Ode to my uGogo

This past week my family and I have been saying sad goodbyes to a very wonderful lady, my uGogo. My uGogo as I will refer to her now while I’m still living in South Africa was probably one of the most influential persons in my life. She was loving, caring, supportive, creative, and most importantly a woman of faith who loved God.

Last month one of my fellow SwaLeSa SALTers, Simon in Lesotho, Grandfather passed away. In his blog entry as he reflected about him, he spoke about his grandfather hands, if I were to reflect on my uGogo’s hands I would have to say she had firm, gentle ones, but they were the softest of all.

Being so far from family during this difficult time has been very tough. My family have been really great and kept me up to date during her last hours of life and the funeral details. I have been very blessed by them and by God for allowing an unexpected blessing. During her final hours, she was given morphine to ease her pain, but doing so it perked her up and with that, my loving family gave me one last unexpected blessed conversation with her. It was a tough one, but I am so forever thankful to them to have been able to give her my last goodbye and an “I love you Grandma”.

So over the past two days I have been going through my mind reflecting all of my precious memories of her and here is what I complied and e-mailed home for her bulletin program.

“I have so many wonderful memories of my uGogo that it’s hard to write them all down. But if I had to pick a few, one would certainly be a childhood Christmas present where she had sewn Kimberly and I homemade Barbie clothes and I felt so tickled and special to have these wonderful clothes for my Barbie’s. But not only did she sew us Barbie clothes but also Cabbage Patch clothes, doll bedding for doll beds that Grandpa had built, clothes for us girls but she was also crafty in knitting us all wonderful warm sweaters, hat & mitten sets and beautiful crochet afghans!

uGogo was a wonderful cook, and made so many delicious meals. Some of my favourite foods that she made would have to have been her everything in the fridge soups, to the best darn chocolate chip cookies, to banana birthday cakes, to yummy lasagne, to homemade bread, and the list could go on.

One of my favourite pass time activities I spent with her was getting out her Triomino’s game. uGogo’s favourite game was Scrabble, but I enjoyed playing Triomino’s with her the best. Every time I filled in a circle of Triomino pieces she would say “You little stinker” since you earn a lot of bonus points.

Usually while we played the game I would often put on one of her Christian CD’s. uGogo, loved to sing and I also love to sing. If I could chose one of her favourite songs it would have to be “What a Friend we have in Jesus”. Another memorable memory I have of her was during a Sunday morning worship service at her church and she leaned down to me during a hymn and told me I had a beautiful voice! I can’t remember her exact words, since it was so long ago.

uGogo, was always there for us granddaughters growing up, even though she was a 35 min drive away there was nothing stopping the many phone call conversations. One particular phone call that stands out in my mind was made after I had walked unknowingly beneath a wasp nest and was stung. Mom wasn’t home at the time and Katherine’s first response was to call uGogo for treatment advice. uGogo was a very wise lady and always knew what to do in any situation.

One of the many other things that uGogo and I had in common was that we both are the youngest siblings in our families. Growing up uGogo hated being called “The Baby”. And I clearly remember one day, someone clearly called me those dreaded words. The next thing we all heard was her clearly stating “Don’t call her The Baby”! I don’t think I was called those words to my face again at least not in her presence.

uGogo loved God, and was supportive in us girls getting to know him as well. I can still remember sleepovers where we picked out a bible story and after being tucked into bed she would read us the story, and conclude with a prayer. The last day I saw her, back in July, I had a few moments where she was able to comprehend that I was leaving for a year of service with MCC’s SALT (Serving and Learning Together) program. She asked me what she could do for me, and then asked if I would like prayer. If there was a problem about something she would say “Just pray about it”. It was her and Grandpa who gave me my first violet leather bound Bible filled with pictures.

Being so far away in south Africa, during this time is very hard.  I didn't anticipate this happening. Ah shucks”

So in conclusion, I thought I would like to finish off with these beautiful lyrics of one of her favourite songs:

What a Friend we Have in Jesus

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry ev’rything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry ev’rything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our ev’ry weakness take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, ‘cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer!
Do they friends despise, for sake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he’ll take and shield thee thou wilt find a solace there.

Grandma's Obituary

As my uGogo would say to us in departing, "Mach Gut". 
Mach Gut everyone, Mach Gut!

