So once again it has been a while since I last wrote and a lot has changed in my day to day life. I started work at Idasa on the 15th. The first few days were extremely slow since my supervisor really didn't have the time to show me what I should be doing. That allowed me time to settle in and catch up on some emails. On Friday of last week I was able to start with my work. Idasa is a large organization employing about 100 people. It is composed of ten different programs and within each program there are units and projects. At this point, although Idasa is 21 years old, it has very few organizational skills that cross every department. There has also been a huge lack of communication between different programs in the organization. I am helping to create a new unit called the Strategic Support Unit. The idea was developed a few years back but nothing has been acted upon, so two other people and myself are now in charge of getting the unit up and running. Our goal is to basically set up communication lines between the programs about proposals and also set up a database with a wealth of information that everyone can use for proposals and donors. I think that although some of the work may be mundane it will give me a good opportunity to see a large view of what Idasa does. I will be able to sit in on all of the programs' meetings which I think will be very interesting. My supervisor also told me that if at some point I am interested in helping with a programs project I am more than welcome. So I am excited, the more I have been learning about Idasa the more I am realizing that non-profit work is defiantly my place. Other than work my life has been going really good. My fourth roommate, Andre moved in. He is also an intern from U of O. So it's now a full house and I get along well with all of my roommates. Godknows is from Zimbabwe and is getting married over the December holidays so there is talk of us going to Zim for his wedding. I am super excited about it, I have been wanting to go to Zimbabwe for years and with locals it will be much more fun and much safer. Last Friday I was able to meet up with some of my friends from high school here which was really nice. It has been a long time since I have seen some of them. We went out for dinner and drinks it was nice just to go out and do the normal things that I do back home. On Saturday I ended up going back home to Sebokeng, my mom was in the hospital and took a turn for the worse on Friday night. She has a blood clot in her brain. She is fine now and out of the hospital but it was scary for a while. I was glad that I was able to go home and see her anyway. But to say the least I have yet to spend a weekend in Pretoria. Yesterday was a public holiday, so no work! That was nice, I was able to sleep in, clean the flat some, and explore the town of Tshwane (the other name of Pretoria). Andre and I walked all around central Pretoria just to get a sense of what's there, although nothing was opened. Anyway that just about catches you up on things that have been happening. I will write again soon.