Richard's Bay, St. Lucia and Hluhluwe & Imfolozi Park

San’bonani (hello to more than one person in Zulu),

My holiday to Richards Bay, St. Lucia and Hluhluwe, started off on the morning of the 30th of December. Lucille’s daughter Lyndall and husband Clint came up Christmas Eve and spent a few days at our place. And on the 30th we followed them up to their home in Richard’s Bay. But Lucille and I took a really nice drive up along the coast and stopped along the way at Balito beach for a walk on the board walk and a quick lunch. I found the ocean really blue here and the waves where rolling really well since it was windy.

Ballito Beach

New Years Eve, Lyndall took us over to a look out spot in Richards Bay off the coast, and finally once we found somewhere to eat lunch and buying some shampoo since I left mine at home in PMB we finally hit the road for St. Lucia for 2 nights staying at BIB’s International Backpackers. The backpackers were ok, but I met two girls from Singapore, where they were traveling down through South Africa on a holiday. We spent a quiet night there and actually I found that it can be really challenging to find somewhere to eat at certain times. So our New Years Eve was quiet, but there were fireworks going off at private parties.

New Years Day, we slept in very late and decided after a little while to book a hippo and croc boat tour on Lake St. Lucia Estuary for 2 pm, but in the mean time Lucille and I decided to try and drive around in the Isimangaliso Wetland Park, which we waited an hour in line to get in and then we didn’t have much time to explore since we had booked the boat tour. We did see however a few animals and I got a lovely shot of the coast line again. The boat tour was good and I saw lot of hippos including a baby one with its mother but was too quick to take a photo before hiding into the water again, but did manage to get one taking a big yawn. The hippos usually stay together in groups but we did see some where there were a couple together.

Hippo at Lake St. Lucia Estuary

Later after the boat tour I was very hungry since all I had eaten that day was 2 bananas all day, so Lucille and I went over to a restaurant that we had seen the night before and decided to try out their menu. When we walked into the place we were told that the kitchen was closed and that it would reopen at 6, but we could order drinks in the mean time. It was 4pm then and we decided just to get drinks and relax until the kitchen reopened for supper. There was a constant flow of customers coming in after us and were told the same story and left, but came back closer to 6pm. By then Lucille and I picked out our food, and by 6:50pm after waiting and waiting to give our order we were told that the kitchen cooks hadn’t shown up and that they weren’t going to be selling any food. So we wondered over to another near by restaurant and waited and waited in line until we were ushered to a table. It was about 8 pm by the time I finally had some food in my tummy. The night before I had similar issues that the kitchens were closed, but finally I got a burger at place just down from our room.

Saturday the 2, Lucille and I packed up our bags and said goodbye to St. Lucia and drove over to Hluhluwe & Imfolozi Park to search for the Big 5! I have to admit that the day tour of the park was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be which was good. We had gotten there about 8:30 am and it wasn’t long before we spotted our first of many giraffes, and not too long after a wild dog, but I didn’t see it soon enough for a picture and we never saw another one the rest of the day. During the course of the drive there would be dirt roads leading off the main paved road. I finally convinced Lucille to take one but she wasn’t too keen on it and was afraid an animal would damage her car. But I glad we took this road since we came across a herd of Cape Buffalo which is one of the Big 5 I hadn’t seen yet. Along this same road but further down we came across an elephant on the road, and at the very end of the road we found a white rhino laying in the muddy water hole. Other animals we came across were a wart hog, variety of buck, baboon, zebras, black rhino, some lizard and we just missed a leopard when we ventured into the Imflolzi side. Leopards are hard to find during the day, it is better to find in the early morning or on a night drive. We also didn’t see the lion, drat’s! But we did see a whole heard of elephants cross over a low river stream!

The beautiful view of inside the Park!

Elephants crossing the stream

White Rhino

We finally had to turn around since Lucille’s gas tank was getting pretty low and we still had to drive back to Lyndall and Clint’s home in Richards Bay, so we left the park at 5pm, feeling pretty good at seeing the many animals we did come across. I had met a couple at lunch time that only had seen giraffe at the beginning of the park, and they were heading into Imflolzi to find more.

