Cape Town!

Cape Town is probably one of the greatest places I have ever been! The ocean is absolutely beautiful and the water just seems to go on forever. You can see the mountains and the ocean in the one shot and its incredible. The city vibe of Cape Town is very refreshing and I didn’t realize how much I missed the city. It reminds me of San Francisco and Seattle mixed together. 

This week my roommate Bianca and I have been staying with a family in a community called Oceanview. The Daniels family has two daughters, who are 25 and 19 years old. It has been fun getting to know the whole family. They are very generous people and have been taking great care of us! On the first day 

we met Ester and Isaac at a dinner for all the students and our host families and Ester wore a purple shirt and jewelry. This reminded me of my mom, of course, and from here on out I knew everything was going to be okay, because my “mom” for the week was wearing purple. 

Our “parents” took us on a drive the first night to see the lights of the city and we walked by the beach for a few minutes and talked with them a lot. The weekend with them was very relaxing. It’s really fun living in the Oceanview community because 24 other students are also living in the community with their homestay families. I love hearing the stories about my friends’ “families” and what fun, crazy, and interesting things they do with them. There are always people walking around the streets, and there always seems to be loud music bumpin somewhere (usually it feels like the music is coming from next door, although I’m not sure if this is true) in Oceanview. Bianca and I walk to the church where all of us student meet in the morning before we take the vans to the Bible Institute where we have class everyday. Watching everyone arrive at the church in the mornings is probably one of my favorite things. Many of us walk, others get rides from their “parents” , everyone has their backpack on like we are in elementary school again, and we are always so very happy to see each other because we have no cell phones or internet and thus we go through a little bit of separation anxiety because we cannot communicate with each other. 

This week for our History and Culture of South Africa class we went on a couple of excursions. We went to visit the township of Langa, which was the first black township. We also went to Robben Island, which was where Nelson Mandela was in prison for 18 years. I really enjoyed the tour of Robben Island and some of the history we have been learning about for the past couple of months came to life in a new way. On Robben Island many of the prisoners were political prisoners but criminals also spent time there. Robben Island did not house any prisoners after 1996, which really is not that long ago. It is incredible that all of the things we are learning about the apartheid really did not occur very long ago. One of our guides was an older man who was a prisoner on the island. He showed us where he stayed when he was there and gave us a lot of information about life on Robben Island.  

I am very excited to explore more parts of the city of Capetown in the week and a half ahead! I have been looking forward to this part of the trip for a long time, and I cannot believe I am actually here. It is kind of sad that I have less and less things to look forward to in the semester. However, at the same time, I am getting excited to go home and this week I have been the most homesick I have been all semester. Living in a house with a family is a great experience but it makes me miss my family and my home! 

The Journey to Cape Town

Don’t drink the water

When one goes to visit a Zulu community, it would be best if he or she does not drink the water. Unfortunately, this is what we learned a couple of weeks ago. What happened to us can be referred to as the Zulu plague. The first group that hung out at the Zulu experience (I was not in this group) got incredibly sick! Several people had to go to the hospital and over about three days 20 of 27 of them were sick. When the two groups met for about 10 minutes we got to see our friends and I have never seen them looking so pale and miserable. People who are generally happy, smiling and full of life were just so sick! Those of us not in this group will probably never be able to understand what they went through. 

My group then went to the Zulu experience and we were told to not drink th

e water and we brought plenty of bottled water with us. However, the Zulu place was still not clean enough for us. My group made it through the three days without anyone getting sick and we were all so happy. We made it home to AE and thought we were golden, but later that night, one of my friends went to the hospital followed by 2 more people the next day and then 1 more Saturday evening. Most people in the second group did not get as sick as those in the first group. But, a majority of us were not feeling the best. 

We had a farewell dinner the night before we left AE for Cape Town. All of the professors were at the dinner and I was happy to sit at the same table as my Zulu teacher and enjoyed talking with her for the last time! It was really sad to think that our class is over, I will actually miss it! 

The Garden Route 

Traveling along the garden route was great! The first two days we drove for about 9 hours each day and then after that maybe an average of 4-6 per day.  But honestly, we were in very comfy buses and the whole time we slept and watched movies, so it wasn’t that bad. The first night I was shocked that our hotel was right along the Indian Ocean! It was such a great surprise! And the air just felt so fresh and salty! As we are drove we could see the ocean a lot of the time and of course that is great!

