Catch Up!!

Alright, here's my catch up of the last few weeks. The day after coming back from Lesotho, we went zip lining through the jungle! We were pretty sore from the horse back riding the day before, but it was bearable and so worth it! It was a really fun experience for a quick day trip!

The first weekend in March, we went on a field trip of historic battlefields for our History of SA class. There was going to be a lot of driving so they rented a luxury bus for our drive. This was a great idea because we were all so much more comfortable then we would have been, so that was so nice for us to have! The best way to describe the weekend was that it was.....interesting. We stopped at about four different battlefields on our tour in a matter of two days. We had a tour guide, Tony, that traveled with us and told us everything there was to know about each battlefield. Tony is 75 years old and comes from a military background. He did not have tolerance for pretty much anything that went on. He would get upset anytime someone even so much as yawned! On the other hand, he was such a fountain of knowledge! I couldn't believe all the details he knew about each battlefield we visited! There was so much information to take in in a short period of time, so that's what made the weekend kind of a lot. On Friday night, we reserved an entire hotel called the Royal Inn! The Inn was a quaint little place and has been around for about one hundred years. It was really nice to get off campus for a little while. The food was so delicious; they fed us until we were about to pop!! After dinner, we sat around and talked with Reg, our school president and Life and Teachings of Jesus professor. He invited us to ask him any kind of questions we wanted. For most of the night we ended up asking questions about the biblical matters and SA. Reg is filled with so much wisdom! We all throughouly enjoyed asking him questions and having this discussion with him and want to do it again sometime soon. Lauren and I stayed with our neighbors, Sarah and Melissa, in a room. We had a great time! We stayed up late talking about all sorts of things and all slept on the same bed! haha Definitely a girls night, but we loved it!

So maybe I should quickly explain how classes work here. When we first arrived I was taking four classes at one time: Intro to Zulu, Life and Teachings of Jesus, Human Growth and Development, and Intercultural Communication. We do not receive any credits for the Intro to Zulu class, but it is beneficial because most of the people we come in contact with in our service sites speak Zulu so we need to know the basics of their language. I am now finished with Human Growth and Development, Life and Teachings of Jesus, and Intro to Zulu. Intercultural Communication is still going and will be over in about three weeks. We also started Community Engagement last week and will be finished with it in about three weeks as well. This class goes along with our service sites and we are learning skills we can use to help work alongside the community in this course. We are taking a break from our History of SA class and will start up again when we get to Cape Town and will last for two weeks there and then will be officially done! :)

So last Thursday, we started our service sites! I am Ethembeni with six other students, including Eli, and will be there for the next three weeks. Ethembeni means "places of hope" and is found in the Township of Mpophomeni. Mpophomeni has a population of about 43,000 people where 80% of the people are unemployed and one third of the people are infected with HIV. We will be specifically working at the Family Center. On Thursday, when we got there, we met Clair. She has visited twice for volunteer work and has just moved here from England for three years in order to work at Ethembeni. She handles organizing all the of volunteers that help out at Ethembeni. After meeting Clair, we went into the playroom to play with the 12 toddlers that are cared for throughout the day while the older kids are at school. They were so excited to see new faces and start playing with us! One of the little girls, Akhona, is three but looks like she is about one year old due to malnutrition. Because of this, she still crawls and is unable to walk. I played with her on the slide over and over again and she loved it! I also let one of the girls play with my hair for a while. She loved it and so did I! haha I love when people play with my hair and she loved braiding it and doing other things. Of course it was in a big not when she was done, but it was ok because we both were happy! haha There is also a little boy who is new to the family center. He arrived two weeks ago and cries every single day. We still don't know why he cries, and will try to find out as soon as we can. His older brother is also at the family center and is there to comfort him. In fact, the caregivers often use him to make his brother stop crying. After we played with the kids for a while, we sat down with Clair, Grant (who is in charge of the staff), and Nambo (who is the main caregiver) to talk about the expectations we have of each other. We told them that we are here to do whatever they need us to do, but they also gave us a lot of freedom in taking charge of many tasks and activities with the children. So we have a lot of planning to do! Some ideas we came up with was painting a mural of the world and maybe another mural in their main room, helping in the garden, and organizing their facilities better. One part of working at Ethembeni is that we are paired up with one of the social workers here. I am paired up with Phindile, the care giver/social worker of the 12 toddlers. Basically I am at her disposal in whatever way she would like to use me and also I am going to go with her as she visits the children's homes. I don't know how often we will be able to go, but I know we will get a few opportunities. The language barrier was a little difficult, but it was ok. Obviously our communication will not be perfect, but it can be frustrating in the moment. Talking to the older kids is easier and we are hoping we can learn some of the younger kid's stories from the older children.
We were so excited to go back on Friday! And the kids were excited too! When we walked into the play room, they all got up and ran to us! We were under the impression that we were going to be go visit the community for a few hours in the morning, but it ended up not working out. We were all bummed but they said that we could go on Wednesday instead and we will also be visiting some patients on Thursday. So while we did not get to go out into the community, it gave us an opportunity to start cleaning out and organizing their office, their play therapy room, and a closet used by a local church. The play therapy room functions as another closet because they have not developed it fully into what they hoped it would be because all their clutter keeps getting thrown in there. Our team cleaned out and organized the play therapy room and the church closet. They will be even more improved later in June because another group has planned to come and they have more resources than we do to fix their problem of lack of storage space. The office, play therapy room, and the closet look so much better now! It was a nice simple task that we could accomplish for them, and gave them one less thing to think about. So while we were cleaning out the office, Kailey was cleaning off a shelf and found some transparencies of the world! We were so excited because this would make the mural we wanted to do so much easier! We then thought that all we need now is an overhead projector. We tried to think of who we could ask someone to maybe help us get one, but then decided to get back to work and think about it later. After we got over our excitement, and went back to work, Alex was clearing out stuff and stumbled upon a box. She looked at the box and just started saying "No way!! No way!!" because it said overhead projector on the box! I riped open the box and inside found a brand new overhead projector!! We were all filled with shock and amazement!! Another thing we accomplished was that we wanted to give the staff pictures of all the children to put in their files because not all of the social workers know all the kids. All the kids are known by one or more of the social workers, but they would like to be able to know all the children by name. Cynthia took every child's picture that was there and will print them out over the weekend to be added to their file later. We were also hoping to decorate another wall in the main room with their pictures because they love to look at pictures of themselves! I am absolutely in love with Ethembeni and am very interested to see what God has in store for the next three weeks!

