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 :)