Garden Route

Whew! Another whirlwind of a week. It has been so fun. The Garden Route (the drive from Pietermaritzburg to Cape Town) is absolutely beautiful and full of fun stops along the way :) Let’s start at the beginning:
We had our Farewell Dinner Saturday night, which was really great. All of the AE staff and our teachers were there, and some of the service site leaders were there, including the Ethembeni staff! We all took one last round of pictures and said our goodbye’s, and then finished packing up AE. Sunday morning, we woke up early (what’s new) and packed up our stuff onto the bus. It was definitely weird, standing in an empty chalet room. A few girls and I walked around campus, taking one last look at the classroom, the waterfall, the prayer chapel…it was so surreal. I wrote in my journal that day, “I’ve thought a lot today about how much I’ve grown since being at AE. I have changed so much since January 24th when we first pulled up. I remember being in awe of how beautiful and green it is, squealing about how cute the monkeys are, complaining about the heat and humidity, setting up our chalet…and now, well, I’m still in awe of how beautiful it is but now I hate the monkeys and I’ve become immune to the weather and my room is completely empty. It’s all so strange.” It was weird saying goodbye. God really has grown me in so many ways: opening my heart to His, revealing sin I need to work on, passions I have, relationships that were built & strengthened…and that all happened at African Enterprise. It has become a home to me and a place that has changed me so much. I’m so incredibly grateful for everything that happened there, but also really sad that it’s over. Now, being in Cape Town, I feel as though I’m a little homesick for America and AE.
We spent all day Sunday driving. We left around 7:30am and arrived in East London around 5pm that night. Our hotel was incredible…literally a 30-second walk from the beach and my room even had an ocean view. I got to go write on the beach, which is something I have missed SO much. I got up to watch the sunrise over the water again (I’ll miss that for sure) and then we packed up and drove about 5 hours to Port Elizabeth. This hotel was also right on the beach, so a group of us went down there and took pictures, looked at shells, etc. For dinner, we got to go to this promenade area with a bunch of shops and restaurants. It was wonderful. We woke up the next day and once again, packed up our bags and hit the road. We drove this time about 3 hours before we reached the bungee jump!!! I ended up not doing it (which I’m really glad about) but it was so fun watching everyone else do it. They had a camera set up so those people who weren’t jumping could sit and watch. It was CRAZY. We spent the rest of that day’s bus ride watching everyone’s videos…so good. :) That night, we arrived in George at a little Christian conference center, which was gorgeous. On Wednesday, we woke up and went to do the Cango Caves, which are these ancient caves you can walk (and at times, crawl) through. I really enjoyed this. Some of it was just walking, but there were four parts of it that were incredibly narrow. One was called the “Devil’s Chimney” and was a tunnel about 3-4 meters high, and probably 2 feet wide, and I honestly don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that. It was so small! But I had fun, which is always the point :) Then we went to an ostrich farm, where we learned everything we could ever want to know about ostrich’s and some people even got to ride them! I got to sit on one for a bit, long enough to pet it and take a picture. That was enough for me ;)
We slept in George again that night and then on Friday, arrived to Cape Town! From the small bit of it that I’ve seen, it’s absolutely gorgeous. Table Mountain is huge and beautiful; I can’t wait to do that hike and see the view from the top. We went to dinner Friday night and got to walk around the city a bit. Then this morning, we had orientation in Cape Town and now, I’m about to go do a homestay with a family! It’s in a town called Oceanview, right near Cape Town. I won’t have internet (again) while I’m there, but after that I stay at a Bible Institute where I will have internet. And that’s when I’ll be able to upload pictures and everything, but right now, my Internet is really limited. So I’ll do that for you asap!
Also, if you think of it, please pray for health for me. I’ve been feeling sick all week. It’s a bummer because I want to enjoy these last few weeks here, but I feel like I really have to rally myself to go do all these things. So please pray for healing and restoration!
With love from Cape Town,
Alex