“Fear is temporary, regret is forever!” 

A major highlight of the garden route was BUNGY JUMPING! Not many people can say they went bungy jumping off of the world’s tallest bungy bridge! I think it’s the scariest, most adventurous thing I have ever done! About 40ish of us from my APU group went! I was in the third group of bungy-iers from our group and I jumped first in my group! 

Another part of the garden route was visiting ostrich farm, which was a very random thing to do but pretty hilarious! I have to admit that I was not able to gather to courage to feed an ostrich, but I did sit on one for a second and we all got to stand on their eggs. Some people from our group got to ride the ostrich, but after this whole experience I think I am very afraid of ostrich. I also must add that our guide at the ostrich farm took his ostrich job very seriously and had a very interesting voice. On this same day we visited the Congo Caves. Since, my parents are great parents, they have obviously taken me to see caves before, so the Congo Caves weren’t really anything new. Most of us went on the adventure tour of the caves and we have the wonderful opportunity to climb through very small and narrow spaces including the Devil’s Chimney, where you must climb up 9 (very narrow) meters. There was also this one part where we had to slide around on our stomachs and slide down this

 rock. Yes, the adventure cave was very adventurous.  

And then after a week of driving along the Garden Route we finally arrived in CAPE TOWN! 

Safari is probably one of my top 10 favorite things. You ride around with the wind blowing in your hair, looking at the most beautiful scenery, and oh yeah, you are in South Africa. You doze off every one and awhile, but no worries, so does everyone else.  When an animal is spotted, everyone in the safari vehicle wakes up to take pictures. Its pretty exciting when a giraffe, wildebeest, or zebra are right outside!

This Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday I had the opportunity to go on SAFARI! Our group of 52 was split in two, so my group went to the safari first, and then we went to the Zulu village for the rest of the week. I really enjoyed being with a smaller group and this whole week was a lot of fun. 

During the two and a half days of Safari, we would wake up at 4:30 or 5am to go on early morning drives and then basically for the rest of the day we would eat, go out looking for game, eat, go out again and then eat, go out once more and rest, have dinner and go to bed very early. One funny thing about the chalets where we stayed during the time at the safari was that the walls were not solid so we could hear everything everyone was saying before bed!

The safari guide and driver of my group was named Israel. Israel was very good at spotting not only the obvious animals but also turtles, and lizards and identifying animal tracks and animal dung. On the first 6am drive of the day, Israel told us that he didn’t know the roads of the game reserve very well. I laughed

 because I assumed he was joking like when you go out to eat at teppanyaki and the chefs tell you its there first day, but you know its really not. Well, we later found out that Israel was not joking and we got lost for about an hour. The second time we went out with Israel the other group stole our safari vehicle when we were looking for hippos because our vehicle was better than there’s. We did not think this was very funny and luckily, the third time we went out that day we spotted hippos!!! Not only were about 4 hippos in the water, but then all of a sudden one got completely out of the water and it looked like he was going to fight another hippo. Israel said this was the best hippo experience he has ever had!  Israel was also very good at making all the animal noises and every time we went passed elephant dung, which happened quite often when when we got lost, he would say, “elephant dung” in his accent and it was so funny. 

On day we got to drive to another reserve to see some lions. This time the safari vehicle was exactly like the ones in the Indiana Jones ride. Sexy Steve was our guide/ driver and unfortunately we didn’t see any lions. However, we did see three cheetahs and we got really close to them! To sum everything up, the safari was amazing and even the food we ate in the middle of nowhere was wonderful!

We went to the Zulu village Wednesday evening through Friday. It was in the hills in the middle of no where. We stayed in huts and in the morning the view from our door was beautiful! During the Zulu experience we went on a hike over the hills and through the forest, where the medicine man showed us some plants. Later in the day, we threw “spears” (which the boys in our group had made out of sticks) and shot rocks with sling shots. We also did some Zulu dancing and just hung out together by the camp fire. Our days at the Zulu village were pretty relaxing too, although it got incredibly hot and I was more than ready to come home to AE. 

What lies ahead...

This next week we will be leaving African Enterprise where we have been staying for the past couple of months. We are taking a week to drive to Cape Town and along the way we will bungee jump and shark cage dive and do all sorts of fun things. Once we arrive in Cape Town my roommate Bianca and I will live with a family for a week and live at a Bible college for the other week. I am excited for the next few weeks ahead, but its really hard to leave AE. 

