100th post with 25 thoughts

Well, it's happened! This my 100th post on this blog. I was going to try and make a list of 100 random thoughts, but got distracted and stopped at 25. So I guess you can just read it 4 times and it'll kind of be the same thing ;) Enjoy!

The African sky is so beautifully different than anywhere else in the world. It's my favorite.

I love hearing people sing praises in all different languages.

God's favorite colour is definitely green because there are hundreds of shades of it in South Africa.

Long bus rides are good for three things: heart-to-hearts, sing-a-long dance parties, and sleep.

I hate monkeys. End of story.

The fruit here trumps every piece of fruit I've ever had.

I am more than blessed by all the people all this journey with me. God could not have selected a more wonderful group for this semester.

Getting Sees in the mail was the best. I'm definitely going to make a trip to that store when I get home.

God is everywhere. Even in the darkest of places, where there seems to be no hope, God shines His light so that all can see it.

There is so much to learn from South Africa, it's people, and it's culture.

I'm ignorant, selfish, and prideful.

I never realized how much I love Mexican food until I had to go without it...it's an obsession.

Zebras are very protective of their young. Stay away if there's a new baby in the herd.

I am a sinner. And so undeserving of God's grace, but overwhelmingly thankful for it.

You've never experience thunder and lightning until you've been to South Africa. God takes it to a whole new level out here.

Bugs are everywhere, all the time.

Tea time is the greatest invention ever. I think they should require it at every school, with an endless supply of Rooibos.

Zulu dancing is by far one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

I love the drums. In any capacity. I just think they are so cool

God is teaching me more and more everyday what it means to depend solely on Him

Going for walks/runs is really easy when you get to do it in a game reserve.

I have a newfound love for blogs...writing my own and reading other people's. Even other people on this trip and just seeing what has mattered the most to them. So great

I feel so alive and full in this place, more than I ever have before in my life.

Africa is the most vibrant, colorful place in the world.

God is undeniably at work here, and it is absolutely beautiful

Pen Pals and Service Sites

Hello everybody! So much has happened in the past few days, but I’ll try my best to keep this short and concise!

I’ll start by updating you about the Zulu happenings in my life. First of all, last week our teacher Wynn gave all of us Zulu names. She wanted to wait until a couple weeks in, so she could get to know us and give us a name that is appropriate to our personality. So last week, we got our names! Everyone’s were all really neat, but for the sake of time, I’ll only share mine with you. My name is Siphiwumusa and it means, “We are given kindness and mercy.” I’ll take it :)

Also, on Monday we got to meet our Zulu pen pals!! We’ve been writing to them for a couple weeks now—with our very limited conversational skills—and on Monday, we got to go to their school and hang out with them. They attend Grace College, which is actually a high school and is surprisingly really nice. They made us lots of traditional Zulu food, including Zulu bread, which is becoming one of my favorite foods. They also had this “mystery meat” that they wouldn’t tell us what it was but kept saying, “Just try it!” We found out later that it was COW TONGUE. Yup, I ate cow tongue. (Dad and Michaela, has anyone ever eaten cow tongue on that “weird foods” show you guys watch???) It honestly wasn’t that bad. It had a good taste to it, but the texture was awful. It was really slimy and chewy, AND you could see the taste buds! And feel them while you chewed on your piece of meat. They were like these little squishy spikes coming off the meat. I don’t know if you can see it in the picture but it was kinda gross. Hey, it was an adventure though!

My pen pal’s name is Siphesihle (Sips for short), which means, “Gift from God” and he was absolutely hilarious. He is 16 years old and totally the class clown. He was always making jokes and making everyone laugh. My favorite things he said:

• I asked him his favorite food: hot dogs. "My birthday is June 16th, and if you sent me a pack of hot dogs, I would be the happiest man in the world!" I had to break it to him that they would probably be nasty after 2+ weeks in the mail
• Calling another girl in the class an "unknown species" because of her haircut (they're friends so it was funny, not mean)
• When he introduced me to his friend, he put his arm around me and said "This is my new girl" Hahaha so funny

It was such a joy meeting them. They showed us around their school, talked about their culture and growing up in South Africa, and even did Zulu dancing for us. It was one of my favorite experiences here so far. We’re hoping to have all of them come to AE so we can cook American food for them and hang out more! But we’ll see.

