I sit here at 8:30 pm on a Saturday night in my room listening to the ever calming sound of rain pounding on the roof. Even though I love the sound of rain (which is a good thing because we’re in the rainy season here in Johannesburg) I also sit here hoping that we don’t get too much rain on our kitchen floor from the leaky roof we discovered earlier this week. Life here on plot 64 has been quite interesting since my last blog.

Let me be real with you. These past two weeks may have been the hardest two weeks I’ve gone through so far on my journey in South Africa. Exactly a week ago, as I was talking to my family on the phone, my father told me of the death of Rev. Dr. Sam Dixon, the head of UMCOR. As many of you already know, he and two other men, Rev. Clinton Rabb and Rev. James Gulley were trapped for 55 hours under the ruins of Hotel Montana, a building that collapsed during the earthquake in Haiti. UMCOR is one of the main sponsors of SHADE, and Rev. Dixon was a big advocate of our organization. Sunday night, right before signing offline, we found that Rev. Rabb, although found alive, also passed away in a Florida hospital earlier that day. It was a long night as we stayed up crying, questioning, and reminiscing with one another. Although I was not close to Rev. Dixon, since his death (sadly) I have discovered what a great man he really was. Rev. Rabb, the husband of Rev. Suzanne Rabb, the former executive secretary of the young adult programs, led some of the sessions during our training. He was the head of the Volunteers in Mission program at GBGM. I was very close with Suzanne, and was very encouraged by Clint and Suzanne during training. If you have the time, I would really encourage you to go onto the GBGM website (http://gbgm-umc.org) to read the obituaries of Rev. Dixon and Rev. Rabb. This is a quote from Clint during one of our sessions that has served a great reminder to me here, which I hope I will never be quick to forget: “We are sent, not called to do something, but sent. We will know when we get there what we are called to do.” Please keep the families of Rev. Dixon and Rev. Rabb and the whole GBGM family in your prayers. After learning more about each of their lives and the impact they have had on the world, I have felt more honored to be serving with GBGM.

Life on the farm has had its ups and downs so far. We have a very nice sized house that we enjoy, but have noticed that it is not in as good of shape as we had thought when we first moved in. There are very minor things, not worth complaining about, that are being fixed slowly and I’m sure this will feel more like home as time goes on. The two hardest things to deal with right now are internet and transportation. Because we are out in the middle of nowhere, it is very hard to get a very strong connection with the portable modems we had in Cape Town, we would like to keep because it’s a very easy way for us to pay for our internet separately, but we haven’t been able to get to and MTN store that can put up a satellite for us that may be able to give us a stronger connection. Another trial of living where we are is that it isn’t very close to stores. The closest store is a small shopping center about a 15 min. drive away with a little “Friendly” grocery store, a movie rental place, a pharmacy, and a pizza shop. We have one five passenger car, not in the greatest condition, shared by seven people. The car is used to take us to work and we can try to reserve it ahead of time for our own personal use. This makes it very difficult when we need to go buy groceries, travel outside of here, or even go to church. Last Sunday, we were able to meet with our supervisor, Gail Coulson, who is in DRC right now, but stopped first in Johannesburg and will be returning here in the beginning of February. We talked with her about getting our own car here so that transportation would be a bit easier. She said that no other mission interns have owned cars before, but a lot of the placements are in places where public transportation is easily accessible, and this was mostly the case for us in Cape Town. She agrees that it would be very helpful for us to have our own car, and hopefully we can find a way to get one during our stay here. The biggest problem is finding the funding for it. Not being able to leave and not having a strong internet connection combine together to make life challenging. If we were able to have internet connection, I feel like I’d at least be able to connect to the outside world, even if I couldn’t get to it through transport. If I had transport, I don’t think I would mind not having a strong internet connection as much. Maybe I am complaining more about things that aren’t worth getting frustrated over. I know that I am learning patience through all of this; internet and transport are not an essential human need and if I go for the next year without having them all the time, I will survive and still enjoy and flourish in my time here.

One of my good friends often says to me when I’m upset, “Everything will be alright and work itself out” and even though I don’t like hearing it, it’s the truth. There is a time to grieve and to mourn and to be upset and frustrated. But there is also a time to realize that God’s promises are still all around us; hope and joy can be found in the hardest of circumstances. We have enjoyed welcoming two new members of our staff: J.T. and Danielle Hamilton-Slate who have moved here from Kansas to work with Shade. Last week we enjoyed helping to give them a traditional African wedding. They have been married for about 9 months, but it was fun to watch them go through the process of initiation (traditionally, the bride and groom have to go through a series of tests to see if they are “worthy” to be married) and celebrate with a big meal, entertainment, and dancing. Hannah and I were challenged to a dance competition with Vixa and Clifford, and had to dance in front of everyone while Mama Tembo and Jen judged! Unfortunately for Vixa and I, Clifford and Hannah won. After going through a long two weeks of preparing the center for students to move in and getting the office organized, we each met with Mama Tembo together and individually to finalize our contracts now that we are in Johannesburg and go through our three month evaluation (it seems like we’ve been here so much longer). Now, many of you know that I am an emotional person. I think it was a combination of the stress built up over two weeks and Mama Tembo’s very good comment that pulled the right heart strings that caused me to break down in front of her and Lucille during our meeting. She said nothing mean or offensive, I just suddenly became emotional. However, after the meeting, I felt pretty good. For maybe the first time since I’ve been here, I felt understood and heard. Not that Mama Tembo didn’t understand or listen to me before, but I finally had time to speak with her by myself and let her know how I was doing. I am very thankful that I have a boss who will let me cry and try to understand me. After my meeting, I had a little chat with my co-worker Vixa who is very excited about this coming year. I realized that it’s about time that I stop seeing the negative little things around me and start getting excited too. I’m excited to work and live close to my co-workers that have become close friends over the past three months. I’m excited to get to know JT and Danielle as we work together learning what it means to work and live in a different culture from our own. I learned this week that I not only will be supervising the classes in the life skills department of the center, but I will also be able to teach some classes as well. I’m excited to get to know these students from all over Africa as we share our lives with each other. And perhaps most of all (though I am a little intimidated with this part of my job), I am excited to start talking with the leaders of the satellite projects, travel to visit them, and learn more about the world around me.

Originally, when I started to write this blog, I thought it would be a bit depressing and not as exciting as some of my others when I write about all of the great things in my life. I still decided to write it because I think that you all should know my real story, not just the read about the times when good things happen. I guess it didn’t turn out to be depressing as I thought it would be – I truly believe that God is with me as I write, helping me to see bits of light through the darkness. I feel that this has happened many times as I have been here. Don’t you just love it when God does that? I do.

Hello from the farms of Johannesburg!

There are two things that I need to mention first that I forgot to say in my last blog.  I mentioned about how great it was to talk to my friends on Christmas Eve and my family on Christmas over Skype.  I was also able to talk with my “angels,” Sarah and Dee, my two best and longest friends all originally from Hanover.  It was so wonderful to see their smiling faces and have a “reunion” even if it was through a computer.  I also was Skyped into the Miller family Christmas, my mom’s side, on New Year’s Day and watched as my grandparents and cousins opened gifts and my cousin Alex tried to explain to my grandfather how I was in the computer screen.  It still boggles my mind how I can talk to people half way around the world and even see their faces.  It has been a great joy for me here.

Speaking of internet connection, we’re out in the middle of nowhere.  If I haven’t been able to respond quickly to anyone who has contacted me, I apologize.  The internet modems that we bought to use in Cape Town have trouble getting a signal where we are now.  We hope to get that fixed in the next two weeks, but as those of you know who have moved a lot, it can sometimes take a while to get settled in.  I’m very glad that I was able to post my last blog and hopefully I’ll have enough connection tonight to post this one!

