July 8-10

Already Wednesday – a week ago, I was sitting in London Airport, wondering what I was getting into.  Now I am sitting in the living room of my house, typing up another journal entry and amazed at all I have learned/experienced in the past few days.  South Africa is a beautiful country, but its people have a hard life.  There is not much money and there is also the prevalence of Aids.

Monday and today I worked at the college.  I edited two ‘study guides’.  These are module books that are going to be used by students who are studying in groups that are not located at the college.  These groups will watch a DVD and follow along with the study guides.  In the end, they will receive the same certificates/diplomas as if they had been in the program.  Over the last five or so years, 26 distance programs have been set up. 

Ohh, gotta go – my water is boiling and I need to wash my dishes. 

And I’m back.  The hot water is working right now, but it is not hot enough to wash the grease off from making hamburger for tacos. 

As I was saying, 26 distance groups have been set up.  IN this way, the impact of Mukhanyo reaches far beyond the property lines.  Over the last few days, as I mentioned I edited two modules (about 75, 000 words x 2 since I read them twice to make sure). 

When working at Mukhanyo, there is a lot of laughter.  Sometimes I don’t quite get what’s going on, but other times, it can be quite funny.  I had one guy tell me that the reason black people are so black is that they don’t like water as much as we do!!  So far, I have met people from Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Holland, Canada, and Malawi since coming here. 

Yesterday, I did not go to Mukhanyo since I did not have a ride.  It ended up being a quiet day as there was no one on the farm either.  I was told not to worry about safety as there is no risk and so I didn’t (for the most part J).  There are two dogs which are quite protective of the yard and the caretaker of the farm. 

I have a few pictures, but I’m hoping to take quite a few more so you can get a better idea of what things are like here.  Although I already know, it won’t be the same as living here.