Other updates: I found out my service site!!! I get to work at Ethembeni, which was my number 1 choice! I’m honestly so excited to start. Now that I know where I’ll be and can start praying specifically for that program, I really just want to go! Be praying for energy in long days, humility for my heart, that I could not consider myself better than anyone else but to put others first, that I could learn from these people, and that God would just change and heal lives. Once I know more about exactly what I’m doing, I’ll let you know, but all I know so far is what I posted in my earlier blog (It’s called “Blessings” if you didn’t read it). And here is the website if you want to check it out! After I found out, I was reading my Bible and the first verse I read seemed so applicable. It says, “O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.” Isaiah 25:1. I am just so excited to see what God has planned for my time there, in my heart and the hearts of those I am blessed to be able to serve.

And lastly, I got another package from my Nana and Papa. It was a box of Sees!! Haha like mother, like daughter! It was so fun though. Getting packages, letters, emails, comments on this blog…all of it makes home not feel as far away, so feel free to keep ‘em coming! :) Thank you all so much for your love and support. Knowing people are praying and reading this blog and looking at my pictures and everything is so encouraging and I appreciate you all!

With love from South Africa (and with cow tongue in my stomach),

Alex

James Nachtwey

Today while I was in the library, I saw a collection of "Time" magazines on the coffee table, and the one that jumped out to me had this headline: "Haiti: The Aftermath. Words and Photos by James Nachtwey." I've seen some of his work before and picked it up out of curiosity. His pictures were absolutely incredible. This man has a gift unlike anything I've ever seen. However, this time, it wasn't his pictures that touched me but his words. This is part of what he had to say:

"As a photojournalist, I've been involved in documenting the history of the past 30 years, and much of my work has focused on wars, conflicts, and social injustice. It's been fueled by anger, driven by the belief that if people are informed, they will be inspired by compassion and will share a sense of outrage at violence, aggression, and the unacceptable deprivation of fundamental human rights. Those issues are all man-made, and anger can jump-start the process of change. An earthquake is an act of nature. Tens of thousands die in a few minutes. Who is to blame? Regime change is not an option. How can anger be directed at the earth itself? Compassion is the ultimate motivation in a natural catastrophe...

The challenge is to maintain it for the long haul, not allow it to die with the headlines."

Drakensberg Mountains are beautiful

Today was one of my favorite days so far in South Africa.

We all left campus around 8:30am and went for a 2 hour bus ride into the Drakensberg Mountains. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. The purpose in going on this trip was for our History class because, in these mountains, there are caves that hold paintings from the San Bushmen people from years and years and years ago. We only looked at those for about 20 minutes though and, to be honest, it wasn’t that cool. And I feel okay saying that because even our leader Reagan said it wasn’t worth it. :) Haha. But the beauty made it worth the drive! Something I’ve realized about this place is how rich and vivid the colors are. The blue sky, the green grass….everything is just gorgeous. And there was a river we hiked along all day, and eventually got to go swimming in! It was so refreshing on such a warm day and there were so many funny situations that happened that made me fall in love with our group all over again. I just feel so blessed by the people that are here. While we were waiting for some people to get back to the vans, we saw a bunch of baboons running around! They aren’t nearly as cute as Rafiki in the Lion King…I know, I know….I was disappointed too. They’re actually pretty ugly and I hear they’re kind of vicious too. Luckily, we all got away without a scratch. And then my friend Logan found a chameleon and I got to hold it! And the amazing part is, they really do change colors! Haha. It’s the craziest thing to sit there and watch an animal actually change from green to black. So weird. Anyways, here are some pictures from today!

After we all dried off from the river, we loaded back up into the cars and came home for dinner, which was absolutely hilarious. I sat at a table with all guys (which is such a rarity here, since there’s 40 girls and 13 guys) and they spent the whole time trying to teach me how to “act like a guy” and help me understand “what it’s like to be the minority here.” :) Ridiculous. And then, all the guys went out tonight for “boys night” and I was invited just because of this dinner! Haha I didn’t go but felt honored to be the only girl invited. Until they started calling me a “man girl”….that was kind of a bummer.

