A little bit of Life

Hello everyone!

the last couple months have been pretty uneventful. That's why I haven't written much. But I thought i'd just write anyway. I'm still working in the galley and learning lots there. I've gone out with Comfort, the woman who does hygiene teaching for the dental team. I drive her around to a bunch of schools and then keep statistics and time while she teaches. I've gotten to teach a little myself too. :) that was fun. The kids are adorable and its so fun being with locals and hearing the language. The drives to the school are quite the adrenaline rush too! i love it. lots of hills and mountains some sharp drops on the edge of steep dirt roads. Quite an adventure. I love it :)

My favorite school was called "something-I-can't-remember-or-pronounce primary school and preschool." hehe The teachers were interested in their students and it showed and the kids in turn were vibrant and responsive. Our first class was the preschoolers. That has been one of my favorite experience so far since being here in SA. it was a room full of about 28 preschool kids prolly only 4 years old and under. they were all sitting on the floor, so me and Comfort just joined the circle. As soon as we sat down one of the kids started crying. He was afraid we were there to give injections, because the district school nurse that takes us to these schools only goes to give injections (She does this in classes before or after we teach). But these ones were too young for the injections, still they were afraid it was So cute. So Comfort picked up the kid and sat him in her lap trying to calm him even though he didn't understand her words. He stopped crying quickly and sat contentedly in her lap. right after that one of the little boys to my right began to cry saying he didn't what "jovi" injections. I assured him in broken Zulu that there were no shots "Cha Jovi" (no injections). Then patted my lap and held out my hands to see if he wanted to come. Immediately he sat in my lap and stopped crying. We did the whole teaching each holding a child. It was so fun and these young ones were so interactive and bright. I just loved it. So that has been my favorite experience so far. :)

Besides that we've been excited to find that we are living 45 minutes from Angus Buckam, the farmer/evangelist that wrote Faith Like Potatoes. We've watched the movie here and it was so exciting to see so much we relate to, so much we are living! Several of our people here have visited the church in gray town and even gone to visit Angus' farm. They've met him and talked to him and others from the movie/book. He is headed to London soon for another speaking engagement I believe. We are hoping to have him here to speak to us at some point before we leave.

A couple weekends ago we did a small community service project. The church across the street from our campus is looking for a new pastor as it is growing so much. So we offered to help them fix up the parsonage if they could raise the money for paint and materials. So a couple Saturdays ago a few of us spent the morning painting. There is still a lot of work to do, but we used up all the paint they had. So perhaps we'll be back over there at some point. :) It was fun.

Life here is pretty chill. We are at least an hour and a half from the nearest large city, so there is not a whole lot to do outside of our campus. I've been doing a lot of reading, enjoying some great books like The Atonement Child -Francine Rivers; Tuesdays with Morrie (forget the authors name); and right now i'm reading a book by the author of Blue like Jazz, Can't remember the name of the book (something about a road trip). Also I've become addicted to gilmore girls :-p hehe. and besides that I've just been enjoying the beauty of nature around here, enjoying spending afternoons walking around campus or finding a nice spot to read in the sun. Though lately its been pretty cold and rainy for the most part, which is good I suppose because everyone has been praying for rain. The people need it. God is pretty awesome with all he's made and how much he loves us. :)

We've also been to the beach a few times, they have some beautiful beaches with these big rocks to climb around on in the surf. Very exciting :) I attached some random pictures below. Enjoy!

Enoch, Danae, and I at the beach. :)

Look at the view! :)

These circle houses are what the Zulus build around here. There is this superstition about a little man or spirit or something that hides in corners; so they believe it so strongly I guess it resulted in the tradition of building round houses so he has nowhere to hide.

This is looking in the direction of the road down to our campus where we live. The campus itself is seen if you look a little further than the picture to the left.

It is just So gorgeous here. It is definitely one of the most naturally beautiful and diverse places I've been to.

One of the beaches.

the edge of a tide pool. They are everywhere and so cool!

Me and Megan at the beach.

This is how foggy it gets sometimes here. And it gets as cold as it looks :S Buurrrr.

An afternoon in a tree....A good day :)

Today was an absolutely wonderful day.

