Having a great time!

The experiences I’ve had so far have been beyond my imagination. The plane ride was long and exhausting and it took us about 2 – 3 days to get adjusted to the jet lag and time change.

These are a few of my fellow travelers taking a quick nap during our layover in Amsterdam.

 Some of the bags didn’t make it to Cape Town so this is us entertaining ourselves until those people could make arrangements with the airport.

We are constantly doing something everyday all day so I am just now getting used to the walking, different events, school and dinners. My host family is great. We actually don’t see them very often because we’re always out and about and they are very busy too. They own a property that has their own house plus a few other guesthouses. We’re in the guesthouse called “the barn.” Below are pictures of the kitchen, bathroom (or toilet as they call it here), and our bedroom (3 of us are in here).

This is a picture of part of the township where I am teaching and where all of my students live.

The picture was taken from the parking lot of Kayamandi High school. Kayamandi is the name of the township. “Kaya” means home, “mandi” means pleasant. I will tell you that the community here is extremely pleasant but their living situations are far from that. The next picture is of the central area of the high school. Students are gathered to watch a film after school and to play a game of netball.

Next is a picture of some of the kids in Kayamandi entertaining themselves on the weekend. They loved us and we LOVED them!

The hospitality here has been amazing so far. Everyone is very kind here - even strangers on the street. The only very strange thing I have tried so far is ostrich. It was good! We also tried a traditional South African sausage (I forgot the name already…) similar to brats that we eat in America. The food here is similar to the food in America but most of it is prepared with fresh ingredients. I had a soft serve ice cream cone today made with real fresh crème – so delicious! That’s all for now…internet is hard to come by so I may not post again for awhile. We have three days in the schools this week and we’re off to do some traveling while the students enjoy their holiday break from school. Should be fun!

Please post comments and questions! 

Farewell USA

Hopefully we'll see more of these in a few days :)......

Please pray for a safe flight!

21 hours 'til departure...

It is the eve of my departure to South Africa. I've got some mixed emotions but mostly I am really excited. It almost seems surreal because all of us have been talking about it for so long. I will certainly miss my students from Steele, but I am thrilled to meet the students in SA. I am curious to see the differences between the schools here and there and the cultures overall. I'm excited to get to know my four room mates better and develop lifelong relationships with them and the other 13 students going. I am NOT excited for the 27 hours total on the airplane...

I am not 100% positive how much access I will have to internet so I will do my best with this blog. I know lots of you want to follow along with this trip, see pictures, and hear about what I'm doing. I promise, I will do my best to keep you updated, but also understand with all that we're doing and the "behind-the-times" technology over there, I may not have frequent access. I will be keeping a written journal while I'm there so my plan is to write once or twice a week on this blog highlighting things from my journal and posting a few pictures. I may not post all of my pictures right away - I would prefer to spend time with my host family and other students than to spend time posting pictures, but I will post some here and there so you get a taste :)

THANK YOU all from the bottom of my heart for the thoughts and prayers as I embark on this journey. I anticipate that this will all be a huge life lesson for me not only with education and culture but personally too. I could not ask for a better group of students to travel with. These people are very open for discussion about anything and everything. We also have quite a bit of time together to ponder, debate, laugh, and cry with each other. I don't expect anything less than to be totally and utterly exhausted by the end of this trip, but to take so much from it that will teach me so many things.

Prayers from South Africa for my friends and family back home..Love you all!

Cheers