Here I am.

SAWUBONA! (Hello in isiZulu)

Safely arrived on the continent of Africa on the 23rd of January. It was such a long trip, but well worth it! Not to mention, we were on a plane with some of the friendliest people I've ever met. They wanted to chat and know what we were doing and tell us about themselves. I met a pastor from Madagascar who was visiting his two children who are both studying theology and divinity in the United States. He was so friendly! And they fed us real food on the flight and drinks practically every hour.

Something I have quickly learned is that this culture is a much, much more friendly one than ours. Almost everyone you encounter and everyone on the streets is so excited to see you and waves with a smile on their face! It is truly refreshing to see! I can already tell that going back to the less friendly America is going to be hard.

When we first got to Johannesburg (the biggest city in South Africa) we visited and toured a town called Soweto. It was the town that one of Nelson Mandela's homes is in and it has a very rich history. It reminded me of LA or San Francisco because every street was different, you had nice wealthy homes on one side, and then government subsidized shacks on the other. I guess some things are unfortunately the same everywhere. We hardly encountered any white people during this part of the trip and at times I felt guilty because we acted like these people were animals or an exhibit that we could just take pictures of and all stare at from our nice charter bus up high. After touring the city we went to the Apartheid museum which is the Afrikaans word for "separate". Once again, history seems to repeat itself even oceans apart. The Apartheid was very similar to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The blacks were segregated and considered less than the white people. They were oppressed until a new president came in, released Nelson Mandela from prison, and began some restoration of the country. One major difference between this part of South African history and our U.S. history is that Nelson Mandela became the first black president right afterward. The museum had shirts with pictures of Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama next to each other. They are pretty proud of America for electing our first non-white president.

After two days of adventuring in Johannesburg and Soweto, to made our way back to airport and on to our last plane for Durban. Let me just say that Durban looks so awesome, we didn't stay there we left for the 45 minute drive to Pietermartizburg but it looks like such a great tropical beach city. :) I can't wait to spend the day there. Pietermaritzburg is beautiful too though. Just more inland from Durban it is like a tropical, green paradise filled with streams and waterfalls! Just behind the campus is a game reserve that hosts zebras, antelope, monkeys and other animals. It has great trails for running. It is just so beautiful when we first arrived everyone was just so blown away and in awe that the campus could really be so great. The buildings are white dutch cottages referred to as "chalets". They are very cute aside from the bugs that they house.

One of my favorite parts of this culture is that there is tea time between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner. It is just a time when everyone stops what they are doing and goes to have a muffin or cookie and tea. Or coffee in my case! It is really nice I feel like I am engaged in so much conversation here constantly! I enjoy it though. Also, we went to this mall and Josh, Rob, Angie and I paid a couple of dollars for like 5 minutes in these "water balls". They were hilarious its basically like an inflated hamster ball that you play in on top of water. I was expecting it to be so much easier than it was, the second you started trying to run you were instantly sprinting and then falling flat on your back haha. It was so much fun!

So far this trip has been really great and I am looking forward to all that God has planned here for us. I know that He is going to meet us in this place and change us for the better. In the words of Matt Browning we will be, "ruined for the ordinary". Which is quite alright with me. Right now I am focusing on having an open heart and mind to what God has in store for me and the ways that I can serve and learn while I am here. Although I am missing people back home, I know that this is going to be one of the most remarkable experiences of my life. I don't want to let a second of it go to waste.

One last thing; CONGRATULATIONS TO LUKE for passing all of his final firefighting exams! What a blessing. All the hard work paid off. :)