Arrvied

So....two days of traveling later Regina and I have arrived in Durban, South Africa. Unfortunately Regina got a bad case of food poisoning (we think from the food on the flight from the US to Frankfurt) and started to get sick on the plane from Frankfurt to Johannesburg. However, during our 6 hour stay in the Frankfurt Airport we definitely enjoyed ourselves. We stored our luggage and made a mini workout area in one of the empty gate areas including doing "bar method" moves off of chairs! We ran up several flights of stairs multiple times and did the loop of the gate area countless times. The Germans actually thought it was "super" we were "keeping fit" :-) Then we had some lunch and coffee with a nice German woman who is a travel agent and had lots of exciting stories to share. On all of the flights, Regina and I were able to convince the flight attendant I was scared of flying and that we needed to sit together which worked out great.

We have just arrived in our hotel, the Hotel Protean Edward Durban and it is right on the beach. We met a nice gentleman on the plane from Johannesburg to Durban who is actually staying at our hotel and had a lot of safety tips for us. Our driver from the airport to the hotel recommended we "check out the beach...get a room with a view of the beach." When we went to the bank a man from the hotel escorted us there even though it is only a few blocks away and 11:00am. I am not writing this to frighten anyone, I think the added security has much more to do with the liability of the hotel if something happened to either of us.

Regina is napping and I just went up to the rooftop pool (FYI this is not a luxury hotel by any means, just a comfortable, clean hotel with a pool on it's top floor which is the 7th floor--we are here to volunteer not vacation...). It is winter here but it is still almost 80 degrees outside with a nice breeze, but no one was at the pool. I felt the water and it seemed fairly cold so I ran around the perimeter of the pool for 15 minutes to warm myself up and jumped in. I thought I was going to die. I think that Lake Tahoe in the dead of winter couldn't hold a candle to this water. I jumped out and ran some more and had a nice conversation with the maintenance man and cleaning lady who I am sure think I am crazy for even trying to swim during the "winter." They should live in Boston in January!

The people here are so nice and so simple. Most admit that Durban is not very safe but that the people who are typically robbed are those who wear their camera on their neck or make it obvious that they have a lot of money. People here don't make very much money and the punishment for robbery and other crimes is very lenient so there isn't much in the way of stopping them.

Tomorrow morning Regina and I will be picked up by Shola, our local program coordinator, at 7:30am at our hotel and then we think we will be taken to our home stay family! We are so excited to meet them.

For those of you who heard or suggested I wear a wedding band, good tip. Already everyone is asking me where my husband is....so, feel free to leave some comments or suggestions below. I need a name, age, where he's from, his job, and any other juicy details.... :-)

I miss you all a lot but I am happier than words can express to be here in South Africa. I feel there is so much good I can do and I can't wait to get started.