So, January 4^th was the date that we moved out of Cape Town.  We were told on the 3^rd that we would be leaving in the afternoon, but of course, we run on Africa time.  After packing up a mini-van and small car with our things, packing up a bigger moving truck with everyone else’s things at out boss’s house for several hours, and eating our last meal at our boss’s brother’s house, we were on the road around 7 pm.  Thirteen people were crammed into a mini-van and a small car to travel 16 hours to our destination. Surprisingly, the journey was not bad.  It was a beautiful drive, especially seeing miles and miles of mountains and vineyards as we drove out of Cape Town.  Every time I was awake enough to look out the window, I never saw flat land.  South Africa is a beautiful country and I’m glad I had the opportunity to see it.  We stopped about 5 times.  It’s interesting traveling with a larger group of people.  When I’ve traveled with my family, or even when I traveled with my youth group or Salt ‘n Light, when we stopped somewhere, we all had enough time to use the bathroom and maybe get a coke for like 10 min.  Stopping with Mama Tembo’s family means ordering food at the Wimpy’s connected to the gas station and sitting for an hour before getting back in the car again.  It was a little difficult especially in my American mind of always moving forward and fast – but it’s a good reminder to relax.

We arrived January 5^th in the afternoon at the plot where Mama Tembo’s family will live and our office will be.  There is a big house for their family, a nice size office space, and a guest house.  That day, we unloaded the moving van and slept over on our mattresses that night.  January 6^th was planned as the day for us to move in.  January 6^th was probably the craziest day yet.

I’ve been told that I shouldn’t make things like this public, but I think it helps to set the scene for you.  Hannah and I woke up that Wednesday morning feeling disgusting.  Hannah hadn’t showered since Saturday, and I hadn’t showered since Sunday.  We went out on a few errands that afternoon with Mama Tembo and the boys to pick up groceries and things for the houses.  It was then that we got to see our house and move some of our luggage in.  I’ll talk more about the house later.  While we were hanging out at the hardware store, this is the conversation that occurred:

Mama Tembo: We need to pick up some chicken for tonight.

Hannah: Oh yeah, hey Mama, Rachel said she wants to kill a chicken while we’re here in Jo-burg.

Mama: Really, Rachel?

Me: Well, I just thought it would be cool sometime to learn how to kill a chicken, and since we’re living on a farm, I figured we’d be doing that sometime.

Mama: We’ll buy a chicken today, you’ll kill one tonight.

Me: (really nervous now) I don’t need to do it tonight Mama, I mean, it can wait, really.

Mama: It’s okay Rachel.  We’ll get two. Vixa will kill one and then you can kill the other and we’ll have it for dinner.

At first I thought she was being sarcastic, but when we pulled into a farm that was advertising for chickens, I knew she was serious.  I was already tired, dirty, and now I was anxious and nervous about needing to kill a chicken because Mama wanted me to.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget standing there with Mama as we watched Vixa hold one foot on the wings and one foot on the feet and cut of the chicken head in under 2 minutes.  I cried.  Then it was my turn.  Eventually, after some help from a stronger man holding the knife with me, I cut second chicken’s head off, carried its body into the guest house, and placed it in the pot of water to be cooked for dinner.  I ate the chicken that night.  I am a murderer, but a real African woman. (At least those were the two reactions I received.)

So, about our house.  I’m sitting in the lounge of our house on plot 64.  The plot is owned by our land lord, Russell, who’s had some trouble for about two years with this land.  The whole plot is still in progress, but we are living in a four bedroom house with a small one bedroom apartment extension for our land lord.  There are two other “cottages” next to our house.  One is housing our co-worker Lucille and the new receptionist for Shade, and the other will house Clifford and Vixa.  Behind the house and cottages in a garden and next to the garden is a very tiny house where George, Precious, and their daughter Mendisa live.  Russell took this family in off the streets 2 years ago when Precious was pregnant and she works on cleaning homes and George is like a handy man, also helping with building the new cottages.  I was really overwhelmed when we first saw the house, because I feel that it is plenty big for three people. We don’t have enough stuff to fill up our house.  But, I am enjoying things so far.  Being on a farm, there are mice in our house and we just got mosquito nets for our beds so we don’t get eaten alive.  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I might get used to living with mice.  I think I heard one crawl under my door last night, and it took me a little longer to all asleep, but eventually I did.  I’ve learned to not set food out on the floor!  There is a family of three dogs that live on our property to that Russell says are good guard dogs to have around.  I’m really looking forward to living in community – close to Lucy and the boys and getting to know Russell and the family behind us.  I’ve already had fun playing with Mendisa when Precious is over, she is adorable and I realized how much I miss working and playing with kids.  Precious is also the same age as me, so I hope I can get to know her more too.

Lastly, this area is beautiful. As Russell has driven us around to some places, it reminds me of Centre Hall, PA – where my dad’s second parish was.  The hills are beautiful (you could call them Pennsylvania Mountains) and as we drive I am reminded of the drives I took to visit my childhood friend Leigh Ann Sammis whose family owned a green house and lived around the farms on Central PA.  We are out in the middle of nowhere with the closet corner store a 15 minute drive away, but I think I will come to love it.  I’m excited to help set up the office and training center and even more excited to start working in the training center and the satellite countries I’m assigned to.  I’m excited to see all the amazing things that God will do through Shade this year, and all the things that I will learn as I work in this place. Exciting things are on the horizon, and I can’t wait to see what is in store.  How wonderful it is for you to join me on this journey.  Stay tuned…

I have arrived in Johannesburg! But this blog is not about Johannesburg. Amidst all the cleaning and packing and traveling in between January 1 and right now, I never had enough time to write about my Christmas. Let me catch you up on my last glorious week in Cape Town.

1/3 of us, Jen, left the day before Christmas Eve to spend some time with a family, the Grassow’s, she stayed with in Cape Town when she lived there for a summer a couple years ago. When they came to pick her up, we had them come in for some biscuits (cookies) and tea. While we visited with them, we talked about how we wanted to spend our last week in Cape Town doing some of the touristy things, but it’s very difficult to do that when we lived in Tableview, so far away from center city and didn’t have much transportation to get around the city. The Grassow’s live in Plumstead, closer to a train station and center city. That night, they invited us to spend the week after Christmas at their house. They said they wouldn’t entertain us, and that we shouldn’t expect 5 star dinners, but we would be closer to Table Mountain, Waterfront, District Six Museum, and more places we would want to see before we left. We graciously accepted and looked forward to coming to their home after our Christmas festivities with Mama Tembo’s family.

Christmas Eve was relaxing, as I always wanted it to be. I received some Christmas presents through the mail and delivery. I got to talk to two of my best friends, one of which, my roommate Melissa, I hadn’t talked to since I left New York. Hannah and I made Peanut Blossoms with Cadbury Milk Chocolate Pieces (not Hershey Kisses – but still good!), wrapped Christmas presents, stuffed stockings, and packed up to spend the night and next day with Mama Tembo’s family. Christmas Eve was filled with a service straight through until after midnight, followed by “snacks” of chicken wings, meatballs, and steak tips, followed by a gift exchange among parents and children – reminding me of Christmas mornings with my family. We went to bed around 3 am and looked forward to sleeping in on Christmas day.

