Rising on the Wings of the Dawn

Prison Islands, Castles, Camels, and Everything in Between...

2010-11-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

I just realized I have some serious catching up to do! Here we go...

On Friday, November 5 Jerome and I went to the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. This castle was built between 1666 and 1679, and is the oldest surviving building in South Africa. In the beginning it was the center of civilian, administrative and military life in the Cape area. Now it has been converted into a museum and a military base. I really enjoyed its displays on the Boer war. We got to take a look inside the prison cells. The prisoners had all carved messages on the wooden doors. One of my favorites went as follows:

Unwelcome stranger to this woful place
Adieu to friendship and to mental peace
Content is fled; O! Tedious time
When sad reflection ponders o'er no CRIME
No cheating comfort glad's the weari'd eye
As the incessant hours in dull rotation fly
Signed: Percy

Here is me on the castle rampart. You may notice that my hair is now about 22cm shorter... :) Esther, Emily, and I are all donating our hair for cancer wigs.

The next day, Saturday, we went to Robben Island. While we were at the waterfront waiting for the ferry, a group of Coptic(?) Christians came out and starting singing. We didn't recognize the language, but it sounded beautiful. They were dressed all in white, and the men and women were singing in harmony. It sounded so neat! Anyways, we took the ferry to Robben Island, and then had a bus tour around the island. Before Robben Island was converted to a prison island, a community of lepers lived there. In this way the lepers were kept apart from the main population. We got to see part of the cemetary where all the lepers were buried. There were a few gravestones, but most of the dead lay under the bushes in unmarked graves.

Later Robben Island was converted to a prison island. Political prisoners were forced to work in a limestone quarry during the day. The limestone was used to build roads on the island. Prisoners were told this work would only last six months, but it turned into 13.5 years. At the quarry there is now a pile of stones. In 1995 former prisoners returned to the island, and each man or woman took a rock and placed it in the pile. This was to show that, despite race, background, religion and language differences, they had built relationships that would last. We also got to see Nelson Mandela's prison cell. If you are interested in a more in-depth description of our Robben Island visit, see Jerome and Andria's blog.

After we got back from Robben Island, we went to Imhoff farm, where I rode a camel named Ligman ("man of light"). The girls brushed another camel named Isaac ("laughter"). Riding Ligman was very cool...and somewhat surreal! I never would have thought I would ride a camel! It was actually a much smoother ride than riding a horse. When Ligman stood up and knelt down, though, I had to lean way back or I would have fallen off! It was a very fun experience :)

On Sunday, between services (services are at 9:30 and 6) we went to Muizenberg beach. It was very windy so it actually didn't feel that warm. I love these colourful changing huts!

There were a whole bunch of kids playing in this canal water at Muizenberg:

A little ways away is this sign:

There were even people fishing in this water! The water was green, and most likely contained sewage. If you did catch anything out of there, would you really eat it?!?!

On Monday I drove standard on the other side of the road! And Jerome and I are both still in one piece! :D Tuesday I volunteered at Tygerberg, and Wednesday at Chrismar. I went on a few house visits on Tuesday as well, as a part of volunteering for Chrismar. I met a 25-year-old coloured man named Charlten. His mother had tried to abort him, and as a result he has serious physical handicaps. Though he couldn't talk, he would answer 'yes' to questions by blinking his eyes. He was so sweet, and was smiling the entire time we were there!

At Tygerberg there are a lot of children. Many of them have eye problems or skin diseases. I often see serious burns on their hands as well, probably from cooking over a parafin stove or exposure to unsafe electrical wiring. It is definitely an eye-opener to be walking through those halls!

Wednesday afternoon Emily, Esther, and I went on a 6km walk/run that Chrismar was hosting as a fundraiser. I was very proud of the girls. They did not complain once, and were even encouraging eachother to keep running. At one point some people were handing out little bags filled with water for the runners. For the next 4 kms there were little blue bags thrown all over the sidewalk - some of them just feet from a garbage can! The girls were so shocked that they started picking up the garbage. Together we walked/jogged and picked up little blue baggies :) We also sang praise songs the whole way. I was so proud of the girls. I have wonderful nieces! They were very excited to get medals at the end:

I love this picture! Alicia gave a ballet show the other day. She makes a very cute ballerina!

Anyways, that is the quickie version (actually...it is quite long. I guess we did a lot of fun stuff!) of the last week. Enjoy the pictures!

What I've Been Up To...

2010-10-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

Since I have the time and motivation to blog right now, I'm going to cover a few different topics. I apologize in advance if this is scattered or confusing.

It has now been three days since Grandpa passed away. It is hard to be so far from home, but I am glad to be around family here as well. The memories of times I spent with him keep coming back, and I can't help but feel cheated out of years with him. At the same time, I am so thankful that Grandpa can now be in heavenly glory, surrounded by the innumberable multitude of believers. Because I can't put words to my thoughts, I want to include this text that has been on my mind lately.

Revelation 7:9-17

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

"Salvation belongs to our God,who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

"Amen!
Praise and glory and
wisdom and thanks and honor and
power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.

Amen!"

Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said,

"These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

What could be better than praising our Mighty God for all eternity?

On a completely different note, here is a picture of "Guitar Guy". He is at the intersection close to our house every day, and will serenade you while you are stopped at the robot (traffic light)..."for a small donation", of course! Today we were all joking and smiling at him as we drove up to the intersection, and Andria warned, "Just wait..you smiled at him. In a minute he'll be singing at our car!" Sure enough, he came up and serenaded us :) Kudos to him for his entrepreneurship originality though!

This afternoon we went to an ostrich farm. Andria and I went on the tour while Jerome had a picnic with the girls (they had done the tour before). I loved seeing the baby ostriches; hulle is baie oulik! The best part of the tour was getting to sit on an ostrich...now that isn't something you get to do every day!

Last Saturday we started working on the murals in the younger girls' room. Bethany and Alicia want flowers and butterflies, and Emily and Esther want monkeys and horses. I quite enjoyed taking a break from schoolwork to rediscover my creative side.

The rest of this week has been fairly busy with school, piano/theory lessons, volunteering, etc. but we still always find time to be silly! I love pulling a funny face when the girls are supposed to be concentrating, and then watching them trying to control their laughter (...or not trying...). Sorry Andria! Usually it is safer if I go upstairs to study - then we both get some work done :)

I'll try to put up the next blog about holidays soon. I wish you all a blessed weekend, and I am praying for strength for all those who knew Grandpa and are now missing him.

