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Sorry, I just can't think of a title name... so make up your own!  Be creative!  The sky's the limit.

Welpppp, lets see.  What updates do I have for you guys?!

To start off- I am healthy and well!  Haven’t gotten sick!  Some of the kids have had fevers from teething gone bad.  But thankfully, I don’t have to worry about that being spread to me. 

Since it is winter here, the days are beautiful.  They are about mid 60s but really sunny, it feels so good!  Nights get super chilly but its okay because I have seven blankets on my bed to keep me warm :) There are incredible sunsets every night!  Gosh I love them so much.  Since there are never any clouds, the stars are super bright at night too.  Its weird that it gets dark so early since at home its the opposite, I am starting to get used to it though.  In the beginning I would just go to bed at 7pm every night but I am getting better!  I promise I am not some huge party pooper!  Well, at least not all the time...  Don’t go and ask my roommate about it.

Here is a picture of my room!  Well, my half of it.  And yes- those are my crocs under my bed 

that I wear ALL THE TIME!  What are you going to do about it?!  The kids love them.

I got to go downtown and see Johannesburg!  It was awesome.  It’s a pretty rough city though.  Auntie Maggie was telling me that you have to be super careful about parking because if you leave your car unattended for too long, it will be gone (even if you lock it).  I guess they are super quick about stealing cars.  And of course right after she tells me this, I forget to lock my door when we went in to get lunch somewhere.  She just about died when we came back and she found out my door was unlocked.  Nice job Kelley, good way to get on the auntie’s good side...  When we were downtown, I also got to see Baby House 2 (I’m in Baby House 1)!!  It was crazy to see 12 different little babies there.  It amazes me how many orphans there are in this area.  The house was super big and really nice though!  I’m glad I got to see it.  Maggie was saying how the house is really really old though and has so much work that needs to be done to it.  Right now they don’t have the money to fix it so they are trying to figure out what to do.  A lot of Christian organizations here go to the states to fundraise for their causes!  Because South Africans don’t give money to causes they personally don’t know since there are too many sketchy organizations around.  So they might try to do that, but they aren’t sure.

As I have mentioned before, the amount of donations they receive blow my mind!  A few days ago a company called Macro donated thousands of dollars worth of food, diapers, and even a washing machine!  I could not believe they just dropped all of that off for free.  They also get donations once a week from a top-quality food store, Woolworths, for the foods that are about to pass the sell by date.  The aunties absolutely love it.  It is really encouraging to see the support from the community that they have.  They would not be able to get by without each of the donations that the community and supporting companies give.

Last night was Rahel’s birthday (that is me and her on the right), one of the other volunteers!  She invited Melissa, Katlyn, and me to go to birthday dinner with everyone.  In the beginning we were not sure if we should go because of feeling unwelcome in the group earlier, but we talked to Rahel about it and she insisted that we come.  We went to Monte Casino, it was ballerrrrr!  Its basically this whole set up inside that makes it seem like its an outside street.  It looks like a little Italian town, it was so cute.  I will post pictures below of it.  We went to a delicious restaurant and then walked down the “street” to the gelato place.  It was super good!  We had so much fun.  I know there are probably places like that in the states, but I’ve never been to one!  I loved it.

Yeppp, this was inside.  You were tricked, weren't you?

This is a super cheesy one of Melissa, me and Katlyn!

I got a moped... mom and dad- you don't mind, right?

Melissa, me, and Jess (the volunteer coordinator) showing off our muscles :)

I have one amazing mom at home, but here all the aunties insist that they are all my mother figure here.  They are hilarious.  Auntie Veronica (or Auntie V) and Auntie Celestine (or Auntie Cele) both work with me in the big babies.  Auntie Margaret is super sweet as well, she works in with the small babies.  And Auntie Judith cleans the house, and she is completely crazy.  I love them all so much!  They always have good advice if you ask them anything!  Or even if you don’t ask them and you don’t really want it, they'll still give you their opinion...  They make sure we rest on our tea breaks (aka the babies’ nap time), stay out of the sun because they are certain thats why white people get pimples, eat enough cake when one gets donated but don’t eat enough to get fat, and that we are safe if we ever go out anywhere.  So mom- don’t worry, they got me covered.

Here are two cute pictures of some of the kids:

This is Lerato!  I went out of the room to get the other kids up from their naps and when I came back, he rolled himself up in the blanket!!  So cute.  He is the laziest baby, can't even crawl, barely ever rolls over, but yet he rolls himself right up in this blanket.  So funny!

This is Sanele and Adaliah.  We always joke around how they are a cute old couple because they always act like it.  Right before this picture, she was laying her head in his lap and he was playing with her hair while they were both laughing.  It was awesome.

Thats about all I have for today!  Hope you enjoyed the pictures :)

Thank you all so much for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers!  I have seen so many prayers answered here, it is obvious that I have a lot of support from home.  Hopefully reading this blog has given you a taste of what I have been doing!  I have many more stories I’ll have to share in person as well.

Until next time, my bloggies :) Mucho love yo.

P.S. Happy Father’s Day Daddy :) I’m glad I got to talk to you yesterday!

P.S.S. Katlyn and I got dropped off at the mall to hang out here for a while.  We are not getting picked up for six more hours.  But HOUSTON we have a problem!  I have got to use the restroom, or “toilet”, except come to find out that there is a water shortage in the building and there are no bathrooms open in this whole place!  What?!  How does that happen?  So... yeah.  This is an issue.