Please Refer to the FB :)

the slow african internet won't let me post pictures here, even after walking 25 minutes to an internet cafe to do so. however, facebook did allow me to add a few recent snapshots, so please check there if you are dying to get a taste of my life! :)

From Here to There!

It has been quite a while since I have posted a blog, and I am sorry to keep you all in the dark about my life here! Truthfully, I feel so overwhelmed as I sit here trying to write this post because so much has happened since the last time I was able to blog on April 1^st. It has definitely been a crazy rollercoaster over the past few weeks, and there has been some drastic highs and lows, but overall it has still been wonderful and I am loving every second of it!

The day after Easter Sunday, our group set out for a week of cultural immersion in two places: a rural Zulu village, and a safari. Because the size of our group is so large, we had to split in half, and while one half went to live with the Zulus, the other half went on their safari, and then we switched halfway through the week. I was in the group that went to the Zulu village first where we stayed for 2 nights, and then we went to the area of the safari after that for 2 nights. The village was an absolutely incredible experience, and we were introduced to many new things about the culture. The way the people live out in the rural areas is much different than the shantytown neighborhoods in the city, so it was interesting to compare the two environments. I slept in a mud hut with 5 other girls, the toilets in the village were outhouses that were basically just a hole in the ground, and all water was fetched from the river. We experienced one of the most incredible thunder and lightning storms we’ve seen while we have been here, and the amazing amount of rain really helped make an amazing amount of mud. That night turned out to be a rather traumatic one in the sense that one by one, members of our group started to get sick, and the first 5 people that were very sick were driven to the hospital about an hour away in the middle of the night. I was not one of those people, but I became sick a few hours after they left, and it made for a rather unpleasant experience at the end of our stay in the village. Thankfully it only lasted about 24 hours for me, or at least the bad part of it did, but in the end I think there were only 3 people in our group of 25 that did not get sick. It put a bit of a damper on our week and many more people had to go to the hospital during the next few days, and the sickness in the group remained even through our safari and even once we got back to PMB. There are many guesses as to what caused the illness, and since it definitely was not a contagious disease, it could have come from harmful bacteria in the water from the river. We still are not completely sure, but we are thankful to finally be over that difficult period of the trip!

On a lighter note, the safari was SO MUCH FUN and I absolutely loved getting to see so many animals! My favorite was the giraffes, and we saw quite a few around the game reserve which was just wonderful. We also saw rhinos and hippos which are both part of the “Big Five,” and wildebeest, impala, and the tracks of many elephants! I am hoping that when mom comes in 2 weeks we will be able to see some elephants on our safari, hopefully we will get lucky!

We arrived back to PMB that Friday night, extremely tired and anxious to get on Skype. Sadly enough, that night and the next day consisted entirely of running errands and packing up our rooms in order to be able to move out on Sunday morning when we would depart to Cape Town. It was a hectic weekend and a sad one too as we said goodbye to the place we had called home here in South Africa for the whole of the semester. So it has been back to living out of a suitcase, and that Sunday was the start of our 6 day trip along the Garden Route, during which we stayed at hotels each night along the coast and I got to put my feet in the ocean again, finally! The views along the trip were absolutely gorgeous, and I just could not get enough of the beauty of every single part of this country! It truly is breathtaking no matter where you are, and I get frustrated with taking pictures because a camera just cannot capture the amazing beauty of it all. One of the days along the stretch we stopped at Bloukrans Bridge where the majority of us took part in bungee jumping off what is known as the “world’s highest bridge bungee jump,” and you know, it is just one of those things that you can’t pass up! It was too amazing for words, and as many of you probably know it was not my first time bungee jumping, but it was still SO much fun and I just can’t get enough of it! We also stopped at an ostrich farm and got a very in-depth tour of the farm, and I got to sit on an ostrich! Annie, I know you will be disappointed that I did not actually ride one, but I hope sitting on one is close enough :)

Getting to Cape Town was an extremely exciting day, one that we have been waiting for for months! The city is absolutely beautiful with ocean views wherever you are, the ocean is on all sides of you basically, and Table Mountain stands high behind. Our group is split in half again while we are here for the last 2 weeks, and we are taking turns doing homestays where we stay with a family in a poorer neighborhood in the suburbs of Cape Town, and staying at a Bible Institute college campus nearby. I am in the first group, and I have been living with a Colored family in the town of Ocean View, which is a dominantly Colored neighborhood (Colored meaning a lighter skin color than Black). Adrian and Francis Presence are my host parents, and they have 3 daughters, 2 of which are married, and the youngest one still lives at home. Her name is Samantha, she is 22, and Alyssa and I spend most of our time with her! They are the nicest, most welcoming family, and they also are very funny and very open with just about everything you can imagine! They keep things exciting, and we are having the time of our lives staying with them. Mrs. Presence is a GREAT cook and has been making some awesome dinners for us each night, and Mr. Presence LOVES to talk and keeps us up late with the great conversations we have with him, and we love every second of it! I have loved getting this opportunity to see from the inside how a family lives here, and having 9 days to discuss with them the struggles of their society and of their people, and getting to ask them our questions about their culture and about their country as a whole. This is a family who was displaced during the Apartheid era and was forcibly removed from their house and put into the tiny little home they have now among thousands of others who were placed just like them. The conversations that we are able to have with them are so eye-opening and really educational, and this experience is really something that I am valuing more and more, and I am trying to invest myself and my time into this homestay as much as I can this week before I will have to leave them!

