"When I get older, I will be stronger. They'll call me freedom, just like a waving flag."

I've finally made my way back to civilization after a weekend up in the mountains staying with some farmers. After several hours of driving inland over mountains and through orange groves, I arrived on the doorstep at a cattle and sheep farm. The family I stayed with had two sons close to my age, one which attended "varsity" or university in Pretoria, and the other who stayed at home to work on the farm.

The weekend was actually quite uneventful. The first day I hiked into the mountains and down to some caves. The land is absolutely beautiful here. I'll try to post a couple of pictures with this entry from my hike so you can see the view. Little did I know I'd be cross-country hiking down a steep mountainside where I ate it once or twice (leaning towards at least twice.)

On Sunday I visited a local school that kids living across this rural area attend. In a relatively small building that was split into four separate rooms, kids all the way from pre-schoolers to seventh graders are taught. Many similar schools across the area have teachers that come just three times a week to teach classes, although this one had a dedicated staff that came five days a week and some weekends to offer extra help, making it the most successful in the region.

Walking around in the pre-schoolers classroom, a poster on the wall really struck me. The title at the top said "Being A Girl..." and in cartoon figures it addressed issues that involve the rights of girls, even the right of a girl to say no and protect herself against rape. It caught me completely off guard and forced me to imagine living in a place where rape is a reality in the lives of kids as young as three and four years old. Probably not a statistic that mom and dad want to hear, but by per capita statistics, this is the "rape capital of the world," which is also one of the leading contributors to a staggeringly high rate of HIV/AIDS and babies born with HIV. I cant tell you how many times coming to a place like this makes me so grateful for the life I live, but times like these put the battles I face in my own life into a perspective that makes me feel nothing short of selfish.

By the end of the weekend, the weather had become unbearable. Rain had set in and a cold front blowing up from Antarctica was sweeping through. When does a cold front from Antarctica sweep through Africa? Only on the exact day that Diana Price is coming to visit of course. Obviously there was no heating system in the house so getting warm was nearly impossible. I was secretly wishing I could be teleported home to my bed for the night and have dad make me waffles and bacon before being teleported back the next morning to arctic winds and toast with anchovy paste (yum? No, I'd rather munch on warm rabbit turds)

On the way back from the farms I stopped at Fort Hare University which was attended by Nelson Mandela, Robert Mugabe, Desmond Tutu and basically every famous (and in Mugabe's case, infamous) African of the 21st century. To be quite honest, the tour I took was absolute crap. I walked around the campus in circles led by a woman who knew only that there is "lots of history here. You can visit tombstones and monuments, and this is a place where they have meetings." What? What meetings are you even talking about and who is they? Where are these monuments? Aren't those a standard part of the tour? Yeah, get me the hell out of here. Thanks.

Tomorrow I have a meeting to set up my schedule with the various organizations I'll be working with...I can't wait!

P.S. If anyone didn't see it, please youtube Shakira's performance at the World Cup closing ceremony. She is a goddess. I want to be her singing about Africa in a belly shirt. ME-OWWW