upon wakie wakie…where am I? :)

Ok…so it’s 7:30am on the 25th…merry, merry!

Ha! I awoke at 7:30—kind of ironic since we left for activities in Durban, Cape Town at 7:30 or 8am…my body kind of familiar with that timing for now…folks, we still had some routines way half across the world even though we weren’t in our daily California routines.

So long story, but my dad flew from San Francisco to pick me up from airport. Wanted to be there at arrival time. My sister met us after she had a battery prob with car. Geez louise…nice to have my family be there even with so much going on. We went immediately to an Italian food place close by…and couldn’t believe the service of the waiter! (joke for south africa compadres..) Not used to so many interruptions during conversating too (every 15 min. in S.A. versus 3-5 min here) :) We learned about South African time very quickly~! And I learned so…much about just flowin’ with it.

So after luncharino, my sister drove us back to airport. My dad and I took a shuttle back down to South OC since his car’s up in San Fran. So the shuttle driver was craazy…had to be directed on half of destinations…I miss Sharky and Aaron, Shakhile…our resident S.A. drivers :)

No picky up mail, cking stuff at home for me. Just at Dad’s still. It’s pretty quiet right now on this holiday morning. I’m about ten minutes away from my little abode. It was nice to see the ocean sparkle this morn. Oh, I wish it was as warm as the Indian ocean though…so amazed we were all swimming in it!! Even the van drivers who took us on safari did—-brent and peter? And some got thrown into the mix as well :)

Wow. It will probably be a little different with my days not filled with sixteen other peeps around each corner. Michele and I talked on this. It’s so nice to have community and we have this with family, friends, but in villages like Zulu and just local towns, people see each other every day…so some of that’s natural, but probably took some adjusting to for all of us. But I enjoyed counting and seeing if everyone’s with us and I dunno…some comfort in knowing all seventeen was there at times. There were times when we split off into fours and such for shopping,etc and that was nice too to have smaller groups interacting as well. For instance, groups of us went places, but Angela and I for example were talking to a woman about some cool, designed pillowcases…meanwhile, Mike, Luke, Jason were in other room filled with drums and testing them in order to purchase. Some for street kids we played drums with, one for mike after all. Katie got one too but beforehand.

When we arrived at LAX, that song was in my head, “California, knows how to party!”…so I guess California is a welcoming. But I have to say, California’s got nothin’ on Cape Town. It was like Mardi Gras there minus the beads and the flashing. And it was nice to hang out with our group at nite…not partying per say…just going to eat at Indian Restaurant, walking to Internet cafe, and our dinner/dancing at Ma Ma Africa with operatic drummers. Such awesome moments. Living in each moment…such an awesome lesson. My heart is full for Africa and all fellow S.A. volunteers and now all of u to share our incredible time.

Love and happy xmas wishes!!
Gianna (home from my home away from home)