Rest of Red Cross

I’m writing to you from my bedroom in Cato Manor for the last time! Sadly, I’m moving out tomorrow morning, and while I’m excited to start the rest of the semester, I’m definitely sad to be leaving my homestay family.

The rest of the week was relatively uneventful, we spent every day at the Red Cross and we all passed our First Aid test on Friday morning. The class was definitely an experience, and I’m not sure I’ll take a ton away from it (considering they told us that under no circumstances were we to feel for a pulse, which pretty much goes against everything I’ve ever been told in the States), but it was a lot of fun and now I’m level 2 certified!

We finished up early on Friday, and decided to go to the beach for a few hours before heading back to the house. Durban installed a new bus system before the World Cup, which is clean, relatively reliable, and much safer than minibus taxis, and only costs R10 for a day pass (about $1.50). I’m definitely getting used to spending lots of time on the beach- I’ve been more in the past 6 weeks than I have in the past 6 years! I also just found out that I’ll be living in the penthouse apartment of Windemere (where we stayed a few weeks back) for my pre-project time, and I’m incredibly excited. It’ll only be about $18 a night- definitely a deal!

Yesterday I spent a little time at the mall buying some goodbye gifts and getting stuff to make dinner that night. Having grocery stores in the mall is super convenient- something I’m going to miss when I get back to the States. Without a working oven I was a little limited in what I could cook, but I made some delicious pasta and garlic bread for my family, which they loved.

Today I’ve been busy packing and writing essays in preparation to move out tomorrow morning. Next week is going to be pretty crazy- we’ll be rural all week finishing with camping and hiking in the Drakensberg! I’ll be in the village of Amatikulu on the North Coast until Wednesday morning, then the village of Umthwalume south of Durban on the coast until Friday, before heading to the Drakensberg. I’ll probably be going a solid week or so with no running water- we’ll see how it goes!

I won’t have any internet access for a while- but expect a long update when I get back!