Please be praying for my group, our travel to Cape Town, and especially our health right now! 

This past week was our last few days at service sites. Tuesday was the last time we met with the women at the support group and it was one of the best days spent with them yet! They helped us finish our hats we had been crocheting and they also gave us the skirts and aprons we had ordered from them :)

I had an opportunity to talk with Nelly, who hadn’t been at the group for a couple of weeks because she had been in the hospital. Nelly shared some of her struggles with my friend Danielle and I. She is going through so much right now, but I was amazed and encouraged because Nelly is so strong and has so much faith. She kept telling us about how God always provides for her and how He is always is with her. I will never forget Nelly and even though the amount of time I spent with her wasn’t much.  

Another thing I will never forget is what the women made us for lunch on Tuesday. They walked in with bowls of cow intestine, tripe (cow stomach) and pomtu. All eight of us slowly grabbed a bowl, looking for a bowl with the least amount of food. It looked absolutely disgusting. I didn’t try the meat for awhile and we all looked around at each other wondering how much we were expected to eat. After my first and only bite of the intestine, I was very very close to crying. I was on the verge of tears because it had the most horrid texture

 and because I thought we were going to have to eat everything in our bowls out of politeness and I was about to throw up thinking about eating any more. I have never wanted to eat something so badly. These women had made it for us and none of us wanted to be ungrateful or make the women disappointed. But, I think all of us were wondering if it would be worse to not eat it or to eat it and then throw it all up. I later found out that my friend Emma threw the meat in a plastic bag in her lunch box when no one was looking. I was sitting right by the window and I honestly considered discretely throwing some of this “lunch” out the window. I thought people only got rid of their food like this in the movies. However, I now know that sometimes this occurs in real life too. Thankfully, the social workers who translate for us told us it was okay not to eat it all and even they did not eat the cow intestine! I have not eaten meat since this experience and I think it might be awhile until I do. 

Saying goodbye to our friends at the support group was incredibly difficult. We took so many pictures with them and gave them hugs and the only reason it wasn’t sad saying goodbye was because they were joyful! It still hasn’t hit me that I probably will never see these woman again. 

Wednesday was our last day with the kids at RivLife. In the afternoon we painted their faces and blew bubbles with them and gave them popcorn to eat. I think they had a lot of fun but this too was also difficult realizing that it was the last time we would get to hold them, sing with them, and play with them. I even let some of the girls twist my hair, which turns into knots, because it was the last day. 

Overall, these three and a half weeks have been an amazing experience. I am still processing everything and I know it will take awhile. One question I keep asking is “Where do I see God in this?” I am so thankful for the many conversations I have had with my RivLife team and that together we can attempt to figure some of this out. 

On Monday, we will leave to go on safari for two days and then to live with a Zulu tribe for a couple of days. It should be an interesting transition going from service site

s to the safari but I am so excited!!! The safari is something many of us have been looking forward to since we arrived in South Africa! I miss everyone at home and love you all! Thanks so much for reading! 

They day we got to PAINT!

Last Friday we had the opportunity to leave our mark on the walls of the new crash (day care) at RivLife. It was our chance to be creative and to bring some life to the place where the kids will be everyday. On one wall we painted a rainbow using the kids hands, on another we painted flowers and butterflies and in the third room we pained a sun that says, "Jesus loves you" in English and IsiZulu.  

For the rainbow, we had four little girls help us and they were so well-behaved as we painted their hands and tried to explain to them what to do in English even though they don't speak English! 

Besides from painting, last Friday was a great day with the women in the support group we visit twice a week. They took us on a walk through the township where they live and we got to visit a couple of their clients. Every woman in the support group is a counselor for the red cross. They each have about 10 clients who have AIDS who they visit and they help get their medication  and other things like that. This is all volunteer work for them. 

I cannot describe what it was like to visit the two women they took us to in the community. It was hard to hear their stories and the struggles they are facing. At both homes we had the opportunity to pray for the people we were visiting. Before we prayed the women of the support group would sing. It was one of the most moving things I have ever experienced. The songs were in Zulu so I'm not sure what they songs meant. They sang so beautifully but at the same time, the songs were so sad and heartfelt.  

