CIEE Orientation day 4

Friday was more orientation. A woman came to talk about community poverty and development. She explained about how many people are homeless and without work.

South Africa is such an amazing and confusing country. It has 1st world infrastructure, but 3rd world development. Although the country has rich and lush natural resources, the country still continues to export the materials to be processed in a different country, then importing it. This is very costly and the reason why they don't process it in the country is because it is expensive and takes time to build facilities.

The average income of a black South African is between 500-800 Rand a month. Assuming the USD to rant rate is 7.5, they make between .50-.75 cents an hour. Can you imagine living on 67 dollars a month? It really puts it into perspective. I feel so privileged to live in America that I actually feel guilty. You don't know what the rest of the world is like until you experience it. Everyone takes their lives and their things for granted until they see how little people are living on. Basically, you don't know how much you have, until you see people that are living ok without those things.

Tonight we went to dinner at Marco's African place. The food was amazing! We danced afterwards then went to Long street to go party.