It's been sooooo long!!!

I am so sorry I haven't written in over a month! Life has been so hectic here, when I finally get a chance to blog I just want to sleep! :)

So a lot has happened in the last month and I will try to give a recap of everything.

We started service sites on March 9th. I became a member of the team that goes to Project Gateway, which is a program that converted the old Pietermaritzburg prison into about 20 different projects devoted to helping people in the community get on their feet and start organizations. The people are so amazing and devoted to helping and loving on others. We were able to choose from 4 different service sites and Gateway stole my heart. I fell in love with their mission and their ingenuity.

Every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday we go to Gateway Christian School in the morning. Each of us have different jobs (There are six incredible people on my team) and my job is to work in the office for half of the morning where I do secretarial jobs and just help out the secretary wherever she needs me. Then after that I visit a classroom. Most days I visit classrooms and just talk with the students. They really like to know about America and the culture there. They ALWAYS ask about celebrities. They have no idea that celebrities live in centralized areas and people like us don't normally see them or talk to them. But they would swear that we are best friends with every single star! They also ask about Obama every time. They always want to know if we think he's doing a good job and what kind of changes are going on in America. They also think that we all know him personally. We have to explain that we only see him on TV, just like they only see him on TV. They also love learning about our families, schools, pets, cars and fashion.

In the afternoons we visit the Esther House, which is a battered womens and pregnant teenager shelter. This is where we apply most of the developmental tools that we learn in our supplemental class, community engagement. It has been such a privalege to work with these women. They have been through so much in their lives, yet they are joyful and happy! They sing and dance and smile everyday, it just brings me so much joy! Some of these women are 15, 16, 17 and they have children. They have no where to go because either they families beat them or their boyfriends beat them. Then they must go to the Esther House where they have shelter and food, but not much else. They can't find jobs because they have to take care of their children. They are just stuck in this cycle that is so heartbreaking. So our goal of helping them was to just love on them and show them that people care about them. We also had a guy in our group which helped show the women that some men are actually good. We cooked with the women, played games, sang, danced and colored. We also just held their babies for them. They don't really get a chance to be young girls because they have children, so it has been a privalege to give them some time to themselves to just play and be young!

On Wednesdays we go to Life Abundant Ministries, which is a feeding scheme in the township of Edendale. It has been great to be able to serve in an incredibly tangible way. We prepare the food and feed it to the people of the township in the afternoon. The food we give them feeds their whole family, and we aren't able to give them much food. It's heartbreaking to know that on other days they might not eat at all.

On Friday's we are in Community Engagement with our professor Francis. We is so sweet, he's from Kenya. We've been learning a lot from him.

On our excursions we have been on a canopy tour where we ziplined through the canopy! It was so much fun! We also have been to a waterpark/marineworld.

This weekend we went on our SAFARI! It was INCREDIBLE! I saw all of SA's big 5, which are the Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and Cape Buffalo. We also giraffe, impala, codu, hippo and crocodile! It was an AMAZING trip! Once in a lifetime.

Well, that was the quick recap. I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've written. I wanted to thank all of my family and friends who have sent me cards and packages! I have so appreciated the love you have all sent me! I so enjoy the food from America too! :)

I hope you are all doing well! Love you all!

traveling the lands

Hey Everyone!

So lots to catch up on! On the 14th I got really sick and I had to go to the ER. I had some digestive problems, but I got better by Monday. Just pray for me that I don't get sick again and that my body gets used to the food here.

Last weekend, on the 20th, my Human Growth Class and I (which is only 5 people +our prof and 1 extra student) went to Lesotho, a country that is landlocked by SA. We traveled there by small truck, up the scariest, most beautiful mountainside road I have ever ridden on. This road has never been attempted to be paved and it takes about 1 1/2 hours to get up. The road hugs cliffs that drop miles down and you have to drive over boulders and 4 foot crevices up a windy steep road. For 1 1/2 hours, maybe more. I prof got us up and down safely though!