After these home visits we got to spend more time with the women. On Thursday night, we had made quesadillas, guacamole, and rice krispie treats to bring the women for lunch since they had made lunch for us on Tuesday. None of them had ever had this type of food before and it was funny to watch them try it. Im not too sure if they liked the quesadillas very much but they enjoyed the rice krispie treats!
After our day of spending time with the women and painting, we had to take some pictures! This "jumping" picture is a failed attempt to capture everyone in the air, but it shows our genuine laughter. And as I've mentioned before we LOVE to LAUGH!  

While taking pictures we decided to demonstrate the motions to my new favorite song the gogo Gloria from the crash taught us. It goes like this, “Jesus is ever shinning. He is ever shinning.” You then repeat those 7 words over and over until you are sure that the song will be stuck in your head for the next 3 days. It’s also my favorite thing to be sitting in Zulu class at night and have this song in my head. Thankfully, I am not alone in my misery and everyone on my team has confessed that the song also never leaves there heads either.  

Snapshots of My Week

This little guy is probably one of the craziest of the preschoolers but for some reason he is one of my favorites! 

One day this week we painted the girls' nails! They loved it! 

At the support group this week we danced with the women and it was so much fun! 

Group picture with the women after they showed us around the community! 

RivLife Week 2 Part 2

Another part of my week was going to the support group for women who are HIV positive. We went on both Tuesday and Friday mornings. 

On Tuesday, we got to hear a couple of women’s stories. I cannot imagine some of the things they go through because they are HIV positive and the way people in the community treat them. I cannot explain how much I admire the strength of these women. Also on this day, while she was teaching me to crochet, Nelly (one of the women) told me about a friend she was worried about and also about some struggles with her family is facing. I was thankful that she opened up to me and that I had the opportunity to pray with her.

I was reminded how laughter is universal when we went to the support group on Friday without a translator. We didn’t really need to talk with the women, we gave them hugs when we got there and said our hellos and then they taught us to crochet while speaking very little English. Just being there and sitting with the women was enough. I am the worst crochet-er ever. It took me forever to get the hang of it. The most patient woman sat with me and showed me over and over again how to crochet. Surprisingly, the green beanie I started on doesn’t look too bad. There is a chance it might turn out looking good enough for me to actually wear. Laughter brought us all together because everyone in the room, South Africans and Americans laughed when we would mess up and the women could take what we were working on and pull half of what we had crocheted out because we had been doing it wrong. I feel like we really bonded with the women and this day helped us to really feel a part of this group. 

River of Life ~ Week Two

This is the amazing group of girls I get to work with every day at RivLife! There are so wonderful and this past week I have appreciated the their encouragement, flexibility and honesty. We laugh about everything and we are convinced that our service site is the better than the rest! Nicole, Bianca, Staci, Carisa, Daniele, Sarah, and Emma, I love them all!

This little girl is one of my favorites! All the kids call us "Auntie"! It's so cute! 

This is why we laugh all the time... 

On the first couple of days we would sit under the play ground in the shade in the afternoons with the kids. Well, we found out that the kids like to pee there. So we now call this area the pee pit and 

we don’t sit there anymore.

We laugh when they wipe their snot in our hair, pee on us, eat styrofoam, and cry over 

their turn for the swing... 

Sometimes it seems like the only word we yell at them is 

“yima” which means “no”. 

I have found that entertainment for preschoolers comes easily. Four or five of them will stand around and braid, knot, and play with my hair. Our hair is so soft and shinny compared to theirs and so this is why they sometimes even just like to “pet” our hair.  As crazy as they are, its fun just getting to love on the kids. We have seen a change in a couple of the shy and timid children who now seem to be more comfortable with us and they seem to be a little more outgoing with the other children too. I love when we get to RivLife in the mornings and they all start yelling and run up to us and give us hugs!

Birthday Bliss

I think every college student secretly wishes to spend his or her birthday in 8 hours of class. On Monday, I lived out this dream. 

Despite being in class for the same amount of hours I generally sleep at night, I managed to have a pretty good birthday in South Africa! I woke up nice and early to skype my wonderful family! I loved seeing and talking to them on my birthday! 

This year I had a birthday twin and my friend Josh and I got to celebrate our 20th birthdays in South Africa together. One thing we do here for birthdays is that at tea time or meal time everyone goes into the dinning room and makes a tunnel, after an elementary school soccer game style, you know what I mean. Then everyone waits for the birthday person to enter and we all pretend to surprise that person and pretend to get all excited when they are about to walk through the door. It’s pretty funny. And then when the birthday boy or girl walks through the door everyone cheers as he or she runs through the tunnel and we all start singing Happy Birthday and there is cake and a special present from the birthday committee. All this to say that at lunchtime on Monday, this happened to me. 

