Do you remember this post?
"I felt as if today He (God) was speaking to me again, and telling me exactly where He wanted me to be the next month. We have service sites that we will volunteer at for the next month and recently we've been visiting the 5 different service sites so we can figure out which one we want to request to work at. RivLife seemed great today, I thought it was so amazing, but the funny thing was, after we left, a lot of the other students that I talked to said that they didn't like it and were confused by the whole place. haha. Funny the way God works: gave me a love for a place that others didn’t like? We'll see if I actually get placed at RivLife where I want to be."
Well, the answer is YES! I did get placed at RivLife! And I couldn't be more thrilled. I can not wait to begin and get out there in the community!
Here's the site if you want to check out what type of stuff I'll be doing :)
http://www.rivlife.com/about.html
I am also so glad that I'll have such a great group of people going with me to RivLife. Eight people got picked to go to this service site and it is such an amazing group! Going to RivLife with me is:
Carisa Hoogenboom
Alyssa Weibe
Staci Beukers
Daniele Duble
Nicole Herrman
Emma Cook
Sarah Moll
I love them so much already, I can't wait to see how these relationships will grow as we work and experience all of this together.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Majesty Manifested
First hike of South Africa! It was the best day here yet! It was so incredibly beautiful. It didn't look real. The sky was SO blue with big puffy white clouds (like the kind you would draw in pictures when you were little) and everything else was vibrant green! Oh gosh, it was surreal. It was nice to do some physical activity, we hiked and then we got to climb this one giant rock thing, and then we randomly got to swim! I say randomly because there was the perfect river that flowed through the Drakensburg mountains that we got to down to. None of us wore bathing suits so we all started by just putting out feet in the water. Then, Brett decided, "I want to go in!" So he took off his shirt and got right in. No other boys joined, but some of us girls were jealous. We all complained "How come girls can't just do that?" But we said "Who cares, we'll just get in with all of clothes. So, Daniele, Cynthia, Emma, and I all got in at the same time and slid down the natural rock slide!!! It was a blast! The current was so strong that it would just push you down the river and it was hard to resist it and stop yourself! Oh man did we laugh. We were ALL smiles, having the best time. It was a long soppy ride home, but so so worth it. I love these adventures and the fun friends I get to go on them with.
Confession or Encouragement! Or Both!
Okay, so as mentioned in a previous post, I'm part of the Activities Committee and on Friday, we put together a bonfire! There is this giant (and I mean really giant) bonfire pit on campus that we wanted to make use of. We had everything ready.....wood, lighter, chocolate/marshmallows/graham crackers.....BUT we didn't test out the fire pit before hand and just assumed it would work fine. Well, we tried to get the fire a goin' but initially had a lot of trouble making the fire. It's been raining so the firepit and the wood in it and such were all too wet to hold a good fire. Some of the boys worked really hard to get it going and while we waited, we spontaneously started doing trust falls!
You'll remember that I said this was a giant firepit, so the sides of it stood about 4 feet high. Well some people were up there standing on it, and others were down below. One of the boys, Logan, looked down at us standing below and said something about wanting to crowd dive, and everyone basically said "Go for it!" So, we all stuck our arms out and told him to do it more like a trust fall: Turn around and slowly fall back onto us and trust us to cath him. Chelsea had the bright idea of making him tell a confession before he fell (She got the idea from Mean Girls, so if you've seen that movie, you know what I'm talking about! ). He went ahead and told his confession and fell! We caught him, dont worry. But, after that, Alex went. Then I went. Then EVERYONE went! Honestly I wish I had a video of that night, IT WAS SO FUN! We would pick out someone we wanted to go and start chanting their name - literally the whole group would chant their name and we must have done around 40 times. We were all basically at the bonfire and there's 53 of us. Hearing everyone's confession was hilarious! Here were some of the highlights as far as confessions....
Logan: "I download lost every week and that's why the internet broadband is so slow!"
Tanya: "One time, I did a workout video in the prayer chapel!"
Daniele: "I've stolen cookie dough from the kitchen more than once!"
Jake: "I still don't know everyone's name!"
Tony: "I still sleep with a baby blanket! and it's pink! and I'm a boy."
Allie: "I have 5 bags of flaming hot cheetos hidden in my chalet!"
Staci: "My confession is, my mom really does have it going on!"
Such a great great night! My confession was picked for me before I could really think about it. Tanya shouted, "Come clean about how you sleep with your eyes open!"
