What do you need to know while traveling abroad in South Africa?

Transportation
Weather
Special Events
Beaches
Church
Packing List

Pics for the Southgates to see

Ryan, Allison, and I outside the tent at the reception! More pics of Allison's wedding....
Maggie, dad, and I at Maggie's last tennis match!

Allison getting into the car after the ceremony. This church was literally in the backyard of her parents home! It was sooo gorgeous!
My room at Bethel!
The church!
Allison and Mike at the rehersal dinner!
another view of my room at Bethel...

My floor of girls and our brother floor.
A couple of people I work with at camp this summer.







Some girls from my floor who got their ears pierced! Definitely provided for some good floor bonding!














My cousin Jakob, who lives in Switzerland and Maggie, my sis!

pics

my south africa















thrilled after bungy jumping














watching the sunrise on the Monday we left Cape Town
















Alan, our infamous program director















Camp's Bay

pictures

CT scan

So instead of going on a hike tomorrow with the group, I pretty sure I'm going to be getting my first CT scan ever. I've been having headaches for the past three weeks, ever since I went bungy jumping, and they haven't been getting better, so I thought it would be a good idea to have my head checked out. The doctor thought so too today. Dr. Goldberg suggested that I get a CT scan tomorrow. SCARY, don't you think? I think so!

Please pray that everything goes well with that. I don't want to be sick when I get home next Tuesday, or have a horrible last couple days while I'm here. Pray for wisdom of the doctors, and the healing of my headaches!

Thanks so much!

Hope to see a bunch of you on Tuesday!

Khayelitsha, here we come!

Gosh it's hot and stinky in this internet cafe that I'm in this afternoon! Ick! We just came from a cricket match at the Newlands stadium. It was my first LIVE cricket match that I've ever seen. We watch it all the time on tv but we wanted to make sure that we actually attended a match while we were here. The match was South Africa versus New Zeland. Ryan took the time to explain the game to me...though I wanted to "get into" the game, I mostly enjoyed sitting on the grass and people watching the entire time. Today was a TEST match, so therefore it wasn't as exciting as it could have been. The weather was gorgeous, sunny skies with temps around 80, so I had nothing to complain about. The TEST match lasts the entire day believe it or not! We got there around 11 and leave around 4 and the game was still on!

Tonight I'm going home to pack up my stuff for 5 days in Khayelitsha, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town! I think overall we're all excited to go and experience township life for a long weekend. But here's the thing- not all of us are feeling too well. After a week at our internships a lot of us are worn out and getting sick. If you think of us, please pray that we don't get more sick! They might try to do some weird "curing" of sicknesses in the township, for all we know. The food, we've heard, is not what we're used to either. Our time will be spent mostly with the church and its youth group. We'll have to put our thinking caps on especially if they have us lead something for all the kids! Should be interesting! We come back Tuesday afternoon, and then have 5 days left in Cape Town!

hope you're all enjoying your spring!

Internship Done :(

So this will have to be quick as my time on the comp. is so short these days because I'm not able to be at school so often anymore. Oh wait, I'm never there anymore. I've been away from the computers at school since March something...can't even remember when....

My internship that I had this week and last has come to a conclusion today :( Yes, and for that I'm am very sad. Becca, Ryan, Jason, and I worked at a home for streets boys ages 16-25 in an area called Salt River. The home is called Beth Uriel. Sounds a whole lot like Bethel, huh? They all were saying "BU" all the time, and I'm thinking, where am I? We went there for the afternoons just to hang out and get to know the guys. All coming from off the streets previously, they all brought a lot of diversity and character to the home. They astonished me in so many ways that I was not even expecting. Many afternoons I spent simply listening to their stories. One guy named Derek told me how he used to have an anger problem, and now he no longer has the need to punch someone in the face when he gets upset with him. This home has brought a whole lot of hope into these desperate boys' lives. It's amazing to hear them talk about their dreams and aspirations. How I wish I could have spent more time there!