Sunday the 3rd, Lucille and I accompanied Lyndall and Clint to their church. Their church meets in a school and as we entered the worship area I happened to notice some country flags hanging on the walls. And it just so happed that the row of chairs we sat down in my Canadian flag was the one hanging beside us! After the service and before we left I had Lucille stand with me beside my flag and also with her South African Flag for a photo; I just didn’t think we would get another chance to take our photos with our country flags again.

After lunch sometime we finally hit the road for home. I needed to get back so that I could my wash my clothes and repack for the next day for Port Shepstone/Shelley Beach for my Mennonite Christmas Retreat. It was a good holiday and I feel very blessed to have seen so much of God’s beauty in the past couple months and look forward to many more opportunities!

December Wrap-up Part 2

Dec. 29. 2009

December Wrap-up Part II

Continuing…

Over the course of the weekend, I kept myself pretty busy with outings as well. Which included a dinner at a friend’s from NCF, where I met up with another friend and some new people. One of these new friends has traveled to Canada and enjoyed our French Cappuccino at Tim Hortons. Who knew I could meet South Africans who know what Tim Horton’s is without me explaining what type of business it is. So far I have met two people here who like our French Cap from Tim Hortons back home in Canada, who knew!

The next day the 19th, I went to my first Zulu wedding, where I was the only white person in attendance, talk about being a minority! This hasn’t been the only experience of feeling like a minority because of skin colour, I have experienced it before here. When attending African weddings it is a good idea to make sure you check what time the ceremony is actually going to start at. I arrived at Pretty’s wedding with friends from work on time 10 am, and we waited and waited and soon discovered that there was another function going on at the same church. And eventually we finally saw other’s from work starting to arrive and they said they were on time! And then the ceremony began over 2 hours after we had arrived and it was all spoken in Zulu! The wedding party entered the church dancing down the centre isle and I soon discovered that in Zulu tradition that all the brides’ maids all looked identical from dresses to hair styles. Following the procession of the wedding party, the groom danced down the isle and then the beautiful bride. Also want to note too, that weddings here very similar to Western style of weddings where the bride will wear a white gown and the bride maids and grooms men in beautiful dresses and suits as well as the flower girls and ring boys.

The next day 20th my friend Liesel took me to see Howick Falls, and then we headed next door to Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve. Where we ate our picnic lunches sitting on a stone ledge over looking another breath taking view of God’s beauty, and then we took off for our hike in search of the zebras, wildebeests and giraffe’s we had seen from our picnic spot up above. As we got down into the grass land we followed a tire track path and followed it around. We came to a fence line and past the fences in area we found the giraffe’s we spotted from our picnic lunch, but they were pretty far away. As we continued our hike through the grass lands we came across and got very close I might add to a heard of wildebeests, a herd of zebras and eventually we finally spotted 2 giraffes just off the trail, oh so close! Other animals we came across were impala, blesbuck, and Nyala; we also heard the African Fish Eagel, and the Trumpeter Hornbill; and lastly came across a Koppie Foam Grasshopper and an Assassin bug. What a fantastic day, and I look forward to many more adventures with my really good friend Liesel! This hike I would like to say I was better prepared for and wore my hikers and slacks instead of my sandals and skirt!

The next few days after my amazing hike, I spent time trying to learn some Zulu, which I find not an easy language. So, Sanibonani (greeting hello to more than one person), unjani (How are you?). And then it was Christmas Eve where Lucille’s daughter Lyndall and her husband Clint have been staying here for a few days and leave in the morning.

Christmas Day, I spent going to Church first thing and a little while later, my friend Kath and her family picked me up on the way to their family Christmas. The days leading up to Christmas Day were some pretty hot days, that even reached 37 degrees, ouch it was hot, but Christmas Day it decided to be a cold wet misty rainy day. Kath’s family stated that this weather we are having was not normal, actually the summer thus far hasn’t been very normal, thanks to global warming! And in the end, I had a really nice day with them.