Okay, so, truth time: SOMETIMES, i sleep with my eyes half open. This is not something I usually tell people because I find it kinda creepy and embarassing but whatevs. Now you all know! My lovely roomie figured out this hidden talent of mine on the second night here. It's pretty funny now :)
Those are some of the best pics, even though there were so many good ones! After the trust falls, the fire was going and we had a wonderful rest of the night around the campfire, with s'mores ( we roasted our mallows on real pieces of branch! haha), and singing along with Emily and Jon's playing of guitar and drum. A very good night.
You'll remember that I said this was a giant firepit, so the sides of it stood about 4 feet high. Well some people were up there standing on it, and others were down below. One of the boys, Logan, looked down at us standing below and said something about wanting to crowd dive, and everyone basically said "Go for it!" So, we all stuck our arms out and told him to do it more like a trust fall: Turn around and slowly fall back onto us and trust us to cath him. Chelsea had the bright idea of making him tell a confession before he fell (She got the idea from Mean Girls, so if you've seen that movie, you know what I'm talking about! ). He went ahead and told his confession and fell! We caught him, dont worry. But, after that, Alex went. Then I went. Then EVERYONE went! Honestly I wish I had a video of that night, IT WAS SO FUN! We would pick out someone we wanted to go and start chanting their name - literally the whole group would chant their name and we must have done around 40 times. We were all basically at the bonfire and there's 53 of us. Hearing everyone's confession was hilarious! Here were some of the highlights as far as confessions....
Logan: "I download lost every week and that's why the internet broadband is so slow!"
Tanya: "One time, I did a workout video in the prayer chapel!"
Daniele: "I've stolen cookie dough from the kitchen more than once!"
Jake: "I still don't know everyone's name!"
Tony: "I still sleep with a baby blanket! and it's pink! and I'm a boy."
Allie: "I have 5 bags of flaming hot cheetos hidden in my chalet!"
Staci: "My confession is, my mom really does have it going on!"
Such a great great night! My confession was picked for me before I could really think about it. Tanya shouted, "Come clean about how you sleep with your eyes open!"
Okay, so, truth time: SOMETIMES, i sleep with my eyes half open. This is not something I usually tell people because I find it kinda creepy and embarassing but whatevs. Now you all know! My lovely roomie figured out this hidden talent of mine on the second night here. It's pretty funny now :)
Those are some of the best pics, even though there were so many good ones! After the trust falls, the fire was going and we had a wonderful rest of the night around the campfire, with s'mores ( we roasted our mallows on real pieces of branch! haha), and singing along with Emily and Jon's playing of guitar and drum. A very good night.
Some South Afican Lovin'
Well Hi!
it's been a while since I wrote on here and I definitely promised in my last post that I would be updating more often. That didn't occur as planned, but honestly, can you blame me? When there's a waterfall outside my window, volleyballs to be used, a soccer field to be played on, monkeys to shoot with paintball guns (....yup!), and a pretty heavy class schedule, I don't find the urge very often to sit at my computer and type. But! no more excuses, here goes three posts in a row :)
I am part of the Activities Committee here at AE (African Enterprise - the place where we stay) and joining it with about 14 of my peers was one of the best decisions I've made here thus far. It's a blast! We have so so many wonderful ideas of things to plan, and they're actually happening! We are a plannin' and our first event went on without any glitches.
Just some of the Activities Committee :)
We planned a Valentine's Day dinner, complete with a gourmet meal that we chose, roses, tea lights, and secret valentines! We held the dinner in the Jabulani (zulu for "happy") tent on campus. We reserved it early and set up round tables with red and black table cloths and rose centerpieces. We began setting up a few hours prior and came up with more and more ideas as time passed about how to better the night. We came up with the idea of having a photographer stand at the entrance to take pictures as every one walked in looking their best. Oh ya, I forgot to mention that we made it a semi-formal affair. Everyone looked beautiful! We also came up with the idea of making a playlist for the evening that featured artists such as Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble, and Dean Martin. Everything looked so classy.
Logan was chief planner of this event, and has somewhat informally taken on the role as leader in our Activities Committee. He is wonderful at it! He came up with the idea of featuring a movie after the dinner, and he even moved couches into the classroom so we could comfortably watch the movie - 50 first dates - on the big projector screen. He came up with, at the last minute, having popcorn for the movie! Without hesitation he got the kitchen going and popcorn was being made! A nice taste of home.
The dinner was so so delicious! We chose to have chicken fettucini alfredo that night with salad and watermelon. The food was such a wonderful change of pace from what we normally have for meals here. Yummmm!