Yesterday we watched the movie Crash with the guys, and then today we had a discussion on the movie. The conversation consisted of why we have stereotypes of other groups of people and why we say that some are acceptable and others aren't. It was so cool to sit in on a dialogue with all these guys from not just South Africa, but other parts of Africa. With only one being white but the others are coloured, black, India, Angolan, Portugese, etc. Needless to say, I learned a lot! It was so hard to say goodbye after such a short time with all of them.

Next on the schedule is Khayelitsha! On Friday we leave to stay with families in the township of 1 million people! We return on Tuesday, so our stay has been shortened a bit. We're going to be working with the local church and youth group for the weekend. There will be a lot of down time, but we'll be able to get the feel of what it's like for the majority of the people in Cape Town. Most of Cape Town is in a township- below the poverty line.

I'll try to keep you all posted. the days are ticking.......

Eastern Cape

To say the least, the past week here has been nothing short of unforgettable…

I sat in a car for more than 20 hours driving around the Eastern Cape of South Africa
I bungy jumped off Boukrans Bridge, the highest commercial bungy jump in the world
I went on a safari in the Addo Elephant Park
I visited Nelson Mandela’s home and birthplace in Umtata
I went “mountain” biking in a village- it was more like hilly dirt biking
I slept on cow dung in the village
I learned “Xhosa”words, which is the language of the people in the village
I went “kloofing” aka cliff jumping
I saw dolphins feeding along the shore
….plus much more

I could go on and on about more of my adventures this past week, but to keep it some what short and to the point, I must highlight my experience in the traditional African village. Little did I know what I was getting myself into as our VW trudged through the pothole-filled dirt “road” that led us to our hut that we were going to sleep in on Monday night. As we traveled further and further into the middle of nowhere I couldn’t help but think to myself, I am living my dream to be in an African village. This is no longer a dream. This is real. I have always been enthralled with traditional African culture for as long as I can remember. If you ask anyone who knows me well, they will tell you that I am fascinated with anything that has to do with Africa- whether it is the music from The Lion King or the singing and dancing portrayed in other movies and documentaries of Africa. I’ve always loved learning about other cultures, however, there has always been something captivating and enchanting about Africa.

I had seen many glimpses of the soul of Africa while living in Cape Town the past few months, but now it was time for something different, and something new. As we drove up to the cement blocked, two-roomed home that was next door to our hut we slept in that night, I began my journey of living out my dream. We got out and greeted the family who was hosting us- the family consisted of a husband and wife along with grandparents and children. The youngest boy immediately started crying when we got out of the van, as he was probably overwhelmed with all of us white, English speaking young people crowding around his family. After unloading everything from the van, our guide Ianda left us for about a half an hour to fend for ourselves while he took care of some business. We were left with four boys staring and pointing at us while laughing. We decided to take the chance and ask them their names in English. Surprisingly they understood and answered us. After the name exchange was finished, silence fell upon the group. What’s next? How about a game of tag? That doesn’t require any use of language and heck, we’ve been in a van all day and need the exercise. Both the boys and a few of us enjoyed this activity for about 30 minutes. Our next activity, amazingly, was basically a photo shoot. Everyone and their mother took out their digital camera. Ha, just kidding, not everyone. I decided not to take out my camera and instead just observed the whole scene. The children were fascinated by the cameras that would show you the picture(you know, thost fancy digital ones) immediately after it was taken. Some may have never seen a camera before. During the photo shoot some of the older women started to sing and dance for us in Xhosa. We all started clapping to the beat and joined in the song. We were all united in song.

This is when the emotions started to come. The pleasure and joy of simply being in the presence of these beautiful people gave me a peaceful feeling that I was in the presence of my God. He has created each one of us to be beautiful to one another. It was as if the Lord was placing the gift of being in the presence of these beautiful people into the depths of my heart. It was astounding. It was truly a gift to be cherished. Without comprehending the words leaving their mouth, I was able to establish a connection in that moment. The unexpected tears started to flow throughout that night. The Mamas made us a traditional meal in which we all ate around a circle in our hut. I could tell that they found much joy in preparing such a meal for us. As we said goodnight to all the kids who were patiently waiting outside our hut for us to finish our dinner, some of the men of the village played their guitars for us- could not have been more perfect. I kept on wanting to slap myself in the face because everything I envisioned for this experience came to be true.

