writewhenileavemyhomeinpmb

After an amazing time in pmb.. our laste safari… last Durban day…last day at our service sites…. Farewell dinner… planting notes for the SA teams… its been a crazy 2.5 months… how did it go by so fast??? Not going to lie I really miss AE now after being on the road for 4 days… so long..and I am tired of staying in hotels… not used to all this traveling…but I know it is worth it…..

 

We went and stayed in goundie beach… that was great!!! Stayed at a beach front hotel… roomed with megan b!! so fun! Then we went down the to the beach and what not. So sweet!! I have never seen the stars and such a beautiful beach in my life… that was Saturday… the day we left ae.. which was so soooo hard. I am going to miss it a lot..i cant believe that part of our trip is over!! What the heck!! But I will be back..i will be….

 

Sunday we went to church at beacon church… I thought it was bacon..lol… that was cool…then we went to another beach more in town..and chanel megan b and G and I went for a photo shoot on the beach.. that was fun.. then we went back to our hotel and went to the beach. Let me tell you… everything about this beach was amazing..cept the fact that the water was so EFFING cold!! I almost froze to death. We also squeezed in some soccer of course… then came back and played some more soccer in the hall with megan and chanel..good times.. then took ashower and relaxed until dinner. After dinner we all wanted icecream..but it was  easter Sunday night..nothing was open… so we went on a search to find something open… but no luck. So as we were walking we decieded to play a few ridiculous games with the passing cars and what not. FUN. Then came back and watched juno. Then basicly called it a day.

 

Monday! We had to be up and ready to go by 6am to be off by 6:30 am…to go bungee jumping!!! It was about 7 hours away. Basicly I jumped off of the worlds highest bungee jump. It was a lot of fun, scary, but fun… I have to post some pictures up on facebook soon! But yeah.. that was a crazy day. Then drove another 4 hours to our manor hotel in the middle of nowhere… I stayed with LJ and bekah..that was fun. But I was soooo tired!

 

Tuesday was travel day… and caves and ostrich farm day as well. The caves were so sweet!!! We crawled through some really tight spaces and saw some really cool cave formations.. it was so amazing to see all the stalagmites and stalagtighes forming all around… amazing! Then after went to the ostrich farm to see the suckers..i got to sit on one..that was sweet. Then from there it was off on our 5 hours drive to capetown!!! The drive was long but it went by fast..did some video footage along with good talks and watching movies.

 

Cape town… what can I say! Its still crazy to think im already here and still have one class to complete. Actually..two..but still!!! Ill be home in 3ish weeks. What is going on!  LIFE IS GOING BY TOO QUICK… that’s all I got to say about that….

I am in my home stay with mama hazel and papa Ivan..with steph!!! it is soo great! i love them alot and they are soo cool!! and they love sports!! yayay!!! ok..thats a quick update about that!!! 

i will be home in like 3 weeks!! i cant believe it!!! 

:) 

writetowardstheend

ok.... this is going to be long..cuz its about a month worth of things ive done..prepare yourself... NOW! HAHA

Starting from March 2 which was our last week of classes.

On monday we had Chapel on the view point which is very close to AE and it overlooks all of PMB which was really cool!

Tuesday we Visited Tabitha mission, it was soo cool to see what they do with kids who's parents cant care for them or they are mal nourished. It was really toching to see the headmasters heart for the kids and what not. what a great ministry.

Wed went to boys Dranksberg choir it was fun but it was a looong drive. got some good pictures and the boys were amazing at singing!! it was so fun too!!! i enjoyed it a lot for as long of a drive it was.

Thrus-durban day!!!  I hung out with chanel, got really tan, and went to the rotating resturatant after which was sooo cool!! i have never been to one before and it was good food too! it was a good day in durban!

Friday- started community engagement... was very looong. 

Sat- more community engagement class. played mafia during class. amazing.  went to franky bananas for alexes birthday.

Sunday- went to church.. north hills.. not going to lie its very much like church at home ish,but still so cool to be with a coumminty of believers outside the country. The  after went on canopy tours!!! so amazing! i loved it! Some pictures are posted up on facebook. then came back to go eat dinner with the pasaros...so cool got to go over what we wanted to do for bonginkosi. 

Week of march 9th-15

Monday-Beginning of community engagement. good day. have our work cut out for us. when i got back i went on a run to the keg and back.

tuesday- again community engagement. that was good, but i was really tired and had isi zulu after too. 

Wed- CE, took lots of pictures for that today. went and helped out at the new building again. Later went to pasaros for small group. that was cool too!