Lesotho I believe is the only country that is all over about 2 miles above sea level. When we traveled up the Sani Pass we finally got into Lesotho and arrived at the lodge we were staying at. The lodge is nestled in a Lesothoan settlement. It's basically a tribe. The people there have no education, no churches, no hospitals and very little money. The money that they do get is from tourists like us. We put our bags away in our rooms and waited outside for our horses to be saddled up. That's right, we horseback rode in Lesotho! In fact, we horseback rode around the mostly unpathed countryside for 6 hours! 6 whole hours! Needless to say I was hurting when we were done...but it was the experience of a lifetime.

The country is the most beautiful place I have seen in my whole life. It reminds me of pictures of the himalayas. Everything is green with rolling hills and mountains. The people are friendly and hospitable. They love where they live. They love their people. It was amazing to see a society like that.

We ate that night at the highest pub in Africa! It was delicious! We fell asleep early that night, both because we were tired and the whole place ran by generator and candle light. So we didn't have much light to work with. We left the amazing country of Lesotho after breakfast that next morning.

That Saturday night we joined the rest of the gang in Durban for the Sharks vs. Lions rugby game! It was intense. It's like football but with no padding and a harder game. It was crazy to watch, and it was an awesome game. I LOVE RUGBY! GO SHARKS! haha :)

On Sunday we had two masseuses come to the campus to give massages. Me and Jess (the other girl who went to Lesotho) got first pick because of our rough trip. :) It was absolutely amazing...full body aromatherapy! So good...and I could definately use another one! LOL

Since then I've been taking it easy. A big group of us went out to a resteraunt to hang out and get off campus tonight. It was fun and good to get away.

Classes are done next week and we start community service soon! YAY!

P.S. If you want to see pictures of my adventures, please follow this link to my Facebook page. There are a TON of pics there! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/profile.php?id=1038120078&ref=name

The fairy tale continues...

Last weekend I fulfilled one of my goals of being here in SA...I learned (attempted) to surf! And I did it in the Indian ocean no less! It was really fun, but also very hard and I came away with SERIOUS board burns that I am still recovering from. I hope to try again in the future and get all the way up on the board.
After surfing, Ashleigh and I went to the local market and got all sorts of cool souvenirs. The sellers have beautiful, handmade things that are so inexpensive they are hard to pass up. My favorite thing that I got is a painting of a sunset and elephants moving across a plain. It's gorgeous.

On Sunday I visited a local church and it was absolutely amazing. The preacher was so convicted and everyone was incredibly welcoming. When we got back to AE we all prepared to go paintballing!

I have never been because I have always been very scared, but I thought, what the heck?! I might as well get over my fear in SA! So I did, and it was soooo much fun! granted it did hurt, but it was fun none-the-less. I have some major battle-wounds on my legs....my brother would be proud. :)

This week has been a good week, but also challenging. I had to turn in my first term paper in Life and Teachings of Jesus. But now that is done and I can enjoy my weekend!

The D-group I joined started up this week. My leader is the amazing Megan Goeman! She is absolutely fantastic and such an incredible woman of God. I can't wait to be challenged by her and her love for God.

Tomorrow we are taking a field trip to Shakaland, a replica of a traditional Zulu tribe. I am very excited about this. It is supposed to be very interesting. I will tell you all about it in my next post!

Love you all and Happy Valentines Day!

This is my address until early April:

API Education Foundation
P O Box 13870
CASCADES 3202
Pietermaritzburg
KZN, South Africa

Please send me letters or a package if you want! Just don't send anything worth $50 or more. I would have to go to the post office with my passport to pick it up.

I would really appreciate a letter or piece of home! Love you all!

Waterfalls, monkeys and love

Walking on this campus is like a fairy tale. Sometimes I wonder if I am really here. Can I really be here? Can this be possible? I wonder if I'm really trekking through the forest searching for Zebra. I wonder if I'm really sliding down a natural water slide at a South African watering hole.

