February 14, 2010

Sanibonani,

So it is our third week and we thought we would update you all again. First, we want to rub it in that it is about 35 degrees outside (although with the humidity it is a bit unbearable). We are settling in to the guest house and getting to know all of the staff at the high school now. The kitchen staff and cleaning staff at both places are helping us with our Zulu. I wasn't sure about all the monkey stories Brittany told me, but about a week ago we had a monkey on our balcony (4 stories high) using our railing as a toilet. We tried taking a picture, but we scared it off.

As far as the work goes, Brittany is still busy with the library and has recently taken over the computer classes as Jacob (Austrian volounteer) has left for a couple weeks. She is also helping me out in the book shop and the accounting department. After my first week in the book shop an employee was let go in the accounting department. She had countless responsibilities at the school so myself and a newly hired lady from Zimbabwe are sorting through things. Not only do we have to sort through the mounds of paper scattered throughout the office, but we are also trying to prepare things for an auditor and make sure that the accounts are paid. It seemed a little overwhelming at first because of the quickly approaching deadlines (i.e water, hydro, ect..), but we are gettting through it. The book shop is still part of our responsibility, but Brittany is making sure the students received the textbooks that have arrived while I am ordering the others in. With the high employee turnover at the school and the complexities of sorting things out at the beginning of the school year we are very busy right now. But we are really enjoying the variety of work and helping out as much as we can.

In our down time, we have arranged to start working at the St. Vincents Childrens Home to teach computer lessons to the kids there. We have also been touring Pinetown and Durban to get to know the area a little better. We haven't been back to Durban since our first swim in the ocean. Brittany got stung by a jelly fish after spending about 10min in the water. It has left a good mark behind her knee and the surfers came up to her saying the common Afrikaans phrase "Shame Man"

The local taxi system has been fun and is always interesting, but we are looking into purchasing a car to make travelling a little easier. And the best news of all.....my FIFA ticket application was accepted. I have 3 tickets to Japan/Holland game in June!!. I have 3 tickets...first one down here is welcome to come with (haha) But we will probably enjoy taking a local person with us to the game

We hope to send some pictures in our next update.

Caleb and Brittany