One Voice and Inada Special School

This week was definitely one of the most eventful since we've been here... lots of traveling around Durban and going to all sorts of new places. On Wednesday I went with 6 others to One Voice, an NGO that has a program on HIV that they teach to 8th grade students in 77 schools in KZN, the eastern cape and the western cape. Everyone there was very nice, and even though the NGO didn't really have anything to do with my final project, I still learned a lot and it was very interesting. We even ended early and had time to go out to lunch! (where I finally figured out that 'chicken mayo' is the same thing as chicken salad... best discovery ever)

Yesterday I went to the Inada Special School, a school for ages 6-21 for students with some kind of mental disability. The school was definitely different from any American school I've been to, but the kids were all so happy to be there. They were all preparing for a heritage day celebration next week, so there was plenty of dancing and singing going on! I got to talk to one of the teachers (who was my age and using teaching to pay for college... he taught every morning then went to classes in the afternoon) all about the school, sports, music, pretty much everything! Even though it was kinda rainy (the first time it's rained during the day since we got to Durban) we still had a good time.

This morning we went to UKZN Westville Campus and met with a woman named Vino Reddy, and Indian woman who participated a lot during the rallys against apartheid in the 70s. She told us her whole story about being arrested, put in solitary confinement and even visiting Nelson Mandela on Robben Island! She had close friends who were imprisoned with him, and her visiting times usually coincided with Winnie Mandela's visiting times and they became good friends. It was incredible to hear her story- she's an amazing woman.

I just finished up my Zulu exam, which means I'm officially done with Zulu! I think it went ok... I still have the oral portion coming up so we'll see how that goes...

I got my first package from Andrew yesterday and it was filled with amazing American things- People magazine, mac & cheese, reese's peanut butter cups- so I'm going to go indulge a little bit before my oral :)I'll leave you with a picture of the elephant crossing the road from last weekend!