After dinner, instead of going to boys night, I decided to go into the game reserve with some girls. I STILL hadn’t seen a zebra and everyone else in our group had, so these girls were determined to help me find one. Towards the end of our hike, we finally saw a pack of them and started following them. What we didn’t realize however was there was a brand new baby zebra in the pack, and apparently, zebras are VERY protective of their young. So we’re following them on the path and they eventually go into the bushes that are lining the trail. This was around 7:30pm, so it was dark outside and Katie had her flashlight with her. She shined the light on the zebras so that I could see them and right as I’m telling her how beautiful they are, they all start running toward us!!! My friend Lauren starts running, yelling, “They’re coming!” so the rest of us take off down the trail, hearing them chasing after us! We’re all screaming and laughing at the craziness of this situation, as we’re running away. Lauren then yells for us all to jump into the bushes on the other side of the trail, so that they wont see us. Katie literally leaped into the bushes, and I jumped in, with my friend Kristen landing on top of me. I turn around to see the zebra right above us on the path and I say, “What should we do??” Kristen yells to me, “Run! Just run!” Haha So we kept running for another few minutes until we were sure we lost them, and then finished our hike through this creepy, pitch-black trail, praying that God would protect us. :) The funny thing is, everyone else who has seen them has gotten within probably 10 feet and talked about what gentle, kind animals they are. I know it has to do with the newborn baby but it’s definitely not what I was expecting for my first zebra sighting! As most things on this trip though, it’s something I’ll never forget.

Last update: on Monday, we’re going to meet our Zulu pen pals! Our teacher said they are going to make us traditional Zulu food, which includes sheep brain, cow tongue, and chicken feet…she wasn’t kidding. So I’m nervous but it’ll be quite the experience! :) And then on Tuesday, we have our Zulu midterm. I don’t feel prepared for it AT ALL but I’m hoping it’ll be easier than I’m imagining. Say some prayers for me on Tuesday! :) Alright, those are all my updates for now. Thanks for sticking it out!

With love from beautiful South Africa,

Alex

P.S. Tomorrow, it was a month ago that we left LAX to come on this adventure. I can’t believe it’s been a whole month!!! Some days, it feels like we’ve already been here a year; it just SO feels like home. And then there are other days it feels like we just got here last week. Crazy.

P.P.S. Tonight, I finished my first journal already! Only a month in! Good thing I packed two extras…. :)

Blessings

It’s Friday! Class this afternoon, and then it’s the weekend! I’m so excited. This past week has been a good one. My work load wasn’t as intense as usual, so I had more free time to go to mall runs, go see “Valentines Day” (which was really stupid), lay out by the waterfall, and just hang out with friends. It’s been really wonderful. :)

On Tuesday, we went to the 5^th option for our service sites. It’s a place called “Entembene” and is in the Mphophomini township. I fell in love with this place. Basically, from what I understood of it, each person there would pair up with a social worker that works for Entembene and spend the month really investing into one or two families who are affected with HIV/AIDS. We would essentially do whatever they needed us to, whether it seems mundane or not. We would simply be there to help them out. And I love that. I love that I would really get to know a family, hear about their struggles and triumphs, their hardship and joy, hear all their stories…it just sounds awesome. We all signed up for our top 2 choices today and they said they’d let us know soon. So be praying! I just want to be put wherever God wants me.

Something that was hard about visiting this place though was understanding the reality of many people’s situations. The lady who was showing us around said something that has stuck with me the last couple days…she was talking about schools nearby and how the most expensive school in the neighborhood is 400Rand per year (a little over $50) and most families can’t afford that. The part that hit me was when I realized that, while shopping in Durban this past weekend, I spent 350R on presents for myself and others. I spent that much money on things that are fun but not necessary, while these families can’t pay for their kids to go to school. She went on to say that some of the schools are as little as 100R per year (that’s about $13-14) and that some families can’t even afford that. I laid in bed that night, thinking about the annual cost of APU and just feeling overwhelmingly blessed by the Lord. I’m trying to focus on the “blessing” part of it instead of feeling guilty, because my initial reaction is guilt. But God has blessed my family and me and although I don’t understand why, instead of feeling guilty I need to pray that He will show me how to use my blessings to bless others.