The only time I have been able to get onto the internet at all is when I am at the Bible Institute for a few hours throughout the week, so that alone has really been a struggle for me. Nate and I have officially been together for one year as of Saturday, and not getting to talk to him has been difficult for me. I miss you Nathan!

Because the internet is not strong either, I can't really upload pictures due to the limit of bandwidth. I hope to find an internet cafe sometime next week and hopefully then i will be able to put some photos either on here or on facebook, because I want to show you a little bit of what has been going on, and I know you probably want to see it also. I will get those on just as soon as I possibly can, just be patient! :)

I love you all, thank you for keeping me in your prayers, and please continue to pray! God is so good and He is doing wonderful things in me and in this country, and all I can do is give Him the glory and the praise!

There Are Hardly Words.

Yesterday was my last day at Walk In The Light, and needless to say it was heartbreaking for me to say goodbye. These past 4 weeks were so transforming and impacting for me and for all of us, and I am coming away from it with different perspectives and countless relationships that I was able to form with people of all ages at both Walk In The Light and in the township of Haniville as well. Having gone through this experience that has really been a big part of this semester and of my life, I wanted to just post a brief overview of just a few different parts of my overall experience in hopes that you all will be able to possibly get a glimpse of why I have been so overwhelmed, exhausted, and joyful these past few weeks!

This is the Walk In The Light building where Phindile (one of the women who runs WITL) has her little office, and where church services and youth groups are all held inside. The walls and floor of the building are cement with a simple tin roof, and before services each week the pastor cleans the sanctuary by spraying out the room with a hose to get the dirt out. To the left of this picture, right on the other side of the grass is a small playground that a previous APU semester group had built, and each day when the kids in Haniville got out of school, they would come play on the playground and run around on the soccer field, and some days we had time to join them and be their own personal jungle gyms!
These are a few of the women from the community who work at WITL in the fields, and in this picture they are on their lunch break, but they are some of the sweetest, most joyful, and hardest working women I have ever met. We had group meetings with these women and some of the gogos (grannies) from the community every Tuesday and Thursday as part of our Community Engagement section of our time there, and in those meetings we sang songs with them (zulu songs, of course), danced, played games, laughed, and really got to know them better and hear their stories and the things they have been through. These women are so full of life and such a joy to be around, and after one of our meetings with them I cried tears of joy for just how present God is and how at work He is in this community and in the lives of
these beautiful women. This is a part of the field that we took weeds and grass out of in order for the women workers to be able to use it for more gardening space. With the big group that we had, we were able to do this whole field in a few days, where it would have taken the gogos and the women a much longer time to complete. We also dug a trench through this area and through the rest of the field and up the hill, and the trench was so that an irrigation system can be installed to water the gardens instead of having to be watered by hand by the women each day. They were so appreciative of the work we did in the field in the hot sun, and we had so much fun doing it since we did it along side them and each other, singing songs in both zulu and in english.
This is a picture of what the inside of the building looks like, and where they hold community church services every Sunday, junior youth group every Wednesday, and senior youth group every Friday. At the beginning of every day when we arrived, we met as a group in these chairs and one of us would lead a devotion and share a few verses to encourage us, we would sing songs together with help from Phindile on the zulu songs, and then pray for our day. It was an awesome way to start each day, to regroup and get back on the same page, and to daily prepare our hearts for selfless service and to invite the Lord to be in all parts of our work.
Each morning we carried all the building supplies from the Walk In The Light building through Haniville to the place where Mandla lived, the man we were building a new house for. Mandla lives in a mud hut like many of the other residents in Haniville, but after doing countless home visits to HIV and TB infected people of the town, it is obvious to me that Mandla's living situation is the worst I have seen. Mandla is also positive for both of these diseases in addition to being paralyzed after being stabbed in the back last year by his daughter's boyfriend. He is an amazing man with an undying faith for the Lord, and the joy he brought us is just indescribable. A few times when we were at his house, his daughter was there with him, and it was such a strong symbol of grace to all of us that he still talks to his daughter and loves her so much, despite what happened. One more thing (of many) that really stood out to me throughout our time of talking with him and getting to know him was that the only picture he had of his wife who had passed away was her passport ID. Just subtle things like that really make me recognize my wealth and the things I take for granted every single day.
Stage 1: we dug out the earth where we would build the new one-room house. (Mandla's current house is seen in the back)
Stage 2: after measuring, digging, and picking through rock, we installed the poles (all with Michael, our zulu-speaking instructor for the building process).
Stage 3: beams for the roof and wire netting for the walls. (32 degrees celcius on these days)
Stage 4: long green branches were nailed across the wiring on both sides, and we filled the empty wire cages with rocks and other rubble that the children helped us collect from along the sides of the road.
I have a hundred pictures of the kids that swarmed our work site each day, eager to play with us and help us build the house. Having them come to be with us each day made it nearly impossible not to form relationships with these children who are desperately thirsty for love and attention. They are the definition of unconditional love, and I was truly blessed to learn the true meaning of joy from them.
A precious girl named Andizwa. I will be praying for her every day.

Siyahamba ekukhanyen kwenkhos!

(translation: we are walking in the light of god)

I apologize for letting a whole week go by without an update for all of you who I love so much! About halfway into the week I realized I had not even updated my own mother on the things that I had been doing, and after I sent her a brief message as I rushed back out the door to go to yet another group meeting, she told me I should simply copy what I told her and put it in my blog. Sometimes I think I need to make my blogs into an elaborate and grammatically correct masterpiece of a compilation of all my thoughts, but I think especially now, my entries are going to have to be slightly more brief and I am going to have to learn how to be ok with that! Here are the words I sent my mama, forgive me for not being able to give as many details as I have in the past... believe me I want to! There just is not any time.