Thrus- i thought this was going to be a chill day. no zulu..but i forgot i had his and culture. but bonginkosi was good. did alot of gardening work and took all the kids over to the new place for pictures....IT WAS CRAZY! then came back for class and relaxing. 

Friday- CE class.. its really hard to pay attetion..so i make movies and take a billion pictures of people...its great. Chanel and I ran to the mall when i got back. it was so fun because no one expected it! Later that night had fox fire commissiong and it was cool. Then went to bed becasue i was pooped from the week. 

Saturday- March 14 we went to Ushaka marine world. that was really fun. Chanel and i went to a dolphin show then went exploring the rest of the marine place. it was so neat and saw so many fishes and animals!! pictures were so cool! Then we went to the water park. that was alot of fun. it was kinda raining but it was fun anyways. we got alot of cool pictures of each other and what not. we did some shopping afterwards to in the durban shopping area we always go shopping in. post cards and everything else! chanel and I also happened to wear the same outfit as well..not planned at all!!! haha then came home and watched some movies i think. 

Sunday March 15th

Today was a lazy day. didnt go to church and listened to a few messages from rockharbor. it was so funny..i knew paige was on her computer and i was too and she was on top bunk and i was on bottom. and we were both laughing everynow and then and i couldnt figure out what she was doing. it wasnt till i was getting up that i figured out that she was listening to a message as well. we are such holy roomates. I went on a quick run and then headed to bonginkosi for a parent meeting. that went alot better than i thought. our group got alot of feed back from the parents. that is always encouraging. Then came back and went on a run to the mall with chanel.i think we suprised them all. it was great! came back and went to dinner. 

it was a good week. 

March 16-22

Monday- Our service sites week 2 have begun! I love bonginkosi so much! we have done so much and we only have so much more planned! i cant wait to see how it all works out! Today we went to club jVK...aka Jeremiah's place to work on logisical stuff and plan the week. We also found out that Nicoles parents are going to adopt bonginkosi and fund basicly the furnishing and sponor about 12 kids a year. GOD IS FAITHFUL! Later jeremiah and I went and ran some errans for the school and dropped it off at the new school. and then headed back to work again on some things. Jeff showed everyone the movie he has so far and it almost made me cry. honestly ive never had my heart pulled so hard into somthing like before. it made me miss the kids so much!!!!! how i am going to miss it when i leave. then came home and went to the mall and got some random things. post cards, stamps, the usual. came back and had dinner and then zulu.. it is sooooo hard having class after a long work day such as today. but hopefully it will get better. 

Tuesday- Bonginkosi! did alot of work there. Steph wasnt there so we did some recording for interviews and what not. also we did some bio's for the kids. hopefully we can have them up and running on the web site very soon! Regan came and we played with the kids and did some minor work with the new building. had to evaluate the new garden and the old garden. fun stuff. then headed out early. then late went to the mall to eat dinner for papa's birthday. fun stuff. the zulu people got to go too and go to class after. the thing was that our food didnt get there till about...7 an we had class at 7. it was horrilbe we had to rush and get to class. SOOOO LAME. then aftewards we had cake for papa. and then MAJOR STUDYING for our zulu test the next day. meg and i stayed up late for that. and then crashed.

Wed- we started to paint the new buildings!! it was so sweet!! they turned out soo good and we all got to do sooo much! it was such a productive day! We basicly got the dinning room done and also the kitchen where we boareded the tops of the walls with our handprints. and wrote our school name and spring sememters. so amazing to see what we did. that took alot of the time. i had some down time to study zulu which was nice because our test was going to be killer!!!! finally got back to AE and i studied my butt off till dinner and then took the test. 

we wont talk about that test because it was that bad. then came back to my room and got ready for small group. I got to talk to paul about bonginkosi for a bit then went right into small group. good bonding time and food time!! i love MILK! Then got back and watched a movie and went to bed!!! yeboooo! 

Thrusday- Painting some more! we finished the dinning room and went into the other room and did jonah and the whale! that was fun. We also all wore out painting shirts and made a team JANS shirt! so much fun and put our hand prints all over them!! i really enjoy our group a lot! then came back to ae.... and had history and culture and dinner. Woody and his family came here on wed so it was nice to wake up to a nice suprise of his family!!! they are sooo cool! 