Also, I got my care package from my family last night!!! I was SO excited :) Mom, the Sees candy was the BEST idea. And Michaela, everyone couldn’t believe that my baby sister painted that card!! They were blown away and kept talking about how talented you were. And Dad, interesting fact about the hummingbirds….and I love you too :)

Alright well I have my Zulu midterm on Tuesday (AHHH!) so I should probably go study for that but I want to leave you with one last thing. Wednesday morning, I had breakfast with Gloria, the woman who is in charge of everything that goes on at AE and she said the most wonderful thing while we were talking. She was talking about how she is so tired and wishes she could get more sleep but then she said this: “I lay in bed so tired but then I hear the birds singing and think “The birds are praising God before I am! I have to get up and spend time with Him!” :)

With love from South Africa,

Alex

Fun weekend :)

What a fun weekend I had. :)

Saturday, we got to go to Durban! Everyone was in such a good mood all morning because we were so excited. Haha. We got there around 10am and then spent two hours shopping in this market…I think it was called Victoria Street Market. I’m not sure but I got so many fun gifts and souvenirs for people! I’ve taken them out of the bags multiple times just to look at them :) Then we all headed to the beach! Again, having 53 of us clumped together on the beach was quite the sight but still funny. I immediately set my stuff down and ran into the water…so refreshing. It wasn’t as warm as the beach we went to last weekend, but it felt great because it was so hot outside. We all ate our packed lunches and a lot of people got milkshakes. I got a cookies-and-cream one…it hit the spot. After we spent all day in about 90 degree weather, we headed home and got caught in a huge thunder and lightning storm. Only in Africa.

Sunday was Valentines Day! I went to a different Indian church this week and really enjoyed it. One of my favorite things about different cultures is seeing how they worship, and it was so neat to visit this community of believers. After church, a bunch of us were craving McDonalds so we went there for lunch and spent a lot of time talking about how funny it was that we were craving it because most of us hate McDonalds at home. We came back to campus, did some homework (yes, I DO work here!), and then had a big Valentines dinner! It was set up in the Jabulani tent :) and decorated with candles, roses, tablecloths, etc. It was beautiful! We ate a fabulous dinner and, earlier this week we all picked names for a gift exchange, so we did the gift exchange. I got adorable earrings from Becca, which was fun. We ended the night watching 50 First Dates, which I had never seen and I thoroughly enjoyed.

Overall it was a really good weekend. I remember going to bed both Saturday and Sunday night, thinking, “That was a really good day.” Always a nice feeling :)

Today is filled with more homework and classes. This morning, we had chapel and it was AWESOME. The speaker told us he wouldn’t be able to speak today 15 minutes before chapel was supposed to start, which initially caused stress, but God knew what He was doing. This morning became a time of musical worship and reading of the Word. And God used that to reach into the corners of people’s hearts and just bring up broken places that needed healing. I had the honor of being able to pray for about 5 people who were just humble before the Lord. It was such a beautiful way to start the day and see God at work.

Tomorrow we are visiting our last potential service site and then we pick which one we want to do! So I’ll be sure to let you all know which one I choose. Please pray that God will put me where I need to be. That He’ll put in the place I can be most effective for Him, that I can serve the most, and also the place that I will grow and learn the most. The people here have so much to teach me and I want to soak up as much of it as I can!

With love from South Africa,

Alex

Kwazi Africa

After a crazy week of homework, tests, and papers, I have some spare time today to update you all on the little things that have happened. One thing that’s hard about this trip is there’s always so much going on and so many fun things we do, that I feel like I have to pick only the best things to share….which I guess is a pretty good problem to have :) But today I have some extra time!

Every Friday, we have chapel that is called “Kwazi Africa” which means “About Africa” and we are so blessed to have speakers from all over the African continent come in and speak to us. Last week, we had Sean Wisedale come in and talk. For those of you don’t know (I sure didn’t), he is the first African summit the highest peaks on all 7 continents, including Mt. Everest. He is hired by companies and magazines such as National Geographic to do photography on these mountains and his story was amazing. He has a book and DVD of his work, both called “Freeze Frame” and he’s definitely worth checking out.

And today, we had Clementine come speak to us, and she is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s. She was such a beautiful woman and had the most inspirational story. The thing that struck me the most though was how much she kept talking about “God protecting His people” and “God having a plan” despite everything she had been through. Her faith in the Lord was insurmountable and her life is a true testimony to His goodness. It was amazing, just hearing what she went through to get where she is now.

