Going away again

I started school again on Tuesday. It was weird to back on campus after over two weeks off! Classes this week were normal and we didn’t have volunteering because Pendla had their fall holiday break. I turned in one of the three big papers due in this next week, so that felt good.

Last night we went to a play called Ours Was the Dawn. It was a very good play, made us laugh and cry. It was put on by a husband and wife who we have a very unique connection with. Our director, who has been researching South Africa for many years met this couple about ten years ago. I don’t know the whole story, but somehow they became good friends and Gary asked the couple to come to St. Bens and St. Johns to spread the story of South Africa. They’ve been to a couple times now and Ours Was the Dawn is the play that resulted from the very long plane ride over there. Some people from my group saw the performance last year when they came to MN, but it was my first time seeing it last night. After the play we met with them and just talked about South Africa and MN. It just seemed like such a cool connection!

Speaking of cool connections, I forgot to write this in my spring break post. But when I was getting off the boat at Robben Island, I saw a boy that I graduated high school with. I went to school with him for all grades and he was on my Odyssey of the Mind team when mom was our coach! When we saw each other we both just freaked out because it was such a coincidence!! He is studying abroad with Loyola and is going to school in Cape Town. We got to catch up, but then we both had to join our groups again. This seriously is a small world!!!!

Today we’re leaving to go on our Frontier Excursion. We will be staying with white Afrikaner farmers who probably have different views on apartheid and the new government. We’ll see though. The weekend will consist of horseback riding, game drives, hiking, swimming, meeting new people and lots more I’m sure. I’m excited for the weekend because I’ve heard it gives us such a different perspective on South Africa. We are a little worried because we’ve also heard that people in the part of the country we’re going to are racist and we have a couple people in our group who aren’t white. So I hope there aren’t any problems for them and that we can maybe build some bridges.

I’m glad you’re all enjoying my ostrich riding and bungee jumping posts! They were fun to do and fun to write too! I can’t believe I got the place of Grandpa’s ostrich riding wrong! But I guess there isn’t that much a difference between Australia and the Fertile Fair…