South Africa!!

This is the first time I have written in my blog in what seems like forever but I will try to cover everything that has happened since my last post.  This last month for me has been incredible but also really hard at points.  I have now gotten pretty severe tonsillitis twice and both times I have been in tremendous pain and have been extremely miserable.  I have now gone through two antibiotic prescriptions and who knows how many pain meds and get to look forward to probably getting my tonsils snipped out on my return to the States.  But I can now say, being as carefully optimistic as possible, that I am feeling so much better and it seems that the tonsillitis has gone away for now.  But other than sickness my time over the past month has been incredible.  There have been so many adventures that I have been apart of and so many stories that I will be able to carry with me and tell for the rest of my life.  My time here in South Africa, both the amazing and the hard, has taught me a lot. There has been one word that has seemed to stick with me since the first couple days in this country.  That word is forgiveness.  When I first got to South Africa and learned more and more about the terrible ways in which the people of this country were treated and oppressed it amazes me that the country is in the shape that it is.  Only 20 years ago, if you were not white in this country you were thought of as a second class citizen.  And now this “rainbow nation”, as Nelson Mandela calls it, is thriving with whites, blacks, and coloureds living together in peace.  The forgiveness that had to take place and is still taking place every day in order for this to be possible is incredible.  Sometimes I try to put myself in the stories of how people were treated so poorly and though I would like to think I would forgive the people who did terrible things to me I know that I probably wouldn’t have.  This fact gives me so much respect for the people here.  They are truly incredible.  This idea has stuck with me so much and I am planning on getting a tattoo, which represents this. Now I’m not sure if my parents read this so hopefully they aren’t freaking out but the benefit of what I just said is if my mom and dad do in fact read this how can they say no to an idea that has so much meaning to me.  Oh the benefits of blogging.  We have also now started our work at service sites.  I am working at a place called Walk in the Light, which works with the community of Hannival, which is a township outside of Pietermaritzburg.  We will be working with the community members and helping them in their homes, fixing things up at the site, and just being available to talk with the people even if its in the little Zulu that I know. I know I have left out a lot of things that have happened but those are basically the major things that have been going on in my mind since recently. It’s hard to believe that our time in Pietermaritzburg is almost up and that we are going to be heading to Cape Town soon.  I am so excited for the time we still have here in this country and can’t wait for all the adventures to come!

iNingizimu Afrika week 3!!

It’s been a crazy week this past week in the country of South Africa.  I have already failed on writing in this blog once a week but I am trying.  I just seem to never find time for it.  This last weekend we went through Umzinto, which is a town about an hour and a half away from our campus.  This was a town in which there were absolutely no white people and we were able to walk around for a couple of hours and go to shops and talk to some people.  The feel of the town was very different from what I was used to for example security guards with shotguns over their shoulders, power going completely out when we were in the back of a store, and an extreme crowdedness.  There were people everywhere.  I loved this experience and the chance to actually go out and talk with people and be in a market.  After this we drove to the beach and I had my first experience seeing the Indian Ocean.  The water wasn’t as warm as I thought it was going to be which was kind of a disappointment, it was about the same temperature as at a California beach, but it was so rough and there were a lot of currents.  It felt so good to swim in the water though and I can now say I have swum in 3 of the 4 oceans, now just the Arctic awaits! It was an awesome day and we finished it off by having a barbeque on the beach and playing soccer with some of the Indian people there.  Sunday was a little bit of a damper to everyone’s spirits because in church there was an elderly man who collapsed during the service and ended up passing away. It was a hard thing to see and all our prayers are going out to his family.  This week has been filled with homework and projects and I actually am feeling a little more like I am in school now.  But every weekend that feeling goes away as we get to go out and explore this great country.  This weekend we are going to be hiking in the Drakensburg Mountains, which are amazing. So that is pretty much what has been happening in the last week and I can’t wait for all the other adventures we are going to have as I just signed up this week for a Rugby game, water park, zip lining, bungee jumping, and caving!

Week 2

Sanibonani! So I have now been in South Africa for about two weeks and I am still falling more in love with the country every day.  This is a place that is so incredible the way that people make you feel, the warmth the hospitality and the love is incredible.  Especially when I think about how not to many years ago this country was torn apart by apartheid.   This morning Michael Cassidy, who is the founder of African Enterprise, came and spoke to us about the events leading up to the election in 1994.  The way that God worked in this country is absolutely unbelievable to me.  The way that he told the story and how South Africa was on the brink of complete civil war but miraculously had peaceful elections just some 10 days after the peak of violence is amazing.  This really is an incredible place to learn and to grow as a person. We are starting to visit the service sites in which we will volunteer for a month at and I am so excited for when we get to actually engage with the people of the country on a deeper level.  As for now classes are in full swing and to be honest they are not that difficult compared to semesters in the past, but I don’t have any problem with this.  Learning Zulu is a little tough but it is such a unique and interesting challenge.  We have only 4 weeks left of school after this week, which is pretty crazy to think about.  But I think we still have some classes here and there after the core 6 weeks.  It’s hard to believe that I have only been here for two weeks, it feels like so much has happened. This weekend we also went on a hike that required us to climb up a waterfall and then wade upstream to the next waterfall where we climbed up an almost vertical hill to get tho the top of that waterfall. It was probably one of the coolest hikes I have ever been on and I have the cuts and probably soon to be scars to prove it.  Also I came to realize on Sunday morning that all my money was gone out of my wallet. I guess that is just part of staying in new places and not being very careful with my money. So now I have the best hiding place in the world.  My first two weeks in South Africa have been a whirlwind of adventure and I only hope that my stay here will continue to help me grow in so many ways.  Salani kahle

1st week

I figured I should write a blog so that I could write down some of my thoughts about my time in South Africa and also so I can tell everyone who wants to know what I am doing in this incredible country.  We have now been in South Africa for almost a full week and it has been amazing.  We landed in Johannesburg on Thursday and spent a couple days in the city going around and visiting different parts, especially those affected most by apartheid.  Which for those who don’t know was the separation of races from 1940’s to 1990’s in which white people were given power and money and controlled everything.  There were a lot of emotions I felt from anger to sadness to joy during this that I don’t have the time to get into, but it was a very impactful experience.  After being in Johannesburg, our group flew to Durban and then we made the short drive to Pietermaritzburg where our main campus is.  The campus here is absolutely beautiful.  We are right next to a game reserve which is amazing and while walking or running you will most likely see zebra and all other sorts of animals that I have only ever seen on TV before so it is quite amazing.  There are monkeys all over our campus, which they keep telling us are just annoying but I find them quite fascinating.  And I guess I should mention because of the fact I am here to study and not just travel the country that classes did start this week.  They are pretty intensive but I guess that makes sense since they are only for 6 weeks.  I am taking Zulu which I just had my first class in and I think its safe to say it is going to be really challenging.  I never knew it was possible to click while saying a word.  But I am finding out that not only is it part of the language but I must teach myself to do it.  Overall my time here has been incredible in the first week.  I know these are really scramble thoughts, but that is how my mind works a lot of the time so I figured why not write this way for my blog. my plan is to write in this blog every week but we will see how that goes