"Working at Walk In The Light everyday has been so great and so wonderful. This section of the semester is definitely a drastic change from the others though, our days are full and exhausting but full of growth and learning too! Our days are like get up, rush out the door, eat and load up the vans, work all day, then come back and eat dinner fast to have time for meetings, and then go to bed! Whenever I can, I try to say hi to Nate on Skype for a few minutes or quickly email him, but I never have time to even tell him everything that I've been doing, let alone time to talk to friends here and hear about other people's days, journal, blog, or even shower! Haha I go to bed exhausted every night and wake up feeling just as exhausted, but I say many prayers for strength throughout the day and that is what gets me through! I am happy as can be, serving the poverty-stricken community of Haniville with every ounce of energy I have, digging ditches, pulling weeds and grass for hours (my back and hamstrings have never ached as bad as they do now), cutting down trees in the pouring rain, and then taking breaks after lunch to play games with kids, sing and dance with the gogo's (grannies), organize youth groups for the kids and young adults of the community multiple days a week (of which we are fully in charge, like games, worship, message, everything!) I am so tired physically and mentally but I really couldn't be happier, on Tuesday I cried tears of joy, I just can’t even begin to describe how incredible it has been! After this week we only have like 1.5 weeks of service and it breaks my heart to think about that! I want to stay and serve and help and do all their work for them and play with the kids who smell like pee and get covered in dirt from head to toe by noon every day!"

Learning to serve, serving to learn.

In Christ alone my hope is found

He is my light, my strength, my song

This Cornerstone, this solid ground

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease

My Comforter, my All in All

Here in the love of Christ I stand

All classes but two are either finished or on a break until we reach Cape Town in April, and this week will be the beginning of an entirely new chapter here. On Thursday, we will disperse to different places around the city that we have been assigned to, and for 4 weeks we will go to the same place, 4 days a week, and we will be servants for the organizations in the area that are in need of help. The place I will be serving at is called Walk In The Light, and it is a place that works to rebuild the communities around it and give tools to the residents in the townships so that they can receive an income that they earn themselves and can take steps closer to achieving a better quality of living. They assist people with HIV and AIDS who are too weak to work, and they do regular home visits as well as driving them to the clinics for appointments and medication. It is a place for children to come after school to play with friends and the staff while their parents are still working, and Walk In The Light puts on a youth group each week to spread a Christ-following faith to the youth in the communities. As my service site experience begins and progresses I will have many more details for you all, I’m sure :)

I am excited about finally getting to spend time with the people of this country and provide the little help that I can, I am honestly feeling slightly nervous. For the whole time we have been in this country so far, we have been in the classroom or on tours learning about the poverty, brokenness, and hardships of the people, and yet we sleep in our comfortable beds on a beautiful hillside campus that provides 3 meals a day and does my laundry for me (which has been quite expensive actually). This week, however, we will finally get to spend our days interacting and learning from the wonderful South African people and coming along side of them as they struggle to put food on their dinner table each night and have become used to their loved ones dying from HIV very regularly. I look forward to playing with the children and talking to the women, hearing their stories and learning from them.

Quite honestly, I have been nervous about this period of our semester. Because of my empathetic heart, I have been afraid to let myself fall completely in love with this country in fear of taking the pain of the people I meet onto myself, and carrying their burdens on my shoulders. I think I have subconsciously been guarding my heart up until this point, but I am beginning to find comfort through prayer and discovering once again that God has blessed me with empathy for others so that I can be a vessel in taking the burdens from others and giving them to God, and that because I am simply a vessel, these sorrows are not for me to carry but that God will free me of that heaviness and fill me with even more joy and love for me to in-turn pour back out. This is something that I know I could easily loose sight of, so if you all could be in persistent in prayer over this I would appreciate it so much.

Other prayer requests:

- -a large number of Christians in Nigeria, about 500, were killed on Sunday for simply being Christian.

- -The government in South Africa has passed a law to legalize prostitution in this country for the 2010 World Cup. Young children will be sold into prostitution in order to make money for their families, the damage this will cause to this country will take decades to repair, and HIV and AIDS will get a grip on many more lives all over the world.

My 2 Day Visit to the Country of Lesotho (leh-soo-too)

Background:

My Psychology professor takes his class each semester on a trip to Lesotho, which is the small country located in the middle of South Africa to ride horses through the land and learn about the people. About 2 months ago, our professor, Doug, was in a bad accident on his motorbike and broke his leg and pelvis, so this blew his chances of riding horses this semester. Being the wonderful and kind man that he is, Doug still organized the trip for our class of 11 students, and had two of his friends, Dave and Tish, take us instead. When we asked him why he couldn’t just come along with us and skip the horseback riding, he told us we would understand once we saw the intensity of the road going up the mountain, and he was very right, we quickly discovered that he would have been in a lot of pain.

Thursday and Friday:

We left our campus at 6am Thursday morning, and were driven 2 hours away from PMB where we got breakfast and then piled into the bed of a 4x4 pickup truck that would be taking us the rest of the way up to Lesotho. Our overnight bags were loaded into a separate car that transported Dave and Tish as well, and followed our truck up the mountain for the next hour and a half. We were all so excited to be sitting on crates in the back of an oldschool off-roading pickup that when our driver/sani pass guide, Greg, asked us if we wanted to get wet by way of the large puddle in the dirt road, we were all for it! Sure enough, a nice spray of water came up over the truck and cooled us off quite a bit, and once we finally stopped screaming and laughing, Greg asked us the same question again, except this time regarding mud. After a few seconds of hesitation, we agreed to go for it… “Why not, we are already wet!” and… “This is Africa!” So after driving for a few more minutes up the dirt road, he hit a HUGE mud puddle just right, and a wave of mud came from all sides of the truck and we were quite brown after that, to say the least.

