it's ayoba time!

Hi all!!
Well, I've already spent 74 minutes today responding to emails and facebook stuff so I'm not sure how far I'll get on this blog. :( I'll try to pre-write for next weekend.

Today is exactly one month since I left America and exactly two months until I get home. I've enjoyed looking back through my journal and see my change already in one month. I cannot wait to see what is still to come in the next two months.

Yesterday was the first day of the World Cup in South Africa (in case you haven't been watching the news.) Let me just say that they people here are going crazy!!! The news here is focused excusively on it. I've found out really interesting things like when Germany's team arrived and what hotel they were staying at... so interesting. It should be no surprise that America's team arrived like three weeks ago to adjust to the time change. They are staying at the best hotel and had like 20 police cars following them from the airport to their hotel. Oh brother!

We've also had some really hilarious commericals on TV for the past month now about Fifa. My favorite (which may not be funny at all to you) is a fake soccer match between the "big mammas" and the "bar tenders." Hard to explain, but Tamara and I laughed for about 15 minutes when one of the "big mammas" was running down the field to score a goal with the ball on her head just like you see on the side of the road everyday. Hilarious.

South Africa is just busting to show the world that they can host such a big event here and prove that Africa is wonderful. On the other hand, they are trying to hide some of the more unpleasant things on the side of the road. For example, the government had all of the unenclosed toilets removed from a community because they didn't want tourists to see their awful living conditions. Obviously the community revolted with riots. Come on! What would you do if the government stole all of your toilets??

So with all of this hullabaloo, school has been closed for FIVE WEEKS for the entire world cup!?!So now I am in charge of the entire "holiday program" for all 53 kids here at Rehoboth... It has been fun but hectic trying to organize everything and make sure the kids are busy and not making trouble. Naturally, I've taken advantage of the kids' program as well and went to my first Zulu dancing lessons on Thursday... as you can imagine, I'm even worse at Zulu dancing than at Baylor's SING! I am at an unfair advantage because they of the words to the songs are in Zulu. I told Nosipho (a 5th grader) that I needed to have some private lessons so that I could catch up. I also had my hair braided for the first time on Thursday by some of the 5th grader girls who did a pretty incredible job. They finished with all of my hair in less than an hour. Shout out to Vuyo and Brightness!

On Friday I enjoyed a two-hour walk outside of the Rehoboth gates to a dam near by with all of the school kids. I was a bit paranoid trying to keep my eyes on all of the kids at once since one of our Rehoboth dogs was eaten by a python in that lake last year... Once we made it to the dam the kids spontaneously erupted in more Zulu dancing and also sang their national anthem (which uses 5 of the 11 official languages). I felt like my mom holding the kids' jackets and lunch boxes while taking pictures and video-taping their fun. On the way home we all stopped and climbed into the guava trees to pick some fresh guava! I love Africa.

Well, I'm outta time for today... it's time to do some grocery shopping and then watch rugby with some friends. Thank you for your prayers and for your suggestions for Aphiwe. I will try to type out some specific prayer requests for next weekend since many of your have been asking. I got more mail this week which is always a real treat!! Thank-you!

Love and miss you all!!
-brigid