Wheels Down

32 hours of travel later, I made it to PE and to my new home! I’ve been here a day, and I already know that this is going to be a very different experience than I had last year.  I had a fabulous few months and was exposed to things that have really shaped my outlook, but I can already tell that this is going to push me in a whole new direction. 

I am presently living in a suburb of Port Elizabeth with a white parishioner family of Mater Dei. Beyond being fabulously accommodating and hospitable, they are fascinating bunch of people!  They are both very well versed on the social and economic issues that face the future of this country, and feel that there is a world of potential waiting… I think I will be doing a lot of listening and absorbing!  The home is lovely, and I have a flat to myself.

A bit of our dinner conversation was about a brand new township that is forming across town: a white’s only township.  Lewis spoke of the decimated opportunity for white skilled and semi-skilled laborer jobs in the past few years, and so this flux of families have erected a few hundred shacks and created a township.  I vaguely remember the occasional white beggar, but I had no idea that there was a whole community of people that don’t get a whole lot of consideration.

My biggest first world problem at the moment is learning to drive…..  I have forgotten how hilly this city is.   I know that people use the horn more that we are used to in the states, but holy, do I get tooted at! I have the cutest little matchbox car, a florescent blue two door Citron coup, that my post-tamsak, 5’10’’ body looks absolutely boss in. J 

I met a very lively group of people that I will be working with for the coming year, and I must say, they are a hoot.  I start work on tomorrow, train for week, and then have a holiday for a month!  Talk about Africa time.. Hope to have more to say next time!