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.

oh this computer is making me angry! sorry>> k<>> ya<>> it wouldn"t tell me>> so that ending part is suppose to say that i"m reading that book "Obsessed" and it"s sooo good> It by Ted Dekker>> but ya ok i"m gonna get off this computer>

Phone call from Home

I got to talk with my mom and my little brother yesterday! It was great> urgh! (sorry>> my computer is being retarded and making me upset right now because it has gone to this wierd setting that whenever i press the number keys it actaully types !@#$%^&*( instead of one two three four five six seven eight nine!! urgh! and it won"t let me type periods> or other things like aposterphies! Aaron if you read this can you tell me what to do to fix it>> or anyone esle who is reading this and knows how to help me> thank you so much>
So anyways<> It was nice to hear their voices again! and to hear that things are good at home> My mom is enjoying her job yet there are lots of stuff that needs to be organized and set up still>> and now she is once again in charge of people>> which she was trying to get away from but she says it will be alright> Aaron got his jeep working finally so that is a blessing> I"m happy for him> and then mom was telling me that my little sister at bible college is kinda homesick : ( so that is sad but i totally know how she feels> First year away from home meeting new people>> or actually LIVING with new people is a really stretching thing and is hard> It definitly was for me and i even had my older sister with me my first year! But it was great and then D came into the office and me and her put our phone on speaker phone to talk with aaron and then i told him to put his phone on speaker phone and so the four of us talking together over the phone for a few minutes> It was really cool cause we were laughing and just having a good time together even though we are so far away from each other>

Today has been a nice lazy day> i helped with lunch and i gotta go and get supper ready for the guys here> Not very hard to do> just bread and gravy! But we had church this morning and I got to play piano in worship> It was fun> But its way differnet than playing with Rob> I miss playing in church back home> But it was still good> we don"t have any drums>> so pray for someone to learn how to play the jambae! that would be sweet

The pastor had a really good message about really really truly knowing the truth and really studing Gods Word and living in Him and asked us the question<>> no> i don"t really feel like i"m truly rejoicing in the Lord and ya<> Please pray for me as God takes me through this and that i will be dedicated to make the effort to rejoice in Him more>

but ya<> Oh and Car<>

Creche Day!

This morning was my very first time being a teacher in the creche and it was soo great. I did the story about Daniel and the Lions Den and the Zulu teacher there transulated for me. She is a very nice Christian lady and that is soo great. That was weird having a transulator cause it was my first time but it is soo nice to have because I wouldn't be able to get anywhere with the children! And it's not hard at all. It's just kinda is a drag that I can't understand what they say to me or vice versa. I have to learn more Zulu! Praise God they understood the story though. They are from the ages of babies to about 3. So cute. Then we played pin-the-tail-on-the-lion. They liked that. And as you see in the pictures I gave them some Canadian flag stickers and they really liked them and they were learning how to say "Canada".






After lunch we went out and did outreach. We went to this one house who is full of orphans. The aunt and the uncle are caring for about 8-9 children because the parents had died. Oh it was such a blessed time and a very heart touching experience. We brought them lots of new clothes and food and the kids and the older people were so happy and dancing around and being all goofy because they were soo happy for these gifts. Then we started singing and dancing! They were about 15 of us, children, adults and five of us from Melusi. Every got up from sitting and joined in. It was soo cool. Everyone was so happy that they had gotten this things. It was awesome cause even the baba (older man) was singing and clapping away. And they sang so loud. It was just such a new experience because I have never seen a family who has recieved gifts be so happy and celebrate like that over a little bit of food and clothes. It was a priceless moment for sure. And they are such nice people and adorable kids!

Pictures at the Museum

Here we are at the museum's little coffee shop/restarant. We did actually go into the museum.. just to the gift shop there. There was a lot of neat African stuff there. After as we were driving back we saw the skipping boys and their coach practicing so we went to visit them. Oh ya I didn't tell you guys about them yet. Oh man they are soo cute and will have to put a pic up here of them. They do really sweet things with skipping ropes and they are actually going to nationals this Wednesday! Till Saturday. The four boys are Loounga, Seethlay, Paul and Boongani and the couch is Wellington. Only three of them made it to nationals though. But they are all really good! So ya, we went and visited them and then gave them a ride back to their home because they had been practicing for close to three or four hours in the heat and they had to walk all the way back home. Its really really far! It's so crazy. But they are so used to walking all the time and very long distances. Wow we are so blessed to have vehicles!!

Me and Dione : )

Maresa, Valerie and Claudette

The two younger girls are the kids of the cook. They also have two little brothers.
And no they aren't twins, even though they look like it. They are 11 months apart.