Turning My Trials To Gold...

Hello Again!!!

Well it’s becoming a pattern now to report back to you how my weekend went since they are now becoming exciting and a story to tell!! I told that we were headed into town to go grocery shopping last weekend and that it’s 2 hours one way...well I will quickly explain how that day ended but whoever passes this on to my dad please tell him that I am safe! We had a wonderful lunch at the Guava Cafe and I tried a Mango milkshake and it was simply delightful. Did a little shopping, got groceries, got gas, and started our journey home. We were on the road just getting ready to pass over Maguga Dam and we had about 40 minutes of sunlight left and all of a sudden we came to a “road block”. Now when I say road block, it is a red plastic gas container with a little rock on top of it sitting in the middle of the road, but up ahead is a bus turned sideways blocking both sides of the 2 lane road. (I do have a picture to go with this story!!) So Ruth stops the car and all 4 of us girls are surveying the situation and deciding what to do at this point. There are cars coming from the other direction that are barely squeezing by, one by one to get around the bus. People are getting out of their cars and then getting back into the car when they make it pass the bus. We couldn’t figure out why people would get out then run over and get in,(they were afraid the car would turn over into the ditch) until it was our turn to try and squeeze by. Oh by the way let me mention that a car full of 4 girls is not an ideal situation when it is NOTHING but all men standing around the bus and slow moving vehicles. Oh and to make the story more exciting, the broken down bus was a Correctional Facility Bus of men that had it written on the side of the bus. So it’s now our turn to go by and there is barely enough room on both sides to squeeze by because on the left Ruth could have scratched up her mirror on the bus or on the right is a ditch that we could have flipped the car into. Well since I am here to give you this update, you know how the story turned out-safe and sound. So as we made it through safely with our doors locked, my roommate Leigh says that was a situation right out of a movie girls. Seriously 4 girls in a car driving upon a road block of about 25 men that are in a Correctional bus and then the girls disappear from their afternoon of grocery shopping. The good news is that it all turned out OK but we were very nervous to say the least!

Lets see, this week has been a hard week and the most challenging week for me so far. It’s been raining for the last 3 days and the cold weather seems to be getting colder. I came home from work on Tuesday and had a really hard day of patients with TONS of tartar, my instruments are getting dull so therefore it’s taking longer to remove the tartar and now my hands are starting to ache. All I really wanted to do was get warm and just unwind from the day. So I asked Ruth if we could make a fire in the fireplace and she said no, because we didn’t have enough wood for a fire. Since it has been raining she said we can’t go gather wood either because it will all be wet. So I said how about the little pile that’s in the garage, and she said no, because it hasn’t been split and wont fit in the little fire place. So being completely tired, cold, and worn out I decided I would take the sharp ax and go chop the wood. Well I hope you are all getting a mental picture of this one, because living in Arizona my WHOLE life I have never swung an ax before and have never chopped wood before. So away I go and I asked my roommate Sophie from England to come help me because it was the other girls turn to cook dinner that night. After about a million hacks at the wood taking turns back and forth Sophie and I managed to collect a pile of wood that burned out in 30 minutes. I thought to myself that night, gosh I think I’m on a reality TV show of some type of Survivor. I thought I was a very domesticated women before I came to Africa knowing how to cook, clean, mow my grass, hunt/fish, take care of a house, dog, etc.. but now I’ve taken it to the next level-chopping wood! Ha-Ha

No really I’m serious, one weekend Ruth went out of town to go to a friends wedding and asked the 3 of us if we would hang curtains to give our windows some privacy and so we hung curtains that weekend, went picking the avocado trees for fresh avocado’s, and collected fire wood from the forest. These curtains are NOT what I’m use to in the USA. It wasn’t just a pole then you attach the plastic loops and then plug it in, this was legitimately counting the material and placing some eye hooks and then tying off the rope and pulling the rope through to give it the squished curtain effect. Ok enough of the detail on how I’m more domesticated, even though it would have been nice to just come home and turn on the heater or flip a switch to your fake fireplace that runs on gas! I have learned that this is all part of the living and learning experience and I’m THANKFUL to be here! In the grand scheme of things I am just so HAPPY to be able to see the children’s faces smiling at me and saying a huge Thank-You with a big hug accompanying the gratitude after their teeth are cleaned or extracted! Now I have also realized that you have to work a lot harder living under these conditions and let me tell you, there isn’t anything “easy” here!

Our scheduled day of no electricity was on Wednesday but this time the word never traveled to my house so Ruth and I had no clue that I wasn’t going to be able to work on patients. So I went to work at the Bulembu Hospital Clinic and saw one patient and then I had my next patient in the chair and the electricity went out. I thought oh give it a little time it shall come back on because the village people said that happens often when its raining and the electricity will shut off for a little while. Nope, never came back on and I could not see her teeth in the dark so I had to reschedule my day. It was my night to cook dinner that night and I made beef tacos (yummy) and squash. I know you were thinking beans but I couldn’t find refried beans at the last 2 grocery stores I had been to.

On a fun note I did go to a Braai (we call it a Bar-B-Q-) and danced the night away! I learned a South African dance called Sokkie it’s equivalent to ball room dancing with some spins and turns in it. It was a going away party for one of the volunteers named A.J. and the South African men were teaching my roommate Leigh and I the new moves! It was sooooo much fun and now I think I will take up ball room dancing!

Going to a candle and glass factory early Saturday morning and then to the cultural village of Swaziland to see the natives dancing, eat some native food, and some other sight seeing adventures!

Oh and the number of teeth extracted now is up to 9 teeth! And I must say 9 happy children that did not even cry or shed a tear!!! I also want to say a Happy Belated Birthday to my dear friends Kristina and Kendra, sorry I missed it-Pizzokie and Pita Jungle when I get home! Congrats Krysten on the twins finally!! Can’t wait to see pictures of my new cousins! And a huge CONGRATS to Stacey on her big Wedding Day SATURDAY!!

Bye until next Saturday!