Sawubona!

Sawubona! I believe that means hello, how are you! in Siswati or possibly just a big happy greeting.  Either way, I have made it safely to the YWAM base in South Africa and have been here since Sunday. The trip was a long plane ride and then a nice 4 hours bus ride next to a man from Capetown who enjoyed singing along to Abba’s Super Trooper—entertaining to say the least.

 

When we arrived at the base, there were already about 60 different people here. There is a small group from a church in New York that is here working in the community for two weeks and then there are two Discipleship Training School programs that were on their outreach here, one from Orlando, Florida and the other from Worchester, South Africa (near capetown). The team from Worchester left today and now it is feels so empty! The New York team leaves Saturday and the Orlando team will be here at least another week, possibly two. It is going to be very quite when they are all gone. As for the people who are in my class though, there are currently 5 of us and then a couple will be joining us in about a week. They are moving here with their family and will be joining the staff after they finish the DTS! Here now, in my class, are Monique, Jocelyn, Eunice, Stanley, and I. Stanley and Eunice are both from the surrounding communities. Stanley is an orphan. He is now 22 and a youth leader in the community. Eunice is a single mom. Her little girl, Sentila, is 5 months old and so precious! Most of our breaks revolve around playing with her. Jocelyn is from Maryland and is also taking her spring semester of sophomore year off from IUP! And Monique, is from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Overall, our team is getting along great. It is fun having two Africans with us. They explain the strange food that we are eating and are trying to teach us Siswati!

 

This first week has been nice and slow to get us eased into a routine here. We have had class everyday, but by class, I more or less mean discussions about our faith and how God is working here in Africa. A lot of it has been explaining the mission of 10, 000 Homes, getting to know each other, and learning what our role will be here! Right now, the Orlando team is running programs in the two villages we will be working in and we had a chance during the week to go and visit. We saw the feeding program where 160 children came and a playground that the New York team just built for the children.  It didn’t even take a minute of us arriving and all the children ran up to give us hugs.

 

Okay, now we’ll do a quick few highlights of life here so far:

 

1. Pride rock—it reminds me of “the point” that our team in St. Lucia found. It is basically a huge rock that has a beautiful outlook at mountains and one of the communities we are working in during the week. It is so peaceful and I have found it to be a perfect place for quiet time to pray and reflect.

 

2. Work-out videos. Lets be honest, did anyone really think I would lose my crazy desire to run a million miles while I was in Africa? I haven’t lost it but I realize it probably isn’t safe for me to go by myself for a long run. So instead, every night, Monique, Eunice, Jocelyn, and I have been doing a work-out video. It is essentially a really cheesy jazzercise video and I love it. Stanley laughs at us, but I know he secretly wants to join in.

 

3. Talking with the people from other teams. There are people here from Germany, Norway, Finland, Canada, Nigera, Kenya, England, and the Netherlands to name a few. Not to mention probably someone from almost all 50 states. AND, even one person from Lancaster, PA. (He went to Lancaster Mennonite so I am afraid, Lancaster Catholic friends that it was difficult to find any connections). But it has been really cool hearing so many different languages being spoken and talking with people about music and culture.

 

4. African singing and dancing. First off, on Sunday we had a community night where we all had singing and praising. The leader of the Worchester team led it and he is a South African so the songs were upbeat and had us all dancing on our feet. It was such a joyful way of singing and praising God who has given us all so much! We also had a special treat of Eunice’s dance team coming to show us authentic African dance. The girls dressed in custom and were enjoyable, but my favorite was the boys who did a stomp routine. It was part of our time to learn about the African culture.

 

5. This is maybe not a highlight, but a big part of what I have learned life is here—the water! There has been so much of it, yet so little at the same time. The first few days here, it down poured almost everyday. The power went out one day and whenever the power goes out, the water turns off. It is run by an electric pump so no power=no water! That means no shower, no drinking water, no sink to wash dishes, no toilet, and nothing can be done that needs water! The water has come on and off within the day, but it has been turned off all day today and they think it may be turned off for the next few days. I really hope it isn’t true!

 

6.  The flies here are horrific. They swarm us all during class and while we are preparing the food and while I am just sitting minding my own business the come in my ear and buzz! So, we have decided to fight back. Jocelyn killed 30 yesterday and tomorrow when we go into town—we are getting a fly swatter. If we don’t leave anything behind here, at least we will be helping decrease their annoying fly population. ; )

 

7. Reading. Can you believe it? I am reading books. I have almost finished a book in less than a week. I have just a few pages left in The Shack and it is great! (thanks Jordan for recommending it, even though it took me 5 months to actually get to reading it! )

 

8. Clean-up duty. We have a worker, who cooks and cleans for breakfast and lunch but our team is in charge of dinner preparation and clean up. It is my work detail to clean up the dishes and the tables every night. It is proving to be quite a bit of work with over 60 people here for dinner, but it is definitely teaching me to have a servant’s heart.

 

9. Tea time! Yes, South Africa use to be a British colony so tea time is huge here. Every day, at 10:00, we stop what we are doing for some tea. It also really helps for when I sleep through the 7:00 a.m breakfast and can instead have some pb & j on toast during tea time!

 

10. Classes. Even though our classes have not been too in depth yet, as it is just the first week, I can tell this is going to challenge me to grow and I am excited for it! Yesterday we talked about creativity. The staff here values creativity and is going to work it into our schooling a lot. At first mention of this, I thought, “What! Creativity? I love to color but anything past that and I am challenged.” But we talked about God as the perfect and best creator! Think, he made the stars and flowers and beach and the wind to cool us off (and the sun to warm all of you at home) and how beautiful all of that is for us! Now, if we are all made in the image of God, then aren’t we all creators in some sense? I decided that I am a creator of going into places that are messy and making them neat again. I love when my room is a mess and I can just sit down and make sense of things. As Jeremy pointed out, that means the mess is a necessity in order for me to practice my creativity. Like that one mom? Yea, I thought so! : )

 

Phew! Now I know this is a very scattered update, but it is the best I can do for a short time to write about a whole week! We do not yet have internet at the base like we thought that we would, but hopefully that will change in a while so I can give you all more updates. As for now though, it will only be the few times I can get to an internet café. Overall though, life here is going very well! I still miss you all at home, but I know I have my best friend here with me all the time, no matter where I go. (Deuteronomy 31:6)