Oh just a quick trip into another country

So again, I'm trying to catch up. Sorry again! On February 25th and 26th, my psychology class went on a field trip to Lesotho, which is a little country inside of SA. My class only has 11 students so we were all excited to get away from campus and the big group and go out together! Our prof was supposed to come but he was in a motorcycle accident a few weeks ago so he couldn't join us for this trip. Instead, his friends, Dave and Tish, came along with us to watch out for us on this journey. We left bright and early on Thursday morning and drove about two hours to meet up with the men that would drive us up the through the Sani Pass. We met up with Greg, our driver, and all piled into the back of his truck. The drive up was the craziest, bumpiest, and most memorable drive I have ever been on! While we were driving up the mountain, Greg would stop to tell us certain land marks along the way. We passed an old trading post and Lovers Cascades (which is what the locals think to be a fountain of youth). At one point Greg stopped and asked "do you guys want to get dirty? i mean, do you guys want to get muddy?" He said if he drove through a puddle coming up really fast, he could get us soaked and then a little more up the road there is a mud puddle so we could get covered in mud as well! haha So we were like, well TIA (This is Africa!) why not? well only get to do this once! So round one: the water; we got totally soaked just like he said, it was so funny! Then, round two: here comes the mud! He stopped a little before it to pause for dramatic effect and asked us one more time if we wanted to go for and we said YEBO (yes in Zulu)! So he goes through it, and a wall of mud comes over my side of the truck! We got it so bad, but it was great! After all this excitement, we began the real climb up the mountain. We drove back and forth on hair pin turns up the side of the mountain with a cliff on one side of the truck. We felt as though we were driving over boulders with how bumpy the road was!

We finally reached the top and crossed the border into Lesotho!! We came up on a small village with the Highest Pub in Africa. Upon arrival we were sent right away to get saddled up for the long day of horse back riding we had ahead of us! The guides begin handing out horses to everyone and Lauren gets a horse with one eye, Eli looks kinda big on his horse because the horses are smaller in Lesotho, and I look big on my horse too because not only are the horses smaller there but I had a even smaller horse than the others! That would happen to me! haha So our trek begins....side note, the guides will sometimes come behind your horse and whip it if it is not staying with the group....and literally five minutes after we leave, one on the guides whips Lauren's horse! So she takes off which causes all the other horses to follow, and two of the girls fall off their horses! One fell off because her saddle was coming loose so she slowly fell off the side as it was running. The other girl fell off because she could not hold on any longer as her horse was galloping! They were both fine and we were all so proud of them for getting back on the horse! We were on the horses for about 6 hours, yes you read that right, 6 HOURS!! It was so fun and such an incredible experience!! The scenery was absolutely beautiful! I have to admit I was getting quite frustrated with our guides because my horse, Lily, was pretty stubborn. Because of her stubbornness, we usually ended up in the back of the group, so yes, the guides would whip my horse and we would take off. I almost fell off a few times because I was not ready for the horse to take off so I had to ask them not to whip my horse...they didn't really listen haha We reached the top of the mountain and the view was insane! There were sheep herders who live up in the hills that we met and got to talk to. Every now and then we came across a hut that was in the middle of nowhere in which these boys lived. It was funny trying to talk to them because we knew very little of their language. We made a few connections but that was all. On our way back, the horses began to gallop, now, I was ok with trotting and maybe even cantering, but when Lily began to gallop, she would go away from the group! So I would try to get her to follow the group while trying to hold on for dear life, but i almost fell off so galloping made me very nervous. We finally reached the pub and headed down to our chalet to change and were all walking funny because we were so sore! On our way back to the pub for dinner, the fog had settled and we could not see the pub from our chalet! So we set out in the right direction, but then got lost! We stumbled upon a trailer and the man inside said he was going to the pub, so he walked with us in the right direction. I have never been in such heavy fog like that! The pub had a rustic feeling and was so homey!! The food was great and after we ate, we went and rested next to the fire and a few of us fell asleep! But it was so wonderful to just relax!