In another sense, I look back on my life and my struggles with Crohn's disease and I just can't fathom that I'm actually studying abroad half way across the world. A year ago this life changing trip would not be possible. Thanks to medicinal advances I can travel with all the necessary tools to keep me healthy. All I can say is WOW. Thank you God that you have created such smart people who can make life so much more liveable for me and so many other people. Thank you for allowing me to fully and completely achieve my dreams.

Anyways, the campus here is beautiful. We are living in Pietermaritzburg, SA in the region of KwaZulu-Natal. Our campus is at the African Enterprise Center, a Christian non-profit organization that has graciously accepted the challenge of housing 35 college students every semester. APU has hired our professors directly from South Africa and they come and teach us at AE.

Next to our campus is a Nature Reserve that actually contains wild zebra! The only time I have visited has been at night, so I have yet to see them. Outside my window I can hear a waterfall that is just outside our "chalet" which houses 6 girls, whom I love!

In our free time we hang out in the "Cougar's Den - South Africa." We do home work in there, play games, there's a pool table and a TV too. Just down the street a little is a trail to go to the watering hole, where we can swim and be merry. There is also a natural water slide that is so much fun!

We eat our meals at the same time everyday and they are all home-made by our wonderful cooks! The South Africans are amazed at how much peanut butter we can eat because they only eat it on toast. They were amazed to see us eat it with fruit, on sandwiches, with chocolate...I can't imagine a world without Reese's!

Last weekend we visited the African Bird's of Prey Exhibit and toured PMB (Pietermaritzburg). We got to see where Ghandi started his violence-free revolution at the PMB railroad. This weekend were are going to Durban, a beach city an hour away. There I am going to attempt to fufill one of my goals of this trip...learning to surf!

Tasting the waters of Africa

I have been in South Africa for almost a week now. I have no words to describe this country. Nothing can fully convey how absolutely beautiful and wonderful it is.

We flew into Johannesburg and spent a day touring the area. We were in Soweto, a township outside of JoBurg, for most of the day. We visited an informal settlement for a while. When the apartheid was in full swing people were forced out of their homes and had to create informal settlements to live in. After 94 many people went back to their homes, but some people stayed because of the family that they had created. It isn't a sad place. It's very hopeful. People work together to make sure that everyone has enough food to eat. They do tours in order to keep gangs out of the area and raise money for the families. It was a very hopeful place and it really changed a lot of the stigmas that Americans have attached to "poverty stricken" areas in Africa.

Then we went to a museum about apartheid and the horrific events of June 16, 1976. During that time the mainly white government changed the official language in school from English to Afrikaans. This was to restrict the learning abilities of the youth of South Africa. If they could not learn English they could not move to other countries and work. They could not work in the government or any high paying jobs in SA.

So the students of Soweto staged a march to occur on June 16. It was very well thought out. Most of the students were between the ages of 8-13. They would hold hands in groups of five and each person was responsible for the person next to them. It was intended to be a peaceful march. Until the police ahead of them started to throw rocks at the children. The children then threw rocks in defense. It turned into a massacre of children.

A picture of the terror was smuggled out of the country and the UN intervened, and the other cities in SA took a stance against Afrikaans as well. It was a horrible thing to read about and see but it really helped us all to understand the terrible things that happened during the apartheid.

After lunch we drove to Pretoria, a Dutch settlement. It was much different city than Joburg or Soweto. It was lush and green and the houses were very beautiful. Our history professor, Reg, pointed out the monument that we were going to visit. On top of a hill was a gorgeous, huge building. Reg then began to explain the history of the building. It was built to commemorate the Dutch overcoming the Zulu tribes. Then we all thought, wait...they have a monument commemorating the Dutch stealing the land of the Zulu? Stripping them of everything, their homes, their culture. Reg said Pretoria has been one of the hardest places to visit during his whole life because he feels like it commends persecution of the Africans.

We ended our day there in Pretoria and flew to Durban the next day. We then drove to Pietermaritzburg, to our incredible new home. That I will tell you all about in my next blog!