getting sentimental

Some things I’ll miss most about South Africa (in no particular order):

- Ma Dolly’s laugh
- Kgosi’s wisdom
- Mr. Mphumela’s positivity
- Megan’s absurdity
- Ma T giggling and saying “whoooo, Refilwe!”
- Ma Sebolao calling me “Erin” at unexpected times (she’s the only one in the village who calls me by my real name)
- The sunrises and sunsets
- “hellohowareyouIamfineandthankyou!”
- jika ma jika
- pee buckets being a part of slumber parties (ok, really just pee buckets in general)
- the wide open spaces
- Ruthie (my cat)
- My Peace Corps people
- old women cheering me on as I run past “O a go TRAINING! Nice nice!”
- all the beautiful singing
- Mamun our shop keeper giving me free fruit and saying “you are my sister in South Africa”
- The looks white people give me when they speed past the village
- Dookie (the dog) sneaking into my house every day
- pension day (when all the old people come to get their pension and hawkers come to sell pretty much anything you could ever need for village life)
- The Daily Sun (it's a cross between the Weekly World News and a regular paper but it's taken as an appropriate source of information on what's happening in South Africa)
- Omphemetse, this darling little girl, practicing her English on all of my visitors: “What is your surname?” “My surname is Letube”.
- Kids who play homemade games like “tins” and soccer with sticks for goals and bag balls
- Thato and Tshepie’s constant company, kisses, hugs, dancing, playing, and sassing me in SeTswana.
- Hanging out with the World Map Project students
- Maynard’s Wine Gums
- Mr. Mohulatsi calling me “fi-zo!” (“fi” is from Refilwe… and that has turned into “fi-zo”)
- Long walks
- Running with a huge group of barefoot kids
- taxi adventures
- turkeys on my doorstep
- watching donkeys
- Bunnychow (take away curry in a hollowed out half loaf of bread… sooo good)
- “Ko ko” (What you say instead of knocking when you enter someone's yard or house)
- Old men in tiger striped cowboy hats and other dapper apparel
- Chakalaka
- Culture Spears (yup, I’m serious. I’ll miss Culture Spears)
- Wire cars (but I bought a really, really cool one this week that I'm shipping home! Woohoo!)
- morogo and bagobe (my favorite traditional Batswana food)
- Donkey carts driven by little kids or drunk old women
- Babies on backs
- The stars at night (they’re big and bright)
- the smell in the air during fire season
- rain on the metal roof
- Hansa, Castle and Black Label... They're all beers that are so bad they're good.
- tea and biscuits as a cure for most ills
- Sweet Chili flavored chips
- Seeing educators try new things in their classrooms

Now that I only have a week left in my village it's really starting to hit me how much I'm going to miss this place...