In other news, in case I haven’t made this apparent enough, I absolutely love it here. South Africa is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in the world and I just feel so blessed to be here. Our Intercultural Communication professor said recently, “Every time I leave this continent, the thing I miss most is the vibrancy of Africa.” It’s so true. That is the perfect way to describe this country. It’s vibrant and alive and joyful. I just love it so much and am so thankful that I get to embark on this journey.

And want to say a special thank you to my parents for supporting me and letting me do this! For helping me get everything I need for these 4 months and having enough faith to let me go. Thank you! I love you!

With love from South Africa,

Alex

Extremes

I wrote this in my journal on February 5 on the drive to Umzinto (that’s where we actually went, not Durban).

“I keep finding myself wanting to separate these two worlds. This weekend was portrayed to be relaxing and fun, and seeing the first world part of South Africa. Yet just as we drive, we’re going through areas of poverty. Houses with tin roofs. Some with tin roofs and tin walls. And I’m realizing more and more each day that you can’t separate the first and third world in this place. That is what makes up South Africa. The extremes: extreme poverty, extreme wealth, extreme beauty. It’s all here. And as hard as it can be at times, it’s impossible to separate the two.

This place is heartbreakingly beautiful. But in the midst of the colliding of worlds, I see God. I see His beauty, His creation, His power and might. It’s a beautiful collision.”

Weekend Away

I’m baaack! I just got back from my weekend in “Durban”, during which we spent absolutely no time in Durban. It was a small town near Durban, but whatever. :) It was quite the weekend! Some good, some bad. But just to prepare you: I have a lot of thoughts so brace yourself! This blog will be long.

First of all, before we left, a group went to the mall and I tried ostrich jerky. That has nothing to do with this weekend but is exciting and I wanted to share. For the record, it was pretty dry but had a good flavor. So I’d give it a 6/10.

Then we were off to our destination! It was supposed to take 2 hours to get there, but ended up taking over 5 because of random gas station stops and then one of our cars broke down. We had to call a tow truck and all 53 of us sat in this random parking lot for about an hour. With 80+ degree weather and 1000% humidity, it wasn’t my favorite part of the trip. But, I mean, TIA! :) Along the way, I got to see a lot of different facets of South Africa, which I journaled a lot about but we’ll save that for later.

So we finally get to the place we’re staying. It was pretty nice, actually. We had a chalet with about 6 girls and our own kitchen and bathtub and everything. We got in pretty late Friday night (because of the extra 3 hours) so we just ate dinner and then everyone went to bed. Saturday morning however, was absolutely incredible.

The alarm went off at 4:40am and about 30 of us piled into the vans to go watch the sunrise. And the coolest part is that we got to see it rise over the ocean!!! Living on the West Coast, I’ve only ever seen the sun set over the water, but we got to see it rise and it was breath taking. Plus, it was my first time seeing the Indian Ocean! I got to put my feet in it and was pleasantly surprised when the water was about 70 degrees instead of the usual 45 that we get in Ventura. It was such a wonderful morning! I kept finding myself just praising God and His beautiful creation. It was such a blessing to experience that and I’ll never forget it.

But then that afternoon was rough. It was literally about 90 degrees (plus the 1000% humidity). I’ve never been so sweaty. It was pretty gross. We went to this Indian street market, which was supposed to be a cultural experience but I’ll be honest: the group I was with was so hot that we just went into an air conditioned gas station and bought ice cream. :) It was a neat area to be in, but it really just felt like what we saw in Soweto. We all went back to our chalets, sweaty and kind of miserable. But then, praise the Lord, we went to the beach! It was actually pretty hilarious: 53 white Americans all walking along the sand, placing all our towels in a clump, and then running into the water yelling about how warm it is. Classic. It was great though. So relaxing and so beautiful. Saturday night, we had a group of Indian students about our age come have dinner with us at our “hotel” which was neat to get to know them a bit! Plus, we had this incredible chicken curry. I’ve never had such good curry. I loved it.