Christmas day was the hardest day I have had here yet. I woke up suddenly feeling emotional as I remembered the traditional Christmas mornings that I had for the first 21 years of my life. I was excited to experience new traditions, but I felt very home sick for the immense joy that I feel around my wonderful family on Christmas day. We went to a huge church that held the party that the Kalengas (Mama Tembo’s family) had their gathering. It was filled with a lot of good food, laughter around skits and jokes about the family, and dancing. I was able to sneak away to Skype with my parents and sister and brother-in-law in my car and watch them open up some presents I sent to them from here. After the party, we went to the Grassow’s and I was able to Skype with the rest of my family (on my dad’s side) and open up the package that was sent from all of them. I became emotional again as they all sang “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” before signing off. Once again, I realized how blessed I am to have the family I have, and I realize that more and more as I am away from home.

The next week – the week that all kids look forward to in the US because they have off school –was also a week to look forward to. The Grassow’s are an awesome family. Pete and Jenny have three daughters, one of which was with her boyfriend’s family for the holidays so we never got to see her, and also live with Jenny’s mother, affectionately known as “Gran.” Pete is a pastor at Plumstead Methodist Church. On Saturday he asked us if we’d be interested in participating in the service on Sunday morning, and Hannah and I ended up preaching the sermon together! I’m not sure if I can attach Word documents to my blog, but if I will post our message for you to read if you wish. We shared on the story of Jesus visiting the temple while his parents looked for him for days. It gave a new look at Mary, “pondering things in her heart” which Luke mentions 3 different times in some way in his gospel. Hannah unloaded the scripture, and I shared my part of my story. I have a lot to learn from Mary!

We spent Sunday afternoon, December 27, on the beach. The rest of the week, we took a cable car up to the top of Table Mountain (my favorite mountain in the entire world), visited District Six museum (to be written about in a much later blog about apartheid in SA– when I get around to it), and hiked a trail in Table Mountain National Park, Elephant’s Eye, with Pete, Jenny, and Gran. The hike reminded me a lot of Colorado and the hiking that I did there with my best friend Erin and her father about a year and a half ago. Hannah and I went salsa dancing with our friend Freddy, one of Mama Tembo’s much younger brothers, and spent New Year’s Eve at a concert in Kirstenbosch, a beautiful park in Cape Town. Before the concert, we met up with two of Hannah’s friends from college. Her friend Katie is in her second year of Peace Core in Malawi and met up with her boyfriend, Alex, in Cape Town for the holidays. We had a fun time ringing in the New Year with them and swapping stories about adjusting to life in a different culture – her experience is MUCH different from ours – but it was lovely meeting and spending time with both of them. One of the highlights of the week was the little moments spent talking and sharing with the Grassow’s. It was most interesting hearing Pete talk about his experience as a white man living in South Africa during apartheid and serving in a colored church and raising his girls in a colored community. Again, I will blog about this more later, but I was blessed to have the discussions that I did with him. Jenny was an amazing mom for the week, providing for us in so many ways, much more than what we expected. Also, I loved spending time with Gran and talking with her – little pieces of her remind me of my own grandmothers that I miss talking to so much – so talking to her was a blessing as well. Hannah and I were sad to leave on New Year’s day, but knew that much packing awaited us!

We moved out of our house on January 2, and stayed with the boys (our Co-workers Clifford and Vixa that live down the street) for two nights until we moved out completely. January 2nd was a crazy and amazing day. We were very stressed as we packed and moved all of our things down the street in to a boys house (sorry, but they typically our not as clean as girls, and in our case, this was definitely true). So many circumstances added to our stress that we were ready to burst by mid-day. Then, Clifford came home from vacation with the Ilunga’s. Clifford has become a younger brother to me with his wide smile and bubbly personality, always caring about how we are doing. Right before we were ready to “burst” Clifford walks in the door with his typical grin and said, “Girls! How are you?!” It didn’t take more than a second for us to smile and cheer up just by his presence. After sharing with him about our holiday and his, we traveled with him to Mama Tembo’s house to drop off his car before moving Monday. On the way there, we got a phone call from Joyce telling us that Crickett Nicovich was visiting. If you don’t remember this name, go back to my blogs from October explaining how this former mission intern at SHADE is part of the reason that I am here. I had heard she was visiting around Christmas but didn’t know when. After hearing her podcast on GBGM’s website two years ago which encouraged me to apply to the mission internship program, I have wanted to meet her. She is absolutely delightful! She was the first intern from GBGM for SHADE three years ago, and now works in Washington D.C. with the same organization that she worked with for her second placement. Tears almost filled our eyes as I shared with her my story, thanked her, and told her how happy I was to finally meet her. After this, Clifford drove us into the center city for a parade celebrating “Tweede Nuwe Jaar” (second new year). This festival is an all day parade with musicians and dancers from all the townships in Cape Town. During slavery in South Africa, the slaves were only free during the week between Christmas and New Years. This parade is an annual celebration of that week in their history. Hannah and I were the only white people to be seen, but the joy of that place was contagious. The participants were dressed in bright colored costumes and attendants basically plot out a place around the street and stay there all day to see representatives from all the townships perform in the parade. It reminded me of the annual Halloween parade in Hanover, PA. We stopped by KFC on the way home, and the three of us enjoyed fried chicken and pap that Clifford cooked for us for dinner. In moments of complete stress when I feel that no light will be seen, God show’s his grace through unexpected meetings and the smiles of strangers. God is continually teaching me patience and perseverance, reminding me to praise God for the many blessings that surround my life each day – even when they are hard to find. I’m sensing a theme for my time here.

More about the journey to Johannesburg soon…I’m sure gonna miss that Table Mountain.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read and being a part of my journey.

Dear blog friends,

I have not meant to neglect you.  This is the third blog I have started in the past couple weeks.  I’d start a blog and then become disrupted, and therefore, not be able to finish.  This one I intend to finish!  I will start you off with the last one I wrote and continue it from there…

I’m sitting here on the porch of my hotel on Saturday December 19, looking out onto the Indian Ocean in Port Elizabeth, South Africa!  I’d love to share with you how this all came about.  Our last day in the office was on Friday, and after a very busy and a bit stressful beginning of the week, my roommates and I felt like we needed a break.  Jen was planning on going to Plumstead (on the other side of Cape Town from us in Tableview) to visit some close friends she lived with when she spent a summer here a couple years ago.  While Hannah and I were taking a walk on Tuesday, she said to me, “Rachel, we should just take a bus to Port Elizabeth this week.”  I believe she was being sarcastic, but after thinking a little bit more about it, I said, “we seriously should look into that.”  Port Elizabeth is a beach North East of Cape Town (along the South East coast of S.A.) which is known for its beautiful beaches with great places to surf and swim.  We came back to our flat and started looking on line for deals on how to get to and stay in Port Elizabeth.  By the end of that night, Clifford had taken us to the bus station to purchase two round-trip tickets and we had booked two nights (at a really good price) at the Brookes Hill Suites Hotel in Port Elizabeth.  We left at 6pm on Wednesday (less than 24 hours after we had made all these plans) and arrived here at 6 am Thursday morning (yes – a 12 hour bus ride overnight). We took a taxi cab that the hotel had recommended to our hotel and they let us keep our things there until checking in at 2.  Immediately, we changed into our suits, and headed toward the beach right outside the building.  It’s a pretty place, and I started thinking that it reminded me a lot of the New Jersey beaches where my family vacations almost every summer.  The beach was nearly barren (it was 7 am!) except for a couple of people who were early morning walkers and swimmers.  We dipped our toes into the surprising not as cold as we thought it would be Indian Ocean, and laid down in the sand.  We slept in and out for about two hours.  When we finally woke up, we realized that we had not escaped the wind in Cape Town.  Our bodies were covered in sand.  Hannah said she woke up before me and couldn’t even see me!  I mean sand EVERYWHERE, including my ears and lips (not very fun at all). We found a public restroom close by to clean ourselves up and then we starting looking for a good place for breakfast.  We came across this little café outside our hotel…the name?  Tiffany’s.  That’s right, we had breakfast at Tiffany’s.  The highlight for me was the iced coffee.  I won’t get into every single detail of the rest of our three day holiday.  I will tell you though that our accommodations exceeded our expectations.  We enjoyed truly RELAXING.  We enjoyed walking to the boardwalk down the street and sharing sushi and chocolate cake.  We enjoyed venturing to a township on Friday and visiting the Red Location Museum (which I will blog about later), buying frozen hamburgers, rolls, frozen vegetables and two p.s. bars at the local pick ‘n pay for under R40 (under $6) for two of us, making it in our room, and eating it on our back porch as we watched the waves crash in the ocean.  After checking out of our room on Saturday (the nicest day of the whole trip) we relaxed by pool, had an early dinner at Tiffany’s, and took the bus back to Cape Town at 6 pm.  The nice thing was sitting in the front row on the top of a double-decker bus to watch some of the landscape of South Africa at the sunset.  The not so nice thing was sitting across the row from two teenagers blaring music into their headphones that made it hard for the two women next to them to fall asleep.  But the whole holiday was, I believe, very helpful for us spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.  We had made it through two long months in Cape Town, months full of adjusting to this new life, traveling to DRC, moving into a new office, working in a smaller one, and packing up to move to a new city in the New Year.  I call it our Sabbath holiday, because we both agreed to not be on a time schedule, and not talk about work once we got off the bus.  We succeeded, and I thank God for the opportunity to get away and rest.

