Last Sunday night was no doubt the worst night of my life.

It was about 9 pm and I was in my room reading when I heard a glass shattering. I thought that Liz, my housemate, dropped something so I thought nothing of it. A few seconds later Liz calls my name out sounding really panicked. I opened my door and there she stood looking stressed with two kitchen knives in her hand.

I'm thinking wtf is going on! She gave me a knife and said that she heard a window breaking in the front part of the house...man I was practically shitting in my pants at this point.

Knives in hand, we walked around from room to room inspecting the windows and found that nothing was broken; we concluded that a neighbour's house is being burglarized. Which was strange because this is a relatively safe neighbourhood. Anyhoo, after about ten minutes of insanity I headed back to my room and locked myself in hoping to fall asleep asap and get away from the unpleasantness.

WELL! That's when things got really bad.

I got woken again by Liz but this time it was the sound of her car heading out of the gate! She was going to her boyfriend's house, which she does once or twice a week. I was FLABBERGASTED. I was thinking what the hell is wrong with this girl, leaving me in the house all alone when she knows I'm not used to the crazy shit that goes on around here. ('here' being South Africa, and 'crazy shit' being the routine break-ins and rapes.)

I barely slept the whole night, I was praying all night and reciting over and over all the verses I had memorized from the Quran. I left my room every hour or so to see if there was anybody lurking around outside. I think I slept at about 4 am after shedding a tear or two.

Anyway, long story short, I found out the next day after coming back from work that the loud 'window breaking' noise was actually a light fixture in Liz' bathroom falling and shattering. The really fucked up part - she discovered this fact shortly after I went back to my room and didn't bother to alert me so that I can stop freaking out.

Honestly that was the worst night of my life - all because of an absentminded housemate and her defective bathroom light.

hello again

Time is flying, I can't believe I've been here for two months. I haven't been up to much, just working my little heart out. I'm not as worried as before about trying to travel as much as I can. I came to realize that for me just living in a new place and developing a routine there can be more exciting that doing the whole tourist thing. It's great when a strange place starts to become familiar.

On the other hand though, I would like to do a touristy thing or two before I leave. I'm leaving my internship on the 14th of April but I'll be in Joburg until the 26th. During that break my goal is to visit Durban and maybe (that's a big maybe!) Zimbabwe.

The internship is still going well. I enjoy coming into the office very much. The atmosphere is not tense and oppressive and the people at HURISA are very easygoing and pleasant people. They seem genuinely interested in my development and have been providing a very supportive working and learning environment. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I consider myself very lucky to be here! I feel like I'm getting the most out of the opportunity in learning as much as I can and also passing on what I've learned to others through the training. When the time comes for me to leave, it's going to be hard!

I honestly don't know what I'll do when I get back to Canada. Should I go back to school or get a job? Neither option appeals to me at the moment. I'm applying to jobs while I'm here but nothing fruitful yet.

Moving on. I braided my hair with extensions in late January and I recently took them out. It feels so good to be free from all that mess of hair. I lost a lot of it in the process of taking the extensions out though. So my once thick and unruly hair has been reduced to thin and wiry fluff : I'm just letting you guys know so you won't freak out if I come back to T.O. with half a head of hair :)

What else to say? I'm working on taking pictures and uploading them, I'll let you know when I do!

Greetings :)

Just to update, Johannesburg is great. Unfortunately, because of work I don't have a lot of time to fully enjoy what the city/country has to offer. Forget doing anything on the weekdays, I come home at 6 and have no energy whatsoever. On the odd night I might go for dinner with friends but those times are few and far between. On the weekends though I've been trying to go out and explore as much as possible...I've been to several important landmarks but not as much as I would've liked to by now.

I live in a flat in the Westdene/Melville area. The neighbourhood is very pretty, very lush and green. It took a while to get used to the giant gates, barbed wire and electric fences though. Unfortunately security is a big issue here. I don't know yet if it's warranted or if it's just paranoia but hopefully I don't find out. I actually have to open and lock three doors every time I leave/enter the house which is a huge deal in itself because I didn't even close our doors in Scarborough, let alone lock them.

Moving on...the weather's great! Just my kind of weather, cold, grey and raining! I really enjoy this type of weather. Everyone around here is moaning and groaning about the lack of sunlight but I love every minute of it :)

The internship is amazing, I'm learning so much. For now, I'm mainly working on IT related projects like web-development and computer training but I think I'll try to branch out a little to try and get the most out of my time here. The organization is called the Human Rights Institute of South Africa. It's a very small NGO but they do great work in human rights training.

Anyway, that's all for now, hopefully I'll have the chance to update this thing more often!