Mountain Zebra National Park

2010-10-24T06:37:00.000-07:00

Keeping with my Sunday tradition, I'm going to write about Mountain Zebra National Park. On our drive from Lesoba to the National Park we stopped to see a Boer War Concentration Camp monument in Nord Aliwal. This was one of many concentration camps in which died a total of 27 927 Boer women and children (22 074 were children under 16) during the Second War of Independance (1899-1902). Britain first used the scorched-earth tactic, destroying Boer homes and farms, in the hopes that this would decrease moral of the fighting Boer men. Then Boer families were rounded up and put in concentration camps to keep them from reoccupying the land. Women and children kept in the concentration camps died of starvation, disease and exposure. At the monument we could see the ages and names of those who died. The number of children who died at only a few months old was astonishing. There were quite a few entries of children only two or three days old as well. Other children were born in the concentration camp, and died after a few terrible years of starvation and disease. It was a real reminder of the sinfulness of man and what we are capable of doing.

We arrived at Mountain Zebra National Park at about 5:30. Just a few minutes into the park we saw a Rhino and her baby! That made 3 of the big 5. I was very excited.

We also saw black wildebeest, blesbok, eland, kudu, vervet monkeys, rooi hartebeest, and of course, mountain zebra. We have to go to church soon, so I'll just post some pictures quickly.

Eland:

What a majestic creature!

Blesbok:

Rooi Hartebeest:

Vervet Monkey:

I hope you enjoy the pictures - I have to get ready to go to second service now. I wish you all a blessed Sunday!

Ps. The name of the bird on my last post is the Longtailed Widow. The colours are unusual in this picture because it was molting.

Kimberley and Lesoba

2010-10-17T04:00:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday afternoon and I am the only one home, so I thought I should put up another blog about our holiday (which was...quite a while ago now!)

After the Kalahari we drove to Kimberley. I love this picture of the girls playing doctor in the car. I brought back the cap and mask for Alicia from Tygerberg after working in the Milk Kitchen one day.

Jerome had to have a conference in Kimberley, so we incorporated it into our holiday. Kimberley's biggest (and only? :P ) tourist attraction is the 'Big Hole', a HUGE hand-dug open diamond mine. Tuesday night (day 4 of our holidays) we all stayed in the one hotel room that Jerome's work had provided. Jerome and Andria went out for dinner at the hotel while the girls and I had mcdonalds and watched tv. They were very excited to watch cartoons, as we only have a couple channels at home! The next day while Jerome had his conference we went to the Kimberley Diamond Mine Museum. We watched a little video about the mining and then had a tour. It was unbelievable how big that hole was! Especially considering it was all dug with shovels and pickaxes. The mine was closed in 1914 because of the war, and it filled with water. Because they didn't have the technology to pump out such a large volume of water, mining ceased.

We arrived at Lesoba, which is on the edge of Lesotho, after dark on Wednesday. Lesoba is a family farm situated at the foot of the mountains! One funny memory is when we, stumbling around in the dark, mistook an unused, delapidated trailer as the washrooms. In the morning we found out that a few feet to the left was a beautiful stone building with flush toilets and showers. Oops.

On Thursday morning we fed the lambs, which was so cute! Later we drove to a little town called Clarens and window shopped. After a while we continued on to Golden Gate National Park. It was beautiful! I took pictures, but they don't do it justice. The road we were on wound through huge rock cliffs and rolling hills covered in tall yellow grass. We saw a group of mountain zebras and a herd of eland. It scenery was unlike anything I have ever seen.

I'll have to check with Jerome on the its name of this bird. They are so beautiful!

On Friday we went on a hike near the farm. The ground was black from a recent fire, but I could see green shoots poking through the ash. There were even bright orange flowers that were blooming out of a burnt and seemingly dead base. At the top we saw the "hole in the mountain", which Lesoba is named after. (Lesoba means "hole in the mountain") Here is a picture of it:

The girls played on this island for hours on Friday morning. I love these pictures!

Saturday morning I worked on an English essay. After lunch we went trail riding, which was fun. Unfortunately we didn't get to gallop, but I still had fun and the view was stunning.

I forget where we saw this sign (and I can't read it to tell you...), but I found it quite amusing. I love how all you can see of the top one is "-stad", which means city. Well, that narrows it down! Only in Africa...

Sunday morning we left Lesoba and drove to Mountain Zebra National Park, which I will write about next time. Enjoy the pictures!

Kalahari

2010-10-10T03:42:00.000-07:00

On Sunday night we camped at Twee Rivieren, which is on the edge of the Kalahari desert in the Kgalagadi National Park. After grabbing a spot, we went on a quick game drive before the gates closed at 6:30pm. In the first ten minutes of the game drive we saw a leopard! We also saw a lioness, lots of springbok, gemsbok, and wildebeest. After we got back from our game drive, Jerome and I went swimming with the girls while Andria cooked supper. That night it was very windy, and it even drizzled a little (in the desert!)

On Monday morning we went with Jerome to see the Kalahari Bushmen, as he had a meeting with them. One of the things Barbara, the lady who was showing us around, showed us was the rock caves the Bushmen used to sleep in. Later on that day I met Laspar. You may think he was barely clothed, but I was just glad he was wearing something - later we saw a topless woman and a man with "buttcheeks flashing in the noonday sun", as Emily so delicately put it!

Here are a few pictures from our game drives. This first one is a Black-backed Jackel. We saw quite a few of these at Addo as well.

This is a Crimsonbreasted Shrike. I think these birds are absolutely stunning. I love seeing God's creative hand in his smallest, but incredibly beautiful, creatures.

This is a Steenbok. They are quite usually quite skittish, so I was happy to get this picture. I love the intricate designs in their ears.

Lioness:

This picture isn't very clear, but I was happy just to get one. A moment after I took this, the leopard disappeared over the crest of the hill.

Monday morning was very cold! The wind was blowing like crazy! In order to stay warm, and to keep the sand out of our cereal, we set up the benches in the front of the tent. For evidence that it really was cold, check out Alicia's face :)

The next day we drove for to Kimberley, about an eight hour drive. The Kalahari was beautiful; I loved the red sand. I felt especially priviledged to have seen two of the big 5 there!

First Two Days

2010-10-05T13:27:00.002-07:00

Over the next couple weeks I plan to write about our two week holiday. We left Saturday, September 18 at about 5:30 am. I had stayed up till past 4 doing school work, since I wasn't sure when I would next get internet access. For this reason I don't remember much of the drive...I roused myself a couple times to take some quick pictures, and then resumed my snoring :)
I got a kick out of this next picture. On the freeway we passed one guy driving his bakkie with two ostriches in a trailer behind. I got this picture when we both stopped at the one gas station for miles. You would never see that in Canada!

One of the highlights of the drive was when the three girls in the backseat (Esther, Bethany and Alicia) formed a band to play along with the music. Alicia was playing piano, and Esther and Bethany used a hairbrush and toothbrush to make a violin and microphone! Here Bethany switched instruments and is now playing the flute.