The drive up the mountain was about 1.5 hours, and the dirt road could much better be called a rocky road. It was the roughest, most uneven road I have ever seen, and a broken pelvis would not have felt great on that. Good thing you didn’t come Doug, even though we missed you! Also, the view was absolutely incredible, and pictures couldn’t even do it justice, but I couldn’t stop taking shots of the landscapes we were driving through! The whole weekend I took a total of 300 photos because everything was just so so so beautiful that I couldn’t help myself!

Once we got to the top, we dropped off our bags at the chalet we would be sleeping at, and got our horses. The horse they gave me happened to only have one eye, so that was pretty funny, and within 3 minutes of our ride, the horses took off into a full gallop before we had even gotten situated, and two girls fell off their horses. They were ok, but a little more bruised than the rest of us at the end of the day.

We rode from 12 to about 6:30pm, and walked/trotted between the tiny little town (which consisted of about 15 mud huts, the guest chalets, and the pub- the tourist attraction since it is the “highest pub in Africa!”) and traveled through the hills and plains where the Lesotho people live and herd livestock all year long. It was mind-blowing and utterly confusing at times to see how they live, what they use for survival, and how “wild” they seem compared to the civilization we are used to. Trees do not grow in their region, only grass, so instead of burning wood for fires they burn cattle dung, and this goes for warmth and also for cooking their food. In the church we always hear about people-groups who are without a bible translation in their language, and the people who speak the Lesotho language, Sotho (pronounced soo-too), are one of these groups. Most of the people we met only spoke the Sotho language, and did not know how to read and write because of the lack of education among the livestock farming communities. But anyways, so the horses were pretty well-behaved for the rest of the ride, very cooperative for the most part and we were very impressed. My horse kindof tripped a lot, but I guess that is to be expected from a half-blind horse. I liked her a lot, and I named her Lala (the zulu word for sleep) because of her “sleepy eye” :) Also, we galloped a few times on our way back, and I am pretty sure that’s the first time I have even galloped on a horse before! That was really exciting, and I liked it a lot!

Once we got back to the camp, or town, it was almost dark with thick rain clouds in the sky, and even though all we wanted to do was sleep and rest our aching bodies, we found a little bit of energy to get dinner at the pub and sit by the fireplace to warm up (I forgot the mention how high of an altitude it was, and since I don’t know the exact number, I’ll just tell you it was WAY up there, high enough to snow any time of the year, and to get winds up to 120 mph in the hills!) I ended up falling fast asleep next to the furnace in the pub cuddled up next to becca and alyssa while a man played guitar in the corner somewhere and softly sang along. When it was time to go to our chalet, they woke us up and we walked back in the thick fog, and luckily I had my headlamp (nate, it was worth the trip to walmart to get that, I use it all the time!) It also came in handy when we quickly realized our chalet did not have electricity, so my headlamp and a few candles were our only light source. It was great! We cuddled up in our sleeping bags on our comfy bunk beds and slept SO good that night!

When we woke up in the morning, the fog seemed even heavier than the night before and made it seem like we were in a movie as we could see the people and horses moving about as we walked to the pub for breakfast. We could hardly walk because of how sore our bodies were, and we could hardly sit because of the bruises from the saddles. We drank lots of coffee and were fed a delicious breakfast of yogurt, granola, fruit salad, fried eggs, bacon, and toast. We met up with a guide who took us around the town and was able to show us the inside of the mud huts, tell us more about the lifestyle of the Lesotho people in this community, and answer the many questions we had! Some women invited us into their hut because they wanted to dance for us, so we all squeezed into the little room as they sang and danced for us for a long time. That was a wonderful experience.

When it was time for us to go, we piled into Greg’s truck once again and bundled up, preparing for a very cold ride down the mountain. We made it probably about 15 minutes before it started raining on us, and since we are so smart, we took out about 4 sleeping bags and used them to make a fort over us as we all huddled together underneath them and tried to stay dry. It worked great, and in the process we got very cozy and close with each other to say the least! Haha but we had so much fun on the ride down, riding in the truck with bruised butts and aching bodies was definitely something to laugh about, and many more pictures were taken :) We made it down safely, and back to campus exhausted but so filled with excitement and joy. I have so many thoughts to process and journal about, so many experiences and lessons to apply to my own life, and I have yet to find a free minute to even begin to do any of that! What an adventure though, it is something I will never forget, and I wanted to share the stories with all of you who I know would want to hear :)

Nearly no time to blog anymore!

Hello again, after a long time without an update!

Classes have obviously come into full swing, and I am busy busy busy! After only 2 weeks of school it is time for midterms already, since our entire semester of classes here is condensed into 6 weeks! Term papers will be due next, and before I know it I will be in the middle of finals!

Although the condensed time makes for VERY little free time and much more stress, I will be so thankful for the intensive study period once it is over, because that means more opportunity to invest attention into our service projects and fun excursions in the weeks afterwards. For now, however, it is tiring, but we will make it!

I am really enjoying all my classes, my South African professors are incredibly nice and so fun to learn from, so despite the work load and number of assignments they give us, I like learning here!