Flying Bricks & His Eye is on the Sparrow

Part 1 of Port Elizabeth & Cape Town Holiday

My long days of planning, booking and excitement of visiting the Cape finally arrived and on April 1st I finally boarded my Citiliner bus for Port Elizabeth, my first stop of my holidays down to the Cape.
I left Durban at 5 pm, 15 minutes behind schedule; Africa, does anything ever happen on time? When I planned this bus trip I had planned on an overnight ride down to PE which was due to arrive there at 6:45 the following morning, what I didn’t anticipate was arriving 4 hours late, which made my 14 hr ride into an 18 hr ride, eek too long!!
You now must be wondering why was I four hours late and what does flying bricks & His Eye is on the Sparrow have to do with the delay? Well about just over 2hrs into the trip, I heard a big bang and discovered that a brick was thrown from someone in the ditch at the front of the bus which ended up puncturing a small whole which lead into a large spider crack into one of the driver’s front windows. About a minute or two later after the front window was hit, I heard a bit of a commotion from behind me and noticed that 3 of the passengers were standing up in the aisle of the bus. I soon realized that another brick was thrown and smashed a window. “Welcome to Africa”, I was told by near by passengers! The people were calling to the bus driver to stop the bus, stop the bus, but the driver did not stop, but called the local police and we pulled into the nearest community where we ended up waiting for 2 hours outside a police station for a replacement bus from Durban. What I learned from this experience was that the people in the ditch throwing the bricks were intending to have us pull over to examine the damage and in the process hi-jack us to rob us of our money and cell phones!
After I safely arrived at my backpackers in PE, ate lunch, finally checked into my room, I decided to walk down to the beach front to check out the weekend festivities. There was a Splash festival going on and I decided to wander through the vendors lining the beach front to see what they were selling and then decided to take a walk down the pier. As I started my decent down the pier my ears perked up on a very familiar song. “Why I should I feel discouraged, why do the shadows come, why should my heart feel lonely and long for Heaven and home. For Jesus is my pardon, my constant friend is he. His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free, for his eye is on the Sparrow, and I know he watches me.” There was a stage set up across from the pier and there was a guy singing Christian songs to the crowds of people at the festival. My fellow LMCer’s who are reading this, may remember that was the last song I sang at church before I left. Wow!! How much reassurance did I need from God after what I went through the night before on the bus? Yes God I’m listening and I know you are watching me like you watch the sparrows!! If I could sum up my experiences with God for the year I would have to say he kept me safe from flying bricks!
Anyways continuing on, later that first night at my backpackers I met up with some of the others staying there and one of the guys tried teaching me how to play pool. In future if you need a pool partner, don’t ask me to partner up, I’m truly am not gifted in the game! The following day was a full day of safari adventures, starting off with touring around Addo Elephant Park where I spotted my first black rhino. The black rhino is rare and I think there are only 5000 of them left in all of Africa! At Addo, I saw a Cape buffalo, lots elephants, hartebeests, kudus, and warthogs. This region of South Africa has been experiencing 8 to 9 months of draught and the week before they had some rain which the elephants had gone into the wooded area to find more water, and we were fortunate to see a big family of them running for a waterhole near the road.
After Addo, our driver drove us over to nearby Schotia Private Game Reserve, where we enjoyed a nice cold lunch. There I said goodbye to the young German’s who I had spent the morning with over at Addo and met up with my new group of Europeans from England, Holland and again Germany for my next safari in Schotia. Here we traded in the tour bus and climbed aboard a 4x4 safari truck. Schotia is a smaller park but still filled with lots of animals and it was here that I was keen on seeing lions living in a more of a natural habitat. As we trekked through the park we came a cross blesbuck, crocodile, white rhino, giraffe, hare, hartebeest, hippo, impala, monkey, mongoose, springbuck, warthog, wildebeest, zebra, and of course lions. Seven lions to be exact, which we were entertained when they started prowling in on some impala and when they couldn’t catch one for their dinner they started sniffing out the nearby zebras. My ranger Malcolm was more concerned that the lions would go after a baby giraffe that was about 6 weeks old. We all stayed there for supper which was included in the day and we were served a wonderful meal. As we headed out after supper we noticed the hippo was out of the pond and also sighted a few other smaller animals, including the hare. How appropriate for it being the eve of Easter! It was a fun filled day, I got quite a few pictures, but disappointingly my camera battery died but I still manage to get a few loin pictures before it went completely.
Signing off…
End of Part I, stay tuned for Part II

