hlabisa... finally

feeding on the familiarity of malawi, ive left joburg and am living - for a short while - im hlabisa, south africa. it is north east from durban in kwa-zulu natal... really hilly, really green, really far from parkhurst.

parkhurst was, and continues to be, a learning experience. i think ive said this a million times but it was out of my element and showed maybe the future of where i need to take ETFL... its a slightly grey looking future of annual reports, corporate relationships and other things less exciting than field work but its an inevitable part, i suppose.

hlabisa has been more field work which is loads more fun. im only here for a week right now but have gathered a host of ideas that i'll bring back to ghana.

i spend a lot of time kicking around the KZN branch of cotland's orphanage (where i was in joburg for a bit). the area has a good amount of child-headed househoulds and the approach to this is different. there are a series of caregivers who visit the houses regularly, making sure that the children have the supplies they need. the cotlands feeding program goes to these kids specifically, dropping off lunches for them at school (not taking on entire schools). they are lucky enough to have an exit strategy for feeding programs as well... the SA government will absorb schools bit by bit. 2 entire high schools were absorbed this week and now every child there gets a hot meal each day. i will hopefully come back to learn more how the government monitors the schools' progress etc.

the pace out here is slower and faster than joburg. i feel like i spend a lot of time not doing much more than talking... nice thing is that i am removed enough from the program that you get relatively candid descriptions of the positives and negatives of feeding, management and life... that role was one i used to have in the camp but i feel like i have lost it over the past almost two years for good and bad reasons.

ive spent a bit of time learning about the more "manly" projects that they guys have been working on. building roofs, installing water collection things etc. i'm not particularly helpful here beyond weaving grass bracelets for them... but i am hoping to carry back some of these projects to the camp so that i can stop buying water. more on that to come later though..

outside of work ive been hanging around with a few friends who have been fantastic about showing me the ropes. driving around and having mini tailgate parties are huge here, especially on wednesdays. bit uneasy being the only girl that does this but, it wears off. 2 friends also took us to a zulu wedding on the weekend which was pretty cool to watch. driving to it included a quick trip through a game reserve in the back of a pickup full of whisky - a combo that i think could make anyone pretty pleased.

heading up to mozambique tomorrow for a few days before two of the guys go home, then mumsy is coming over to south africa to see what all the hype is about!