This is Our Time to Shine, Our Time to Fly

Hello family and friends! I have some catching up to do since my last post was back in Pietermaritzburg and I am now in Cape Town, which is quite far south of Pietermaritzburg. I’ll try to make the catching up as short as I can so that I can get to where I am now. Last week, before we left Pietermaritzburg, we had a 24-hour Zulu experience at this guest place called Ecabazini. This place pretty much stages a Zulu hut village for us with Zulu people who are paid to act out their culture and share all their cultural activities with us. It was amazing to simply see how creative the Zulu people are with all their resources. They make everything from scratch and utilize what they have been given and it works for them. We use microwaves and plastic leftover containers, and may even live off them in college, even though it has been proven that this kind of utilization may cause cancer. The Zulu people use pots made from scratch and in order to fill in the cracks of their mud floor, they utilize cow dung because it fills in the cracks perfectly. We had the chance to explore the area, make pots out of clay, and we beaded bracelets. The huts that we slept in were actually quite comfortable! ☺ Great experience!

We had our farewell dinner the night before we left with the whole group of 55 of us and all of our staff and faculty. The two wonderful ladies in the first picture with me are my nursing professors. They were quite the hoot. Their personalities totally reminded me of my Mom and Aunt Noni... not their looks... simply their personalities. The one on the left is Glenda, aka my Mom, and the one on the right is Wendy, aka Aunt Noni :) The following morning, LG and I got up at the crack of dawn the day we left Pietermaritzburg, Saturday, April 9th, so that we may see the sunrise for the last time in the city of Pietermaritzburg. There is still work to be done in the city, but our work there is done for the time being. The seeds have been planted. God is in control. To God be all the glory now and forever. If we don’t praise Him, even the rocks will cry out. The sunrise was beautiful and totally worth it!

Travel week! The first leg of the journey was 8 hours of a luxury bus with a television. Amazing!!! After the wonderful 8 hours, we arrived in East London, South Africa at Gonubie Hotel right by the Gonubie Beach. The sunset that greeted us was absolutely breathtaking. I interpreted it as God welcoming us to our new home for the night. ☺

The next day, a few of us woke up for the sunrise and then we traveled on to Port Elizabeth, where one of our Community Life Coordinators, Reagen, is from. A group of about fourteen of us had the chance to actually meet his family at one of his sister’s houses. He is the baby of six living children, but he is also an identical twin. We all found it so much fun seeing another Reagen who called himself Ralton. Haha. I took a picture with both of them and Reagen borrowed his brother’s hat for the second picture, but he was still wearing the APU hoodie that totally gave it away. I took over and organized a family picture of all the siblings and their mother. The cultural differences between us almost ruined it, but I ignored their strange, confused looks that they gave me while I was trying to gather them together and got them all into one room. It was their first family portrait in a LONG time. ☺ Nailed it!

The next day, we traveled on to George, but before we had arrived to George, we stopped by at the Bloukran’s Bridge so that we could all jump off the bridge. ☺ I was extremely excited, but also so very very nervous. My pump up song along with many Christian worship songs on the way there was “Oh Africa” by Akon. Once we got to the bridge, we had to walk along this see-through mesh medal floor, which allowed us to see the river and trees beneath us the entire walk to the jump. Instead of getting more nervous though, a couple of friends and I started singing more pump-up songs. On the bridge as we were waiting for our numbers to get called out, they played techno music to pump us up even more. I was second out of our group. The moment had come and I tried to stay as pumped as I could. 5-4-3-2-1 Bungee! I had to jump. My mind pretty much went blank. The free fall was 5 seconds and then came the recoil and then another about 2 seconds of free fall. Then the dangling, waiting for the guy to come down on his cord to attach me to himself and take me back up. More dangling. I really didn’t think he was coming. The blood was rushing to my head. My feet felt like they were slipping. I imagined myself slipping out and landing on one of the trees beneath me. They did not look comfortable. The view was beautiful though! I found myself saying “Thank You Jesus!” over and over again, God is good. My new best friend had arrived to come get me. The pictures speak a thousand words. ☺ Bungee jump off the highest bridge one can jump from in the world…. Checked off my bucket list! Thank You Jesus!

OH AFRICA by Akon:

Oh Africa, Oh Africa, Oh Africa

I know that we have to take it to the goal
'Cause everyone's depending on we
See, we ain't got nowhere to go
But it's our destiny

We're choosing nowhere
We'll do what it takes to get to the top
Of the highest mountain

We'll do anything
We got to prove ourselves
'Cause we know

Oh Africa, Oh Africa, Oh Africa

See, we'll never be able to forget this day
'Cause it's the greatest day of our life
See, no matter what happens, at least we can say
We came, we saw, we tried

Oh Africa, Oh Africa, Oh Africa

This is our time to shine, our time to fly
Our time to be inside the sky
Our time to soar, our time to show
The last one in football

Oh Africa, Oh Africa, Oh Africa

The next day in George, South Africa, we stayed at a Christian conference center called Carmel Christian Guest House. The site was beautiful! We had a view of the ocean in the distance from our balcony and an amazing view of both the sunrise and the sunset. I was awe struck every morning and night with the beauty of the sky. Cango Cave Tour and Tiger and Cheetah petting the next day! I fit in places I didn’t know I could fit through while touring the Cango Caves. It was amazing! Such a cool experience. But the experience that really made my life complete was my 7 minutes of fame with the three 6-week-old baby tigers. I literally paid to just sit there and play with baby tigers. One of them climbed into my lap and I even got to kiss it! Such a cool experience! I also paid to pet a 6-month-old cheetah. I only got to pet it and then leave, but the complimentary picture that I received didn’t turn out the first time, so I “had to” go back in and pet it again. Haha! It was pretty sweet! ☺

That completes my update up until this point. I am currently residing in the Western Cape, Cape Town at the Bible Institute here in Kalk Bay. The campus is beautiful and is literally right in front of the water. We will be having our History of South Africa course here on campus as well as random field trips relating to the History of this country and random site seeing for the next two weeks. This week, I am staying in a flat here on campus with 5 other girls, but next week, Kara and I will be at our homestay. Basically, we break up into twos and stay with a family. We met the father of our household the other night at dinner, Clive. He seems really sweet, but he and his wife are both on workman’s comp and his wife is currently in bed due to intense back pains. They have two daughters that have both moved out of the house already, so staying with them should be fun since they know how to handle girls. ☺ We serve an amazing God and He is far too good to us. I am in love with this country. I am in love with Jesus. More on Cape Town soon. Love you all! Especially my Amazing Dad who posted this for me! :)