beginning to feel like home

Classes have finally begun. I thought I was excited to start class and start a routine again…until I was assigned homework from my classes. How am I supposed to focus on reading and memorizing what seems like gibberish when I’m surrounded with such a beautiful campus full of beautiful people? We all find ourselves lying out on the lawn attempting our work. It’s so great to be in constant community.
I had my first isiZulu class that wasn’t just the intro class, and oh man was it hard! I was so overwhelmed at first. The clicks are way harder than I ever expected. There are only 3 clicks in the isiZulu language but they are each very different and your mouth has to move in such a foreign way! It’s funny to hear us all trying to speak it. Our professor laughs as we try not to beat ourselves up for the craziness coming out of our mouths. My other classes are a history of South Africa class taught by Reg, and an intercultural communications class taught by Clive. They are both interesting but require a lot of reading.
The past few days have been filled with runs through the reserve—I saw a mama impala and her baby this morning! I also joined the birthday committee and ran errands for that. On the way to the store Reagan (one of our Community Life Coordinators) taught Carisa and I how to shift when driving stick shift! It was so fun. I would get confused though since we drive on the opposite side of the road. That’s not the only thing I’m learning to adapt to. The other night Cynthia and I came home to a nice orange gecko making a home for himself in our room! He started on the wall then fell into my bed! We couldn’t find him so we just hoped he left and we weren’t sleeping with a gecko. Also, I was trying to plug in a surge protector and apparently it wasn’t the right voltage. As soon as I plugged it in, all the power to our whole chalet left and the internet went out! Ha, oops! It was bound to happen, right?
“Hamba kahle” –“Go Well”