Boxing Day I called up Liesel to see what she was doing, and I ended up going over to her place where I took a little time of journaling and some good conversation and took in watching the monkeys swinging around in the near by trees. Probably the scariest part of the afternoon, was watching Liesel’s roof tiles getting blown off her roof. But thanks to her brother, who climbed up and nailed down the lose ones that still managed to cling to the roof, while Liesel wondered around her neighbour hood picking up the tiles that did fly off. Later on she took me over to her mom’s place where I finally met her mom and her mom’s boyfriend and had some supper with them.

Now tomorrow I am leaving to go to Richards Bay and then onto St. Lucia and to Hluhluwe Animal Park to finally have an animal game drive, and lots of fun searching for animals. Hopefully I’ll spot the Big Five! After returning for less than a day I’m off to Port Shepstone to meet up with my SwaLeSa SALT’ers, the Radical Journey participants, the other MCC workers, past IVEPer’s, and Mennonite Church USA & Canada people. I think there are over 30 of us who are going to be together for 4 days from the 4-8th of Jan. I am so looking forward to this retreat! Then back to work on the 11th and hopefully some Christmas family mail awaits me there which will be more like birthday mail instead!

Signing off…
Wishing you all a Belated
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I had a wonderful Christmas Break, stay tuned for my holiday travel adventures. I will post them as soon as I can and when I have internest access!

December Wrap-up Part 1

I know you all have been waiting for me to post something so here is my December Wrap-up Part 1.

Dec. 29. 2009

December Wrap-up: Part I

Wow, I can not believe that it is already the 29th of December and soon it will be the last day of 2009. Since I am here in SA and my family is back home in Canada, for 7 hours between New Years Eve and New Years Day, we will be living in two different years; scary eh?

I just thought it was about time to do a December wrap-up. I had a very busy December and all of you my followers are probably very eager to know what I have been up to. So again grab yourself a mug and your favourite hot beverage since it’s probably very cold, and a snow storm blowing around outside where it is probably around -15 with a -25 wind chill!

Let me start off with the first weekend in December (4-7) which was my Advent Spiritual Retreat weekend with my 4 other SALTer’s here in SA and Lesotho. The Spiritual weekend we once again spent the Saturday and Sunday at Jim & Heather Johnston’s where Jim had us meditating, and journaling and presenting our case studies. After our first spiritual week with Jim back in August, he assigned us a case study where we were to describe our most difficult situation. During the weekend sessions we were to analyze each others situations and try and offer some solutions to resolve the problem if it needed to be resolved. Over all, the weekend was fun and it was great to have us all back together, to top off the weekend we spent the day in Durban where we visited Andrew’s and Felicia’s homestays and their work placements and before dropping Andrew and Felicia off we finally hit the Durban beach to take in the huge rolling waves hitting the shore. I have to admit it was great to finally be able to enjoy the water, and discover how salty the water is here!

Tuesday and Wednesday nights that week, was Gateway Christian School’s Year End Award Nights and Christmas Concert. Tuesday night was the Junior Primary Grades (Grades R- 3) and Wednesday was the Senior Primary. The hall was packed on the Tuesday night since it was Graduation night for the Grade R class, that there weren’t enough seats for all the guests. The children did an awesome job on their skits, singing, reciting and dancing. One of my favourite performances would have to be the Senior Primary boy’s performance of traditional Zulu dancing where they dance in traditional attire as well. Bravo!

The rest of the week I was busy going to prayer meeting at church and a movie night with some friends of Lucille’s. That weekend was a quiet and peaceful weekend to ready myself for the busy work week to begin again.

Tuesday the 15th I attended a Christmas Party with my new friends from my Alpha table. Alpha finished up on the 8th but I had missed it due to the School Concert. It was a great night and I feel very privileged to have made such good friends to be invited to their home group Christmas Party. It was very festive with décor (minus the tree, since Noel doesn’t own one), but included a fun game of Christmas Bingo, good food and good fellowship!

