Seems like everyday is my favorite day.....

Thursday morning we went into the community around RivLife, called Cinderella Park. we went back to a Kulus house (kulu is grandpa in Isizulu) that is blind to do his laundry. we washed four of his blankets for him, which was fun because we learned how to do wash like them! they put the blanket in a big bucket with soap and water and then stomp in it - almost like we were squishing grapes! it was fun and then we rinsed them and wrung them out (or at least as much water as we could get out) and then hung them out to dry. one of the girls that comes in the afternoon usually to RivLife, named Sindy, lived next door and came over with her sister to play and be with us, and helped wring out the blanket a little bit - she is just so cute!!

The afternoons at RivLife with the kids are some of my favorite times, even when they are all screaming or crying, they seem to be fine a few minutes later laughing and singing with us. they play nonstop and never get tired, even when its BRIGHT AND SUNNY. on thursday afternoon we sat in the shade for a while with them and painted the girls nails. it was adorable and they loved it, they always look at our nails that are painted so we thought it be fun to paint theres, and it was! Azola, one of the little boys that has stolen my heart, spent most of that afternoon on my lap in between his trips to the water spicket to fill his mouth with water and then come back still with a mouth full of water he would plop down on my lap and either swallow the water slowly or spit it out, which he found so amusing. he is just too darn adorable and i absolutely loved sitting with him and laughing with him.

On Friday we went to the womens support group again and they took us around their community to home visits of other women who are also HIV positive, one of whom has full-blown Aids. it was an emotionally draining morning as we took in the images we were seeing, but seeing the women being there for other women and praying and singing with them in Isizulu was a memorable and touching moment to say the least. i will never forget the feeling of being in the house listening to the women sing the most beautiful song i have ever heard that also was so sorrowful. the woman that we visited (who had been blind for a few years and had full-blown Aids since 2003) began to tear up while she listened. its in that moment i knew God was breaking my heart and im not sure what its going to look like when He mends it back together - but i KNOW He will and He will make it with a soft spot for the people here in South Africa.

All of the women in the support group inspire us by what they do in their community and how they are there for one another. i love spending time with them and dancing with them :)

Friday afternoon we painted at the new day care center - we used the kids hands to make a rainbow in one room, big colorful flowers and butterflies in another, and in the last room a big and bright smiling sun that will say above it "Jesus Loves You" in English and Isizulu :)

RivLife has been one of the most life-changing experiences, and i still have 3 more days!! i couldnt tell you exactly how it has changed me, but i KNOW it is changing me and i know i will be processing my time there for a long time after i get back. the women i get to serve there with are some of the most genuine and heart-felt friendships and the experiences we are able to have give my heart joy.

Today (Saturday) we went to Ushaka - which means "shark" and is a water park and "sea world" - it was the perfect day to feel like we were kids again going on all the slides and going through the aquarium and watching the dolphin show!

Every day i get to spend here in South Africa is special to me and i am having the most fun and the most life changing experiences all in the same day sometimes! i have had "de ja vu" (or however you spell it) A LOT here and i just keep telling myself its cause ive been dreaming of this semester my whole life :)

cherishing my time at RivLife

Tuesday I was able to go back to the Women's HIV positive support group. I love all of the women there, they are always so welcoming and open to us. this past meeting we were measured for the dresses they are making us! i'm so excited to buy one from them and wear it! they showed us some Zulu dance moves and shared with us about the struggles and benefits of their group, Sisonke. one of the women shared her story with a few of us while we were helping her peel leaves for a delicious meal they made for us out of pumpkin and the leaves. she told us how she had come to be HIV positive and how she is wanting to go out and educate people on how it is transfered, she is such an encouragement to hear how she is so strong though all that she had been through.

the meal was delicious and so sweet of them to make us. they always go out of their way to make sure we are comfortable and enjoying our time there. they sing while they work and teach us how to crochet, were getting better but not NEARLY as good or fast as them!

These are most of the women at the group, they are all beautiful inside and out and some of the strongest woman i have ever met.

In the mornings when we arrive at RivLife the kids have began to run outside to greet us, it brings the biggest smile to all of our faces and makes us feel so loved. it is the perfect way to begin our days at RivLife, all of these beautiful and joyful little kids running at you yelling "AUNTIE, AUNTIE!!!" and receiving LOTS and LOTS of hugs :) this morning I pulled out my camera and stood back to get a picture of it.

