All the small things

I am currently blogging from thousands of feet above Canada and the very last leg of our journey. After three days of traveling, all I can say is that I am so ready to have my feet back on the ground (but that's a long story). Anyway, in my last South African blog I wrote about the fact that I know that I will missing things about South Africa life, but I just needed more time to think of exactly what those things are. Obviously I cannot list them all in one blog – after all I was there for 10 months. I have lived in PMB longer than I have lived in Asheville NC, but here is a list of some of the small things I wil miss…

I will miss the World Cup and watching soccer matches with Christian for countless evenings

I will miss the "prochoiceasuarous" that hangs above the manse's door and making "raptor noises" with Kyle

I will miss Christian calling me yoghurt and trying to do Congolese dances with him.

I will miss singing Zulu songs, even though I never really knew the words or even if I did, how to pronounce them or what they meant

I will miss cooking curry in the kitchen with Nicole (and that time when Shaun helped me make the thinnest, but best, roti's ever)

I will miss Sheldon and Shaun's constant laughter, Yonela's poems, Abie's "gangsta superstar" persona, posing for GQ    with Brylon, calling Chad "JT", watching Ntuthuko dance while he played the piano, the way Robbie plows into your shoulder when he greets you, and how much Nicole loves her cat.

I will miss cheap movies on Tuesdays.

I will most definitely miss the cheap, cheap, Indian food place by Pick n' Pay.

I will miss the fact that we went to Pick n' pay so often that we were came to recognize a lot of the employees.

I will miss all the fresh fruit and the fact that we had a lemon tree in our yard

I will miss the hills of Pietermaritzburg and the blue of the Indian Ocean

I will miss hanging out at Essence Café with Gabby and almost being a "regular" there

I will miss all the crazy things we did in the small youth office where Tim, Connie, Kyle and I had to work most of the time.

I will miss calling the traffic lights "robots."

I will miss this instant "Ricoff" coffee stuff that still remains to a mystery to me but makes fabulous iced coffee

I will miss the way Thandi teased us all the time

I will miss my Congolese English students

I will miss going up to Hilton and always "bringing the clouds with us."

I will miss crocheting with Karen

I will miss all the beautiful, flowering trees

I will miss the warmth of the South African people (nothing has made me notice this more than being stuck on a plane with cold Europeans for hours)

I will miss BCI's art ministry

Yeah, I will miss all these small things about South African life. Well, this isn't all of them of course but there are just some of the small things that I will carry with me home…