Wednesday the 16th was a holiday here, so I took full advantage of it, and Lucille and I enjoyed a fabulous day of day tripping into the Valley of 1000 Hills. Valley of 1000 Hills is situated about 30 mins outside of PMB, between Durban and PMB. It is so amazing how much breath taking, natural beauty there is here in KwaZulu Natal, and it’s just in their back yard! In the Valley of 1000 Hills and once we were on the right road we found our way to PheZulu. Here we learned about the Zulu tribe and some of their traditions and were entertained with some Zulu dancing in front of the amazing back drop of the Valley. And also took in their Crocodile and Reptile’s exhibit too. I don’t think I’ve seen so many crocodiles. Did you know that during the winter months here they can survive without food, since they are cold blooded animals? Also, did you know they have been around for about 200 million years and they can live up to 160 years of age and the females will continue to breed until she dies?

After we were done taking in PheZulu and the Crocs and reptiles, we tried heading down to Shongweni Dam, which also in the Valley of 1000 Hills. Actually we only touch a couple of the many places to visit in the Valley, and there is still more to discover and visit. When we left PheZulu, we somehow ended up making a wrong turn and made a complete circle back to PheZulu, but on the detour we came across Pot and Kettle, a neat little stop where we wondered in and out of some shops that sold a variety of souvenirs and where I bought myself a beaded necklace for R40, which would roughly be around $6.00. After speaking to someone in one of the shops, I finally managed some directions to the Dam, and off we went. The view of the Dam was very beautiful and breath taking, and we even took the adventure of walking down the inside passageway of the Dam wall itself. But it was rather dimly lit and very dirty and not as exciting as getting 2.5 – 3 m away from a herd of zebras in another area of the park.

To finish off the wonderful day of day tripping, Lucille dropped me off at the Alty’s and I took in a Menno braai (bbq) with my Mennonite family of friends here. It was an awesome African holiday!

End of Part I

My Testimony

One of the many weekly activities that goes on at NCF Church is the Thursday night prayer meeting. After I moved into the house Lucille often would ask me if I would like to come with her. I always would reply no thanks. I usually find that I enjoy the quietness of the house for those 2 hours, and decline the offer. But two weeks ago I decided to go since I needed to speak to someone.
The prayer meetings last about 1 hr, and the first 1/2 hr is spent singing worship songs and the other 1/2 hr is spent praying for prayer requests. What I have found in this church is when they pray, they say their own prayers aloud together at the same time. So the room gets very noise with every bodies prayers. That night the leader for the night was asking for people to come to the front to share an experience of how they have seen or experienced God in their lives. Some people came forward and shared stories about God providing them new transportation after their car was stolen, witnessing children accepting God into their lives and there was a man that came up and share his experience of being diagnosed with diabetes and then becoming cured of it. For some reason I also felt called to share that night, so I stepped onto the stage with the mic in hand and shared one of my experiences of God that I had back in September.
Around the 23 of September, I had decided to walk the 1 hr walk home from work to my reps home. I hadn't yet moved into Destiny House yet. A couple blocks into my walk there is a street(West St) with a very steep hill that I walk down, at the bottom of the hill there is a street that crosses through it named Prince Alfred St. . I had just only half crossed Prince Alfred when all of a sudden a short bed truck came racing down the hill and made a very quick right turn onto Prince Alfred St. right behind me. On the bed of the truck were 2 wrapped bundles of bricks and a third partial bundle of bricks and when he made that quick turn those bricks from the partial bundle went flying. I stood there for in moment of shock, digesting what was happening as these bricks came flying at me. A few bricks landed in front of me, behind me and a large path of bricks to my right trailing behind the truck. Not one brick hit me! And right then and there I knew God was there protecting me. He had wrapped his loving and protecting arms around me and I knew right then and there I am here for a reason, God's plan. Another realization that came to me right away was that he also answers prayers. A couple weeks earlier I had made a prayer request back home, requesting for safe travels as I travel around this country, and again right then and there I knew that my prayer request had been answered.
After sharing this experience I got such wonderful support and encouragement from the many people I had made. They were all so impressed that I shared a testimony.
Well I thought that I would also share this one testimony of how I am experincing God here. There have been a few other's but this one will always stick out.
Last Thursday I attended the Prayer meeting again, not sure if I'll continue every week, but I'll see. The group size that attends is probably between 100 - 200 people, which is a small group compared to that meets Sunday night for services. And here at this church I am finding myself at home, but I do miss my traditional style of church service back home. NCF is very different but good. I have come to know some of these people at the church well that will be live long friends I'm pretty sure.

