A Day in the Life of Ubuntu

Whoa! How did 2 (almost 3) weeks fly by so quickly? My last post was a bit emotional for me and hard to share but I'm grateful for the positive and encouraging feedback from family, friends and even people I've never met.

This post is just to catch you all up on what I've been up to since moving to Vtown, which Vereeniging is affectionately called by most of the locals.

Good Morning, Gunk,  and God

Most of my mornings begin at 5am. I wipe the gunk out of my eyes and realize I'm up an hour before my alarm is supposed to go off. I begin to rationalize to myself how sleeping another 40-50 minutes will really benefit me. I usually vaguely remember how hard it was for me to get up the previous day when I faced this very same dilemma. I look back down at my watch. Crap. That argument I just had with myself took 20 minutes. How did that happen? What do I do... What do I do????

Haha I have always had this problem. It is not specific to my time here in South Africa. However, that is where the similarities to my day ends.

Once I finally drag myself out of bed, I try to start my day with mediation and prayer. This is something I have always tried to do but normally I'd hit the snooze button one too many times and I'd end up running around the house like a chicken with my head cut off (I need to post about how one of our chickens did end up running around the house... funny story)... Well, if I don't post about it now I probably never will. One of my roommates was home alone and heard a loud banging noise. Now imagine being in this big house with too many doors and windows to count and you are alone and hear banging that is coming from inside the house. My roommate grabbed a knife and tipped toed around the corner to find our biggest chicken, we named him snow shoe freddie, running around the living room. Haha! Good times.

Once I finish my meditation/prayer I have a sort of check list that I consult before I leave the house. It looks something like this:

Freedom

Blogging is a lot harder than it looks. As always I have no idea where to begin. However, I cant keep letting that be a road block that stops me from writing. So I will just write what I wrote down in my journal yesterday. So here goes. Don't judge me, just love me. 

Taken outside of the Apartheid Museum

2.08.2014

I received this journal in Dec 2013. It was a going away gift from my two best friends. This journal is meant to document my journey to South Africa. My journey to discover the roots of my father, and the struggle of my people. Today is my first entry. I've been living in South Africa for two weeks. Until now I havent been able to fully comprehend the magnitude of this trip. It wasn't until sitting in the middle of the apartheid museum looking at the "life under apartheid" exhibit that I felt the weight of sadness, confusion and anguish that the discriminated people of the world must have all endured during their time of persecution. Still to this day remnants of racial superiority rears its ugly head in this country and in many others.

Dumelang

Dumelang (Sotho for Hello All) from Pretoria

 <3 After a month of traveling around the US, I finally made it to Africa. I have limited internet access right now but just wanted to let you know I made it here safely! God is good!

One week til take off

A week from today I fly to Johannesburg, South Africa. I leave on Friday, but I wont get there until Sunday! That's two days of FLYING! OY! I think I am still in denial that this is real life. Like I am going to wake up in a few hours and realize I dreamed this whole thing up!

Until Then
I'm currently sitting in the SL, UT (do you see what I did there? Salt Lake, Utah haha! I know I'm a weirdo) International Airport with 2 hours til take off! I'm headed to Hawaii to visit my sister Zuri. She has been teaching there with Teach For America for the last two years. Our youngest sister, Jasmine is meeting us there tomorrow. I am super excited! I've never been to Hawaii before and this trip will bring my count to 28 states out of 50! One of my 30 before 30 goals is to hit all 50 states! I have a lot of traveling to do in the next 4 years!


Nomad Diaries ( NY-DC-NC-SC-FL-NC-UT-HI)
It has been a month since I moved out of New York and started on my nomadic tour of the US. I started out my tour in DC to visit grandparents, friends and sorority sisters. I took the megabus for a dollar! (www.megabus.com) Then I made my way by amtrak to Durham, NC to visit my mom, sisters, and high school friends. After three days, my family hopped in an SUV and we drove down to Columbia, SC for Christmas with my mom's boyfriend's family. The day after Christmas, I boarded a 12 hour amtrak train to Tampa, FL to spend the New Year with my boyfriend and his family. Two weeks later, I took a 15 hour train ride back to NC to meet up with a friend from grad school (GO FSU) , go through my storage unit, pack for South Africa, celebrate my mom's birthday, and have a reunion with my best friends from undergrad (UNCG!).