That Monday night my dream came true.

“Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
Praise him with the harp and lyre,
Praise him with tambourine and dancing,
Praise him with the strings and flute,
Praise him with the clash of cymbals,
Praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”
-Psalm 150:3-6

The world famous Boukrans Bridge- don't worry, if you want to see how I actually jumped off that bridge, I have a video of it. It already seems like a dream to me. Love to watch it with you all sometime.
Me getting all tied up. I got paranoid that the ropes and pads weren't tight enough, so I made the guys double check everything. I think that got annoyed with me and couldn't wait to push me off that bridge.
Ha.... and there I go.....
Our view from our room at the Buccaneers Backpacker on Cintsa Beach near Port Elizabeth. We stayed for two nights and it was only about $15 per night per person to sleep there! It was definitely our favorite place, with the gorgeous view and all the amazing people we met there! The famous sliding rock that Nelson Mandela slid down when he was growing up. Pictured: Rachel, a security guard, Ianda(our tour guide for two days), and me
Some boys from the village that we found playing on the beach.

The children from the village and I hanging out before our big bike ride.

Off to Hermanus for the Weekend!

The details are set! All 9 of us Bethel students are taking the weekend to do a road trip to the beautiful coastal town called Hermanus! Benita, my host mom, helped us in finding two chalets at the Hermanus Beach Club for Saturday and Sunday night for literally $15 per night! The Beach club is fully equipped with two pools, a game room, and two tennis courts! I've been dying to play tennis and now I finally can! Becca found someone from Meadowridge Baptist Church who is lending us their 15-passenger van for the weekend! So needless to say, we have been blessed in planning this weekend, especially because a lot of us don't have a lot of money left! It'll be nice to relax and enjoy each others company as the past few weeks have been quite busy with school ending and all. I will definitely take lots of pictures and tell you all about our weekend when we get back.

I'm DONE!

A view looking toward Lion's Head from Camp's Bay.
The Soweto String Quartet!
From left to right, Joseen(a very good friend of the Southgate's), Benita(my host mom!), and Astrid with her eyes closed again! She always manages to have her eyes closed when I take a photo of her! We all enjoyed the evening spent outside listening to lovely music!

Finally a picture of my host dad, Randall! This isn't the best picture of him obviously, but it'll do for now. The photo was taken on Saturday when we all, most Bethel students and my host family, went to an outdoor concert in Kirstenbosch. The Soweto String Quartet played some amazing music for us! The diversely mixed crowd of all colors and ages was all dancing by the end of the show!
The NEWLY engaged couple- Allison and Mike! This is a picture of them from a pull-off over looking Camp's Bay. They rented a cottage in Camp's Bay for the week, which is where Mike proposed to her!



It’s official- I am finished with my 4 classes, 17 papers, and 115 pages of writing in 7 weeks. Friday I finished my Truth and Reconciliation Commission research paper on forgiveness at 12:00 PM so I rewarded myself by going to Fish Hoek beach with Becca for the afternoon! It was an amazing feeling to know that I won’t have to be doing an more “work” while I’m here, that is, except my task of continuing to learn more about South African culture which will not be difficult at all.

This coming week we have the freedom to do whatever we please, as we have nothing officially scheduled until April 7th which is when we leave for the Eastern Cape. So with this week being free, a couple of us had the amazing idea to find a way to take a small trip somewhere! Though the details are not set at all yet, we’re planning on going to a place called Hermanes for a couple of days! We’ve heard it’s a beautiful place where you can see lots of whales roaming the waters, plus just a simply all-around gorgeous area to spend a few days in! So hopefully the details will come together in the next few days!

They’re engaged! Yes, in case you didn’t know, Allison Beatty and Mike Maynard got engaged this past week. Allison, one of the Bethel students whom I’ve grown to love so much while being here, had her boyfriend/now fiancé Mike come to visit her for a week in Cape Town. We all knew that there would be the possibility of him proposing when he came, but as the time came near for him to come Allison gave it a 60% NO/40% YES chance that he would ask. Well Mike showed up last Saturday and proposed on Wednesday night to Allison in their cottage in Camp’s Bay! We’re so excited for them! CONGRATS!

