Table Mountain

Our time at the Bible Institute has been a bit boring, especially in comparison to our time at home-stays. We have finished up our last few class sessions, and papers. On Wednesday we got to hike one of the staples of Cape Town––Table Mountain. Table Mountain, as you can imagine, is this huge mountain right off the coast which goes almost straight up vertical and then at its peak, it flattens out like a table. We hiked up through a valley passage way between the vertical parts from there were able to get to the peaks. Sounds easy, nuh uh! it was one of the most intense hour hike that i have ever been on. In the short hour we scaled 600 meters. It is not like many of the hikes back home where you are on a dirt trail that weaves back at forth, no the Table Mountain trail is stepping up huge stones just going straight up through the valley. At times it did weave back and forth but not for long and it was still always on rocky paths, not dirt. However, once we reached the top, all the struggle was worth it because walking around the mountain top you have a 360 degree view of all of Cape Town. It is absolutely stunning, Cape Town is definitely one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen in my life. I have never seen mountains meeting the waters edge like in Cape Town, they literally are just cliff faces right at the waters edge. Ah! it is so beautiful! if only we weren't homesick and ready to be home we might enjoy even more than we already do! Saturday we are going great white shark cage diving, katie will blog on that! until then!

Joey's Home-stay Experience

So Katie has talked a lot about her home-stay experience, and a bit about mine, so I thought it would be a good idea to tell a bit about my home-stay experience. As you would already know from Katie's posts, we stayed in a township called Ocean View. I don't remember if Katie explained what a township was or not but i will give a brief explanation. Townships were more or less created when the colonials came in and forced black, colored, and indian people off their land and pushed them to the outskirts of metropoles. When the apartheid began in the 20's, the legislation is what they had already been doing for years. One of the laws was the Group Area Act, which reserved the more developed and prime land for the whites and forced non-whites to the less develop and less prime land. It also made it illegal for non-whites to be in white distinct zones. There is a lot more to it, but it was a very terrible time in South African history, a time that they are still feeling the after shocks of. Though the Group Area Act is abolished, it still is more or less in place because the non-whites don't have the means to get out of the circumstance that the whites created for them many years ago. Anyways, Ocean View is a colored township that we stayed in for 8 days. With the purpose of changing our mindset of marginalized communities. The white people in South Africa would consider where we stayed "ghetto" much like many white americans would consider downtown LA "ghetto". We stayed in a community much like downtown LA to give you an idea. My roommate for the 8 days was my friend Luke. Luke and I stayed with a family of three. Thelma (our host mom), Lantor (our host dad), and Xavier (our host brother). I absolutely loved my time there, it was spent with many laughs and great food! Luke and I picked up on a lot of Afrikaans which is the language that colored people speak. They said we picked it up faster than anyone they have had stayed there. I wish we could have stayed there longer during our time in South Africa because they literally became family. I felt like part of the family, in the short 8 days i became close with not only the Hazell's (my family's surname) but with their parents, grandparents, friends, and cousins. I know that i will always have family in South Africa, and that they will always have family in the United States. They offered to have us stay the second week that we were supposed to stay at the Bible Institute but it would have been more of a hassle  even though i would have really enjoyed it. The Hazell family and friends have truly built a place in my heart, and i look forward to hopefully coming back to visit the family i have made here.

Sunsets and Braai with our South African Families!

