Welcome back.

I'm back in South Africa and so far it's been great. The plane ride was perfect. I honestly slept the entire time and if I struggled with sleep, a glass of wine helped that.

As soon as I turned my phone on when the plane stopped, I was greeted by two texts: a "please call" from Elvis and one from Fortunate asking if I had sent away her residence application. Welcome home, Kristal.

There was so much work to do at the start of this year with Elvis, Fortunate, and Gugu going to University; Patricia and Nokuzola going to Zigna; and Mduduzi getting into Agriculture College. I am SO glad to have people like Brooke and Jed taking it on until I got home. But now I'm home and there is lots of work to do. And as much stress comes with finding funding and sorting details, it all seems worth it when I get a text from Mduduzi saying, "Hi make kristal. I ope u hv a gr8dy. so i m good, i wat 2 inform u that class wil start on monday. anyway i m excited 2 study.Gudnyte."
Make = mother in siSwati.

This year I'll be playing a role supporting Busi as South Africa country rep. We went out to Bushbuckridge a couple days ago with Simon. There are many CBOs in the area and we will be starting a Service Center there to help support the CBOs. Simon will be at the Service Center so we went with him to check up on the CBOs.

A CBO is a Community-based organization. I guess it's like Masoyi but much simpler. Masoyi has many programs and is quite large. These other CBOs are very small and really only have a Home-based Care and some have Care Centers for the children.

It was a good day. Not only did I see the beautiful faces of the care workers and children, but I saw a turtle, a chameleon, and a dung beetle! Dung beetles are quite fascinating. Simon said in their culture they don't call anyone clever because nothing is as clever as a dung beetle.

Today I'm off to visit the students and am SO excited. It's been too long.

Remember, Arrive Alive.