinking pop (not to be confused with the water and cornmeal thing we eat every single day, Pap), and listening to some traditional African music with an accordion in it (along with a guy in the seat behind me playing an old school Mario gameboy).  It was pretty great.  Then I got off alone at my stop and Ronewa kept going to spend the night at her aunt’s house.  So I walked up the mountain in the dark alone.  And I was pretty confident.  The stars were amazing and it was a nice little walk.  The neighborhood is very safe, so I was comfortable.   I found out later from Ronewa that the 3 ladies in the front seat of the taxi were amazed that a white girl was getting off from the taxi alone, and they couldn’t believe I had actually said a word in Tshivenda.  It was funny to me J.

Saturday:

Well, I woke up early and then just relaxed for the morning.  Then at 9 am I bathed and started to get ready for the day.  I actually curled my hair today, since I found out that one of the girls here has a curling iron.  I asked if they had one and explained what it was, and they respond, “OOOH a thong!  Yes, we have one.”  Well, I officially had to do something I never thought I would ever do in my entire life.  I asked to borrow someone’s thong, a hot thong, might I add.  Oh dear.  Then I curled my hair, put on some nice clothes, and even a tiny bit of make-up and was ready for the day.  The girls’ responses were pretty funny, they don’t see me like this ever.  But then the parents came back from town and we headed to Joice’s sister’s 60^th birthday party.  They invited me along, and I decided it would be fun to experience something new.  So we headed out about an hour away to a town called Thohoyandou (try and sound out that one J its toy- ahhnd- o).  The drive was breathtaking.  The mountains, forests, lakes, and the tea farm were just beautiful.  When we arrived, we pulled into the parking lot of a very nice hotel.  It’s called the 2 ten hotel, and has a few banquet rooms in a separate building.  We headed into that room, and it looked very much like the set-up for a wedding reception.  We sat at a round table with a good view of the head-table set up on the stage area.  I was by far the youngest person there outside of the grandkids.  But people were fairly kind in saying hello.  The biggest problem was that many of these people, because they are older, do not know English very well.  So I spent much time looking at people, smiling, trying my best to figure out what they were saying to me J.  At least a smile crosses cultural boundaries, right?  Then the kids and the birthday woman, with 4 of her friends, walked in the back door dancing to some music.  Then she went up to the center seat on stage, accompanied by her best friend.  The other three friends sat a little ways down.  There was a fancy cake up front, along with lights and lots of purple fabric and flowers everywhere.  The program showed about 9 different parts, mostly consisting of people coming up and giving well wishes to the woman.  Interspersed between these speeches were times of singing, dancing, and other people coming to the front to talk.  Each of the people who spoke took about 45 minutes… so after about 5 hours, the program was over!  It was soooo long.  Now it helped that between people they cranked the music and danced and cheered and sang and everything, but not understanding a single word made it hard to keep focused.  But after about 3 hours, they started to let us go out and grab food.  There was a great amount of potluck-style food for us, much of it traditional.  It was very good!  And I ate myself full.  Then we ended with custard and fruitcake with juice.  When it was over, we went and looked around the hotel a little.  It’s still being worked on, but has a beautiful view up top! Then came the ride home, got back to the house around 8, and found out I have a roommate now for the next week.  Ronewa’s older sister is here, so I’m trying to adjust to having another big personality in the room J.  This is an adventure for sure!

Sunday:

We headed to church an hour early this morning.  Mr. Sibadela’s brother was getting engaged at church, so he had to help get everything in order.  Now, I am glad I was able to experience this, because marriage engagements are done a little differently around here.  I wish I could just have showed you all instead of trying to explain, but I will do my best.  After about 2 hours of church, things changed up a little.  With music playing and people cheering and dancing, the families came up to the stage; his family on the left and hers on the right.  After some talking, he stepped forward and so did she.  They still were not next to each other or touching at all.  The pastor then talked a bit about each person; how the church has found this marriage to be a good idea, a little bit about their pasts (pretty open), and then that the families have things in order and agree for the wedding.  Then the man takes the ring, given to him by a boy, and then puts it on the woman’s finger and everyone screams and cheers.  I was told that if a ring can’t be afforded, they just find something else to exchange and wait til the wedding for the ring.  But then after the service, all family members go to the bride-to-be’s house for a potluck style dinner.  Now a tent was set up in the street, no problem that it blocked traffic J.  But then the brides family was in that tent, and the grooms family was behind the house.  The two families ate separate food and did not mix.  The bride came over to say hello for a minute, then went back.  I don’t really understand all this, but its kind of fun to see the cultural differences, as well as the westernized ideas that are leaking into the cultural practice as well.  And while I was there, people kept encouraging me to get more food.  They all want me fat, and they laugh whenever they tell me.  Maybe it’s because they see me getting fatter and are proud of their accomplishment, haha.  But then we got back around 4:30 and relaxed the rest of the day.  I went for a short run with Hakhakhi later on and then helped with dinner, then went to bed. 

It’s now Monday morning, and I’m about to head for another run.  Today is National Heritage day, and I would really like to get out and do something different to take advantage of this day.  But we’ll see how everything goes.  But, I hope you all have a good start to your week, and I’ll be in touch as much as I can this coming week!