The Mother City (Cape Town)

Part 2 of PE & Cape Town Holiday

Easter Sunday I boarded the same bus I originally left Durban on at the start of my journey. The following day after the brick incident the bus windows were replaced and it was road worthy again. This bus journey was only 12 hrs in length, but a good part of the route traveled through the beautiful Garden Route and the Little Karoo of South Africa. Where on the one side you have the beautiful Indian Ocean to look out at some of the time and the other side was a massive mountain ridge, it is very beautiful breath taking scenery to travel through! I finally arrived into a windy Cape Town just after 8pm, Easter Sunday night and discovered the Easter Bunny had left me sweets on my bed.
During my 6 nights, 5 days in Cape Town I stayed at the Ashanti Green Point Back Packers. It is a really nice place with friendly staff and it’s also a pretty new location; where I spent a lot of time in the evenings mingling with the other guest from around the world. Most of the travelers I met during the week either at Ashanti or my day tours were mostly from Europe, such as Holland, Sweden, Germany, and Belgium and then also from England, Wales, South Korea, Brazil, Australia, Canada, USA, Nepal, Thailand, and from the Islands of Madagascar! I think I got them all!!
My first 2 days I traveled around the city on the City Sight Seeing Bus. This is a really great way to tour around the city. It is a double decker bus and the top part is open, and you receive ear phones to listen to an audio guided city tour of the city as you drive down the streets. As you travel along, you are able to hop off and then back on at any of the route stops. So Monday I took the Blue Bus, which was the mini Peninsula tour and I first hopped off at the Kristenbosch Botanical Gardens, which is located on the other side of Table Mountain. It is a very beautiful place with lots of flower beds and the mountains make a beautiful back drop against everything. Mingling throughout the park besides people, were guinea fowl birds, lots and lots of them. It was very beautiful and I kept myself busy photographing lots of different plants and different varieties of the Nations flower, The Protea. The next stop I hopped off at was at Imizamo Yethu, a township built up where it used to be a garbage dump site. Next and after that I hopped off at Camps Bay where I dinned at a beach front restaurant. Camps Bay is a very posh/wealthy beach area and the homes are very expensive, it is here that you can get a beautiful view of The Twelve Apostles. A long mountainous ridge which consists of about 17 mountain peaks in a row. That pretty much sums up my first day of Cape Town.
Tuesday, the following day I took the red bus route and stayed within the city hopping on and off at various points along the route which included a market where you could by African crafts and souvenirs, I spent a bit of time browsing amongst the different booths. The sellers are very eager to sell you their things and will try and barter a good price with you. Afterwards I made my way to the Castel of Good Hope where I did a very quick and brief tour of inside the grounds, since I was eager to get to Table Mountain, the weather was good and it was finally open for tourists. Weather plays a big roll in whether it is safe to travel up the World Famous Mountain! It is so beautiful and breath taking at the top and you can see quite far out on a clear day.

A top of Table Mountain

Wednesday, was my wine tour out to Stellenbosch, Paarl, and a couple other nearby wineries. The Winelands are another beautiful area to explore in the Cape area, set a little bit back from the coast, but not too far away and still nestled in amongst the mountains. The wineries had just harvested the last of the grapes off the vines; but it is fall here and the leaves have started to turn brown, which help to enhance the already beautiful scenery; and soon be for we know, it will be winter. My favourite winery out of the four would have to be a tie between my first and second winery. The first winery also included cheese tasting and also had a bakery where you could purchase fresh baked bread. The second winery I enjoyed the atmosphere, and the presentation of tasting the wines. It was another great day of my holiday!