The next morning we got up for breakfast at the pub and then went out into the village. We had a guide with us who told us how the Besotho people live. We went into a hut of one of the locals and learned all about the people and how they live. One thing that really struck me was that marijuana is a big export in Lesotho. Our guide talked about how many people grow marijuana in order to have money to buy necessities and send their children to school. I was just struck by how differently America and Lesotho feel about marijuana. In Lesotho, the people use marijuana to make a living and just get by. Some people succeed and have a nice house with a few cars and some get caught and are sent to jail. While in the US, marijuana is seen as an escape from life. It is a way out; to get away from the high schools that we were able to attend with no charge. When we were coming out of the hut, a few women asked us to come into their house because they wanted to sing for us! We were able to hang out with them for a little and also the children outside.

Before we left, we laid down sleeping bags to sit on in the truck because we were so sore and also to put over us because we were cold. Good thing we had those sleeping bags because as we were driving back down through the Sani Pass, it started to pour!! We quickly created a fort and help the sleeping bags over our heads. I quickly realized that my backside was not covered by the sleeping bag and was soon soaked! While I was trying to adjust so that I would not get wet, Eli and I fell onto the others. Needless to say, we had kind of a rough time getting situated while most of the others were doing ok haha oh well, what can you do? That ride home was definitely an experience I will never forget! This whole trip was an experience I will never forget!! Meeting the people and seeing God's beautiful creation once again was such an incredible experience!!

Insanity!

Wow I am so terrible at blogging! I am so sorry!! Life has been so crazy with classes coming to an end this week! I had three major papers due with about four field trips all in the same week! Don't worry, I got it all done, it has just been a little insane around here. So going all the way back to Friday the 19th (wow that's so long ago! sorry, again! haha) We visited a Sangoma for my Life and Teaching of Jesus class. A Sangoma is also known as a witch doctor. This sangoma was more of an herbalist than most who work directly with spirits. He had all sorts of powders and mixtures that he kept in his hut. He even had a love potion that you put into a drink. He also had healing potions as well. HIs attire was very interesting. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of him. On his head he wore a head piece that was made up of long braids with colorful beads in it, his coat was cheetah print and hung down to his ankles, he held a wand that was made out of a stick with a fur at the end, and tied the tops of soda cans around his ankles that made a lot of noise when he walked. He had certain days when we was working or on duty. So people would make an appointment with him so they could receive healing or whatever they else needed. It was all very interesting to see, but looking back, all I can think about is how wrong these people are. This man and many others have devoted their entire lives to this. He honestly believes that what he was doing was right. Honestly, I don't really know what to think about the whole thing but I had a heavy heart reflecting on this field trip. In spite of these feelings, I am glad we made this trip because now I know and am aware of how this system works and what the people believe.

So the next day we drove two hours into the Drakensberg Mountains. The drive and hiking in the mountains was absolutely gorgeous! The way the mountains and the rocks were formed were simply incredible! And the contrast between the different shades of green and the blue sky were breathtaking! We went to see the Bushmen Caves for our History and Culture of SA class. The Bushmen were the original natives of Africa, but they do not exist in SA any longer. After our long drive, we got out and started hiking to the caves. The hike was beautiful! We reached the caves to see the paintings that have lasted over hundreds of years and the small exhibit they preservationists have set up. The paintings were not what I expected. There were not very many of them and they were very dull. I wasn't expecting crazy murals of anything, but i guess I was expecting a little more than what was there. It was cool to think that bushmen were standing in the exact same place as me hundreds of years ago. On our hike back to the vans we stopped at the river and just hung out for a little bit. It was so relaxing and just what I needed!! We also saw some baboons right before we left and they were pretty ugly! It was a great day to be out in God's creation experiencing is beauty!!

So the 24th was Eli's 2oth birthday! I didn't really plan much because we have had so much homework, so I told him we would celebrate after finals haha Just wanted to make his birthday last as long as possible haha But on Wednesday, we went back to Drakenberg to see the Drakensberg Boys Choir. They are known world wide for being the best boys choir. They are fourth grade to ninth grade boys who live on campus. Their studies are very musy with all their music courses and practices along with their normal studies and sports. The boys were so cute to watch and their voices were incredible! They sang Man in the Mirror and Crazy Little Thing Called Love. During some songs the boys danced and it was so funny to see because they are still
at the awkward stage where they don't all quite have their rhythm yet! haha It was really fun to see and enjoy!