When our last class got out at 8pm it was finally time to go out and celebrate! A bunch of us went to a restaurant called Spurs for dessert and after being in the same class room all day with the same people, we were a little crazy and fit the stereotype of loud, obnoxious Americans. But it was a great night and it was fun going out with so many friends. I am so thankful to everyone in S.A. who made my birthday a special day and to everyone who sent me birthday cards! I have gotten SO many and I have loved getting so much mail! 

RivLife

Thursday and Friday of this past week were our first two days at service sites. We go to our sites from about 9am to 3:30pm Tuesday through Friday and will be going for the next three weeks. My service site is called RivLife and there are 8 of us girls who are working there. 

On day one Reg dropped us off at RivLife, which is about 20 min from AE. Reg is the guy in charge of our APU group and our semester. He is a sweet and wise older man, and we all like him a lot. When Reg dropped us off it was like our mom (or in this case, grandpa) was dropping us off at the mall for the first time. There was a sense of being independent and we were all excited for the day ahead!

One of the first things we did was some planning and we found out basically what the next three weeks will look like at RivLife. On Tuesdays and Fridays we will get to meet with a support group of women who are HIV positive. On Wednesdays we get to hang out with a group of gogo’s (granny’s) and we were told they like to exercise and that they like to run up hills and stuff. Oh yeah, they are like 70 years old, so this should be pretty fun. Then on Thursdays we will go into the community and do home visits with people who are terminally ill. Then I believe in the afternoons everyday we will play with the kids that come to RivLife. 

We were told that basically we would be playing with the kids all day on our first day. So we led a group of 30ish preschoolers outside to this tent, which is incredibly hot inside. All the preschoolers (who do not know English) sat down and did not say a word, they stared at us and we stared at them. All 8 of us girls just looked at each other thinking, “what are we supposed to  do?!” So, we started singing Ageko Ofuna No Jesu (one of two songs we know in Zulu) and we all got totally into it and these kids just looked at us.  We then sang it 3 more times...this was the first funny thing of many funny moments of the day. 

 

The rest of the day went like this... we played with the little kids outside in the baking sun and attempted to possibly say a few words to them. Unfortunately, in our Zulu class we have not yet learned how to say such important words like “stop” and “don’t climb” and “don’t bite” (We did ask out teacher so now we know). During the whole day there was probably 3 to 5 kids hanging on each of us. I pushed kids on the tire swings for probably a total of an hour and a half and I got my hair played with. The kids were a little snotty but super cute. Also, after school in the afternoon some older children came 

and many of them could speak English so we got to talk and hang out with them too. We found out that some of the older children have to walk three to five miles to get to RivLife in the afternoon where they eat their only meal of the day. 

My new team slash family, as we like to call ourselves, is wonderful. We have had many laughs together, and I cannot wait for all the things we will experience together. On the first day one of the only pictures taken was of me napping during our lunch break. It’s really an attractive photo. Thanks, new family, thanks. 

During our second day at RivLife we got to attend the AIDS support group.

There are about 10 women who come to this and together they work on crafts they sell as a business and are just there for each other. When we first met the women, we all told each other our names. It was so difficult to remember their names because they are in Zulu but we are working on it! Everyone in the room laughed because one of the women’s name is Patricia and as Americans we had no problem remembering her name! There were a couple of women who translated for us during the 2 hours we were there. 

We told the group that we were there just to get to know them and be with them each week. Then one of the women told us that they all are HIV positive and asked us if that was okay with us, if we would want to be there knowing this. It 

was heart breaking. On the verge of tears, we told her that, yes, we wanted to be there because we loved them all. Then she asked us if we were okay with the fact that they are mothers who have this disease. We then told her how incredible we think it is that they all have the strength to be mothers and to run businesses and just to be out and doing things while having HIV. 

After this, they told us that they loved us and we all went around giving each other hugs. We noticed how the women held on to us for a long time. Some people still think that HIV can be spread through physical contact. It is due to ignorance that many times people will not associate themselves with those who have HIV. The women then got out some of their crafts and we watched them and they even taught some of us how to do it. At the end of our time with the group, we said our goodbyes and told them we would be back Tuesday. 