We weren’t ready to come back to Cape Town.  We were exhausted when we got back from not sleeping much on the bus.  Vixa picked us up at the bus station at 6 am Sunday morning. We went to his brother’s house (our friend Freddy) to rest a bit until going to church.  Because we are on “Africa time” (something I will write about in another blog as well), we arrived at church 10 minutes before the service was over, and waited about half an hour for the new service to begin.  We finally left at 1 pm hungry and ready to get home and sleep.  Jen had planned on coming back home from Plumstead that night so that we could get ready for Christmas together, but because of complications with transportation, she did not get home until Monday afternoon.  I told Hannah Monday morning, “It doesn’t feel like Christmas.”  I started thinking about all the things at home I would be doing right now, decorating the Christmas tree with my family, helping my mom set up her collections of manger scenes, baking Christmas cookies with my mom, aunts, siblings, and cousins, and wrapping Christmas presents as I listen to Christmas music in my basement.  I miss all these things.  Christmas day will be the hardest day up to this point of my time here.  As I sat thinking about this, I really wanted to be back on vacation in P.E.

My roommates and I made a decision to go to the mall near us on Tuesday (yesterday) and get all of our Christmas shopping finished for Mama Tembo’s (our boss’s) family and each other.  We spent four hours yesterday morning at the mall (crazy I know)!  After two hours and finding all the gifts from us to Mama Tembo’s family, we split off to shop for each other (those of us that weren’t finished, like me!)  I have always found joy in buying gifts at Christmas.  Not spending money, but finding the right gift for the right person and imagining how they will react when they open it.  So, as I walked through the mall, I thought about all these things, and I started to remember Christmas.  I could feel joy starting to peek its way into my heart.  The joy continued as we made a homemade Christmas tree out of boxes, fabric, magazines, and construction paper (thank you Holli Vining – missionary intern in Mongolia – for the great idea!).  That night, the three of us (as decided Monday) had the beginning of Christmas together.  Jen will be leaving for Plumstead today to spend Christmas Eve with her family there, and we won’t be together with just the three of us until the 26^th.  We made ostrich (a true delicacy here that is very delicious!), mashed potatoes, and green beans.  We ate by the candle light of tea lights and our own little advent wreath we made out of four of them (thanks for Jen Chickering – our fellow US2 missionary in Oklahoma!)  We exchanged some of our gifts.  We read selected passages of the Christmas story.  We sang Christmas carols.  We laughed.  We shared in the joy of Christmas.  We celebrated the joy of Christ’s birth, God sending Jesus – joy, salvation, peace – to the earth so that we all may have life.  There was no other place I would have rather been last night than surrounded by my family, my sisters.  Even though I am not home at Christmas, God is showing me joy in the unfamiliar and the unordinary.  It is my prayer that you all find joy and peace this Christmas wherever you are.  Joy to the World!

The past two weeks have been very exciting.  Thank you for stopping by to read about it!

Happy late Thanksgiving to everyone!  I hope that you all had a great holiday with friends and/or family.  The beginning of my Thanksgiving was a little tearful.  In the morning, as I talked with my wonderful fellow mission intern Joseph Bradley who is in Cambodia, he and I shared Thanksgiving traditions that each of us have back home.  It was a highlight of my day to reminisce with him.  The thing I enjoy most about Thanksgiving is being surrounded by the people that I love, and so I missed not being with them.  I also realized however that I am growing up; my call is in South Africa now.  And so, Hannah, Jen, and I decided to have our own Thanksgiving and invite some friends over to celebrate.  Among them were Vixa and Clifford (our neighbors, co-workers, and drivers), Lucille (our co-worker), and Mama Tembo’s (our boss’s) five daughters.  We made corn, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, 2 turkeys, stuffing, gravy, banana bread, apple pie, and chocolate cake (it was 2 of the girls’ birthdays).  It was a little stressful preparing everything that day (Hannah’s aunt said that three women should not be put in a kitchen together) but it all came together and I was very excited when everyone arrived.  It was the first Thanksgiving of our friends and they were surprised that Americans could cook!  I was surrounded by the ones that I have come to love, and so it was Thanksgiving.

Another exciting event of last weekend was the annual Cape Town “turn-on of holiday lights.”  Earlier in the week of Thanksgiving, Clifford asked us, “Girls, do you want to go see the Christmas lights on Sunday?”  We weren’t really sure what it was going to be like, but we figured that if it was exciting to Clifford, we should give it a try.  Hannah went to a concert with some family of friends she has in the US, and so Jen and I went to down town Cape Town together.  Clifford dropped us off and we ventured into the crowds of people.  The main street is blocked off for this event, with screens every couple blocks showing the concert playing at the end of the street.  We walked around, saw some of the market venders on the next street over, got coffee milkshakes at Wimpy’s (SA fast food chain, my first visit!), sat on a curb to watch people for a bit, and then made our way toward the main stage to check out the concert.  We couldn’t really see much on stage but we watched from the big stage and danced a little until the lights were ready to be turned on.  There were lights hung on every block: some with soccer players (everything is about the world cup now), bicyclists, Angels, and Santa Clauses.  Thousands of people were on the street, it reminded me a bit of July 4^th, or the Hanover, PA Halloween parade!  There was a countdown, lights lit up brightly, and fireworks over the stage.  It was a beautiful and joyful start to the Advent season.

This past week was spent working in the office.  We worked on our schedules for the New Year, wrote articles for the “Little SHADE” newsletter, and started planning for the stay awake next week (what you would consider a youth group lock-in in the US).  After a staff meeting on Tuesday, we each met with Mama Tembo to review our contracts for next year.  We were a little confused about things we had been told and what our contracts said.  I have two different job titles for two different aspects of SHADE.  Each of us is assigned to three different satellite projects of SHADE.  Our job is to stay in touch with these satellites, report on them to the staff and in the newsletters, and visit each of them.  We also have a job in the new training center in Johannesburg.  We are each a co-coordinators of a department in the center, and we will help the teachers in the departments by observing, evaluating, and helping in the classes.  My job title in the new training center is Co-Life Skills Coordinator.  I will be working with my co-worker Lucille with the Life Skills department.  This department works with its students in basic life skills like sewing, needle-working, crocheting, tie-dying, and more.  My job title for the satellite projects is Co-Orphan Care Facilitator.  I will still be working with the satellite programs of Malawi, Botswana, and Swaziland, but I will also be working with the orphan care programs of the other satellites that have that program.  I will be setting up a connection with these programs so that they have a network of supporters with each other.  I will also report on these programs just like I will with the other satellites.  I am very excited about this!  As most of you know, I just graduated with an Elementary Education degree, and anyone who knows me knows that I have a strong passion for working with children.  I am excited for the things that I will learn as I work with these satellite programs all over Sub-Saharan Africa.  I am not sure what those countries are yet, but I will keep you updated.  I am still amazed and delighted at the little surprises that God is throwing my way.

