A fun-filled weekend!

Seriously?!?! A wedding at the mall?!?





Getting bread from the bakery!




We LOVE trees!



Views of the beautiful mountains of South Africa!






After an exhausting and draining (both physically and emotionally) week, I feel so thankful for the recharge of our weekend. It all kicked-off with our Ladies' Night activity of a movie & popcorn with the 9-15 year olds. Last year the UT interns started Ladies' Night as a way to give the older girls some special time and attention (as they usually spend non-school hours caring for the babies and completing chores)...and a chance to just be girls. So Ayla & I have continued on and are alternating between the older older girls (16-23 year olds) and the younger older girls (9-15 year olds).

So far the younger older girls win my vote as my favorite!! Get this: during the entire movie (the new "Fame") there was at least one (and sometimes two) girls playing with my hair! Between braiding it, putting it in a ponytail, brushing it...or just rubbing my head, I nearly feel asleep about a million times! Wow...now that's the life! They also promised to plat my hair (you know, the tiny little braids). Can't wait to rock that style!! But, other than their amazing hairstyling skills, these girls are just the sweetest, most genuine, beautiful, and caring people you've ever met. Plus, they said that they're going to teach Ayla & I some South African dance moves!!! Whoop whoop! We're planning a Talent Show for Valentine's Day (which, apparently, is SUPER big here at Botshabelo)...and the girls have already promised to choreograph and teach us a dance that we can all perform together! Watch out South Africa's Got Talent: Here come the ladies of Botshabelo!!

We spent the day yesterday on a drive with Sue. Sue runs most of the errands and does a lot of the driving for the Botshabelo community...and was nice enough to take us along. We took the long and scenic way to get to a bakery in Krugersdorp (a city about 45 minutes-1 hour away from Botshabelo) that donates all of their day old bread to the kids for teatime on the weekends. We stopped all along the way to get pictures of the AMAZING views from the top of the mountains (AKA Highveld). When the baker found out we were visiting from America, he threw in some extra special pastry treats, which were incredibly delicious!! (Poor Ayla, she's gluten-free!).

Today we treated ourselves as well as Shanna (the youngest Cloete daughter) and two of the older girls to a movie in the theater at a mall in Krugersdorp. If you haven't seen "The Princess at the Frog" I HIGHLY recommend it! So at the mall we encountered lots of fun/funny adventures: the best is that, at the movie theaters in South Africa, you can sprinkle different flavor powders onto your popcorn, like salt & vinegar, sour cream, or cheddar...obviously, we doused our popcorn with TONS of that stuff! And then, after the movie, we walked around the mall while we were waiting for our ride back to Botshabelo...and...ran into a wedding of course! What?!?! A wedding at the mall?!?! Oh yes. A wedding at the mall. So there is this really pretty lake that is right behind the mall, and that is where the actual ceremony took place, but the whole wedding party and guests had to walk right through the mall parking lot first. There was joyous singing and clapping alongside your Sunday afternoon shopper. It was hilarious!

I'm telling you, everyday is an adventure here...and I'm looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.