What a week!

We started out this week working on renovating two houses that are back to back, so what we would call a duplex and we are still not done.  To improve these houses we are basically patching up the walls, repainting, filling holes, and putting new flooring in.  However, this seems simpler than it actually is.  We first have to take putty knives and chip off the paint that is flaking off the walls and make sure that the rest of the paint is on well enough to paint over and not just flake off.  It is super time consuming and in some of the rooms there is oil based paint that is brutal to work with.  After chipping we have to sand the spots we chipped to make it smoothish.  In the rooms with the oil paint we have to sand the entire room to make the primer stick to the walls.  We then scrub the walls with sugar soap, then apply primer and then paint the walls.  This was all the walls in the house and also outside of the house.  The ceiling of these houses is the corrugated metal and you have to brush the roof to get all the soot off and then you do two coats of cement and then at least two coats of primer.  It is brutal work but the group of people we are working with are awesome so that makes it better.  Glenrick and Daniel are the two men that are helping us and other than that it is just our group working.  There are many things I have learned in the repair of these houses:

-         Cement leaves burns in your arms and at some point I am going to have to man up and dig the cement out of those burns.

-         Primer does not come off unless using turpentine, meaning I am covered in white primer that is giving no sign of giving up.

-         Coal burning stoves ruin a house especially the paint inside. 

-         I am good at cleaning/dealing with ceilings so much so that I am now in charge of doing the kitchen ceiling, which is a crap job.

-         Doing anything with somewhat liquid materials and ceilings sucks. 

-         Painting is fun.

-         Putty knives can be used to the point that they no longer have edges. 

-         Breathing in dust masks is not fun. 

Overall working on the houses is fun, even if it is freezing cold. 

The first few weeks we were here the weather was awesome, it is just now starting to get cold but it warms up a tad during the day.  It rained on Wednesday but only in the morning so it wasn’t too horrible. 

4^th of July in South Africa was kinda nice.  We had a reason to celebrate and the staff here made delicious burgers and chips (fries) for us.  It was freaking awesome.  No fireworks or family but lots of fun still. 

Speaking of food, it is freaking amazing.  I have not yet had a meal that wasn’t delicious and I even had fish! We have a braai every Friday night, which is a massive BBQ.  They feed us so much it is crazy! We even had a professional chef come in last night and make our meal. 

We are going in to Plett tomorrow, which is the big town about twenty miles from us.  We are also doing hikes every Sunday, which are always beautiful.  I think I love everything about this country. 

I have figured out what I am going to do research wise.  The plan right now is that I am going to work with the rugby program, which happens to be run by a former law enforcement officer, and I am going to be studying how sports deter youth involvement in crime. 

I learned a new game here called Patonk.  It is similar to Bocce ball but with different rules.  I will be bringing it back to the States because I absolutely love it! It is awesome.

We are currently having a wine and cheese night.  I will at some point learn my wines!

Cheers,

Erin Fitz