Back to work!

The past few weeks have been amazing! Getting to know South Africa better with Dan :)

This weekend in De Doorns was quite an amazing experience!

For the planning side, it seemed the weekend would turn out to be pretty ordinary. We organized a 2-day meeting for capacity building for the newly formed CBO. I would take notes for the meeting, but for the most part it would be mainly the members of the CBO deciding where they wanted the organization to go and discussing how they would get there.

Little did I know it would be such a fantastic weekend! When we arrived Friday afternoon I was shocked at how big the garden had grown! The Maize was much taller than me and even Dan! So for the garden, it was a quite exciting weekend. Dan and I spent Saturday morning harvesting some of the vegetables; our first harvest!

Some of the veggies (mainly the radish) had been neglected and should have been harvested last week, but we were able to save a few that hadn't been attacked by little bugs/creatures. But the main harvest was the beetroot! I've never seen so many large & lovely beetroot! We harvested a good 10 or so, and left the rest to grow a bit more.
We also harvested some of the rocket to thin it out a bit and make room for the other leaves to grow in full. After the harvesting, we spent some time weeding to make sure the rest of the veggies could grow in peace.
It was a proud day in the garden!

Other than the garden it was a very exciting weekend having Dan there. I'm still pulling for him to write down his own experiences (hint hint hint)... but I'll give you an overview for now.

Friday night at the meeting, it was a very focused on the internal development of the group, so not much outside help could be given (I was even only there to take notes mainly). This is a good thing for the group, helping them learn to self-sustain, however it did mean there wasn't much for us to do during the meetings. So while I stayed to take notes, Dan went off exploring in the township. He got to wander around and get to know the area a bit, and even found a pub to explore. He's said that was quite an experience in itself, (getting patted down at the door, everyone staring at him when he walked in, ect.. but I'll let him fill you in later ), but he definitely got a feel for the township-- unlike any experience I've had yet!

So far in my visits to De Doorns I haven't had much of a chance to spend time exploring the township (other than our meetings and staying with my host family), even my host family insists that I don't walk back to the Church by myself in the mornings. So on Saturday while our CBO had their development meeting, it was a really great opportunity for both Dan and I to take some time to explore the area together. We wandered around a bit, and I took Dan to meet the family I stay with. We chatted there for a bit and he got to know them, showing off his Afrikaans with them a bit.

Afterwards, we continued our walk around town, getting a lot of waves & smiles & "hi"s from the little kids. We walked around a bit and one family that was listening to music and standing in their yard invited us in to sit and chat. They were very friendly and we got to know them a little bit. One girl had just had a baby (3 weeks old! about the same age as my niece!), and I chatted to her a bit. What a cute little baby! Dan sat and chatted with the older gentleman, who explained that the little kids were his grandkids, and that he had a daughter that would be perfect for Dan! Sadly he declined, informing the man that we were dating, but they seemed okay about it.

It was a pretty cool experience, and it seems like the best way to get to know the community is to just explore and spend time getting to know the people that live there. I am so grateful that Dan could come this weekend because with out him I never would have had the chance to explore (as my project manager is usually quite busy, and I'm told that I shouldn't explore on my own). Hopefully I can incorporate more explorations in the future weekends to come, but I am so grateful for the experience this weekend. I feel like I know the town a little better, and feel like less of an outsider.

What a great weekend, with a great guy :)

I'll write more soon!

Laura