We reached Augrabies Falls National Park, which is in Northern Cape, at about 4:30 pm. There were vervet monkeys everywhere! We had to close up our trailer and guard the car as we took out food, or they would come and steal it out of our hands.

After setting up the tent, we went to see the waterfall. The land was quite flat, and I couldn't understand where the waterfall could possibly be. We walked a little ways from the campsite, and were suddenly standing on the edge of a huge canyon that came out of nowhere!

On Sunday morning we got up before 7 to go for a walk - hoping to catch a glimpse of a huge moniter lizard Jerome had seen last time he was at Augrabies. The only thing we saw were dassies, but it was beautiful walk regardless.

Dassies get old pretty quick, but I thought this was cute enough for the blog:

On our Sunday morning walk, Bethany was pretending to be a reporter, and was interviewing us all about how we liked Augrabies:

I could honestly reply that I loved Augrabies - it was a beautiful start to our holiday! Sunday afternoon we drove to Twee Rivieren, which is on the edge of the Kalahari. We listened to a sermon on Psalm 77 in the car. It was nice understand a whole sermon. I'll write about the Kalahari next time.

Here are a few pictures from before holidays when we hiked Lion's Head:

The best part was climbing the vertical stretches using chains and ladders.

The view of Table Mountain from the top:

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! I'll try to put up a blog about Table Mountain or the Kalahari soon.

Laspar the Bushman

2010-09-30T15:37:00.001-07:00

I just realized it has been almost a month since I have posted anything. Sorry! I have a lot of catching up to do! I had to write a narrative essay for English about an encounter with a unique or unusual person, and I thought meeting a Kalahari Bushman fit the bill. So I am going to kill two birds with one stone, and let you read my essay instead of making a new post!

It was nine in the morning as we packed up our campsite and left the Kalahari Desert. We had stayed for a couple days, enjoying the diverse flora and fauna and the stunning scenery. The sun was low in the east, but was already shining brightly, accentuating the red Kalahari sand. As we drove, we were surrounded by the song of the weaver birds, occasionally punctuated with the call of a crimson-breasted shrike, as they welcomed the morning sun.

Just a few kilometers out of the National Park, I suddenly spotted a Bushman and his family on the side of the road. He stood out from the other Bushmen I had met in that he wore the traditional clothing; namely, a small leather loincloth. He had an animal skin draped over his head, and was holding a walking-stick. Small creases formed around his deep brown eyes as he welcomed us with a cheerful smile. I was intrigued by his clothing and lifestyle that was so blatantly different from my own. Eager to meet this unusual man, I asked my brother-in-law to stop the car. Together we went over and introduced ourselves. In fluent Afrikaans, he told us that his name was Laspar. I was impressed by his command of the language, as his first language would not be Afrikaans, but San. Since I was still quite new to Afrikaans, I understood only some of what he was telling us. However, my brother-in-law has a fairly good grasp of the language, and kindly translated for me. Though my first impression of him was that of a primitive Bushman, there is something to be said for the fact that he was fluent in more languages than I.

Laspar stood in front of a little grass hut, which was only about four square feet. The door was open, and I could see blankets inside. Curious, my brother-in-law asked where he lived. Laspar responded by telling us that he stayed in his little hut on the side of the road year-round. I was surprised, and felt a strange twinge of shame. I admired Laspar for his humble lifestyle. Mine felt extravagant in comparison.

Though the sun was shining, there was a stiff, cold wind, which was quite unusual for the Kalahari Desert. I could see goose-bumps covering Laspar's chest and arms. He commented on how cold the morning was. His perseverance impressed me. He was obviously enduring some suffering to attract tourists driving by. It had worked. Near to the hut behind Laspar was his wife, wrapped in a warm blanket, cooking over a small fire. Laspar's son, who I guessed to be two years old, was seated comfortably in her lap. He wore nothing but a small piece of leather across his chest. My brother-in-law gave a small candy to the boy, much to his delight.

Laspar wanted to show us all his handcrafted necklaces, eager to make a sale so early in the morning. The materials he used were unlike anything I have ever seen – ostrich egg shells, seeds from Camelthorn Acacia trees, porcupine quills, sinew and horns from Steenbok antelope, and burnt pieces of wood and bone. I admired his skill at making such beautiful, intricate designs on the bone. Laspar explained that he hunts for most of his food with his handmade bow and arrow. In the traditional conservation area, the Bushmen have hunting and fishing rights (similar to the First Nations in some parts of Canada). The small amount of money he receives from selling necklaces goes to buying items he can't hunt for, such as cornmeal and medicine. I had a strong suspicion that some of the "medicine" he uses involves a large bottle of whiskey.

I would guess that, like many of the Bushmen, Laspar was an animist. This was yet another thing that made him so different from me. I must confess that I was a little cynical concerning the Bushmen religion. It seemed far-fetched – something conceived out of the imagination of men. But then again, I suppose most religion seems inconceivable to an outsider.

Before we left, I had a picture taken with the Bushman and his son, a souvenir of this strange experience. As I climbed in the car, I glanced back at Laspar and his family. He stood with his son, watching us leave, as the weaver birds sang overhead. With one final wave we drove off, leaving his world behind. I felt strangely fulfilled for having met him, though we had only talked for a few minutes. I felt a small connection with the Bushman, despite our vastly different cultures and backgrounds. As I returned to my fast-paced, industrial world, I took a small part of him with me in my memory.

Here is the picture of Laspar and I. If you are wondering why Fred is in the picture, it is because Fred has always dreamed of going to Africa. Now he is here, standing right next to a Kalahari Bushman! I hope you like the surprise Fred J

Whale Watching at Hermanus

2010-09-06T03:18:00.000-07:00

I realized that a post is VERY overdue...sorry! I'm going to make excuses and say these last few weeks have been incredibly busy - what with school starting, volunteering, teaching piano, etc.

A week and a half ago, Andria and I, with the four girls, went to Hermanus. Hermanus is the best land-based whale watching location in the world. September is the prime time to go see whales, as they are calving right in the bay. The drive there (1.5-2 hours) was gorgeous, as the sky was clear and blue. We stopped at the top while going through Sir Lowry's Pass to climb up a hill at take some beautiful scenic pictures. While Andria drove I read from the Church History book that the girls are studying.

