Skype Dates and Madiba

So this nearing the end of my first week of work with Habitat. The past four days have been a total orientation-filled blur. Everyone in my office has been incredibly nice and really helpful when it comes to figuring out this place called South Africa.



Wednesday was Nelson Mandela's 94th birthday, so naturally we celebrated Mandela day here! In honor of his 67 years of public service, South Africans were encouraged to give 67 minutes of public service yesterday. Since Habitat doesn't do anything small, they are celebrating Mandela week by building 67 homes in the country. Sixty seven homes in one week is unbelievable. The man-power, supplies, and organization it takes to make that happen could rattle even the most organized of offices. Major kudos go out to South Africa HFH for getting the local sites organized. Twenty five of those builds happened in Johannesburg, while the remainder were divided between Cape Town and Durban. Our office was split, the newbies went to the build site, while the veterans went to an orphanage to donate food and play with the kids. The build was in Orange Farm, but it might as well have been on Mars..it took us over an hour to get there in traffic, which apparently is normal in Johannesburg. Several of corporations here in South Africa had volunteers, hundreds of people out for the day. It was the most incredible way to celebrate someone who dedicated his life to a country he truly loved. During the lunch line people were playing music that was written for Mandela, dancing, and just having a good time. I have yet to meet a South African that doesn't love Madiba (in South Africa it is a sign of reverence to refer to someone by their clan). President Clinton was even in South Africa for the celebration, sadly he didn't get my message about making it to Orange Farm. Mr. President, feel free to contact me while you are in Africa if you need a student photo op or something!

The statue of the man himself in Nelson Mandela Square.

The office building a house, normal Wednesday activities. 

The community of Orange Farm and the cool Habitat flag

Getting directions, you can see the temporary HQ to the left 

What I feel like I did on Wednesday...

what I actually did on Wednesday.

The perfect way to start ending my first week of work was a couple of Thursday night Skype dates. The first was with none other than team Arkansquad in India aka Mitchell and Maggie. I got a tour of their apartment and got to hear about all of the shenanigans they are getting into. Everyone should check out their blogs to hear about the cool work they are both doing. I also got to call my parents on Skype...just in time to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Love you and hope you have had a great day!