Conversations with Africa

I spoke with Carly yesterday. She is the girl that I have been working with directly over in South Africa during my application process. She is from Australia and has been in SA for the past 18 months. She has a beautiful accent with a mixture of Australian and the British English! She told me more about the other volunteers. The two that were pioneered the Footprints in Africa program last August are both from a church called Bethel in Fargo, North Dakota. This struck me as interesting as I was born in Fargo, and went to Bethel University...Carly told me that my accent was the same as theirs...BIG disappointment and not the accent I had in mind for myself. :) I was told when I returned from Romania that I had a Romanian accent, funny story, but I would much rather it be an exotic Romanian accent than the good old Fargo accent that is much mocked here in the States...oh well.
There will be five adult volunteers, and surprisingly three little volunteers that we might not have any luck getting to work... :) Let me explain. The adults are a girl named Brooke, from Fargo as well, a boy from Canada whose name I can't pronounce and therefor should not attempt to spell, and myself...then there is a married couple - James and Megan (two of us), who have three children. TWINS and a little girl, all under the age of 5 years old, and they will be joining us as well. Very exciting!!
During the first three months we will stay at a property just down the road from the Africa School of Missions. A couple owns a large area of land that has a two houses and a school house on it. The couple lives in one of the houses, James, Megan and the children will stay in the other house, and the schoolhouse will be the home for the remaining three of us for the time. It was explained to me that the schoolhouse is two stories (I love two story houses). The bottom floor has a kitchen for us to use and a big open area for meetings or activities or whatever, like a family room. The upstairs is where the three of us will stay. I am not sure how it is all designed but it sounds like an adventure to me!
Carly told me that they had T-shirts made for us too...so luckily I am getting a t-shirt out of the deal :) We laughed about the similarity between those in Africa and in the States, they will do anything for a free t-shirt out there as well ...
My mind was put at ease during our conversation. My biggest concern has been getting my 12 month visitors visa. The SA consulate has not been very helpful answering my questions when I call and I have felt a bit anxious about getting the visa in time. Carly explained to me that if I don't have my visa in time I can just go without it and get an automatic 90 day visa in SA. During that time I can then apply for my 12 month visa so there is no reason for the visa to hold me back from the trip. All my concerns are finding solutions one by one.