Tonight was such a fun night!!  The day started off a little rough for Joey and I because we have just been stressed, anxious, homesick, etc., but it ended up being a really fun night!! We get dropped off in Oceanview (the township we are staying in) at 6:00p.m. every night.  When Christina and I got back, our host mom and dad told us that we were going to watch the sunset at the beach with Cherokee, Beka, and their host family!  We were super excited to go and watch this!!  We went to the beach and talked, laughed, and watched the sunset.  It was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!  We took TONS of pictures! Ha  After this, Lucy and Clive (Mine and Christina’s host parents) took us to pick up their grandson Pedro and then took us all to McDonalds J  We had a nice time eating, then went to visit their daughter Kim at the hospital! We always enjoy getting to spend time with them, their family, and just getting to know them better.  On our way home, Lucy and Clive dropped us off with Joey and Lucas’ host family and a bunch of their friends.  They were having a braai (BBQ) and just hanging around, talking, laughing, singing, dancing, playing, etc.  They are all fairly young and overall a SUPER lively crowd!  We had SOO much fun just beign able to hang out and laugh and get to know everyone better!  Joey’s host dad 
Lantor drove me and Christina home and played Christmas music in his car which got me REALLY excited!! I can’t wait to come home to Christmas and the whole Christmas environment!!  Along with this excitement, I also became a little sad.  We have grown to love all of these people in Oceanview SO much!!  These last few weeks have been a little rough and been filled with feelings of wanting to go home, but after getting to know these people so well, I can’t imagine not coming back to see them.  It is like I already miss them and I haven’t even left yet!  I really hope that Joey and I will be able to return someday (sooner than later) and stay with our host families in Oceanview again!! We love you all and miss you!!

Sunday with my South African Family -Katie Baker

Today was such an amazing day!!  As I have mentioned, I am staying at a home with my friend Christina Zavalza.  We are staying with a couple named Lucy and Clive in a township called Oceanview.  We have been so spoiled being here with them!!  Lucy is an amazing cook and is teaching us how to make some good meals!! J  They are feeding us well, giving us plenty of sweets and chocolates, packing us snack bags for our school days, telling us story after story, and sharing their home and their lives with us.  We have been so blessed by their love, hospitality, and servant hearts.  Lucy and Clive have been married for 35 years, but have known each other since they were 7 and 8 years old.  They group up together and then fell in love and got married.  They have two children and 5 grandchildren and they treat us like their own grandchildren!!

Anyways, today we woke up and went to mass with them.  After mass, we came home and started to cook.  Clive wanted to know if Christina and I knew how to cook so we told them we would cook lunch.  Of course, we did so with the help of Lucy who is practically an expert cook!  We made chicken, vegetables, fried potatoes, and salad.  Then I told Lucy that sometime during my stay here I wanted to learn how to make curry.  Within five minutes, she changed her dinner plans from stir-fry to curry and had all of the ingredients out and ready to go.  She prepared the curry and we ate some for lunch and saved the rest for dinner!! We were SOO stuffed from lunch, but of course munched on some of our Cadbury chocolate that they always provide for us (Clive had worked for Cadbury for 25 years).  Then, we went and met her daughter Kim, son-in-law Andre, and grandson Pedro.  We hung out there for an hour or so and played Uno with Pedro and just hung out.  After this, Lucy and Clive took us on a drive and showed us where they grew up, where they came from, and told u how they ended up where they are now.  This was the highlight of my week because they opened up to us so much and to hear there story was heartbreaking, but also allowed us to see deeper into the people they are.  They lived through the Apartheid Era and used to live in a place called Simon’s Town, which is right on the edge of the mountain, and right on the beach at the same time.  This is where their families’ histories had been and this is where they spent their whole lives.  When they were teenagers, they were forced to leave because they are “coloured” people.  They were not given any money for their land, yet they were forced to leave.  What was once their home is now filled with million dollar mansions that stand vacant because the owners only visit once a year or so.  This was so heartbreaking to see, but, like I said, amazing at the same time.  Then they drove us round the mountain along the ocean and we just talked and asked questions for about an hour.  Then we cam home and Joey and Lucas came over and had some curry with us for dinner and then we went and hung out with Joey and Lucas’ family for a little while, and now it is bed time!! I have kept you all long enough!! Please let me know if you have any questions! I would LOVE to answer them!!

Update on Joey: he went back to the Dr. today!  They took the dressing off and the cotton out.  They put a new band-aid on his leg that will help to continue to draw the infection out.  He is still taking antibiotics and will return back to the doctor on Wednesday for a check up.

Joey's leg is DIAGNOSED... and POPPED!