When we got to Hermanus we had our picnic lunch while watching the whales breach and spout water way out in the bay. As the girls played on the rocks and looked for limpets, Andria and I admired the whales through binoculars. After a while we decided to walk through the little town. We were about to leave when I spotted three whales that were really close to shore. There were three adult Southern Right Whales 15 feet away from us! It was very special to see that. As Andria and I were eagerly taking pictures, Bethany asked, "Am I dreaming?" We drove home along the coast in the dark. I read to the girls from "Living Free", the second in a series we had been reading together. Dit was 'n baie lekker dag. :)

This is a picture of the Hermanus Whale Crier, who goes around the bay to where the whales are and blows his horn:

You can see in this picture how close they were to shore...incredible!

Worthy of National Geographic? I think so!

:

That Tuesday I volunteered at Tygerberg in the Milk Kitchen, where all the baby bottles are prepared. First we had to label the bottles with the ward, Baby's name, type of milk, number of bottles and amount of milk for each. Then we had to measure the milk and fill each bottle with the right type of milk. (Some other ladies were making the milk) Finally we had to put nipples and caps on each one, and then package them to be sent off to another floor. It was really interesting because it is a necessary part of the hospital, but one that goes unrecognized and unnoticed by most people. I've never really thought about how so many bottles of milk are prepared each day. As I was leaving they were starting the second huge batch of milk. I think the work would get fairly monotonous as a full time job though. Next week I am going back on the trolley.

Then on Wednesday I went to Chrismar, the old age home that I volunteer at. Most of the residents are Afrikaans, but a few speak English. I spent a lot of time talking to the ladies there, who told me hundreds of stories of "the good old days" :P One lady told me that she knew as soon as I walked in the door that she must love me and said she would be my mother while I was here. One of the stories a resident told me was about WWII. The lady told me that whenever the bombs would fall, one woman would pick them up and throw them back in the air (they wouldn't explode right away). One day a bomb landed at this woman's feet, and she said to it, "No, you can't explode now. You can explode the day that I die." Years later, the woman died, and on that same day the bomb exploded. It was very fun listening to all their stories.

I have a lot more I should update you all on, but I am very busy right now. This was my quickie break between working on English and Psychology. I shall do my best to put some more blogs up soon.

West Coast National Park

2010-08-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday was a gorgeous sunny day, so we went to West Coast National Park. It is about a 2-hour drive away, so we tried to leave the house early. It was a perfect time to catch all the flowers, since it had rained earlier in the week and everything was blooming. It was gorgeous! There was thousands of different species of plants and flowers. We also saw tons of wildlife, including lizards, herons, ostriches, tortoises, eland, wildebeest, bontebok, springbok, bokmakerie, zebras, sacred ibis, gemsbok, foxes, grouse, steenbok, muisvoel and lots of bugs!

Here is a sampling of the flora and fauna. I had to sort through over 200 photos to choose a few for the blog!

A wildebeest (he was quite close to the car as I took this, and was staring right at me! I had the door open in case he decided to charge, as they can be quite aggressive):

Gemsbok:

Muisvoel (in English it is White Backed Mouse Bird):

It was so cool to be able to capture three species in one shot. On the left is a lone zebra, mingling with a few springbok and a herd of wildebeest. Later we saw a baby zebra with its mom. There were a few foxes running around in the background of some of my pictures as well.

This little guy was so cute :) He chowed down 8 flowers in about a minute! We saw a few of these tortoises along the side of the road. Luckily they are very slow, so we could pick them up and say hello :)

One of the beaches we stayed at for a while was gorgeous! The girls built sand houses, and then recruited Jerome and I to help with fortifications to fight the waves and incoming tide. This turned out to be more fun than building the original houses. The girls were screaming and giggling, trying not to get soaked by the huge waves.

Jerome convinced me that posing in front of the huge waves would make a really nice photo backdrop, so I trustingly (if a little nervously...) stood with my back to the ocean, unawares that I was about to get SOAKED by a monster wave! The only thing that stopped me from pushing Jerome into the water after was the fact that he was holding my camera. To Jerome's credit, the wave came out of nowhere! I thought it was quite funny though, and it made for a good story!

This picture was taken a few moments before the big event :)

I was fooling around with the macro on my camera, and I thought this picture was really cool. I love how clear the beetle is against the flower.

I loved being able to spend so much time enjoying God's creation. It was beautiful! Seeing thousands of intricate flowers made me think about the Creator of these flowers. If God cares so much about the smallest flower that He continues to feed and water it each day, how much more must He care for us?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."

Matthew 6:28, 29

On a different note, today I volunteered at Tygerberg hospital again. I was in the Milk Kitchen, where all the baby bottles are prepared. I labeled, filled and capped bottles. It was really interesting - there is so much that goes on behind the scenes in the hospital that you don't even think about. Next week I will be on the trollie again, which I really enjoy.

Last week I also volunteered with a lady from church. She works at a Senior Citizens' Home. I shadowed her as she went on house visits to check blood pressure and general health. It was a lot of fun - all the ladies we visited were interested to know who I was and where I was from. :) I will be volunteering each place one day a week. Next week school also starts for me, which I am very excited for! It can get pretty busy around the house with cooking, cleaning, teaching piano, homeschooling, etc. but I enjoy the work.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the pictures. Since I have a lot more I want to show you all, we will have to have a slideshow party when I get back in December :)

Cape Point

2010-08-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

I realized a blog post was long overdue, so here I am with my blanket, hot chocolate and leftover icecream cake ready to type like a mad woman! This last week was very busy! Yesterday was Emily's 12th birthday. On friday she had a big birthday party at Monkey Town (since her favorite animal is the monkey). While Andria and Jerome drove all the girls, I stayed home with Esther, Bethany and Alicia and baked/cleaned/decorated. :)

Friday morning I also went to Tygerberg hospital to talk to the lady in charge of volunteering. That went very well - she told me I could come in on Monday (today) for my first time. It was a lot of fun today! I was assigned with one other lady to taking around a food trolley and selling to doctors and patients in various wards. I was a little nervous before starting, since everyone speaks Afrikaans, but the lady I was with was very kind and patient. She spoke English well so she would translate for me often. The hospital is HUGE with 11 floors! We only went through three of them, but it still took us about 4 hours. It was interesting to walk through all the different wards (I went through gastro, neuro, maternity, cardio, infectious diseases such as HIV, and many more) and to see how the hospital runs. All the volunteer ladies wear bright yellow vests, and so are nicknamed the "sunshine ladies". This is such an amazing opportunity for me! I am so excited about it! More and more I am looking forward to starting my nursing studies.

Going back in time to Saturday, I will write about our adventure to the Cape Point. This is about an hour and a half drive, but we stopped a few times to take pictures as well. I was very excited when we saw a whole group of whales out at sea while driving along the coast. We pulled over to watch the show - and what a great show it was! They were jumping all the way out of the water for us!
Inside Table Mountain National Park we stopped at a number of different beaches. My favorite was one nicknamed "the snow beach" by the girls, because of its pure white sand. The girls and I took off our shoes, and the five of us ran through the drifts hand in hand. We saw a lot of wildlife as well. This ostrich and gemsbok were grazing just a little ways off of the road.