It was warm, sunny and absolutely gorgeous outside. I slept till I woke up this morning (no alarm clock yay!) and still managed to catch the last minutes of breakfast. Then Christina, Danae and I curled up in my room and watched Leap Year. Definitely one of my top favorite movies now. Absolutely fun, funny, cute and very clean. After that we put on more summery clothes (yay! Its been cold) and went for a walk to enjoy the sunshine. Then I came back and put on a tank top and some ball shorts cause I was still hot even after losing the normal sweatshirts we’ve gotten used to lately. Then I packed a small knapsack with a book, my Bible, journal, and my ipod in my pocket, put on my flip flops and went out to enjoy the day outside.

My first mission was to find food, so I stopped at the tuck shop and got french fries and a sausage roll plus some chocolate cookies J mmmm! Yummy. I ate my food sitting under a tree on the top step of the arena area out back of the gym accompanied by music from my ipod. Then, with my stomach full, I went on a hunt for a good place to set up camp for a while. I found it in a big old tree in an out-of-the-way corner at the front of the campus by the outside wall. So I climbed up and made myself comfy enjoying the breeze and the shade. I proceeded to spend the majority of the rest of my afternoon sitting in a tree J resting, napping, reading, talking to Jesus a little, and enjoying my music, switching every now and then to a new spot in the big tree. It was just wonderful. Absolutely perfect.

After about 2 hours or so I decided to see what else I might do till dinner. I met one of the guards as I was just getting down and we exchanged hellos and started a small conversation, then he pointed out one of the other female guards, Mpume, whom I’d met earlier, was waving and calling to me from the guard house, so we walked down to say hi. I visited there for a little bit and showed them pictures of my family and Joey from my ipod. They enjoyed the pictures and asked some questions about where they were and if I missed them.

After talking a little bit, I said goodbye and walked on, still having no plan, completely content with the beauty and leisure of the day, silently thanking God for the wonder and pleasure of his creation, singing to my ipod as I went. I picked a spot on a step shaded all except my legs and sat there for a few minutes just listening and singing with my music, then got up and wondered around still singing and enjoying the warmth of the sun. I found myself on the walkway leading to the school with big blue pillars on either side. So I picked one off to the side with a view of the hills and sat down on the side with some shade enjoying my music and drifting off for a few seconds here and there. It was a wonderful day. I spent all day outside, in a tree, on a step, singing songs, warmed by the sun. Thank you God for a special day. I loved it. J

Applesbosch! Home sweet land! :)

We are here! Woohoo! And for those of you who think that all of Africa is hot and sunny. I have news for you. It is very cold right now! We are coming out of South Africa's winter. So we've been all pants (trousers for the Brits ;-p *pants mean underwear to them lol) and sweatshirts! But yes it is beautiful! and the campus we are staying on is an absolute blessing. God is so good. He really loves us. So here are some pictures. right now I'm working in the galley until we see what happens with the dental team. enjoy the pictures! I miss all of you my family and friends!

My room on the ship was completely empty after I was done packing up to move to Applesbosch.

Like i said, Hoodies! yay!

This is a sitting area behind the gym, next to the tuck shop (its like a concession stand on steroids! hehe its awesome!)where we can get internet (They are still working out a lot of details for it to be stable and perminant)

Here's the tuck shop. They have all kinds of good stuff. And that is Clare, who helps run it. The staff here running the campus for us is amazing! I'm so thankful for them!

We have a full size gym!!! I've been able to play basketball most evenings. I'm loving it.

That's my dorm building on the left, B block, and that is the dining hall on the right. like i said, beautiful!

The view from my room. That is the gym on the left and you can see just the beginning of the school for the kids on the right

This is my room! I get my own! and it has 3 beds in it, which is really funny. No I don't switch back and forth every third night. I sleep in the pink one.

The bus ride to Applesbosch from the ship. So fun and exciting!

The massive pile of crew luggage before it was all loaded on trucks to be taken to Applesbosch. The first two days were major unpacking, complete with a people chain all the way from the trucks to the gym to get the luggage in as quickly and easily as possible. :)

well thats all I have for now. I hope you are all doing well!

Land! Land! It's South Africa ;-D Yay!

After Sailing for 17 days, we have just arrived in Durban, South Africa!

