Such a great day

Oh today was such a great day! First, me and D and this lady, Denise, from the mission went out for breakfast at the this little coffee shop called "Emenez". It is so relaxing and cozy there and the people are so nice to us and the food is great. We had a good time talking about different things and Denise shared her crazy story about her house being broken into and then this man coming at her with an axe while she was in bed! Man it was scary! Don't worry, that didn't happen here. It's happened at Rainbows, which is another ministry WEC is involved with in South Africa.

Then we drove Denise back to the mission and then me and D went back into town and went to the library to get some books and DVD's. And then we went to buy food for a family in the township. We know a boy, his name is Lunga, he is one of the skipping boys I talked about on my blog.. and we found out his family is really struggling with food and money and so we went and bought food for them.. and then we went there and it was soo incredible. Lunga was not home, but his mom was and his two little sisters (twins) and they had no idea we were coming. It was soo great to bless this family. The mama could not stop crying and every time she looked at all the food on her counter she started crying again. We talked and visited with them for about 15-20 min. and invited them to come to church and the girls to come to kids club on Fridays(Lunga comes to Kids Club already along with the other skipping boys). They were so incredibly thankful . I am so thankful to God that D and I had the money and opportunity to bless this beautful family. They are living in a one room house. The mama and two 10 year old girls and Lunga (14 years old). It is crazy to see and soo sad but praise God they have a way nicer home then so many others around here. We are praying they get a bigger home so please pray with us. Thanks.

Then we went to another lady's house. For the past few weeks we have been praying she would find a new home because the place where she was staying was very dangerous for her kids. The people they lived with even threatened to poison her kids! And so she got a house last week and moved in (actually, she lives just one house over...but she says it is soo much better) and so she wanted us to come see it and have us for tea/coffee. It was really great. Her kids are soo cute and nice and respectful. And this house was way bigger then Lunga's. It has four rooms, two bedrooms and a kitchen and a sitting area. It was so great to be there and just visit. Oh and it was so cute. They gave us pop.. but it was flat. Yet they still were soo happy to give us something. We also blessed them and brought them tea and sugar and sweeties (candies). We visited there for about an hour.

Then as we were driving back to the mission we saw a group of Zulu's drumming and wearing their layers of fur skins and whatnot.. it looked like they were teaching little boys how to dance and do all the tradition Zulu dancing and chanting moves. Wow can they ever move! But it is so sad.. there is soo much anscentral worship here.. and they mix it in with the Christian faith as well.. It was soo funny cause I saw this going on and it was just a little bit from the road.. and then D just stopped the bakkie (truck) and we totally looked like the biggest tourist ever!! Two.. well, not two white girls.. but one white girl and another foreigner staring and pointing and smiling and having the expression of amazement on our faces. haha, wow, it was funny.. they looked at us.. and then just kept going and doing their thing. We stayed there for a few minutes just watching. I really wished I had had my camera then.

Oh ya! And earlier when we were in town we met up with Yuri. Ok, here is just an example of how nice the people in our church here are. Me and D were driving out of the shopping centre when we saw Yuri driving in. As we were passing each other in the vechiles he was like "Hey girls! Come! I will buy you a milkshake at Wimpy's!" Wimpy's is like a fast food place here. And so then we turned around and went back into the shopping centre and met him there and we went into Wimpy's and sat down and had smoothies and just chatting for about 15 - 20 minutes. It was so random and so great and just really cool how he invited us instantly when he saw us. Even as we passed each other in vehicles! Oh, there are so many nice people in our church here! They give hugs all the time and I've already been to some of their houses already for lunch and for a movie and for homegroups as well. Very kind, welcoming people.

So ya, today was just so nice and I really want to praise God for it. He have given me many wonderful days like this one and I'm so thankful for them.

PROUD CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD CUP!

Dione and I had and have the great priveledge of being in South Africa to celebrate with this country the well deserved championship of the France 2007 World Cup Final of Rugby. Lol oh you guys! It was soo much fun last night as we went over to the pastor's place to watch the game 'South Africa vs. England' together and literally scream and yell and stand up from our chairs and some of us almost black out (Dione... haha) from the tremendous excitement and nervousness and laughter as we got to experience how crazy and passionate we each were about this. I want to tell you all that I have never ever been so into a sports game on TV before. And I didn't even know how rugby is played! I guess I still don't.. but a little bit now. But D and I were really really wanting this country to win because they hadn't won in 12 years! And seriously, everyone here is soo into Rugby! Even the pastor's wife and the ladies from our church are so into it! Actually, last night it was the pastor and six woman watching with him! now imagine that hey? It is so cool to see how proud and supportive they are of their country and how far South Africa has come from the past. It's really really cool to see.