This past weekend we took a trip to Durban on saturday and went to the beach! It was such a relief to escape the crazy heat and finally be in the ocean again... the water in Durban wasn't quite as warm as in Umzinto the previous weekend, but much more refreshing in the heat and just felt to nice... obviously i was VERY happy :) I'm getting tan again, which is fun because everybody in the states are in the middle of winter, and I couldnt be happier being as far away from the cold as I can be ;) We got to shop in a GREAT market downtown, and i began my purchasing of souvenirs and gifts to bring back to my loved ones, everything is SO cheap, and it was not rare to see earrings or figurines for 5 rand, which is equivalent to about 70cents in US dollars! I was able to control myself though, and had to constantly remind myself that that shopping time would not be my only opportunity to shop while I am here! (mom, when you come, keep in mind wall decorations and kitchen utensils... i love them).

The weather is beautiful here, very hot but with an occasional thunder storm in the evenings, and today I layed on a towel next to the bottom of a waterfall up the hill from my chalet, and I studied for my midterm as the mist from the falls kept me cool in the heat! It was WONDERFUL!

I want to also briefly express my EXCITEMENT for starting service projects after classes end. For 4 weeks, each person in our group will be assigned to a location in the outskirts of town, usually in small group of about 5-7 people at each site, and we will be giving our time and help to these places for the remainder of our time in Pietermaritzburg. I really cant wait for this opportunity to serve, and to be one more set of helping hands in a place that is constantly short handed!

This week... to begin with, valentines day on Sunday was lots of fun, and our activities committee here put on a fun, romantic, beautiful dinner in the Jabulani room on campus, complete with flowers and candles and michael buble background music :) The committee even gave the kitchen staff a recipe for chicken alfredo pasta and garlic bread... tasted like home for all of us :) I finally got to open the letter I got in the mail from nate, and it was so encouraging and uplifting, and really made the day easier to get through while missing him.

Natalie turned 13 yesterday on the other side of the world, and getting to talk to her on skype this morning helped me get through that, I miss her and my family so much, and a birthday makes the distance much more apparent to me. The combination of both of those events back-to-back was honestly very emotionally draining, and paired with midterms and minimal sleep, these have been some of the toughest days I have had since I have been here. I am incredibly thankful for the wonderful friends that I am surrounded with here though, and they have really been so supportive of me and comforting too!

Until the next time I find an opening in my schedule! Comment so I can hear from you all as well, i miss you all!

A love letter for you... on Valentine's Day :)

Something one of my friends posted on facebook, and I just wanted to share it with all of you on this Valentine's Day! Happy Vday from South Africa :)

My Child

You may not know me, but I know everything about you.
Psalm 139:1

I know when you sit down and when you rise up.
Psalm 139:2

I am familiar with all your ways.
Psalm 139:3

Even the very hairs on your head are numbered.
Matthew 10: 29-31

For you were made in my image.
Genesis 1:27

In me you live and move and have your being.
Acts 17:28

For you are my offspring.
Acts: 17:28

I knew you even before you were conceived.
Jeremiah 1:4-5

I chose you when I planned creation.
Ephesians 1:11-12

You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book.
Psalm 139:15-16

I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live.
Acts 17:26

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Psalm 139:14

I knit you together in your mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13

And brought you forth on the day you were born.
Psalm 71:6

I have been misrepresented by those who don’t know me.
John 8:41-44

I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love.
1 John 4:16

And it is my desire to lavish my love on you.
1 John 3:1

I offer you more than your earthly father ever could.
Matthew 7:11

For I am the perfect father.
Matthew 5:48

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand.
James 1:17

For I am your provider and I meet all your needs.
Matthew 6:31-33

My plan for your future has always been filled with hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

Because I love you with an everlasting love.
Jeremiah 31:3

My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore.
Psalm 139:17-18

And I rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17

I will never stop doing good to you.
Jeremiah 32:40

For you are my treasured possession.
Exodus 19:5

I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul.
Jeremiah 32:41

And I want to show you great and marvelous things.
Jeremiah 33:3

If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me.
Deuteronomy 4:29

Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4

For it is I who gave you those desires.
Philippians 2:13

I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine.
Ephesians 3:20

For I am your greatest encourager.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you.
Psalm 34:18

As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart.
Isaiah 40:11

One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes.
Revelation 21:3-4

And I’ll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth.
Revelation 21:3-4

I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus.
John 17:23

For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed.
John 17:26

He is the exact representation of my being.
Hebrews 1:3

He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you.
Romans 8:31

And to tell you that I am not counting your sins.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you.
1 John 4:10

I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your live.
Romans 8:31-32

If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me.
1 John 2:23

And nothing will ever separate you from my love again.
Romans 8:38-39

Come home and I’ll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen.
Luke 15:7

I have always been the Father, and will always be Father.
Ephesians 3:14-15

My question is… Will you be my child?
John 1:12-13

I am waiting for you.
Luke 15:11-32

Love, Your Father
Almighty God

Safari fieldtrip

Each Thursday my biology class goes on a fieldtrip, and this week we went on a safari! It was the first safari I've ever been on, and I had so much fun getting driven around in the big jeeps with my classmates and learning about the animals and vegetation in the area. That day was my first time seeing zebra, kutu, nyala, white rhinos, ostriches, hippos, and giraffes too which were the biggest highlight among many highlights, since giraffes are one of my favorite animals (tied with elephants)!

We drove around for hours, getting extremely close to many of the animals, and closest to the rhinos who I was worried were about to charge our jeep at any second. The game reserve we were at did not keep any carnivorous animals that might be predators to the other animals in order to create a peaceful reserve, which i thought was interesting.