I’m so excited to be here. J We got in this morning after the pilot boarded our ship by helicopter! Quite exciting. It was so refreshing to see the first sights of the coast line. Land! Yay!Durban looks beautiful. This is the 3^rd largest port in the southern hemisphere. As we came into port it reminded me of a big city in FL. Palm trees, big buildings, it looks just like home. J I can’t wait to be able to run around on land. ;-p I feel like a little kid that’s been cooped up too long. We are just waiting on things to get all finished up with immigration before we are allowed to set foot on land. Please pray that God will pave the way and things will fall into place smoothly and quickly.

Tomorrow we will be loading up trucks and caravanning about 2 hours up to ApplesBosch, the campus we will be living on for the next 6 months. It is an un-used college campus, with open spaces, that I’m sure we will all enjoy after living on a ship for over a year. :-D As soon as we get off the ship, the technical crew remaining, and other workers from the shipyard will begin work in earnest to refit the ship and making all the changes and improvements needed.

I still have some packing to finish up before tomorrow morning, and I’m very excited about all the changes happening. I think I will continue working in crew services (dining room or galley) for then next 2 weeks or so at Applesbosch (or wherever they tell me I’m working ;-p), then we will start work with the dental clinic again and I’ll go back to my job as sterilizer. I’m so excited to see everything unfold here. I know God has a plan and I’m excited to be a part of it. I’ll write more once our internet and phone services get set up in Applesbosch, which could be over a week or so. I hope you are all well! Enjoy a few of the pictures below that I took this morning as we came into port as well as some pictures of the fun we had on the sail.

I enjoyed going up on deck 7 some mornings to enjoy God's creation and spend some time with Him. :)

During the sail we plan some fun activities to keep everyone from going crazy ;-p hehe

This was our team for the game day. Jeff and Megan Howard and their kids Max and Emma. Love this family. They have been such a blessing to me!

We also had a pirate day, where everyone dressed up and they had a treasure hunt and some other stuff for the kids. this is me with Emma and Max again :)

Obviously some sort of throwing game. ;-p I think it was one where you had to throw these little empty cookie boxes as far as you could. More difficult than you'd imagine ;-p lol

This just looks dangerous :-p

We had a carnival with lots of games and other fun things. Hahah so much fun. It's the Murr man!

The carnival also did stick-on tattoos! me and Becca decided to model ours :-p

And we got to make magnetic picture frames!

This is the dock in Durban! The view looking to the front of the ship.

This is the port looking to the back of the ship.

the dock right below our ship! :)

Those people are our advance team, who have been there for months sorting out details and waiting for their big white ship to arrive. This is always a fun reunion :)

Me, Heather, and Becca on deck 8 watching as we came into port! We're here!! WooHoo! Me and Becca took turns bubbling, "I'm so excited!" at random times with little dances of excitement :) hehe

Oh ya! I've already seen a Cheetah! ahahahhaa We were all laughing about this as we came into port.

We also saw our first piece of South African abstract art.... lol hahah we weren't exactly sure what it was, but that sounds nicer than "gigantic pile of junk"

Isn't it beautiful! :)

We're here!

just coming in.

The coastline getting closer! Yay South Africa!

There's the coastline of Durban, South Africa! Land! Woohoo! God is so good. What an adventure! :)

Packed up!

The Dental clinic is officially packed up! The building is cleaned and locked and everything thing is packed in a big blue container. We will be sailing in about a week! Pack-up and cleanup went quicker than we thought it would and it was really a lot of fun. Here are some random pictures of us being silly in the process and then also some from the last days we were open. Please keep us in prayer as we prepare for the sail. Pray that it will be smooth sailing and we won't hit really ruff water. Also please pray that I won't get sea sick! Thanks! hope you are all well. :)

Dodgi decided that mop head is the new best hair style :-p hehe

This is my room after everything is packed up. Now just fold up the tables and CLEAN! :)

Everything is packed--To the ceiling! It was quite the puzzle fitting it all in. But We are done! After this picture we closed the doors and locked it until South Africa.

One of the pictures we took at our goodbye part for the day volunteers. Gado, Me, and Feda

I'm Togalese! :-p hehe That's using your head.

Practicing...

and again... ;-p

I got distracted from packing up. We weren't using this plastic so I saw an opportunity for fun ;-p hehe

Having fun