I want to end by sharing with you about a very important event in African history that I was a part of: the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa!  Last night, as all of you hard-core soccer fans know, was the final draw for the World Cup.  In Cape Town, they close Long Street down town and set up a huge stage with a big screen that broad cast the final draw live for all to see.  All I knew this past week was that we were going to the see the final draw for the World Cup, but I had no idea what that meant.  We searched around for a parking spot, walked a couple blocks to get to the gate at Long Street, waited in a crowd to get through the gate, went through security, and ventured through the crowds of people from all over excited about this epic event.  Think New York City, Times Square, New Year’s Eve.  There were about 150,000 people – no joke.  I’ve always wanted to experience NYC on New Year’s Eve so this was exciting for me.  There were people with flags and shirts from South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, France, and more.  We didn’t see any flags from the US, and when they said USA in introducing the teams, we were the only ones screaming (I thought it was humorous).  After the ceremony of the final draw, which was hard to hear because of all the crowds of people, a concert began on the stage.  We made our way towards the stage to be part of the crowd.  The whole event was sponsored by MTN, one of the leading wireless companies in SA.  One of the phrases they coined for this event is “AYOBA!”  Everyone was shouting “Ayoba!”, but we had no idea what it meant, and many others probably didn’t either.  Then, one of the MCs said, “Many of you are wondering what ‘Ayoba!’ means.  I’ll tell you.  You know, many people will watch the World Cup from home on their television screens, but for someone to come to Long Street in Cape Town and watch it among thousands of people – that’s Ayoba!”  The crowd went wild, and the concert started.  There were four different bands that performed, all that I had never heard of, but they were all pretty good and the three of us had a blast listening, singing, and dancing along to the music together.  At one moment I thought to myself, “When I joined this program, I had no idea that it’d take me to the middle of Cape Town, South Africa celebrating the World Cup coming to African soil.”  This is a huge milestone in South African history…it’s something to be thrilled about.  Today, although tired with sore feet, I am thanking God for the thrills I have been given.

Thank you as always for reading and joining me on my journey.  I pray that you all will find the thrills that God gives you.

I know this is long…but I promise it will be worth it to read to the end if you have the time!

Hello fellow companions on this great journey!  It has been a long time since I’ve posted a blog and I thought it was about time to tell you all about our travels in the amazing Democratic Republic of the Congo.  I am sitting here on a beautiful Sunday evening with some pretzels and water, my hair still braided, recovering from a short spout of sickness that I dealt with for a couple days after returning home.  I was the only one who did not get sick while we were in the Congo – Hannah joked about my “stomach of steel.”  Then my stomach decided to do the opposite when we got home, but I’m on the mend.  So sorry if my blog of Congo is delayed – my bed and I were pretty good friends for a while.

Where to begin?  Our flight to DRC was very joyous as all of us were super excited to get there.  We went with all the SHADE staff so it took a little while to get all of our bags checked together at both Cape Town and the again in Johannesburg.  When we finally reached Lubumbashi, DRC, I was walking out of the plane, talking to a guy who I actually convinced that I was South African, when all of a sudden I hear a scream, “RACHEL!!!” and there is my good friend Joyce running to me with open arms.  Hugs continued from more people that I didn’t know, but who I was excited to see.  We went past a whole bunch of cameras (we were on the news later that night as they talked about the conference on TV!) and waited in a waiting room for a couple hours as they got our luggage and visas all figured out.  Then, we were taken to our AMAZING accommodations for the next two weeks.  We stayed at the house of Papa David’s (Mama Tembo – our boss and director of SHADE’s husband) brother.  His home is amazing.  We definitely weren’t expecting to stay in such a nice place that is unlike a typical Congolese home.  (Pictures are up on facebook if you want to see more.)

Things started early on our first full day as Joyce woke us up at 6 am to have Tennis lessons with her uncle’s tennis coach on his tennis court right outside our room.  So, I learned how to play tennis a second time in French!  It was fun trying to figure out what he was saying, but also fun playing tennis again.  After a quick shower I joined Lucy and Hannah to get my hair braided!  It was a lot different and hurt a lot more than what I expected, but it’s the experience that counts.  I don’t think it will stay in too much longer – although it has been nice to put my hair brush away for a couple weeks and not worry about styling my hair in the morning.  Later that evening we went to another nice home where some of the delegates at the conference were staying.  As soon as we walked into the guest house, we were greeted with warm hugs from new friends from Malawi, Zambia, and Botswana.  Almost as soon as we were all in, we found ourselves standing in a circle where clapping and singing began.  The song, “My God is Good –O” has become one of my favorites.  From that point on throughout the whole conference, anytime there we were waiting around, or starting or ending something, a song broke out from someone and continued to fill the whole room.  That night we met more delegates and satellite leaders from the SHADE projects around Africa as we had dinner with them and a US team from the United Methodist  Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City (one of SHADE’s sponsors with UMCOR).  It was a glorious night of singing, dancing, learning about the programs at the satellite projects I’m assigned to, meeting people from those projects, eating, and just listening.  I had a really good conversation that night with Sam – a volunteer with the project in Malawi, one of the satellite’s I’ll be working with.  He is so passionate about the people that he works with, and I could really see that passion in the way that he talked to me about his work and the problems going on over there.  That night was the best night I had in Africa yet – God reminded me that I am right where I need to be.  My God is good – O!

Saturday and Sunday we worked on preparing things for the conference.  On Saturday we traveled to a site where a new center will be opening in Lubumbashi.  We had a dedication there and planted trees and seeds for the projects that will be going on at the center.  Then, registration began – OH REGISTRATION!  It’s nice that I can laugh now thinking about it.  I was in charge of registration with Lucy.  Our job was to take the name, look it up on the registration list of 200 names that were not in order alphabetically or by country, make sure their name was spelled correctly, make changes if it wasn’t or if they were coming in place of someone else, write their name on a name tag, and send them down the line to be assigned to a workshop group and receive a t-shirt!  Imagine two girls who don’t speak French or Swahili trying this with most delegates who don’t speak English…and it was quite the complication.  Luckily we had a great translator, Chris from Zambia, who came in to save the day and was a big help in finding the names and checking for things.  We were happy when the day was over!  Sunday was the opening service at a nearby Methodist church and despite falling out of the car into the parking lot and cutting my ankle pretty bad, it was a great evening!  The service was 3 hours long and included a lot of dancing, singing, praying, and preaching.  It was an exciting celebration.  I could see that the delegates really look forward to this training conference every year.  We commenced the evening at the center where the conference was held with more eating, singing, and dancing.  I got to meet some more people that day, including the only delegate representing Kenya, Pastor Anthony Malga.  I was honored to hear his amazing story of growing up as a street child and starting school at the age of 15, and now he is a pastor and the head of SHADE’s satellite project in Nairobi where he works with street children and widows.  I hope to visit his home someday to see and learn about his ministry.