The fieldtrips are not purely for enjoyment, and we actually do biological studies and research while we are out in the bush. On this day, we studied the different grass species indigenous to that area, and after taking samples from 2 different sites we developed data charts and formed hypotheses about the differences in soil and grasses. So yes, I AM actually working for these class credits :)

and of course... what would this blog be without the pictures!

i am also in the process of trying to put ALL the safari pictures on my facebook, but the internet here doesnt have much uploading capabilities so it takes me much longer than usual!

As for me, I'm doing so good and falling more and more in love with this incredible country every single day. I miss my family and friends and nate too, and im starting to really miss mexican food too! The hardest thing at this point is the time change, and because it is pretty much night/day difference in time between here and California, it is so hard for me to find time to talk to people back home!
My heart has been very full with joy in just realizing all the ways God is blessing me during this time of my life, and I am definitely learning alot about myself and about life through prayer and inspiring conversations with the people here. I just feel so happy and so full of life and passion, and I have felt a change in myself as far as how I see the world and what my perspectives are now as opposed to before!

... I am also developing a hatred for monkeys, a tolerance for heat, and a slightly bigger fear of spiders. I have NEVER seen spiders like these.

Fieltrips, Excursions, Lions and Birds, and a new Church!

Things happen much too quickly here for me to be able to keep up with blogging about them! Too many great and exciting things happen each day, and I just don’t have the kind of time to include them more often, so I apologize in advance for how long this post might be! Im sorry!

So just to clarify some things right off the bat, I realize that my mailing address here might have been slightly off. Here is the new revised information!

For letters, send to

African Enterprise Attn: API- Lauren Klapp
PO Box 13870, Cascades 3202
Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu-Natal
South Africa

And for packages, send to

African Enterprise Center Attn: Lauren Klapp
1 Nonsuch Road
Chase Valle
Pietermaritzburg 3201
3200 KZN
South Africa

(or if you would like to search the location on GoogleEarth haha)

And just to give you a brief idea of how I have been doing these last few days, this is something I wrote in my journal yesterday morning…
“I feel like I am one of the most blessed people in the world, and none of this could have even come into existence at all without my God. He is so tangible in this place, and His presence is everywhere. As I ask Him why I am here, and why am I so fortunate and blessed to be on a trip like this, He responds with “Because I chose you, I sent you to do work for me, and to show the people of South Africa who I am.” He has given me answers to every one of my questions, He has opened my eyes and my heart to what this life is all about and what exactly I should be living for, and that is to serve my Savior and follow where He wants me to go.”

Anyways, one of the most exciting days this week was Thursday when my biology class went on a fieldtrip! For this class, every Thursday we go on a different fieldtrip as part of our lab, and this week’s trip just so happened to be incredible! Our professor took us to a few different locations of indigenous rare flowers that grow on a handful of hillsides around PMB (abbreviation for Pietermaritzburg… so much easier that typing the whole thing out every time!)
She then took us to a ridge that overlooked a beauuutiful canyon full of green, green trees and a waterfall on the other side! It was the prettiest view!
We then hiked through the forests and observed the environment along the way, and after walking high and low we ended up at the top of the waterfall! I was so excited that I think I screamed with joy, more than once. Haha it was the most beautiful view and the craziest thing to be standing next to the waterfall drop off!
Then we kept walking along the trail, thinking that that was the peak excitement of the hike, but oh we were so wrong! We ended up at the bottom of the waterfall, and once again screamed with joy and excitement… we could walk close enough to get wet from the water hitting the rocks at the bottom, and we took lots of pictures!
All week long everybody has been looking forward to seeing lions, and the time finally came on Saturday! We traveled to a lion park where wild lions are fenced into a large area of land, and normally people can buy a ticket and drive through the park to get a close up view of the lions, and this would have been cool except for the vans that the campus uses to transport all of us are unfortunately rental vehicles, and the lions have been known to bite tires and claw the sides of cars, so they couldn’t risk it. We were able to walk along the fences though, and after a long time of being stared down by hungry lions, they started to come over to the fence and we got pretty up-close and personal, I must say!
The lions came right up to the fence and it shocked me just how huge they are, I mean their open mouth is easily as big as my whole head, and the sizes of their heads are unbelievable! They looked so tame, like the ones in the zoo, but it was startling when each time somebody turned their back to them, the lions would lunge towards the fence! Once you look away, they aren’t quite so tame anymore!
That same day, we visited a Birds of Prey rehab center, and at first I definitely was not that interested in walking around and looking at the birds in the cages, but we watched the show with the lady who ran the center, and after learning so much about each type of falcon and seeing how well they had been trained to perform in the show, I think everybody was totally into it!
We also got to watch the vultures being fed, and it was one of the craziest and violent things I’ve seen! Before the food had even arrived, they were pulling each others feathers out and attacking everything in sight! When the meat was thrown in, it was probably gone within a matter of 30 seconds probably between like 6 vultures, and they got A LOT of meat! That was fun to see, a little scary but I loved the experience!

On this same day, we also stopped at a historical place in PMB, the 1st gate at the train station in downtown. Why is this important, you ask? well let me tell you. When Mahatma Gandhi was living in the country of South Africa in his early years, he was riding the train through the country, and he was kicked off at this station in PMB. He was kicked off because he was riding in first class, with a valid first class ticket that he has rightfully paid for, but just because he was not white they would not let him continue to ride, and they kicked him off the train at the 1st gate at the train station in downtown PMB! This is what spurred Gandhi to take action against racial discrimination and began his political career right here in PMB! We went and walked around, read the plaques around the station, and i stood probably right where Gandhi stood at some point long ago.
the station

standing where gandhi stood, obviously.

