"Dumela" from Africa!

Hi everybody! I just heard from Makayla's mom today--Makayla called home this morning. Here's what she said:

Everything's still great! Makayla's in a small town (about half the size of Byron Center) in a providence in the norther part of South Africa, not too far from Zimbabwe. She was with her group of 7 PCTs (which I think means Peace Corps Trainees) and they had been practicing taking a taxi downtown using the local language, which is Sepedi. She's living with a host family that has 6 brothers and sisters, 2 gardens, 2 trucks, a real bath tub, and... cable! The host family also has several animals, including roosters (which keep Makayla up all night because they're noisy) and a dog that just had puppies. Being an animal lover, Makayla says that it's very difficult to not pet and cuddle the puppies, because they are not pets, but work animals. They are there to guard the home. She does have one pet, though... a spider living in her closet. She's named it "Bob." We didn't ask how big it was! Haha. Anyway, she'll live there until September 14, when she graduates from the training portion of her Peace Corps experience.

Makayla's African name is Leratŏ, which means "love." Right now she has a calling card and she won't have a cell phone until after training. There is an internet cafe downtown, but the connection is very slow, so she's opting to make phone calls.

2 people have already gone home, but Makayla was not informed why. She's definately not heading in the home direction yet, because she loves what she's doing... she was even able to get her soccer ball out and kick it around with some of the kids.

One think Makayla has requested is for people to send her letters! Several people are getting mail, but she hasn't received any... her address is:

Makayla Gusching, PCT
PO Box 9536
Pretoria 0001
South Africa

We're not sure how much the postage is yet, but will find out this weekend. For now, if you send her one, just bring it to the post office and ask them how much postage is.

Don't forget to say hello to her and give her some support, let her know what's going on in your life, too! "Dumela" is the word for "Hello" in Sepedi. :)

Peace Out!~Makayla, via Andrea