Pics

This photo is of Nosandi and I outside of Cornerstone and was taken last Friday afternoon after we had a conversation/interview about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She had some very interesting insights from a black person's point of view of the TRC, and it was truly a blessing to talk to her. I can definitely see the two of us staying contact after I leave SA.

Astrid's choir singing at Kirenstenbosch Festival! Look at their wonderful uniforms! They had to wear them on this gorgeous Saturday afternoon! I would point out Astrid, however she's in the back of this group of girls and I can't seem to find her head or anything in this photo. Astrid goes to an all girls school in Wynberg. She's in eighth grade, which is her first year of being at the high school.
Pictures from Hannah's Birthday Party at Claire's in Fish Hoek.....

Jean-Luc, Emily, and Judith


Lesiba and Jason in the corner of the room being really random, I guess they were having some sort of "moment"


Jean-Luc handing out the popcorn....

I will be able to say TGIF

Suffice to say, I have been a workaholic this week. Papers have been all over my itinerary and I cannot wait for a change of scenery. That is, I am sick of staring at a computer so much. I have one more paper to write and then I’ll be done with work for the rest of my semester. Crazy to think of it that way! Even though I have so much more to LEARN, I will not need to type what I’ve learned anymore. Soon it’ll be time for the “cultural experience” in South Africa to begin, though I’ve already had plenty of cultural experience so far.

The weather is changing into the cool autumn breeze at night and a warm, instead of boiling, sun during the day. Everyone here thinks it is winter- but I’m in denial of that. As long as I don’t have to put a hat or scarf on to keep warm, it’ll be summer for me.

My bruise is healing very fast, in case you were wondering. It’s more of a dark/light brown instead of purplish blue color. Dad- I will try to be more careful. I only have one more surfing lesson to do, it’s my fourth and last one, so pretty much I’m a pro.

Last weekend we had two birthday parties- one for Hannah and one for Kristi. On Saturday night we all went over to Claire’s house, who goes to Cornerstone, to celebrate Hannah’s birthday. Emily, Kristi, and I demonstrated all of the cheesiest dance moves that we could possibly think of- “sprinkler”, “shopping cart”, “bus driver”, and last but not least, Kristi whipped out the “typewriter”. None of the Cornerstone students had ever seen such horrible dancing before. They were simply laughing at us for about 20 minutes straight. We all had a blast that night! For Kristi’s birthday we went horseback riding for 2 straight hours! I think I’m getting older because I remember horseback riding to be a lot more fun! After about an hour I was ready to get off that horse! I had the rudest horse alive! “Bles” didn’t want anyone to pass him especially by the glare that he gave to every other horse! Once in a while I was able to enjoy the vineyards, the mountains, the baby cows we passed, and the sunset but for the most part I was trying to stay on my horse and keep him from attacking all other horses. Kristi had a ride of a lifetime- she says it was the highlight of her trip so far. I guess then it was worth it for the sake of Kristi's birthday.

Cheers,
Anna

ps can't wait for friday....

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

This past Saturday was our third surfing lesson at Muzienburg. Let me just say that it wasn't my ideal day....When we got to the beach it was absolutely gorgeous- warm sunny blue sky, the perfect day to surf, or that's what I thought. The people at the surf shack gave me a wet suit that was way too small for me, but I didn't have the energy to go back and get a bigger one- so I just tried my hardest to ignore the fact that I was going to have a wedgy for the next two hours. Then when I walk outside with my surf board I can see that there's no sun in sight! It got cold somehow! We go ahead and get in the water, when we very quickly find out that the waves are much bigger and plentiful than we were use to. I quickly caught a wave alongside Becca, and from there on I was lost in the sea of surfers. I had lost the group, and there was no way that I was going to be able to make my way back out to them....I was just trying to stay alive, wave after wave...Not very much fun. To add to the fact that I was "all by myself"(none of the group was close by), my board ended up jabbing me in the back of my arm!!! BOY did that hurt! I was able to ignore the pain for the time we had remaining, but when I got home it had already turned black and blue, and had swollen up like a golf ball! Check out the picture below! This was not taken on the day we went surfing. This was the week before when we were sitting on the beach watching all of the children play in the sand.
Martin(far right) had all the Bethel students over to his flat in Res at Cornerstone yesterday. I feel so bad that I can't remember how to spell the other guys two names.....We had lots of snacks- one of them was called a "fat roll" which was a breaded roll soaked in grease! YUM! :(
And here's my bruise....

