At the beginning

It took me two days to reach my destination, the small town Hluhluwe in the North Eastern South Africa. Due to a bad snow weather in Frankfurt I missed my connection flight to S. Africa and had to spend a night at the ariport. It was a painful night, all hotels were full, queues took hours.After hours of waiting I finally got booked on another flight with a detour route via London for the following day. You can imagine how tempted I felt to leave the aiport to visit friends in London:)
That night at Frankfurt airport, I found a bench to rest on and tried to get some sleep, which was impossible! The bench was hard and hurt my body, my "summer 2010 South Africa" outfit didnt manage to keep me warm in the cold German airport and on top of this at 4.30 Dennis the young cleaner had to wake me up to ask me a thousand questions and offer me water.

When I finally reached S. Africas capital Johannesburg I had another connection flight to my final destination, but here once again all odds were against me. My bag didnt arrive, and when I ran to check in to my next flight, I was not in their system. Close to tears I had to queue up in another queue where a man informed me that I had by then missed my connection flight and the next flight was the following day. He gave me my two options, to stay another night at the airport to wait for the next flight the following day, or to BUY another ticktet to Durban, which is the closest to my original destination. I clearly showed the man my frustration, tiredness and sadness and thereafter feeling beaten bought a ticket to Durban.

So, the trip down was awful and my bag didnt arrive till 2 days after. Anyway I made it here and Im well. Its summer here, although with a rain period. Coming from a cold winter in Sweden with -10 degrees almost every day, the heat here is overwhelming (except when its been raining). But Im not the one to complain, knowing the perfect tan I get out of it!

I rent a hut from the project manager of the organisation (Star for Life), where I have everything I need, nothing more :) My hut has a grassattached roof, clay walls and floor, three small beds in it and a small cupboard. There is a common (WATER) toilet for us volunteers with 2 showers, one indoor and one outdoor. Unfortunetly we've been having water shortage where some times during the day there is no water and you have to shower by filling up a basin/bucket. The other day we drove into town to fetch water from the office to fill up in the tank at "home". But since I got here Ive managed fine with the water. Only once have I had to shower with the few liters a bucket can hold. As for light in my hut, I have 2 torches and a kerosine lamp. Funny thing is that it doesnt bother me as much as I thought it would. I leave home at around 7.30am and dont get back till late afternoon, after which we'll have dinner in the "common" hut with kerosine lamps, and thereafter we play cards and watch the stars outside. Its been long since I saw the milky way this clear. The nightsky is SO clear and beautiful. Then at around 9-10 I withdraw to my hut and might read a little with the ligth of my torch and then fall asleep. I have internet at the office, and inside the main house where the principle stays we charge our phones etc cause he has electricity.

I have the most AMAZING landscape view from where I stay. There is not much around, besides few other huts. In the morning whilst brushing my teeth outside I behold the image of hectares and hectares of mountainous wilderness, with an overview of Hluhluwe National park.

Since I got here I havent been put into work properly. Have visited two schools, in one where I held an english class for a grade 12. Yesterday I had the most amazing dinner at the private five star game reserve Thanda, with a maincourse of crocodile, kudu (a sort of deer), and lots of other delicacies.

Today I will travel close to the border of Mocambique to visit another school which has a perfoming group of students that 2 guys from the project will work with, so expecting a lot of songs and dancing.

There are many expressions that are still to be shared, so keep reading.

Miss you all!

Love and Peace!