Me and D, the "two Canadians" were publicly announced by our pastor in church today as Honorary South Africans. Yesterday we bought T-shirts of the Spring Bokke team (that is the team of SA) and wore them all day and of course, we wore them in church today again too. The pastor explained our huge support and fanship of the Spring Bokke team and so ya, he made us stand up and the whole church gave us a huge round of applause. haha it was soo great!

Now, I do need to tell you about our experience as we were buying these shirts... Let's just say we really looked like two very blonde Canadians... Anyways.. So we saw these shirts being sold and we were so excited we wanted to get one. We got there and we saw that all the shirts said France 2007. I said "Why does it say France? I want it to say South Africa!" And Dione was not sure why either so we finally asked the guy selling them and he said, "Because that is where the finals are." Wow, we must have looked soo retarded and not "South African" as we were searching hard for shirts to say South Africa... haha. We are such posers! And as you can see on the top picture.. we have little SA flag stickers on our cheeks. We wore those all day.. everywhere we went.

Anyhoo, that was definitely a highlight of this week and one that me and D will never forget.

So ya, I need to tell you more about that same day because it was soo great.. but I need to get the pictures from D. Then i will talk about it k?
Cheers! (people say that all the time here.. it means goodbye)

Thieves in the Night!

This morning I woke up to no water coming out of my taps. Ok, so no shower for me this morning.. no big deal. It's all good. But in the next half hour I found out that it actually was quite a big deal. And that is wasn't good... Last night someone or some people jumped the wall around the mission and stole all the copper pipes outside a main bathroom here. Many people were without toilets, showers and a sink all day. The cost to replace all the piping a lot of Rand and it's not cool because our mission is struggling finanically, just like most missions I'm sure. It's also frustrating and discouraging because we do so much good for the community around us and help people and try to make a difference here in Dundee and the surrounding areas but yet we still get abused. Anyways, so today the men here were busy fixing the pipes and now tonight a few of them are taking shifts in security watch. Poor guys! But really, I'm so naive about actually thinking people get into the mission and roam around at night. Its kinda scary actually... Never know who could be behind a tree or a building when I walk around at night.. I guess that's why they tell us not to really do that... um... makes sense.

Little Blessings in Africa

Tomorrow I get to experience my very first braai. Braais are a big deal in South Africa and people have them all the time. It is similar to a barbeque but here they make a big deal about it and it is just a time to hang out with a lot of friends/family and enjoy some great food. I'm pretty excited about it. Dione has been waiting for me to have my first braai and so tomorrow its finally happening : )

Oh! And yesterday was my very first time playing soccer with the African kids. Wow they are soo good! Man do they ever have great ball-handling skills and techique. It was very fun to play with them. It was very hot but it was so much fun. And I have been playing soccer with the boys here, the three of us kicking around the ball and playing one-on-one soccer and it is soo great. Such a blessing to just be able to kick around a ball and get my heart rate up. I really miss playing soccer, but this is a great blessing. As well, Marysa and I have been power-walking in the mornings from 6:30 - 7 ish. It is really nice waking up early and getting some exercise in before the day begins. Very refreshing and makes me feel good.

The hospital visit this week was so great and so much fun. Dione, Pieter and I went and we had a great time walking there. We, or I guess I should say Pieter, took 161 pictures in just two hours! Ha so fun. And the kids were just so much fun at the hospital and this one little boy was soo adorable. Right as the kids saw us coming this little boy came running towards us and hugged my legs. It is such a precious moment. Oh he is soo CUTE! They are all very cute!

I just love how we can be a light to there day and bring a smile to there face and a laugh in there heart : ) These poor children. I feel so bad they have to stay in a hospital and not run and play like other children. But I guess they will not be there forever, but still, it's sad to see them that way.

Pieter and Dione just being goofy

This is not an unfamilar site. Barbwire and spikes all fences on every property.

This is one of the signs just outside the hospital. Pretty crazy hey? But here it is a necessary sign I guess.

Here are some of the cute children at the hospital. The little boy not looking is the one who ran up to me and gave me a hug : )

The one of the left is the same little boy and this little boy on the right is just soo tiny for the age that he looks. So sad but he is oh so cute.

The kids absolutely love playing with the balloons we bring. Usually we bring them sweeties (little candies) as well too, but the mama that we usually buy from was not there that day.

If you notice here, the boy in the bed has his whole core of his body bandaged up. Poor guy, this is probably from a very severe burn he had.

This guy haha, wow made my day even better! As we were walking back from the hospital he noticed us taking random pictures and all of a sudden he was down on the middle of the road telling me "Take a picture of me!" haha and he was so serious and so I did because it was too funny. Then he said "Put it on the internet for me k?" haha so this is for him.