And so the conference began bright and early on Monday the ninth of November two thousand nine at eight o’clock in the morning.  I won’t go through every single day with you and make this blog much longer than it needs to be, but I will share with you some of the highlights for me.  Every day we were scheduled to meet twice with our workshop groups.  Everyone was assigned to a group and it was our job as leaders to lead discussion on the sessions and come up with solutions to the issues discussed in the sessions.  Because of time during the days (some of the sessions went longer than anticipated), we ended up only meeting twice in two days.  My group was comprised of 3 English speaking, 3 Swahili speaking, and 1 French and Swahili speaking women.  I had a great translator, but it became difficult for her to translate when the 4 non-English speaking women would discuss things amongst themselves before giving the translator enough time to tell the rest of us what was going on!  It was kind of fun though, being kept in suspense and the discussion went in many different directions –which was also good.  Jen led a devotion on Tuesday, Hannah led a session on “Vision, Determination, and Priorities” on Wednesday, and I led a session on “What drives girls into prostitution” on Thursday.  Both of my roommates did an excellent job and I think mine went pretty well despite my lack of knowledge before preparing for the session.  When I wasn’t busy working at the back registration table, I enjoyed listening to the different sessions.  It was very interesting to hear the views of others on big topics like Gender economics and HIV/AIDS, working with trauma, Child soldiers, and women’s issues.  Being a women’s conference (even though men were in attendance) it was very impowering of women to step out of their stereotypical roles and not be afraid to speak, lead, and work towards resolutions on these justice issues.  One of my favorite sessions was male pastor encouraging women to do just that and “get out of the kitchen and sit with your husband in the living room!”  I didn’t think I’d find a male feminist in Africa, and it made me happy.  On Thursday night they opened up the back of the conference hall for a market where some of the delegates sold things from their country to benefit their projects.  I bought some hand-made jewelry and a small wooden bowl from Malawi. Friday was the last and probably most exciting day of the conference.  They brought a group of orphans from one of the DRC projects and they performed a skit about HIV/AIDS awareness and sang for all of us.  It was heartwarming to see them, but also very difficult.  Many orphans suffer from HIV/AIDS and it broke my heart to see their pain.  It reminded me of my call to work with children and be their advocate.  It also reminded me of how grateful I am of my family, and parents who love me so very much and raised me in a Christian home.  The hard thing is, a lot of these children are orphans through the death of their parents – I praise God for the work that SHADE is doing with these kids who are still so precious in God’s sight.

Later that night, the girls and I got dressed up in our traditional Congolese dresses (made for us here before the conference) and enjoyed the claps and cheers from our new friends as we joined them for the traditional Cultural night that happens every year of the conference on the last night.  Again, that night we (can you guess?) ate, sang, and danced.  It was a very fun night with some tearful moments as we said goodbye to our wonderful brothers and sisters we had only met a few days earlier.  I truly look forward to visiting my satellite projects in Malawi, Botswana, and Swaziland.  I was very fortunate to speak to some of the workers and leaders from these three projects and learn about their programs.  I made connections with some people who I couldn’t even vocally communicate with – which was beautiful.  I was also extremely blessed and humbled to meet some incredible people who are doing amazing things for those who would otherwise be overlooked.  I wanted to share with you some of my reflections that I wrote about in my journal after the conference:

“Much of the time in between sessions at the conference was spent in prayer and worship.  The conference was centered around hope – and I really saw the hope that these people have for Africa’s poverty.  In times of prayer, I witnessed them cry out to God – they have hope that sustains them and keeps them moving forward.  I think that sometimes in the end, all we have is hope.  Hope that God gives us – hope that is beyond our human understanding.  This hope blesses us because it pushes us to move forward.  This hope pushes us to love.  This hope pushes us to drive out fear of the unknown.  This hope pushes us to go further than we ever have before.  This hope pushes us to work together.  This hope pushes us closer to the heart of Jesus.  This hope will push us toward solutions.  This hope pushes us to see what human understanding says is impossible, but what is God’s possibilities.”

It is my prayer that throughout my life, God would push me to have the hopes, the burdens, the goals, and the dreams and my brother and sisters share.  Who wants to join me?

We decided to stay in Congo for 4 more days after the conference and we got to experience a little more Congolese culture by going to some markets and walking around Lubumbashi among the rush of the city.  I’m really glad we stayed.  I think it would be great to end this blog by sharing with you some of the little things that I found most interesting and unique about Congolese culture from my own observations and experiences. I hope you enjoy it.  Things to remember about Congo:

1. There are 2 currencies used: Francs and U.S dollars.  U.S. is more valuable, but only bills issued after 2004 may be used.
2. There is a barber shop or hair salon on every block – no joke.  I saw at least 10 a day on our 20 minute drives to the conference.
3. Paintings of Simba are seen everywhere, and I don’t mean the Lion King.  In South Africa it’s a brand of snack food, but in Congo, it’s a popular brand of beer.
4. Cars in Congo are from all over the world, so some steering wheels are on the left, and some are on the right – all driving is done on the right side of the road- mostly. (See #5)
5. An excellent road in Congo is one that is paved with a line to distinguish between the left and right lane.  Most roads in Congo are not like this and therefore many drivers can choose to decide which side to drive on depending on how fast the traffic is moving in their lane, how many cars are coming in the opposite direction, and how many pot holes there are to avoid on the road.  The bumps in the road cause many heads (including mine) to bump the ceiling and bodies to flail into one another.  Luckily, most of the time we were packed in a car so tightly that the bumps caused us to move together, therefore avoiding serious injury.

Thank you so much for taking time to read this extremely long blog and share with me in my experiences.  I pray that God will give you a blessed week!

The whole gang climbing up

Take the recommended route – NO WAY!

Yes – I climbed up that chain!

I love the ocean!

View from the top of Lion’s Head Mountain

Hello blog world!

I am writing this from home on Saturday night, hoping to post this tomorrow afternoon.  We heard about a coffee shop in a mall blocks away from our house that has free wi-fi internet connection!  I understand that this is very usual for the US, but here it’s very hard to come by.  I finally got internet connection for my own computer last week – we spent about an hour walking around the mall trying to find the best plan, and we did, but it’s still pretty expensive.  I had to buy a SIM card to put into a drive that goes right into your computer.  You put “air time” (like minutes on a cell phone) onto the card and it’s called “bundles.”  You buy a certain amount of gigabytes onto your card and it charges you per min according to the amount of gigabytes that you use.  (I’m sorry if that sounded confusing, it’s a bit confusing for me too, and I’m not even sure if I explained it correctly!)  So, I bought a 2GB bundle because the higher the bundle, the less it charges you per min.  Once my 2GB runs out, I just buy another bundle and continue again.  As far as we have been told, there is no way to get unlimited internet connection.  So – with emails and my blog, I type them all up beforehand and then get online quick to send them, copy and paste emails to me and other friends’ blogs in word documents, and then read them after I get off of the internet.  I have also been able to skype, but it’s a bit difficult to do that as well because it takes up more GB than just regular email or instant messaging.  This whole system is not the greatest, and honestly my roommates and I complained a lot about it at first.  BUT, there are some good things about this situation that I have been seeing.  This will help me not be tied down to the internet.  I’m sure if I had unlimited internet connection, I would want to be on it constantly  -  which could take away from the friendships that I am forming with my roommates and the others around me.  It’s hard because I’m very close with my family and so many friends from home, but I am realizing that God has given me this time to be here – not there.  And while it is important to maintain those relationships back home – they will still be there when I get back.  So to all of my dear ones out there – I am trying my best with what I got!

There’s my serious thought and rant for the day!