Last weekends Festivities

The guys and girl playing the marimbas and drum set at the restaurant Mama Africa! Excellent food with a wonderful atmosphere!
My first Rugby match! Randall got tickets in a box for myself and him at the South Africa Stormers versus the New Zealand team. Not sure what their team name was, but we(SA) ended up loosing. I still had a great time and now finally understand the game of rugby!
Benita(my host mom that's not pictured), Astrid(to the right of me), and I went to breakfast at Constantia Wine Estate on Saturday morning! GORGEOUS!

The infamous package finally arrived! It was like Christmas in March! I loved everything, thanks to my family for sending me and the Southgates such an amazing package after waiting for three weeks for it! It was definitely worth the wait! The cookies my mom made on Feb 7th were still very tasty! hint hint....you can send me cookies anyone!!! Friday night at the Carnival in Wynberg! this is Kristi on the swings
Becca and Emily! How cute!

Allison and Ryan! The three of us ate too much so we thought swings were not the best option...
This is what my life is like when there's no electricity.....which happens to be quite often.


today is the half way point of my South Africa term! cannot believe it!

Surfing at Muzienburg!

Though I predicted that the power outages were coming to an end this week, the city of Cape Town has proven me wrong. Rumor has it that this “current”(get the irony?) saga will continue for another two years in the Western Cape! Life without power makes for unpredictable challenges all across the board. Candles now sit by my bed side, gas cooking stoves are sitting next to the electric stoves, thermoses are by the electric water heater, and the location of the lighter is known to everyone in the house! When the current is on you must take advantage of every possible electric appliance in the house! Though I get frustrated when we don’t have light, I have come to appreciate the times in the evening when we sit by the candle light to eat our supper without the television noise in the background. Last night Benita made Astrid and I some amazing omelets on the gas stove at 10:30 at night. I’ve never had such amazing omelets! I think Benita should become an overseas consultant for Betty Crocker! What do you think Mom?

This week has been pretty laid back so far…

Monday, in place of attending leadership class in the classroom, we separated into groups and went out into the community to ask leaders about their leadership experience, styles, and ideas. My group went to the Anglican church just down the road from Cornerstone to interview Father Alan Smith. We had a very in-depth interview with him for an hour and a half! He had a lot of wisdom for us! Following our church interview we went to the local grocer, Pick-n-Pay, to interview managers at the executives office in Claremont. Because of miscommunication in booking these appointments with the managers, we ended up having three groups interviewing at the same time! I came out of the interview with great respect for the company of Pick-n-Pay. I should really shop there more often, I thought to myself. J Needless to say, I learned a lot about leadership on Monday.

Tuesday we had our “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” class from 9-11AM with Alan. We had a panel of three South Africans, along with four other American students who are working in Cape Town for three weeks, visit us for the morning. The discussion revolved around us asking the panel their views on the TRC. I have been learning a lot about the struggles of dealing with the country’s horrific past of being under apartheid and the challenge of moving towards reconciliation. I’ll have to share more of my thoughts and new knowledge with you all someday!

Wednesday(today) was a public holiday- what does that mean, you ask?- NO CLASS! That’s all it means to me, but for every registered voter in South Africa, it means that you vote today! People were voting for their wards and other local government people. Because I didn’t have to vote, I became very lazy today! I did get off my behind to go to an Ash Wednesday Mass at the church down the road with Allison and Ryan tonight. The priest was scared we were going to lose power so he skipped one of the readings and just read the gospel, gave us our bread and ashes, and we were out the door in literally 41 minutes…not that I was timing it or anything. Talk about a get-in-get-out Mass! This will be my first time being away from home for the entire Easter season! Easter is only 40 days away!

