What is it like in Africa?

I realized that I have not posted much about life here in Africa. First of all, they were not lying when they said that it was cold. It is much like the early spring or late winter of Edmonds. It's freezing at night and normal Washington spring weather during the day. When in the sun, the sun is hot, but when the sun goes down, you could never imagine Africa to be so cold!

During the week, breakfast is at 8:00 and we leave for ministry in Qwaqwa or Intabazwe at 9:00. Qwaqwa is about an hour drive. When we get there, we go with our translator to houses and tell people that we are on a Life Exchange and wanting to learn about their life and see if we can help with any chores. I have not had the opportunity to help with many chores, but have mostly been sitting and talking with people. At 1:00 we regroup for a packed lunch which is usually peanut butter and jelly. We then go back out for 2 more hours at 2:00. Then we head back the Thrive. Sometimes we stop in Harrismith (Harry-smith) at the grocery store which is about 1/2 way home. Dinner is at 6:00 and afterwards, we have free time when we can check email, watch movies, hang out, or have parties (we just had a birthday party for my friend Marc last week).

Starting next week, we will have other jobs like base crew, coffee bar/curio, discipleship ministry, and working with the team from Falls Church. The job of base crew is to do chores and clean up around the base. Coffee bar/curio is working at a little souvenir/snack shack which is upstairs in the living room. Curio means curious or can be short for souvenir. Discipleship is the ministry that we do with other outreach staff members. It's the ministry that I did last week in Qwaqwa. When we work with the teams, we do the same thing as discipleship, except I am the leader and I do not participate as much as I watch and direct them in their ministry.

On Wednesday mornings we have African prayer, which is very cool. We have a little bit of worship and then Neil says a few words, and then we just pray. Like I said before, with African prayer, everyone just prays at once. On Thursday nights, like I have mentioned in previous posts, we have church. I love church! Neil is a great speaker and we're all pretty close. It's just the few staff members and 24/7 interns and my groups, the outreach staff members. Sunday afternoons the 24/7 and outreach interns get together to play Ultimate Frisbee. It's just like home! On Sunday nights we have a bible study for just the outreach staff members, lead by full time staff members. It's called Connect. My leader's name is Kelly, and she is so sweet! I love it!
The weekends are pretty relaxed. Sometimes we will go to African church on Sunday mornings, but otherwise we have them free. Sometimes on Saturdays we will go out and do scheduled activities that are more touristy, like yesterday when we went to the "Lion Park."

Last year, one of the buildings burned. It was the building that was the main meeting area and hang out spot. Since it's no longer available, our "house" is all spread out. We have our bedrooms, our cabins, which are "downstairs." Really, they're down the hill, and that's what we call downstairs. Also downstairs is the phone booth and the reception area which has a smaller room in it which is called the den. In the den we have our outreach meetings and hangout. The couches are in the den, so we like to watch movies in there and just hang out because it's one of the warmest places to be. (There's no indoor heating anywhere, except for the small heaters that we have.) There's also wireless internet down there. The laundry room is somewhere in the middle of them, just at the foot of the hill, and is also next the hooks where the game is prepared to be eaten. Yes, I have actually seen some game hanging, which is why I am a little skeptical about eating meat. I might just be a vegetarian while in Africa. To get upstairs we have to walk this wretched hill which looks like a hill in Edmonds. One of the girls refers to it as "The 45" because it's nearly a 45 degree angle. After walking on that hill, you finally get upstairs to the living room. The outreach staff eats all of their meals in the living room and uses it as a hang out spot as well. There is also wireless internet, and the computer that I am typing on. Coffee bar/curio is up here as well. The teams are allowed to use the living room and go to the coffee bar after 7:00 but we're allowed up here anytime.

Behind the living room, there are classrooms that are used for discipleship classes, and behind them are the three mountains: Moyhook, Everest, and Eagle Mountain. I climbed Mt. Everest last Sunday, and it took about an hour. Moyhook supposedly takes about 4 hours, unless you're new here and then it will take about 6. The reason is because of the elevation. Thrive is about 6,000 ft. about sea level. The mountains are another 1,000 ft. up. Climbing is very difficult and you have to take a lot of breaks to catch your breath. Walking is exhausting because it's so hard to breath. The scenery here is beautiful. A lot of it looks dead, but that's understandable since it's the winter season. Winter is the dry season in Africa. In the summer there are wildflowers everywhere, or so I've been told. The sky is beautiful. I have fallen in love with the bright blue and the depth of the clouds. Also, the starry sky is magnificent. I have never seen so many stars out, except maybe when I was in Montana. There are a lot of animals here. Most of them are types of antelope/deer but with different coloring. There are also wildebeest which are pretty dumb and don't do much. Yes, there are zebras and ostriches in South Africa, however there aren't any ostriches on the Thrive base. I have seen them many times, and the excitement in seeing them isn't really there anymore. It's kind of weird, but I've grown quite accustomed to seeing zebras now. They're just a part of Africa and it's so normal to me now.

The food here is all South African. I haven't had much food that is at all American. Most mornings we eat oatmeal, which is different from American oatmeal, or mealy-pop (kind of like Cream of Wheat). They put cinnamon sugar in both of them. Also, we have bread with every meal. There is always toast or bread or bagels. Sometimes we have eggs and bacon but they have an African twist to them. For lunch, we usually have sandwiches since we're always out on ministry, but sometimes we have pasta and salad. Dinner is the most African meal of the day. We have some type of meat, usually rice, and some type of cooked vegetables. Some of the veggies are cooked carrots, squash, sweet potatoes (they look really dark brown), and spinach. Some of the meat that we eat comes from the base. I've definitely eaten wildebeest, blesbuck (a type of deer), and cattle that came from the base. It comes in all forms, including: meatballs, with pasta, and sometimes just cut up meat. I'm actually getting really tired of the food. I miss American food so much! This food just doesn't seem appealing to me anymore and sometimes makes me feel sick to my stomach. It's only been two weeks! Pray for me and my stomach, that we'll be able to survive the next 5 weeks of strange food.

If I remember anything else, I'll try to post it, or if you guys have any questions feel free to ask. I'm going to go enjoy my Sunday afternoon watching some Ultimate Frisbee and reading, as you guys are probably sleeping in before church. I think it's only 6:30 AM back home. :]

I love and miss you all!
(PS I'm starting to feel a little homesick, I think. Last night I woke up a few times and was wondering where I was because I really thought that I was still at home. And I just miss you guys back home.)