Easter weekend and lots of food!

Easter weekend was a four day holiday weekend for me! We had Friday off for Good Friday and Monday off for Family Day. At first I thought that I was going to be really bored all weekend but it turned out to be loads of fun. Friday I joined Dan at the Catholic Church for the Good Friday service. It was nice to go to and the church was beautiful. Friday night I went with Natalie and her friends to a place called Lighty’s for Michael’s birthday. It is comforting to start seeing familiar faces and meeting friends.

Now the best part! Janien fetched me early in the day and we went to Richards Bay. Granny, Natalie and her kids joined us as well. We even met up with some of Janien’s family there. We got to the beach and it was the first time I was in the Indian Ocean.

I was expecting it to be freezing like the beaches that I have been to before. It was not very cold and it felt rather nice. I was so amazed by the sand because I am use to the nasty rocky sand we have in Utah. They all thought that the sand is getting pretty dirty but I thought it was great! After the beach we went to a small like sailors bay so that the kids could swim.

It was so nice and relaxing and the weather was quite nice. On the way home we stopped to get ice cream. Here they put this stick of chocolate in the ice cream cones, it is a novel idea and it is so good! After the beach Janien and I went back to her house. She was having a big dinner that night and I was able to help her prepare some of the food. It is a really good thing I am not a vegetarian anymore. We had loads of meat and I even tried Springbok. It tasted to me like pot roast.

Sunday I went to the same Catholic Church with my host Granny and Grandpa for the Easter service. The thing I like about this particular church is that half of the service is in isiZulu and the other half is in English. It gives me a chance to listen to isiZulu and see what I can figure out. I can’t figure out very much at this point! Later that night we went to the neighbors and had another braai. I also ate a lot of different types of meat there. I think that the PC is right when they say that most female volunteers placed in South Africa gain weight. I can now see why! I will really have to watch it because all of this food is so yummy! I am hoping to run a half marathon here so that should help!