My First Random Blog Posting

This is just a random blog of mine.. I just want you guys to know little random things that are different here..
lets see..
I'll start with how people say they want to go to the bathroom. You don't say washroom or bathroom because they will think you are going to take a bath. You must say "I am going to the toilet." It's really weird to say.. I still don't say toilet.. it sounds improper coming from our culture! To me its still "washroom" : ) They understand me now.
And in many public places you need to pay to use to 'toilet'. It is one Rand which is like 16 cents or something like that.
There taps here are seperate.. one hot water tap and one cold water tap. And many homes have a seperate room for the toilet and a seperate room for the sink and bathtub.
When you go into stores you can't take bags in. You need to put them in cubbies and get a number and than fetch it when you are done in the store. Oh ya, and they say fetch instead of get or pickup.. Like if someone is talking about getting someone they say "Ya, Im going to go and fetch Lindsay." Sounds like I'm a dog or something.. haha. it's funny
They call stop lights robots. I love that. Robots. And they are on the sides of the roads.. not in the middle hanging above.
They drive on the other side of the road. WOw that is weird for me.. it's getting a little better but I 'm so scared to learn to drive here cause it is very confusing to think everything opposite of what you know and have been use to for so long.
Lots of street vendors selling random things. And really sweet china shops. With really nice clothes and shoes and whatnot. I love shopping in them.
Oh ya, they have no heating or insulation in their buildings so when its cold out, it's cold everywhere! Hence the reason I had on three bunnyhugs (oh they call sweaters jershies) and my big feather vest this morning. Its' cold today : (
We have security gates that need to be locked at night.. plus our normal doors.
Oh! You can't put your feet up on chairs or couches. Some people here really do not like that and sometimes I will catch myself doing it and I will put them down soo fast! I'm jsut so use to it I don't think about it. It's really hard cause back home it's so normal to do that.
In the townships, children make their own toy cars out of wires. It is so cute to see but sad as well. Kids play soccer with flat soccer balls.
Today it has been raining most of the morning and it rained all through the night and it's cold and today as Dione was driving me to the creche we say a lady walking, looking very cold, with no shoes on. Just seeing that little picture made me very thankful to God for all He has given me and it really humbled me cause I was complaining earlier that it was raining and I was cold.. and here is this poor lady, having it so much worse them me. Actually I don't even have it bad one bit. I have shoes, I have a place to stay where rain does not pour in. I have food to fill my stomache, whenever I want! Let alone three times a day. I have a change of dry clothes when mine get wet. I have electricty. I have a shower to get clean. I have it soo good. And yet here I am, finding myself again and again, complaining about little things. I don't have a right to.
Something else here, here at the mission and with the church people, they hug everyone to say hello. It's very welcoming. When I first got here, people I just met hugging me and making me feel like a part of them. Everytime they see each other they hug. Even if they just saw them the day before. Very cool
So ya, that is all I can think of right now. I know that there are many other things. when they come to mind I will let you know.

Crazy Dundee Lightning Storms

Hi guys! Well, it feels like its been a long time since I wrote on this.. only if it hasn't even been a week yet. haha anyways, there is a lot of share with you guys. Well there has been many thunder/lightning storms here that are really crazy and dangerous. I found out that the Dundee area use to be a volcano and so there is iron in the rocks around here... which causes the crazy lightning around here. So ya, our mission got struck by a huge loud lightning bolt on Friday. Wow it was soo loud and a bunch of us screamed. It struck the phone lines so we have been without phones here at the mission all weekend. And as well on Friday the pastor had said the internet got struck too.. so i was like.. ok, no internet for the weekend. I found out today that the internet was ok : ) haha oh well. But seriously, the weather here is soo weird and very unpredictable. It will be a nice day and then within 10 minutes a crazy storm and the wind is just a going and the rain is just a pouring and the whole sky is light up by the lightning. Like last night! Me D and Marysa tried to watch a movie but then a storm came so we had to unplug the TV and I had no battery power on my laptop and D had a little bit.. so we watched half the movie and then jsut sat back and watched the storm. It was so bright it hurt the eyes to watch it at some points! And then it just rumbled the whole building and the windows. That was scary.

