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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.