AFRICA BABY!!!!!!!!

Hello loved ones!! i'm here!!!

I left Canada tuesday morning at 915am. I was told to be there three hours early and there i stood at the ticket counter in front of a sign that said the agent would only be there 2 hours before the next scheduled flight. grrrrrr..... checking in AND security took less than 15 minutes. LOL. anyway i arrived in Seattle with three hours till my next flight and i was thankful for the time. by the time i went through customs, rechecked in, went through security and found my gate it took over an hour and a half! i had a really quick lunch and then the plane was loading and i was on my way to Amsterdam. i got my desired window seat and a very nice older gentleman sat beside me. in my head i thought "score he will have to potty lots, he's old... right???"WRONG... he totally took a "sleeping tablet"and passed out!!! ahhhggg.. and i had to PEEEEEE every two hours. it was crazy annoying!!!!!! lol. so i spent most of the flight stressing out because he was sleeping and i had to go.. .lol.. but seriously it went well. watched three movies and some tv shows. we landed early, i guess we had a good tailwind coming in. and it was so cool to land in Schipol Airpot. remembering when was there a few years ago with my dad and brother. I had a three hour wait there and it was most pleasant. i just wandered around the airport looking in shops and talking to this guy i met on the plane. he told me all about his plan to build a house and bar in Narobi and retire there in five years. Random i know.

I took off from the Schipol Airport at aprox. 1030 am wednesday and was on my way for the last 11 hours of the trip. this plane was EVEN bigger and i was sitting in the middle of a row of three. this sweet girl on one side and a little old dutch lady on the other. but before we even took off the olderwoman requested a seat with a space if it was available, so that left US with an empty seat... total score:) i tried to sleep on the flight and i did a little bit but it was a 'daytime' flight for everyone else so they left the lights on and it was pretty noisy. lots of activity. oh and annoyingly enough.. now that i didn't have an issue with sleeping old men... i only got up once during the flight.... what the what!!!!! haha.

i landed in South Africa at 920pm and cleared passport cheque and bag pick up and custums in 25 minutes or less. Beejay and Aimee were there shortly to meet me (not before 4 taxi drivers offered me a ride, thank you Mark for warning me about that!!) and I got on my way to Botshabelo. It only took about 45 minutes to drive. when i got in i got to meet a few people before heading to bed! SOOOO tired.

i got up this morning at 7 am even though i didn't go to bed till almost 1230, because i want to jolt my body back into normalcy as fast as possible. I got up and had a shower and felt totally better about life. 21 hours on a plane with that air blowing on you is vile and i felt so gross.

only one thing leaked in my luggage... ONE THING... thats it!!! praise God, thats pretty awesome. I'm in a room on a temporary basis because its located by the laundry facilities, so i'm going to be moved next week to a different room. but its not quite cleaned yet and ready for me so when it is, and i move, then i'll take some pictures to post.

as it stands right now i'm using the communal computer. my laptop can't connect to the wireless here yet, so i'll have to get that sorted out. I also should let you guys know that i won't actually be able to post pictures of the kids.... i've been told that for safety reasons and so on, i can't put any of the kids pics online. so... i can privatly email them to anyone who wants to see but i won't be posting them.

today after i got up i toured around the property a bit on my own. its a holiday today in africa so its VERY quiet. Once Aimee got up and going we had a chat and a tour and then Beejay took me shopping. where i found that i can't use my debit card!!! it Will NOT work. i will have to make some calls to the bank but again because its a holiday the church office is closed and there is no one around to let me in even to use the phone today. lol. thankfully my visa card worked in the store so i was able to get some grocerys. just to freak you out, i spent over 550.00 rand. haha.... if my math is right, thats something like 70.00 canadian dollars... lol.

now i'm here writing. the other girl who is here volunteering, amy, has gone to work, Beejay and Aimee have gone on holiday and won't be back till after the weekend and Taylor (another volunteer, not totally sure what he does but its something in the community based care area) is going on a bike trip to Mozembique. so i'm on my own, literally.... lol... i expected it to be quieter here than what i'm used to but this is hilarious!!!!

what else..... oh.. i don't know yet if i will be having a phone at this point. things have changed a bit here recently and now you have to have proof of residency to get a sim card... and i don't have that. but hopefully someone will hook me up.... we will see.

also, i cannot d0 video skype while i'm here because it uses up too much bandwidth. so i may talk but i cannot use my webcam. :( oh well.....

OH the BEST part!!! i've already met the kids!! and they are adorable!!!! :) i dont'start work till saturday but i've been over to meet them and i'm going back shortly to spend some time with them again. i mean why not!!! i've already fallen in love with one little sweetheart, who walked up to me and held up her arms and then wouldn't let me put her down the whole time i was there. it was so precious. there are 15 kids in the home right now. age ranging from three months to six years.

Prayer Requests:

~that i don't get sick... apparently EVERYONE gets sick when they get there because of the traveling and because the kids are sick all the time. so please pray against that for me. i'm also drinking the water, because other people do and don't have problems, so rather than spend money on bottled i'm gonna try.. pray for my tummy!!!
~that i get over my jet lag really fast. i'm soooo tired right now... :)
~my feet are super swollen from the plane, so pray that that goes down swiftly