Ahhh, junior year. The year that was least liked in high school (from the few opinions I've heard) and definitely has a peculiar vibe to it. The hype of freshman and sophomore years (yes, sophomore year included--at APU at least, the hype definitely does not wear off by that point) is gone. College has a sense of normalcy to it, a sense that I personally am not too fond of and have struggled to be okay with. Yet it's not quite the end of your college career; you have a little less than half of your undergrad ahead of you, so you can't fully prepare to move on yet.
As it goes with any relationship, friendship, or anything else for that matter--as you get to know someone or spend time somewhere the honeymoon phase eventually comes to an end. You begin to see the flaws and are left with a choice to make: you can bail because you don't want to deal with the imperfections or you can choose to stick it out.
When life reaches a sense of normalcy it is then that we need to be the most careful. Complacency is quick to follow normalcy if one is not aware of it. Normalcy is one thing--in and of itself it is not necessarily bad. Complacency, on the other hand, is a bad thing. It can make you content with where you are at, cause you to quit pursuing growth, and make you lazy.
This morning I went to Foothill Church and the lead pastor preached a message concluding "The Church is..." series that they have been doing. The title of the message was, "...on a mission." Preaching out of Matthew 28:18-20 where Jesus calls the disciples to "go forth and make disciples of all nations", the point was that we always have purpose wherever we go. My previous blog post touched on this topic, the idea that God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive. Pastor Chris's sermon, however, focused more on the fact that our lives are our ministry. It's funny how we're willing to go across the world to some third-world country and do "crazy things for God" yet when we come home to the culture and country that is familiar to us we all of a sudden become complacent or are afraid to do "crazy things for God". We even find a way to justify it: "I can't do those things here, Americans aren't the same...", "Americans aren't as accepting...", "I'll be judged...", "I'll lose what means most to me...", etc.
Let me be the first to say that I am completely guilty of this. I myself struggle to live differently in the States yet I know that I can go abroad and (it is much easier to) live simply, lovingly, and selflessly. I am not saying that going abroad isn't a good thing--it is definitely a good thing and many are in fact called to the nations. What we need to quit doing, however, is separating the two. God is as present in America as He is anywhere else. God's Kingdom can be here, there, and anywhere! There should be a fluid continuity between the two; the life I live in Africa shouldn't be any different from the life I live in America.
As a fellow struggler amongst the majority I give you permission to keep me accountable of this. Don't be afraid to ask how things are going. I want that kind of accountability and I think we all need it.
Live counter-culturally.
Live Kingdom-minded.
Live your life as your ministry, 'cause it is.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Friday, August 16, 2013
A Life Entwined with Purpose
God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive.
Such a simple statement, yet one that literally turned my day around. After spending the first few hours of my day gardening with my brother for our grandma and lounging around for a bit, my family and I went to the mall for a couple of hours. The last store we visited was one called Fireworks, a quirky little shop with all sorts of gadgets and goodies and other random things. Having barely stepped into the store I noticed a book titled, What You Need to Know Going into College. So, being a college student myself, I had to pick it up to see what it had to say (even though I'm already halfway through college--there's always room to learn, right?!). It offered a lot of advice from how to deal with your parents to how to live on your own to how to be financially responsible. To my surprise it included a small section entitled, "You Need to Know Not to Leave Your Faith at Home" and these were some of the tips I came across in the pages that followed:
944. You need to know to let go of your preconceptions about how things will work out. God has a plan too.
955. You need to know to volunteer a couple of hours a week. At a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen. It will take your mind off you.
957. You need to know to be open to a real encounter with God.
958. You need to know it takes spiritual strength to face adversity. Going to church on a regular basis helps.
966. You need to know to pursue more than a degree. Pursue a purpose.
It was the last one I stumbled upon that really made an impact on me. In a list of one thousand things you need to know before you go into college, it was number nine-hundred and sixty-seven:
You need to know God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive.
Tell me this doesn't give you an incredible amount of hope and purpose. Really think about it.
This summer hasn't been an easy one for me--in fact, it's been one of the craziest summers I've ever had. I got back from South Africa on May 14th then spent a month at home before my mom got married on June 15th. After that I spent roughly six weeks at my university running an English-intensive, American-experience program for 26 international students from Taiwan and Brazil. Once that was over I spent a week and a half traveling around Southern California visiting friends and family I don't get to see very often and now I find myself on a two-week vacation (if I can even call it that; hasn't this entire year been vacation?) in the Pacific Northwest visiting even more family before the craziness of my junior year begins.
Up until recently, whenever I was asked about how I felt about going into my junior year of college, all I could muster up for an answer was, "Ehhh... I guess I'm excited." Feeling like I had no purpose and was even going through a sort of mid-college crisis (if such a thing exists), I couldn't say I was excited for the year to come. And then God began to work on my heart. And then I stumbled upon an encouraging piece of wisdom that I apparently "needed to know" as a university student: that God's purpose for me is the reason I'm alive. That God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive. That God's purpose for us is the reason we're alive.
You see, it doesn't matter whether or not we feel like we have purpose or not--the truth of the matter is, we do. We do have purpose. Emotions are fleeting and always changing and cannot tell us otherwise. No thing or human being can tell us otherwise. We have purpose. It is God-given and bestowed upon us the moment we enter this world.
I challenge you to dwell on that for a while. See what it is God may be speaking to you about.
He's always speaking.
We're just not always quiet enough to hear what it is He's saying.
Such a simple statement, yet one that literally turned my day around. After spending the first few hours of my day gardening with my brother for our grandma and lounging around for a bit, my family and I went to the mall for a couple of hours. The last store we visited was one called Fireworks, a quirky little shop with all sorts of gadgets and goodies and other random things. Having barely stepped into the store I noticed a book titled, What You Need to Know Going into College. So, being a college student myself, I had to pick it up to see what it had to say (even though I'm already halfway through college--there's always room to learn, right?!). It offered a lot of advice from how to deal with your parents to how to live on your own to how to be financially responsible. To my surprise it included a small section entitled, "You Need to Know Not to Leave Your Faith at Home" and these were some of the tips I came across in the pages that followed:
944. You need to know to let go of your preconceptions about how things will work out. God has a plan too.
955. You need to know to volunteer a couple of hours a week. At a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen. It will take your mind off you.
957. You need to know to be open to a real encounter with God.
958. You need to know it takes spiritual strength to face adversity. Going to church on a regular basis helps.
966. You need to know to pursue more than a degree. Pursue a purpose.
It was the last one I stumbled upon that really made an impact on me. In a list of one thousand things you need to know before you go into college, it was number nine-hundred and sixty-seven:
You need to know God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive.
Tell me this doesn't give you an incredible amount of hope and purpose. Really think about it.
This summer hasn't been an easy one for me--in fact, it's been one of the craziest summers I've ever had. I got back from South Africa on May 14th then spent a month at home before my mom got married on June 15th. After that I spent roughly six weeks at my university running an English-intensive, American-experience program for 26 international students from Taiwan and Brazil. Once that was over I spent a week and a half traveling around Southern California visiting friends and family I don't get to see very often and now I find myself on a two-week vacation (if I can even call it that; hasn't this entire year been vacation?) in the Pacific Northwest visiting even more family before the craziness of my junior year begins.
Up until recently, whenever I was asked about how I felt about going into my junior year of college, all I could muster up for an answer was, "Ehhh... I guess I'm excited." Feeling like I had no purpose and was even going through a sort of mid-college crisis (if such a thing exists), I couldn't say I was excited for the year to come. And then God began to work on my heart. And then I stumbled upon an encouraging piece of wisdom that I apparently "needed to know" as a university student: that God's purpose for me is the reason I'm alive. That God's purpose for you is the reason you're alive. That God's purpose for us is the reason we're alive.
You see, it doesn't matter whether or not we feel like we have purpose or not--the truth of the matter is, we do. We do have purpose. Emotions are fleeting and always changing and cannot tell us otherwise. No thing or human being can tell us otherwise. We have purpose. It is God-given and bestowed upon us the moment we enter this world.
I challenge you to dwell on that for a while. See what it is God may be speaking to you about.
He's always speaking.
We're just not always quiet enough to hear what it is He's saying.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The End of an Unexpected Journey
It is now Wednesday, May 22nd, and I've been home for just over a week now. It's crazy how fast the semester flew by, including my extra time in Cape Town!
On Friday, May 10th, we spent a good chunk of the day at Camps Bay, an internationally-recognized beach on the side of Table Mountain (a little ways out of the city). The weather was perfect and could not have been any better! That evening Jess and I went on a sunset sailboat cruise, which was so beautiful! Definitely the perfect ending to our stay in Cape Town. That night we had our last "final dinner" at a restaurant called Mama Africa; to be honest, I think the name explains it all! Think African music, African decorations, and delicious, quality African food. Overall... great experience.
Jessica flew home on Saturday and that's when Luke and I caught a taxi and a train to Fish Hoek, our former home when the program was still going on. My former home stay family picked us up from the train station and we stayed with them for our last two days in South Africa. As it was for our home stays during the program, we watched TV, visited other home stay families, and played soccer with my family's 11-year-old son, Xavier. It was a nice, relaxing ending to an incredible four months spent in South Africa.
We flew out of Cape Town on Monday, May 13th, getting home about 24 hours later (according to the clock; we gained nine hours coming back). I totaled 33 hours of travel and 25 hours of flying; I was so over flying by the time I got home! Coming home was great though as I had family and friends awaiting my arrival at the airport. That night we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, which was just what I'd been craving all semester! Mexican food is non-existent in Africa and was dearly missed by myself and everyone else on my team.
Being home has been great so far; in fact, it's been a lot better than I expected. I expected it to be pretty rough as we'd had a reorientation the last day of the program and several emails from the study abroad office, all telling us of the hardships we may go through once we got home. Since being home I've been hanging out, spending a lot of time with friends and family--just what I've needed and missed so much!
There's much more to the experience and the things we went through, but for that, I'm afraid we'll have to talk in person. Hopefully these updates have been thorough enough, giving you a good glimpse of South Africa! Ideally, it's given you the desire to go and visit South Africa, or even Africa itself!--a continent rich in culture, languages, people, and much, much more! I know I will take my experiences with me for the rest of my life and I can only hope that others will experience the same!