This is my proof that I went to the very tip of Africa. It was so windy there - look at Esther in the background!

Esther found a stone that looked just like Africa, and was quick to point out where we were. Cape Point isn't the hardest place to find on a map :)

I love this picture! Alicia was almost blown off the rock, but was fighting with all the gusto of a five-year-old against the wind.

We walked a little ways up to the lighthouse, where we had a stunning view of the Cape Point. It was so cool to think that a little ways out at sea was the meeting point of two vast oceans! I could even see the white water over Bellows Rock, where the Lusitania sank in 1911. It is totally different to see the place where something like this happened, rather than just read about it in a Socials 11 textbook. The lighthouse at the top was built 249 metres above sea level, but was often ineffective due to mist and cloud over the water. So after the Lusitania shipwreck a new lighthouse was built only 87 m. above sea level.

These signs were EVERYWHERE! I couldn't resist putting this one up, since I love Esther's baboon imitation. But, like the signs, baboons were everywhere! We ran into three groups while driving through the park. One time we were in the Condor about 2 feet from a pair of them eating flowers. While Jerome's dad and I took pictures, Jerome was prepared to speed off at any second, should they decide to climb in our windows (I'm serious! They do that! Anything for food!) Baboons are actually very agressive, and will take food out of your hands! We saw a couple of these cute baby baboons - either hanging on to its mom's belly or going for a ride on the back. These ones were parked in the middle of the road, eating a bag of oranges, completely unconcerned by the cars driving by a foot away! One baboon even jumped on the hood of a car with a man sitting inside!

On our way home we even saw two rooi hartebeest! I unfortunately couldn't get a picture because they are too skittish. We took Chapmans Peak Drive home, which is a road that is literally carved out of the side of the mountain!

Saturday evening I went 10 pin bowling and out for coffee with the young people, which was a lot of fun. Tomorrow I am shadowing a lady from church who does house visits. I'm very excited - it should be very interesting work! Enjoy the pictures, and have a wonderful week!

2 Oceans Aquarium

2010-08-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we all packed into the car (I'm not even exaggerating! With Jerome's parents along in the Condor one of the girls needs to sit in the trunk!) to head into Cape Town. We started the day with going to the Nederlands Gereformeerde Groot Kerk. The main attraction for going there was the huge pulpit mounted on two carved lions. The lions were carved out of a single tree and it took 13 years! This church also boasts of the largest pipe organ in the southern hemisphere. I really wanted to hear it played! We also went to look inside an old Anglican church (St. Georges Cathedral, which is Archbishop Desmond Tutu's church) with beautiful and intricate stained glass windows.

Pulpit at the Nederlands Gereformeerde Groot Kerk. Note how big it is compared to Alicia:

After this, we went to a beautiful garden in Cape Town. It has flora from all over the world. I was hoping to find a beautiful Canadian Maple, but alas, the closest I could find was a tree from the southern states. Lame! In the middle of the garden was a sundial built in 1781 that had the exact time to the minute! I was very impressed. The girls were delighted with the squirrels at the park, who were so tame they would climb on our laps for a piece of bread.

We then drove to the 2 Oceans Aquarium (Atlantic and Indian Oceans). We got to see the turtle and sting ray feeding where divers went into the aquarium to feed them by hand (armed with a stick to fend off hungry sharks!) We also watched the penguin feeding. There was a microscope demo set up where we coud see zooplankton up close. In a tiny beaker was millions of zooplankton. We learned that the blue whale can eat up to 8 tonnes of zooplankton in one day! We also got to see a baby sharking moving around inside the eggsac, which was very neat.

One of my favorite fish was the angler fish. I love how camoflaged it is against the orange corals. You can't see it in this picture, but the angler fish has a "fishing rod" on it's head that it dangles in front of its face to lure prey closer.

After spending many happy hours at the aquarium, we drove to the waterfront. As we walked we saw a group of black male singers trying to sell thier CD. When they saw me, the broke into song. The main lyrics were "Hey beautiful lady, come and give me a kiss"! I was quite embarrassed!

A little ways farther down was another group of entertainers trying to raise some money. They did some crazy tricks, like building huge human pyramids and breathing fire. It was especially fun (and nerve-wracking) to watch this guy with his balancing act. We ended our day with delicious fish and chips at the waterfront. It was a very fun day!

Pictures

2010-08-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

Now that blogger likes me again, here are the pictures I promised you in my last blog post:

This morning Esther served me breakfast in bed! She brought up yogurt with granola, toast (cut out in the shape of "I love you") and tea...of course :) What a wonderful surprise! This afternoon I became a succesful entrepreneur with the start of my new business, "Tannie Dee's Hair Salon". All the girls wanted their hair done "extra special" today. It was fun :) Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Thankfulness

2010-08-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

I thought I would take a few minutes on a blog post to let you know what my weekend was like. On Saturday afternoon we went to Stodels, a gardening center, with the four girls, their grandparents, and Andria and I. The girls love Stodels as it has a petting zoo in the back. While their grandma and grandpa strolled through admiring Africa's unique flora, the girls pet llamas and bunnies and monkeys. When they got bored with petting animals, they played on the huge playground while Andria and I sipped hot chocolate.

That evening I got invited to the waterfront with a few of the Young People from church. Most of them I didn't know at all, but it was nice to meet new people. I had heard a lot about the waterfront, and was very excited to go there, especially when it is lit up at night. It was a lot of fun, and I picked up a few new Afrikaans words (scattered between whole conversations that I missed!)

On Sunday I didn't go to the Bible Study as I wasn't feeling well, but I went to the coffee drink that evening. I'm so thankful for all the people here who have made me feel so welcome. I really mean it when I say they welcomed me with open arms. Right from the very start they have made an effort to invite me to things and make me feel included.

Yesterday was national Women's Day (see Jerome's blog for a swell explanation of what that means) so the girls had a holiday from homeschooling. I filled the day with reading, playing Go Fish with Bethany and being an official photographer for the girls. Since the four girls don't have any dress up clothes here, and were eager to play church in fancy outfits, they decided to raid auntie Deanna's closet :) Alicia was the minister (and a doctor, and a dentist, and my husband) and Bethany was a fat monk. It was a lot of fun. They even decided to find some crackers and grape juice and "have" Lord's Supper!

That evening I went out to watch a movie with a friend here. We watched Eclipse, and then got a fruitshake. It was a lot of fun to spend an evening out with a friend and to have some girl time. It always amazes me how I can find people here, on the other side of the world, speaking a different language that have grown up in a completely different environment, that still have so much in common with me. I've only known my friends here for a few weeks, but it feels like so much longer. Despite age differences, language barriers, and nationality, we have the common ground of a foundation in Jesus Christ. In Him we are brothers and sisters!