When traveling to Cape Town, a must on your to do list is to drive around the Peninsula, and stop at Hout Bay and visit Seal Island and see all the seals, Simon’s Town & Boulders Beach to see the oh so cute Jackass (African) Penguins, Chapmans Drive for a spectacular view of Hout Bay, bike down to Cape of Good Hope and hike over to Cape Point where the two Oceans meet (Indian & Atlantic). This is how I spent my day on the Thursday, touring around the Peninsula and it was fantastic, even though I was pretty sore and stiff by the time I reached Cape Point! But it was so worth it!! Along my travels in the Peninsula I saw blesbuck, ostrich, little furry dassies (look like bunnies with little ears), eland and finally some baboons along the road side going back into the city.
Friday was my day to visit Robben Island, wander around the V&A (Victoria & Alfred) Waterfront, and meet up with Chantale’s , (my good friend from home) cousin, Vanessa, who is spending a high school semester in Cape Town. Let’s just say that the weather wasn’t in the cards for me and my Robben Island tour was cancelled due to unsafe water travels over to the island! Drats, if I ever get back to the Mother City it will be a must! So I ended meeting up with Vanessa earlier and a couple of her friends and we visited the Two Oceans Aquarium. The aquarium was neat and we saw a variety of different penguins getting fed, other neat and cool sea creatures and of course the Great White Shark! Afterwards we just wandered around the waterfront. It was a pretty good last full day in Cape Town and I feel pretty accomplished that I was able to do most of the things on my to do list.
Saturday morning I flew back to Durban, but almost missed my flight! Can’t seem to get away from a little bit of excitement and stress on the traveling from one city to another. I am now back to work in PMB, and probably no more big travel plans until I leave in July.
Cheers and I hope you enjoyed reading about my holiday down to Port Elizabeth and Cape Town
Signing off…

Late But Not Forgotten, March Update

Like I titled this, late but not forgotten, March update; I had intended to post an update before I left for holidays but didn’t get there. So my apology to all my readers following my blog and wondering what I did in March.
March started out with busy beginning with the first week. The first Saturday I went to a function at my friend Becky’s church. Her church hosted a “Taste the Nations” night where home/cell groups picked a country and made food dishes and dressed in that country’s style of dress. So amongst the country’s represented where Mozambique, England, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Thailand, USA, India, South Korea, and Afrikaans and Zulu representing South Africa. Some of the dishes I didn’t try since I wasn’t too sure about them but did enjoy food from the Indian, Thailand, England (apple dessert yum yum), Mozambique, Afrikaans, and the USA (fried chicken & corn bread) tables. I didn’t end up trying very much of the African foods since I met up with a very lovely Canadian family from Vancouver. After a while the people started to form a circle and music was soon heard, a violin, guitar, a couple small drums, and someone else shaking a noise shaker. As we stood listening to the music, the gentleman with the shaker (Webster) started pulling people into the circle to dance with him. And as he pulled people in one by one, it wasn’t long for him to tug on my hand and as soon as I put my bag down I joined in on the fun.
After the food, music and dancing we made our way inside for a short program of worship singing, skit, and some cultural sharing. It was a great night and I had fun, even though I didn’t get to finish trying the different foods, it was still a good night.
The Tuesday following the weekend I was invited home for the night with one of my friends from Gateway Christian School, Nokuthula. Nokuthula lives in one of the townships on the outskirts of PMB called Azalea, beside Imbali, with her parents and two younger brothers. To get to her home we had to travel on kombi’s and her kombi rank is an underground location which made me a bit nervous following her through the dimly lit area to her queue line to wait for a kombi to arrive and hop on and find our seats.
Once we finally arrived in her township we walked down her streets to her house which is built of concrete blocks, it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but once you step through the door into the family/lounge it is pretty nice inside. I find that when I drive past these homes, you don’t have any idea what the inside of the house is like. I had no idea of Nokuthula’s place and I found her home very homey and comfortable. Her family had electricity and indoor plumbing which includes a shower and toilet, but the water tap is outside on the house wall, and all the normal appliances we have back home including fridge, stove, microwave and washing machine I found inside. Before we ate dinner we took a little walk down to the store to buy some cold drink and as we walked through her neighbourhood, her neighbours would comment “Nokuthula, why didn’t you tell me you were bringing a friend home, I would have swept up nicer” or “I would have worn a nicer outfit” or “When she’s done at your place can she come over to mine?” I felt like an instant celebrity walking with her to the store and back! I had a lovely time with her family, and I might go back for another night if I have time.
A couple days later, I went with the school principle’s wife (Audrey) and a group of young Americans and Belgium’s out into the rural community and did like an outreach day helping people suffering with TB, helping to sweep their floor in their homes and washing blankets. The first home we stopped at, the man with TB was just diagnosed and had just started his meds so we had to be careful by wearing a mask on face and wearing gloves on our hands since TB is very contagious. We traveled to a few other places where I learn how people in the rural setting try to generate income so they can help support their families. Some of the ways the try and generate income is by growing produce that can hopefully be sold to a local consumer, selling air time for cell phones or maybe investing in purchasing folding chairs to be rented out for wedding or funeral ceremonies. It was a good day and it made me appreciate what we take for granted back home.
Probably one of the best highlights of March or maybe the whole year was when two of us LMCer’s finally met up. Yup, I mean after months of waiting and waiting to finally see a familiar face from home, it finally happened. Jeremy arrived in PMB!!!! Jeremy and his CMU Outtatown program stayed in the cell accommodation building for 10 days. We did spend a little bit time chatting and catching up on our experiences and realized that we both experienced similar things on our travels. One of my most memorable moments of his time here in PMB was joining his group for a traditional African meal prepared by some of the staff at Project Gateway. Some of the food that was prepared for us was, soft meelie (corn on the cob), potato, cooked spinach, steamed bread, beans and most interesting and challenging chicken feet and heads! I couldn’t convince myself to try the head but manage to try a foot. Jeremy on the other hand tried both and everything on his plate where I didn’t. Not enough time to finish it. After the meal we were treated to some African songs and games outside in the car park. The 10 days flew by and I had to say a sad goodbye to him as his team boarded their bus and followed James up to Swaziland to see what MCC is doing there. It was a great time, but then it was time to start getting myself ready for Cape Town.