The remaining week or so in Cape Town included miscellaneous adventures, including visiting a Muslim shrine, visiting Muizenburg (a small surf town that was deserted when we visited due to poor weather), another "final" dinner (most of our group left on the 9th), standing outside of Cape Town Stadium and listening to the Justin Bieber concert (my friend Jessica's idea!), and even more hanging out and relaxing.
The last two days in Cape Town were probably my favorite. On the 9th, Luke, Jessica, and I (the three of us remaining) went to a couple markets to finish up our souvenir shopping. We then spent the rest of the day at the waterfront, getting dinner and seeing "Iron Man 3", which we really enjoyed!
 |
| On a sunset sailboat cruise in Table Bay |
On Friday, May 10th, we spent a good chunk of the day at Camps Bay, an internationally-recognized beach on the side of Table Mountain (a little ways out of the city). The weather was perfect and could not have been any better! That evening Jess and I went on a sunset sailboat cruise, which was so beautiful! Definitely the perfect ending to our stay in Cape Town. That night we had our last "final dinner" at a restaurant called Mama Africa; to be honest, I think the name explains it all! Think African music, African decorations, and delicious, quality African food. Overall... great experience.
 |
| Camps Bay, with Lion's Head in the background |
Jessica flew home on Saturday and that's when Luke and I caught a taxi and a train to Fish Hoek, our former home when the program was still going on. My former home stay family picked us up from the train station and we stayed with them for our last two days in South Africa. As it was for our home stays during the program, we watched TV, visited other home stay families, and played soccer with my family's 11-year-old son, Xavier. It was a nice, relaxing ending to an incredible four months spent in South Africa.
 |
| Four boarding passes = lots of flying! |
We flew out of Cape Town on Monday, May 13th, getting home about 24 hours later (according to the clock; we gained nine hours coming back). I totaled 33 hours of travel and 25 hours of flying; I was so over flying by the time I got home! Coming home was great though as I had family and friends awaiting my arrival at the airport. That night we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, which was just what I'd been craving all semester! Mexican food is non-existent in Africa and was dearly missed by myself and everyone else on my team.
 |
| Mmmm... Mexican food |
Being home has been great so far; in fact, it's been a lot better than I expected. I expected it to be pretty rough as we'd had a reorientation the last day of the program and several emails from the study abroad office, all telling us of the hardships we may go through once we got home. Since being home I've been hanging out, spending a lot of time with friends and family--just what I've needed and missed so much!
 |
| My and my friend's families |
There's much more to the experience and the things we went through, but for that, I'm afraid we'll have to talk in person. Hopefully these updates have been thorough enough, giving you a good glimpse of South Africa! Ideally, it's given you the desire to go and visit South Africa, or even Africa itself!--a continent rich in culture, languages, people, and much, much more! I know I will take my experiences with me for the rest of my life and I can only hope that others will experience the same!
Thanks again for your prayers and support--it's you that have made this experience possible!
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
No Longer Studying Abroad... Vacationing Abroad!
The day finally came. The day when the South Africa Spring 2013 semester ended. The day when 33 of them went back to the States and the remaining 20 of us stayed behind in Africa. And so the adventure began.
A couple of taxis hauled all our luggage and most of our group (the rest walked, caught the train, then walked some more) to Long Street Backpackers, a hostel on Long Street in downtown Cape Town. To put it simply, Long Street is where everything's happening in Cape Town.
I'd try describing what the past week has been like but I always find myself having trouble doing so. In stead of my words, here are some pictures in an attempt to sum it up (if you click on the pictures you can view them full-screen!):
 |
| The hostel we're staying at |
 |
| The inside of our room in the hostel |
 |
| Watching the soccer game |
 |
| Professional soccer game, Kaizer Chiefs vs. Ajax Cape Town |
 |
| The Thursday Market |
 |
| Walking through the Company Gardens (Lion's Head in the background) |
 |
| The Castle of Good Hope |
 |
| My friends and I crossed paths with a "Legalize Weed" march |
 |
| Visiting Hillsong South Africa |
 |
| On our way to Simon's Town |
 |
| Wine-tasting in South Africa--definitely on the list of things to do! |
 |
| Bunny chow for lunch |
 |
| Visiting a Muslim shrine in the Bo Kaap |
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
All Good Things Must Come to an End
It's true. On this earth, everything good comes to an end at some point or another. Fortunately, the best is always yet to come! It's the hope I hold onto. Better things are always ahead. Without such hope, what fun would life be?!
Two weeks ago, on Thursday, April 18, we took a ferry to Robben Island, where political figures such as Nelson Mandela were held captive for many years. Mandela himself was incarcerated on the island for 18 years, only to be imprisoned for an additional nine years on the mainland. What made the tour especially interesting was the guide that spoke to us when we got to go inside the prison; he himself had been a prisoner there. Conditions were unpleasant as meals were repetitive, Afrikaans and English were the only languages permitted, mail and media were filtered, and one bucket served as a water holder or a toilet--it was up to you. Overall the tour was really cool and I'm glad that we got to go. The ferry ride there wasn't that great as many got seasick, but the ride back was much better.
On Saturday, April 20, me and 13 others went shark-cage diving in the Atlantic Ocean. We had to leave at 4am to go, but it was well worth it. The drive there took about two hours and the driver got lost a few times, but eventually we made it. I was in the second of three groups to go into the cage and we'd gotten to spend the most time out of anybody in the cage: a whole 45 minutes! Throughout the entire morning we saw about five or six different sharks, which didn't get too vicious but one of them did attack and hit the side of the cage with its tail. As a whole though the experience made me less afraid of sharks, which probably isn't a good thing. Glad I did it though! Definitely overcame some (minor) fears that day. That evening my roommate Sammy and I went to our home stay family's house to make them a delicious Mexican dinner (along with the two guys who were currently staying there); they loved it! It was good seeing them and having a home to go back to; definitely felt like family.
Sunday was pretty relaxing as I spent the morning working on (and finishing) a term paper for our History & Culture of South Africa class. I went on a three-mile run in the afternoon, which felt so good! My right foot, which I sprained a couple of months ago, has been healing well these days; I pretty much don't feel it anymore! That evening I encountered a man named Tacobas who doesn't have a home and has been living on the streets for a while. He'd spent five years in jail but hasn't been in for a while. Aside from telling me that he needed food and a place to live, we ended up sitting down and telling each other about our lives. I could tell that something was different about him; rather than simply begging for food and money he wanted to get to know people. He wanted to feel connected. He wanted to love someone, to hear their story, and to have a friend. At the end of our time together I prayed for him, gave him R20, and went back home. Leaving him I felt completely overwhelmed (in a good way) and couldn't help but think about what God was doing in my life. Tacobas made a bigger impact on me than he may ever know and for our encounter I am extremely grateful.
Last Monday a group of us went on a several hour hike to the top of a small mountain (or maybe it was a hill... what defines a mountain, anyway?). We had to crawl through some brush and a small section of cave but the challenge was well worth it. The view was beautiful and overlooked the entirety of False Bay. On Tuesday, April 23, we visited the Bo Kaap, a Muslim/Malay section of the inner city. The tour wasn't too long but we visited a spice shop, a mosque, and ate a homecooked meal at one of the homes there. The food was so good: curry, rice, potatoes, and chicken. Talk about a cultural experience! That night we went to theatre sports, where two teams of actors competed against each other in a series of acting games and challenges. It was pretty funny!
On Wednesday we hiked Table Mountain, which was no easy feat! The hike for me took about an hour, and while it was strenuous it wasn't as challenging length-wise (time-wise) as I thought it would be. The view at the top was incredible; it overlooked the entire Cape Town area and beyond it too. After lunch I hiked about 30 minutes out to the other side of the mountain to MacClear's Beacon, the highest point on the mountain. Again, the sights were amazing! On Thursday we visited Stellenbosch, touring a college and buying wine for our families. It was my first alcohol purchase!
This last weekend was pretty chill. On Saturday I went and saw some African Penguins and ventured into Cape Town in the afternoon. We ate lunch at the eastern food bazaar and went to the Green Market after that. The sellers were relentless in trying to sell you stuff; it got a little crazy but that's Cape Town for you! I spent all day Sunday studying for our History & Culture final.
Yesterday morning we had that final. It didn't go too well (our professor later told us that we didn't fare very well) but it sounds like we'll all still get good grades in the end. Our professor is a pretty chill guy and won't be too tough on us, especially considering we're at the end of our trip and have been on vacation mode for a while now. Today we had reorientation at the University of Cape Town, which involved reflecting on the semester and preparing for home and reverse culture shock. It's all so unreal, everyone going home. Especially since about 20 of us aren't going with them; we're staying in Africa for a bit longer. Some are going to Kenya, one guy is going to Uganda, and one girl is going to Malawi; talk about world travelers!
I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks at a hostel in downtown Cape Town. Tomorrow evening we're going to a soccer game at Cape Town Stadium, which should be really fun! I'm not sure what we're doing for the remainder of the time but we'll figure it out as we go along. I'm excited to be on vacation and to travel on my own; the joys of growing up! My last two days I'll spend with my home stay family before flying home to America. Although I'm stoked to go home I'm excited for these last couple of weeks too!
This semester has been beyond incredible. I have been challenged in so many ways and learned so much over the last four months. To relay everything would take forever. Overall I am extremely grateful for this experience. Africa is a beautiful country with incredible people and I have no doubt I'll come back here one day.
And now, to the next: independent adventures in Cape Town.
Let's go.
 |
| Me and my friend Elayna on Robben Island |
Two weeks ago, on Thursday, April 18, we took a ferry to Robben Island, where political figures such as Nelson Mandela were held captive for many years. Mandela himself was incarcerated on the island for 18 years, only to be imprisoned for an additional nine years on the mainland. What made the tour especially interesting was the guide that spoke to us when we got to go inside the prison; he himself had been a prisoner there. Conditions were unpleasant as meals were repetitive, Afrikaans and English were the only languages permitted, mail and media were filtered, and one bucket served as a water holder or a toilet--it was up to you. Overall the tour was really cool and I'm glad that we got to go. The ferry ride there wasn't that great as many got seasick, but the ride back was much better.
 |
| Shark-cage diving in the Atlantic |
On Saturday, April 20, me and 13 others went shark-cage diving in the Atlantic Ocean. We had to leave at 4am to go, but it was well worth it. The drive there took about two hours and the driver got lost a few times, but eventually we made it. I was in the second of three groups to go into the cage and we'd gotten to spend the most time out of anybody in the cage: a whole 45 minutes! Throughout the entire morning we saw about five or six different sharks, which didn't get too vicious but one of them did attack and hit the side of the cage with its tail. As a whole though the experience made me less afraid of sharks, which probably isn't a good thing. Glad I did it though! Definitely overcame some (minor) fears that day. That evening my roommate Sammy and I went to our home stay family's house to make them a delicious Mexican dinner (along with the two guys who were currently staying there); they loved it! It was good seeing them and having a home to go back to; definitely felt like family.
Sunday was pretty relaxing as I spent the morning working on (and finishing) a term paper for our History & Culture of South Africa class. I went on a three-mile run in the afternoon, which felt so good! My right foot, which I sprained a couple of months ago, has been healing well these days; I pretty much don't feel it anymore! That evening I encountered a man named Tacobas who doesn't have a home and has been living on the streets for a while. He'd spent five years in jail but hasn't been in for a while. Aside from telling me that he needed food and a place to live, we ended up sitting down and telling each other about our lives. I could tell that something was different about him; rather than simply begging for food and money he wanted to get to know people. He wanted to feel connected. He wanted to love someone, to hear their story, and to have a friend. At the end of our time together I prayed for him, gave him R20, and went back home. Leaving him I felt completely overwhelmed (in a good way) and couldn't help but think about what God was doing in my life. Tacobas made a bigger impact on me than he may ever know and for our encounter I am extremely grateful.
 |
| Exploring the Bo Kaap |
Last Monday a group of us went on a several hour hike to the top of a small mountain (or maybe it was a hill... what defines a mountain, anyway?). We had to crawl through some brush and a small section of cave but the challenge was well worth it. The view was beautiful and overlooked the entirety of False Bay. On Tuesday, April 23, we visited the Bo Kaap, a Muslim/Malay section of the inner city. The tour wasn't too long but we visited a spice shop, a mosque, and ate a homecooked meal at one of the homes there. The food was so good: curry, rice, potatoes, and chicken. Talk about a cultural experience! That night we went to theatre sports, where two teams of actors competed against each other in a series of acting games and challenges. It was pretty funny!
 |
| On top of Table Mountain, overlooking Cape Town |
On Wednesday we hiked Table Mountain, which was no easy feat! The hike for me took about an hour, and while it was strenuous it wasn't as challenging length-wise (time-wise) as I thought it would be. The view at the top was incredible; it overlooked the entire Cape Town area and beyond it too. After lunch I hiked about 30 minutes out to the other side of the mountain to MacClear's Beacon, the highest point on the mountain. Again, the sights were amazing! On Thursday we visited Stellenbosch, touring a college and buying wine for our families. It was my first alcohol purchase!
This last weekend was pretty chill. On Saturday I went and saw some African Penguins and ventured into Cape Town in the afternoon. We ate lunch at the eastern food bazaar and went to the Green Market after that. The sellers were relentless in trying to sell you stuff; it got a little crazy but that's Cape Town for you! I spent all day Sunday studying for our History & Culture final.
Yesterday morning we had that final. It didn't go too well (our professor later told us that we didn't fare very well) but it sounds like we'll all still get good grades in the end. Our professor is a pretty chill guy and won't be too tough on us, especially considering we're at the end of our trip and have been on vacation mode for a while now. Today we had reorientation at the University of Cape Town, which involved reflecting on the semester and preparing for home and reverse culture shock. It's all so unreal, everyone going home. Especially since about 20 of us aren't going with them; we're staying in Africa for a bit longer. Some are going to Kenya, one guy is going to Uganda, and one girl is going to Malawi; talk about world travelers!
I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks at a hostel in downtown Cape Town. Tomorrow evening we're going to a soccer game at Cape Town Stadium, which should be really fun! I'm not sure what we're doing for the remainder of the time but we'll figure it out as we go along. I'm excited to be on vacation and to travel on my own; the joys of growing up! My last two days I'll spend with my home stay family before flying home to America. Although I'm stoked to go home I'm excited for these last couple of weeks too!
This semester has been beyond incredible. I have been challenged in so many ways and learned so much over the last four months. To relay everything would take forever. Overall I am extremely grateful for this experience. Africa is a beautiful country with incredible people and I have no doubt I'll come back here one day.
And now, to the next: independent adventures in Cape Town.
Let's go.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Life in the Cape.
The last two weeks have been extremely busy: on Saturday, April 6, we left Pietermaritzburg and our campus for good. We spent the next five days making our way to Cape Town, taking the long route and making plenty of stops along the way.
On Saturday we drove for ten hours, stopping in East London for the night. Unfortunately we'd arrived two hours later than expected due to some issues on the road, but the dinner awaiting us made up for it; there's nothing like a delicious meal after being on the road all day. That night we walked down to the beach, hanging out and playing games. We played a game called "lap tag", which involved a lot of tackling and running around. Needless to say it was a great end to a long day.
We only drove for a few hours on Sunday, arriving and staying in Port Elizabeth around 1pm or so. We again spent most of the day at the beach, swimming in the (now freezing) Indian Ocean and checking out the surrounding area. There was a skate park, playground, a small market, and a myriad of restaurants. That night I had fish and chips for dinner, which I hadn't had in a long time. After that we walked around, checking out a water and lights show and all the surrounding shops.
Monday was the day that we'd all been waiting for; it was the cause of much dread and anxiety, yet excitement and anticipation: it was bungy-jumping day. It took us a couple hours to get there, which didn't help the anticipation. When we arrived there were about 15 of our peers that had already bungy-jumped as they'd arrived earlier and wanted to get everyone out there to jump in a decent amount of time. I was in the second group to go out to the bridge and ended up being fifth to jump (out of about 20 of us in that group). To explain what it was like, there was pump-it-up music blasting, everyone was dancing, and one by one they called us up to get harnessed (or bungied, I should say) and ready for the jump. Although you wore a harness on your upper body, there were cuffs around your ankles that were tied together tightly, which was then attached to the bungy cord. It probably isn't comforting to tell you that the bungy cord is nothing more than a bunch of rubber bands strung together. Hah. When it came time to jump, two workers lifted you to the edge of bridge, since your feet were tied together and you could only hop to get around (which you probably don't want to do at the edge of a bridge). They counted: "5...4...3...2...1...BUNGY!" and all I remember thinking was, "I'm going to jump off this bridge." Sure enough I did, and I endured the craziest few seconds of my entire life. Although there was a total of four seconds of free fall, the initial jump and first second or two of falling were the most terrifying. After that I couldn't really feel anything, except an unexplainable calm and peace. It was quiet, God's amazing creation surrounded me, and I couldn't help but feel incredibly close to my humanity. Needless to say it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had and the adrenalin rush was insane. Definitely glad I did it!
After everyone had bungied, eaten lunch, and bought any souvenirs they'd wanted, we traveled to Carmel, a Christian conference center that would become our temporary home for the next couple of days. It also found itself on the beach, and before dinner many of us hiked down to the beach to explore and check everything out. The next morning we went to the Cango Caves, where most of us went on an "adventure tour" and climbed about a kilometer into the depths of these caves. Some spaces were incredibly small and it got pretty hot in there; we had a good time though. In the afternoon we went to the Cango Wildlife Ranch, where many of us pet cheetahs, lemurs, tigers, and other African creatures. I myself got to pet a cheetah, which was pretty cool as I'll probably never get to do it again.
The next day, Wednesday, we drove the rest of the way to Cape Town. We actually arrived in a small town called Fish Hoek, which finds itself a little ways outside of the Cape Town inner-city. We arrived at Wellwood, a bed and breakfast that we'd be staying at for the rest of the semester. We spent the rest of the day exploring, and for many of us we touched the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. The following day we were split into five teams and sent into the heart of Cape Town on a sort of scavenger hunt, finding places such as the Slave Lodge and the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. We discovered that Cape Town is in the top ten best-run cities in the entire world; what's even crazier is that the Queen Mary 2, a massive cruise ship that goes on a 102-day tour around the world, stops in Cape Town for three days--that's the longest she stays anywhere! If that doesn't testify to how well-run Cape Town is, I'm not sure what would. When the hunt was over we prayed for and said goodbye to our program director, Reg, as he was heading back to Pietermaritzburg where he works for most of the year.
On Friday we had our History & Culture class from 9-12 and chapel after that. We basically hung out the rest of the day. That night we went to a small town called Ocean View to meet our host families; half of our group (including myself) began home stays that night. Home stays were five days long, and while half of us were staying at home stays, the other half would stay at Wellwood. My family was Thelma, the mom, Lantor, the dad, and Xavier, their 11-year-old son. Although we'd return to Fish Hoek for class or excursions while we were staying at home stays, during the weekend of our home stay you would stay with them the entire time. On Saturday we slept in, went to another home stay's house for lunch and to hang out all day, then went to another home stay that evening as my host brother had worship practice as his pastor's house. A bunch of us APU students ended up hanging out, which was pretty cool. It was nice seeing familiar faces. On Sunday we went to church with our host family, went to the farm (where we tasted cheeses and visited a snake park) in the afternoon, and hung out back at "home" that night.
On Monday we had class again in the morning, during which we presented what we'd found and learned during the scavenger hunt the previous Thursday. Yesterday we spent the day in a township, touring it and learning about it as it's a part of a huge renovation project that Cape Town is undertaking. We had lunch at a meat market called Mlozi's Meat Market (I believe it's called; it's famously known for its meat), then headed back to Wellwood where we hung out and did whatever we wanted before we headed back to our home stays around 5pm. Although my roommate had to leave our home stay early (he left after dinner last night due to an early doctor's appointment), we enjoyed our last night with our home stay family. They'd been extremely hospitable and took good care of us; we were blessed to have gotten to stay with them. I forgot to mention that all of the home stay families were Afrikaans-speaking Coloureds. They did speak English though, which broke down the language barrier that could've been one.
Today we went to the Cape of Good Hope, exploring and hiking around. Me and two others ended up hiking through dense brush for a ways in order to get to the lighthouse at the Cape. Although there was an actual path laid out and a road that could've taken you there, we decided to go for the adventurous and more exciting route. Unfortunately the weather was less than pleasant; it was cold, windy, and rainy, which especially didn't benefit me as I've been sick for the last few weeks.
And that's been the last two weeks. Although I had a great time at my home stay, it's nice to be back at Wellwood where I'll hopefully be able to sleep more and kick this sickness to the curb!
Two weeks from today our program officially ends and the majority of our group will fly home to the United States. Around 15 of us are staying late, however, and will be doing who knows what during that extra time. Me and one other guy are staying (in Cape Town) the latest, four days after most of everyone that's left will leave. We're still not sure what we'll be doing, but I guess that's the fun part of it all. I'm sure it'll all work out somehow; now, if I can just get over this sickness, that'd make everything much better.
Two weeks left of the program. Four weeks left in Africa.
Let's go!
On Saturday we drove for ten hours, stopping in East London for the night. Unfortunately we'd arrived two hours later than expected due to some issues on the road, but the dinner awaiting us made up for it; there's nothing like a delicious meal after being on the road all day. That night we walked down to the beach, hanging out and playing games. We played a game called "lap tag", which involved a lot of tackling and running around. Needless to say it was a great end to a long day.
 |
| Watching the sun rise in East London |
We only drove for a few hours on Sunday, arriving and staying in Port Elizabeth around 1pm or so. We again spent most of the day at the beach, swimming in the (now freezing) Indian Ocean and checking out the surrounding area. There was a skate park, playground, a small market, and a myriad of restaurants. That night I had fish and chips for dinner, which I hadn't had in a long time. After that we walked around, checking out a water and lights show and all the surrounding shops.
 |
| Bungy-jumping at the Bloukrans Bridge, the world's highest bungy bridge |
Monday was the day that we'd all been waiting for; it was the cause of much dread and anxiety, yet excitement and anticipation: it was bungy-jumping day. It took us a couple hours to get there, which didn't help the anticipation. When we arrived there were about 15 of our peers that had already bungy-jumped as they'd arrived earlier and wanted to get everyone out there to jump in a decent amount of time. I was in the second group to go out to the bridge and ended up being fifth to jump (out of about 20 of us in that group). To explain what it was like, there was pump-it-up music blasting, everyone was dancing, and one by one they called us up to get harnessed (or bungied, I should say) and ready for the jump. Although you wore a harness on your upper body, there were cuffs around your ankles that were tied together tightly, which was then attached to the bungy cord. It probably isn't comforting to tell you that the bungy cord is nothing more than a bunch of rubber bands strung together. Hah. When it came time to jump, two workers lifted you to the edge of bridge, since your feet were tied together and you could only hop to get around (which you probably don't want to do at the edge of a bridge). They counted: "5...4...3...2...1...BUNGY!" and all I remember thinking was, "I'm going to jump off this bridge." Sure enough I did, and I endured the craziest few seconds of my entire life. Although there was a total of four seconds of free fall, the initial jump and first second or two of falling were the most terrifying. After that I couldn't really feel anything, except an unexplainable calm and peace. It was quiet, God's amazing creation surrounded me, and I couldn't help but feel incredibly close to my humanity. Needless to say it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had and the adrenalin rush was insane. Definitely glad I did it!
 |
| Climbing through the Cango Caves |
After everyone had bungied, eaten lunch, and bought any souvenirs they'd wanted, we traveled to Carmel, a Christian conference center that would become our temporary home for the next couple of days. It also found itself on the beach, and before dinner many of us hiked down to the beach to explore and check everything out. The next morning we went to the Cango Caves, where most of us went on an "adventure tour" and climbed about a kilometer into the depths of these caves. Some spaces were incredibly small and it got pretty hot in there; we had a good time though. In the afternoon we went to the Cango Wildlife Ranch, where many of us pet cheetahs, lemurs, tigers, and other African creatures. I myself got to pet a cheetah, which was pretty cool as I'll probably never get to do it again.
 |
| Petting a cheetah |
 |
| The coast of Fish Hoek |
The next day, Wednesday, we drove the rest of the way to Cape Town. We actually arrived in a small town called Fish Hoek, which finds itself a little ways outside of the Cape Town inner-city. We arrived at Wellwood, a bed and breakfast that we'd be staying at for the rest of the semester. We spent the rest of the day exploring, and for many of us we touched the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. The following day we were split into five teams and sent into the heart of Cape Town on a sort of scavenger hunt, finding places such as the Slave Lodge and the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. We discovered that Cape Town is in the top ten best-run cities in the entire world; what's even crazier is that the Queen Mary 2, a massive cruise ship that goes on a 102-day tour around the world, stops in Cape Town for three days--that's the longest she stays anywhere! If that doesn't testify to how well-run Cape Town is, I'm not sure what would. When the hunt was over we prayed for and said goodbye to our program director, Reg, as he was heading back to Pietermaritzburg where he works for most of the year.
 |
| Devil's Peak (left) and Table Mountain (right), from the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront |
On Friday we had our History & Culture class from 9-12 and chapel after that. We basically hung out the rest of the day. That night we went to a small town called Ocean View to meet our host families; half of our group (including myself) began home stays that night. Home stays were five days long, and while half of us were staying at home stays, the other half would stay at Wellwood. My family was Thelma, the mom, Lantor, the dad, and Xavier, their 11-year-old son. Although we'd return to Fish Hoek for class or excursions while we were staying at home stays, during the weekend of our home stay you would stay with them the entire time. On Saturday we slept in, went to another home stay's house for lunch and to hang out all day, then went to another home stay that evening as my host brother had worship practice as his pastor's house. A bunch of us APU students ended up hanging out, which was pretty cool. It was nice seeing familiar faces. On Sunday we went to church with our host family, went to the farm (where we tasted cheeses and visited a snake park) in the afternoon, and hung out back at "home" that night.
On Monday we had class again in the morning, during which we presented what we'd found and learned during the scavenger hunt the previous Thursday. Yesterday we spent the day in a township, touring it and learning about it as it's a part of a huge renovation project that Cape Town is undertaking. We had lunch at a meat market called Mlozi's Meat Market (I believe it's called; it's famously known for its meat), then headed back to Wellwood where we hung out and did whatever we wanted before we headed back to our home stays around 5pm. Although my roommate had to leave our home stay early (he left after dinner last night due to an early doctor's appointment), we enjoyed our last night with our home stay family. They'd been extremely hospitable and took good care of us; we were blessed to have gotten to stay with them. I forgot to mention that all of the home stay families were Afrikaans-speaking Coloureds. They did speak English though, which broke down the language barrier that could've been one.
 |
| Driving through the township |
Today we went to the Cape of Good Hope, exploring and hiking around. Me and two others ended up hiking through dense brush for a ways in order to get to the lighthouse at the Cape. Although there was an actual path laid out and a road that could've taken you there, we decided to go for the adventurous and more exciting route. Unfortunately the weather was less than pleasant; it was cold, windy, and rainy, which especially didn't benefit me as I've been sick for the last few weeks.
And that's been the last two weeks. Although I had a great time at my home stay, it's nice to be back at Wellwood where I'll hopefully be able to sleep more and kick this sickness to the curb!
Two weeks from today our program officially ends and the majority of our group will fly home to the United States. Around 15 of us are staying late, however, and will be doing who knows what during that extra time. Me and one other guy are staying (in Cape Town) the latest, four days after most of everyone that's left will leave. We're still not sure what we'll be doing, but I guess that's the fun part of it all. I'm sure it'll all work out somehow; now, if I can just get over this sickness, that'd make everything much better.
Two weeks left of the program. Four weeks left in Africa.
Let's go!
Friday, April 5, 2013
Goodbye, Maritzburg... hello, Cape Town!
From the last two email updates I sent out. Enjoy! :)
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Sanibonani!
I hope you all are having a great Easter weekend, and a great Easter, too!
It's crazy how fast time is flying by. As of today, we have less than a week left in Pietermaritzburg before we leave our campus for good and travel to other parts of the country. This Saturday we'll leave, taking a week or so to get to Cape Town. That week includes bungee-jumping (next Monday!), sight-seeing, and much more--can't wait!
Last weekend wasn't too exciting, so I won't bore you with the details. I basically spent the entire weekend "relaxing" and working on my term paper for our Community Engagement class (and by "working" I mean putting it off, of course).
We had class on Monday again for the entire day. We spent a little bit of time reflecting on our service sites but mostly talked about the processes that go along with community engagement. Tuesday through Thursday were days spent at service sites. My group was at the creche (preschool) on Tuesday and Thursday, which was much less exhausting than it was the first time we were there. A third of the kids were gone on Tuesday (only 22 or so out of 35 were there) and only 14 of them were there on Thursday due to it being the holiday weekend. Good Friday is a national holiday here in South Africa and a lot of places close down for the occasion. On Wednesday my team did manual labor, though the guy in charge of it wasn't there so we had a hard time not having any explicit directions. We ended up plowing some and pulling weeds, which was fun. We really enjoy doing manual labor! (Not kidding, we really do.)
Friday was an incredible day. We had chapel in the morning, when select students shared about Christ's seven last sayings on the cross. After that our director began the first half of his Revelation seminar (which is tradition for the South Africa semester) but had to cancel the latter half because his wife was in the hospital (she's okay though, nothing too major). After tea time a good number of us walked a couple miles to Flavour Café for coffee and to relax. It's a really nice café with has a nice garden area and a little hole-in-the-wall shop attached to it (like what you'd find in rural areas). We made it back for lunch, after which we had a giant slip 'n slide on the lawn; it was probably the most fun thing we've done as a community so far. After slipping and sliding for a while things got a little crazy and turned into a mud fight, which was also really fun! To wash off we all went down to the waterfall right by our campus, which felt refreshing. We didn't do a whole lot for the rest of the day until after dinner when we watched "The Passion of the Christ". I'd just watched it a few weeks ago, which almost made me decide not to watch it again (I feel you can't watch it too much too soon; it takes quite the spiritual and emotional toll on you); I did though and I'm glad I did.
Yesterday we went back to Victoria's Street Market in downtown Durban. I got some pretty sweet stuff, but for the sake of surprises I won't say what I got since people on this email list could be receiving something. ;) After the market we spent a couple hours at the beach, which was a lot cooler than it had been the first time we went. It was nice to be in the Indian Ocean again for what might be the last time for a while (we might be at the Atlantic when we get to the beach next, i.e. during travel week). 15 of us left early to go to a farmhouse which belongs to some of the guys from the home group a lot of us go to. We had a brie (BBQ), hung out, and played some fun games; it was another good time to relax and enjoy each other's company, especially since we won't be seeing the home group people after this week (since we're leaving Maritzburg).
Today is Easter and not a lot is planned. A bunch of people went to an orphanage but I didn't go since I've been getting over sickness and have a lot to do today. I'll be going to church tonight though, which'll be good. What was cool about today though was that 21 of us hiked to the top of the game reserve (right next to our campus) to watch the sunrise, read the resurrection account, and worship. Waking up early was definitely worth it.
This week we've got our last three days of service sites, Tuesday through Thursday. Thursday's going to be an emotional day; we can only hope that we make an impact on the community and the people we're engaging with, but the truth is that they have an even bigger impact on us. It's going to be tough to leave them. I've heard tomorrow's a community day, probably pertaining to our class. I'm not sure what's in store but it'll be fun, whatever it is! Friday should be a relaxing day as we'll be packing up and getting ready to leave Maritzburg.
As far as prayer requests go:
- Pray for spiritual and emotional strength as we enter our last few days of service sites and leave our campus for good this week
- Pray for continual good health (everyone's pretty much over being sick)
- Pray for unity
- Pray for smooth preparations for what's to come and an easy transition into it
Thanks again for your continual prayer and support--you're a blessing!
Happy Easter! He is risen!
Sala kahle, (Stay well,)
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Sanibonani!
I hope you all are having a great Easter weekend, and a great Easter, too!
It's crazy how fast time is flying by. As of today, we have less than a week left in Pietermaritzburg before we leave our campus for good and travel to other parts of the country. This Saturday we'll leave, taking a week or so to get to Cape Town. That week includes bungee-jumping (next Monday!), sight-seeing, and much more--can't wait!
Last weekend wasn't too exciting, so I won't bore you with the details. I basically spent the entire weekend "relaxing" and working on my term paper for our Community Engagement class (and by "working" I mean putting it off, of course).
We had class on Monday again for the entire day. We spent a little bit of time reflecting on our service sites but mostly talked about the processes that go along with community engagement. Tuesday through Thursday were days spent at service sites. My group was at the creche (preschool) on Tuesday and Thursday, which was much less exhausting than it was the first time we were there. A third of the kids were gone on Tuesday (only 22 or so out of 35 were there) and only 14 of them were there on Thursday due to it being the holiday weekend. Good Friday is a national holiday here in South Africa and a lot of places close down for the occasion. On Wednesday my team did manual labor, though the guy in charge of it wasn't there so we had a hard time not having any explicit directions. We ended up plowing some and pulling weeds, which was fun. We really enjoy doing manual labor! (Not kidding, we really do.)
Friday was an incredible day. We had chapel in the morning, when select students shared about Christ's seven last sayings on the cross. After that our director began the first half of his Revelation seminar (which is tradition for the South Africa semester) but had to cancel the latter half because his wife was in the hospital (she's okay though, nothing too major). After tea time a good number of us walked a couple miles to Flavour Café for coffee and to relax. It's a really nice café with has a nice garden area and a little hole-in-the-wall shop attached to it (like what you'd find in rural areas). We made it back for lunch, after which we had a giant slip 'n slide on the lawn; it was probably the most fun thing we've done as a community so far. After slipping and sliding for a while things got a little crazy and turned into a mud fight, which was also really fun! To wash off we all went down to the waterfall right by our campus, which felt refreshing. We didn't do a whole lot for the rest of the day until after dinner when we watched "The Passion of the Christ". I'd just watched it a few weeks ago, which almost made me decide not to watch it again (I feel you can't watch it too much too soon; it takes quite the spiritual and emotional toll on you); I did though and I'm glad I did.
Yesterday we went back to Victoria's Street Market in downtown Durban. I got some pretty sweet stuff, but for the sake of surprises I won't say what I got since people on this email list could be receiving something. ;) After the market we spent a couple hours at the beach, which was a lot cooler than it had been the first time we went. It was nice to be in the Indian Ocean again for what might be the last time for a while (we might be at the Atlantic when we get to the beach next, i.e. during travel week). 15 of us left early to go to a farmhouse which belongs to some of the guys from the home group a lot of us go to. We had a brie (BBQ), hung out, and played some fun games; it was another good time to relax and enjoy each other's company, especially since we won't be seeing the home group people after this week (since we're leaving Maritzburg).
Today is Easter and not a lot is planned. A bunch of people went to an orphanage but I didn't go since I've been getting over sickness and have a lot to do today. I'll be going to church tonight though, which'll be good. What was cool about today though was that 21 of us hiked to the top of the game reserve (right next to our campus) to watch the sunrise, read the resurrection account, and worship. Waking up early was definitely worth it.
This week we've got our last three days of service sites, Tuesday through Thursday. Thursday's going to be an emotional day; we can only hope that we make an impact on the community and the people we're engaging with, but the truth is that they have an even bigger impact on us. It's going to be tough to leave them. I've heard tomorrow's a community day, probably pertaining to our class. I'm not sure what's in store but it'll be fun, whatever it is! Friday should be a relaxing day as we'll be packing up and getting ready to leave Maritzburg.
As far as prayer requests go:
- Pray for spiritual and emotional strength as we enter our last few days of service sites and leave our campus for good this week
- Pray for continual good health (everyone's pretty much over being sick)
- Pray for unity
- Pray for smooth preparations for what's to come and an easy transition into it
Thanks again for your continual prayer and support--you're a blessing!
Happy Easter! He is risen!
Sala kahle, (Stay well,)
Gary
--------------------------------------
Friday, April 5, 2013
Sanibonani!
It's the last time I will greet you in Zulu as we are leaving Pietermaritzburg, the province of KwaZulu-Natal, and the eastern side of South Africa tomorrow morning. This time, it's for good. We finished our Community Engagement class this morning, during which we had our final presentations about our service sites. The video for my own service site, RivLife, should be on Facebook (or somewhere online) at some point. Keep an eye out for it!
Last Saturday we went to Durban, enjoying the market and Indian Ocean for the last time. It was a great final weekend in Pietermaritzburg, full of bries (BBQs) and fellowship.
Monday was a community day, which ended up meaning that we hung out all day. Some of us played volleyball, others relaxed, and we pretty much hung around campus all day. It was great to relax before things get crazy.
Tuesday through Thursday were our last three days at service sites. On Tuesday half of us went to the HIV support group again while the other half ran a holiday club (a kid's day camp sort of thing) at the creche. At the HIV support group we sang, danced, played games, and hung out with the kids there. I made sure to take in every moment as it was going to be one of my last times there. At the end of the day we all came together and began our legacy project: building a toy chest that would soon be filled with new toys for the kids at the creche and drop-in center. We went to the store, bought everything we needed, and took a long time building the chest (we were limited on materials and didn't have the right tools we needed so we didn't get much done that day).
Wednesday we all went to Nomvula's, the woman who runs the creche out of her home and feeds those in her community. There is also a gogo (older women) support group that occurs there. She made us Zulu bread and fat cooks (fried balls of Zulu bread) again, which were delicious! We spent a lot of the time hanging out with the kids there, talking with the gogos, and singing and dancing (as usual!). At one point I tried doing the Zulu dance but fell on my butt in the process, so that end pretty quickly. Haha. We spent the end of Wednesday working on our toy chest some more, though again it took a while, despite the extra tools we'd acquired. Screws were breaking, unnecessary wood panels wouldn't come off, and a lot of us couldn't do much since we were limited on supplies.
On Thursday morning we finished our toy chest, painting it and adding the final decorations. We also used the paint (wall paint, might I add) to paint the chest with our handprints. The downside to this was that the paint was near impossible to wash off and ended up staining our skin. Woops! I was genius enough to put it on my face like a warrior, only for it to start burning and me quickly realizing that that was a terrible idea. Note to self: don't put wall paint on your body! We spent the rest of the morning back at the HIV support group, doing the same things we'd done on Tuesday. This time though we had some of APU's board and staff with us (including our very own President Jon Wallace!), which made it all the more fun. We got to share with the women from the support group and vice-versa, thanking each other for touching each other's lives and making an impact on each other. It was an incredible time to share and I am so grateful we got to spend the time with them that we had gotten to. The rest of the day entailed hanging out with the older kids at the creche who were out of school; the preschoolers weren't around all week as they were on holiday and the creche was closed for the time being. This was sad for all of us as we didn't get to say goodbye to the preschoolers we had grown so close to! We did however get to present our toy chest to the kids whowere there; it was a mad frenzy as they trampled each other to get the toys we'd brought them. Every inch of pavement was covered in chalk, water fights broke out, and one of the balls we had gotten them popped. Overall it was a great last day and I am extremely grateful for the time I got to spend serving at RivLife.
Today and tonight we'll be packing up, cleaning up, saying goodbye to some of our church friends who are stopping by, and enjoying this community for one last time. I can't believe we're leaving Maritzburg already! This place has become our home and I know most if not all of us don't want to leave. But, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. I thank God we get the good times though!
I'm not sure how internet availability is going to work over this last month or so of my time in South Africa, but I should have access. I may not update you as frequently but I'll do what I can! Travel week over the next week includes beaches, hotels, bungee-jumping, interacting with African animals, and much more! Can't wait!
So, for the last time in Pietermaritzburg...
Sala kahle!
Sincerely,
Gary
--------------------------------------
Friday, April 5, 2013
Sanibonani!
It's the last time I will greet you in Zulu as we are leaving Pietermaritzburg, the province of KwaZulu-Natal, and the eastern side of South Africa tomorrow morning. This time, it's for good. We finished our Community Engagement class this morning, during which we had our final presentations about our service sites. The video for my own service site, RivLife, should be on Facebook (or somewhere online) at some point. Keep an eye out for it!
Last Saturday we went to Durban, enjoying the market and Indian Ocean for the last time. It was a great final weekend in Pietermaritzburg, full of bries (BBQs) and fellowship.
Monday was a community day, which ended up meaning that we hung out all day. Some of us played volleyball, others relaxed, and we pretty much hung around campus all day. It was great to relax before things get crazy.
Tuesday through Thursday were our last three days at service sites. On Tuesday half of us went to the HIV support group again while the other half ran a holiday club (a kid's day camp sort of thing) at the creche. At the HIV support group we sang, danced, played games, and hung out with the kids there. I made sure to take in every moment as it was going to be one of my last times there. At the end of the day we all came together and began our legacy project: building a toy chest that would soon be filled with new toys for the kids at the creche and drop-in center. We went to the store, bought everything we needed, and took a long time building the chest (we were limited on materials and didn't have the right tools we needed so we didn't get much done that day).
Wednesday we all went to Nomvula's, the woman who runs the creche out of her home and feeds those in her community. There is also a gogo (older women) support group that occurs there. She made us Zulu bread and fat cooks (fried balls of Zulu bread) again, which were delicious! We spent a lot of the time hanging out with the kids there, talking with the gogos, and singing and dancing (as usual!). At one point I tried doing the Zulu dance but fell on my butt in the process, so that end pretty quickly. Haha. We spent the end of Wednesday working on our toy chest some more, though again it took a while, despite the extra tools we'd acquired. Screws were breaking, unnecessary wood panels wouldn't come off, and a lot of us couldn't do much since we were limited on supplies.
On Thursday morning we finished our toy chest, painting it and adding the final decorations. We also used the paint (wall paint, might I add) to paint the chest with our handprints. The downside to this was that the paint was near impossible to wash off and ended up staining our skin. Woops! I was genius enough to put it on my face like a warrior, only for it to start burning and me quickly realizing that that was a terrible idea. Note to self: don't put wall paint on your body! We spent the rest of the morning back at the HIV support group, doing the same things we'd done on Tuesday. This time though we had some of APU's board and staff with us (including our very own President Jon Wallace!), which made it all the more fun. We got to share with the women from the support group and vice-versa, thanking each other for touching each other's lives and making an impact on each other. It was an incredible time to share and I am so grateful we got to spend the time with them that we had gotten to. The rest of the day entailed hanging out with the older kids at the creche who were out of school; the preschoolers weren't around all week as they were on holiday and the creche was closed for the time being. This was sad for all of us as we didn't get to say goodbye to the preschoolers we had grown so close to! We did however get to present our toy chest to the kids whowere there; it was a mad frenzy as they trampled each other to get the toys we'd brought them. Every inch of pavement was covered in chalk, water fights broke out, and one of the balls we had gotten them popped. Overall it was a great last day and I am extremely grateful for the time I got to spend serving at RivLife.
Today and tonight we'll be packing up, cleaning up, saying goodbye to some of our church friends who are stopping by, and enjoying this community for one last time. I can't believe we're leaving Maritzburg already! This place has become our home and I know most if not all of us don't want to leave. But, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. I thank God we get the good times though!
I'm not sure how internet availability is going to work over this last month or so of my time in South Africa, but I should have access. I may not update you as frequently but I'll do what I can! Travel week over the next week includes beaches, hotels, bungee-jumping, interacting with African animals, and much more! Can't wait!
So, for the last time in Pietermaritzburg...
Sala kahle!
Sincerely,
Gary
 |
| Me with a kid at the HIV support group |
Friday, March 29, 2013
Good Friday
I just watched "The Passion of the Christ" for the second time this month.
The first time I watched it, it moved me in a way I could never describe. Not only did I realize that I give myself a hard time when I don't deserve it as Christ died so that I wouldn't have to be condemned or shamed, but I also realized how real our God is. Jesus is real. God is real. Real human beings really put Jesus Christ of Nazareth to death. He really died and really rose again. Need I say more? I'm convicted by the fact that I seldom understand this. I hardly ever get it. Most of the time, when I talk about Christ or Christianity, it's as if it's some abstract thing. I had to ask myself, why does it become this way? Maybe it's the fact that we tell the story over and over again. Maybe it's the fact that we've thought about it so many times that we feel like we can't get anything new out of it. Maybe it's because we're far removed from it. I know why in my own life it becomes this way; it's up to you to figure it out for yourself.
After watching "The Passion" tonight, all I can think of is the conviction that I'm not doing the Gospel justice. I'm not living the way I should be. I will never measure up to all of the things that God has called me to. Perfection? Nope. A sinless life? Nope. These things are impossible... without God. What a humbling statement this is! Not only are we nothing without God, but He has to be a part of the equation! With Him I can live righteously. I can live a holy life pleasing to Him. I can be sanctified. I may never attain all of the things He has for me and become the man He sees me to be on this side of Heaven, but the good news is that that is okay. All I can do is seek Him with all I have. I can only give Him my best, picking myself up when I fall and striving towards the Kingdom.
We are called to live selflessly. We are called to love others and not expect anything back. We called to deny ourselves, to pick up our cross, and to follow Him. I will be the first to admit that I am consistently falling short of these things. I do the opposite of them on a daily basis.
Where do you stand? When you look into the eyes of the Savior, what do you see?
Are you being stagnant, or are you being sanctified?
Salvation. Sanctification. They're what Christ died for on this very day over two-thousand years ago.
This day that we call, "Good Friday".
The first time I watched it, it moved me in a way I could never describe. Not only did I realize that I give myself a hard time when I don't deserve it as Christ died so that I wouldn't have to be condemned or shamed, but I also realized how real our God is. Jesus is real. God is real. Real human beings really put Jesus Christ of Nazareth to death. He really died and really rose again. Need I say more? I'm convicted by the fact that I seldom understand this. I hardly ever get it. Most of the time, when I talk about Christ or Christianity, it's as if it's some abstract thing. I had to ask myself, why does it become this way? Maybe it's the fact that we tell the story over and over again. Maybe it's the fact that we've thought about it so many times that we feel like we can't get anything new out of it. Maybe it's because we're far removed from it. I know why in my own life it becomes this way; it's up to you to figure it out for yourself.
After watching "The Passion" tonight, all I can think of is the conviction that I'm not doing the Gospel justice. I'm not living the way I should be. I will never measure up to all of the things that God has called me to. Perfection? Nope. A sinless life? Nope. These things are impossible... without God. What a humbling statement this is! Not only are we nothing without God, but He has to be a part of the equation! With Him I can live righteously. I can live a holy life pleasing to Him. I can be sanctified. I may never attain all of the things He has for me and become the man He sees me to be on this side of Heaven, but the good news is that that is okay. All I can do is seek Him with all I have. I can only give Him my best, picking myself up when I fall and striving towards the Kingdom.
We are called to live selflessly. We are called to love others and not expect anything back. We called to deny ourselves, to pick up our cross, and to follow Him. I will be the first to admit that I am consistently falling short of these things. I do the opposite of them on a daily basis.
Where do you stand? When you look into the eyes of the Savior, what do you see?
Are you being stagnant, or are you being sanctified?
Salvation. Sanctification. They're what Christ died for on this very day over two-thousand years ago.
This day that we call, "Good Friday".
Friday, March 22, 2013
The Best Is Yet to Come, Pt. 2
Sanibonani!
On Saturday we went to uShaka Marine World, which is like Sea World but with a bunch of water rides (maybe Sea World itself is like that; I haven't been in years so I can't remember). Me and many others watched a dolphin show, in which our friend Kaitlyn got to pet and kiss a dolphin (she'd won a dance-off to win that place) and our other friend Sarah got to feed one! When the show wasn't going on the camera would pan the crowd and focus on all the crazy people dancing or the presumed couples, telling them they had to kiss. Kaitlyn and our friend Luke ended up on the kiss cam though they're not even dating! It was pretty funny. They didn't kiss, though Chetan (also in our group) pretended to kiss him and the whole crowd applauded. The dolphin show as a whole was my highlight. I spent the rest of the day in the water park, which was tons of fun. Africa's tallest water slide is there, finding itself at 13 meters high (sorry, they use the metric system here). I went down it, and lemme tell ya--it was quite the bumpy ride! We also made human trains down some of the other water slides (the worker allowed us to do it, though it technically wasn't allowed) and a random stranger got caught in the middle of one of them. It was pretty funny.
On Tuesday we had home visits again, the hardest of which was another man with AIDS who has no one supporting him (there are many stigmas here against those with AIDS; they end up being outcasted) and hardly ever has food to take his medication with. We'd brought him some food, which he was very grateful for. We asked to pray for him, which he agreed to, but before that he sang us a part of a gospel song. Again, it moved us in such a deep way.
Yesterday was a public holiday so all of the service sites were closed. Because of this, we had our Community Engagement class again, which entailed a lot of reflecting on the time spent at our service sites thus far. Today we spent the morning at an HIV support group, a group of women that meet weekly to not only support each other but to rise above their circumstances and to live a life of joy and hope. We asked them questions about themselves, the support group, and so on while they asked us questions about ourselves. We learned a lot from them, such as the fact that stigmas cause much of the abandonment and isolation of those who are HIV positive. Many of them don't tell their families they are HIV positive for fear of this. Their strength amazed us though. We spent the rest of our time their playing with the kids, singing, and dancing; they'd even made us Zulu bread and soup for lunch! Today was undoubtedly a great day. It truly has been a blessing to be serving at RivLife and engaging with the community during the short time we've been there. I can't wait for the latter half of our service segment! (We're already six out of 12 days in... isn't that crazy?!)
It is now week nine of the semester; just a little past the halfway point of my time here. I'll be here just short of four months, which has seemed short in some ways, yet seemed so long in others!
Last Thursday (a week ago) we started at our service sites; 43 of us (that's all of us apart from the nursing students as they're on a different track) have been serving at four different sites: Walk in the Light, RivLife, Itemba, and Etimbeni (I may have spelled that last one wrong, hah). My group is at RivLife--short for "River of Life"--and there are 16 of us, who have been split into four groups of four. We are on a sort of rotation with what we're doing, which is nice as I enjoy change and having to stay on my toes.
On Thursday my team of four was at a creche (preschool) all day, which was quite the day! There are about 35 kids that go there every day, who are so full of energy, which is still an understatement. They climb all over you, hang on you, play with your hair, run around, sometimes fight each other, fight over you, and much, much more. They are great to be around though and we enjoyed our day at the creche, which was spent hanging out with them and loving on them. Sounds easy, but it's very exhausting.
On Friday we did home visits, which entailed going along with two social workers and a community caretaker and visiting many that live in the community that RivLife finds itself a part of. The social workers visit the residents, see what their problems are, and do whatever they can to help them. We visited a man with AIDS who doesn't have his medication due to the fact that his family pick it up for him and then sell it as drugs. I have never seen someone so weak and without hope; it definitely broke me. Another young woman was unable to get her ID card as her mother had passed away and her death certificate had not been signed; without proof of her mother's death, the government wouldn't let her get her ID (she needed her mother's consent). We also visited a "gogo", an old woman who was in a wheelchair and only had one leg. What amazed us about this woman, however, was the love she had for her children and grandchildren. She had a joy about her that you would not expect to see; she kept proclaiming how faithful and good God is. If this isn't an encouragement, I have no idea what is. After home visits we spent the rest of the day at the Drop-in Center, which is where all the older kids come and hang out after school. It's technically the same place as the creche, but they get a hot meal and all hang out together.
 |
| Kaitlyn petting a dolphin as a part of a dolphin show at uShaka Marine World |
On Saturday we went to uShaka Marine World, which is like Sea World but with a bunch of water rides (maybe Sea World itself is like that; I haven't been in years so I can't remember). Me and many others watched a dolphin show, in which our friend Kaitlyn got to pet and kiss a dolphin (she'd won a dance-off to win that place) and our other friend Sarah got to feed one! When the show wasn't going on the camera would pan the crowd and focus on all the crazy people dancing or the presumed couples, telling them they had to kiss. Kaitlyn and our friend Luke ended up on the kiss cam though they're not even dating! It was pretty funny. They didn't kiss, though Chetan (also in our group) pretended to kiss him and the whole crowd applauded. The dolphin show as a whole was my highlight. I spent the rest of the day in the water park, which was tons of fun. Africa's tallest water slide is there, finding itself at 13 meters high (sorry, they use the metric system here). I went down it, and lemme tell ya--it was quite the bumpy ride! We also made human trains down some of the other water slides (the worker allowed us to do it, though it technically wasn't allowed) and a random stranger got caught in the middle of one of them. It was pretty funny.
That night my biology class (or former class, I should say) went to our professor's house for dinner. We had warthog, which was quite delicious! I'd say it tasted like pork, though maybe it tasted more like chicken... maybe both?! Either way it was delicious!
On Sunday we did a thing called "Talking Drums", which is best explained as elementary school music class all over again. We got to play drums, maracas and other instruments for over an hour--it was a blast! Despite the fact that we all had much homework to do, we had a lot of fun.
On Monday my team did manual labor, spending the day in the blazing sun plowing and planting chili plants. The guy in charge said we'd done more than any other group from APU had ever done--booyah! It was actually one of my favorite days; I felt awesome once we were done. So therapeutic, yard work is! That night me and several others went to a jazz concert which ended up being a traveling high school group from Boston, Mass. They were pretty good!
 |
| Me with a bunch of kids at the creche |
On Tuesday we had home visits again, the hardest of which was another man with AIDS who has no one supporting him (there are many stigmas here against those with AIDS; they end up being outcasted) and hardly ever has food to take his medication with. We'd brought him some food, which he was very grateful for. We asked to pray for him, which he agreed to, but before that he sang us a part of a gospel song. Again, it moved us in such a deep way.
On Wednesday we spent the day with the gogos (old women), who make fabric products (curtains, skirts, etc.) and sell them to make a living. Stigmas are also present here against older women, so by working and making a living they are coming against those stigmas. The woman we mainly spent time with was Nombula (I think that's her name; it means "the rain" as it was raining when she was born), who runs a creche to keep children safe from abuse when their parents or caretakers are gone at work and also makes food to feed those in the community. We call her the Mother Theresa of South Africa. She made us Zulu bread (which is amazing, but even better freshly cooked!) and "fat cooks", which is Zulu bread fried in balls in oil (kinda like rolls). We were so blessed by her and I loved hearing all about her life. Can't wait to go visit her again, and hopefully help her out with her garden! (She asked if we could help her with it next time we visited.)
 |
| Sfundo and I |
Yesterday was a public holiday so all of the service sites were closed. Because of this, we had our Community Engagement class again, which entailed a lot of reflecting on the time spent at our service sites thus far. Today we spent the morning at an HIV support group, a group of women that meet weekly to not only support each other but to rise above their circumstances and to live a life of joy and hope. We asked them questions about themselves, the support group, and so on while they asked us questions about ourselves. We learned a lot from them, such as the fact that stigmas cause much of the abandonment and isolation of those who are HIV positive. Many of them don't tell their families they are HIV positive for fear of this. Their strength amazed us though. We spent the rest of our time their playing with the kids, singing, and dancing; they'd even made us Zulu bread and soup for lunch! Today was undoubtedly a great day. It truly has been a blessing to be serving at RivLife and engaging with the community during the short time we've been there. I can't wait for the latter half of our service segment! (We're already six out of 12 days in... isn't that crazy?!)
That's about it for now. In case you haven't heard, the deadline to send me mail has long passed since it won't get to me in time. We leave Pietermaritzburg for good (I can't believe it...I feel like we just got here!) in a little over two weeks, and international mail takes 2-4 weeks to arrive.
Thanks for following my adventures and praying for and supporting my team and I! I count each one of you as tremendous blessings in my life. :)
Take care,
Gary
Sunday, March 17, 2013
The Best Is Yet to Come, Pt. 1
It's a truth we have to remind ourselves of on a regular basis. It's not to say that things are necessarily unpleasant as they currently are; it simply means that there are always better things to look forward to. When we quit believing this, we get caught in a state of hopelessness and apathy; a place where we quit giving life all we've got and get stuck in a rut.
I must admit that I have been awful at blogging lately. Much has happened in the last several weeks since I blogged last. I guess I'm getting to a place where I want to be fully present and save the reflection for later, which is not usual for me considering how much I tend to self-reflect and externally process things. I'm coming to realize too though that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've learned that there are a lot of things about my time here in South Africa (experiences, ways in which I'm challenged or changed, etc.) that I won't be able to process until I get home. And that's okay.
Finals two weeks ago went splendidly well; I got good grades in each of my classes, which was quite a relief. It's extremely difficult to try and do school work when you are surrounded by waterfalls, hiking trails, a game reserve, animals you don't get to see often (or at all) back home, and a 53-person community where something is always going on (i.e. soccer, rugby, movie nights). So finals ended about two weeks ago and we were all so stoked to be done (well, the nurses and Zulu students weren't done, but most of us were). Our sort of "spring break" was the rest of that week, which was a total blast!
Because it's somewhat difficult to take 53 students on a safari all at the same time, we were split into two groups where one would go on safari and the other would do other stuff back home, and then we would switch. I was on safari group #2 and am very grateful that it was so. My group had all the nursing students in it; a pretty rad bunch of people. They're a few years older than most of us so they are kind of like big sisters (and a big brother for the one male nursing major) to us.
On Tuesday night of that week something pretty radical happened to me. I attend a small group every Tuesday night with a bunch of college students, both from APU and from one of the churches that a lot of us go to. The message preached on was about destiny and God's plan for our lives, and in explaining how we can sometimes be disobedient to the things that God is calling us to do, the guy sharing gave the example of how he had felt led to pray for my foot (as I'd sprained it the week before and was on crutches) but ended up not doing it. When home group ended I was approached by a girl who asked to pray for my foot; I told her yes, and she did so, but nothing happened. A while later someone else approached me, asking if he could pray for my foot. I told him he could, and initially, nothing happened. The third time he prayed for my foot, however, I was overcome by the Holy Spirit and my foot started to tingle. I stood up, walked around, and even jumped on my foot with next-to-no pain! I was shaking, I was freaking out so much. I must admit, I've never been a direct part of a healing (whether praying for someone or being prayed for), so that only added to my freaking out. I ended up leaving home group that night without the need for crutches and haven't used them since. What a good God we serve!
On Wednesday, March 6, we went on the Karkloof Canopy Tour (zip-lining), which was lots of fun. One section of zipline had you going up to 50 mph; another was a straight drop and another took you over the entire canopy, giving you a view of the entire surrounding area. There were plenty of beautiful sights to be seen, that's for sure. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and had a movie night that night. We have a lot of those here, which I enjoy; I don't normally watch this many movies when I am home in the States.
On Thursday we went to Midmar Dam and spent the day playing volleyball, swimming, and had a brie (barbeque) dinner. It reminded me a lot of home, which is always refreshing.
Friday through Sunday of that week my group went on safari, meeting the other safari group only to swap places with them. We went on a drive that afternoon before dinner, though it was somewhat unpleasant due to the excessive heat and humidity. The vehicle I was in ran into a breeding herd of elephants and even got charged by one of them. They're very protective over their young, which makes sense considering they're in the womb for 22 months! We also saw many rhinos, giraffes, buffalo, impalas, and other creatures. To my surprise we ended up staying in luxurious tents, for lack of a better description. I didn't sleep much that first night due to the heat and humidity.
We drove around nearly the whole day Saturday, running into another breeding herd (getting charged again) and even ran into an elephant short of 10 feet away from us on our way to lunch. We turned a corner, I heard a gasp behind me, and next thing I knew to my left was an elephant right by us, charging our vehicle! Our driver, Reg (the director of our program), slowed down thinking that we saw something (which we definitely did!), but we shouted at him to keep driving and he sped off quickly, just in time for the elephant to miss us. It was a pretty traumatic experience. Hah. That same day we also saw a lioness (see the above picture), though she was a ways away. We were glad to have seen her though, 'cause we could have not seen her at all, and a safari without a lion sighting would just be tragic!
I slept much better the second night, considering the fact that that day (and night) it was cold, windy, and rainy. We drove around some more on Sunday, though not nearly as much as we had the previous days. We drove to a sort of lodge on the reserve where we had a delicious breakfast; I must say, we are pretty blessed in the things they do for us! All-in-all, safari was a great experience. Rhinos, giraffes, baboons, impalas, lions, elephants, and much more made the experience what it was. Check that one off the bucket list!
