Greetings from Joburg!

So, it's 9:17pm here, and I'm using what little internet time I've got to keep everyone at home posted.

Tonight is my night to blog on the WOCO blog, but I completely forgot the username and don't know who has that information at the moment. So, lucky I've got my own blog, I guess.

I'll try to be brief, since I only have 9 minutes left before this thing kicks me off :)

This trip has changed me in so many ways. I feel so blessed to have had this opportunity. I think you find out a lot about yourself when you step out of your comfort zone. And this trip has definitely been that. I've tried a variety of things I've never eaten before (including mussles, squid, ostrich and as of today, crocodile) and I've learned a ton about the many different cultures here.

They aren't kidding when they call this the Rainbow Nation. There is so much variety here - they have 11 different official languages. I can speak one of them (English) understand bits and pieces of another (Afrikaans)and enjoy sitting back and listening to the others. I feel like my eyes have been opened to so much more in the past few days than they were from years of living in my own country.

So, today's agenda:

We got up at 4:45 (ugh) to a stormy sky for a morning safari. The thunder last night was so loud! It sounded like the sky would rip in two. I got up and went to the door and listened to the animals outside. The frogs were making music.
It rained on our safari and most of us got wet. The seats were pretty soaked, and so were our butts :)
But we did see Giraffes today, among other things. It basically completed everything I wanted to see. (I'll give you a full list when I have more time!) Some girls were lucky enough to see two male Lions snacking on a Wildebeast, but I was not one of them.

Luckily, the weather cleared up. We were treated to an awesome breakfast after the Safari, and then we headed out. We drove about 1 1/2 hours to a cultural village called Lesidi (which means light) They had walk through villages of the Zulu, Bashoto, Xhosa and Pedi tribes. Everyone was in authentic clothes and we were taught several phrases for each language. After walking through, we watched a number of traditional dances done by the people there. During the Zulu dance, they all kicked so high that they touched their foreheads. Wowza.
We were given plenty of shopping time, and then we were driven to Petoria for a quick photo op at the spot where Nelson Mandela was was inaugerated. Amazing.

Since then, we've had time at our hotel. It's a nice way to relax after a long couple of days. Tomorrow we visit the Soweto district (South Western Townships) of Johannesburg. It should be really eye opening.

Love to all!

Lauren