The order of the night went as follows:
1. First, we walked in, dressed to the nines and took a lot of pictures with eachother! It was so nice to actually get ready for once here. None of us really straighten our hair here, due to the intense humidity, and we don't really wear make-up beacuse we usually would end up sweating it off or washing it off from jumping the swimming hole or waterfall. But, that night, everyone looked great!
2. Next we ate the delicious food that the nice cooking staff prepared. During dinner we also took a lot of pictures! Lots of goofy ones :)
My friends and I goofing off with the roses
3. During dinner, Logan got up and announced that it was time to do our secret valentine gift exchange. We had all drawn names and bought a 5 dollar gift for our secret person within the days leading up to Valentines day. Five dollars goes a LONG way in South Africa! You would be so surpised. My secret person was Tony Jien. He is awesome! He's honestly the comic relief on this trip and I love having him as a new friend. Did I mention that he is from Bolivia? Or that he speaks at least 3 languages....but with how fast he's learning Zulu, i'm sure he'll be quadlingual in no time. I had to get him just the right gift. I went with African painted Moracca's - and they were a hit! He loved them and was taking pictures and dancing around with them....AND so was everyone else! It's so funny looking at the pictures from that night because the lime green moraccas seem to have made their way into almost every one of the pictures.
Tony and I goofing off with the Morrocas!
4. After dinner, people walked around to everyone else, asked about their secret valentines and took more pictures. Some people had the bright idea of swing dancing, so they began doing that too. I'm not sure whose doing it was, but all of a sudden, swing dancing turned into salsa dancing after someone switched up the music. It was so fun! Everyone was laughing and simply having the best time trying to learn new moves from Leslie, our coordinator, and Tony, same guy mentioned above. It was spontaneous and easily went on the record for best night in South Africa thus far. One of the greatest parts about this program is the relationships, as basic as that is. We spend every waking (and sleeping) hour together, and I love the times when we're just able to have fun with eachother and laugh - which is pretty much every day.
5. After all this, those of us in the Activities Committee cleaned up, and then everyone watched 50 first dates and ate popcorn and our valentines chocolates. I ducked out of the movie a little early to skype my family and do homework that was due late that night, but all in all it was a fun, wonderful, night!
South African Valentines day > any other Valentines day out there :)
it's been a while since I wrote on here and I definitely promised in my last post that I would be updating more often. That didn't occur as planned, but honestly, can you blame me? When there's a waterfall outside my window, volleyballs to be used, a soccer field to be played on, monkeys to shoot with paintball guns (....yup!), and a pretty heavy class schedule, I don't find the urge very often to sit at my computer and type. But! no more excuses, here goes three posts in a row :)
I am part of the Activities Committee here at AE (African Enterprise - the place where we stay) and joining it with about 14 of my peers was one of the best decisions I've made here thus far. It's a blast! We have so so many wonderful ideas of things to plan, and they're actually happening! We are a plannin' and our first event went on without any glitches.
Just some of the Activities Committee :)
We planned a Valentine's Day dinner, complete with a gourmet meal that we chose, roses, tea lights, and secret valentines! We held the dinner in the Jabulani (zulu for "happy") tent on campus. We reserved it early and set up round tables with red and black table cloths and rose centerpieces. We began setting up a few hours prior and came up with more and more ideas as time passed about how to better the night. We came up with the idea of having a photographer stand at the entrance to take pictures as every one walked in looking their best. Oh ya, I forgot to mention that we made it a semi-formal affair. Everyone looked beautiful! We also came up with the idea of making a playlist for the evening that featured artists such as Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble, and Dean Martin. Everything looked so classy.
Logan was chief planner of this event, and has somewhat informally taken on the role as leader in our Activities Committee. He is wonderful at it! He came up with the idea of featuring a movie after the dinner, and he even moved couches into the classroom so we could comfortably watch the movie - 50 first dates - on the big projector screen. He came up with, at the last minute, having popcorn for the movie! Without hesitation he got the kitchen going and popcorn was being made! A nice taste of home.
The dinner was so so delicious! We chose to have chicken fettucini alfredo that night with salad and watermelon. The food was such a wonderful change of pace from what we normally have for meals here. Yummmm!
The order of the night went as follows:
1. First, we walked in, dressed to the nines and took a lot of pictures with eachother! It was so nice to actually get ready for once here. None of us really straighten our hair here, due to the intense humidity, and we don't really wear make-up beacuse we usually would end up sweating it off or washing it off from jumping the swimming hole or waterfall. But, that night, everyone looked great!
