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Published: February 3rd 2009
So, in Grabouw with Nthabi so that I can send mum my police report for insurance a la watch and phone. Might need to come back in in a few days, because of this murderous cough, its not good man. But all is still happy in SA :D
Ansis, our lovely cook lady up here, bought me and Iona ice-cream and crisps when we were last in!! People generally here are so nice. Reporting the watch/phone was so funny, they had to go through 3 different officers until they got one who could understand me!! It was ridiculous. Got Nthabi to get Iona a cake, so we had that at night and sung happy birthday and I got her a special edition National Geographic magazine, South African Edition, with a special feature on Paris, which she loves, was well happy to find it!! Arty, Maria and a new volunteer with Project Trust called Natasha arrived, she's from Dunfermline and has a stronger Scottish accent than me, its fantastic!! She's really nice and down to earth, and the same age as us. I love meeting all these new people. A lady called Fuller also arrived, who will be course co-ordinating with Nthabi. She's really interesting, and seems to have done so much with her life already. There's people here that I really feel like I could learn things from. Arty has his massive speakers up, so at night when there's nothing to do (the course got cancelled) we just rave on the porch, its fantastic.
Went running on Sun morning with Iona, to the abseil and back, was good. Fuller and Maria taught us some knots and the climbing set-up - glad we're finally learning stuff, but in the heat it gets so tiring, and because you're sitting around a lot it can be a tad boring, but its totally worth it. Finally got round to cutting a hole in my iPod cover, so I can actually move the click-wheel easily now!! Wandered about and found some really nice sports on the nature reserve (its called Hottentotsholland Nature Reserve) and talked to a couple of the locals, they're so interested in what we're doing, its really nice. They have dogs though, that tend to go mental as we pass, apparently they will bite if they get at us :p I got a text off one of the other Project Trust volunteers who I've not met yet, called James, which was nice - will meet him today or tomorrow hopefully. There are still so many staff I've not met!!
Yesterday, we got taught the abseil set-up - similar kind of day to the previous - and got shown the z-lock, but can't really remember it :S had a really interesting conversation with Fuller and Maria (who is German) about Hitler, and Aparthaid :p was interesting to hear other people's takes on it. Went for a nice run down to the dam, then tried to actually go right down and got stuck, had to treck through really high plants to get out!! In the evening me and Iona and Arty and Natasha explored the hills behind the community a bit, and I took some pictures, was nice.
I really hope this cough clears up, I don't want it to stop me doing anything!! Going to learn how to roll a kayak (hopefully) this afternoon, and actually going to Potch on Friday (19 hour bus journey...) will hopefully get a chance to update soon, but possibly won't for a while.
Love you all so much!! (Also, you should see my tan, its hilarious, knee downwards, and face and neck, and arms - the "Outward Bound tan" apparently!! :D xxxxxxxxxxx
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Morag
non-member comment
Wow
Goodness you've been busy. And I'm well impressed you've found time to write about it all. That takes some dedication. Hope you keep it up, it's really interesting to hear all about what you're up to. Very proud of you. Love you lots and I'll definitely phone you when I get back. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx