Ngiyathanda Afrika

Oh my goodness. I have fallen in love with Africa. It is beyond words, my heart is so full of joy. It has been such a great few months. So much has happened just since the last time I updated this thing, (I am awful at keeping this updated, incase you hadn't noticed) including: a second surprise 21st birthday party, slip-n-slide during an African thunderstorm, shopped at the market, went to a Sharks semi-finals Rugby game, wrote lots of papers, ended one class and started another, chose a service site, had so many great heart-to-hearts, cried tears of joy, planed homecoming week and the homecoming dance, decorated and had the homecoming dance, and danced the night away. I am only just beginning to realize how truly blessed I am to be here with these amazing people. I love them all. (Side note: I'll add pictures later!)

Its hard to believe that it was only about two weeks ago that they had another surprise party for my birthday! It feels like months! Turning 21 is a big deal in South African culture, so the staff/birthday committee planned a surprise birthday dinner for Tyler and I (the two who had turned 21). I was not expecting it at all! Literally, it was out of nowhere. We had all planned on going out to dinner that night so we were all supposed to get dressed up. So I show up to the dinning hall and everyone is waiting outside to go (or so I thought) and then they were like lets just go inside for a little. Uh...okay? So right when I walk inside everyone starts screaming and clapping. I looked behind me to see why. Totally taken aback, I had no idea haha. It was so great, they set up the dinning hall and decorated it beautifully. It was so fun :] two birthdays! They are so sweet, and it was just great. Couldn't believe it.

It's always so hard to write these blogs because there is always SO much to tell you all about. I guess if I updated more often it wouldn't be like that though :]. Well, about two weeks ago I experienced my first taste of an African thunderstorm. How to explain....it is LOUD. The thunder literally rolls off of the hills surrounding us. The booms are a good 30 seconds long, sometimes longer, and are so incredibly loud the windows rattle. Then there is the lightening, its the kind of lightening that you see only on those weather watcher shows on TV. The ones that light up the whole sky and the lightening bolts look like they extend for miles. Oh and its pouring down rain on top of all that. Well anyways, around 11 pm someone got the bright idea that we should get out the 90 ft. slip-n-slide. Brilliant. So we proceeded to slip and slide for then next hour in the midst of a lovely thunder/lightening storm. Oh, also, it just so happened that AE was hosting its annual international board conference that week, so all of the big wigs of AE were staying in the Chalet's just down from where we were having the time of our lives screaming and giggling at 11 at night. All that to say, it was one of the most fun/spontaneous nights I've had thus far.

Moving on, that saturday (the 16th) we went to Durban for the Sharks game!! The game started at 3 or something like that so we left early in the morning and went to the Victoria Market. They sell all kinds of good stuff. Bowls, little animal carvings, instruments, jewelry, paintings, bamboo artwork, basically all kinds of sweet African stuff. We shopped around for awhile, then piled back into the tour buses and headed to the stadium. The game was insane. SOOOO many people!!! Apparently South African's don't really do team spirit, but Americans do! The 44 of us were the most dressed up of anyone there. Face's painted and all. Singing along to every song they played and screaming at absolutely everything. Oh, by the way, the game was delayed for over half an hour due to bees. Yes, just bees, the players wouldn't play because there was a swarm of bees hovering over the field. 300 pound men that think plowing into one another over and over is a brilliant idea, cant handle a few bee's over the field. They had to call someone out to smoke out the bee's. Hilarious. Anyways, to add to this little adventure, around half time it decided to rain. No, not just rain, it POURED. Freezing cold rain, which we had to walk all the way back to the buses in. Needless to say, we were all soaked by the time we got back. It was awesome. Shopping, rugby game, running through puddles in the pouring rain. Such an eventful day.

This past week was finals for everyone. But not me, I only had one :]. I'm in Zulu so the 9 of us that are in that class have it all through service sites. However, I did have to write a lengthy 10 page paper for my Inter Comm. class. I started it the day it was due, wrote it in 4 hours and got an A+. We all took our final for that class this past Saturday. Easiest final I have ever taken in my life. I would be very surprised if I didn't get at least an A on it. I am oh so very glad that classes is over. Can't say it was my favorite.

HOMECOMING!!! was this past week. Katie, Cherokee, Elissa, and I planned the event and it couldn't have turned out better. This last week was spirit week, Monday: pajama day, Tuesday: Twin day, Wednesday: White V-neck's, Thursday: Tacky-Wacky, Friday: Blue API Polo's. Hilarious. Most people were quite creative. Friday we planned our homecoming game, soccer, obviously. Almost everyone played and it was so great. Quite a few funny incidents, Ronnie knocked a few girls over and fell in a whole. It was hard to keep the laughter in. Following the soccer game, we broke out the slip-n-slide. Probably one of the most fun activities a person can do. Entertains us for hours. Put a little soap on there and off you go, careening down 90 ft of tarp, all the while trying to work out how you are going to stop your self in the least painful way possible with out falling off the side of the hill. Just as we were all kind of getting tired and heading back to our chalet's, muddy and covered in grass, a thunderstorm rolled in. However, there wasn't really rain, it was more just spitting on us. So we wrapped up the slip-n-slide, got showered and cleaned up, and then sat outside watching the storm while we ate dinner. It was so great.
And to end the evening we watched: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST! So good, I love that movie. :]

Saturday we had our intercom final. Like i said, easiest final ever. Took like an hour. After we finished most of us went to the mall to find outfits for the dance :].  Megan and I decided to stay longer, so we just waundered around for a good 5 hours. It was nice to be off campus for a few hours. We talked with one of the shop ladies for a good 20 minutes, she was so sweet. By the time we got back, it was thundering and raining again. In case you hadn't picked up on it, its been raining and storming quite alot lately. I LOVE IT! That night a group of us decided to play murder in the dark. I don't know if any of you have ever played it but it is a terrifying game. The game is played in the dark (who would have thought, given the name of the game) and every one takes a slip of paper and the person who gets the paper with the X on it is the "murderer". So this murder goes around and slices people's throat with their hand (terrifying right?!) and if you get killed you have to fall to the ground, silently. Now, everyone is walking around, or hiding under tables if their smart, if you stumble across a "body" you scream and then everyone else screams and the lights come on. All the people who were "killed" stand in the middle of the circle and the group nominates people they think could be the murderer. So, round one, we all chose our slips and no one knows who the murder is. The lights go off and Kristina and emily and I start walking around together freaking out. We end up splitting up and we're quite terrified. Probably 5 minutes later a body is found, everyone screams, and the nominations/voting starts. Two people died so they sit there while everyone nominates people. Two people get voted off every round and if you get voted off and you are the murder you tell everyone, but if you get voted off and your not the murder the game continues. Well we didnt figure out who the murderer was so the game continues, with the same murderer. The lights go off and Kristina and I start walking through the room, she tells me "I think your the murderer" I quickly tell her otherwise and then some how we get split up. 10 minutes later someone screams and on go the lights. This time there are 4 bodies. The nominations begin and I get nominated. Rude. After deliberations and rebuttles, I get voted off, and guess what....it was me. I was the murderer. We played one more game with two murderers this time and I after that I decided I was done. That game is creepy.

Sunday: DANCE DAY! Oh my goodness we had so much to do. We were having the dance in the Jabulani Hut and we had lots of decorating and setting up to do. From about 10:30am until about 4:30pm we were going in full force. Putting up the decorations, setting up the tables, making each center piece, creating the welcome sign, putting together the photo booth, finalizing the last minute detail concerning the games/activities. Stressful, but SO much fun! The four of us on the Homecoming committee were the only ones who knew any sort of details about the dance. No one knew where dinner was, or where the dance would be, actually, no one knew any of the plans we had made at all, we wanted everything to be a surprise! Ahh we were so excited for everyone to be surprised and to just have a night to relax and dance and hang out.

So the dance rolls around, the four of us are waiting at the entrance to the Jabulani Hut, one of us with the bouteniers (hand made) for the guys, one with the flowers (hand made) for the girls, and one with the raffle tickets for everyone. It was so great to see everyone's faces as they walked in, no one was expecting it to be so decorated and fancy. We had the dinner tables set up all around the dance floor and Zach and Andi were serenading everyone as they walked in. AHHH it was beautiful. We had requested enchiladas for dinner (its one of our favorite meals) and they even made us apple turnovers for dessert! While we ate we watched a slideshow of our time thus far in SA, made with love by Francie. It was hilarious, it started out with pictures of each of us in the airport. It is so funny to remember back to those first few days when we didnt know anyone and to think how well we know everyone now, its just great. Following dinner we played a word scrambler game, first table to unscramble the whole list won a sweet prize (one of the decorations haha). Next Andi and Zach sang us all a lovely rendition of The Lion King "Can you feel the Love Tonight, very fitting. At this point we opened up the floor for dancing! Seriously, our group is just awesome, not one person was sitting down, we were all up dancing and just having the most amazing time. It was so great! After about an hour or so we announced our last game: lip syncing/performing. We split everyone up into 5 groups, ten people each, and called the first group up. We gave them the title of a song and they had 15 seconds to figure out what they were going to do, we played them music and off they went! It was hilarious! We had songs such as, My heart Will go on, Barbie Girl, Bye Bye Bye, Apologize, and No Air. SOO funny, all the groups were hilarious. Just after that we announced the Homecoming King and Queen: Reagen and Leizel!!!! They were so adorable, she just giggled. So precious. That was all we had planned so we turned up the music and danced...for the next 4 hours!!!!! Literally the best dance I have ever been too, it was so much fun! I can't even explain it properly, everyone was dancing and just having a good time. We have decided to have a dance party on a regular basis from now on. I am quite stoked for this.

I love everything about this place. It is so hard to put into words how amazing Africa is. It is literally indescribable. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by these amazing 43 other people and I am so thankful for every friendship that has been formed over the past few weeks. Our group is absolutely wonderful, I can't say enough good things about them. It is really hard to think about leaving South Africa and coming back to the states. As I have been here, it has started to become clear to me that I need/want to live abroad and serve for an extended amount of time. At this point in my life, I have a hard time picturing my self not being out in the community, (where ever that may be) serving, and just doing God's work. I am so content and at peace with life right now and it is purely God's doing. It is incredible to see how He has been working in my life and in the lives of everyone around me. It is so easy to see Him here and I am so unbelievably thankful for that. Thank you all for your support and prayers, it is so much appreciated.

I can't lie, I am not excited that I come back to the states in just 6 short weeks, but I do miss you all :] I hope you have a wonderful week!

A New Chapter

Today is our first day of service sites. We head out in about 15 minutes, and I am actually quite nervous. But a good nervous! I am going to Walk in the Light :]. I have heard so much about this place and I can't wait to see what God is going to do there. I am so excited for my team, there are 8 of us, and it is just so crazy how God hand picked each and every one of us, we are all going here for a specific reason. Anyways, I just wanted to post a quick note asking for your prayers as we all go out into our various service sites. I am so thankful and excited for this new chapter in our South African adventure, I think it will be the most amazing part yet. 

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

This is Africa.

They posed so nicely for us.

Welp, I went on a Safari two weekends ago and this past weekend I went on a Zulu immersion experience. I'll discuss the safari first. It was the most amazing experience ever. Our group of 44 was split in half and one half of us went on safari for three days while the other half went on a Zulu tribe immersion. We left at 8:00AM sharp on friday morning and we all piled into our tour buses and started the four hour journey to the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve. (Google it. Its awesome). We arrived at The Hilltop around 1:00pm. We got settled in, ate lunch, and by 3:00pm we were out-n-about in our sweet safari cars! There were three cars with anywhere from 6-9 people in each. We saw Zebra (pronounced "Zeh-bra") right away. That was my first time seeing them so I was quite stoked about it. There much smaller than I had imagined, beautiful creatures though. I wish I could convey how excited we all were about being on an AFRICAN SAFARI. I mean, I'm sure you can imagine our excitement but seriously we were all just so happy and in awe and thankful and so many other great emotions. We are just so blessed. :]

My favorite

Anyways, so we continue on and we see a rhino (took a million pictures of it) and kept going. Then we stumble on a herd of bachelor rhino's (yep, exactly what it sounds like: a group of male rhinos who hang out until they are mature enough to fight each other for mating rights), so awesome. We didn't realize how rare it was to see this until later on, but we sat there and watched them for at least 30 minutes. It is so amazing to see these unnaturally large animals out in the wild just living life. :] 

So we drove around for a while longer, we saw a ton of buffalo, wildebeest, rhino's and my personal favorite, giraffe. Literally we saw SOOOO much, we wouldn't realize how incredibly lucky we were in seeing all of that until later. As I'm writing this (now two weeks after the fact) the details are becoming hazy, and I am realizing how incredibly hard it is to describe and explain everything that happened! I'm trying though!! By the time we got back to The Hilltop it was getting dark and we were all just stoked on life and super giddy about our first adventures in the pride-lands of Africa. After we got back we had about an hour to change and get ready for dinner. Now, the only reason I am bothering to tell you about dinner is because it was sensational. Literally the best meals I have had were on safari. The food was different than the food we have at AE so it was a nice change of pace (not that we are served bad food at AE). Anyways, so we get to the restaurant (The Hilltop is like an African resortish type place and they have a big restaurant on site) and they show us into this awesome patio room thats lit with soft lighting and its wooden with floor to ceiling (straw ceiling might I add) windows. SWEET! They served us this really good chicken and veggie stuff with a great sauce on top. Basically, dinner was delicious and we stuffed our selves and then went straight to bed!

The beautiful view from the Hilltop restaurant.

We started our Saturday morning adventure at about 5:30am. Oh yes, they got 24 college students to wake up at 5 am. Not so difficult considering we were on Safari! When we left it was probably 55-60 degrees, add wind chill from driving at least 30mph and its basically freezing. We couldn't feel our faces! On the upside, we saw a beautiful sunset and some beautiful creatures just starting their day. We saw many more giraffe's, rhino's and zebras. Giraffe's are my favorite, they are majestical. That is literally the best way to describe them, and it is so weird to see them in the wild, in real life, up close and personal. AWESOME! It never got old seeing them. We drove around until breakfast time which was at 8. Again, breakfast was amazing! 






By 9:30 we were back out again. Since today was the long day we were heading down to the other game reserve thats adjoined to the one we were staying in. You wouldn't even know we were driving to another game reserve because your always in the middle of nowhere. Translation: there are animals EVERYWHERE! We saw alot of zebra's, rhinos, giraffe's, and the buffalo and wildebeest (weird creatures...they look like their always running uphill). I loved just driving around and scanning for the animals, it was always an adrenaline rush when some one would spot something and matt (our awesome guide) would slam on the brakes. I think I forgot to mention that we were on the hunt for lions and elephants that day. We were on a mission to see those two, oh and leopards, but we weren't getting our hopes up for that. We quickly discovered that our fearless leaders Matt and his son Tim were expert bird watchers. So obviously whenever they saw a bird, the brakes would screech, their binoculars would get whipped out with expert speed and we'd sit there and watch a bird on the branch next to the safari truck. Birds or lions...hmmm, you can guess which we cared more about. We got used to this very regular event of stopping to watch birds though. However it was a real drag when they'd slam on the brakes and our adrenaline would sky rocket thinking they spotted some big animal and then we'd realize that it was just a bird. As time went on though we grew to appreciate this. We had the most amazing guides ever, they were awesome. And if I am ever back in Africa (which I plan to be) and I go on a safari (which I plan on taking my family on someday), I will be calling them. 

This is right about when my heartbeat sky-rocketed!

We stopped around 1 to eat a delicious packed lunch made by the resort and then we set off again. By now its pretty warm out and most of the animals have taken cover in the shade so we hadn't seen a whole lot previous to lunch and we weren't really seeing much after lunch either. It was nearing about 4 o'clock and we were getting a tad disappointed we hadn't seen lions OR elephants and we knew it took about 2 hours to get back to our side of the reserve and that we had to be back in our park by 6ish. Basically, time was running out and we knew it. We start to head back to to the area that will take us to the game road that goes back towards our area and as we round the bend we see the most beautiful sight we had seen yet: an elephants giant backside hidden amongst the tall grass by the dry riverbed. 
SCORE!!!!!! Matt starts driving over the river bed towards the elephant when this woman in a car going the opposite direction flags us down. She proceeds to side track matt for a solid 2 minutes...this is an infinite amount of time when there is a large and very real elephant that appears to be walking away and you would very much like to see this animal before it disappears into the wild. We were quite miffed with this woman and then matt finally wraps it up and guns it over and promptly parks right in the path of the elephant, who was now completely hidden in the grass stuff! We all sat there, our hearts racing, when this gigantic creature starts to make its way straight for us. Terrifying. Thats all I have to say. Matt only further fueled that feeling by telling us that he "can not stress enough the importance of staying still and silent." Oh so very comforting. 

Yeah, no zoom. He's that close.

So Mr. Elephant comes out of the grass (I start to shake) and walks toward us (I am now full on shaking and my heart is thundering away). He proceeds to walk (it seemed more like a charge at the time though) right up to our car, he was probably 10 feet in front of me. He stares at us, HUFFS then SHAKES HIS HEAD!!! Just like on the discovery channel shows!!! Oh my goodness I was beyond freaking out at this point. We all squished as far to the other side as we could, Kristina and I discussed later that at that moment we were both planning our escape routes if that insanely large animal decided to thrust those massive tusks through the side of our suddenly very flimsy car! Well, he decided to turn and walk over to a tree instead, so we luckily we didn't have to put those plans into action. We sat and watched this amazing large mammal for the better part of an hour and as we sat there a few other cars pulled up. Well, one not so smart and very loud car pulls up and just sit there, doesn't even turn off the ignition, obviously Mr. Elephant gets spooked so he walks in front of OUR safari truck, stands there staring at us, then huffs and starts to walk away. OH MY GOODNESS. If you want a great adrenaline rush, just stare an a 8 ton elephant in the face. No big deal.





It was a pretty decent way to end the day. Face to face encounter with the largest mammal on the planet. Ya, no big deal at all. We were hyped up for the next 3 hours. Luckily a few of us video taped the whole encounter so we can relive it when ever we'd like. The day ended with one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in my life. I'll paint the picture for you: two elephants in the lower right corner, a litter further up the hill is a beautiful giraffe grazing the top of a tree, and a little higher and to the right of him is a large rhino, all are blanketed in beautiful orange and pink tones by a brilliant sun setting behind the hill. This is Africa.

Off we went, back to The Hilltop for dinner, despite our best efforts to convince Matt and Tim to take us on a night safari and skip dinner. Although, dinner was quite tasty, steak and chicken! We ate loads and then I went to bed dreaming of elephants over taking our safari car and narrowly escaping. 


We woke up again at 5 and were off by 5:30 am. Its amazing how easy it is to wake up when there is African wild life awaiting you just outside the flimsy gates attempting to keep you in and keep the animals out! This beautiful Sunday morning was even colder than the previous morning but we didn't mind, we were on a mission to find those felines! Time was ticking and we had to be back by 8 for breakfast, which means we only had a few hours to find them! By 7:30 we had not spied anything new, this was a little disappointing. Then, as we round a corner, what do we find, but a lone elephant standing in the middle of the dirt road! I yelled "Holy CRAP!" forgetting that that is the last thing you are supposed to do and I was instantly shushed by my fellow safarier's. We pulled right up to it and switched off the engine. As we did, it moved off the road and stood in the trees right next to u. It stood there for a little then decided to try and push over a tree. Massive creature that it was this wouldn't have taken much, except that it appeared he got bored and decided to come check us out. This being my second face to face encounter with these rather large animals I was a little more in control of myself, not completely terrified. He walks over, at a seemingly fast pace which immediately spiked my heart rate, and stood directly in front of our safari car. He was so close that all we could see of him was an area from just below his eyes to about 1/3 of the way down his trunk. He stood there, apparently having a staring contest with Matt and Tim who were a only 5 feet away from him. He sniffed under the car for a little and then decided we were boring so he started to walk away. Well, we were parked in the middle of the road so he walked right by the side of the car, I could have reached out and touched him. Looking back I have absolutely no idea why I did not do just that. We sat there and watched this gigantic elephant stroll down the dirt road, around the bend and out of seat. This is Africa. 

Oh hey, just about to charge us down.

Please note: Our fearless leaders, so relaxed.

That was by far the biggest adrenaline rush I have ever had in my entire 21 years of life. I was shaking and talking so fast I couldn't form coherent sentences for quite some time. We were SO stoked. It was the most amazing experience ever! By now we were late for breakfast so we booked it back to the camp, ate yet another heavenly breakfast and then packed up our tour buses. We drove around in the tour buses until lunch time but its just a totally different experience being in an open safari car so the closed tour buses weren't as eventful. 


I could not have asked for a better weekend. It is literally one of my favorite memories from here so far. I absolutely loved it and I am so glad I got to experience it with the amazing people that were there. We are so blessed to be able to go on a 3 day long safari in Africa. UNREAL!

Encabazini

Okay this is getting to be quite long so I'll just sum up the zulu experience quickly. Its hard to get as excited about it after just being on safari but it was also a really good experience! Last saturday the 24 of us that were on safari were now heading to Encabazini: Zulu tribe experience. This is a tourist place, its set up how a real Zulu homestead would be set up but where the guests stay is not where the Zulu people stay. Their homestead is just down the road and the people who live in that homestead work at this tourist one. They made us traditional Zulu meals, dressed in the traditional Zulu attire and taught us how to Zulu dance. Which is amazing by the way, it involves a whole lot of stomping extremely hard on the ground.  We were there for just one night and we slept in grass huts on beds on the floor, so great. Sunday morning we woke up and had something for breakfast that honestly tasted like baby food. I can't lie, I was not a fan. However, after that weird baby food thing, they served us eggs and toast (which was toasted over an open fire) and they even had peanut butter (peanut butter is my favorite food)! Toast, peanut butter, and eggs on top is the best combination ever! Don't judge, just try it. Then they took us to the real Zulu homestead where they all live and showed us around. We visited the Sangoma's hut and a few others. A Sangoma is healer in a Zulu tribe, he is the one who contacts the ancestral spirits. It was eerie being in there, I didn't like it that much. After the tour we all sat underneath these trees and we were given a slab of clay and then taught how to make Zulu pottery. It is much harder than it looks. I was quite miffed by the end of it, perfectionist that I am I had to start over at least 3 times. And, I am still not happy with it. Oh well, it was super fun! THEN, we got to make beaded bracelets. Very, very tedious work but they all came out looking so great. It was such a beautiful day, it was over cast and chilly, my favorite weather. It was such a lovely weekend! 

Our Grass Hut for the night!

Zulu dancing...we did this.

Probably the 3rd time starting over.

I am in Africa. No way. I love my life and all the wonderful people in it. I feel so incredibly blessed to be here with all of the wonderful people that are on this journey with me. You all are absolutely amazing. It has been so great to see how God has worked in our group over the last few weeks and even just how he has been working in my life. I am just so content and peaceful about things, it is such a comforting feeling.


Family: I have missed you lots this week, you are always in my prayers and I am so thankful I get to talk to you weekly. You are incredible and I love you! Dad, you are so great thanks for being the most amazing man in my life. 

9.22.10

Best Birthday EVER! (this was last wednesday).
Let me recount the events of the day for you all:

7:30am - I am shaken awake by my dear roommate Alle who claims that I must look outside because there are monkeys everywhere! So I groggily climb off my bed and I look outside my window and there are Calvin and Brett with their guitars and drums and a few other people and the guys start singing to me. They  remixed the Friends theme song (Friends is my absolute favorite show ever). It was so awesome. I was still half asleep so I was a tad overwelmed with everything. Best way to be woken up ever: serenaded to a remix just for you.

7:35am - Alle tells me I have to look in the hallway. Its decorated with streamers and posters and tons of balloons. (Sidenote: streamers in SA are about a 1/4 of an inch wide. hilarious). The balloons all had notes on them from everyone. One of my favorites:

"Its a quarter after one, I'm a little drunk and I need you now" - dont do this, its a sin.

(in case you don't listen to Lady Antabelum, thats a line in one of their songs). I laughed quite hard, I thought it was pretty clever.


7:40am - the girls in my chalet bring breakfast to our room! I dont know if it was a coincidence or if the kitchen knew, but they made french toast for breakfast that day (my favorite)!! We hadn't had anything other than toast, eggs, and sausage for breakfast before then. So we all sad in the hallway and ate breakfast on the floor together.

1:30pm - Stuck in class for the next 2 1/2 hours.

3:59pm - Dismissed for tea time. Kristina tells me Brittany has a story she has to tell me. We walk at an oddly slow pace considering we all want to get out of class. Also, Brittany's story was quite random. We walk out of the classroom and as I walk out of the doors I can see into the dining hall and everyone is standing at the doors making the tunnel. I grinned. So cool. I walked through smiling from ear to ear and everyone was yelling and stuff it was quite overwhelming. The dinning hall was all decorated and there was CAKE and I got to cut it with a pretty sweet knife. The group gave me slippers (I had been asking for some), a framed picture of all of us, a dress,  dark chocolate with almonds (my favorite) and some awesome cards. VIVIAN SCHWARTZ: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BIRTHDAY CARD. YOU ARE AMAZING! Basically it was the best tea time yet :]

4:30pm - Back to class. lame. but it was my birthday so whatever!

6:00pm - Dinner! The kitchen staff made pizza and french fries. YUMMMMM. (American food is a rarity)

Non-Alcoholic Beer :]

9:00pm - Brett serenaded us girls with a lovely song he composed. He is awesome.

So that was my day, in a nut shell. :]

It was the best birthday yet and I feel so incredibly blessed to have been able to spend my 21st in South Africa with some of the most amazing people I have ever met. God is so great.

Again, hope this finds you all well and happy.

CONGRATULATIONS TO TRACI AND JARED AND THEIR BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY GRAHAM!  I can't wait to meet him!!!!




Love you all.

One Week Down..

So, can I just say that I can NOT believe that I have only been here for a little over a week! It is going so slow and I am so glad that it is. I am so scared it is going to fly by and all the sudden I am going to be sitting on the plane heading back to the states thinking, "um, where in the world did this semester go?!" Basically, I am just really enjoying the slow pace life has here, it is wonderful.

I just finished my first week of classes. It was good, not great, but how can I complain when I am here? I'm taking History and Culture of South Africa, which is very interesting (crazy how their history parallels America's history at times), Intercultural Communications, which is alright, nothing special, and then I am taking isiZulu! Which is absolutely amazing, my professor is so great!! I am awful at speaking Zulu but I am catching on. There are three clicks, one I can't do at all though, but its quite fun.

My Beautiful Chalet-Mates and I at the Indian Ocean

There is just so much to talk about. I have the most amazing chalet-mates. There are 6 of us all together, and I feel so blessed to be able to spend so much time together. We try to have girls night when we can and one girl goes every night and shares their life story (while we all sit in the dark and she holds a candle) so great.

Okay, so this past weekend we had our first excursion. For our Intercommunications class we went to an Indian township called Umzinto which is just outside of Durban (the big town a little less than 2 hours away from AE). Fun fact: South Africa has the highest population of Indians outside of India. So none of us were quite sure what exactly we were doing but we all piled into our two big tour buses and off we went to Umzinto. We did know that we would be in the township for part of the time, we would be at the beach for part of the time, and then in the evening we were having a braai (African BBQ) on the beach. So I would like you to please just imagine this sight: Two big white tour buses with 22 passengers in each, filled with white American students (34 girls & 10 guys) pulling into this incredibly small township that is mostly lower income Indians. Yes, we definitely stuck out like a sore thumb, we just looked like tourists. It was such an uncomfortable feeling, I am not a fan. So we unload from the buses and our leaders literally just dumped us in the middle of this town and told us we had two hours to wander up and down the main street. Umm hi, in case you didn't know, thats a really long time to walk up and down ONE street! Well we all split up into smaller groups of 3-5 people, and off we went, to wander around. My group and I, 3 girls and 1 guy (yeah we made sure to snag a guy), set off in the opposite direction of everyone else. I was not happy by this point, I was super uncomfortable and felt totally out of place and literally everyone was staring at us.

So, we walk into this small grocery store place and Calvin immediately starts chatting up the owner/cashier, while us girls start to walk to the back. This woman comes out and tells us we arent allowed to go back there, and then she asks us what we were doing here (like I said, we were so out of place). We ended up talking with her for a good half an hour, she was so sweet. Her name is Nadia, she's 19, married and has a 3 year old son. Wow right?. She had an arranged marriage at the age of 15 because her father was ill and he wanted to see her get married. We asked lots of questions about arranged marriages and if they lasted, etc. She was so open with us, and was asking us questions right back. We learned quite alot in that small amount of time. Her husband and son came in soon after we arrived so we got to meet him as well, which was nice. I have always had this picture in my head of men in arranged marriages as being very domineering and cold, but he was definitely not at all. He seemed to be such a nice guy, the exact opposite of what I had pictured. This whole interaction did wonders in changing my attitude on the day.  :]

Nonku, the little girls and I

We kept walking down the street for a little and then we turned up this side alley and started walking by the little shops, stopping to talk to people in a few of them. As we were walking up to one I noticed a little baby laying on a pile of blankets on the side of the alley and another little girl who was probably 3 sitting next to her. This woman came out and we said "Sawubona" (hello). We made small talk for a little but it wasn't really going anywhere. The other people in the group were kind of wandering around the stores nearby. Eventually Nonku and I just started talking about things, life, school, what there is to do in this town, where she grew up, etc. Nonku is 23 and she wants to go to school for social work, her current job is to watch the babies (who are her cousins) while the parents are working inside the shop. For some reason she talked to me more than the others and we kind of had this bond, it was so great. At one point this older woman came out and was pointing at me and speaking zulu quite loudly, I asked Nonku what was wrong because I thought I did something and she just said "oh no, she likes you! and she likes your dress!"

Nonku's Beautiful Little Cousin

I thought that was so sweet, she must have been watching Nonku and I talk while she was sitting inside the store. We probably talked for the better part of an hour before I had to go. Just before we were getting ready to head back (our 2 hours of wandering were almost up) she kept talking about coming to visit me in Maritzburg, and how she could come whenever. She gave me her phone number so I could call her, but I dont have a phone here. She looked so sad when I said I couldn't call until December, I felt awful. I hugged her and the girls goodbye and told her I would try to figure out a way to hang out before I left Africa. It was such an awesome experience, just listening to her talk and tell me bits and pieces of her life and how she grew up. Her life is so different than mine and it was so interesting to get to hear about hers.  I will not be forgetting Nonku for a very long time. Hopefully I'll see her again.

Continuing on with the rest of our day, next we went to the beach! I got to swim in the Indian Ocean, how awesome is that?!! The waves are HUGE and started so far back from the beach, and the water is such a beautiful blue. They have pools next to the ocean, its the strangest thing. Just two huge pools right out on a ledge type area and the waves are breaking on the rocks right next to it. Weird. It was so much fun. After that we all piled back into the tour buses ( I say tour buses because thats what I feel like when we all get in them, they are really just big passenger buses that fit 22 people) and drove to another beach for our braai.

Indian Ocean!!

This beach was not really a swimming beach, I would compare it to the rocky cove in La Jolla. It was goreous! The sun was setting (however, not over the ocean, that was so strange) and the water looked like crystals! So pretty, we took lots of pictures and then just hung out. We were meeting an Indiana church's youth group for the braai, so we were all talking and getting to know one another. We stayed at the beach for quite awhile, we probably didnt leave until after 8:30 or 9:00. So by the time we got home it was soon after 10:30. Such a LONG day! But also such a great day! I was so worn out!

Gosh, this is a novel today. Sunday we went to the different churches, I went to an Indian church. It was quite an experience, the pastor that was preaching that day had very radical views on raising children, some of which I did not agree with. But it made for interesting discussions. They worship somewhat differently that most churches I have been to in the states, it was great, everyone was literally belting out the songs. During the greeting time a man just pointedly asked me "When were you saved?" Was not expecting that, but I thought it was interesting that he just asked me out of nowhere. We had a good talk. :]

Yet again, I started this blog about two days ago and am just now finishing it. It takes me forever to write  these things, I get so sidetracked. Its half way through week two and I can't believe it. I love this place.

OH! We visited two more service sites yesterday (tuesday), I guess I never said anything about the first service site either. Okay, well the first one we went to was Gateway, I really liked it. It is a shelter for abused women and children and also a school children in grades R through 8 I believe (R=Kindergarden). Yesterday we went to Walk in the Light and Riv Life. Walk in the Light sounds amazing, I really liked it. Bruce (the head of the place) was so inspiring. I have heard so much about it from Tanya and other people who worked there last semester, it sounds awesome. I was kind of confused about what exactly Riv Life is, its a preschool/day care center, a counseling center, and also a place where gogo's come. Gogo's are grandmas (cute right?!). I think we would be doing a little of everything at that site. We still have two more sites to visit and then we choose which one we want to work at for a month. It is going to be so hard to choose. I've been praying for discernment in where God wants me to be.

I was standing right next to him!!!! SO AWESOME!!!
Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi

OH MY GOODNESS! I almost forgot!!! Monday was such an awesome day! We had all heard the Zulu prince was coming to AE to speak at a conference that was being held and that if looked out our windows during class we would probably see him and his whole guard pull up but that we wouldn't get to meet him or most likely even actually see him at all. So after we come back from tea time (oh wow, I didnt even mention that before! We have tea time twice a day, and literally everything stops for tea. life revolves around Tea Time. IT.IS.AWESOME.) So, we get back from tea and then we hear that we get to go and listen to him speak!!! Are you kidding me?! So cool! We walk in to the conference room (its a big hut, sweet right?!) and everyone is super dressed up, we are not. Its also really quite in there so they all watched us all walk in and try to find seats. We sit down and are just looking around like no way do we really get to listen to him speak!! Then everyone just stands up, so we follow and then they start to sing. Can I just say that Zulu people can sing! Oh my goodness it was the most beautiful song I have ever heard. It was absolutely amazing, I got chills, and I have chills now just thinking about it. Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi spoke for over two hours and we were hanging on his every word. He is a Christian man and basically what it comes down to is he was a huge reason why the Apartheid ended. We were listening to a first hand account of one of the key players in the 1994 elections. AMAZING! UNBELIEVABLE! By far the coolest thing I have ever witnessed in my life. I have a copy of his speech, it is so incredible.

Okay so that is pretty much it for now. I'll post tomorrow about my birthday this post is long enough :] But they serenaded me to wake me up this morning. so great! I hope this post finds you all well and it has been so great getting emails from some of you and skyping with you. Its so encouraging! Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support!




To my Dearest Friend Tanya! Happy late Birthday! (I told you already but I just thought I'd tell you again). Your amazing. I can't believe we've been friends for over 2 decades!

African Enterprise: My new home. (I started this a few days ago)

View from my window

Yesterday (it feels like a week ago) we flew out of Joburg at 8:55am and landed in Durban at about 10am. Sidenote: They feed us quite well on these planes. Their idea of a "snack" was a cup of yogurt, a muffin, a turkey crossaint sandwhich, a beverage, and a juice box. Quite a large snack! A meal was huge, and this is standard on all on the planes! Anyways, Durban was beautiful. We didn't get to see much of it, but flying along side the Indian Ocean was gorgeous. Once we landed we got right on to our API (Azusa Pacific International) buses and off we went. It took a little over an hour to get to Pietermaritzburg (PMB), but the drive was so great! It hadn't really felt like I was in Africa until that drive, then it started to hit me. There were umbrella trees and beautiful planes and these really great tall tree's that lined the highway. Our bus turned into a dance party, it was quite a good time. We were all so excited to get to our new home, every few minutes someone would say "Oh my gosh! Were in AFRICA! Were almost there!!" 

AE campus (dinning hall/classrooms)

None of us could quite comprehend it, we were all just trying to take it all in! As we turned on to Nonsuch Rd. we all started cheering and everyone was whipping their heads around trying to see everything (Even though it all looks the same as your coming up this road). Then, the gate appears. It was like a welcome home from African Enterprise, no it wasn't that cheesy but it was still great. I couldn't believe how amazing the place was. As we were all unpacking and getting settled in and exploring the campus none of us could believe how incredibly awesome AE is. All through out the day everyone just kept saying, "No way, is this a dream? Is this really where we are living for the next 3 months?!" It was awesome. 

Beautiful prayer chapel 

So, like the heading says, I started this a few days ago, but kept getting side tracked. I started it Saturday and it is now Thursday (oops)! There is seriously just so much to do that spending time on the computer seems like a waste. But, let me just say that this place is most definitely STILL awesome! Every day I just look around and am in awe of how great this place is. The hospitality is overwhelming.  The people here are wonderful, and I am constantly looking around still wondering if I am in a dream. I am so unbelievably blessed and thankful that I got the opportunity to come to this incredibly place. God is great, I can't wait to see what He has in store for the coming weeks. 

"Sharp-Sharp" [excellent, top notch, really good]

Goodbye America!

After 30 something hours of traveling... I AM HERE!!! Well, actually I arrived about two days ago. The plane rides were not as bad as I had imagined. However, at the time, I can't say I enjoyed them all that much. But we all made it safe and sound with little to no issues. (For Dad, Kyle, & Justin: I sat next to a man who Arthur would have had a fit about, he took up BOTH armrests! Rude.) We left for LAX at 1:45am on Tuesday and arrived in Joburg (Johannesburg, SA) at 5:00pm on Wednesday. INSANE.

Thursday we went to the Apartheid museum then toured a town called Soweto. While in the museum, we got caught up in the Mandela exhibt and ended up not even seeing the main part of the museum! Such a bummer. But, the Mandela exhibit was great! He is such an amazing human being. I continuously got chills walking through and reading about this man's life. It is just so strange that this is such recent history!

After the museum, a woman named Alina (I believe that is how you spell her name) who is friends with our professor Quinton, took us on a bus tour through Soweto which is where she was born and raised. There is a street in Soweto called Vilakazi Street, it is the only street in the world that two Nobel Peace Prize winners have lived on, Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. We got to see both of their houses. We also went to the Hector Pieterson Memorial. Hector was a 13 year old boy who was shot and killed in the middle of the street by policemen. There was a student protest going on and the police were blocking part of the street. Hector was just walking from his school to the high school to pick up his sister, he was shot as he crossed the street to get there. He was not apart of the protest. There is a famous picture of his body being carried by a young boy, Mbuyisa Makhubo, and Hectors older sister running behind them.

The young boy carrying Hector's body was never seen or heard from again, he disappeared after the photograph was taken. The people here call him a hero but Mbuyisa Makubo's mother wrote a letter that is now carved on a stone bench at the memorial. The letter basically says that she doesnt not think of her son as a hero, he did what anyone one in their culture would have done. No one would pass over a body lying in the street. That was so crazy to me, this boy's own mother didn't see him as a hero, but it also speaks volumes about this culture. The people are defined by their relationships, you do not just leave someone behind. You always look out for your neighbor. Its amazing, I am already in love with this place and the people who live here.

As my first few days in SA are ending, I just cant get over how hospitable and kind the people have been to us so far. It is so different from the States. I am so excited to be here and meet more people and learn more about this amazing country.

Your thoughts and prayers are always appreciated!

Happy Birthday Dad you are absolutely wonderful and I miss you!

September 7, 2010.

In just a few short weeks my South Africa adventure begins! I leave September 7th at 6:00 am and arrive in Johannesburg, SA Sept. 8th! In case you don't feel like doing the math, thats over 24 hours of traveling. Awesome! I have no idea what all I am taking but it has to fit in one bag that will be checked and can not weigh more than 44 pounds and one carry on sized bag. For those of you who have ever traveled with me, you understand how problematic this weight limit could potentially be for me. So if you have any packing tips, let me know. Anyways, we will be in Johannesburg for two days doing touristy things and such and from there we fly to Durban.  Once in Durban we are driving to Pietermaritzburg, which will be our new home for a good chunk of the semester. (This is where we will be taking classes and also where we will live during service sites, we will be there the majority of the time). The last two weeks of the semester are spent traveling down the coast, with the last stop being in Cape Town.  As of now, I know very little about Africa so I have lots of learning to do over the next couple weeks. I plan on reading lots of books and watching lots of shows about Africa on the history channel (that channel is so great!). I hope to keep this updated so family and friends can see what I am up to over the course of the coming semester. If you have Skype: add me. If you do not have Skype: get it. I will not have a phone so Skype will be used quite alot!  It is going to be such an awesome few months and I am so blessed that I have the opportunity to partake in this experience! I am so very excited but also slightly nervous for this new adventure. I can't wait to see what God has in store for me and our group over the course of these next few months! Hello South Africa!!! :]

For whom it may concern, here is my address while I am in Pietermaritzburg: 


African Enterprise Center
Attn: API Janelle Yoder
1 Nonsuch Road
Pietermaritzburg 3201
3200 KZN
South Africa