My First Mail from the States!

Yet another great milestone: my first "post." Today when I walked in Mzandi said, "I have a post for you." It was a postcard from Mackenzie-- I was so happy that I gave the unsuspecting Mzandi a big hug. Although it is a postcard from California, you will notice that it has a Canadian flag on it-- after high school graduation Mackenzie and I went to Canada for a few days to visit our former track coach/resident dean/english teacher... so there is significance.

Despite the sore hole in the bottom of my foot, the rain, and the freezing weather, I went

and did a 2.8km time trial with a woman from church and her 11-year old daughter. I came in at 13:54, which means 8-minute mile pace... better than a few weekends ago. It is amazing how easily you can get out of running shape. I have been trying to do some in-room workouts [provided by Andrew/Runner's World Magazine/Women's Health], and I am a bit sore... mostly from Andrew's workouts, though. Tyson push-ups = death. And last time I did lunges my legs cramped up and I had a sore bum for days. Thanks, Andrew.

And on the topic of fitness, here are two small photos I found online from the 5k

race I did two weeks ago.

Apparently tomorrow is Heritage Day... good thing I realized it was a holiday otherwise I would have been waiting outside for someone to open the office. I am a bit sad because all the cool Heritage Day events happen in Durban [remember, the cool city next to the coast]. But! This morning I called a local organization called Youth For Christ knowing that they have some international volunteers. I called the cell phone of one girl named

Sarah, and she said they are going to go to a community they work with to see the kids put on a celebration and if there is room in the transport I am welcome to come. Yes. Let's hope there is room... if so, this means two things: 1. heritage fun! 2. new friends? Quite possibly.

The weather here is crazy. Last night I went to bed in long underwear with socks on my hands with hand warmers inside them. I was actually too cold to stay up so I went to read in bed, but the socks on my hands made it difficult to turn the pages and then the batteries in my headlamp died. When the weather is like this, I usually go to bed in sweats... but when you do laundry, your clothes do not dry too well in the rain. Good thing I live by myself, because I looked pretty silly!