I know that it is Thanksgiving at home right now and I was sad that I would not be there to be with my family and relatives at the big yummy meal and games around the table. They do not celebrate Thanksgiving here BUT! Me and D were very blessed today because we were invited over to a couple's house from our church and it was soo nice! We got there and we were celebrating her (even though it is a little late : ) and another girl's b-day. We had cakes and filter coffee (yummy! soo good!) when we got there... and then we watched "Second Hand Lions". And in the middle of the movie we stopped and got our food which reminded me and D of a thanksgiving meal. God is soo good that way : ) Chicken, potatoes and rice and veggies and salad. So good. Then we had a delicous fruit salad and more filter coffee. There were a few other people from our church there as well so it felt like a nice big gathering being thankful for friendships and church family and just life in general. Me and D also went out and played fetch with this huge dog they have! It was really fun to play with him for a while. He was soo BIG! And he slobbered all over my pants!

Then there was yesterday. The three of us girls went to NewCastle which is a city only 45 minutes away from us and it was soo great. We shopped till we dropped and went out for lunch at this great place called the Gecko. I had chicken and veggies wrapped in a crepe. But it is called a pancake here. It was really good. You should try it. And the service was just so nice and friendly and comfortable. Really nice place, and once again, great coffee. And God was soo good to us that He protected our car from theft cause you are always suppose to put your things in the trunk and not having any thing valuable showing in the car.. but between the three of us and a little car we had to put stuff in sight... but one of the car guards was sooo nice for us and we paid him extra.. actually alot extra! haha to watch our car extra special. He was great. Here is a pic of us girls of that day. We stopped on the side of the road and saw this cool big tree and so we took a picture.

On Friday we had Club 5 which is Kids Club. That was fun but interesting because neither of our Zulu transulators showed up... so we were unable to do the Bible story and it was a little hard explaining the games we played.. but there were three of the kids out of 35 ish that spoke both English and Zulu so they helped and that was a blessing. Here are some pics of the kids playing the balloon game where you try to pop other balloons while protecting your own. Just as Club 5 was starting all the kids started playing some of their Zulu games and got us to join in even though we didn't know the words or what we were suppose to do but it was really fun. And wow! can these kids sing and dance! Back home when kids sing it's hard to get them to even sing let alone be loud but when these Zulu kids sing! wow! they are soo enthusiatic and loud and they just love to sing. The girls and the boys. And they do harmony too and ya black people are really talented for sure!

Bed time for me.. I will have to write more later. Happy Thanksgiving!

Now here's a Challenge

I've discovered my first big challenge I will be facing and am already facing here in Africa. Its the creche. Today was so challenging there. Wow! I guess first of all.. it was a little bit of my own fault. I only realized last night that it was Tuesday the next day which is creche day. And so I was totally not prepared... and so ya, but anyways, as I was searching the net for preschool kids games and activites and Bible lesson ideas I realized that we don't have many resources here and a lot of the fun games involved certain equipment.. say like a hola hoop or paint, etc. And then I also realized that wow, the creche doesn't even have the space to do a lot of things that would be fun for the kids.. Like painting, and making crafts and whatnot. I think I told you before but I will explain again. The creche is a very tiny house and about 50 kids come to this creche. There is one teacher and sometimes she has a helper or two. There is not much room at all to be able to do crafts or painting or other things. I found myself saying and thinking, oh man, if only we were just in Canada where we HAVE bigger buildings and more space and more resources and just where things are a lot easier to do and handle. It would be soo much easier! And then on top of that is the language barrier. Wow! That is something that really frustrates me that I cannot understand what the kids are saying to me and it frustrates me that I don't know what to say when they do something bad, or when I want to explain something to them or when I want to tell them where to go/what to do. Yes I do have a transulator and i'm soo thankful for her, because it would be impossible to do anything, but still, it's really hard and humbling because she will say what I say and then they will talk to her and I don't know what they just told her. And then when I ask her to explain, say a game to them, she does but then when it comes to playing the game they don't do what was expected and then I wondering if they didn't understand because they are younger or because she didn't explain properly or if she herself did not understand what I told her. And then I feel so helpless and like I'm not really doing what I was asked to do because I can't speak the language and so it seems like Spaangelay (the teacher) is doing most of the work because she is explaining to them and getting them into there places and dealing with the little fights the kids have and all the questions they ask.. All because I'm such a foriegner and don't know the language : ( Urg! It's really frustrating! Wow and so ya, this is my HUGE challenge for sure. It's very humbling because all my life when Ive dealt with kids it's been, well, I won't say it's been easy to deal with them.. but it's been and it's felt like I've been in alot more control and now at the creche it's totally out of my hands and I can't do much about it. I believe this is one way God is going to get me to lean on His strength and power more. I guess ya, that God has pulled me out of my comfort zone and placed me in a place that will make me to grow in different ways.
But don't get me wrong, it's fun going and seeing the kids and playing with them, it's just me.. umm. that makes me think.... that its' really not about me, but it's about the kids and it's about God and not what I want to have happen but what God wants to happen. Ill keep you updated on how this whole thing progresses.