Oh and grandma, if you read this, I want you to know that everybody here is impressed with my knowledge of wildlife poop, and I give the credit all to you :) haha!

I have mentioned the monkeys that live around our campus, but I forgot to add that because they have become extremely comfortable around here, the campus has provided us with a paintball gun that any of us students can use if we see monkeys, and we shoot them to bring a little fear back into their lives! Haha. I have heard that they plan on providing pepper spray especially for all the girls, since the girls seem to be targets for vicious monkeys looking for somebody to corner!
Last thing. This morning (Sunday) I went to an Indian Christian church about 15 minutes away, and I went with about 6 other students and one of our student life coordinators named Reagan (we got to meet Reagan’s fiancé for the first time, her name is Leizel) I really loved the church, it was a great cultural experience and cool to observe Indians, who come from a strong Hindu culture, practicing Christianity in South Africa. Have I mentioned before South Africa has the largest population of Indian people anywhere in the world other than India? Basically there are a lot of them in South Africa, so since that is such a large part of South African culture, it was fun to see how they did church! They were so incredibly friendly and happy to have us there, and I think I received a hug from every single person in the whole congregation! Haha so basically it was a lot of fun, and almost refreshing to be in a new place like that!

The heat and humidity peaked again today after many days of clouds and rain, so after church our small group went to one of our professor’s house to swim in his pool, it felt sooo nice! It was crazy to see how that quality of his house, which seemed to be almost standard for that part of the town and possibly considered a great house with many rooms and a pool, might have very well been classified as something fit for the projects back in the states. That was my first time inside an actual home, so I’m sure there will be more experiences like that to come, but it made me appreciate what I do have back at home or school!

Wish me luck in this next week, classes have been keeping me pretty swamped and taking away any free time I might have had, but I can’t complain too much!

Until next time :)

Update from the Pietermaritzburg Campus!

It's been a little while since I've given an update, I apologize for making you all wait! I finally have a few minutes to spare before I go to bed, but let me just start by saying that the school campus here in the hills of Pietermaritzburg is the most unbelievably beautiful place I have ever been! The nature and scenery all around has the strongest gift of relaxation, from the perfectly warm sun and cool breeze to the big waterfall conveniently located right outside our main classroom!

I didn't want to begin to talk about this place until I would be able to put pictures up, because words just cannot describe it, nomatter how hard i try! I hope you are able to get a little taste of this South African paradise!

i got a little peak of the indian ocean while flying from Joburg to Pburg... i have not gotten to tough it yet but I cant wait! its beautiful!

this is my dorm, or "chalet" as we call them here! my room is on the bottom left, facing out to a big green lawn usually full of monkeys playing with eachother!

the view from my bedroom window... we only open these windows when we are sitting inside the room because if we leave them open, the monkeys will jump inside and do what they do best! they are such little pesks... and they are quite vicious too! the boys carry around a paintball gun to keep them from cornering us on the balconies and on the paths!

heres what they look like... cute but so mean. if youd like to see a little bit more of the monkeys, i have more pictures and a video of them on my facebook!

The weather here has been so cool. Monday it was HOT and so so humid we could hardly breathe... and sitting in class from 8am-9pm with the sound of the waterfall right outside was pretty terrible. There is no air conditioning, only open windows (which the monkeys love to take advantage of) and fans. The heat definitely wore me out and I was so exhausted by the end of the day!
Tuesday I had a free morning so i went on a walk after breakfast with Alex and Rachel through the game reserve down the road! That was alot of fun, saw many monkeys and antelope. It started raining as soon as we got back, and absolutely down-poured the entire day! i never let up once, it stayed consistently pouring all day long and even after we went to sleep, but while we read and worked on homework all day in our room, we had all the windows wide open because the air finally felt so nice, and slightly cooler than the day before :) i LOVE being able to wear shorts and a tshirt when its raining!
Speaking of the homework, this semester is going to be really difficult! Our entire semester of school is squeezed into just 6 weeks, so for the next 6 weeks I am going to be so overwhelmed with studying! It is going to be alot, but so worth it. I love my classes and professors here, so that helps alot!
Todays weather reminded me alot of a California summer day, it felt amazing! I sat on a bench down by the creek and read for one of my classes, it was so nice :) My days are filled with lots of homework, which is never fun... but im hanging in there! Life is pretty good otherwise!

Nate- I miss you so much and I hope someday I can bring you here to show you how incredible this place is! You are wonderful, and the time change is tough but we've been making it work :) I love you, and I will talk to you tomorrow!

A Few Funny Things About South Africa...

1. If something is good, it is called "shop-shop" with 2 thumbs up.
2. The toilets have 2 different flushers, one for pee and one for poop.
3. The light switches are upside-down to American lightswitches.
4. Cars drive on the left side of the road, and the driver is on the right side of the car.
5. They call traffic lights "robots." With their accent, it sounds alot like "rowboats." So sometimes if you ask for directions, an African will usually say something like "past the second robot on the right."
6. While hailing a taxi, there are different hand-motions one can use to tell the taxi drivers where you would like to go. If the taxi driver is headed to that area, he will pick you up, and if he isnt, he wont.
7. Nobody smiles inside the taxis, because they are all saying prayers for their safety.
8. They say "just now" in place of "sometime soon." This makes things confusing when, for example, asking somebody to do something, because they might respond by saying "I will do it just now," when really they mean they plan on doing it any time in the near future.
9. Instead of flashing gang signs, people will show gestures that represent a soccer team.
10. If you leave your windows open, monkeys will climb into your room and poop everywhere.
11. It is common for someone to run up to you and say "shoot me, shoot me!" What they are really saying is "take my picture!" They love to have their picture taken, and love to pose for anyone with a camera.