The past couple days have been fun.  My roommates and I are getting a lot closer and we’re experiencing more of beautiful Cape Town!  I have felt a little bit more like a tourist than a missionary here so far, but I’m sure that will change once we go and come back from the conference and focus a little more on our focus programs and satellites.  Until then, I will tell you about my adventures in exploring my new home.  Friday we helped out with “Game Day” during youth group.  “Game Day” happens on the last Friday of every month and gives the kids a chance to play games outdoors instead of just staying inside during their time together.  Hannah planned two games including “the human knot” and “elbow tag” both of which were a great hit.  Then, we played a game of everyone’s favorite sport here: SOCCER.  I am totally not a soccer player – but everyone was forced to play and I wanted to be part of the youth.  Like most games played co-ed in the US around this age group, the boys dominated the game the whole time.  I was pretty impressed though by the mad skill of my roommate Jen which proved to the boys that girls have athletic abilities as well.  We got to bond with the kids a little more and give them their monthly newsletter that we made this time.  They have off for all of November because it’s the end of the year exams for them at school. We will meet again in December for a “Stay Awake” – the South African name for “Lock In.”

When we came home – my roommates and I performed a ritual which I hope will become regular at the end of all our weeks – we turned on music and danced around our house together, and then made cookies!  I can’t say enough how thankful I have been – especially this past week through all of our internet craziness.  This morning (Saturday) we got to sleep in a little bit, and then took a trip with Vixa and Amy (a girl from the youth group) to Lion’s Head Mountain.  We were told that this mountain was like “a walk in the park” – which is a huge exaggeration.  This was the hardest mountain I have ever climbed!  I hope to post pictures up with this blog to show you just how intense this mountain was!  The good news is – it was a BEAUTIFUL hike throughout the whole time and totally worth it when we reached the top.  Again, looking over all of Cape Town from the top proved to me again that this really is the most beautiful place in the world.   I know that I’ve been saying that a lot and many of you may be tired of hearing it – but it’s the truth.  I already know I’m going to miss it when we move to Johannesburg in January.

What I am most excited about at this moment is going to DRC in 4 days!  I’ve been learning more about what the conference will entail, and I will be so excited to tell you all about it when it’s over.  I will be able to meet women from all over Africa – sharing with them the theme of the conference: “Hope is the Corner Stone of Africa.”  We are focusing on how all of us have our own stories of struggles in life, and all of us are wounded healers – but hope is what brings us all together. The last night will be a culture night where we will be experiencing the culture of the different countries represented there.  We were told that we will participate in the dances that will be performed from some of our satellite countries.  After I looked at the scheduled, I realized that would be TWO dances for me!  We also have our own Congolese dresses that were made especially for us for this event.  I’ll be excited to post pictures of these great dresses as well – they are very fun.

That’s about all I have to share right now.  I look forward to reconnecting again after the conference.  Thank you for reading and supporting and praying.  Please continue to pray for our travel, safety, and connecting time in the Congo as we meet other sisters from all over Africa.  Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.

P.S. This was sent from home after all…it seems that the internet is free at the coffee shop – for 10 minutes.  Oh well…

Beautiful blue Atlantic

At the top of the Cape of Good Hope – looking out over the edge

my feet in the freezing Atlantic!

Here I am – at the bottom point of Africa!

I am writing this at 11:28 a.m. South African time in hopes of getting internet for our house later today so I can post this!  First I must say: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAR DEAR SISTER JENNY!!!  I hope even more that I can internet today so that I can give her my own personal happy birthday wishes on skype!  We shall see.

Wow – what a week it has been!  We still have not been doing too much around the office – SHADE has officially moved to another office in Cape Town until we move permanently to Johannesburg in January.  We were given the day off yesterday and today so I have some time to catch up on blogging.

Last Friday I successfully led the youth group time at Woodstock Methodist.  I’ve learned that South African time is a bit like Filipino time in that things start about ½ hour after they are scheduled to start.  Youth was scheduled to start around 4 pm, and the youth were all gathered in the chapel by 4:15 at that time so Hannah and I had some time to chill with kids and get to know them.  Around 4:45, some of the leaders came with hot dogs and soft drink, and by 5:15 we were ready to start.  I played “Where the Wild Wind Blows” (also played with the missionaries at training!) with the group (which they loved) and then led a discussion on the meaning of Praise and Worship. I was surprised at how much the kids participated, they are an interesting bunch.  Some are sweet, some are funny, and some are quiet.  Most of them really like music and asked us if we’d met any famous singers in the US (they were surprised when I said I hadn’t!).  Some of the boys lied to us about their age because they wanted to impress us, but we found out the truth later!

Vixa, the youth leader and one of our neighbors, had his brothers over at his house this past weekend.  Joyce, Vixa’s niece, spent the weekend over at Vixa’s house, but spent her time not sleeping with us.  We hung out with her Friday night and made pasta, taught everyone how to play UNO, and then went over to the boy’s place where Joyce showed us how to make them “pap” and sausage.  The next morning, after sleeping in, Vixa and Joyce took us on about an hour drive to Cape Point – one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.  I made some observations as we were driving. About half way through the trip, we drove by HUGE mansions right along the ocean.  It didn’t surprise me at first, I knew that there was poverty and wealth and in the same country.  Then, less than five minutes later (no joke) we drove by one of the townships, where we saw literal shack houses.  Jen said that they are probably so close together so that the people that live in the townships can work for the families in the mansions.  I wasn’t surprised at seeing poverty, I was surprised at seeing such wealth and such poverty so close together – it is ridiculous and not okay.  I hope to learn more about this during my stay here.

My eye was soon caught by the BEAUTIFUL Mountains.  We’re talking Colorado Mountains beautiful (I won’t say if they’re more beautiful because I know we may have some bias by some of my close friends in the crowd!). We drove into Table Mountain National Park toward the “Cape of Good Hope.”  Even though it was a cloudy day, we still took the long hike up “In search of Hope,” as Joyce kept saying as we hiked.  I’m hoping I can post the pictures up here of what we saw at the top.  We then hiked down a longer trail to the edge of the mountain and paused for a while as we looked at over the ocean and far off mountains – a beautiful display of God’s AMAZING creation.  Words cannot express how at peace I felt as I looked at it all.  After hiking back down, we drove to Cape Point – the South Western most part of South Africa – and dipped our feet into this side of the Atlantic Ocean.  FREEZING COLD!

We were getting hungry, so we took the long drive back to the restaurant Spur (kind of like an Applebee’s) where we met back up with the brothers and had a delicious dinner.  We stopped for some baking supplies before heading back home where I made chocolate chip cookies for everyone and the crew taught us how to play a really fun game that none of us can remember, spell, or pronounce.  But it was a lot of fun and the boys are hilarious to play games with.  All of them are Congolese, and they will purposefully talk in French with each other, knowing that we don’t understand them, in order to beat us.  It has been really great to hang out with our new friends! And they loved my cookies – even though I didn’t think they tasted as good as the ones I make at home.  They were gone by the next morning.

Sunday was another good morning at church, relaxing at home, and Monday was another normal day in the office as we prepare for the conference in DRC.  Please pray as we continue to prepare for our departure on November 5 (my momma’s birthday!), spend time with the delegate’s there, and leave to come home November 14.  I’ll try to write another blog before then – you’ll for sure hear back from me when we return.

Blessings to you all and the rest of your week!

Hello blog family!

I’m sorry it has taken me so long to post a blog from my new home in Cape Town, South Africa!  We’ve had a little trouble getting internet connection.  I’m in the office right now writing this blog on my computer, and then I’ll be able to post it from another computer, because for some reason mine doesn’t want to connect to the wireless here!  We will hopefully be getting connection for our house soon, and then I will be able to talk to people much more easily.    Let me start from the beginning, and hopefully you won’t get bored with my first 4 days of life in Africa.