Friday- chapel day! woody spoke to us!!! so encouraging! I think it was so sweet to see a familar face around here. i really miss apu life sometimes! Then, of cousre, CE class...i kinda paid more attention than usual. The went on a mall run later and got a whoooole bunch of stuff for sunday because we are having all the kids come and do hand paintings on the tree we painting on the dinning hall wall!!! hopefully that will be good! I also got a new backpack and some other stuff i needed. i still nee new shoes... hummm. haha we shall see where i find those! Then came back and chilled and watched a movie. We all hung out in my room and just chilled for the time being and went to bed early because of our hike the next day!!!! 

Saturday- woke up early and went on a hike in Drakensberg Giant Castle Camp... which are beautiful and so amazing to look at! It took us about 30 min to hike up to the caves that we were seeing. While we were waiting we boldered some rocks that were around. it reminded me of climbing alot. i miss it! then we hiked back down by the river and it was soooo MUCH FUN! megan and i just messed around and went into the river and took ridicious pictures of each other. it was great. We also ate lunch by the river side. soooo good! Came back and hung out on the lawn where people took a billion pictures on my photobooth. Played some soccer on the lawn with Woody's family and what not. and then just rested the night away. did some star gazing because it was one of few clear nights out. then went to bed!

Sunday- woke up feeling kinda sick, not going to lie. This whole past week i have woken up feeling HORRIBLE..but once i start moving i feel so much better. Went out on the lawn and played kickball with woody and his family!  it was a good sunday!!! 

OK i am caught up on the past few weeks... the next two are coming soon!!! hope this isnt too bad for all ya!!! 

writewhenihavenotime

yup...

def been a long time since i posted. its been a long few weeks. That is no excuse, but it has just a time consuming, all around hard and emotional few weeks that i never thought was possible. Now its two weekends since i posted and a lot has happened. but im glad that i have been able to experience this rather than put all my time to write about it. i am just being instead of doing. which is a change.. but much needed. i will update it more when i get a chance. but know God is Good and he is working in so many areas of my life and  praise him for all that i have gone through thus far here in SA..and in my life.

Torres

writewhenitsgoingbytofast

whoooahhh.. talk about time flying. Seriously, times goes by so fast when im here. I know people back home are wishing for summer right about now, but i just always wish i could turn back and just be leaving for SA again. but thats how it goes! 

This past week was a very eventful one. Friday we went to walk in the light, which is a ministry site we might work at. I think i might go with that one, im not sure yet. then had a mall run later that might. seriously, i go to the mall more here than i ever did back home. i guess its just a way to get off campus. then came back and relaxed for the rest of the night because the next day was durban day!!!

Saturday was a good break from school! The art class had to go to a museum in durban, so people who wanted to go to the beach to hang out got to. I did some major tanning. I also got super sunburnt on my stomach. so much for not ever burning. haha. Then when chanel got done with the art museum we

 went to the market down the street and did some shopping. Got some things for people and for myself! it was super neat and ran into some interesting people. Then came back to the beach area and went to eat. we had PIZZA! so great. it tasted just like american pizza. i ate a whole mini pizza by myself. it was great!!!! i really miss pizza and ranch dressing...sigh.. haha. Then from there we went to the SHARKS RUGBY GAME! 

 i know absolutely  nothing about the game, but it was really fun to watch! It really seemed like we are at a quid-itch match from harry potter...thats how all the posts and field were set up! haha. I had my sharks shirt and face-painting to really be a fan of something i knew nothing about! Our group of people we were sitting with started the wave too. which is such a great feeling!! then chanel and i got a "hotdog" i forget what you call them, but it was so good! i had a couple of sodas and it was pretty much a baseball game, minus the face painting and lame broadcasters.. haha. We left kinda late..i think we got home at 11pm. when i got back and went to my friends chalet for a bit and then came back to my room i found out I HAD THE CURSE OF THE ELEPHANT! basically all day sunday i could not be sarcastic and if i did say a remark, i would have to do 5 pushups. lame..!!

Sunday i was suppose to go to church, but i was not feeling too hot. so i decided to sleep in

Then after people got back from church, chanel and i went on a walk into hte game reserve. She has never been there before and we wanted to see zeh-bra! (zebra..thats how you say it again.) it was cool to see the zebra on her first time in there!!! then it was study time after that. I had a huge zulu test on monday, so i came back and went into antisocial mode to study enough. that then killed the night with a couple of episodes of the office. so good...haha. and after having the curse all day.... i think i did about... 80 push-ups. not cool, but it was so fun and entertaining to see what i would be if i wasn't sarcastic all day. 