Today Joey went back to the doctor.  This is when the crazy stuff happened!!  For some reason, the leaders said that I wasn’t allowed to go to the doctor with Joey.  This made me very sad because I wanted to be there for him because I knew how much pain he was in.  I was also really worried because his infection wasn’t getting any better!  Apparently, he has an abscess on his leg.  It was ready to pop, and the doctor pushed it and worked on it for a while and got all of the puss out.  The doctor dressed his leg, recommended that Joey doesn’t walk on his leg still, and asked him to come back to the doctor tomorrow.  I went with my group and did a walking tour of Cape Town, but wasn’t able to enjoy it fully because I hadn’t been updated on Joey and was really worried about him. Also, we were split into groups and were on a very strict schedule.  It did make me very excited to be able to go into town with Joey and with our friends and just explore the town!  It is a very pretty and exciting town!!  At the end of the day, we all returned back to our families in our home stays and spent the rest of the night with them!!  Oh, and Joey is fine J  Slowly getting better and making progress on killing the infection!

Orientation and Home Stay Dinner!

Today we had orientation.  There are some pretty crazy ruled at the Institute we are staying at!  The boys and girls are not allowed to hang out in each others dorms AT ALL.  There is ABSOLUTELY no PDA no holding hands, hugging, kissing, etc).  These are just the most extreme rules, and are very frustrating, not only to us, but most the people on the trip.  Many of us are feeling like we are being treated like kids, and we are having a hard time dealing with this.  We are hoping that once we get past the orientation we ill have more freedom to explore Cape Town on our own and do things that we want to do!  After orientation, we walked around Town with mentors that had been assigned to us.  Joey had to stay behind because the doctor recommended that he stay off of his leg.  No one was staying behind so I knew that no one would be able to check on Joey.  This was also frustrating because I wasn’t allowed in his dorm so I could not check and make sure he was doing okay.  I went with my group, but I got take away food for Joey and brought it back to him.  Because I am not allowed in his dorm, and there were no boys at BI from our group, I found myself outside the boys dorm yelling, trying to get his attention to give him his food. Lucily, another man heard and got Joey for me.  My group was supposed to come by and get me after they ate, but they never did so I stayed and hung out with Joey and relaxed which was nice.  At night, we packed up our stuff and left for home stays! We had a dinner where we got to meet with all of the families that we would be staying at for the next week!! Christina and I are staying with a couple named Lucy and Clive.  Joey and Lucas are staying with Thelma and Lantor.  We are very excited for home stays!! J

We have ARRIVED :)

We have finally arrived in Cape Town!! Yay!!  It is absolutely beautiful here!!!  The only problem is: Joey still has the bad infection on his leg L  I informed the leaders this morning that he needed to go to the Dr. as soon as we arrived in Cape Town tonight, but when I told them again they said they didn’t make an appointment so he would need to go tomorrow.  This wasn’t going to fly with me because I had already told them and I was EXTREMELY worried about him :/ After pushing for this option, they took us to a medical center where they put him on a heavy dose of antibiotics, told him not to walk for the next two days, and asked him to come back in two days.  We will stay the night at the Bible institute tonight and we will both begin our home stays tomorrow night!! We are so excited!!

Carmel by the Sea - George, SA

On Tuesday and Wednesday night we stayed at a place called Carmel by the Sea.  This place was very relaxing and absolutely beautiful!!  Joey and I were able to walk around, watch movies/talk with friends, and catch up on some sleep.  We were facing a challenge at this point in our travel week:  Joey had an infection on his leg that continued ot get worse every day :/  He had an ingrown hair on his thigh before we started our travel week that got infected.  Basically, we got all he puss out and it started to heal.  He then got another one on his calf and it wasn’t cooperating s well as the other one.  It was WAY to painful to try to push.  His entire calf was red, HARD, and HOT.  I told our leaders that he needed to go to the doctor and they told us that we would be able to take him first thing in Cape Town, which would be on Thursday.  He had to keep taking Advil because it was hurting him to walk! L Poor guy.

During our time here, we also visited a wild animal park and saw a lot of the big cats, which was pretty awesome!! Joey and I got to see cheetahs and baby cheetahs! Cheetahs are Joey’s favorite animal :D  Here are some pictures of the animals we saw: (WE WILL ADD THEM WHEN WE GET INTERNET)

Bungee Jumping off the world's HIGHEST bungee bridge!!