Signing off...

A few Photo's

The thought I would add a few photos that go along with my previous blog entry. Enjoy!The children feeding the animals at Crafty Duck.

Thanksgiving Dinner with other Fellow Canadian's and American's

Destiny Project House Mates,

L -R Me, Lucille (house mother), Thuli, Nandi, Rebekka and Chloe

Recapping November

November 30th, 2009

Since it’s been a few weeks since I last blogged I thought I would do a little recap, actually it’s a long recap so now is the time for you to grab your favourite mug and fix yourself a drink.
Since that beautiful hike in Ferncliff with Liesel, I have had some busy weekends. The following weekend (Saturday Nov. 14th) after the hike, Andrew and Felicia came up for the weekend. I couldn’t spend the whole weekend with them but spent as much time as I could. The Pastor (Principal), at Gateway Christian School, invited me to attend Lion Park, with his family. I had been crossing my fingers again that weekend for a nice sunny day, but didn’t quiet get my way. It turned out to be a very damp, drizzly, overcastted day, and didn’t take long for my shoes and socks to get soaked in the wet grass.
Lion Park, is located just outside of Pietermaritzburg, and one side of the park is a zoo with animals in cages from around the world and the other part of the park is like a game drive through a long curvy bumpy dirt road through the park. We really only saw 3 types of animals along the way, which were elephants, guinea fowl, and lions. One of the rules of this part of the park was that we were to remain inside the vehicle at all times.
As we approached the elephants, we discovered there were two empty cars, and the passengers of the cars were out getting their picture taken with the elephants, and the rule of staying inside our car was quickly forgotten. When the people were finished getting their photos with the elephants we drove up and asked the elephant keepers if we too could get out and have our photo’s taken with the elephants, and as soon as they said yes we were out of the car. And so I for the first time, I met my first elephants in Africa. As I was standing beside the elephant with one hand on his side waiting for my picture to be taken, I noticed that they do actually grow hair.
A little further into the drive, there was a very large fence in field with lions, where we were able to drive around in a circle with the lions. This was very fun, neat and scary all at the same time. As we drove around the circle, some of the lions were playing with each other, but one lion liked to hook his paws onto the boot (trunk) of the car. Now I say that’s as close up of a lion I need to get! After the park we drove to Durban, had lunch and drove back to Pietermaritzburg, and I finally was dropped off at James & Joan’s to spend the rest of the weekend with Andrew, Felicia, and James & Joan. It was an awesome weekend!
The next weekend (Nov. 21) was the Alpha course’s, Holy Spirit Day, where I met up with a couple from my table (Noel and Kath), and listened to different speakers speak about The Holy Spirit. At lunch time we sat outside in groups and had a picnic, where I shared with some new friends some photos from home and a few taken here in SA. During the afternoon session the next speaker spoke to us about allowing the Spirit come and visit us. I don’t think I experienced anything, but others in the room were crying or laughing uncontrollably, which is a form how the spirit can visit you.
This past Thursday (Nov. 26th), I was invited along with the Grade R (kindergarten) class to Crafty Duck www.craftyduck.co.za . Crafty Duck is a petting farm where a lot of schools send their students for a fun class outing. The Grade R’s loved the farm, for some of the activities we did was have a short horse ride, feed some sheep, goats, and a pony, have a little train ride, saw some different types birds, snakes, bunnies, an alpaca, and springboks. And we finished up the fun day with a nice cold treat!
One of the things I noticed as we drove through the city on the way to and home from Crafty Duck, and not too far from the city’s busy down town, there is a squatter community of very small houses built of sheet metal. I have seen these houses before, but usually in the townships outside Pietermaritzburg or other towns or cities. I didn’t expect to find them where I did. I cannot imagine living in such poor ways and being able to survive. The other week we had a lot of rain and some of these types of homes, families were flooded out.
This past weekend, the girls have been busy finishing up their Destiny Project program, and also been saying goodbye to Rebekka. Rebekka’s flight leaves on the 1st of December back to Germany. I have found that I could relate the best to Rebekka, since we both were from different countries. I know I will miss these girls, but I am also looking forward to some quiet and cleanliness around the house for a couple months until the next years girls arrive in February. It’s not easy sharing a washroom and getting your shower before work with 4 other girls needing to use it too!
Yesterday, I finally had my Thanksgiving turkey with other fellow Canadians and Americans. There was maybe about 20-30 of us sitting down to a very long table enjoying the awesome meal which included turkey of course with bread stuffing, peas, mashed potatoes, carrots, salad, rolls, and a awesome collection of home made pies which included pumpkin, pecan, and apple. I hope this answers my families questions back home about what food was served! The meal was delish, and thanks to all that prepared it, it was really good! Some of these Americans and Canadians that made up our group were the Radical Journey Participants, through Mennonite Mission’s Network. I finally got to meet you all, and I look forward to our joint Christmas Retreat in January in Port Shepstone.
Anyways I think this about raps this really long November recap up, but I just want to lastly say that this coming weekend, Simon and Anna are traveling down from Lesotho, Andrew and Felicia are coming over from Durban and we are going to be spending time together for an Advent Spiritual Retreat. I am really looking forward to this since it’s been two months since we all have seen each other.