2. Next we ate the delicious food that the nice cooking staff prepared. During dinner we also took a lot of pictures! Lots of goofy ones :)
My friends and I goofing off with the roses
3. During dinner, Logan got up and announced that it was time to do our secret valentine gift exchange. We had all drawn names and bought a 5 dollar gift for our secret person within the days leading up to Valentines day. Five dollars goes a LONG way in South Africa! You would be so surpised. My secret person was Tony Jien. He is awesome! He's honestly the comic relief on this trip and I love having him as a new friend. Did I mention that he is from Bolivia? Or that he speaks at least 3 languages....but with how fast he's learning Zulu, i'm sure he'll be quadlingual in no time. I had to get him just the right gift. I went with African painted Moracca's - and they were a hit! He loved them and was taking pictures and dancing around with them....AND so was everyone else! It's so funny looking at the pictures from that night because the lime green moraccas seem to have made their way into almost every one of the pictures.
Tony and I goofing off with the Morrocas!
4. After dinner, people walked around to everyone else, asked about their secret valentines and took more pictures. Some people had the bright idea of swing dancing, so they began doing that too. I'm not sure whose doing it was, but all of a sudden, swing dancing turned into salsa dancing after someone switched up the music. It was so fun! Everyone was laughing and simply having the best time trying to learn new moves from Leslie, our coordinator, and Tony, same guy mentioned above. It was spontaneous and easily went on the record for best night in South Africa thus far. One of the greatest parts about this program is the relationships, as basic as that is. We spend every waking (and sleeping) hour together, and I love the times when we're just able to have fun with eachother and laugh - which is pretty much every day.
5. After all this, those of us in the Activities Committee cleaned up, and then everyone watched 50 first dates and ate popcorn and our valentines chocolates. I ducked out of the movie a little early to skype my family and do homework that was due late that night, but all in all it was a fun, wonderful, night!
South African Valentines day > any other Valentines day out there :)
Friday, February 12, 2010
God above all the world in motion, God above all my hopes and fears
I don't care what the world throws at me now,
Everything's gonna be alright!
Cause I know my God saved the day! and I know His Word never fails! And I know my God made a way for me.
It's gonna be alright! :)
Everything's gonna be alright!
Cause I know my God saved the day! and I know His Word never fails! And I know my God made a way for me.
It's gonna be alright! :)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
I really AM in South Africa! I promise!
I think the reason it has taken me so long to blog was because every time I would go to start, I would feel like I had missed so many days already and did not want to have to catch up in writing. During the first 3 days we didn't really have internet and then after that, the task of writing about all that I had missed in writing seemed so so daunting.
SO
I'll just give a brief overview of the past almost 3 weeks. And, after that I'll try to update more often and in detail from here on out :)
THINGS ARE GOING GREAT! This whole experience is simply beautiful. I feel so so blessed and the past few days I've felt overwhelmed by the turn of events in my life and just about how much I see God's hand and will in my life. How cool!
I never thought I'd study social work. Journalism was in the plan,. I never thought my study abroad experience would be in South Africa of all places. Oxford was in the plan. I remember hearing about the Oxford program and I just said "Oh well that's a given. I'm going there for sure, now to just figure out which semester..." Europe was my favorite place I'd ever been, Roxy and I had been talking about our love for Oxford since we were freshman in High School, and it was focused for people who loved and studied English. HA little did I know that God would change my plans. And, I have absolutely no regrets about not being in Oxford, I don't really want to be there at this point in my life. Now, Spain next summer, that's a different story! (more to come on that later). I'm just loving where God has brought me and can't wait to see where He takes me next.
I felt as if today He was speaking to me again, and telling me exactly where He wanted me to be the next month. We have service sites that we will volunteer at for the next month and recently we've been visiting the 5 different service sites so we can figure out which one we want to request to work at. RivLife seemed great today, I thought it was so amazing, but the funny thing was, after we left, a lot of the other students that I talked to said that they didn't like it and were confused by the whole place. haha. Funny the way God works: gave me a love for a place that others didn’t like? We'll see if I actually get placed at RivLife where I want to be. There have been other times that I was sure I knew what God wanted for me, like the time I was sure I was being called to Ghana but didn't get accepted onto the team. That was a humbling experience. So, we will simply see where God wants me :)
Anyways, that's some great stuff I've been realizing recently, but I will catch you up a bit on before recently.
We had basically the longest travel time in the entire world. It took all in all about 22 hours to get to Johannesburg - South Africa's only international airport. Suprisingly, I didn't mind the flying too much at all! I'm a mellow person who doesn't always have to be moving so I enjoyed the majority of the flight. I slept a lot, read, listened to music, talked to friends, and watched movies. Doesn't that sound like a nice time? Once we arrived, we stayed for two nights there. Sarah Moll was my roommate for the few days and I just love her :) The first day we got there, it was evening time so we just went next door to a restaurant and ate. Here is where I first really saw that South African food is pretty different from American food. This is still taking some getting used to. It's not that it's anything crazy that they're serving us, it's usually just that the way they prepare it is different and doesn't exactly remind you of the comforts of home. But hey, who travels half way around the world to have home?