Sunday had to be the highlight of the weekend. We were divided up into groups and went to different churches in the area. My group had 8 people in it and we went to this tiny, Indian church about 20 minutes away. The pastor immediately welcomed us and informed us that our group would be doing the service that morning! It was intimidating at first but turned out awesome. We spent about 30-40 minutes singing worship songs and praying. The thing that stuck out to me was how, their lack of resources in no way inhibited their worship time. The song lyrics weren’t a PowerPoint projected onto a screen; they were handwritten on an elementary school chalkboard. People were sitting in plastic chairs and some even on desks in the back. But it didn’t matter at all; they were there to worship God. Then, it was our turn to do the sermon! We decided to split it up into about 5 minutes per person, and then our leader would warp it all up at the end. Of course, I was volunteered to go first. And I have to say, I’m normally not nervous about speaking in front of people, but speaking to a group of people from another country that I’d never met before that day…a little intimidating. It was so cool though. I really felt like God just gave me the words and I was able to tell a little about myself, my journey to get to South Africa, and what God’s been teaching me since I’ve been here. It was awesome. And it was so fun to hear what everyone else had to say. To hear their hearts and how this trip is changing them. Let me tell you, God is good. When we all finished talking, we sang a song and I was the one to start us off! I only had to sing a line by myself but it was more than I’ve ever done solo in front of a crowd. Definitely an experience. After the service, everyone lined up to hug us and thank us for coming. It was an extremely humbling experience. They were so appreciative just for our presence there. And I got to hold a beautiful Indian baby boy who was only 2 weeks old!!! I loved it.

After church, we went to the pastor’s house for lunch. It was a beautiful home and his wife prepared a feast for us! The food was absolutely incredible and there was plenty of it! Something that was hard for me though was the way they served us. The pastor’s wife and sister prepared the meal and as we all sat down to eat, we realized they didn’t have seats. We tried to scoot and make room for them, but the pastor told us they weren’t eating with us. I assumed they had somewhere else to be and wouldn’t be home for lunch, but instead, while we all ate, they sat in the kitchen and came out every few minutes to ask if we needed anything. They were essentially waiting on us. And then once we had all finished and the cleaning was done, then they were able to eat. It was just hard for me to understand. I mean, I get that it’s just part of their culture but I felt weird about it the whole time.

Anyways, the whole experience was overall really wonderful. The pastor and his family were so kind to us and completely embraced us. We sat and talked for a while and then left, meeting up with the rest of the group and headed back to Pietermaritzburg. Praise the Lord, it only took us 2 hours to get back…like it’s supposed to. :) When we got back though, we were all talking about how it felt like coming home. We’ve only been here 2 weeks, but it already completely feels like our home. None of us realized it until we left, but coming back was wonderful.

So that was my weekend! Thanks to those of you who stuck around for this whole thing! You’re troopers :)

With love from South Africa,

Alex

Quick Updates & Just for Fun...

First of all, before I say anything, I cannot believe it is February already. I feel like I just left the States last week. Time is flying.

Updates for you all: I got my first letter back from my Zulu pen pal!! His name is Siphesihle Mwelase, but Sphe for short :) After introducing himself and telling me a bit about where he is from, he proceeded to say a few things that made me laugh: "You have nice handwriting, see how bad mine is?" and "Behave yourself while in Pietermaritzburg!" :) He sounds like a character, and I can't wait to meet him.

Also, this weekend I am going to Durban for a beach camping trip!! I am honestly so excited. I'm not totally sure what we're going to do but I do know we spend Saturday at the beach and get to cook food with some Indian students. It just sounds wonderful and I'm excited to see the beach again! Heads up: I'll have no internet while I'm there so starting tomorrow morning until (my) Sunday afternoon, I'll be without the world wide web! :)

And just for fun, I've made a list of a few things I've noticed about South Africa that are very unique to this culture:

1. Many Africans will give thumbs up and say "sharp sharp!" (pronounced "shop") to say that something is good or under control

2. Stoplights here are called "robots", pronounced "rowboats"

3. In the shower, if you turn the handle a centimeter, the water temperature changes drastically

4. When we're all out somewhere with our cameras, people will run up to us saying "shoot me!", not asking to be killed, but to have their picture taken

5. "TIA" is a popular expression here. It means "This is Africa" and refers to the lack of punctuality that Africans have. For example, when they say "I'll do that just now", it could mean anywhere from the next two hours to the next two weeks. Our group has fondly adopted "TIA" and use it frequently. Last night, Katie found an army of ants in her bed... TIA

6. Monkeys and outrageous bugs are just part of everyday life. Only the crazy American freak out about them.

The Birds of the Air

Alright, so I know I just posted a blog less then 12 hours ago, but God has been doing some awesome things in my heart that I realized just last night and I had some requests to share :) So here it is!

