Garden Route and CAPETOWN!

Sorry it has been a while since my last blog, we were still on the road and it has been busy and not as easy to get internet. The day after we went bungy jumping we stayed at Carmel in George. It was a beautiful place to stay!

On Wednesday we visited an ostrich farm, yes an ostrich farm. It was really random and hilarious! Ostriches are such strange animals, almost dinosaur-like or prehistoric. I learned that I am afraid of ostriches! They are huge and their feet are almost as big as my face, not to mention they are not the most attractive animals….but we fed them and got to sit on them for pictures, we even got to see them “race”. We laughed the whole time we were there!

After the ostrich farm we went to the Cango Caves, which is a natural wonder of South Africa. They were huge and beautiful inside, and we made it more fun by running out of them once we had reached the end. That night they had a chapel for us after dinner which was really nice and then we played games and relaxed in our cottage :) it was nice to be able to relax and hang out with everyone!

On Thursday we finished our road trip and finally arrived in CAPETOWN! We all went out to dinner that night after exploring the city for a little bit. It was fun to finally be in the city and got us excited to explore some more while here!

Friday we had some orientation and drove over to BI (Bible Institute) where some of the students stay while the other half of us have homestays. Friday night we met our homestay families; Hilary Green and I are staying with an older couple named Lucy and Clive. They are very generous and love telling us about their kids and grandkids :) we have gone with them to a 1 year olds birthday party and met a lot of their family, to their Catholic Mass on Sunday and met their two daughters and adorable grandchildren. It has been fun getting to know them; they love to tell us about their lives and are always feeding us great food, lots of it all the time! Lucy is a great cook, and will cook LOADS of food for us to eat! We are staying in Ocean View, a township that was started during the apartheid that has grown to be about 30,000 people!

During the week we go to BI for the day for either class or an excursion. We walk to a church here in Ocean View and get picked up to go to school, we all feel like we are in elementary school again getting dropped off at the bus again and picked up at the end of the day. We visited two museums in Capetown on Monday. It was fun to be in the city and after we went to a mall there at Waterfront to have lunch, it was gorgeous and I can’t wait to go back there another day! After class on Tuesday a few of us explored the shops and restaurants that are walking distance from BI in Kalk Bay and today we had a township tour of Langa, the oldest township here from the apartheid. It has been interesting and a good experience to see all of these things and I have really liked seeing Capetown.

It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL here; everywhere we drive it is a gorgeous view! It’s hard to believe we only have about two more weeks here, but it is also exciting to think about seeing everyone when we get back! Capetown is quickly becoming one of my favorite places and I am excited for the days to come here where we get to tour around some more, climb Table Mountain and explore the city some more!

More pictures to come soon!

life is GOOOD.

so last week we went on safari and stayed in a zulu tribe, both were SO MUCH FUN :) i was unable to blog about it till now because as much fun as the zulu tribe was, a lot of us got sick :( and then we left for our road trip on the "Garden Route" down to Capetown.

the safari was so much fun seeing all of the animals in the wild, we saw:

-giraffes

-zebra

-elephants

-nyala

-impala

-hippo

-cheetah (SO CLOSE-it was insane!)

-possible leopard in a tree (it was far, but we think it was!)

-rhino

-african buffalo

-tortuise

-dung beetle (they were HUGE)

-genet cat (it was IN our camp after our braai - a bbq)

--and i think that is it :) it was a lot of fun driving around in the open air vehicles and just being in the wild with fun people!!

after we left the safari we went to the zulu tribe experience, where we stayed in mud huts, learned about their culture, saw them perform their dance moves while learning a few ourselves, walked around with the medicine man to learn about the plants he uses and took a walk to a hut where women were making beaded jewelry. it was relaxing and beautiful! the view from our hut was gorgeous and the stars at night were breathtaking!

being sick kind of put a damper on the experience once we got back, but overall it was a lot of fun!

we started our road trip on sunday and i mostly slept for the first 2 days till i got better, and then today was the day for BUNGY JUMPING!!!!!! which was unreal. that is the only word to describe it, it was 216 meters (which is about 648 feet) from the top of the bridge. the free fall was the most insane feeling and it was the most fun also!! i LOVED it and was petrified by it!

we are arriving in Capetown on thursday and the place we are staying at tonight is adorable and beautiful! :) were going to see ostriches tomorrow and to explore caves! cant believe its already almost time to be in Capetown, it was hard to say bye to AE in Pietermaritzburg, but I am getting really excited for the homestays and all that we get to do in Capetown!

Last week at RivLife

On Tuesday we went to the womens support group in the morning. We had ordered dresses, skirts and aprons from them that they make and they turned out beautiful! our last day with them was perfect :) we were able to spend almost the whole day with them just hanging out and talking, some of the girls in the community came and performed dances and sang for us, they invited their "counselor" which is equivalent to their mayor to come talk with us, some of them had their husbands come to meet us and they made us all necklaces and earings out of rocks that they got at the river. it was so sweet of them and we were all so touched at all that they did for us.

All of the women were so inspiring to us - their stories and the way they live their lives were such an encouragement. i loved getting to know each and every one of them.

On our last day we went to the gogos in the morning and got to play telephone with them, give them back rubs, paint their nails and end with a dance party :) it was so much fun - they are all such sweet hearts and such a joy to be around. we all wished we could have had more time with them in previous weeks, but were still thankful for the time we had with them!

On our last afternoon with the kids we did face painting! they all were so excited to get their faces painted, some of them even started asking for our names to be written on their foreheads - it was hilarious! we had so much fun and it was the perfect afternoon to end our time with these kids. we had bubbles and popcorn and just laughed and had fun!

All of us with Gloria and Beatriz (the care takers for the kids) - they made our time with the kids so enjoyable helping us learn phrases to say to the kids in Isizulu, songs to sing with them and always so much fun to be around! they made us laugh, and we made them laugh - i will miss them so much and the time we had with them!

Our two translators and the social worker at RivLife all made our time so great. Thendai (social worker) planned out most that we did in our time there and our translators, Thabsile and Thendeka, were always so great in all that we did. they became good friends of ours and i am going to miss seeing them everyday and having our conversations.

This is Azola on the last day after one of the girls painted my name on his forehead. Azola stole my heart the first day i saw him smile.

Azola's older sister, Buhle, would come in the afternoons and pick him up after she would have a meal and hang out for a little bit. she too has a special place in my heart. seeing the way she cares for Azola and loves him gave me hope for his future. after seeing all that i had the opportunity to at RivLife, i had lots of unanswered questions but still a lot of hope. i know God is working here, and being able to see Him in the people here has been encouraging. i see God in how Buhle loves Azola, how the womens support group goes out into their community to help those who also are HIV positive, how the gogos meet to support one another, and in how all the people we met were open to us and loving. the people i met have made a difference in my life and i am so grateful for the opportunity i had to serve at RivLife with my wonderful team.