Today I spent my time teaching piano and studying Afrikaans. Mondays are usually fairly busy, with 4 piano lessons and piano theory for Emily. I love teaching them though :) It's interesting to teach over a variety of ages and levels. I have to adapt how I teach in each lesson. For Alicia, I am always trying to come up with silly ways to keep her interested (not easy!) One of her pieces is about wind, so she always likes it if I blow in her ear while she plays; that way she can feel and hear the wind!

On a different note, I wanted to say that I am so thankful to Jerome and Andria for everything they do for me. It is amazing living here with them. I feel right at home in their family. My admiration for Andria increases every day as she is busy with homeschooling, groceries, making delicious meals, teaching at the school once a week, planning lessons, visiting friends, bringing the girls to lessons and school, and a million other things. Right now she is a few feet from me marking work from the grade 6 class at the school. She is dedicated and hardworking, and I can learn so much about becoming a godly woman by her example!

I am also very thankful for Jerome. He is very busy with school and work, but always takes time for the girls. This evening, for example, he put the girls in the bath, brushed their teeth, made a puzzle with them, read a story, sang their bedtime prayers and tucked them in bed. Jerome is always planning fun things for me to do and places to go. Jerome and Andria care so much about what I am involved in, and always offer to drive me if I need to go anywhere. I am loving living here. Every day I learn so much from them both about walking with God. They are such a blessing to me!

I am also thankful for my "little sisters". It's a lot different living with them. I get to experience the countless silly arguments over polly pockets/trains/schoolwork...etc. But at the same time, if I didn't live here I would miss out on so many fun things. On Saturday morning we all slept in. At about 9am Emily was reading quietly while I was laying in bed. Quietly, I climbed out of bed, snuck up behind her and jumped on her! She was so surprised :) After that Emily and Esther and I had "big girl time" talking and playfighting on the bed till 11:30! We finally got out and wandered downstairs in our pjs to see if we could snag some late breakfast.

One morning the girls and I were singing along to a Disney song while I played it on the piano. The girls all had markers as microphones, and we were singing at the top of our lungs! (and probably quite off-tune!) Another time Esther and I made a treasure hunt for the other girls, and then got to watch them run around finding notes and doing silly things like pretending to be cows and singing Mary Had a Little Lamb. I wouldn't trade memories like those for the world!
This is turning into an epistle, so I am going to leave it at that. I’ll add some pictures of some of the aforementioned events soon, but blogger isn’t letting me upload them right now. Above all I am thankful for my faithful Father in heaven, who is watching over us where ever we are. He has a plan for my life, and I can trust in Him to guide me in His way.

Sisters :)

2010-08-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist putting this picture up quickly. I just sneaked in to check on the girls, since I am babysitting, and I found Bethany and Alicia sharing a bed. They had cuddled together and made a fort out of Bethany's blanket. So cute!

Signal Hill

2010-08-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

To celebrate Jerome's parents' safe arrival, we went out Friday afternoon to enjoyed our beautiful weather. First we went to Rhode's memorial. Since I don't know much African history, I have no idea who he is, except that he probably did some good things and was generally liked :) It was neat to see the cool architecture and beautiful view of Cape Town (hindered slightly by a lot of smog!). For further information about why it was built, ask google about Cecil Rhodes!

Later we hiked a little ways up Signal Hill. The ocean was completely covered in fog and cloud! In the picture below you can see the cloud advancing inland. At one point walking down we were surrounded in it, and could only see a little ways ahead on the trail.

Alicia always stops to smell the "roses" when we walk. I fell in love with her adorable little smile in this picture, and couldn't resist putting it up for you all to enjoy :) She smiled so cutely that her 'Tannie dee' couldn't resist offering to piggy-back her up the hill as well!

After a walking a little ways up, we drove to the top for a picnic supper. We watched the sun set on the clouds over the water, which was stunning! Once it disappeared under the clouds, Alicia exclaimed "now it's gone down into the water!" When I asked her if that means the fire in the sun was put out by the water, she shook her head confidently. I opted against giving a science lesson but decided to instead let her imagination work that one out :)

The older girls found a way to amuse themselves...

I was quite excited to see the stadium, and Andria kindly took a picture of me. I felt like such a tourist :D

The lights on Table Mountain were on, which offered a stunning nighttime view. I'm getting very attached to seeing Table Mountain in the distance!

It was a really fun day! Cape Town at night is gorgeous!

Khayelitsha

2010-08-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

Today was a real eye-opener for me. Jerome had a meeting in Khayelitsha, a settlement in the Cape Flats. It runs for a couple of kilometers along the freeway, and is estimated to contain over 500,000 people. Jerome's boss kindly let me tag along to his meeting. It was a great opportunity, as normally we would never go there. As wealthy caucasions we stand out and are vulnerable to theft, rape, violence, etc. Below is a picture (kindly donated by google) of the Cape Flats. It was crazy to see these shanties all the way to the horizon.

As we drove through I could see live wires accross the road everywhere. In the picture you can see one telephone pole giving off "stolen" electricity to houses all around it. This is extremely dangerous, as it is high voltage and isn't safely wired. If you zoom in on this picture, you can see that each shack is actually just a few pieces of tin or cardboard leaning against eachother. Many of the "houses" have tires on the roof to keep it from blowing away. They do not have running water or heating. When it rains, they get wet. Because of this, tuberculosis and other diseases kill thousands.

These following photos look picturesque. There are little black kids smiling and doing cartwheels on the street while the laundry dries in the setting sun. However, in a couple of minutes when the sun is down, everyone goes inside and locks up. It is extremely dangerous at nighttime. The trauma ward at the nearest hospital is overloaded with gun, machete and knife attack victims. One of the girls here had a skin condition that caused a huge scar on her head.

The kids were all giggling and high-fiving. As we left they all called out in their language, "Bye whities!" The picture below was going to be of the house, until they all ran up giggling and posed cutely. :P

I found Jerome's meeting very interesting. So much has been done in the way of building houses with solar powered heating for the water, but it looks small compared to how much still needs to be done. Below is a picture of a typical subsidized house. I even got to go inside one to see what it is like. Each has one sink with running water (heated from the solar heater on the roof). It had one big bed (for the whole family). This one had a little portable element for cooking and some furniture. As little as these families have, they are wealthy in comparison to their neighbors in the shacks.