Signing off....

Stay tuned for Port Elizabeth and Cape Town highlights.

Living in SA, My Thoughts & Opinions

There have been a couple topics that I struggle to blog about. I have made attempts to write them but I seem to fail in getting my thoughts down the way I want to, grr! I want to share these things with you and I know you would all be interested in them; my opinions of these matters of South African and its reality of living. So I will try my hardest to give it another go.

South Africa is a very beautiful country and I have experienced many incredible adventures exploring its landscapes, animals and people. I absolutely love the nature here; it’s just so beautiful and stunning. But there are other items of this country that make me sad, and even sadder. One of these sadder items is Apartheid, my opinion on this matter is that it was a very cruel period in this country’s history, but it happened and now they are still struggling with its after affects.

Growing up in a Mennonite Family and church, I am a pacifist; I don’t believe in fighting but would rather work to avoid conflict and develop peaceful resolution. How the black South African people were treated by the Afrikaner Government I find rather appalling, how they were segregated and forced out of their homes so that white people could build and live there and sent to live in harsh conditions such as shacks on the outskirts of the cities and towns. Families were destroyed; if a white family was thought to be a little dark they were classified as coloured and removed from their family. There were white only schools and no coloured child was allowed to study there. There were curfews set in place and they were to be home by a certain time. You had to carry your identity booklet with you and could only go to certain places that you were allowed, no blacks or coloured could enter a white only place. Most jobs employed by black people were domestic or working down in the mines. Education was limited and with very little material for the black children and so when they went to find work it ended up being low paid domesticated jobs. I am sure there are other things that happened during the Apartheid era that I did not mention.

I know my own country’s past treatment of the First Nations people is almost the same and it’s also appalling. I believe in equal rights and both these incidents we are all made in God’s image and we all should be treated as equal and enjoy all things together without hatred for each other.

Today as I walk the streets of PMB, the evidence is still here but slowly it is changing little by little. Quite a few black Africans have now moved into towns and cities where they weren’t allowed to live before, they are getting better education in most schools and now are able to get better jobs and careers the same as white. But most of the domestic jobs are still employed by the black citizens, but job creation is very evident, if they can create a job then the better. Even though some of the black people have moved into the towns and cities there are hundreds and thousands of black people who still live in the townships on the outskirts of the city. PMB is located in the bottom of a hollow and in the rolling hills around the city lies the many townships of black communities. The poorer schools that the black children attend, lack in government assistance for school material and educational aids. There are still sections in town where the large Indian population still live, and sections where the black people have moved into. I myself would not walk through these sections on my own for safety reasons. Muggings are very common in SA, as well as home robberies. This is why all homes have burglar bars and fenced properties and alarm systems just for added protection.

But this is how life is here. Some people here call it a 3rd world country and some call it a developing country, but they strive to become 1st world. I see lots of characteristics of 1st world thrown into life here. Lots of KFC’s more so than McDonalds (2 here in PMB), lots of groceries stores including a Woolworths store that sells groceries and I think clothing and other stuff too, a shopping malls like ours back home. And many other things of first world living. But you don’t have to drive far until you see 3rd world characteristics of homeless people or squatter communities/informal communities where people struggle for the basic things. Their homes consist of sheet metal maybe wood if they found it. They won’t have plumbing and so they would have to find water and carry it home in large pails, and they probably won’t have electricity unless they have been smart enough to hook up an extension cord to someone who does. The streets are often more littered in the black poorer communities compared to the wealthier sections of town.