We also visited the Gogos support group (A Gogo is a grandma) - this group was started so that the gogos in the community would not be sitting alone in their houses but be able to support each other and have fun together. they garden, do beadwork and discuss what they are going through. we played telephone with them (english and Isizulu words) which was hilarious and so much fun with them. we did some home visits to those that could not make it, it is an awesome experience to say the least. having the opportunity to visit them in their homes and pray with them was something that i will never forget. i can't wait till next week when we get to go back and see them again!

The days at RivLife fly by TOO fast! Next wednesday is our last day there, and it is becoming a realization that i will only have about 5 days left with the people that i'm meeting there. cherishing every moment there is my goal for the remaining days and making sure i tell the women and children i have met how much they mean to me. my team continues to be such a support to me and makes the experience that much more meaningful.

Another week at RivLife :)

RivLife Team: Nicole, Bianca, Staci, me, Alyssa, Daniele, Sarah and Emma!

This week we went to RivLife Tuesday through Friday - we were able to spend time with the women's support group and the children at the daycare, and also go into the community for a morning with 2 student social workers on their home visits.

SISONKE means (in Isizulu) "together, working as a team" - this is the women's support group's name for women that are HIV positive that we get to spend 2 mornings with during the week. They teach us how to crochet with them and show us all of what they make. They have started a business within their support group - they make dresses, aprons, mats, pillows, hats, and much more! They use their resources so well and are very creative.

On top of all of this they are such STRONG women. They face the pain of their disease every day but still get up in the mornings and are mothers to their children. The stories they share of what they go through are hard to hear, but also very encouraging because of where they are now and how they are there for each other. I love spending time with them and listening to them sing and laugh together while they work.

The children at RivLife love playing outside and running around like crazy people! they are always a ball of energy, but I love them!

They love to play with our hair, go on the tire swing, and down the slide and one of their favorite things - to roll the tires around the pavement and have races. They play so well together (most of the time) - they look out for the younger ones, even if they are only a year older they pick up the little ones when they cry and are some of the most generous kids I have ever seen with sharing. They are family to each other and it is so precious to see them together like that with no one telling them to be like that, they just have each other's backs :)

In the mornings the kids stay inside more so we come up with activities to keep them having fun but not too wild! They like to make a train out of the chairs, singing songs with motions, and of course coloring! We get them together in a circle and do "workout moves" with them, which is basically a Simon-says kind of game. This either tires them out, or makes them even more hyper - but whatever the outcome, it's always fun :)

One of the days there was some car benches out on the grass in the afternoon, the kids all ran outside and sat on them and began singing together without any of us starting it, some of the older ones grabbed the younger ones, placing them on the benches too, they all started doing the motions to the song and were just too darn adorable! They bring me so many smiles throughout the day and have taken a piece of my heart!

This is Azola (above) - he stole my heart the first day with his smile! His hugs and smiles brighten my day and I love getting to see him everyday during the week.

I'm excited for next week at RivLife too - we are going to get to do some more manual labor, helping them move where the daycare is going to be. We are all excited for this and to be able to spend time with the women and children who we have all been touched by and know will teach us so much. I feel so lucky and blessed to have this time at RivLife and am looking forward to what I will take away from this experience.

RivLife!

Sorry this is going to be a long one, but a good one! (I didn't take any pictures yet of my site cause I didn't have my camera the first few days, but no worries-they're will be plenty of pictures soon I'm sure!!)

We finally started service sites on Thursday after having three days of class with Frances, our amazing teacher and mentor for these three and a half weeks we get to serve! Frances is the most joyful person I have met I think, and has so much wisdom and experience to pass on to us!