Packing
Tired yet? I was! Thank God for Jasmine. The night before I left for Utah, she helped me pack for 4 days in Utah, a week in Hawaii, and 9 months in South Africa. Let me tell you, she is a packing nazi! Every time I picked up a cute shirt, scarf, or skirt...

Her: "How many times are you going to wear that?"
Me: "Hmmm (counting in my head)..."
Her: "Nope, you don't even know. It stays."

This went on until the wee hours of the morning! But thanks to her, I had one carry on with all of my hawaii and utah stuff, two checked bags weighing under 40 lb. each for South Africa, and a magic purse (that's what I call oversized purses that seem to have no bottom)! What???? Thanks again Jazzy!

Utah
Ok, so where were we? Oh yeah, Utah! The last few days have been amazing! I got to reconnect with my maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and my awesome cousins! As the oldest cousin, it's pretty incredible to come back  and see all of the great things they are doing with their lives. My cousin Spencer just celebrated his birthday and his first week at college. My cousin Brigham just got back from his mission in Argentina. And my cousin Ian is balancing a research assistantship, teaching assistantship, an internship, 18 hours of graduate level classwork, and his honors thesis. Oh, did I mention he is an undergraduate? What!?! Lol needless to say I am super proud of all of them! Special shout out to my cousin, Taylor, who is serving his mission in Mexico! I definitely missed him this trip.

 One week til take off
Last month my checklist had about 50 things on the list. Now it's down to 3! I'm all packed, tickets have been purchased, housing has been secured (http://www.ayumu.co.za/pages/gallary.html), international phone has been purchased, and blog is finally up an running (thanks for reading)! The last few things are: 1. VISA (OY!) but don't worry, I talked to the consulate on Wednesday. It will be in Hawaii by Monday. 2. Take lots of photographs in Hawaii 3. Do Yoga on the Beach! Hehe, I know my life is super stressful right now!

Time to Board
That's all I got for now! I will post more once I'm in Hawaii! I promise to upload pictures in the future! Until then check out my most recent FB photo album Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014

Peace and Love,

Esty

(P.S. Please excuse the grammar errors! I will do my best to edit in the future!)

Vereeniging, South Africa

In exactly two months, January 27th, 2014, I will start my Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in South Africa. I will be living, teaching and conducting research in Vereeniging, South Africa (an hour south of Johannesburg) until October 2014.

                                   


Orientation:

There are 10 of us that were selected to head to SA at the end of January. All of whom I got to meet at our Pre-Departure Orientation in June 2013. We attended a week long orientation at Marymount University in VA. The group is full of incredibly motivated, creative and hard working individuals with academic and career interests that are vast and diverse, ranging from International Education, Dance, Storytelling, Foreign Policy, Youth Development, Holistic Health, and Critical Pedagogy. I'm excited to work with my fellow scholars as well as begin lifelong friendships. 

What I'll be doing:

Four of us will be living in Vereeniging and working at Sedibeng College for Further Education and Training. The college has four campuses and we will work in pairs at two of the campuses.

http://www.sedcol.co.za/  (In case you are interested to learn a little more about the school)

We will be responsible for organizing English Language enrichment activities, maintaining the libraries, which were just created this past year, teaching English classes and implementing our own personal projects as well.

Two Fulbright ETAs were working with this school over the last year and the amount of projects they created and implemented are a bit intimidating, but I'm excited for the challenge!

For my own personal project, I really want to work with young women at the school on leadership development and mentorship. I would love to implement a program where the women at the school reached out to girls in the surrounding high schools and offered mentorship, guidance, tutoring and support.