When I drive by these areas I have felt very blessed of how I have grown up and not have had to deal with these situations like this. We grow up with a proper roof over our heads, a warm bed, food in our fridges and pantries and maybe most importantly clean drinking water. We aren’t usually concerned of getting mugged at possibly knife point for our wallet or cell or have our home burglarized because we were forgetful and didn’t lock the driveway fence and left the door wide open. We don’t go snooping through garbage bags set out on the street for pickup looking for maybe some food that is till edible to eat, worry about if it rains so hard that our homes will get washed a way. No we are very blessed.

I hope this has finally answered some of your unasked but pondering questions about how I find the living here. I really do enjoy living here, and even sometimes I feel very much at home here especially when I become a minority amongst the black Africans; as I make my way down to the Kombi (taxi rank) stepping over the littered garbage laying on the streets and walking past the many street vendors with tables set up selling fruit, candy/snacks, used clothing, cd’s or dvd’s, chicken kabobs cooking on a braai or maybe a soft hot meelie (corn on the cob) to get home for the day. So this has been apart of my life here and I hope I haven't offended anyone.

Signing off…

The Drakensberg (The Dragon Mountians)

The highest mountain range in Southern Africa is the Drakensberg Mountain, and is located along the Eastern border of Lesotho and South Africa. It reaches a height of 3,482 m or 11,420 ft, wow that’s high and is 1,000km in length! In Zulu, the Drakensburg is called uKhahlamba, which means “barrier of spears”. The range has many different spectacular sections with numerous hiking trails to explore. Some of these sections are Cathedral Peak, The Amphitheater, Giant’s Castle, and many more. Throughout the Berg there are probably hundreds or maybe even thousands of caves, and in these caves you may find cave paintings painted by the Sani people (bushman). Another significant historical fact or event of the Berg is the Great Trek of the Voortrekkers. When the Dutch farmers who had arrived in the Cape, decided to migrate further inland, they traveled through the berg with their families and livestock; carting all their belongings in wagons through the treacherous regions of the Berg to start anew.
So this past weekend I had the opportunity to go camping and hiking in the Berg and I jumped at the opportunity. I had be eager to spend some time hiking and exploring in the Berg since I arrived here, and finally I had time to organize myself to go. So on Saturday morning I was picked up and met up with other friends and new friends; finished packing everything in vehicles and headed off. We were headed to Highmoor, which is located just south of Gaint’s Castle. My friend Lisa, who organized the weekend, told us that Highmoor is the highest camp site in the Berg at 2000m in altitude!
Once we arrived at the camp site, we set up our tents and ate a quick lunch. At about that same time the last of our group arrived, and we decided to go for a walk down the winding road to take in the spectacular landscape. Along the way we came across large stones that we stopped and climbed, flowers and waterfalls we photographed, baboons fighting and chasing each other and ended up along a stream where we slipped off our shoes and enjoyed a refreshing walk through

the water.

Protea (SA National Flower)

Highmoor

Once we arrived back to camp, the others in our group who had arrived earlier and had gone off on their own hike were back at camp. The rest of the day which was late afternoon and evening, we chatted and then finally got the braai going for our supper.
Sunday morning I woke up and my feet were freezing, I hadn’t put socks on the night before and it had gotten quiet chilly over night. After everyone had gotten up, changed and eaten and cleaned up breakfast we started off for our hike. From the start of the hike we had an awesome view of Giant’s Castle. It is a huge mountain ridge! What was even neat was the little dam called “Kamloop’s Dam” that we walked past and in the water reflection was the Giant’s Castle. Our hike was only about 3 km, but we ended up at a waterfall and a double cave that was really nice. Some of us brought our swimming costumes, and I changed into mine and went for a dip. It was great fun and the hike was awesome! I love going on adventures here. God has certainly created a masterpiece of beauty.