This experience was a lot to take in. I don’t think I have ever been so encouraged by a group of people. This is the first time I have really seen how HIV affects people and it is difficult to understand how people who already live in poverty have to deal with such a disease as this. 

I think everything I experience for these next few weeks will really change my perspective on a lot of things. Already after the second day, we found it difficult to say goodbye to the kids we played with and just from being with the women for a little while really made me think about how they live everyday. My group is just beginning to see the realities of life of both the women and children we have begun to build relationships with and it's a lot to process. 

Please keep us all in your prayers as we continue to go to service sites. Especially pray that our bodies would be protected from any diseases the children or people we come into contact with have and that my RivLife “family” would be able to encourage each other and really work as a team. 

The Good Life

This past week has been very eventful. It was finals week for everyone here except for the isiZulu students (our class keeps going for four more weeks). So, the 10 of us went on an overnight trip to Durban. We ended up staying at the Fairmont, and it was absolutely beautiful! On Wednesday we went shipping at the Indian market in Durban and went out to Mamma G’s for some great I-talian food! That night we took this crazy and creepy jungle path and found a salt water infinite pool that overlooked the ocean. The trek to find this in the dark was a little scary since we could not see anything and kept hearing things in the trees and grass, and we felt like we were in a horror movie and that some crazy African animal was going to eat us alive. But we made it and the night time swim was worth it :) Then that night I got the worst sleep I have gotten here in South Africa, but looking back its almost funny... The next day after some coffee we relaxed in the South African sun! The weather was perfect. It was sunny (yep, we all got a little sunburnt) and at times there was actually a breeze. The trip was really fun and I enjoyed spending time with a small group of people. We definitely all bonded and I think class will be even more fun now that we spent this time together. 

Battlefield Tour: 4 Battlefields, 2 Days, 1 Night, 52 friends... what could be better?  

Friday morning, I woke up too early with a newly packed overnight

bag and we began our oh- so- exciting battlefield tour. The good thing about this part of the weekend was that they got us a luxury bus! When the Brazil soccer team comes here they ride around in this exact bus! How cool is that?! The battlefield tour can be summed up like this.... we drove for a few hours to the middle of no where, climbed a crazy steep hill, took pictures, listened to a lecture in the beating sun, walked around, saw some cows, got back on the bus and to begin nap number two of the day as we drove for a couple more hours, listened to yet another lecture at the next battlefield, bought ice cream, took some more pictures, and drove and slept some more. I know it sounds so exciting that anyone reading can probably hardly contain him or herself. I did learn from this trip that I am not especially passionate about battlefields, 

but then again, I probably could have told you this a month ago. All sarcasm aside, we did stay at this really cool hotel in Dundee that was kind of old and cute. Every room had a different layout and the halls had old hard wood floors and I felt like I should have

walked around in a night gown holding a candle for light. For dinner we ate at the hotel and it was one of the best meals I have had here! The butternut squash soup and the dessert was especially delicious! I really enjoyed sitting and talking with the girls at my table. Recently, I have so blessed through conversation! 

Day two of the battlefield tour included two more battlefields and many hours of driving. I think my favorite part of day two was breakfast. Let’s just say that Saturday night, it was nice to be home.

  

Sunday= FunDay

This Sunday was officially declared FunDay. Sunday FunDay included a giant slip and slide, a slip and slide competition (the winning chalet got McFlurry’s, yes the stakes were high!), watermelon for snack and then an intense relay amongst the chalets. My chalet is named Mojolefa, so naturally our team name is the MOJO’S. Mom, I’m sure you would be happy to know our team color is purple, which means I get to wear purple every week on our competition day. Team Mojo got third place in the relay! Only the two boys chalets beat us! We were pretty excited about this! Sunday FunDay was a great way to end the weekend! 

Although I am loving all these experiences in South Africa, recently the distance has become more apparent for me and of course I miss many people and things from home. At the same time, it is difficult being not being in control of basically anything here and the limited amount of independence we have can be a struggle. However, God is good and through these things I know He will continue to teach me many things as I am abroad.  

Top five things I had done in the past 5 days

Top five things I have done in the past 5 days...