Thursday morning we left around 8:30 in the morning to go to our sites, Reg drove us to RivLife and dropped us off at the gate with our lunches and we walked in feeling like we were getting dropped off for our first day of school, anxious-excited! We walked in and all the children were cuter than the next! We met the two women that take care of the younger kids all day and then headed into Thendi's office, who is our "boss" there basically :) We sat down with her and planned out our time there at RivLife. On Tuesday and Friday mornings we will be going to a support group for women that are HIV positive that meet weekly and have formed their own business, on Wednesday mornings we will be hanging out with a group of gogos (grandmas) that like to stay active instead of just sitting around and we will be able to go on their runs with them (yes RUNS not WALKS!), then on Thursday mornings we will be going into the community and helping out in houses of people that are ill or elderly that need help around their houses. Every afternoon we go back to the RivLife center and help out with the kids and all the older kids that come after school gets out.

This week though, on Thursday we just played with the kids all day since it was our first day and Thendi had paperwork to do. So we headed outside to a tent that they have set up for shade, and all the kids sat in some chairs and literally just stared at the 8 of us girls, we all were just laughing at ourselves because the children only really speak Isizulu, which a few of us know more but still not fluent enough to communicate well with the kids. We started singing the one song we know in Isizulu, "Aqeko Ofana no Jesu", which translates to "There's no one like Jesus". After we sang it a few times, their blank stares stopped when a few kids got up to sing and do the motions with us, then all of them began to sing along :) from that point on for the whole day they never wanted to leave our side or stop playing! they have the most energy of any kids!! it was so fun to play soccer with them outside, roll tires around on the pavement, and play on the jungle gym with them! It was exhausting, but a GREAT exhausting! all the kids are share with each other without even being asked to, they look out for each other (especially the younger ones!), and just continue to have a smile on their face :)

In the afternoon the older kids came after school, they get a meal everyday served to them by RivLife, and I later found out some of them walk over 8 ks, which is 5 miles!, to get that meal everyday! They all sit outside and eat while we play with the younger ones and talk with them, they are fun to get to know and know a good amount of English so it is easier, and they help translate what the younger ones are saying also which helps!

The two women that take care of the kids every day are named Beatrice and Gloria, they are some of the most devoted women I have met! they are with lots of children everyday taking care of them ALL day long! and then serve food to the older kids in the afternoon after school everyday. they always have a smile on their face, and you can see the love they have for each and every child there! It is fun to get to know them and they are always teaching us helpful phrases to say to the children in Isizulu!

On Friday we arrived at RivLife in the morning and hung out there for a little while before Baba Philip picked us up in the bus to take us to the womens support group. Frances came with us for the first day to help us get to know the women there and facilitate our first time there. it was a really good thing he came with us because when we first arrived none of the women were there yet, so we waited a little while and slowly they started showing up. we all sat down in a room in the community house where they meet weekly. They greeted us but seemed a little stand-off-ish to us at first, we sat down and started introducing ourselves and learning each other's names then one of the women asked why we were there basically, and we answered with Frances' and the translators help. Then they seemed a little more comfortable with us once we explained we wanted to learn from them and just get to know them.

They asked us then a question that broke my heart, they wanted to know if we would still want to be there with them because they are all HIV positive. The look on their face as they said the words "HIV positive" and as they awaited our answer opened my eyes to the pain and hurt that they have endured from not only being affected physically from this disease, but also emotionally. We then proceeded to tell them that the disease did not matter to us and that we wanted to be there with them, not treating them any different than any person we would meet and how they are special to us because they are allowing us to be here with them. They thanked us and one of the women began saying we would always be in her heart because we have accepted her, then another woman asked if we were okay with them being mothers that are HIV positive, and again the look on their face broke our hearts. they have been hurt so much by people neglecting them, they assume that most people will, one of the girls in our group gave the best answer to them, Sarah told them that we all respected them and are encouraged by how strong they are to still be good mothers to their children while they are going through the trials of having HIV. They all then began to smile joyfully and Frances shared a little about how some will die alone that have this disease, but that they are encouraging because they get together to support each other and make a living for themselves. We all began to hug one another and held on to each other. It was some of the most genuine and loving hugs I have ever received, and then we all sat down again and they began to show us what they make and how they make it.

They make mats for the ground and for tables out of plastic bags, talk about resourceful! the mats look amazing and they can do so much with them, they cut the bags into strips and weave them together, learning was so difficult even though they make it look so easy!

