Greetings from Africa!

Well at long last I am settled down in Johannesburg and just enough of an insomniac (I've been awake since a phone went off at 4:30) to be able to monopolize the hostel computer for long enough to blog. The plane trip went off without a hitch and I managed to make friends with my Senegalese seat mate Gaba who showed me the joys of the little TV screens before MaryBeth hooked me up with some Dramamine for the second leg of the journey. All in all, my day of travel was 29 hours long (9 of these were spent waiting at JFK and one waiting on the runway in Dakar) and needless to say we all were excited for bed that night.

This week is orientation/tourist fun so yesterday we went to Soweto, the Joburg township whose claim to fame is the early homes of Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and a host of other apartheid resisters. We are in Johannesburg today as well and then will move to Durban, meeting our Cato Manor host families on Tuesday night (?). I'm excited to meet Mz. Lucy whose last name is escaping me and whose 11 year old grandaughter is also in the house.

So far, I have been bouncing between amazement at the beautiful scenery and weather and sadness at the degredation done to the land by apartheid. All 21 other girls and our program staff are fantastic so far. I give the drama another 3 weeks.