Background: Before coming on this trip, I was really nervous about everything I would see here. I had heard so much about South Africa and seen so many pictures of devastation and poverty, that I wondered how my heart would take it. I felt like it would be difficult to see all this injustice and struggle, and still be able to find God. To still trust in His plan and see His goodness amidst the evil. So, it’s something I really prayed about and I shared it with my friend Lauren right before I left Ventura. The morning that I left to go back to APU she, being the incredible blessing that she is in my life, gave me this little book….a praise journal, she called it. And every day, I’m supposed to write down a way I see God at work or something I can praise Him for. That way, even on the days that I feel like He isn’t here, I can look back and see how deep His presence is in this place.

So anyways, I’ve been doing that for the past couple weeks and last night, I was writing in it about my day at the service sites (see earlier blog). And this is what I put:

“Thank you for helping me see your light in this place. Today we went to two potential service sites and instead of just seeing devastation, I saw the people running these sites and their selfless hearts. I saw love and joy. I saw opportunities for children and women that are so rare. Thank you, Lord. And praise you for always remembering those that world tends to so easily forget.”

A huge theme for me on this trip and building up to it has been light vs. darkness. Wanting to be a light in the darkness, to see God’s light in the darkness, to use the light of this place to eliminate the darkness in my life. And last night, I realized how much God has already proven His light. Like Isaiah 9:3 says, God has increased these people’s joy and they are truly rejoicing in Him. It’s only been two weeks and I already see God so at work here. The people that I saw yesterday are those that most of the world has given up on. But God cares more about them than the birds of the air and has this unbelievable unending love for them.

Last night, I realized how good God is for caring about these people, and for answering my prayers to see His light. Praise His name.

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” –Matthew 6:26

Bonginkosi and Project Gateway

Today was a great day.

First of all, I had my first Zulu test tonight and I got a 75% on it! I honestly thought I did better, but I’m pretty satisfied with that grade. To know ¾ of the vocabulary that’s been thrown at me this past week is pretty good, in my opinion. :) So that’s good news!

And then also, today we visited two of the service sites we’ll be working at. What they do is, during the month of March, we spend our days split up into teams and go to 5 different service sites throughout PMB and the surrounding areas. Today, we visited two and next Tuesday, we’ll visit the other three and then we tell the staff our top 2 choices, and they put us into groups.

The two we went to today were amazing. The first was a preschool for kids ages 2-6, called Bonginkosi. The second we walked up, I was in love. These kids were just all so beautiful and precious. We got to spend about 15 minutes talking and playing with them. (Side note: it was during this time that I became really thankful that I am taking Zulu, because I could use the 75% of words I knew to communicate with these kids, which made it that much more wonderful). I high fived a bunch of them, and then spent a few minutes being chased by a group of kids playing “Dogs.” And then took turns swinging them around in the air and tickling them. It was absolute heaven :) As we were leaving, I literally got about 30 hugs from the kids and they all lined up on the fence and waved goodbye to us as our bus pulled away. They completely stole my heart.

The second place we went to is called Project Gateway, and it’s a lot of different ministries all wrapped into one. If I get put here, I would spend my morning working with the school they have, which ranges from kindergarten to 7^th grade, and then my afternoons would be spent at a place (one of their establishments) called Esther House, which is essentially a battered women’s shelter. And then on Wednesdays, we would go into a township and do a Food Share type program. This one sounds incredible to me, too. I love how many different groups of people I would be able to work with and how many stories I would get to hear. I was telling Katie today that I feel like God gives me a heart for certain places (such as San Francisco or South Africa) more so than people. I mean, once I get to those places, He brings me to certain people…but for example, how some people really have a heart for children or abused women, I feel like He gives me a heart for places and then opens my heart to everyone in that place. And I think working at Project Gateway would be a really neat way to establish relationships with all kinds of different people in this area.

Anyways, long story short, I have no idea which to choose. And I still haven’t even seen 3 of them yet. :) I feel fully confident though that God will put me wherever I need to be. So that’s exciting!!

And, I wanted to apologize for my lack of pictures on here! My camera is still freaking out. It only works for like, an hour at a time and then dies again. It’s incredibly frustrating and the reason why there are no pictures. But I will load some as soon as I can! Thanks for your patience!

With love from South Africa,

Alex