Friday afternoon we went back to RivLife and as we walked back in the gate we look at the building and all the little kids are reaching out the windows and celebrating we were back for the afternoon, that made all of us so happy and we realized how much these kids meant to us after just 2 days of being there! we then played with them while some of them were still napping, then the older kids came after school and we played soccer outside and some of the older girls asked us to teach them some songs in English, they already knew a good amount of worship songs that they sang for us BEAUTIFULLY, and they began teaching us a new Isizulu song that sounded so pretty, and the bus drove up to pick us up so next week we will learn the rest :)

Overall, I absolutely LOVE RivLife and am so excited for the group of girls that I get to work with everyday there, they are all so positive and encouraging and a blessing to spend my days with :) Next week we get to spend four days there and I can not wait to hear more from the women and get to know the kids better and do more activities with them, we are planning on doing a craft that involves name tags so that we can remember all of their names! :) pictures to come of them next week!!

After those amazing two days we had a really fun and relaxing Saturday yesterday :) we ran to a cute cafe (the one in the garden) to get lattes in the morning and then went and had a picnic in the Botanical Gardens in Pietermaritzburg :) we sat there and talked (a few of us girls) and had a lot of fun just being together! it was a perfect saturday complete with a movie night to finish it off and some hair dying.... :) I now have darker brown hair, not too much of a difference but just a different shade of brown!

~~~~hope you all have a great week! miss you all!!!

Wednesday and Thursday we had finals, so most of those days were spent studying at AE and at coffeeberry, getting delicious cappuccinos and crepes! It feels so good to be done with finals (for two of my classes) and be able to focus on going to our service sites starting this Thursday!! We have our community engagement class today through Wednesday preparing us for serving at our selected sites.

Friday we left for our Battlefields Tour, which consisted of four battlefields in two days. We left early Friday morning and drove for a few hours on a VERY comfortable bus with reclining seats :) once we arrived at our first site we found out our bus was too heavy to drive up the hill, so naturally we all hiked up this very tall and long hill to get to the site, but it was worth it for the view! You could see for miles all the way around :)

That night we had a WONDERFUL meal at the hotel we stayed at (which was adorable in itself, it was almost Victorian–like and was fun to stay at). The soup, meat, vegetables, and DELICIOUS dessert was some of the best food we’ve had so far while being here.

The next morning we got started early again and visited two more battlefields, all of them are beautiful places and hard to imagine that battles occurred there.

This Sunday we had “Sunday Funday”! all the chalets had a team color and we had a relay race against each other, my chalet got third place – which is pretty good cause the first and second place were the boys chalets! Haha but before we did that we had a slip and slide on our lawn which was a lot of fun! We had races between the chalets and just had fun going on the slip and slide, there was only a few mild battle-wounds from it :)

All of the activities we do are so much fun, but I am learning that I need my alone time to be rejuvenated and to reflect on all that I have seen and learned so far. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here and cannot believe I’ve already been here for over a month!

this is school?

On Saturday we went zip-lining in Karkloof! it was a lot of fun and such pretty views while flying through the air!! we left really early in the morning, but it was worth waking up for! then once there we split into smaller groups to go through the canopy tour!

This is the 90 degree free fall line, where i screamed like a little girl! i thought i had to hold myself and let myself down on this one, so i was all nervous and preparing myself, and even told the guide that i was scared. he laughed at me and told me to just go! so i got off the edge, and slowly let go, but did not go anywhere, so i was just hanging there not holding on, i looked at the guide confused on why i wasnt going down, he told me look up, and right as i did HE DROPPED ME down so fast and stopped me right above the next platform! it was scary to say the least, but hilarious and altogether a really fun day zip-lining!

On Sunday the church i have been going to, God's Family Life Center, had a church picnic after church where the little kids went swimming, we played soccer, sat on blankets with the congregation and got to know them better. it was great to be able to get to know them better and talk with them. The people at the church are so welcoming and genuine in their joy, it is refreshing and a privilege to be able to be involved in their church while being here.

Laying down in the grass by the water, looking at the beautiful view, watching the little kids swim in the water with a few of us, and just relaxing in the sun was the perfect way to spend a sunday afternoon before the week of finals :)

This week we had class on Mon/Tues, and then finals started yesterday. i can not wait to take my final one today and then be done with most of my classes! I go to RivLive in exactly one week from today and i am SO excited and looking forward to the experiences i will get to have while there :) hope all of your weeks are going well!!