Giant's Castle with reflection in Kamloop's Dam

January February Highlights

I don’t know whether to consider this a highlight or not, but I in exactly 5 months this coming weekend I will be boarding a plane with my fellow SwaLeSa SALTer’s and flying home. Highlight yes that I’ll be seeing my other fellow SALT’ers who have been living in various countries since we departed last August, yes to seeing our program co-ordinators and leaders, but lastly yes to seeing family and friends back home. Highlight no that I’ll be saying too many sad goodbyes to all the children and staff at work, no to saying goodbye to all the dearest friends who have stood by me through hard times and fun & exciting times and no to saying goodbye to all these beautiful landscapes and wildlife. The months ahead I hope will be filled with many memorable moments!

Okay so I thought I would share some highlights that have happened in the past several weeks. So I will start with my birthday, the 18th of January, which was a Monday, a MCC day. James & Joan were driving out of the city on MCC work so I spent the day working in the school library at GCS (Gateway Christian School) figuring out dewy decimals for the MCC book library, by going through the list of books printed on paper and by guessing at the titles deciding how to catalogue them. Not an easy job! At the first school break I went upstairs to the staff room where I met up with the teachers and they sang Happy Birthday in English and Zulu. It was really nice being sung Happy Birthday in Zulu. Next the staff went around the table and shared a few words with me, and I really enjoyed the moment. Later that evening around supper time, Becky picked me up and we met up with Sally from work at a restaurant in town that has quizzes every Monday night. Can’t remember the restaurant name, but I am diffidently not a trivia person. Like one question was “what is Mike Tyson’s nick name”? Or “what is the state capital of California”? I know I should have known California’s state capital, but I just didn’t know it that night. Where is Liam when I need him? Overall the day was awesome and I was very blessed with unexpected presents from some of the school staff members and others from PG.

My second highlight was spending the day with my friend Liesel, and day tripping into the Midland Meander. The Midlands are situated in the countryside just outside PMB, and the countryside is filled with all sorts of different craft shops. I diffidently know that my father would have enjoyed a causal drive through this landscape of SA! I ended up buying a purse/bag which is falling apart now, grr; and a few other little trinkets.

My third highlight includes an awesome weekend that started off with receiving a long awaited Christmas parcel (a 2 month wait) which consisted of a beautiful homemade calendar made of a collage of photos of family and friends. The rest of the weekend was filled with spending time with Andrew & Felicia who came over from Durban to attend a dinner mystery dinner at Hexagon Theatre with James & Joan, Andrew & Karen Suderman (Mennonite Church Canada Witness Network), Gabi, Tim and Anna from the Radical Journey program and myself. Earlier that day, I attended a birthday party for a teacher’s daughter, where I had a wonderful time chatting with guests and enjoying some wonderful Indian food.

My next highlight would diffidently have to be Friday the 12th of Feb, which GCS had some fun Valentine Activities. The school planed fun fundraising activities and on that day the children paid R5 and wore their regular street clothes. Some of the children and teachers brought in some sweets to be sold. Kerry the Liberian got out her water spray bottle and since it was another incredible hot day the children paid R 1 for a refreshing spray of water on their faces. Mrs. Bennett told me I could sell ice cream to an Eskimo! It was so much fun to have my finger on the trigger. Just watching the children bracing their faces for the coming water spray and their squeal of response was priceless. Some of the children came back for one or even two more sprays of water and each time they paid R1! Right before the children finished for the day at noon, I helped Juli one of the grade 3 teachers hand out some Valentine Balloons that she organized as another fundraiser for the school. This was something new, and it went pretty well. I even received two balloon Valentines myself, but I don’t know from whom though.
To finish off this wonderful day, Kerry invited me to her home after work, where I spent time getting to know her two girls Paige and Meg, and husband Rus. They have a beautiful home and a lovely pool and once I was changed into my swimming costume I relaxed in the water and enjoyed my hostesses. The evening was completed by a wonderful braai and after that I did some sharing about Canada with my books, postcards, and photos of home. A wonderful day with new friends!

I just thought I would lastly share with you two upcoming highlights in the near future. The first one is happening on the 20th of March when CMU’s (Canadian Mennonite University) Outta Town program is arriving in PMB. I have been looking forward to this date for a long time since one of the students in this program is from my very own church from home. His program will be here and living in the cell blocks at PG and I am excited to see a familiar face from home.

Second, a couple days after he leaves I’ve planned an awesome holiday down to the Cape. I am so looking forward to this and everything seems to be falling into place. I just ask for prayers of safe travel for those days!

Signing off….