OH!! Can’t believe I almost forgot to mention it! Monday night I found out that I was hired to be a Freshmen RA in Egdren for next year at Bethel! I get to live on a floor with 25 other girls again! I wasn’t sure whether they’d place me in a Freshmen dorm or an upperclass residence, so it was totally up in the air! Though I’m excited about this amazing opportunity, I’m also going to thoroughly miss living with amazing roommates! You all know who you are! So can we all get an apartment to live together in for this summer? That’d be great.

Some thoughts to leave you with…

“Any gospel which is not social is not gospel. God so loved the world that he didn’t just sit is his great theological rocking chair stroking his white beard and glory in his love for the world. He did something about it. He became social in the form of his son. In the incarnation the spiritual word became a social event. To separate word and deed is to deny the incarnation.”
- The Upside-Down Kingdom by Donald Kraybill

More Power to Ya!

this is James, a Cornerstone student, in the computer lab where i do all of my emails everyday!



So I’m sitting upright on my bed with my head against the backboard at 8:56PM with a lighted candle on a saucer atop my bed stand. Astrid had just left the room to go to bed, partly because she got bored and partly because it’s her bedtime. 9:00PM, I know, very early for a 14 year-old to be going to bed. The reason that I have a candle next to my bed and Astrid’s boredom is because there is no electricity in the house- or “no current” as people say here.

Though this is the first night we’ve had to actually light the candles, the city of Cape Town has had intermittent electricity outages for the past 4 days. Supposedly this could continue until the end of the coming weekend! All throughout the daytime the electricity in all the neighborhoods goes on and off without any warning. Every day this week Cornerstone’s electricity went out for part of the day! The lights, the computers, the printers, the gates, and the stove are all M.I.A.! The Cape Town resides are going crazy! People who normally have a 10 minute commute to their job, now have at least a 60 minute commute! Robots(traffic lights) do not work, so therefore there’s chaos at all of the intersections!

You might be wondering why there has been such trouble with the electricity here? Well I have an answer- a part for the city’s generator is broken and they haven’t received the part yet. Sounds pathetic, huh? Well that’s the story. Reporters keep on pushing back the deadline for this part to be fixed. So really who knows when the chaos will end.
I have 23 minutes or 13% of power left on my laptop right now. After this thing dies who knows when I’ll be able to write again. I don’t even know when I’ll be able to post this journal entry onto my blog. Guess I’ll have to revert to the ink and paper method. That could take forever to get to you all then! I’m never taking technology for granted again!

More Power to Ya!

this is James, a Cornerstone student, in the computer lab where i do all of my emails everyday!



So I’m sitting upright on my bed with my head against the backboard at 8:56PM with a lighted candle on a saucer atop my bed stand. Astrid had just left the room to go to bed, partly because she got bored and partly because it’s her bedtime. 9:00PM, I know, very early for a 14 year-old to be going to bed. The reason that I have a candle next to my bed and Astrid’s boredom is because there is no electricity in the house- or “no current” as people say here.

Though this is the first night we’ve had to actually light the candles, the city of Cape Town has had intermittent electricity outages for the past 4 days. Supposedly this could continue until the end of the coming weekend! All throughout the daytime the electricity in all the neighborhoods goes on and off without any warning. Every day this week Cornerstone’s electricity went out for part of the day! The lights, the computers, the printers, the gates, and the stove are all M.I.A.! The Cape Town resides are going crazy! People who normally have a 10 minute commute to their job, now have at least a 60 minute commute! Robots(traffic lights) do not work, so therefore there’s chaos at all of the intersections!

You might be wondering why there has been such trouble with the electricity here? Well I have an answer- a part for the city’s generator is broken and they haven’t received the part yet. Sounds pathetic, huh? Well that’s the story. Reporters keep on pushing back the deadline for this part to be fixed. So really who knows when the chaos will end.
I have 23 minutes or 13% of power left on my laptop right now. After this thing dies who knows when I’ll be able to write again. I don’t even know when I’ll be able to post this journal entry onto my blog. Guess I’ll have to revert to the ink and paper method. That could take forever to get to you all then! I’m never taking technology for granted again!