My Mailing Address

For those of you wondering what the address is to send mail to here, it is...

PO Box 13870, Cascades 3202
Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu-Natal
South Africa

something to keep in mind is that it takes mail about 2-3 weeks to get from the US to here, so plan accordingly! And I will only be at this location until April 1, so they suggest informing anyone who might mail things to us that it is a good idea not to send anything up to 6 weeks before that time! :)

An overwhelming day of touring and history!

It is Saturday now, and I can’t believe I’m actually here! We had an early breakfast, continental at the hotel, and the whole group got on the bus and we were on our way by 8:30. Turns out they make scrambled eggs differently in SA, because this morning instead of scrambling the eggs and then putting them onto the grill, she cracked the eggs directly onto the grill and scrambled them with the spatula as they fried! Cool huh?

Anyways, we knew we were going to the Apartheid Museum in Joburg today, but we did not know we would also be taking an all-day tour around the Township of Sowato (pronounced Suwatu with their accent) with a tour guide named Alina who rode the bus with us and talked along the whole ride. We went everywhere from the poorest areas, where large families live squished into little shacks made of tin sheet metal and live with the pigs, to the wealthy neighborhoods with beautiful brick houses, air conditioning, and swimming pools! We drove past markets where people shopped for fruits and vegetables, and Alina told us that malnutrition is not a big problem in SA or even in the poor parts because fruits and vegetables are so abundant and cheap. We saw many historic places around Sowato, including the house of Nelson Mandela, a monument dedicated to the new voting rights, and the memorials and sites of the 1970’s police shootings of protesting children. We walked through a famous church with amazing elaborate stained-glass windows portraying many events throughout history, and in the ceiling of the church we could still see bullet holes.

We ended the day by going to the Apartheid Museum, as if our day of culture-introduction was not overwhelming enough already. If you are not familiar with the term ‘Apartheid,’ it is basically the holocaust of South Africa. It was the mistreatment and killing of many black Africans in the early 1900’s that stemmed from a drastic inequality of human rights between blacks and whites, or European settlers of that time. So walking through the museum, watching the videos, seeing pictures and reading quotes and accounts was very heartbreaking, but at the same time it made me realize how far SA has come since then and how much they have had to go through to get to where they are today. It gave me hope for the country now and for the future.

If I could describe today in one word, it would be BEAUTY. Everything my eyes saw I just wanted to capture it permanently in my mind so that I could remember it forever, because everywhere I looked I seemed to not be able to look away. I think they call this the honeymoon phase of being in another country, but I don’t care, I loved everything around me. The people are absolutely beautiful, from the poor and toothless to the glamorous and wealthy, everyone wears a smile here. Their joy and love for both each other and their country really shows, and they are more than welcoming to us as visitors. As our bus drove through the Sowato streets, the people passing by would wave to us and smile until they were out of sight. People would wave to us even if they were 100 yards down the road, as if we were long-lost friends of theirs that they had been waiting to see for years. They would smile and jump up and down, wave their arms, come out of their houses, and watch us drive past as we all waved back through the lightly tinted windows of the bus. These people are absolutely beautiful from the inside out, and I have fallen in love with the way they live their lives. Since today is Saturday, everyone was out and about, and I quickly noticed that everyone was walking. Walking here and there, through the streets and neighborhoods, walking in the mall we stopped at, but not only were they walking, they were just slowly making their way from one place to another and not one person was in a hurry. Everybody seemed to be enjoying their surroundings and the company of the people they were with, and the time that it took them to reach their destination seemed very unimportant next to the relationships and conversations with people. I really am not exaggerating this, NOBODY was in any sort of hurry. Not one person in the city, and this brought a very obvious meaning to the term “T.I.A.” or “this is Africa,” referring to lack of punctuality.

The colors in this country are so wonderful, from the bright clothes the people wear to the art painted on buildings and sold on the streets, fruits in the markets, baskets balanced on the heads of women with babies on their backs, the colors of houses and advertisements, it is all so stimulating! They use bright colors everywhere, and it is such a beautiful contrast to the dark skin of the people. And speaking of skin color, it is a whole new experience being the minority in a community. That is something I am not used to, and it changes my mindset about my environment and my own image very much.

One of the things that struck me was the number of funeral processions we saw just driving around the city today. Our tour guide, Alina, pointed them out to us every time, and she did so very casually. There were so many that I lost count, and it saddened me so much how funerals seemed to be a very regular and normal thing here to the African people. This reminded me of the fact that South Africa has the highest percentage of HIV infected people in all of Africa, and to see that statistic all around the city today in the form of funeral processions made me realize just how real the issue of HIV is. The first of many, I’m sure.

I will close this extremely long blog entry by saying that the weather is so so good, or “shop-shop” the Africans would say while holding two thumbs up (it means good, and they say it about almost everything). Since it is summer here, it is a perfectly warm temperature with just enough humidity to make me wish I was wearing a flowy summer dress. In the middle of the day we had a thunder and lightning storm and it poured rain, but the warmth never went away! It is tropical and wonderful, and couldn’t be more perfect.


alex and i infront of our busa historical cone-shaped building with the human equality laws written in stonevendors in the squareno hurry to get anywhere...

a small snapshot of an enormous colorful fruit market


south african streets... they drive on the left side :)

the poor neighborhoods, where people ran out of their shacks to wave to our bus!

some of the beautiful childrena difficult museum to walk through, to say the least.