Sawubona

(INJA EDALA) Just back to the Internet from Impendle (Inzinga, actually. A village within the municipality of Impeldle about 30km from Impendle city). One night I wrote four pages in my journal. We've cried several times since leaving. Zulu are absolutely beautiful people. I can't even being to share things right now. Thanks to Mrs and Mr Zuma, Nonjabulo, Nontobako, Nomnekelo, and pretty little Amahle for being such wonderful hosts and becoming wonderful new friends we will definitely see again. We both got new nik-names. Amahle, age 3, began calling miranda Isipho, which means "gift" in Zulu (see why we've been crying so much). And, as Miranda picked up new Zulu words about 5x faster than me, and I told them about the American saying about teaching old dogs new tricks, they began calling me Inja Endala, "old dog". I've got to sign off, but to give you a small sense of our days, below is a list of topics from just one day's journal:
- Snothando Creche ("We have love" preschool)
- Miranda and the kids shouting their ABC's
- Planting potatoes
- Primary school vocabulary words (that day's vocabulary words included words like immunity, AIDS, HIV, pamphlet, etc.)
- Ukhululekile (written on the wall of the orphan's "drop in center", means "to be free")
- Planting more potatoes
- My "wife" (the chief thought Miranda was my wife)
- Miranda's new name (Isipho, as noted above)
- Nonjabulo's dream (over breakfast she told us she dreamed the night before that we told her we were going to stay longer).
- Mo's dog attack (Mo was very upset when she saw two dogs attack another and tear it to pieces)
- Dinner (we caught, killed, de-feathered and cooked a chicken)
- Bucket bath #2 (much more effective than my first bucket bath)
- Going to a Zulu wedding (we found we were invited to the non-stop 36 hours of dancing and sacrificing cows and goats and dancing and singing and dancing that lead up to a Zulu wedding)
- Learning Zulu (as noted, easier for Mo than me).
- Sleep (slept better than ever in a small room with no heat, a thatched roof, and a few blankets in a very cold place)

All of that in just one day. Every day was just like it. I'm still overwhelmed. We got and gave a lot of U2's "Miracle Drug". And now we're hooked and having withdrawl symptoms. Gota go blow my nose and wipe my eyes.
Much, much more soon.