So today we arrived at the world’s highest bungee bridge!!  This is not a joke… this bungee bridge is in the Guinness book of world records!! J  And guess what?? Yep, we both jumped off of it!! We showed up and I was freaking out!!  I kept saying “As long as I see someone go before me I will be fine.”  Just looking at the bridge made my stomach turn! It is SOOO high and was just absolutely crazy to look at the bridge and know we would soon be jumping off of it!! We paid, got harnessed up, and went straight to the bridge because we were in the first group.  We had to walk along this path underneath the bridge to get to the platform and I was already shaking with fear just walking this path.  Did I mention that this path is SUPER HIGH (same as the bridge) it is see through and has wires with holes in it on all sides, and moves beneath your feet when you walk??  I walked super slow and was so scared of this pathway!!  We get to the platform and I saw that my friend Beka was crying.  I asked her why she was craying and she said because they told her she was going first.  I was like man.. that sucks.. Then they give us a little talk and say ok “J13 is up first.”  So I look down at my hand and I AM J13!!! So…. Then I started crying (involuntarily).  It is just such a crazy/scary feeling and I was so scared and hadn’t been able to see a single person jump off the bridge yet!  I knew I couldn’t back out of going first out of the whole group, so I sucked it up (with the help of Joey’s comfort) and got harnessed up!  Then I went up to the platform and JUMPED!!!  It was such a CRAZY feeling free falling off of that bridge for somewhere between 5-10 seconds.  The scenery was ABSOLUTELY beautiful and it was just SO fun!!  One after another, our group was jumping.  Then it was Joey’s turn!! J  He wasn’t scared AT ALL!! Crazy boy!! He went up to the platform and JUMPED!!  His jump was SOOO good!  Then after he jumped and got to the bottom he was doing a little fist-pump action!!  We both just had a blast! We bought our videos and can’t wait to show everyone back home!  They are pretty awesome! J

Beginning the Journey to Cape Town.

We are officially on our way to Cape Town! We woke up at 6:00 a.m. this morning and were on the road by 7.  We had a ten hour drive, but luckily the bus we are taking is pretty comfortable.  We are now staying the night at a hotel that is RIGHT on the beach.  We were able to walk on the beach for a few hours today and talk with friends which was awesome!!  We are continuing our journey tomorrow!  We will be bungee jumping in two days!! We are both SUPER nervous, but very excited!! :)  Love and miss everyone from home!!

Last Day at African Enterprise

Today was an amazing last day at African Enterprise (the campus we have stayed at for the past 11 weeks).   We started off the day by going to the Lion Park, because we were a part of the group that didn't see lions on safari. That was absolutely awesome. Not only did we see lions, but we also got to pet, and feed elephants. In fact being with the elephants was the best part! The lions were fun to pass by, their beauty and strength are breathtaking. Katie was sticking her camera our through a crack in the window and the lion saw her hand and charged! She pulled it back in time, but was a bit shaken up. It was such a great way to start the day, elephants and lions!

When we got back we went on a hike to the third water fall. It was a perfect day to go because it was extremely hot, so it felt great to cool off in the water of the falls. We had a great time despite some bumps and bruises people received (including me).

We ended the day with a farewell dinner. A few of the women from our service site came, GuGu and Nomvula, and it was so wonderful to see them. We spent the evening chatting with them and eating the best meal we have had on campus so far.

It is weird, if feels like just yesterday we were pulling up to the campus and now we are leaving. However, the part that is making me bummed is leaving the friendships we have made with the people at our service sites. They have truly become our friends and we love them dearly.

Now off to Cape Town! We will give you updates as we get internet!

Our last week at RivLife :(

We just finished up our last week at RivLife.  Our last day was filled with joy, tears, and laughter.  We are so thankful for the time that we were able to spend at RivLife!  I will highlight some exciting things that happened this week and then talk about our last day at our service site.

On Monay:  we worked in the garden and said our goodbyes to these women.  Then, as always, we went to the Creche and hung out with the kids there, and then finished up our day at the drop in center

On Tuesday: we went to the HIV/AIDS support group and the new women who had been talking to the boys the previous week showed up for the group!! This was very exciting to us because she has been struggling with the disease and we know that this support group will be a great place for her to get involved and discuss her struggles. 

