After one week in Richards Bay, I'm still having a great time

Sorry it's been a while since I've updated this, but we have very limited internet access. Our flat is pretty far away from anything...we don't even have a phone! Anyway, let me make some corrections about my last couple posts.

The link I gave you for my pictures is correct, but I've had a heck of a time uploading them. I'm hoping to fix that in the next week or so, but I have no idea what will be going on since I move in with my host family tomorrow (yay). Also, my teachers are going to update their website for the trip at least once a week and have pictures and updates on what we've been doing. The address is www.msu.edu/~annes/

We've been doing a lot of touring and meeting people this past week. Everyone is so inspirational and amazing and full of hope....it makes me feel incredibly shallow when I realize that they've all gone through so much more than I'll ever know, yet they are so happy to be alive, so full of love, and very welcoming to all of us. I've been gathering details about what to expect once I start teaching and apparently the students will all stand up when a teacher enters the room and say, in unison, "Good morning, Ms. Rabineau." I'm not sure how I'll react to that! I'll be sure to get a lot of pictures and video of school.

This next week will just be getting adjusted to my new African family and school, then the group will reunite for a weekend in Durban where we'll have some class sessions and a lot of time to relax.

Some cool and funny things to tell you about:

The room across the hall had a break-in while we were gone for the day. The culprit? A naughty little monkey who ate their chocolate and played with one girl's face cream. The monkey left some, uh, evidence behind as it was chased away by the B&B's dogs. Monkeys are quite common; we've seen some chasing each other down the street, but they are not very nice to humans.

We had a birthday party for Danielle (Ms.Redfield) and invited some of our new South African friends. They serenaded her with a Zulu birthday song as well as the South African national anthem, which is sung in 4 different languages!

I haven't done my own laundry or dishes since I got here. My bed is made for me every day, and the housekeeper also folds all my clothes. I feel like such a princess.

They call stop lights "robots."

I've seen road signs warning us about hippos that might be crossing the street. It's a picture of a hippo inside of a warning triangle. There are also signs telling us not to feed the monkeys that roam around.

Apparently I'm very difficult to understand. I have some amusing stories about waiters not understanding me, like when I ordered water. She could NOT figure out what I was trying to say, so a person at a nearby table had to interpret for me...in English. How embaressing :)

Okay, I have some shopping to do, so I need to go. More to come...