Peanut Butter and Tomatoes????

Hey so I am safely in Pietermaritzburg!!! So my connections from Paris to here were quite eventful and are forming up into a pretty crazy story. Anyways Yes I am here safely but without any of my luggage. This is day two here in PMB. I am betting that I smell pretty funky (Since I have been travelling in this same outfit since Tuesday. Thank God that I remembered to toss an extra tee shirt into my carryon luggage.). So anyways stories about travelling.
So From Paris to here we took one of the really really big two floor jets! And it was a very empty flight so unlike my flight from Detroit to Paris, I was able to really sleep well. I had three whole seats to myself so I was able to lie down. Also I bought two 1L water bottles and drank them throughout the flight. Then I arrived in Johannesburg which was alright, our flight was about 2 hours late in arriving so by the time I got through the Visa check point (which went by rather quickly) I went to wait on my luggage. So I went to the carousel and slowly one of my bags shows up. It was the one with pots, and pans, and the majority of my clothes (Pants, shirts, sweaters,) and several other major items like a towel, shoes, etc... Throughout my waiting for my other Bag I heard them calling something that sounded like a very weird pronunciation of my last name, but they didn’t call my first name so I was confused about it. While I was waiting there my other bag didn’t show up. They took me over to the counter where they said that they were calling me because my other Bag did not show up in Johannesburg. For those of you wondering what pray tell was in that bag well it had all of my plates and bowls, utensils, knives and other kitchen things, almost all of my tee shirts and all of my boxers, and socks. They told me that it was left in Paris and they were going to transfer it all the way to Pietermaritzburg by way of Durban. But they needed me to have a contact number or an address. Which I didn’t really have either.

Then I had to rush with my one bag that I did have. So by the time I left the luggage counter I had a porter grab my bag and rush me to the check out desk (around noon). We basically power walked through the airport and went up escalators with a trolley for my suitcase. We got to the ticket counter checked my bag (which was 2Kg over) so I took out my books and my Novacks bag (My Bible and let justice roll down) and checked my bag there. Then I rushed off to go to my flight. I made it with like 10min to spare but then I realized I lost my water bottle (So I left it there where ever it now is in Johannesburg Airport). I hopped on my flight a cramped little twin prop plane (3 seats across the whole width of it) and soon enough we were off to Pietermaritzburg. We had a beautiful flight even though I was a bit stressed at losing my first piece of luggage. We arrived and hopped off the plane into the dry but warm winter weather here in Pietermaritzburg. Then we entered the Airport where the 4 students hopping off the plane were met by Andrew, Kim, and Prof Guest. We then had a quick luggage pick up and the worst thing was that my Luggage didn’t show up there either. So Andrew and I went over to the luggage check desk and told them about my missing luggage. They took Andrew’s Cell phone number and told him that they would call him when they found my luggage. Now it is Friday Night and I am still lacking my luggage, but tomorrow (Saturday) I am going to get a cell phone and call about my piece that went missing in Paris. Also Internet access here is spotty for the moment, (As you can tell I am posting twice in the same day as I need to get something up to start logging these stories.) so forgive me if you are desperately waiting to hear from me.

Anyways I Bought some basic supplies to live here in residence. I got sheets a comforter and a couple of pillows. And for groceries I got bread and Peanut Butter, Tomatoes and Apples (that has basically been my diet for the last 24 hours and tomorrow I may treat myself to some sort of lunch or dinner out because I don’t think that I can survive on Tomatoes and peanut butter sandwiches). Today we had an orientations session where I started to meet other exchange students. Tonight I am going out to a party to just chill for a couple of hours. After the orientation session they took the students out to go on a cultural tour we went to a nearby township and saw a wonderful community center that is providing all sorts of services, like lunches for school children, and space for other happenings. We continued our tour with a visit to see some children do cultural Zulu dances. It was wonderful (check out my pictures on Flickr). After that we went to visit a Sambango (A healer pardon my spelling), it was interesting to see some of the local cultural beliefs on ancestors and how herbs and different sorts of things work to do healings for different physical ailments. From there we drove to Marick falls (300ft high) and a very small river that apparently when it is managed properly they can provide water for all the people from Pietermaritzburg down to Durban (Pretty impressive). Then tonight I walked down to the local shops (Grocery store and complex) to see about getting a cell phone for my time here. The shops were closed so I returned back to my residence (A bit of a lengthy walk away especially given that I had to go around campus).

I guess I should share some significant cultural differences that I have already noticed. People are very friendly and open. When you are walking by they will say hello. Which is pretty cool and wonderful if you ask me, I wish I could have enjoyed it more but I have been very stressed and frustrated about my luggage. Also South Africa is a very big country on security it seems. I need to keep my door locked, lock my stuff up in wardrobes, have a key for the front door of my building, and a card to swipe to get into the complex of my residence area, (same thing to get out as well).

I have a lot of things that people could pray for in particular. I could really use some prayer around my courses, as of right now I am probably about as confused as I could ever be (some of the second semester courses don’t show up on the time tables...). Also if you could pray for my luggage to arrive that would be pretty awesome. Also finally could you pray that I could be bold enough to extend myself into relationships both with exchange students and with local students.