SELF DEFENCE

Today we had a self defense course with two "peace officers" ... they work in prisons. They were actually really cool. Now I know how to inflict the most pain with the least amount of effort. For those of you who thought I was terrifying before, now I know how to break a collarbone, or floor a 400 lb guy with one shot. Fun! I'm still sick so it made me feel a little better to get some exercise. I'm feeling better than yesterday though!  Still not feeling great, however. My poor counterpart, once I'm feeling better I'll be able to do exciting things. Until then its probably best to do as little as possible. I most certainly don't want to spend the next 3 (or even 6) months sick. It's not fair to me, my counterpart, my host family, or the group. Soooooo, tonight I rest. Tomorrow I hopefully won't have to leave the house at all and that will be the end of my illness. In other news, we are going to be participating in fundraising for the Stephen Lewis foundation. I'll give more information on our role when I can concentrate for longer periods of time (hopefully tomorrow). 

Until then, I'm feeling better, I can kick butt, and we're having Chinese food tonight. 

PS.

Probably should have put a little PS on that one. My work counterpart is feeling fine now, just a little tired. So no need to worry about her.

First Week of Work

They told us it would be an adventure. It was. Oh boy howdy it was. My first day of my work placement was alright, we got there, got a little oriented, and did quite a bit of reading. The reading was interesting because it was all about sex, sexual health, and sexual health statistics. Some were surprising, others were not. So most of the day goes by without much excitement (besides the excitement of actually being at our work placement). I woke up that morning feeling a little under the weather, hardly being able to swallow. This eased up throughout the day. 4PM rolls around (we work 9-5) and I leave the room to go pick up another article to read. I come back and my work counterpart is in so much pain she is in tears. We ended up calling our project supervisor and she drove us to the hospital. Still in tears and buckled over in pain, they tell my work counterpart that it will be a 2 hour wait to be seen. By this time she has been in pain for almost 45 minutes. Long story short, we ended up waiting 8 hours until we were able to leave (she stopped being in excruciating pain after about 5 hours). But our evening isn't over then, because its still a 30-40 minute drive home! (by car!) So I stumble in around 1 am to my host family's house. Luckily the next day we were allowed to sleep in due to the circumstances. So the next morning, completely unaware of my current circumstance, my house counterpart comes to check if I have slept in. She enters my room and shakes me awake, prompting a "WHAT.DO.YOU.WANT"... a little taken aback she asks "are you going to work this morning?" which led to a firm, loud NO. Then I immediately fell back asleep (the previous events may not have happened in this way, its what my mind told me happened). Waking up several hours later and realizing that this had actually happened I felt quite guilty. So day two we work, not only am I tired, but my sore throat has moved into my nose and made me slightly congested. The day ends with me apologizing to my counterpart for the morning's outburst, talking to dearest mother, and making myself a zombie in front of the television. Today. I AM SICK. No more pretend, I am without a doubt, full.on.sick. I also think I'm the first person in the program to get a cold. Go figure. As I write this blog, I am missing a party that is being held specifically for us. It's an hour long bus ride. I almost fell asleep on the WALK home, not in the state to be partying. Plus tomorrow we have a self-defense class. I had a choice between party and potentially have fun (or feel like crawling into a ditch), or sleep and hopefully feel slightly better tomorrow. I think that I made the right decision, otherwise I might not recover. Now I do believe it is time for tea and food. 

WORK PLACEMENT!

okay. okay. okay. okay. okay.

SOOOOO. I finally got my work placement! Pause for effect. After a long wait, and knowing that the theme of our project is Health and Gender.... and that I have a BA in Psych, Soc, and Anth.... my work placement is..... THE CALGARY SEXUAL HEALTH CLINIC! Pause for applause. I'm excited for my work placement, I'm excited for my work placement counterpart who is a lovely girl named Ilham. I'm just... pretty darn excited. I might buy shoes today, considering the fact that my shoes have all but fallen apart. Week two, shoes = on death bed.

I'm in..... CALGARY!

OKAY. So a lot has happened since the last time I posted. I woke up at 2:30 am last Tuesday to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. For the first time in my life, I was packed and ready to go. Dad and I drove to the airport, got checked in, and I was off for my plane by 6 am and BOY WAS I TIRED ALREADY. Got on the plane, made it to Montreal for my transfer. Found my gate, had a mini panic attack about my luggage and realized that everything was going to be okay so all I needed to do was relax. 

Got on the plane from Montreal to Calgary, and watched two movies. I watched the new X-men movie, .... meh, at least Ryan Renolds is attractive. But if I wanted that, I could have watched the Proposal. ANYWAY, I watched the first part of Star Trek, but didn't get to the ending. I'm dying to know what happens, but nobody tell me! 

That's it. My plane arrives in Calgary. I have to get my luggage and meet the rest of the group in the airport at 12 (Calgary time). This would be about 12 hours into my traveling adventure. We leave the airport on a big yellow school bus and head out to our VOC, volunteer orientation camp. All of the Canadians are here at this point, and its a 45 minute drive from the airport into the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. We go into a session about how we are going to greet our South African and Kenyan counterparts. Then we have supper and decide that we are going to decorate our camp (where we slept in bunk beds). The girls arrive at about 10-11pm (by this time it is about about 2 am my time, awake for 24 hours). We greet them and then we GO TO BED. 

We are at the camp until Saturday, where we had various activities to help get to know each other, begin to understand each other's culture, and let us know what is coming ahead of us. The whole time, I had no contact with the outside world. Parents? Who are they! Friday, we find out who our counterpart for the next 6 months is going to be. Mine is a lovely South African girl named Busi. Then Saturday, Busi and I meet our host family for the first time. 

My host family is from Pictou County of all places! They have a 16 month old baby girl, and a 4 year old dog. We live in a suburb thats very south of downtown. Sunday our host mother took us on an adventure through Calgary. She showed us the hip places, an indoor market, the red mile, a park by the river, and we went walking around and driving in her parent's convertible. We were obviously the coolest people in Calgary. Then today Busi and I had our very first adventure.

We went to take the bus (all by ourselves I might add) to go to our friend's place in the northwest. We had it all planned out, considering we were new to the city and have ABSOLUTELY no idea of time, space, and place. We end up at our destination where we are supposed to be according to our directions, and realize that the house we are going to is next to impossible to find. After quite a bit of frustration we end up knocking on a random door, where a random woman answers. We tell her that we are lost, and trying to find this address. She invites us inside and says she doesn't know where it would be either, so we call the number that we have for our friends (seeing as we don't have cell phones). We call and find out that the address we have is completely wrong! It is several kilometers east of where we are, and so we have to hop on another bus to get there. We get on the bus and the driver isn't sure of where it is, so she tells us to get off at a stop that is too early. Luckily we only had to walk from about 700 to 900 (house numbers). It took us somewhere around 2 hours to get there, a trip that should have taken 1 hour and 10 minutes. 

I think it was a good experience to get lost for the both of us. Busi told me that you can only ask mothers in Cape Town for help and directions, or in the shops. Busi learned that in Calgary, you can ask almost anyone for help and they will usually help you. I have found this to be similar in most of Canada, and in the part of Seattle where I visited. Now we know how to take the bus into town (and beyond). Tomorrow we have to do a treasure hunt, so we are going to take the train into town so we know where/how to take that. We'll be Calgarians in no time at all. Although technically I already am one (its on my birth certificate.... but i moved when i was three). 

I think that's all I can write for now... it's almost time to eat. Oh, and we made it back with no problems because we're almost professionals at the bus system now.