Last week we had our Community Engagement class from 8am to 4pm, Monday through Wednesday. The class itself was great but the length made it pretty difficult to sit through. I was really tired all last week too, having not slept on safari and staying up late for no good reason almost every night. Thursday we started at our service sites, which was the day we'd all been waiting for. I'm at a non-profit called RivLife (short for "River of Life") with 15 others from my team. We were split into four groups of four and would be alternating what we would be doing each day. But for that... I'll continue in the following post. :)
To be continued...
I must admit that I have been awful at blogging lately. Much has happened in the last several weeks since I blogged last. I guess I'm getting to a place where I want to be fully present and save the reflection for later, which is not usual for me considering how much I tend to self-reflect and externally process things. I'm coming to realize too though that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've learned that there are a lot of things about my time here in South Africa (experiences, ways in which I'm challenged or changed, etc.) that I won't be able to process until I get home. And that's okay.
Finals two weeks ago went splendidly well; I got good grades in each of my classes, which was quite a relief. It's extremely difficult to try and do school work when you are surrounded by waterfalls, hiking trails, a game reserve, animals you don't get to see often (or at all) back home, and a 53-person community where something is always going on (i.e. soccer, rugby, movie nights). So finals ended about two weeks ago and we were all so stoked to be done (well, the nurses and Zulu students weren't done, but most of us were). Our sort of "spring break" was the rest of that week, which was a total blast!
Because it's somewhat difficult to take 53 students on a safari all at the same time, we were split into two groups where one would go on safari and the other would do other stuff back home, and then we would switch. I was on safari group #2 and am very grateful that it was so. My group had all the nursing students in it; a pretty rad bunch of people. They're a few years older than most of us so they are kind of like big sisters (and a big brother for the one male nursing major) to us.
On Tuesday night of that week something pretty radical happened to me. I attend a small group every Tuesday night with a bunch of college students, both from APU and from one of the churches that a lot of us go to. The message preached on was about destiny and God's plan for our lives, and in explaining how we can sometimes be disobedient to the things that God is calling us to do, the guy sharing gave the example of how he had felt led to pray for my foot (as I'd sprained it the week before and was on crutches) but ended up not doing it. When home group ended I was approached by a girl who asked to pray for my foot; I told her yes, and she did so, but nothing happened. A while later someone else approached me, asking if he could pray for my foot. I told him he could, and initially, nothing happened. The third time he prayed for my foot, however, I was overcome by the Holy Spirit and my foot started to tingle. I stood up, walked around, and even jumped on my foot with next-to-no pain! I was shaking, I was freaking out so much. I must admit, I've never been a direct part of a healing (whether praying for someone or being prayed for), so that only added to my freaking out. I ended up leaving home group that night without the need for crutches and haven't used them since. What a good God we serve!
On Wednesday, March 6, we went on the Karkloof Canopy Tour (zip-lining), which was lots of fun. One section of zipline had you going up to 50 mph; another was a straight drop and another took you over the entire canopy, giving you a view of the entire surrounding area. There were plenty of beautiful sights to be seen, that's for sure. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and had a movie night that night. We have a lot of those here, which I enjoy; I don't normally watch this many movies when I am home in the States.
On Thursday we went to Midmar Dam and spent the day playing volleyball, swimming, and had a brie (barbeque) dinner. It reminded me a lot of home, which is always refreshing.
Friday through Sunday of that week my group went on safari, meeting the other safari group only to swap places with them. We went on a drive that afternoon before dinner, though it was somewhat unpleasant due to the excessive heat and humidity. The vehicle I was in ran into a breeding herd of elephants and even got charged by one of them. They're very protective over their young, which makes sense considering they're in the womb for 22 months! We also saw many rhinos, giraffes, buffalo, impalas, and other creatures. To my surprise we ended up staying in luxurious tents, for lack of a better description. I didn't sleep much that first night due to the heat and humidity.
We drove around nearly the whole day Saturday, running into another breeding herd (getting charged again) and even ran into an elephant short of 10 feet away from us on our way to lunch. We turned a corner, I heard a gasp behind me, and next thing I knew to my left was an elephant right by us, charging our vehicle! Our driver, Reg (the director of our program), slowed down thinking that we saw something (which we definitely did!), but we shouted at him to keep driving and he sped off quickly, just in time for the elephant to miss us. It was a pretty traumatic experience. Hah. That same day we also saw a lioness (see the above picture), though she was a ways away. We were glad to have seen her though, 'cause we could have not seen her at all, and a safari without a lion sighting would just be tragic!
Last week we had our Community Engagement class from 8am to 4pm, Monday through Wednesday. The class itself was great but the length made it pretty difficult to sit through. I was really tired all last week too, having not slept on safari and staying up late for no good reason almost every night. Thursday we started at our service sites, which was the day we'd all been waiting for. I'm at a non-profit called RivLife (short for "River of Life") with 15 others from my team. We were split into four groups of four and would be alternating what we would be doing each day. But for that... I'll continue in the following post. :)
To be continued...
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Almost Done!
That's right! My intensive six-week class session is almost over. The class I'll miss the most is my Life & Teachings of Jesus (Bible) class as Reg (our director) is an amazing professor and an incredible man of God in general. He has so much wisdom to share; you end up learning so much during each and every class lecture. Good thing I'm a biblical studies major, eh?
Two weekends ago we got to relax the entire weekend, which was much needed. Not only were many others and I on the brink of the craziest week (academically), but we were getting burnt out from being busy all the time and not sleeping very much.
Last week was insane. On Monday I had a presentation and an exam in my biology class as well as a reflection paper due for Intercultural Communication, Tuesday I had a reflection paper due for Bible, Thursday I had a seminar presentation in Bible, and Friday I had two term papers due. Thursday night I pulled an all-nighter to finish my biology term paper, starting it around 9pm and finishing it at 6:30 the next morning. Although I was fried on Friday (haha--get it? Fried-day?) I had no regrets at all about staying up all night to do my paper. It meant that Friday night I got to relax and have fun, which I did!
On Friday night I visited a youth group in a township, a primarily Black community. NCF Church, the church I have been going to during my time here in South Africa, has many church plants in the area, and this location was one of those plants. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. The youth were dancing during the entire time of worship; I'm not sure I've ever seen a group of people be so free! The sermon was great as well; the speaker spoke in English and Zulu interchangeably. Unfortunately we did not get to stay for very long afterwards but I would definitely love to go again if given the chance.
On Saturday we went to Drakensburg (a two-hour drive) to Giant's Castle where we went on a hike to see some cave paintings of the San Bushmen. The landscape was incredibly beautiful and on our hike back we stopped along the river to swim for a while. The current was so strong and parts of the river bed were so smooth that riding it was like an all-natural water slide!
Sunday was a homework day for me, which included watching "The Passion of the Christ" for my exegetical (Bible) paper. I have never been so moved by a movie in my entire life; if you haven't seen it, I strongly suggest seeing it. It presents Christ in a way that makes you realize how real our God is.
Academically, this week has been much easier than last. It is our last week of classes, with finals being the end of this week and early next week. After next Tuesday, we will be done with the majority of our classes (well, most of us anyways; the Zulu students and nursing majors have another four weeks), which I am so excited for!
Yesterday we went back to Drakensburg to the Drakensburg Boys Choir School to see their choir perform. They rank as the #1 boys choir in the entire world, having traveled internationally and winning numerous competitions. Their performance was incredible, to say the least. It's amazing to think that such young boys (many of whose voices haven't matured yet) have so much talent! If you haven't seen them before they have a performance every Wednesday at 3:30pm (South African time), which streams live on their website. Check 'em out!
On a personal level, things have been fantastic as of late. I am so at peace here, I am incredibly grateful for those I'm studying abroad with, and I can't wait for what's to come. Safari, a month at our service sites, and even more traveling (including bungee jumping and shark-cage diving!) await us.
Let's go.
Two weekends ago we got to relax the entire weekend, which was much needed. Not only were many others and I on the brink of the craziest week (academically), but we were getting burnt out from being busy all the time and not sleeping very much.
Last week was insane. On Monday I had a presentation and an exam in my biology class as well as a reflection paper due for Intercultural Communication, Tuesday I had a reflection paper due for Bible, Thursday I had a seminar presentation in Bible, and Friday I had two term papers due. Thursday night I pulled an all-nighter to finish my biology term paper, starting it around 9pm and finishing it at 6:30 the next morning. Although I was fried on Friday (haha--get it? Fried-day?) I had no regrets at all about staying up all night to do my paper. It meant that Friday night I got to relax and have fun, which I did!
On Friday night I visited a youth group in a township, a primarily Black community. NCF Church, the church I have been going to during my time here in South Africa, has many church plants in the area, and this location was one of those plants. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. The youth were dancing during the entire time of worship; I'm not sure I've ever seen a group of people be so free! The sermon was great as well; the speaker spoke in English and Zulu interchangeably. Unfortunately we did not get to stay for very long afterwards but I would definitely love to go again if given the chance.
On Saturday we went to Drakensburg (a two-hour drive) to Giant's Castle where we went on a hike to see some cave paintings of the San Bushmen. The landscape was incredibly beautiful and on our hike back we stopped along the river to swim for a while. The current was so strong and parts of the river bed were so smooth that riding it was like an all-natural water slide!
Sunday was a homework day for me, which included watching "The Passion of the Christ" for my exegetical (Bible) paper. I have never been so moved by a movie in my entire life; if you haven't seen it, I strongly suggest seeing it. It presents Christ in a way that makes you realize how real our God is.
Academically, this week has been much easier than last. It is our last week of classes, with finals being the end of this week and early next week. After next Tuesday, we will be done with the majority of our classes (well, most of us anyways; the Zulu students and nursing majors have another four weeks), which I am so excited for!
Yesterday we went back to Drakensburg to the Drakensburg Boys Choir School to see their choir perform. They rank as the #1 boys choir in the entire world, having traveled internationally and winning numerous competitions. Their performance was incredible, to say the least. It's amazing to think that such young boys (many of whose voices haven't matured yet) have so much talent! If you haven't seen them before they have a performance every Wednesday at 3:30pm (South African time), which streams live on their website. Check 'em out!
On a personal level, things have been fantastic as of late. I am so at peace here, I am incredibly grateful for those I'm studying abroad with, and I can't wait for what's to come. Safari, a month at our service sites, and even more traveling (including bungee jumping and shark-cage diving!) await us.
Let's go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)