RAIN RAIN GO AWAY

Hey all!
I'm not sure what the weather is where you are but i'm a little confused as to whether I am in Africa or Seattle right now--the wind and rain just keep on commin'. Anyway, we left Cape Town yesterday and arrived in Stellensbosch where we are building houses with Habitat for Humanity. Kali and I were pretty much Zombies after staying up all night the night before working on our papers but i got a lot of sleep last night to make up for it-it was heavenly. We are staying in the dorms at the University of Stellenbosch with a bucn of Irish students and a few from SA who are also helping out with the build. The Irish guys are a riot! They be's a bunch of bonnie lads and Ive been havin' a wee good time witdem. Aye and I 'm also pickin' up a wee bit of the North Ireland accent! At the dors they give us a wake up call at 6:30 and we need to shower, eat, and be on the buses and rollin' down the road by 8:00. We drive to a township called Mfuleni which is a good bit smaller than Khayalesha with a pop. of 25,ooo. My group is comprised of myself and Mia, a girl fro SPU, 2 chaps and a gal from Ireland, a few girls from university in Stellenbosch, a guy from Kansas, and the two builders and a couple of other volunteers who I don't really know yet. All in all I pretty much have the greatest crew ever. Our crew leader is a native Xhosa whose name is Rasta and who is pretty much one of the funniest guys on the planet! If he needs you to something he asks you to do it by thanking you before hand. Josh! Thank you for handing me that spade. Thank you for mixing more Danga (the mixture of concrete, water, and sand that we use to hold the cinder blocks together)! He's great. It was rainy and windy most of the day but it wasn't too difficult to stay warm as long as you kept working. When we stopped for lunch and tea however it was freezing! And no i didn't stutter we really did stop for tea-it was amazing. The tea was milk and water with sugar and a teabag (it was delicious--Olivia, knowiing how much you love tea I think you should really try it) and was accompanied by fatkeks which are like a bread that is a mix of a doughnut and indian fry bread---in a word it was pure bliss. Nzuko (probably just butchered that spelling0, the woman for whom we are building the home, has been waiting 13 years for a house. I guess the way that Habitat works is that the family must raise half of the money themselves. She does have a husband and a three year old son but the father is unemployed and we didn't see him at all. Work went great and the house is progressing quickly. Well, I must go b/c it is getting dark out and Kali and I need to make it back from the cafe we are in for lucnch--and we are supposed to be in groups of three after dark- Gotta Run-Bye