5. Watched the Lion King

4. Found a bat in our toilet

3. Went two hours away to attend a boys choir concert

2. Attended a church picnic

1. Ziplined on a canopy tour in South Africa’s 2nd largest indigenous forest

On Wednesday instead of going to my favorite class ever, a.k.a. intercultural communications, for 5 hours straight, I got to go on a field trip! We traveled a total of 4 to see the Drakensburg Boys Choir perform. The boys were about 7-16 years old and they were incredible! They sang some classical songs, a couple of American songs including Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen. They then sang and danced to some traditional Zulu and Xhosa songs. It was especially exciting when we could pick out a couple of the Zulu words and understand what they meant. It was really fun seeing the Zulu dancing too! 

On Thursday night my friend and I came back to our chalet to find a bat in our toilet. Since this is not a common occurrence in America, we weren’t exactly sure what to do. So being the considerate girls we are, we closed the door and left a note for the other girls we live with (who all were sleeping) informing them that there was a bat in the toilet and to proceed with caution. 

Saturday morning I woke up at the lovely hour of 6am to go on a canopy tour! I had no idea what to expect, but I can assure you that it is one of the coolest things I have had the opportunity to do yet. Once we drove to the site of the canopy tour, we put on our harnesses, helmets, and gloves and then took pictures in our harnesses, helmets, and gloves. Then, we got in the back of a pick-up truck and drove up the mountain. What a bumpy and fun ride it was, especially for

those of us who stood up! There was a total of 8 slides we got to zip line down. We were in charge of our own breaking, which was slightly scary at first but it was easy to get the hang of it and in no time we were dodging trees and zip lining like pros! It was so much fun and I had a great time with our group of ten! Halfway through we even got a piece of chocolate and juice as a snack. Of course, it was absolutely beautiful zip lining through all these trees and we all laughed at our great and sometimes not so great zip lining skills. All this had happened before 10am. How’s that for a start to a great day? 

When I think about Saturday night, it’s kind of a funny picture... twenty-ish 19-21 year olds sitting around watching the Lion King. We might have sung along with all the songs and some of us might have gotten excited when we saw the zebra in the movie (since we have now seen them in real life).  

On Sunday I went to church at God’s Family Life Church and after the service there was a church picnic. Everybody loves a church picnic! It was by this dam and there was swimming and soccer playing and all kinds of fun to be had. When we got there this family invited us to sit on their blanket with them. This was really nice of them and nice for us because it greatly reduced our amount of bug bites. It was great to talk with this family and with others from the church. Everyone was so friendly and even though we had already eaten our McDonald’s at the picnic, we were offered food and soda and muffins. One of the ladies I rode to the picnic with told us that “South Africans are always thinking of others besides themselves and their families.” I have found this to be very true. The church picnic was like a big family gathering full of fellowship and laughter. I definitely enjoyed it. 

You Know You're In South Africa When...

You Know You're In SOUTH AFRICA When...

you have some version of rice and beef once a day.

you see someone wearing something cute and ask, “is that from Mr. Price?” (as said by Josh).

you wake up in the morning unsure if it is raining or just the waterfall behind your room.

you attempt to put peanut butter on anything and everything and when there isn’t a jar on the table, you get nearly have a panic attack.

you hike a mountain, see the sun rise over the ocean, or go zip lining through the rain forest on an average saturday.

you become addicted to monopoly deal. 

every bus ride is a dance party and you look back to find everyone singing to the most random songs.

you look around an hour and a half later to find three- fourths of the bus asleep.

you eat chocolate often, unshamefully a bar at a time.

you get on facebook hoping your friend in the chalet next to you is on so you can find out what he or she is up to. 

its not a big deal if there is a spider or some other nasty bug in the shower and you just keep an eye on it while proceeding to shower.

 

going to bed at 11pm is late and you swear you will never go to bed that “late” again.

you wonder how you ever survived without having tea time twice a day... an excellent excuse to have more instant coffee or hot chocolate (its not like you haven’t already had four cups already that day) and a muffin, cookie, or on a really good day, a cinnamon roll.  

the question “are you doing Jillian?” is asked every night and actually means are you going to the Jillian Michael's workout video.

you hear screams and wonder what the monkeys did this time. 

you are walking along the road, see a car approaching, and have to think really hard about which side of the road you should run to.

an appropriate response to every question or comment is “Yebo!”

you feel encouraged by the people around you who have come to be your family :)

   On Monday I went on a field trip for my IsiZulu class! It was our first field trip for that class and the ten of us were quite excited to finally get our chance to go somewhere. 

