From Capetown

me again!
we arrived safely in Capetown this morning after an extreeeemely long bus ride!
we left Soweto yesterday afternoon around 130pm, and finally got here today at 11am! EEK.

last week my site was split into five small groups for independant service projects.
my group worked in a township within Soweto called Kliptown.
the people there lived in tin shacks, the roads were dirt, filled with garbage and sewage, and many people didnt even have shoes. we helped out at a pre-school, where i ended up randomly leading 30 four year old children in spontaneous aerobics... since they were following me around anyways! we also had garden work to do!

ahh, and something else. a little kid was chasing me back at the community center in Soweto where we stayed last week, and i totally bailed at this little ramp thing, and i now have some serious scrapes/bruises on my knees and feet. hurts a bit... but hey, teaches me to be tough.

otherwise, here we are in beautiful Capetown!
i spent the afternoon at the beach with the penguins and the sunshine!
our place we're staying at (some sort of kids center) is right on the beach.
this week is a chill week, we'll do some de-briefing of last week, and touristy stuff.
next week we have teaching from Rodny, our country partner, on Conflict Resolution.
the following week is our homestay week with the Coloured people, and we'll be getting together with 36 other students doing outreach about drug awareness in 3 different highschools!
cool hey?

well, i'm running out of time, and it's almost dinner.
i miss you all a whole lot, and i hope you get the chance to read this.

much love!

Off To Soweto!

ho hum, my week in Pretoria is coming to an end.
i've had a fabulous time learning more about this country, soaking up the sunshine, playing with adorable little kids, eating South African cuisine, and tons more!

how can i sum it all up...
-lectures at the University of Pretoria
-met some students from the school at my host family's church, who took us out on my birthday
-bowling, shopping, drinking amazing coffee
-discovered that the icecream here is 10x better than in Canada... true story
-bagged shampoos/soaps at an old folks home, where they fed us "fat cakes" for lunch (it's a lot like rollkuchen, for those of you who know what that is... haha)
-visited 2 nursery schools during recess and played with lots and lots of Black underpriveledged children
-visited a soup kitchen type place and played with kids there, also sang a few songs, and they sang for us too!
-went to Pilanesberg National Park, about 2hrs from Pretoria... and saw elephants, giraffes, zebras, impalas, rhinos, wildabeasts, hippos... and random cows!
-discovered what it's like to eat dinner at 8pm, take 2hrs to get through the MOUNTAINS of food we get, then go to bed!
-suntanned, swam, good conversation
-went on the Gospel Train at 6am (there's a Black United Church that hops on the fullest craziest train you've ever seen every morning while the Blacks are commuting to work, and they sing/preach/clap... it's a lot of energy for so early in the day, i tell ya!)
-saw the Voortrekker Monument (can't tell you much about this... should've paid closer attention i guess... but it was big! and beautiful!)
-went to the Pretoria National Botanical Gardens
-visited a retreat center on the outskirts of town where we played baseball with some kids randomly

man oh man... it doesn't end there, but my mind is drawing a blank...
overall it's been an eventful week, and i've already taken 350 pictures! AHH!

we're off to the Black township of Soweto this week where we'll be split up as a group into smaller service projects... should be quite different! we also visit the Apartheid museum.

after Soweto, we're driving the long 19hr stretch in our coach bus (which hopefully has the air conditioning fixed! eek) to Capetown... where we'll be for 2 weeks. hopefully i'll have some internet access there! if not, i'll talk to you all again as soon as possible!

miss you all alot!
GOD BLESS! :)

a safe arrival, and much much more!

Helloooo everyone!
So, I am alive, and currently in Pretoria, South Africa!! Can you believe it!?
SO MUCH has happened in the last six days, I don't even know where to begin!

We arrived safely in Germany, and it was a lot of fun taking the train into Frankfurt and roaming the city for the day. We took lots of pictures and experiences German coffee shops. We were reaalllly tired by the end of our 10hr flight from Frankfurt to Johannesburg, but we made it! Stepping off that plane was SPLENDID. Literally, sunshine was pouring down, and it was soooo warm out. I love this country!! haha.

For the first 2 nights (Fri & Sat) we stayed at Heronbridge College/Estate just west of Jo-burg... as like a retreat to recover from jet lag (don't think I've quite recovered...). We hung out with a church group from Pretoria, swam in the pool, ate, had some worship time, and caught up on sleep!

Sunday morning we left for church in Pretoria (about 45 min away) and after the service, spoken entirely in Afrikaans, we met our host families!

I'm staying with the SWEETEST couple ever! Colin & Vina Cameron. They live in a large, beautiful... (mansion) did I say that? But seriously, its' stunning. They've been very good to me, and Vina even bought me a little gift and made me a birthday cake today! SO GOOD!
It was a wonderful South African 19th birthday!

We heard 3 lectures at the University of Pretoria today, and tommorrow we see some monument, and get to go to a mall as well!

So much more has happened, and I'm very bad at condensing this... so I'll just stop for now.
Until next time! Stay tuned!
Miss you all, love you lots! <3

just testing it out!

this is just practice... for my mom's sake. haha!