Monday 2/14

Happy Valentine’s Day! It was the first day of school and Shawn and I only had one class. It was the Service Learning class workshop that we have every other Monday. It went from 9 until noon. While there we discussed poverty and what it looks like in different places around the world.  I felt more fortunate than I ever have when I thought about poverty in small town Iowa compared to not only Africa but other places in the US and Europe. It was really eye-opening to realize that I really know nothing about poverty in the world. We also had a women from the HIV/Aids unit come and talk to us. To say the statistics are overwhelming is an understatement. It is one thing to talk about Aids in the US or even to talk about the situation in Africa but it is completely different to actually be in the country that is experiencing it firsthand. We also signed up for our service project. Shawn and I are both going to Zanethemba Baby Haven every Thursday. We had orientation that day at 2:15. We sat and waited for our bus and then began our first day of volunteering. It was amazing. We learned a little about the home and how it was started from the “house father” and then had some time with the kids outside. I am going to do another complete post about Zanethemba so more to come about that later. Once we got back Shawn went to Spar (the supermarket) and got some stuff to make dinner.  We had pasta with sauce, salad and garlic bread. He also bought me some beautiful Valentine’s flowers. We spent the night inside eating dinner and hanging out. It was nice to be back after the crazy weekend and long day running around campus.