It was an incredible opportunity to be able to see first hand what the Cape Flats are like. Jerome knows more of the stats and numbers than me, but I don't think numbers can really describe Khayelitsha. You can't really understand it until you see it yourself...kilometers of cardboard shacks as far as the eye can see. And I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to live there, under constant fear with no way out. It made me realize again how incredibly blessed I am. God has given me so much!

Laughter and Tears

2010-08-02T13:39:00.000-07:00

I wanted to thank everyone for the love and care they showed last Friday. I recieved many emails and facebook messages with Bible passages and promises to pray for my family. It was not an easy day, but I could feel God's prescence with us. He held us up and gave us strength for the day. Yes, there was a lot of tears, but there was also joy and laughter as we remembered Craig and the unique way he touched our lives.

I'm not posting any pictures of Helderberg (excepting a fantastic shot of a sugarbird!), partly because Jerome has eloquently summarized the day in the Lengkeeks' blog (http://www.walking-on-mountains.blogspot.com/). Also, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a picture can't capture my emotions of that day: awe because of God's beautiful creation, incredible pain as I was constantly reminded of Craig, pride as the girls skipped beside me, and joy as they taught me songs in Afrikaans as we hiked. On the way down the girls and I sang many songs, but the very first one they requested was "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." It was with mixed feelings that I sang with Alicia perched on my shoulders.

Helderberg has an incredible plant diversity, especially proteas. I took countless pictures of these beautiful flowers, but I felt incredibly blessed to have seen one of 'Craigy's' proteas blooming a little ways off the trail. This was a type that he loved because it was so "springy". Helderberg also offers an unbelievable view of Cape Town. It felt right to be outside in God's creation, at a place that Craig loved, on his birthday.

I was excited to get a picture of the sugarbird with his yellow belly showing. You can see the slightly downturned beak which is useful for drinking nectar. They have a unique way of flying - they fly up and gain a bit of height, and then torpedo straight down very fast.

On a completely different note, I have a few pictures of some fun I had with the older girls. One day last week at supper I sheepishly admitted to them that everytime I go to bed and see them sleeping so cutely, I have to resist the urge to steamroll them. However, the girls thought this was a great idea, and spent the rest of the evening begging me to steamroll them that night. I said I would think about it. However, when I came to bed later and saw this note on Emily's forehead, how could I resist?

It says "STEAMROLL ME! Please and thank you."

The excited and sneaky approach:

and the attack! :

After so waking them so rudely, I even got a hug from a sleepy Esther!

Emily, Esther and I ended up staying up till past 1am having girl time :) It was a lot of fun! I love being silly with the girls all the time. This evening Esther and I had a play fight over dishes. I was armed with a spatula, and she was armed with a soaking wet cloth. Don't tell Esther I am admitting defeat, but I when I was pelted in the face with a dripping cloth while absetmindedly scrubbing a pan, I realized I was outmatched by my niece! It was the most fun I've had doing dishes in a long time!

It's past my bedtime, so I am going to wrap this up for now. As I head bleary-eyed to bed, I shall try resist jumping on my cute snoring nieces :)

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

2010-07-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

As many of you may know, tomorrow would've been Craig's 3rd birthday. I thought I would write a short note asking you all to pray for my family. Though we have confidence that Craig is now in heaven, the pain of not having him here is still huge. Without God holding us up, we wouldn't be able to deal with the loss. Pray especially for Jerome and Andria and the girls tomorrow. At times it seems like this is too much too bear, but God continues to grant us the strength for each day.

"From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I." Psalm 61:2

Tygerberg and the elusive bontebok

2010-07-28T11:24:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday morning Jerome and I hiked up Tygerberg (which is more of a hill than a mountain). Tygerberg is a reserve which was designed to protect the critically endangered rinosterveld (rhino field). Rinosterveld is composed of hundereds of different species of plants which all need very specific conditions to survive. Though interesting in theory, rinosterveld isn`t much to look at. To anyone except the botonist`s eye, it looks like weeds and bushes. To be fair, we did find a few beautiful flowers mixed in with the green leaves. Tygerberg also boasts of wildlife such as spiders, snakes, tortoises, hawks, owls and bontebok (a type of antelope). It wasn't a long hike, but the fresh air and exercise was wonderful. We were hoping for a glimse of a bontebok, but could only find this evidence that they had passed by. Jerome and I, the amateur trackers, were forced to the conclusion that the bontebok had probably heard us a mile away. In fact, they could`ve been hiding 5 feet away in the dense rinosterveld bushes laughing at us, and we wouldn't have known!

While Tygerberg wasn't going to offer us any pictures of the elusive wildlife, it did display a beautiful panorama of Cape Town. Unfortunately the "tablecloth" was spread on Table Mountain, but the clouds cleared enough for us to see a gorgeous view of Lion's Head and the harbour.

Some of the wildlife I wasn't quite so keen to see was found right at home. I've already seen a couple of these massive cockroaches around the house. I stood back observed with an interested expresion as Jerome the exterminator saved the day. This guy was about as big as Esther's finger. Eugh!

On the way to Stellenbosch we drove by a winery with wildlife fenced in a field in front. Here I got my first sight of genuine South African ostriches, gemsbok and zebras. :)

On Sunday I had quite the adventure as I went to the Young People's Bible Study between services. It is quite daunting to be surrounded by Afrikaans, especially when everyone starts laughing at a joke and you are completely lost! They were all very kind and welcoming though, so I enjoyed myself regardless of the fact that I didn`t understand most of it. I was able to follow what general topics they were discussing, but I didn`t know what they were saying about that topic.

I think I could get very used to South African winters. Every day has been beautiful, with blue skies and sunshine! It is fairly cold, especially indoors, but I can truthfully say this is the best winter I`ve ever experienced! I hope you all have a wonderful remainder of the week!

ps. All the pictures on this blog have been reduced from their original size. If anyone would like to make a print of a picture, please let me know so I can email the original. That way your pictures won`t be fuzzy and pixelated when you enlarge it. Thanx!