The next day we went to a city called Soweto. Soweto is mainly a poor area and this is where I saw a township for the first time. We also visited the largest Catholic church in Johannesburg, which had a beautiful, memorable, stain glass window. On one side of the stain glass, facing the outside, was a picture of a black Jesus and Mary. On the other side was a white Jesus and Mary. This was meant to represent that Jesus came for both blacks and whites. By the way, in South Africa, the terms they use for race are black, white, and colored. At first I didn't know the difference when they were referrring to black and colored, but colored is any person who is not fully black or fully white. Someone who is half black and half white would be called colored, someone who is Indian would be called colored, I would be called colored. Anyway, that was a neat piece of art to see. Also on this day we went to the apartheid museum. The museum also happened to have a Nelson Mandela exhibit going on which was neat to see. There was this outdoor quote wall that had a lot of quotes from Mandela, which a thought was really neat and is what sticks out most in my mind about that museum.
The next day we hopped on a plane pretty earlly that morning and flew another hour and a half to Durban. That flight went so quick! Basically ascended, then descended, then off the plane. Yay! We were finally home! We drove about another 45 minutes into town to Pietermaritzburg (or just Maritzburg) which was where we would be staying for the next 3 months! I had no idea how beautiful this campus would be! it was absolutely breathtaking! It was the weirdest thing, I felt like I had never ever seen the campus in pictures before. I did my fair share of research before deciding to apply for this program and had thought up of some totally different image in my head of what the campus would look like! But, like I said, it was an amazing first experience. The only down side was how ridiculously hot it was that day haha. Pietermaritzburg has an average of 90% humidity. Yes, and it runs about in the 90 degree Fahrenheit range on most days. As Uncle Rich would say, "It's a scorcher!" Right gabbie? :)
I was also amazed that day to see what a cute new "chalet" my roommie Tanya and I would be living in, which is somewhat like a dorm, and that there is an incredible waterfall right outside my window!!! Talk about breathtaking and perfection. I don't think there's a better depiction of those two adjectives, than this view outside my window. We can hear it babbling all day and night, which I now realize that I tend to tune out, unlike at the beginning. But, when I remember how lucky I am, I take some time to sit and listen to the rippling sound.
That first day we arrived on campus was 17 days ago. In the last 17 days I've been getting acclimated to this new place and to starting school again. It is SO much harder to focus on school here when there's a lot of other fun things going on around you and outside in the warm sun or cool watering hole. For fun, we play soccer, we lay out on the lawn with our laptops and books, we take pictures in the beautiful green jungly scenery, we go in the waterfall or swim in the watering hole, we go on walks through the game reserve, we do pilates in the hallway, we go the the Keg and Hedgehog restaurant down the road. That's the majority of our leisure.
As far as planned activities, I've gotten to go to a lion park (which was really cool, obviously!) and we all spent the weekend in Durban this weekend, which was so great. I got to go in the Indian Ocean for the first time! That is the third ocean I've been in, how blessed am I? Some people never even get to see a real beach in their lifetime! The Indian Ocean runs 77+ degrees. Crazy, right? It was soooo warm. A little too warm? But still wonderful!
One of the coolest experiences here was when I got to see Zebras!!! It's pronounced here as zeh-bras actually :) We were just going on our morning walk through the game reserve and there they were! So amazing! Four zebras: 3 adults and one baby :) My other favorite experience so far has been going to the service sites. I'm excited to see where I end up and I have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy the month portion of our study abroad experience!
Random jump of topics, but as far as Pietermaritzburg goes, I feel I should mention what the city is like. Well, the population in this city is mostly black, and more specifically is is mostly made up of Zulu people. There are multiple tribes in South Africa, but being that we are in the Kwazulu Natal province, the zulu people make up a large part of it. The Kwazulu-Natal area also has a lot of Indian people. In fact, Kwazulu Natal has the largest Indian population outside of the country of India. Pretty sweet, huh? The Indian culture was the focus of our weekend in Durban - the one where I got to go in the Indian Ocean. We got to go to an Indian church and eat at the pastor's house after with all of his extended family. They were so incredibly hospitable and it was such a great experience.
