I knew the time would come when I would have to travel to the main Peace Corps office in Pretoria for medical reasons. Unfortunately that time came only 4 months into service. Luckily though it was only for a silly root canal! I tried to have it taken care of in Empangeni but after two dentist appointments and worse pain then I started, the Peace Corps made me go to their dentist. So I took a 10-hour bus ride to Pretoria. Luckily this dentist was pretty legit and there is even a picture of him and Bono in his office because he did Bono’s root canal. It turned out my tooth was pretty infected and a root canal was definitely needed. After 3 appointments and 6 days I was finally able to go back to site. I have two more appointments at the end of the month but luckily I am going to Pretoria anyways for In Service Training (IST) so I wont have to go that far just for my tooth. While I was in Pretoria I wanted to use the time to try and site see a little bit, the only thing is there is not a lot to see there! I walked to the Pretoria Art Museum, hung out with some other volunteers, and went to a few movies. There are always other volunteers there because Pretoria is the Med-evac center for all of Africa’s PCVs. It was cool to meet PCV’s from all over Africa and get to know their stories and what they are working on.
Friday was the day that our community needs assessments were due. It felt so good to be done with it and I was actually pretty happy with mine. I am excited to get to IST next week and learn about implementing these project ideas that we have come up with. When I get back I have lots of work to do!
Ladysmith Black Mambazo came to Empangeni on Friday and Dan and his housemates were going so they invited me to join them. I invited an acquaintance Bennie and we all had a blast! It was an amazing concert and the music was fantabulous! I really enjoyed the music but I enjoyed the dancing even more. I guess Ladysmith Black Mambazo has played in America several times. If you ever get a chance to go and see them I highly recommend it!
Saturday the local Rotary and one of the banks planned a food collection for the welfare at one of the local shopping markets. We paired up with them and just asked people to help support the local families who are struggling during the winter. I was amazed by the amount of food that was donated! We were there from 7:30 to 3:30 and filled the back of two bakkies (trucks) with food. It is amazing to see a community pull together to help families in need. The Rotary and Nedbank also donated R15,000 to the welfare and they want us to use it to buy blankets and food. I don’t think we will need food anytime soon so we can help keep people warm with some blankets!
Today is Fathers day and it was a pretty good day. I would have loved to be at home with my Daddy though. Luckily he is enjoying the company of good friends and the sun in Lake Powell! I sure do miss him! Dan and I decided that we would make Grandpere and Grandmere breakfast for Fathers Day. So we made French toast and bacon. It turned out great and they seemed to like it. After breakfast we went to visit another family that Dan met at church. We had a big cooked lunch and enjoyed the lovely company. After that we came back to my place and had another home cooked meal that Grandpere cooked. It’s easy to see why I am packing on the pounds! All in all it turned out to be a great weekend!
Saturday the local Rotary and one of the banks planned a food collection for the welfare at one of the local shopping markets. We paired up with them and just asked people to help support the local families who are struggling during the winter. I was amazed by the amount of food that was donated! We were there from 7:30 to 3:30 and filled the back of two bakkies (trucks) with food. It is amazing to see a community pull together to help families in need. The Rotary and Nedbank also donated R15,000 to the welfare and they want us to use it to buy blankets and food. I don’t think we will need food anytime soon so we can help keep people warm with some blankets!
Today is Fathers day and it was a pretty good day. I would have loved to be at home with my Daddy though. Luckily he is enjoying the company of good friends and the sun in Lake Powell! I sure do miss him! Dan and I decided that we would make Grandpere and Grandmere breakfast for Fathers Day. So we made French toast and bacon. It turned out great and they seemed to like it. After breakfast we went to visit another family that Dan met at church. We had a big cooked lunch and enjoyed the lovely company. After that we came back to my place and had another home cooked meal that Grandpere cooked. It’s easy to see why I am packing on the pounds! All in all it turned out to be a great weekend!
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