Ticking Clocks

     Hello.... my title has many meanings. For one, it is clearly needed for blog posts. One of the girl's blogs here is called "My New Normal" and that is so true for me! Another week (or two or three) passes and school, service, and sightseeing are my new normal! Another, is that my time here is winding down. I'll be home in about a month! And the third meaning is I saw Coldplay in concert!!!!!
     School is a weird concept here. It's "hard" only taking three classes with 10 kids. And we all live together. At times, we actually eat, breathe, and sleep a single assignment. Or, five assignments.. Such is life. Typically, the academics of my program are perfectly balanced with my service, while remembering that we're all in this amazing country wanting to explore. My capstone, finding an NGO to bring to the hospital, fell through. Luckily, I had planned for that and am now encouraging reading through three different branches of the hospital. Reading Buddies, where the school aged kids read to the young babies is my what I'm most excited about. I will also have the babies' nurses set aside times each day to read to small groups of kids. And I will have the Occupational Therapists having reading groups with the adults. This should be a more sustainable project, so I'm actually really excited about it. Hopefully, there is enough time to organize it all.
     Sightseeing has taken on a new frenzy. Everyone is realizing that our penny-pinching days from the beginning and middle of the semester has stopped us from experiencing different parts of Cape Town/South Africa. A group is doing two nights in the wine country. We've gone to see cultural movies. Going out to dinner. The beach! And, last weekend, I went shark cage diving! It was amazing! I saw five great white sharks and almost touched one. I was too nervous that it would feel me touch it and attack me. It was actually just like what you watch during Shark Week. The sharks come out of nowhere and look like they're staring you down. I stayed under for about 20 minutes using a snorkel-esque apparatus to breathe. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Maybe when my mom comes...
Here are some pictures from a talent show, the concert, service, my "new normal."

Playing around with Rochelle at BCH.

Emily, Catherine, Bubbles, and me at Coldplay!

Me at my first "real" concert. Hard to beat Coldplay in a World Cup Stadium in CPT..

Chris Martin

BCH Ward 3 Talent Show. Jackson 5, Justin Bieber, Beyonce and more were featured!

Emily getting her hair done!!!

At Clifton Beach 4 with Lion's Head

Working on decorating the library table.

Shark + cage = surreal

 "Fish are friends, not food." "Sara and Brittany are friends, not food."

Naledi, from Zimbabwe, playing with my camera case. Better than my necklace, ring, watch, etc.

Sibongile attempting to climb the slide- a popular past time for the babies of BCH.

   

MIA in SA

     Sorry for the infrequent blog posts. I guess since my life here is normal, I don't know why people want to here about it! But then, a combination of a Facebook post from my mother (parents and fb-who thought it was a good idea?) and listening to various internet/technology problems, I remember: "I'm in Africa! I get to work with kids all the time! This is actually kind of interesting to people." At least, to people who have decided to read my blog, I mean.
     So, since my last post, more kids have been discharged from Brooklyn Chest. My capstone is to introduce an NGO that works with adult patients and life skills (If anyone knows of one, I would love some help!). I went to another soccer game. And, I spent a weekend in a township. Also, my friends have officially spread out across the globe. I have one in China, one in Jordan, one in France, some in Argentina, two in the UK, and some back home!
     Anyways, one of my kind brothers told me to put more pictures up and less words. So, I'll follow his advice.

Me with a penguin. I refer to all penguins here as Sparky, in honor of Willy's adopted penguin.

Emily, myself, Joel, and "Bubbles" (Laura) at the Greenpoint Stadium.

The group on our way to Cape Point, Africa's most south-western point. 

We made it! Our driver, Mark, is on the left, and Angela, our director, is on the right.

Enjoying the spring weather at Hudson's Burger Joint in City Center.

I buried Elzino in the sand.

The kids enjoying a rare trip outside of the hospital. For some, it was their first trip to a beach!

The school age kids and their nurses/doctors with Table Mountain in the background.

A cool Vespa.