On Wednesday: we went to the Gogo support group in Madiba and we ended up staying later and did some home visits with Nomvula.  In our time with the gogo's, they fed us a meal, we bought some scarfs from them, took pictures with them, thanked them, and were able to spend our last day just hanging out, talking, and laughing with these women.  They gave all of our team members a bead necklace as a thank you which was so cool!  After our time with these women, we began doing home visits.  I think our whole group would agree that these home visits were an amazing experience for all of us.  Although we had spent the last few weeks at an AIDS support group, this was the first time that the reality of the disease has really hit me. There is usually at least one person per home that is infected with the disease and we saw people who were very, very sick.  This really challenged me and my faith because I started thinking "Do I have faith great enough that God could heal people THIS sick?"  It is very overwhelming to see people this sick and to have the amount of faith it takes to know that God can do ANYTHING.  We were able to pray over people in all four homes that we visited which was also amazing.  In one of the homes, we were about to leave when they asked us to stay a little longer so that they could talk to us.  We did not know what to expect in this moment, but then the man in the home disclosed to Nomvula that he was also HIV positive.  After a person discloses, Nomvula (or whoever their sponsor is) can then go through the process of helping them apply for grants in order to receive money to help pay for their treatments.  The strength and courage that these people have is truly amazing! Although many people do not want to be tested because of the social stigma that comes along with being positive, there are many who have been tested and continue to rely on God through all of their struggles.

On Thursday: we started out by going to the HIV/AIDS support group.  We arrived and all of the women and children were dressed in their traditional Zulu skirts and beads and they had a table set up with a bunch of crafts that they had made.  They started out by serving all of us traditional Zulu bread and some sort of cooked leaves that are healthy for you :)  Then, they had all of their kids sing and dance for us.  During the singing and dancing, they presented us with gifts that they had made for us.  The boys received these wooden sticks that are a traditional thing in South Africa and a bead necklace and the girls received a bead necklace and earrings!  Then we sat in a circle with these women and talked about our experiences that we had with them.  This was truly amazing because they told us how much we impacted and changed their lives and we were able to tell them the same.  They told us that we made them feel loved, we made them feel like human beings again, they appreciated that we didn't treat them any different then we would other people.  It was SO amazing to see the ways that God had worked within this community that we formed with them.  This time that we spent at this support group really affirmed in our group the power of relationships and sharing God's love.  We originally wanted to help these women with their business, help them plan things for their group, etc.  But after meeting with them, we decided that relationships and love and helping them to see their worth and value was something that would really benefit them as a group.  It was VERY hard to say goodbye to these women.  They all started crying and we just kept hugging them and hugging them.  We took tons of pictures and told them that we would continue to write to them.  We reminded them that they are SO loved and that we have learned so much from them and have truly been impacted by their faith in God.  As we were leaving, Lindiwe (the new woman who started coming to the support group) was crying and telling us how much we have impacted her life.  She said that when she was diagnosed with AIDS, she felt like she was given the death sentence.  She said she had been locking herself in her house and just cleaning and avoiding going out in the community.  She told us that we were able to make her feel loved again, to make her feel like a human again.  She told us that she is going to continue going to the support group, go out of her house, she is going to start going to church again, and she is going to love herself again.  This was SUCH an amazing testimony of God's presence and love in this situation.  We then went to the Creche and had to say goodbye to Gogo Beatrice and all the kids.  The kids were hugging us over and over and the little boys were dog-piling Luke and Joey.  Being with these kids day in and day out for the last three and a half weeks has brought so much joy to our lives.  Then, we went to the drop-in center where they had prepared CHAKA-LAKA for us as a goodbye meal!  It was delicious and we played with the kids for our last hour and a half and finally said our goodbyes.  Saying goodbye to everyone was definitely hard, but we also know that the Lord has brought us so much joy from the people at RivLife.  We have no regrets in the way we did things during our time there.  God is so good and so faithful, and these people at RivLife have brought nothing other than joy, laughter, and love into our lives!!  They will forever be a memory and will always have a small piece of our hearts!

WE LOVE RIVLIFE <33