One week and many miles in...

Hello all,

I'm writing from the small town of Waterval Boven - meaning "Above the Waterfall" in Afrikaans. A little hostel here is where we spend the first two weeks, doing orientation, rock-climbing, and having our first classes.

It doesnt quite feel yet like we're in Africa. But the sun sets blazing orange each day over burnt mountains that look soft with their dried grass, and we hike through the township to get to the climbing sites - giant castles of sandstone that shoot straight up (or down, I should say) into a valley. Along one of the canyon walls plummets a 300 foot waterfall that can be seen from all around, and lends itself to greening the base of the valley that is ringed in reds and browns and oranges.

We have thirteen girls who so far have been up for anything on this trip. They have been absolutely astonishing - climbing for four hours on vertical cliffs for the first time ever in their lives, then hiking out over a rugged trail, then greeting passers-by in Swazi "Sawubona!", then tolerating getting laughed at by 8 year olds when they try. They've weathered the "Cabbage Challenge" (a physical challenge that acts out the old tiger, rabbit, cabbage riddle using a kayak and a river)...my group's tiger, rabbit, cabbage, and group members all ended up soaked in the middle of the river - much to the mirth of the crowd of South Africans watching from the bridge above. They've rappelled down a 150 foot cliff, hiked to the base of a waterfall, jumped into frigid water yelling "Carpe Diem" and "when are we ever going to get a chance to do something like this again?"...They've painted themselves in mud, and even been forced in to bragging about themselves a bit (which, it turns out, is hard to get teenage girls to do).

And ofcourse, they've had classes. Its hard to imagine those on top of the intense physical activity they're doing - but they manage to do it. Our languages class is studying Swazi and Afrikaans - they're interviewing townspeople, and learning all about linguistics and endangered languages. In Math Applications we're talking about goal-setting, making your money work for you, and budgeting.Yes, laugh your heads off, all of you, I am teaching budgeting. We've been working at putting together a mind-blowing Global Studies curriculum, which has been challenging has its co-taught by all four of us, who have very different backgrounds and opinions as to how it should all go - but I think if and when we work through that, we'll be creating something awesome.

Its been a great first week. Its sometimes daunting to think about sustaining this energy for 8 months...but its also intoxicating.

Anyway, thats the brief intro - more soon...

Much love,

Heather