Monday was crazy long day of studying. All day i was at my desk going over verbs, phrases, nouns and everything 

that had to deal with zulu in my mind. i was still not feeling to hot then, but it to happen. i even skipped dinner to study. what a long day of studying. When i went to take the test, it was so HARD. or so i thought. i ended up getting an A on it. only because i found out the grading scale is different here in SA. an A is 100-80. weird eh? so did really well on the test! then came back and unwinded by watching more office and chilin. 

Tuesday was a long day. Woke up and did some emails and hw. then at like 11:45 me chanel and megan decided to go to the mall to eat lunch. it was so nice to get out and eat lunch someplace new. i mean we were at the mall, but it was to eat. i had RICE it was so nice. that rhymed. ha. but yeah i had stir fry and white rice. loved it! then after we walked around the mall and just killed some time before our class. After a long day at the mall, i was sooo pooped for class. im not even sure what we learned. haha then as usual at night came back and watched the office with chanel. good day!

Wed i got to go to the tala-game reserve with the bio class!! whoot whoot for not 

anything to do during the days!!! haha. it was so much fun!!! i got to see alot of animals and 

sorts of plains and the reserve was just amazing! i think i took about 180 pictures. i know.. camera whore! but it was great! i think i saw about 200 zebra!! so many just roaming around! i also saw a rhino and hippo and warthog. WHO SEES THAT! My roommate and i both went and realized how South Africa it was to be on a safari like car looking at animals, NOW we are in south africa. haha. we got back around 4 ish and i was sooo pooped!! and i had conversational zulu ( a class everyone takes) and then guess speaker Sean Wisedale! i was was excited for Sean to speak

 to us. Basically he climbed the 7 tallest summits in the world! and he showed us his expedition of Mount everest! he is such a cool guy! i also bought his dvd. and had him sigh it. YEAH FOR AUTOGRAPHS! then after that had Laura Janes birthday party! so cute and fun!!! we totally suprised her like no other. Then we all went into he lecture room to play actual live mafia!!! so fun but scary!! i only played two rounds because i was just beat! Then watched the office and went to bed!!! 

Thursday. i did a lot random hangouts and did some studying. I decided to go to the clinic to get checked out because i am still a bit sick. i have been having coughing attacks every night and thought i was just getting over being sick. turns out i almost had bronchitis. glad i went today instead of trying to fight it out! but the doc was kinda cute, so it made up for it. haha came back... and then basically went to class. long class...but it went by fast. Dinner then class again. only had class for about 40 min after dinner so that was nice. 

now just pondering in my thoughts. have another big weekend ahead of me. everyone else's classes are ending this week and next, so it kinda sucks that i still will have class after our community engagement starts next week. but im excited to start serving the community more and actually being in places of need where ever i am placed.  

thats all i really got. just trying to get better and figure out the future and what not. but excited for the next week and what it has to offer! 

writetomarriageandback

Ok so this past week we went to shakaland and i finally visited bonginkosi which is a daycare for kids around the area.

I have always been sick or something has always came up when i had the chance to go to the daycare so i was excited to actually go. It was so overwheleming to see all the kids just want to be held and just played with. it was amazing! I loved every second of it! it was such a blessing to be there and just be with these kids. i wanted to go back this week but i was sick... lame. so yeah i really like being with kids more than i thought! I am not really good with kids for the most part. i think i just try to treat them like they are an adult or something and can never connect. But here i felt like i actually may have added to their lives. Its crazy how entertained they all were with us college kids from the states. The only bad thing was that all of their names had clicks in them... SO hard to remember. but it was being there that mattered the most. praise God for thisoppournity to play and love on God's children.

On saturday (Valantines days) we went to shakaland.  It was such a long ride there. 3 hours up and three hours back. i know rite? and we only stayed for like 3 hours as well. We got there and it was really cool to see an enviorment where actual zulu people lived. FUNNY STORY: We get the reception where they do tours and two guys were there who were zulu people. One was talking about everything we needed to know for our tour and the second guy was kinda just there talking to us. THEN all of a sudden the one zulu man who was just chillin started singing toward my general direction. There were a lot of people around me and for a moment i thought he was serenading one of the girls in front of me and i thought it was SOOO funny. The story takes a turn when i found out that he was talking to ME. i dont think my yellow sunglasses helped at all becasue i stood out alot. But none the less he was def talking his zulu love serenade to me. He was really far from me... so i didnt really worry about it that much. Everyone was making fun of me, but i continued to listen to the other man who was giving us directions. Then i wanted to go see a friend real fast so i walked AWAY from the group i was standing with and exposed myself to the open. The zulu men are fast and he came rite over to me when there was no one around me. after taking my hand, he started to speak zulu to me and ask me my name and where i was from. After that i lost what he said. im pretty sure he proposed to me and asked me to marry him. Well, thats what everyone else said. It was so awkward beause here i am, just standing there, holding this zulu man's hand and EVERYONE is taking pictures of me. REALLY! finally after about a good min or so of the hand holding i freed myself and walked away. Seriously, so funny and awkward at the same time. so i think i might be married. ill let ya know. haha. 

