SOUTH AFRICA!

Hello!

I have arrived safely in Cape Town! I cannot tell you how happy I am to be here! It is absolutely gorgeous and we are staying 2 blocks from the beach. But first, I will tell about the rest of China...

Our "rural" stay did not end up being rural at all. We drove about 30 minutes south of Changsha and stayed in a huge hotel (that may have also been a brothel!) where over 1 million people live. Apparently there was a huge misunderstanding between our faculty and the country coordinators over what rural means. In the end, it looks like we should have said we wanted to stay in the "countryside." During our stay we visited hospitals, schools and local centers but basically it was the same information we had received before. During this time we also had to write our culminating papers for China so everyone was very stressed and had to spend time writing. Because Josh (our faculty fellow who is 26 and travels with us) is amazing and felt sorry for us he organized for all of us to stay in a more remote location for our last night.

We arrived in a place that at least had a lake and some green space to walk around. We had a meeting right after we arrived when all of a sudden our country coordinator Mr. Li runs runs in and interrupts us. He announces there has been an emergency and that the local police our coming to our hotel. He then proceeds to tell us about how we must go back to our rooms lay out all our belongings on our beds and come back immediately to write a list of everything we posses. At this point we all start to worry a little bit because we had no idea what was going to happen. We all went back to our rooms and unpacked our bags (while stuffing our valuables into our pockets). When we went back to the meeting room Mr. Li told us we had to go outside and line up in two lines to be questioned about where we had been and who we had talked to since we arrived. At this point I got pretty nervous because I really had no idea what was going on and I didn't like the idea of being questioned. We went outside and lined up and as we were standing there waiting for the police Mr. Li shouts, "Aprils Fools!" It was great, we were all just laughing because we were so relieved. We found out later the reason Mr. Li had seemed really nervous was because it was the first time he had ever lied to anyone!

On Friday morning we woke up at 5 a.m. (after having gone to bed at 4 a.m.) and left for the airport. We took a one hour flight to Hong Kong where we got to spend the day. My friends, Mariam, Abby, Sami and I took a train from the airport into central Hong Kong island. The city was great and very modern looking with huge skyscrapers mixed with little markets and shops. In the city we met up with Abby's brother's girlfriend named Sarah who is living and working in Hong Kong as a stock trader at a big investment company. Sarah was so nice and took us to lunch at a restaurant called Life where we ate the most delicious sandwiches. We were all so thankful to have American food! After lunch we walked around and looked at some markets but I didn't end up buying anything. We also ate dinner with Sarah and then headed back to the airport. I am so glad I had the opportunity to see Hong Kong even for a day and it is somewhere that I would definitely like to go back to.

We took a 13 hour flight from Hong Kong to Johannesburg which is the longest flight I have ever been on but at least I was able to sleep for most of it! After that we had to take another 2 hour flight to Cape Town. In Cape Town we were picked up by Chris who is our country coordinator but also the program director. He is great and took us to an organic farm to eat lunch which was amazing after eating all oil in China.

Now, we are staying at a hostel in Sea Point (2 blocks from the beach!) just for 2 nights before we move in with our families. Cape Town is gorgeous with dramatic mountains and beautiful beaches. The weather here is great, sunny but not to hot. This morning we woke up and had a great breakfast of eggs and french toast right on the beach, it felt like vacation! Now, we are going to do a little shopping and check out some sites. I am so excited to be here and really looking forward to the next 5 weeks.

On Monday we move into the Bo Kaap which is a working middle class neighborhood where mostly Muslim families live. I can't wait.

Please feel free to send me an e-mail anytime, I will try to respond if time allows!

Love,
Barbara