3 days left

Today is a beautiful sunny day in Fresno. Still cold, but my brain functions better when the sun is shining, so I am happy.
I finally started my goodbyes, and I'm ready to leave soon.
I love the calm of goodbyes. Somehow there is a grace and peace that comes with accepting the change that is coming. Goodbyes cement relationships into their proper place. I've started goodbyes to people, and Fresno too.
Today the paper ran a good opinion piece by a Hmong activist. I cut it out, to help me remember home. Apparently there are some references to things that happened while I was in Spokane that my mom explained to me later, but thats okay. Fresno is such a beautiful mess of poverty and wealth. I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to enter into a tidbit of Hmong/Southeast Asian culture when I worked at FIRM last summer. It helped me see Fresno a little more completely, and also complexly. I had the opportunity to enter into a few high school girls' lives. That opportunity touched/changed me more than anything else. I think I'm going to come back this summer to work for FIRM's Family Festival. I love those kids, and those leaders.
I know this blog is supposed to be about South Africa. Its important to me though, that the world not be so black-and-white.
I am going to a wealthy secluded corner of the richest country on the continent of Africa. I am coming from the city with the highest concentrated poverty in the country that has the largest economy of the world. I live in a state that would be the tenth largest economy in the world, if it were independent. There is still a lot of economic disparity in both countries. Definitely worse in South Africa. It'll be interesting to see, for sure.
I don't know how I'm going to react to the poverty and wealth I see in South Africa. I've done my good poli-sci student research. I know about the political parties, and the history. I will definitely learn more once I am there, but I feel somewhat intellectually prepared. In Fidens' words though, "You can never be prepared for Africa"
I'm so excited.