Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Stayin' Alive

I’m sincerely excited about the fact that I’m still alive. It’s probably because the one thing everyone told me to do before I left was not die. I feel successful.

Actually, I’m living quite well. My African grandma, Christine, has the most amazing house. It sits on a small hill and overlooks a part of Pretoria. There are front and back courtyards, a terrace, a sun room, a drawing room, and my room is painted magenta. Seriously, call MTV’s cribs. The plumbing and electricity are another story. The toilet spits at me whenever I try to flush it. Taking a shower is also interesting. It’s too small for me and the water temperature and pressure are really inconsistent. I probably look like a dancing giant when I’m in there. I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures. Technically I’m not even supposed to be blogging right now, and I don’t really think the UN would like it if I brought in my camera and set up shop.

So my African life thus far:

I live with an 82 year old who could easily pass for 60. She tells strange jokes, makes amazing food, drives recklessly, and is probably the kindest woman on the face of the planet. She likes me to sit on her bed and watch TV with her at night, and she makes me hot chocolate or tea before I go to sleep. She’s also the YSA Sunday school teacher in the ward...she’s kind of eccentric. It’s a good time.

Nick. He’s 46, bi-polar (I’m being serious), ridiculously smart, and lives in the room next to me. He’s great to talk to because he seriously knows something about everything. I decided I want to enter into trivia game shows with him.

Roulin (or Roulynn, I don’t know how she spells it) is 40, and she lives downstairs. She’s become like a big sister to me. She has lots of weekend plans of places she wants to take me while I’m here. She took me to the overlook (the view from the picture in the last post) and to the mall. She knows a lot of history about the area, and I try to remember everything she tells me. She also has a fantastic sense of humour and is getting me hooked to British sitcoms.

The church. There are so many LDS Young Single Adults here. It’s really amazing. There are 20 in my ward alone. On Sunday evening I went to a regional fireside (they told us to get married, act surprised) and there were so many people I could hardly breathe. It was like the Honey Bun * 50 * Mormon ÷ Food. (My family may be the only ones to understand that equation fully, sorry) It was an experience, let’s just say that. They’re also trying to find me a ride to institute during the week. I’m really glad there are so many people; it makes it hard to be lonely or homesick.

The internship. Basically, I shuffle through newspapers for 2 hours in the morning trying to pick out the most important Africa issues. Then the headline summaries are reviewed and I have to recompile them afterwards. Then I send those summaries are sent to New York and eventually they get dispersed through the organization and used by the Secretary General. So that’s an interesting couple of hours. Then I sit around waiting for projects and keeping up with you lovely people.

So there you have it. I’m alive, I have an amazing home and African family, I have people to keep me busy and entertained, and the internship is exactly like an internship should be.

(I have better stories, but I just wanted to get the general info out)

1 comment:

  1. Have you also lost some memory? I say that because you repeated yourself perfectly, like the guy from 50 first dates. And the thing is it goes together well, I took me a little to know you has started over. But any way I love you and am so happy everything is going well. Just don't get kicked out of your internship for blogging.. that would be sad. Love you bye

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