The rest of my time there was fun, we just learned about the zulu culture. I also drank some homemade beer from like a community cup. SO GROSS. and prob the reason why i was sick all week. The whole time i was still on the lookout for my husband. Not cool at all. But overall i enjoyed being there. 

Coming up to this week....

yesterday i woke up early to drop paige's laundry and mine... that was like 6:45 am.. so then after i decided to go into the game reserve. lucky for me... I SAW ZEBRA! SOO CLOSE THIS TIME! it was a nice way to start off my day, even if i was still sick...

Today i went to durban to get our sharks RUGBY tickets!!! it was so cool to go there again! i really like being in durban. also its nice just to get out of pmb. I got some cool pics of the clouds that i love so much! seriously i think i have taken more pictures of clouds than anything! crazy! It was a nice day today! then when i came back i went on a run and again saw ZEEEBRA! at the top of the hill! what a nice end to that run! So this weekend should be fun..i have a huge zulu test on monday but nothing i cant handle! well thats all! Basala kuhle! (You all stay well!) :)

writewheniamwrong

This past week has been a crazy adventure! 

Last friday was my first day off, sorta. We got to visit one of the service sites we could possibly do our community service hours for. This one was called Revlife. Basicly it was a place for kids to go to use computers, eat, and play. the facilities also offer alot for adults who are trying to increase their education. it was a pretty sweet place. they even had a basketball hop! (aka net ball here) but nonetheless it was still basketball, which i miss dearly. haha

Later that night was a dance party. it looked fun for the 30 seconds i went. i just wasn't feeling very social that night. Just hung out with people that night who were also aganist 

the whole dancing part of life. haha. but it was good overall. 

Saturday we had a beach day in durban! it was so amazing. Seriously, one of the best beaches i have ever been to in my life. so sweet! the water was so warm i didnt want to get out. A friend and I decided to go and kayak so we did that for a bit then got bored and wanted to go surfing. So much fun. I know i ate it a lot, but it was super worth it. I did a lot of shopping that day and just got to get more tan. seriously when i come back i will be black. haha. I also had pizza for the first time while being here! it was so goood!!! how i miss american food here! 

When you think a weekend could not get any better after going the beach all day. PAINTBALLING COMES INTO THE PICTURE! It was so much fun!! i totally got nailed in the head and still have a huge welt, but it was worth every moment of pain. The cool thing is that it was so cheap!! back in the states it would cost you an arm and a leg. It was so nice to shoot people and just have fun!! it was kinda scary too. i have never been shot at in my life so it was nice to kinda see what it feels like to be shot. it was a good day. plus this is the coolest picture ever eh? look how cool i look. It almost looks like i know what im doing . but i dont. haha. then we came back and hit the books. i had a vocab test on monday so i was studying for that. 

Monday went by fast because of the text at night, but it was still on my mind all day. I did really well i just wanted to do better next time. 

Well today is my first oral for zulu. awww. IT GOING TO BE SO HARD. for me at least. but i am glad today is almost over. i have not been feeling well all day, prob from all the excitment this week!!! yayayayaya!!! haha ok well thats all for now!!! hope you enjoy the update!

:)

writeabouttime

ok no joke, i saw a zebra. the only bad thing is that it was at night, so i have not proof. I know i am not a very creditable person, but believe me, i saw it. haha. it is about time i see one!

So this is the prayer chapel that we use. isnt it so cool!!! i really love how green this place is compared to the brown azusa. haha.

Well today is my first exam. crazy eh? only been in school for a week and already tests..blahhh. to be honest i feel like i am at camp. We have set times for dinner breakfast and all and we even have tea time!!! that is by far one of the coolest things here. i am not going to lie. I enjoy the good food and the JUICE! i will show you a paw paw...basicly it is the best juice ever!I love it very much! this is it!! 

on another note. I think i am beginning to see my role here. I really want to try to be on my own here. I want time to myself. And here, for once, its totally fine. I am free from obligation and what not, i am not involved with anything. My job is just to be for once. and i am loving it, even if it is hard. 

There's an update on my life for the moment. i know its quick and simple, but thats all i need rite now!!! 

:)