We went to our teacher Wynn’s eleventh grade class at Grace College to meet our pen pals. I was a little worried that we would have to speak a lot of Zulu to them, but of course they could speak English and Wynn didn’t make us speak an Zulu :) We have been writing to our pen pals for a few weeks. I’m sure my letters have been written basically at a first grade level. 

    It was really cool to meet the students in person. They made us traditional Zulu food which included a pumpkin dish, Zulu bread, a green been dish, and COW TONGUE! The bread and pumpkin tasted pretty good, but I did not particularly enjoy the cow tongue. The texture was horrible, but I managed to get it down. 

   The students also showed us around their school and we had a chance to talk with our pen pals one- on-one. It was really fun talking with my pen pal. His name is Nhlaka and he told me he likes Jay-Z and asked if I had seen him before. I was sorry to disappoint him, but I told him that no, I have never seen Jay-Z. He also introduced me to “the best basketball player on campus”, “ the coolest guys on campus” (who are the guys he hangs out with, of course) and “the biggest pimp on campus”. The students showed us all the classrooms and buildings and they did a Zulu dance for us, which was really fun to watch. This whole experience was one of my favorites so far! It was interesting to hear what the students thought of Americans and to learn more about the way they live. 

   On our way back to AE we asked Baba Philip to take us to McDonald’s. An oreo mcflurry and french fries have never tasted so good :) 

On Tuesday night we had D-group (our small groups here). My group is called the Dark Chocolate Divas and we went to a coffee shop called Mug and Bean and got coffee and shared the biggest most amazing piece of chocolate cake ever! I love these 8 girls and it was incredible to meet with them this week, they are such a blessing to me! 

Zulu and the Lion King

Today I woke up to a group of girls encouraging each other while using pepper spray on a bunch of monkeys outside my chalet. They were yelling at the monkeys and banging on the door trying to scare the monkeys, which obviously was not working as the monkey are not afraid of girls... so they got out the pepper spray and were cheering each other on as they used it. This is my life in South Africa. I was just lying on my bed laughing and thinking about how much I love these girls! 

Writing a blog is a great way to procrastinate. I should be studying for a huge Zulu test right now (its only on everything I have ever learned in the class) but instead I decided to blog. This is called productive procrastination. 

Zulu class is getting easier and harder at the same time. Sometimes when we speak or read something in class we sound pretty good and some things are really starting to click haha. However, we get more and more vocab everyday, and the language is getting more complex!

I LOVE our Zulu teacher! She truly is great! During the day she teaches at a high school (which they call college here) and then at night she comes and teaches us American students Zulu. I have such respect for Wynn! She is very patient with us and encouraging and just a sweet lady overall. On the first day of class we asked her if she could give us Zulu names. So for the past few weeks she has gotten to know us better and observed us in class and this week was the revealing of our Zulu names!!! All of our names are pretty insightful. My Zulu name is Thando (the “h” is silent). It means princess of love. I promise I did not give myself this name, however from now on I will only be responding to my Zulu name. Just kidding! These are other names: Hillary- Khanyi (shinning), Alex- Siphiwumus (we are given kindness/ mercy), Staci- Zamavezi (proof/evidence in trying), Josh- Lethukuthula (peace bringer), Logan- Lindokuhle (good is expected), Cynthia- Ntombenhle (pretty maiden), Daniele- Nonhlanhla (princess of luck/ goodfortune/ happiness), Alex- Sibonelo (example of others), Allie- Minonhle (pretty fingers). 

Yesterday, we went and hiked a mountain. The Drakensberg mountains were absolutely beautiful. The beauty of God’s creation here in South Africa never ceases to amaze me. As we were driving to the mountains the scenery and especially all the colors of the scenery were just incredible! The blue sky was one of the bluest skies I have ever seen and the clouds only added to this. I have never seen shadows on the grass created by the clouds. In fact, I did not even know this was possible. The hike in the mountains was my favorite part of the day. It was like living in the Lion King!! We walked by this stream and everything was just so green. It felt too beautiful to be real!  Everything I saw reminded me of what a powerful and wonderful God we have who would create such beauty. 

Another part of the day was seeing the San Bushman paintings on these caves.  Two things I learned about the San Bushman tribe is that they never killed anything unless they were going to eat it and they also never killed anything without painting it. 

Overall, it was such a good day and I simply love South Africa! Hope you enjoy the pictures!