Cuba was awesome, I almost killed Natasha and myself on the jet ski but aside from that, a good time was had by both of us. I loved canoeing and biking/walking through town. Strangely though I didn't enjoy the beach that much - too much bare skin for my liking! and the damn sand was just all over me 24/7.

oh and who knew that I (as a 'black' person) could get a sunburn? before we left my face was a little sensitive and the night after coming home my skin started peeling : first time for everything I guess.

hope I get the chance to come back to Cuba! Now on to packing for South Africa, I'm so excited (an a wee bit nervous) but hopefully everything will work out for the best!

wow, I'm surprised I'm still using blogger! it's been exactly two years since I started doing this and I'm still at it. crazy!

just for fun I've been browsing my past entries...this one resonated with me for a lot of reasons. If you told me then that in 2005 I'll not only graduate but will also..

- go back to the city (and exact house) where I was born,
- visit England,
- be getting ready to go to Cuba and most important of all,
- find an internship in Johannesburg

...I would've laughed in your face...I would've thought you were the biggest crackpot on this earth! it's amazing how things turn out.

I wonder where I'll be next year?? I'm giddy just thinking of the possibilities! what's that saying, 'the world is your oyster'...yeah that's exactly what it feels like right now.

happy new year :)

today was...BOXING DAY! dang, I should've stayed home. no sale was worth what I went through today..no sale on earth.

...

Ok ok, I'm being a drama queen but as a borderline claustrophobic I should've known to stay clear of the mall after 12:00pm!

anyway, to update...I got me a temporary job while I wait for the Big Day. for the last several weeks I've been working at a magazine distribution warehouse. The job is pretty easy and the pay is really good.

oh and thanks to the extra cash, I can afford to go on a mini-vacation! weeeeeeeeeee!

I'll be in Cuba from Jan 1-Jan 8 with a very good friend. I've always wanted to go to cuba, I just never had the time or resources to go through with it.

looking back now, it's so clear that school was holding me back from doing a lot of things! honestly now that I'm done with school, I feel like I can finally start life.

OK, I finally got around to uploading a few of the pictures I took in Somalia. they're under the 'link' section.

enjoy! I'm not much of a photographer but I tried :)

My friend just left for South Korea to teach English for a year. She'll be missed. :( But I wish her all the luck in the world (not that she'll need it.)

Hey, I just realized I have a whole month to kill before my internship starts in January. I'm not going to bother looking for jobs as I doubt anyone would want to hire me for just a month; and I really can't go anywhere since I'm low on cash...But that's OK because now I have time to chill and relax, you might say I have time to chillax! Man, I really can't recall the last time I had an entire month to waste. I'm looking forward to it =)

....I'm just one lucky biatch when it comes to certain things!!

First of all, apologies for not updating sooner..I haven't really been feeling too well. No it wasn't an illness, it's just that the trip to somalia changed me a lot and I really couldn't come to grips with a lot of things for a while. After being there, I started to question a lot of things - mainly I had to revaluate what I thought was important. Plus, it was a really difficult thing to readjust to living in canada after being back home and seeing the situation of the people back there.

But I'm OK now, I swear :) I feel much better. back to my old little self :) And I still need to get them pictures scanned. Next week I promise..

And now, on to the purpose of this post!

A handfull of my friends have always pegged me as 'lucky' when it comes to finding jobs and whatnot. And I've always dismissed that... I'd always rave about hard work, determination and persistance and insist that luck had nothing to do with anything!!

But methinks I need to take that back

Through a very interesting turn of events, I'm going to south africa to intern for a human rights organization in Johannesburg. From Jan to April I believe. It's all so surreal at this point but it's starting to sink in. Actually I can go as soon as my visa comes through, but they told me since they won't be working from dec 10 to Jan 9 (summer festive) it's better to come then. InshAllah I'll be heading off early Jan and won't be back until late April... I still can't believe it!

That's all for now =)

p.s. I graduated Nov 15, so I'm oficially free from the instituationalized slavery otherwise known as "university"

hey! long time no update! I would've put something in here sooner but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Not that much has happened since I came back anyway. Actually it took a while to feel like I was really 'back'. I don't know, it was an odd feeling. Oh and I haven't forgotten about the pictures - they'll be up just as soon as I can get them scanned.

Moving on...something cool just happened: details are sketchy at this point but it seems like a human rights organization in south africa might take me on as an intern! This would be perfect! beyond perfect. Crossing my fingers that it comes through.

oh my lord I'm back! I'm home sweet home :)

A lot of things have happened in the past week: I've handed in my last essay, wrote my last exams (and basically finished my undergrad!) came back from Ottawa, recieved my passport, bought my ticket to Somalia and the UK...

so yeah, it's been a busy week :)

I'm leaving the country tonight and it still hasn't sunk in. I'm still excited about it though, but it's kind of like a numb excitement.

Anyway, I really don't know what to expect but I'm hoping for the best! Oh, and I'll try to post a shitload of pictures if I have access to the internet, just so you can see for yourself what Somalia is like.

BYE!

"Disarm you with a smile
And cut you like you want me to
Cut that little child
Inside of me and such a part of you
Ooh, the years burn

I used to be a little boy
So old in my shoes
And what I choose is my choice
What's a boy supposed to do?
The killer in me is the killer in you
My love
I send this smile over to you.."

*sigh* I love listening to the smashing pumpkins, their music makes my feel fuzzy and warm all over :)