My roommates are GREAT!

OK well we had a great weekend last weekend and all was safe and sound! In these pictures you will see some native Swaziland people doing some native tribal dancing and they picked my roommate Leigh and I out of the crowd to help learn and dance with them. I’m definitely getting my dancing in over here and might be taking home some new moves! We went to the candle factory where they hand blow and carve beautiful glass sculptures and also had a chance to see some beautiful wildlife while we were out, that was neat! We saw some really cool animals, it was awesome! I had a chicken quesadilla for lunch that day and it reminded me a little bit of home since that’s the first type of Mexican food I have had in over a month now. (Oh how I miss LaPlacita)!!!

Speaking of food, I have had some family members and friends ask about the food situation here...I have to pack a lunch to eat at the Hospital because it’s too long of a walk to go home. I mostly eat cereal, yogurt, or eggs for breakfast, tuna and a piece of fruit like an apple or orange for lunch, and then a communal dinner that the roommates and I take turns making in the evenings. I have noticed that for every dinner meal there is ALWAYS some type of pasta, rice, or carbohydrate and I’m really starting to try and break away from the carbs because my body is going into shock eating all those carbs every night!! I’m going to start making baked chicken dishes and the other night I made a chicken dish without all the pasta and the girls liked it! Oh and I eat a lot of peanut butter. I had one of the village teenage girls over to the house to show me how to make this fresh spinach and peanut butter dish, and it was amazing! I buy fresh lettuce, spinach, and cauliflower from someone’s garden here in the village. The grocery store that is 2 hours away is small with about 6 isles and you can get just about anything generic that is basic. Most people back home think of Africa as a starving country and hardly a food source, but it’s really not like that here. There are places to buy food but where the starving part comes in, is that the people don’t have the money to buy the food therefore that’s why they are hungry. For example a man who has a job and works makes about R35 (rand) a day and that is equivalent to about $4.00 a day. So it’s not that Africa doesn’t have a food source, it’s more the lack of means for the people to buy it.The fresh fruit selection is not a wide variety like I was expecting and I went to buy a small can of green chilies so I could make my famous sour cream chicken enchiladas, and there are not green chilies to buy. But oddly enough they have all american type cereals and we buy a lot of frozen chicken breasts and ground beef to cook for dinners. We have a gas stove that I have to help light for the girls because they are afraid it will blow up on them when lighting the gas. We can do laundry ourselves or pay a lady named “Togo” to do it for us, and it all hangs outside to dry. So when we have rainy days it takes a little longer to get your clothes back.

I went over to a friends house on Sunday after church to learn how to make a traditional South African desert called Milk Tart. It’s so delicious, I’m bringing the recipe home. Oh yeah I forgot to tell you all that I was asked by the lady who took us on the Sat. bike ride if I could babysit her two children from 9:30am till 6:00pm on Sunday and I said yes. What is it with me and babysitting? I guess all those years of me nannying in college wasn’t enough. HaHa Yes, this is the second time I have babysat for this family and I thought for sure the first go around I would be fired and she would NEVER ask me again because they were filthy dirty from head to toe! (Pictures to show how filthy dirty from head to toe they were). Mom and Dad both said it was great because then that meant they had a good time since they were so dirty.

This week has been so much better, and I really can’t say enough THANK YOU’s for everyone who helped get me the much needed LONG JOHN PANTS and more dental supplies! The new instruments and sharping stone have made all the difference in the world and has helped me to carry on with all the cleanings. I have seen 154 children to date and have now extracted 12 teeth. It’s still raining here and carrying on with freezing cold weather. But boy I can’t tell you enough how much of a difference the long johns make, and I am much warmer now! They feel like little heaters on my legs and I’m soooo much happier having them. SO THANK YOU THANK YOU (Darla/Talisha)!!

My family all sent me a bunch of letters already signed and sealed that they packed in my bags that tell me to open on certain days, weeks, months, hard day, etc... and I can’t tell you enough how much reading those letters have made my days special. It’s kind of weird because they say the right thing at the right moment and I have gotten many laughs along with HUGE smiles. Yes, Bryan I am eating way too much rice and I would love to watch that movie and eat Pizukie when I return home with you and T!!

So now I will tell you about my roommates because quite a few of you have been wondering. First is Ruth (35) who is from Redding England and that is about an hour from London. She is the head person in charge of volunteers for Bulembu and works in the Ministry office of Bulembu. She has been here going on 3 years now and the only one with a car in our house. Then there is Natalie (22) from Manchester England and she got here a week before me but will be serving in Bulembu for 7 months. She works at the school as a teacher and mainly teaches Math and Biology. Then Sophie (18) who shares a room with me is from Redding England. She has been here already 2 months and just left this Tuesday to go back home before she starts college in England. She worked in the ABC House with all the baby baby orphans. She had many stories that she would share with me daily about the new babies they just got in, or even how her day was with 28 small babies all under 2yrs old. Then Leigh (21) from Vancouver Canada got here 2 weeks after me and is here for 3 months and going home right before Christmas. She has a very cool job in my opinion, because she was sent here by the Canadian group that mainly owns and helps finance Bulembu to do their website, and communications through journalism pieces. She gets to interview different people and go to different job sites taking photos, and video and then piece it all together. She is very talented and very funny! She along with Natalie and Ruth can really get me laughing! I have to say that I REALLY REALLY enjoy living with these 4 ladies and it’s been fun getting to know them and hang out with them. It’s even more surprising to say that we only have one bathroom for the 5 of us and we make it work just fine!! It’s sad to see Sophie go and it made me realize how very different it is to actually share a room and personal space with someone. After all these years of being by myself it’s kind of hard to come home to people or someone and discuss my day with them. Living with the girls has made me realize that I can’t just come home and unwind from my day by myself. Depending on the day I have to come home and start dinner, or help the other girls start dinner by chopping veggies or setting the table, and they even like to just talk about how your day went. It’s quite different and quite a change for me. Something about my job many people don’t understand is that not only is it taxing physically on the body and hands, but also mentally. Having to be in constant communication all day and make sure your not hurting people because they hate going to the dentist already is very tiring, not to mention the amount of tartar/calculus I’m removing isn’t pleasant for the patient or me. So it’s good coming home to my roommates, but much different then me going straight to the gym after work to unwind and then home to the LOVE of my life “Trotter Boy” Yes, my dog, I miss him terribly! It’s also different in a way because we don’t have appliances to make life easy so we have to take turns washing dishes by hand and cleaning up after others. It’s made me become more of a group person instead of just doing everything by myself. I know this may sound strange but it’s actually harder to adjust to living with people when your use to being by yourself and doing your own routine. So in closing I just want to say I hope everyone is doing great back home and all is well here!

Talk to you next weekend,

Melissa