Daily Life in South Africa

2010-07-24T05:18:00.000-07:00

I thought I would take a couple minutes out of my busy life to write a short blog. This last week has been packed, what with wrestling lions, taming baboons, swimming across the Indian Ocean, building an orphanage and mountain climbing. :) Contrary to popular belief, life in Africa is very similar to life in Canada. Most of the time I forget that I am living across an ocean and 16,500 km from Langley. On weekdays, the girls have been resuming homeschooling with Andria after a 6-week break for the World Cup. Jerome works upstairs during the day, so I have most of the day to myself. I try to be productive by working on my piano theory or studying Afrikaans. By now I can understand some Afrikaans but I can't speak it, excepting a few words and phrases. I like trying to sing along with the Afrikaans songs in the car though. :)This last week I also took over teaching the girls's piano lessons, which is a lot of fun. On Thursday we went to Stellenbosch and looked in Oom Samie Se Winkel, which is a really cute antique shop/general store. There was a lot of homemade and African products which were fun to look at. In Stellenbosch we stopped to look at the stallitjies. These are little stalls set up each day, where you can buy everything from handmade drums to beadwork to african carvings. I loved looking at all the african artifacts, and could've spent a fortune there. :) On Friday Bethany had her birthday party, so I got to decorate a cake and hang up balloons in the morning. That evening, equipped with hot chocolate, a scarf and mittens, and a blanket (courtesy of Andria), Jerome and I set off to watch a football (soccer) game. It was a very competetive game against Bellville and Durbanville (two different areas of Cape Town). The Bellville team (our team) has a bunch of guys from our church on it. Unfortunately we lost, but I had a lot of fun watching anyways. :) I was invited to the Young People's Bible Study, so I plan to try that tomorrow. It will be quite the experience, as it is all in Afrikaans! Even if I don't understand it all, it is nice to meet people and study together as a group of believers. I wish you all a blessed Sunday!

Experiencing (many!) new things

2010-07-20T02:50:00.000-07:00

This is now my 6th day in South Africa and I am enjoying it immensely :) This picture is us (finally!) on the plane from Atlanta to Johannesburg. You can see by the man in the background's expression that no one was impressed that our flight was delayed two hours! While we sat in a cafe in the wee hours of the morning, we got to see all the waitresses dancing and singing along to the music over the radio as they swept and cleared tables. It really started to feel like Africa after that :)
I've already had two braais since I arrived. Jerome cooked us up some lamb (sorry Melissa!) which we ate with pup (a flour and water mixed mealie) and flatbread made by Andria, which was delicious! At another braai at friends I ate springbok and gemsbok....look those up on google images :) Also VERY good :) On Saturday Jerome and Andria took me to the bakkie mark, which is like a flea market. Everyone pulls up their bakkie (pickup truck) and unloads their goods, ready for customers! We also went to Blouberg beach, which was BEAUTIFUL! - white sand, crashing waves, tidepools with starfish and sea urchins, and a beautiful view of Table mountain. Sunday was quite a new experience as the entire church service is in Afrikaans. It was actually very fun to sing in Afrikaans, and I got the hang of it fairly quickly. (though perhaps the lady sitting next to us was cringing at my poor pronunciation :P) Sunday evening I went to a young people's coffee social, and met a lot of people my age. They all politely spoke English for me so I wasn't completely out of place :) Jerome found it quite amusing to see me after church surrounded by a group of 8 boys! Emily and Esther also were delighted to see me talking to some boys, and were already planning who I might want to date. :) I'm starting to get used to the routine of a household with 4 little girls. They always want me to do their hair in the morning and are very excited to sit by me at mealtimes...I think the auntie fascination will probably wear off in a month though :P Lauren, the girls LOVED the team Canada Sport Chek jerseys you gave them :) Each of the girls had a handmade card or gift welcoming me to South Africa. Bethany tells me a couple times a day, "I still can't believe you are here!" I made Bethany a card for her birthday, which was on monday. On it I wrote, "A little birdy told me it was your birthday, so I flew all the way from Canada just for a piece of cake!" The girls found that quite amusing! I find it hard to believe I am actually in South Africa as well! I am already growing very attatched to seeing Table mountain every day. The sun is shining outside, and I can hear the birds singing. What a beautiful day!

The adventure has begun!

2010-07-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

Hallo almal! I am in SOUTH AFRICA! A lot has happened since I left home in BC early Tuesday morning. Mom, Dad, Andria, Lauren and I left at 2 am for Seattle airport. It was quite busy packing and getting ready as I arrived home from camp Yak'isda Bik'ah at 6 pm, and was leaving 8 hours later. I had a quick goodbye party with some friends, and then started packing :P Thank you very much to some of my girl friends who helped! I've also found a whole bunch of notes that got packed along with my clothes :D Andria and I had separate flights to Atlanta, so Andria came with me through security to my gate. She saw me onto the plane (as it was my first time flying) and then went back to have breakfast with Mom and Dad and Lauren. Once in Atlanta I had to wait for Andria's flight which was supposed to come in 5 hours later. However, the weather turned nasty, with a mini thunderstorm growing around Atlanta. Over the intercom we were told that no Delta planes would be leaving or entering the airport. Andria's plane was delayed an hour due to bad weather, and I was worried that it would be canceled altogether, and she would have to spend the night in another city. Thankfully, it came in shortly after 8, and we rushed upstairs to our connector flight, which was supposed to leave at 9:20. Unfortunately, this flight was delayed 2 hours as they tried to fit people onto our plane from another canceled flight. On the flight to Johannesburg Andria and I watched a chick flik, and then slept the rest of the time. At Johannesburg we only had 20ish minutes to get our baggage, go through customs and passport check, go through security and find our gate because of the delay in Atlanta. Also, we heard that our flight left 5 minutes early! Even though we ran through the airport we missed our flight. We tried to talk to Delta and SA airlines to see if they would do anything, since it was not our fault we were late. They wouldn't do anything for us, so we bought a new ticket for the next morning. Thankfully, Andria is a quick thinker and managed to get vouchers for our flights that I can use on the return home in five months. We decided to spend the night in the Johannesburg airport. We couldn't both fall asleep or all of our stuff would be gone in the morning, so I watched while Andria slept for a while. We were trying to stay near people to be safe, so we decided to go hang out at a coffee shop while we waited for morning. We had a wonderful 4 hour conversation over tea and hot chocolate :) At 8:25 we left for Cape Town. I joked to Andria that we had better not lose our baggage on this flight, as that was about the only thing I hadn't experienced yet in airplane travel. :P I was super excited to finally see Jerome and the girls after a 48 hour trip! The girls were very happy and crazy hyper when they saw us! I had a nap yesterday, but was still quite tired from my two all nighters. Ask Bethany; she had to work very hard to keep me awake by reading Asterix and Obelix to me :P This morning I enjoyed playing with the girls, and then went with Jerome to the University for a while. I've been really enjoying seeing first hand all the things Jerome wrote about on their blog. On the roads everywhere men are selling trinkits, walking between the cars and on the medians. I saw a whole bunch of mini buses crammed full of people, sitting on laps and hanging out of windows. Right now Jerome is outside preparing for my very first braai! The girls are behind me relaxing and playing Wii. I hope to put up some pictures soon of Cape Town and Joburg from the sky. Tot siens!

Dear Deanna

2010-07-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, Deanna.
Welcome to your blog.
This is my goodbye gift to you :D If you want the name or anything changed, let me know and I will do that for you.
I sure hope you write on here everyday.
I will miss you so much.
Love Steph.