first post!

hello! i've finally got round to giving you all an update. i feel like i have lots to say so i apologise in advance for the slightly garbled message!
so....monday night, i set off to heathrow, probably the most scared i have ever been in my life! even when i first went to uni, i kind of knew what to expect, and knew i could just jump on a train home at any time. but this was another continent, for 7 weeks, with no idea what to expect! The journey went fine, although i don't think id recommend a 5 hour flight, immediately followed by an 8 hour flight, then another flight again...we got food on every flight, which i was excited by. No idea what happened with mealtimes, with all the different flights and time-zones and stuff! I ended up eating some kind of a pasty at about 3.30am, and having curry for breakfast a few hours later! :S We got free drinks on the plane, which led Caroline to wonder whether to get a glass of wine, just because she could, at 5am! haha. (she didn't)
Didn't sleep much on the flights....watched some House, a documentary, and the film 'Bride Wars' (i chose this as i am excited about my sister getting engaged [Em, by the way - i really like the dress anne hathaway wears when she gets married] anyway...i digress...basically it is a rubbish film, and i was fast-forwarding through quite a bit of it. also, the 2 main male characters looked the same, so i was pretty confused most of the time!) Also played tetris and so much 'Who wants to be a millionaire' that Caroline and i were recognising the questions, and did eventually win the million pounds on our 2nd flight....frankly a massive anticlimax!
Got some local sim cards at Jo'burg airport, in a crazy candy store (obviously), but mine didn't work in the phone i brought, which was a bit annoying! I've now borrowed a phone, so its working. Hooray! Our bags got to Durban ok, which was a relief, and I was met by a friendly couple at the airport. I thought I was going to be staying with them, but they arranged for me to stay with someone else more central to the project. They drove me to Pietermaritzburg (PMB henceforth), via a stop at their son who is at uni in Durban...
Arrived, knakcered in PMB, but my accomodation and host family are lovely! Rob and Debbie are from UK, and have 4 kids (11 year old twins boy and girl, 8 year old girl, and cute adopted 5 year old, complete with mini afro. amazing.) They have a sort of flat in their garden which I am staying in - own bathroom (including hot water!) and little kitchen/lounge area. Very comfortable! Tonight I discovered that Rob is the number 1 long-board surfing champion in the province or something! How bizarre.
Woke up at 6.30am next morning (not cool) and went to CCP - the charity I am linking up with. The day started in true African style with lots of singing! I think I have sung more in the last 2 days than the month before then! The charity basically works with churches and schools and communities doing HIV/AIDs education, and identifying OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children), who they then visit to assess their situations and how best to help them (eg. food parcels, helping with food growing, helping pay for schooling, helping with grant access etc). So the last 2 days I have been sort of getting to know what's going on...they had some training course things the last 2 days for their community support workers, which I have sat in on quite a bit of. Yesterday I was with the 'livelihoods' group, looking at crop choices, employment issues, gender roles, and today I was with the HIV group, looking at loads of issues around PLWHA (people living with HIV/AIDs, for those of you not doing international health! haha). It was interesting for me to get a bit of an idea of how communities are, and issues around HIV in this area (Kwa-zulu-Natal i believe has the highest levels of HIV anywhere in the world) and how CCP is responding.
Today I also went out into a couple of townships with people doing school and church visits, so I saw a bit of how many people live here. Will start actually doing my research project soon.
It is winter here in South Africa, but still pretty hot! I think it was about 27 degrees today. Apparently storms are forecast in the next few days, and they are apparently totally awesome!
I'm hopefully going to visit Caroline in Durban this weekend, which will be good. Even though people are very friendly here, it can be quite lonely being on my own, and I am very tired, so it will be good to see a familiar face, and spend my birthday with her in Durban.
So yes, there is a pretty comprehensive update for you of my trip so far! I've got internet access in the family's house, so am pretty contactable, and appreciate emails etc.
Lots of love to everyone...hopefully update soon!
xx