Hannah and I arrived here late Friday night and got through immigration, baggage claim, and customs much more quickly than expected.  Then, we met Karen as soon as we got to the gate.  Karen, known as “Mama K” now, was standing there smiling and holding a sign from SHADE with our names on it.  She knew by the smiles and looks on our faces who we were and along with our driver, Clifford, she greeted us with big hugs and welcomes to Cape Town.  They drove us to our “apartment” which is actually more like a house, and we met back up with Jen – reunited after our long travels!

Our house is very nice.  Karen stocked it up with fruit, salad, bread, cheese, snacks, eggs, milk, juice, candy, and more.  She also got us a welcome mat, egg basket, clock, mug holder, towels, and many dishes, pans, utensils, and other kitchen things.  Our house is much more spacious than expected.  It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms (one that has a bath with no shower head, and one that has a shower), a common room, kitchen, and a very nice back porch and backyard.  The night before last, we finally found out how to get out the back door and we all danced around the back yard.  I was so excited that I yelled out to Jen – “OH MY GOODNESS JEN – WE’RE LIVING IN SOUTH AFRICA!”  I still have to pinch myself sometimes when think about how long this whole process of discernment and application and placement was – God is faithful – and I am here!!!

I’ll tell you more about my time here through telling you about a couple cool people I’ve met so far:

Karen – aka Mama K – She works at SHADE, is 26, was the first person to greet us in South Africa, and has been a great blessing so far.  She lives in another house in our development with one of the other SHADE workers, Vixa.  On Saturday, she took us to the mall at the ocean front (a 25 minute walk from our house!)  It’s a mall very similar to the malls in the US, except it has a grocery store in it.  We ate Fish and Chips (bringing back memories from England!) for dinner and then headed to the ocean front to see the sunset over the ocean and in front of BEAUTIFUL table mountain – while the table cloth of clouds hung over it.  Once I get connection on my computer I’ll post pictures.

Vixa – aka Mr. V, but we don’t really call him that much – he’s our 22 year old driver and worker for SHADE.  He lives with Karen near us, and has pretty much driven us everywhere.  He drove us to the SHADE office on Saturday so that we could email our families about our arrival.  On the way, he heard my first reaction to see Table Mountain: “Oh my goodness!!! That’s so beautiful!” (It was very similar to my reaction to the mountains in Colorado!)  After marveling at God’s creation for a couple more minutes I asked him, “Don’t you ever just want to stare at that for hours?  Don’t you ever get distracted while you drive?”  He laughed, but seriously, it is absolutely beautiful.  There are not many other places in the world where the mountains, the ocean, and forest are all together in one place.  It is seriously magnificent, and I can’t wait to post pictures!  Vixa is also the youth leader here at the Woodstock United Methodist Church, the church connected with SHADE.  He shared with me today his wonderful story of how he came to become passionate about working with youth.  I have been assigned to lead the youth group time on Friday – which I am quite excited about – taking me back to my CHUM youth and Salt ‘n Light days.

Mama Tembo – The founder and head of SHADE and woman of amazingness!  We met Mama Tembo on Sunday at church, because she’s the pastor!  I am pretty sure she will become our African Mother while we are here; we have already felt so welcomed by her and her big family.  She is the oldest of 13 children and has 5 girls of her own (they say that they have the biggest family in South Africa!)  Her husband, David, is the only man of the house (Dad, he could’ve given you therapy!)  The whole family is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Yesterday, when we first came to work, we found out in the morning that we would be having a traditional Congo dinner at her house and that her family was at home all day preparing it for us.  The food = amazing.  Looking at it, I seriously didn’t think I’d like it – but I like EVERYTHING (except for the eggplant).  We ate for the first time many new things, including pap (pronounced like pop) which apparently, if I want to become a good African wife, I need to learn how to make.  I don’t plan on becoming an African wife, but we plan on learning how to make pap soon.  I tell you all about it when it happens.  Before and after dinner, we got to spend time with Mama Tembo as she shared with us her incredible journey and we shared with her our journey.  She is funny, because she introduced all of us to the whole church before she even met us, and while introducing me, I found out that I will preach in the church before we leave Cape Town!  Once we got our schedules for the next 2 months, we found that we all will.  We’ll see how that goes in December!

Joyce – she is Mama Tembo’s oldest daughter and has become a close friend of ours since Sunday when she introduced herself.  She’s very talkative and friendly, 20 years old, and has made us feel at home.  She just graduated from school last year, is taking a gap year now and volunteering at the office, and will start her first year of college in January once we move to Johannesburg.  I like her because I am very comfortable talking and joking around with her, we’ve already talked about sleepovers she will have at our house where we’ll teach her to make cookies, and she will teach us African dancing!

Mama Charlotte – Another worker at SHADE for the women’s division – we met with her today to  discuss the conference in DRC and our placements.  We will be participating and helping to lead a women’s conference (in the Congo!) from October 5 – 13.  This conference will host 250-300 women from all over Africa.  I’m pretty excited about that!  I will be leading a ½ hour session on the fourth day of the conference on “What drives girls into Prostitution?”  I will also be leading discussions in workshop groups (my workshop group name is the Giraffe – they realized afterwards that it was fitting for me!)  It should be a good time, and I’ll get to see the Congo!  Mama Charlotte also talked to us about our sites. I found out yesterday that my job description changed quite a bit.  I have signed my contract – and my new position is “Co-orphan Care Facilitator and Satellite Site Supervisor.”  I will be overseeing the sites in Malawi, Swaziland, and Botswana.  That means that I will travel to at least 5 countries while I am here (6 if we get to go on a trip to Victoria Falls in Zambia)!  We’ll see where this all takes me, I won’t start traveling to my sites until we make the move to Johannesburg in January.  SHADE will be moving their headquarters there soon after the New Year, and we will be coming with them!  We’ll live on a farm all together – it will be quite a different experience from Cape Town, but it will be good!

There are many other amazing people that I have met, and I’m sure you will hear about them all as my journey continues.

I guess I’ll let you all go now, lest you fall asleep from reading such a long blog.  Not all of them will be this long; I just wanted to catch you up on the past 4 days!  I will soon go outside to enjoy this beautiful, hot Spring weather (I’m guessing the summer’s gonna be really warm).  I heard that PA has gotten some snow, and I’m a bit jealous though excited to get two summers this year and celebrate Christmas near the beach! I pray that all is well with you, know that I think about all of you at home often as I look at pictures and watch old videos on my laptop.  I miss you all!  Right now, I’m having a tough time with Jet Lag and a little bit of homesickness. Please pray for me about both when you get a chance. I think it will get better once we get internet at our house and I feel more “connected.”  There is something neat about not being so in touch without a cell phone or internet connection though…

I will close by saying what a blessing it is to have the connection of all of you and my fellow missionaries around the world (I miss our two weeks together!) and Jen and Hannah who are with me here in this journey.  The three of us are having a great time so far cooking, cleaning dishes, fixing our toilet, hanging things on walls, talking for long hours since we’re not tired at night, and watching movies together.  It’s nice to experience this new culture for me with them.

Grace, Peace, Love, Hugs, and Blessings.

We are leaving for South Africa today!  I’m sitting here on this rainy day in NYC at the Alma Matthew’s House.  In about 10 minutes (1:30), we will be picked up to go to the airport for our flight at 5:40 pm.  Everything has happened so quickly.  Less than 24 hours ago we got a call from Gail here that all of our visas went through, then she delivered them herself and took us all out for a nice meal to celebrate!  I wanted to write one last post before we left to tell you all just how much I appreciate all of your prayers and for coming with me along this journey.  You all are so very precious to me.  God is so good…and I have been amazed at the small moments of time that I have had to look back on all that I have been through in the past 6 months.  God is faithful!

See you later US – look out South Africa!  Blessings and love to you all.