My classes here are going really well. I am learning so so much in my Life and Teachings of Jesus class. I loving learning about the Bible so so much, which has been a stuggle for me, at times, in the past. I'm loving reading the Bible. I'm learning so much and it's exactly what I need right now. My teacher, Reg, is phenomenal. He presents the info so well and is so credible. He has spent his entire life basically studying the Bible and researching what others view as errors and discrepancies in the Bible. He has so much info to give and I love hearing it. I actually am restraining myself from asking so many questions in class because I don't want to annoy the rest of the class with my constant raised hand! (I know some of you may think that I should just ask all my questions anyway, but whatever, I'm asking the important ones haha).
The group here is so great as well. I've made some of the greatest girlfriends. And, I love having a group of 53 students instead of 35 like they have had in previous semesters. I feel like I always get to hang out with someone different and get to know everyone a little bit better. It's so fun and everyone on the trip is saying the exact same thing, WE HAVE SUCH A GREAT GROUP! I love love these people :)
As far as the people back home, I am missing my family, and gabbie and alexa. And some APU friends. I miss my brother a lot a lot, with his constant joking - i love that about him! I feel so lucky when I get to skype with my mom dad and brother all at the same time. I just love seeing that dynamic again. I like skyping with the one or two of them too, but seeing them together is the best. This is all a difficult feeling to explain, because, I usually don't feel homesick, but I do miss home when I think about it. At the beginning, I just didnt really think about it so I didnt get homesick and it took me quite a few days here until I actually skyped my parents for the first time. I was completely ok with that and it didn't make me sad to see them. Now, however, I tend to think about them a lot more, which in turn makes me miss them, and then when I see them on skype, sometimes it makes me sad. I got really frustrated one day because I missed them, and was trying to tell them that, but skype kept cutting me out, so I had to repeat it 5 times and then basically just hang up right after. Between my frustration with skype and missing them and having to admit 5 times that I was missing home which was hard for me to say (It was a pride thing, I know it. I was somewhat near people when skyping and I hated having to say that I missed home in front of them. As if I'm not allowed to miss my family. But I realize that I do feel like that), between all of that, I hung up on skype and I just cried. That's the only day I've cried about missing home.
After that paragraph, it may seem like I'm not fully enjoying being here, but I totally and completely am! I'm loving it. It's just a big change that I'm not fully used to yet. I'm like the kid who goes to college out of state his freshman year and is not quite sure what to do with himself yet, it takes a little time! :) I started D-group yesterday, which I'm super excited for - just another reason why I'm loving my time here! It's with a group of 8 other wonderful girls and I can't wait to grow with them and have fun with them! yay!
Also, today I got to go on an art fieldtrip! We went to a gallery, but a large part of the gallery happened to be closed down at this time. Since our driver wasn't going to be back for til 12:30 and we basically walked around the who museam twice before even 10:00, we got to sit in the coffe shop for 2 hours! Our whole art class with our art teacher, in the most adorable, artsy coffee shop inside the gallery. It was beautiful.
Well that was basically what I did today, went to that art gallery, and then just worked on papers. I have a lot more work to go so I better get to it!
Want to be a pal and send me mail?
Send letters to this!:
Bianca Portal
PO Box 13870, Cascades 3202
Pietermaritzburg, KZN
South Africa
or send any packages to this!:
Bianca Portal
1 Nonsuch Rd.
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 3201
Mail takes a long time to receive so even though I'm going to be at this campus another couple months before traveling down to Capetown, they suggest that any mail be sent out within the next 4 weeks.
That's all for now...
love you!
Bee
SO
I'll just give a brief overview of the past almost 3 weeks. And, after that I'll try to update more often and in detail from here on out :)
THINGS ARE GOING GREAT! This whole experience is simply beautiful. I feel so so blessed and the past few days I've felt overwhelmed by the turn of events in my life and just about how much I see God's hand and will in my life. How cool!
I never thought I'd study social work. Journalism was in the plan,. I never thought my study abroad experience would be in South Africa of all places. Oxford was in the plan. I remember hearing about the Oxford program and I just said "Oh well that's a given. I'm going there for sure, now to just figure out which semester..." Europe was my favorite place I'd ever been, Roxy and I had been talking about our love for Oxford since we were freshman in High School, and it was focused for people who loved and studied English. HA little did I know that God would change my plans. And, I have absolutely no regrets about not being in Oxford, I don't really want to be there at this point in my life. Now, Spain next summer, that's a different story! (more to come on that later). I'm just loving where God has brought me and can't wait to see where He takes me next.
