We are now hoping to join forces with World Vision in my area to do a HIV testing unit during the pageant, so I’ve been talking to my friend, Musa, who is in charge of the HIV awareness section of the organization. I’m working with another volunteer and it’s a lot of fun to collaborate our ideas. We are going to have a health fair at the same time as the pageant, so its just another way to affect as many people as possible. They will come to watch, but also get the opportunity to test and we’ll even have the mom’s selling their food and jewelry at the event. Now although it’s a well thought out idea on paper, there is A LOT of work to be done. I was just going to assist and help wherever needed, but I'm seeing the Youth Association in my area stuggling to the point that its 2 1/2 weeks away and they don't even have judges or money for prizes. It's been an adventure and now they've desperately asked for my help full on, so this steam boat's got a new engineer in town. I'm trying to teach them as I do things, so they can take notes and be able to do this more independently next year. As you might have guessed its taking 2x the amount of time. We have a fundraiser this weekend. In two weekends we are doing an HIV/AIDS workshop with all 14 girls and the following weekend is the pageant and World Vision health fair. Pray for a miracle. People think I can prefrom miracles simply because I'm American and white sadly. Little do they know I have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm going to Victoria Falls on Monday. We are taking a bus from Jo'burg through Botswana and up to Zambia/Zimbabwe border. Its one of the 7 wonders of the world. I really don't know any of them except the pyramids. It takes about 1 1/2 days to drive there through the night. I've heard horror stories that they don't stop to go to the bathroom. I might put in a catheter before I go. :) Just kidding. Too expensive. Big kid diapers will be just fine. Apparently you can bungee jump off the bridge (the highest in the world)! Heck, It'll probably be best wearing diapers the whole trip the way it looks.

Finally, my aunt just had her baby. It was a boy. I've been holding him all the time and keep whispering my name to him so that his first word will be "Jaci". I can't wait. It keeps the time going by fast. April will be full of crowns, crying teenagers, babysitting the new baby, and Zambian adventures. May will come fast and that means so will my friend Emily who is visiting! I'm soooo excited. Love you guys. Stay well.

What's your favorite sausage?

My parents came this week with my sister, Angi, and my cousin, Janna. I met them at the airport. Little did I know, when I asked for 14 prom dresses for my youth pageant...I would get 50. I'm not complaining though. You can never have enough crushed velvet and puffy sleeves. haha Thanks to everyone who donated. I'll take pictures of the girls wearing them so you can see your dresses on them! Fun! They'll be so excited. So since there were so many dresses, we had to take a taxi just take the luggage all the way to the south part of the country. My sister had to drive the rent-a-car on the left side of the road. Although my buttcheeks were constantly being clenched tightly in fear of crashing and all of us stressing at each other everytime we bottomed out in potholes (or drove 4km with the red light on because we forgot to push down the emergency brake), nothing could ruin the trip. Not even the smell of the clutch burning out.

We went to see my family the first night, stayed at the animal park reserve the second, at last night enjoyed the comforts of a B&B. We drove all over Swaziland with the suitcases hog-tied to the trunk. I've never felt like such a hillbilly in all my life. I felt like all we needed was a few more loose teeth and a grandma in a rocking chair of the hood of are car to engage the perfect moment. Just picture taking speed bumps in a small European car packed full of tourists and luggage roped to the back of the car. :) Well if attention is what we wanted, we definately got it. So much for not looking like tourists. I guess its hard to hide when 3 out of the 4 people visiting me are wearing fanny packs. haha I wish I were kidding. I caught myself thinking, "Yes, this is really happening. A Hummer or truck would be appropriate through the bush, but my family is offroading in a small euro car with a maximum baggage capacity 3 suitcases." It was awesome.

I brought them to my clinic to meet people I work with. They went shopping in the markets. We ventured through the vast 10,000 acres of rhino poop. We're attacked by elephants from all angles of our jeep and played "chicken" with a giraffe who refused to share the road with us. It was fun. We ate mangoes, lamb, and ampala stew and watched half naked men do traditional dances while we tried to keep the monkeys from stealing our stuff.

