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
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