I felt as if today He was speaking to me again, and telling me exactly where He wanted me to be the next month. We have service sites that we will volunteer at for the next month and recently we've been visiting the 5 different service sites so we can figure out which one we want to request to work at. RivLife seemed great today, I thought it was so amazing, but the funny thing was, after we left, a lot of the other students that I talked to said that they didn't like it and were confused by the whole place. haha. Funny the way God works: gave me a love for a place that others didn’t like? We'll see if I actually get placed at RivLife where I want to be. There have been other times that I was sure I knew what God wanted for me, like the time I was sure I was being called to Ghana but didn't get accepted onto the team. That was a humbling experience. So, we will simply see where God wants me :)
Anyways, that's some great stuff I've been realizing recently, but I will catch you up a bit on before recently.
We had basically the longest travel time in the entire world. It took all in all about 22 hours to get to Johannesburg - South Africa's only international airport. Suprisingly, I didn't mind the flying too much at all! I'm a mellow person who doesn't always have to be moving so I enjoyed the majority of the flight. I slept a lot, read, listened to music, talked to friends, and watched movies. Doesn't that sound like a nice time? Once we arrived, we stayed for two nights there. Sarah Moll was my roommate for the few days and I just love her :) The first day we got there, it was evening time so we just went next door to a restaurant and ate. Here is where I first really saw that South African food is pretty different from American food. This is still taking some getting used to. It's not that it's anything crazy that they're serving us, it's usually just that the way they prepare it is different and doesn't exactly remind you of the comforts of home. But hey, who travels half way around the world to have home?
The next day we went to a city called Soweto. Soweto is mainly a poor area and this is where I saw a township for the first time. We also visited the largest Catholic church in Johannesburg, which had a beautiful, memorable, stain glass window. On one side of the stain glass, facing the outside, was a picture of a black Jesus and Mary. On the other side was a white Jesus and Mary. This was meant to represent that Jesus came for both blacks and whites. By the way, in South Africa, the terms they use for race are black, white, and colored. At first I didn't know the difference when they were referrring to black and colored, but colored is any person who is not fully black or fully white. Someone who is half black and half white would be called colored, someone who is Indian would be called colored, I would be called colored. Anyway, that was a neat piece of art to see. Also on this day we went to the apartheid museum. The museum also happened to have a Nelson Mandela exhibit going on which was neat to see. There was this outdoor quote wall that had a lot of quotes from Mandela, which a thought was really neat and is what sticks out most in my mind about that museum.
The next day we hopped on a plane pretty earlly that morning and flew another hour and a half to Durban. That flight went so quick! Basically ascended, then descended, then off the plane. Yay! We were finally home! We drove about another 45 minutes into town to Pietermaritzburg (or just Maritzburg) which was where we would be staying for the next 3 months! I had no idea how beautiful this campus would be! it was absolutely breathtaking! It was the weirdest thing, I felt like I had never ever seen the campus in pictures before. I did my fair share of research before deciding to apply for this program and had thought up of some totally different image in my head of what the campus would look like! But, like I said, it was an amazing first experience. The only down side was how ridiculously hot it was that day haha. Pietermaritzburg has an average of 90% humidity. Yes, and it runs about in the 90 degree Fahrenheit range on most days. As Uncle Rich would say, "It's a scorcher!" Right gabbie? :)
I was also amazed that day to see what a cute new "chalet" my roommie Tanya and I would be living in, which is somewhat like a dorm, and that there is an incredible waterfall right outside my window!!! Talk about breathtaking and perfection. I don't think there's a better depiction of those two adjectives, than this view outside my window. We can hear it babbling all day and night, which I now realize that I tend to tune out, unlike at the beginning. But, when I remember how lucky I am, I take some time to sit and listen to the rippling sound.
That first day we arrived on campus was 17 days ago. In the last 17 days I've been getting acclimated to this new place and to starting school again. It is SO much harder to focus on school here when there's a lot of other fun things going on around you and outside in the warm sun or cool watering hole. For fun, we play soccer, we lay out on the lawn with our laptops and books, we take pictures in the beautiful green jungly scenery, we go in the waterfall or swim in the watering hole, we go on walks through the game reserve, we do pilates in the hallway, we go the the Keg and Hedgehog restaurant down the road. That's the majority of our leisure.
As far as planned activities, I've gotten to go to a lion park (which was really cool, obviously!) and we all spent the weekend in Durban this weekend, which was so great. I got to go in the Indian Ocean for the first time! That is the third ocean I've been in, how blessed am I? Some people never even get to see a real beach in their lifetime! The Indian Ocean runs 77+ degrees. Crazy, right? It was soooo warm. A little too warm? But still wonderful!