Signing off…..

Hiking in Ferncliff

November 12, 2009

I have to admit now that my time is now really flying bye. I left home over 3 months ago, and have about 8 months left. The last couple of weeks I have noticed I have been keeping busy on weekends, which is good.
Last month, actually it was my Canadian Thanksgiving, my friend Becky from work (Becky, is the teams and volunteer person at Project Gateway) took me out with another girl named Kath, to home up in the North end of the city to another friends place, named Liesel. Liesel has a beautiful home which her father built for her, and an awesome view of the city. After meeting Liesel, I have been meeting up with her weekly at an Alpha course I’ve been attending at NCF Church.
One night at Alpha, I was telling her that I would really like to get an awesome picture of our city. Since Pietermaritzburg pretty much sits picturesque in the bottom a bowl of rolling hills, I knew there had to be somewhere that would give me a good view. Liesel knew of a couple places and so our picnic hike adventure began.
I find the weather right now so variable, some days it is misty/rainy cool and damp and other days nice and sunny, and now some days just sizzling hot. I also find that there have been more rainy damp and cool days than the nice sunny days, and so for a few days before our hike they were really nice days, and so I hoped our hike day was going to be a good day and it was a really warm day.
So Liesel picked me up and we went back to her place to finish up our picnic lunch and waited for the other hikers to arrive. Our friend Kath, who I thought was coming couldn’t, but Liesel had other friends and so once they arrived and our grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches were finished we headed off for our hike.
What I didn’t expect or shall I say how ill-equipped I was for this picnic/hike I soon found out. I had decided not to wear my hikers (what was I thinking!!!) and wore a skirt (again what was I thinking!!!!) I some how managed to hike wearing my black sandals, which my feet were constantly sliding in and out of. But I did some how did manage to hike to our picnic spot. This by the way held an awesome view of the city. And we sat ate our lunches and chatted. Liesel and her friend Lisa, who just got back from South America, enjoys hiking in the Drakensburg Mountains. One of my to do things is to go hiking in the Drakensburg; so I’m hopping to go on an over night weekend trip with them to the Burgs. In the end the hike was great, saw a monkey on the way out. After Liesel and I were dropped off at her place she took me over to World’s View, which is another location that gives you another view of the city, but is also the route that the Voor Trekkers used when the traveled and settled into the area through the hills. Beautiful view too!
This coming weekend has turned into another busy one, but that’s okay. Felicia and Andrew are coming from Durban. I haven’t seen them in over a month, and Saturday tomorrow I’ve been invited to go to Lions Park, an animal park just outside of Pietermaritzburg. I hope the weather will co-operate and it will be nice day.

The city of Pietermaritzburg, SA.

My hiking group, Liesel wearing the read top.

Signing off....