I was sad when they had to leave, but I'm finding myself encouraged. It was a nice break and showing them what I'm doing and speaking SiSwati for them was a good confirmation that I have been working here in ways that I might not know. I stayed at a hostile friday and saturday to prepare myself to go back to my site. First night was with my friend, Lisa, but last night I had to go alone. God totally provided though because although my agenda was to cry the whole night since everyone was gone haha, I found another volunteer there that I didn't know very well and we had time to talk. He taught me a card game and we watched music videos. I then met some guys from Germany traveling with there one Swazi friend. They are students at a university in South Africa this semester and are traveling. One asked me to come with them to get some supper. Usually I would decline especially because I could picture uncomfortable silence and wanting to go home, but being stuck wherever they took me, BUT although I just got ready for bed and showered I felt like it could be fun. I decided to go. Alone. With five German guys my age and one Swazi girl I had just met. It ended up being really cool. We went to supper and all talked. I finally hung out with people that, for the most part, got my jokes. One "cricket" moment was when they were telling me who was sharing dorms at the university. I said, "Aww...that's cute. You guys can have pillow fights before bed and talk about girls before you go to sleep." They seemed really confused, so I changed the subject quickly. They did like my joke about wanting to fit in and that's why I ordered the same peach iced tea as everyone else. There was this one guy who kept asking me random questions. In the states we would call him a "nontraditional student". He's so nice and had lots of political questions. We were all asking questions about our favorite things. It was quiet at the table and he looked at me and asked, "What's your favorite type of sausage?" To a german, maybe not so random. To me...well. haha Everyone busted a gut and I just looked at him and said, "Sebastian, that's a personal question." We made jokes about it the rest of the night. It ended up being a fun night. We actually ran over a stop sign on accident, but they just laughed and continued so I didn't want to be the responsible one. Maybe we should have left a note? We went to a club dancing after and than a few of us stayed up until 5:30am talking about books, Americans, traveling, etc. It was cool. God is hilarious. Who would have thought I would ever be in a situation like that. Me, one Swazi girl, and five crazy German guys. I am a magnet for random things. And I don't hate it.

Labor Pains

This is my 9th month away from home! That's long enough to have a child! Its time to see someone from home that can remotivate me. :) I'm so excited because thankfully the Schaap family will be birthed tomorrow morning from the Matsapha Airport.

I've been preparing for my girl's empowerment pageant the past week! We are now hoping to join forces with World Vision in my area, so I’ve been talking to my friend, Musa, who is in charge of the HIV awareness section of the organization. They will come to watch the pageant, but also get the opportunity to test and we’ll even have the mom’s selling their food and jewelry at the event. We'll see how it goes. We keep getting road blocks, but no matter what, I’m glad we are doing it. If anything, we’ve been able to work with the Youth Association in my area and get them excited about something. I also feel like I am finally doing my job. haha

My aunt and I bandaged up my sisi’s son. His hands were terrible. She was boiling a shicken to remove the feathers and he fell into the pot. He’s only three years old. Guess when someone came to me for help?? 2-3 days after it happened...and what was that day? Friday. The clinic isn’t open again til Monday where we can get supplies. We used my stuff which I don’t mind using, but I only was given enough for one time use. The elastic band was too long so I cut it up like Mac Gyver and used what I had. I made a sling out of buttons and toothpicks and a resperator out of a water balloon. Just kidding, but he was bandaged up quite nicely. Poor little guy was running around with no use of his arms. Its kinda funny to watch him run around playing with the other kids because he looked like he tied two giant Q Tips to his arms. I question if the poor little guy has HIV. His immune system isn’t very good. He's always sick. This time green wax was coming from his ears. Now, I don't have my PhD, but I'm pretty sure...that’s not right. I gave him drops and washed out his ears. Now the "walking Q tip" was running around with the other kids with white balls hanging out of his ears too. Poor little guy! The other little kids would call him and he wouldn't know where to look because he couldn't hear through the cotton balls. haha Thobile loved using my medical supplies. She acted like she was about to go do an open heart surgery. I played along though and only interrupted when I thought someone's life was in danger...so only about 3 or 4 times. After Thobile was finished playing Doogie Howzer, we let the kid join the others. :) Later I found Ncamgile’s son playing like he didn’t even know he had no use of his hands. I was happy to see he wasn’t in a lot of pain. :)All in a day's work.

All I know is I CAN’T WAIT another second until my family comes. :) They complete me. So do my friends at home. I know I need to focus on the now, but my mind often wonders to the excitement of when I'll reunite with everyone. :) Miss you guys and love you more. Keep livin' the dream.