One of the coolest experiences here was when I got to see Zebras!!! It's pronounced here as zeh-bras actually :) We were just going on our morning walk through the game reserve and there they were! So amazing! Four zebras: 3 adults and one baby :) My other favorite experience so far has been going to the service sites. I'm excited to see where I end up and I have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy the month portion of our study abroad experience!
Random jump of topics, but as far as Pietermaritzburg goes, I feel I should mention what the city is like. Well, the population in this city is mostly black, and more specifically is is mostly made up of Zulu people. There are multiple tribes in South Africa, but being that we are in the Kwazulu Natal province, the zulu people make up a large part of it. The Kwazulu-Natal area also has a lot of Indian people. In fact, Kwazulu Natal has the largest Indian population outside of the country of India. Pretty sweet, huh? The Indian culture was the focus of our weekend in Durban - the one where I got to go in the Indian Ocean. We got to go to an Indian church and eat at the pastor's house after with all of his extended family. They were so incredibly hospitable and it was such a great experience.
My classes here are going really well. I am learning so so much in my Life and Teachings of Jesus class. I loving learning about the Bible so so much, which has been a stuggle for me, at times, in the past. I'm loving reading the Bible. I'm learning so much and it's exactly what I need right now. My teacher, Reg, is phenomenal. He presents the info so well and is so credible. He has spent his entire life basically studying the Bible and researching what others view as errors and discrepancies in the Bible. He has so much info to give and I love hearing it. I actually am restraining myself from asking so many questions in class because I don't want to annoy the rest of the class with my constant raised hand! (I know some of you may think that I should just ask all my questions anyway, but whatever, I'm asking the important ones haha).
The group here is so great as well. I've made some of the greatest girlfriends. And, I love having a group of 53 students instead of 35 like they have had in previous semesters. I feel like I always get to hang out with someone different and get to know everyone a little bit better. It's so fun and everyone on the trip is saying the exact same thing, WE HAVE SUCH A GREAT GROUP! I love love these people :)
As far as the people back home, I am missing my family, and gabbie and alexa. And some APU friends. I miss my brother a lot a lot, with his constant joking - i love that about him! I feel so lucky when I get to skype with my mom dad and brother all at the same time. I just love seeing that dynamic again. I like skyping with the one or two of them too, but seeing them together is the best. This is all a difficult feeling to explain, because, I usually don't feel homesick, but I do miss home when I think about it. At the beginning, I just didnt really think about it so I didnt get homesick and it took me quite a few days here until I actually skyped my parents for the first time. I was completely ok with that and it didn't make me sad to see them. Now, however, I tend to think about them a lot more, which in turn makes me miss them, and then when I see them on skype, sometimes it makes me sad. I got really frustrated one day because I missed them, and was trying to tell them that, but skype kept cutting me out, so I had to repeat it 5 times and then basically just hang up right after. Between my frustration with skype and missing them and having to admit 5 times that I was missing home which was hard for me to say (It was a pride thing, I know it. I was somewhat near people when skyping and I hated having to say that I missed home in front of them. As if I'm not allowed to miss my family. But I realize that I do feel like that), between all of that, I hung up on skype and I just cried. That's the only day I've cried about missing home.
After that paragraph, it may seem like I'm not fully enjoying being here, but I totally and completely am! I'm loving it. It's just a big change that I'm not fully used to yet. I'm like the kid who goes to college out of state his freshman year and is not quite sure what to do with himself yet, it takes a little time! :) I started D-group yesterday, which I'm super excited for - just another reason why I'm loving my time here! It's with a group of 8 other wonderful girls and I can't wait to grow with them and have fun with them! yay!
Also, today I got to go on an art fieldtrip! We went to a gallery, but a large part of the gallery happened to be closed down at this time. Since our driver wasn't going to be back for til 12:30 and we basically walked around the who museam twice before even 10:00, we got to sit in the coffe shop for 2 hours! Our whole art class with our art teacher, in the most adorable, artsy coffee shop inside the gallery. It was beautiful.
Well that was basically what I did today, went to that art gallery, and then just worked on papers. I have a lot more work to go so I better get to it!
Want to be a pal and send me mail?
Send letters to this!:
Bianca Portal
PO Box 13870, Cascades 3202
Pietermaritzburg, KZN
South Africa
or send any packages to this!:
Bianca Portal
1 Nonsuch Rd.
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 3201
Mail takes a long time to receive so even though I'm going to be at this campus another couple months before traveling down to Capetown, they suggest that any mail be sent out within the next 4 weeks.
That's all for now...
love you!
Bee
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