Month one.

I think this pic has been posted, but it's my favorite so here it is again.
The four of us left our humble and comfortable lives in sunny Southern California for a country that which I've heard 3 common themes from; the highest HIV/AIDS cases in the world, the highest crime rate in the world and great surf accompanied with the most sharks in the world. Those are some excellent selling points if you ask me! I was asked 100 times if I was nervous and the answer was always no. I can't lie and say I was not a little unsettled and anxious, but it always just felt like I already knew what we were going to do and it was just a matter of carrying out the act. I am more nervous now with the knowledge of what needs to be done upon returning home to truly make this project a success than I was before I left. The four of us have talked about this trip for the last 8 months or so and it has always been the same, "let's just take it as it comes and let everything work itself out." There were huge ups and tough lows we had to face in preperation, but everything seemed to fall into place at the last minute and we never lost faith. A month now has passed since we waved goodbye to Sky Harbour and set off onto what for the most part was a leap into the dark. After what seemed like a blink of an eye in London, we were right back on the flying British Vessel en route to Johannesburg without even a place to spend the night for our over night layover. This over night layover turned out to be the first of many unforgettable stories. We arrived in Joburg around maybe 7pm wearing shorts and tees and stepped out onto what I was sure was the tarmac somewhere in Antarctica. I thought to myself, "maybe the pilot took a wrong turn." When I hear Africa, the last thing I think of is freezing cold weather, but that's exactly what we got, 3 degrees celcius! Once we reached baggage claim we found a very helpful man and asked if he knew of any accomodations we could take advantage of near the airport for our one night in Joburg. He was quite convincing from what I could understand when he told us that all hotels were booked, but he knows of a beautiful "guest lodge" (aka someone's house) we can stay the night at and not only is it less than a 5 minute drive from the airport, but they will pick us up and drop us off! We were too tired and jet lagged to shop around so we set off in a mini van onto the highway... Well about 15 minutes into the "5 minute" drive, the 4 of us all started to silently question what we got ourselves into. 5 minutes later when we are turning onto a dirt road and heading into a neighborhood with nothing but homes, I think we all started to really dislike our decission not to shop around... Once we saw a garage open and us begin to pull into that garage I think we all said a silent prayer and tried to pretended like it was no big deal. After all was said and done the house turned out to be pretty comfortable, we had 2 rooms in the back and Scott and Darryl slept like babies. John and I however, had a broken heater, broken tv and a sliding door that didn't lock. Even though I was more tired than I can recall ever being, I still stayed up late into the night with my 3 inch pocket knife on my bedside table listening to what was no doubtly dog fighting matches in a park across the highway and endless drag races. The host in the house made us a nice breakfast in the morning and got us to the airport with plenty of time to spare and just like that our adventure was off! Leaving Los Angeles, we had little communication with anyone in South Africa, I wasn't even totally convinced Scott and I didn't get conned out of an $800 deposit for our accomedations untill we had the keys in hand! Once we arrived and got settled, everything seemed to come almost too smoothly. The 4 of us got into a groove and got on with what we set out to do. We visited the Servite missions, saw endless African countryside, delved into the African culture (both Afrika'ans and Zulu), ate local food, made new friends and even surfed twice now! This past month has flown by in what seems like no more than a week and sadly, Scott and myself had to see Darryl and John off just a couple days ago. We have seen some things that would make you cringe, some things that would make you cry and no doubtly some of the most amazing things you could imagine. When the 4 of us sat and watched the children at one of the scools do their traditional African dance, not a single one us spoke, just smiled and took it all in. Watching them so happy to dance and sing was a picture we will never forget. Most of the kids in that room have either lost one or both parents, friends, or family members, most likely lives in a house the size of many of your closets, eats one meal a day, walks about a mile to and from school and who knows what other unimaginable experiences- or all of them! Even with everything they are going through, they yelled, danced and smiled like the richest and happiest kids in the world. Just seeing this scene made the entire trip worth it. I knew going into this knowing there was going to be horrific disparities in every aspect of our trip and even with this knowledge I was still shocked. As cliche as it may sound, you can see stuff like you see here on a television all day long, but it doesn't really hit you untill you see it in person. Seeing exactly how good each and every person reading this truly has it in comparrison makes it almost an insult to complain about anything. I'm not saying anyone's life is easy, but some of the people here live a life that makes me feel like the most spoiled person alive. One month in South Africa with another month ahead of us. South Africa is a beautiful country with endless potential, but there is also just as many hurdles. There is a common phrase I've heard numerous times since I've been here, 'T.I.A.' This short phrase is used in times of triumph, glory, dispare, pride, hatred, disgust, sadness or hapiness. 'T.I.A.' is both a possitive and a negative. I've only been here a month and I already understand exactly what they mean when they say 'T.I.A.'- THIS IS AFRICA.

-R