Gabotse

I think "gabotse" means goodbye in Sepedi. This is it, my last day in Huntsville, and I'll be leaving the United States for quite some time (bout a year and a half until my bro's wedding) on Tuesday. Next time I get on the internet I'll be an official volunteer and should know at least a good bit of a new language, so things change. I'm not sure what i will miss when I'm over there. Likely friends and family will be the big thing. Will I miss Western conviences? Listening to the sound of my own language from a native speaker? TV and movies? I suspect that the biggest adjustment will be a cultural one, I will be faced with viewpoints and perspectives that are completely different from my most basic assumptions. But who knows?

I am not nervous heading into this, I've been looking forward to it for a while and am more excited than anything else. I hope I'll be able to be a resource to people who need it and that I'm able to learn something myself and gain an invaluable experience for whatever my next step in life is. I will be posting pictures and thoughts on this blog when I get the opportunity. I'm all packed except for those inevitable "outstanding items" that I put off purchasing, or forgot until recently. I need a haircut and am dreading the inevitable sleep adjustment that I'll be going through, probably for the next full week or so. I am looking forward to meeting people from my group and the whole training experience. I hope everything goes great in the US of A while I'm gone and I hope people read of my experiences as an American in another country. Dumela (hello) South Africa!

Some answers to some FAQs

• South Africa is a big country and apparently the area in which I'll be working is the province of Limpopo on the Northeast border of the country. It's not too far from the capital Pretoria, but it's quite a ways from Cape Town which is sort of the big tourist destination and modern city. Like I said it's a big country so I won't be right on top of everything that's going on, or close to every landmark or place of interest.
  

• I will be learning at least one language that isn't English, South Africa is a country with 11 official languages, English has a strange status in that only a tiny minority speak it at home, but it is the language of media and government so most people understand it and can speak it.
  

• My"port of departure" is the city of Philadelphia. Philadelphia is where I'll get staging done and a lot of the pesky paperwork that has yet to be filled out.
  

• I will be over in South Africa for two years and three months. I should mention that I will not actually be a "Peace Corps Volunteer" until I get through my in country training, which will get me enculturated, trained, and placed in an assignment, so it will be about three months of being a "trainee" in the village of Mokopane until I'm officially a volunteer. When that happens I'll be placed with an organization in South Africa that's trying to cope with the AIDS crisis, probably one with an emphasis on helping the youth of South Africa. There are a wide variety of organizations that fall under this umbrella as HIV/AIDS has had and continues to have a huge impact, so I won't have any idea as to what I'll be doing until I'm placed with an organization and even then my status could change as projects and needs shift.