some thoughts:

sometimes utter peace and the feeling of contentment and closeness with God comes at unusual times. last night i was sitting in the backseat of out our toyota condor, surrounded by shopping bags and munching on KFC, pondering what a different life it is here. i am struck by how little i miss home. i miss people and certain things about home, but this place has started to feel more authentic in so many ways than the home that i have always known.

the culture here is warm and generous. i have never experienced generosity this way before. what strikes me is how little these people have yet how much of it they give away. whenever we are out driving and see homeless people, everyone in the car immediately assesses what we have that we can give them (we give out food, not money). this is unusual for me after living my whole life trying to avoid eye contact and pretending not to see these people in need. 

tonight i stood in line behind an elderly woman who was only buying two items: corn flakes and milk. i wondered how many people she was going to try to feed with that. when i first arrived here i was confused about why the checkout lines at the stores were so slow. i have finally realized that they are so slow because more often than not, the shopper in line ahead of me has a declined credit card or not enough money, so they have to begin the process of deciding what to put back. i have never experienced that in my life. granted, i would not consider myself "rich", yet i have never had to worry about having enough money to pay for my groceries. 

we were shopping at a "mall" in hammersdale (poor area) and i realized that i was the only white person in the whole mall. mbali was very impressed with me though as i managed to greet as well as say thank you in zulu. several security guards asked me how i was "being treated in their country"-- mbali found this very amusing and she would laugh and jabber something back in rapid zulu. i have decided that mbali could charm absolutely ANYONE into doing ANYTHING for her. i determined this when i walked out of my house this morning and saw the entire group of maintenance men (4-5) standing around trying to fix her hair straightener! i just about died laughing! and i'm sure she somehow made them feel like they were saving the day.

in other news, due to the severe shortage of volunteers, i have decided to start driving the car during my last few weeks here. i was never opposed to the idea of driving, however, initially we had so  many volunteers who knew where everything was so there was just no need for me to drive. today i had my "drive test" with one of the women on staff here. i felt like i was 16 again! it went great except for the fact that i have a bit of trouble with this whole concept of being on the wrong side of the road and trying to shift with my left hand.. she was somehow impressed and gave me permission to drive. hopefully i will have passengers who will remind me of which side of the road i need to stay on!