[Bulk] How's it?
(Friday, September 30, 2005 7:04 AM)

Hope everyone is as lively as when I was there. This is going to be a long update because I havent written for a lon time.

Basically school is going great. Getting us to everything. I finally am use to the fact that we have peacocks everywhere. Still don't have any of my texts books because I have just recently discovered that the Rotary Clubs don't cover that.

I have just experienced what many of the exchange students talked about. Little sleep and a lot of hard work.

On Friday, Jen (my fourth host family sister) and I went to a lesson at the circus. No we did not put our heads into the mouths of the lions or dressed up as clowns.

Basically to get use to everyone we started to learn how to juggle. I have never been good at that skill and I blame the school system for not teaching me. Jen also had some difficulties.

Then we were introduced to balancing balls. They look like medicine balls except for the fact that they are really big and made out of hard material. We were expected to go on top of these things and balance for as long as you can. I have extremely large feet so getting on was a difficulty. We were told that we had to just shuffle side to side so that the ball just rocks but does make us tip over because of our weight. Well I really didn't understand shuffling very slightly so I sort of fell off.

We then were introduced to the more fancy stuff. We were placed on the trapeze. Technique is essential, basically if we didn't fallow (like pointing our toes) we would get yelled at and told to do it over and over again. We were taught how to do that sausage, angle and the spits in the air. After about 15 minutes on the trapeze you start to feel in in your arms, abs and at the back of you knees (from all of the pressure).

Next we were introduced to the tight rope. A skill I believe you are born with and if you aren't you will never have. I manage to make it to the middle, but that rope shags so you get all wobbly and fall off.

Our final class was on the high rings. All the skills we were taught on the trapeze were now being introduced to the ring shape. We thought that the bars across our bums was bad try something that is very thin and is metal. It is even harder to hang on to.

During this all the lessons we were all watching a little girl who they used as a demonstration. She kept on asking why we couldn't do what she was capable of doing. Since she is still very young she don't understand that weight and height is a large factor to why we couldn't do everything they were telling us. Instead of telling her, Jen and I decided to tell her that we didn't want to show off and that we were the best at these kind of tricks. We told her we would show her sometime soon.

Then on Saturday morning, Carl (my host brother) and I had to wake up early to go down to Edenvale for the Rotex Soccer Tournament Fundraiser. Since I was not absolutely sure that I was going to go until later I was not technically placed on a team. I was told by Carl that he would find me a team. Well he has a tendency when girls are around to ignore everyone. So I had to take matters into my own hands because I didn't want to be stuck all day in the sun with nothing to do. So then I asked around and found out that one of the Rotary Clubs needed another player because their exchange student didn't want to play. The team was called the Black Nights (courtesy of Monty Python) and was made up of the Edenvale Rotary Club. For a team with an average age of about 45, we ended up winning 2 and tieing 2 giving us a fourth place finish!!! It was a great event.

Thaigo the exchange student from Brazil came home with us because I invited him to a Rotary function with my club. The fundraiser was called Sports and Music trivia. I manage to get one of the Rotarian's to sponsor a table so that my school would be able to get involved and in the end get their parents to join. Basically how the night worked was a music company called BMG came and had everyone in teams by tables. We were tested on movies by clips, song title acronym etc. The bad part of having a table full of friends your age is that most of the questions were on things that were way before the time our parents were even married. We ended up 10th our of 14 tables; so that has to be some prize for that. After the dinner and game we had a disco dance until early morning. It was a nice evening that made a lot of money.

The Sunday morning I was placed on clean up duty at the hall. This meant that I had to wake up really really to clean up most of the mess.

After the clean up I had to heard out into Alberton for my soccer game. I ended up scoring 4 goals in the first game against the 2nd place team and then was asked to play another game and scored 2 goals. In the end we won both, so exciting even though I have really bad turf burn now.

On Tuesday a bunch of my school mates invited me to an aerobic class in Meyerton Gym. Boy do I have no coordination when it comes to stepping on steps, moving your arms and then having to move around the step, but was the instructor cute. He had these muscular legs that whenever one of us got lost we just stood and watch them. Most of the ladies attending the class where doing the same. The next day I was invited again to the gym but for a Tia Bo lesson, now that was a bit easier because you just needed to use your arms and legs no spinning.

On Thursday I was given the opportunity from one of the Rotarian to go back into Soweto with two of his daughters. This time the experience was a lot better because you got to travel deeper into Soweto to the areas most tourist cannot go unless you have connections. Every single settlement family I went to visit welcomed me in and offered me so many things. They were really kind. I got to taste Majukathata a mealies type of popcorn which is coloured with different fruit flavours. On of the Spaza Shops (Make Believe in Zulu) offered me this as a taste. Then I went to tom's niece's (Lehlo) house where her mom brought me to the places where the poor work on there bead work and wood so that they can make money. While I was visiting one of the families offered me Amagwinya or Fat Cakes for me to sample. They were really good, and when I told them that a bunch of the women kept on giving me more so that I could taste there recipes.

You know how I said that I went to Baragwanath Hospital last time but only saw the outside, well this time I got to go inside. No cameras or recording devices where allowed in so I couldn't show you how devastating this place is. It may how the best doctors in the Southern Hemisphere but they don't have enough room for how many people are rushing in. The premises of the place is large, basically it looks like a town on its own. It was built to be a military base that is why. Tom had some connections in the Causality Ward so we went in. There were so many people and not enough room. There were people with broken arms and legs still waiting to be seen and I saw one that was getting into the state of shock. There was a huge line with people holding there own X-rays and others who were sitting on the chairs holding there own iv bags. In Canada we complain about our system of emergency but really was nothing compared to this.

To end on a happy note I went to the Soweto festival at the Elkah Stadium. I saw the South African version of Sesame Street and got to go around see the different cultural stands.The day was really nice but tiring.

Later that night I called my sister because it was her Birthday!! SO happy yo speak to her.

Thanks for reading this,

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Bounmy Inthavong