Great Gatsby...? yes please.

Interesting fact about Cape Town: the weather can be all four seasons in one week. Today was a sneak peek at winter.

This morning we went to church at King of Kings, John Thomas' church where Living Hope is founded from. It was definitely NOT what I was expecting. When I think of South African church I did not picture primarily white families sitting in their chairs singing Prince of Peace quietly. But this morning I felt like I was right back in Anytown USA. John Thomas spoke on the ways the Lord speaks to us, and it was such a great message just reminding you of the importance of spending time with the Lord before you can hear His voice. However, the similarities were shocking and the differences were few.

Tonight was the adventure of the Gatsby. For those of you like myself who are new to Cape Town culture, let me paint a little picture of the Gatsby for you: Huge french loaf of bread over a foot long + chicken + "chips" aka fries + lettuce + tomato + sauce + mayo + all on one sandwich = THE GATSBY. This one sandwich can comfortably feed FOUR people, and one fourth is the size of my hand! It was great, such an adventure, and definitely a memory.

don't be fooled.. the sandwich is missing one fourth. oh and check out my sweet ring :) thanks Africa.

Ethan and I went to Melanie's for the night and had such a fun time catching up, playing cards, asking questions. Its such a nice feeling to have a little piece of home tucked away in such a foreign place. The comfort of stability is something that's been missing lately and tonight was a great reminder of that!

waves on the weekend

this was our first weekend in Cape Town. a few of the guys in the house rented a car... if you can call Betty that. Betty is approximately 55 years old, an old beetle you can paint on, that is everything but fallen apart. and I do mean fallen, not falling, we're way past that. Josh drove the stick shift, on the left side of the road, from Cape Town to Simons Town, and back again. We went shopping in a few of the little stores in Simons Town, had fish and chips at the bayside restaurant Bertha's, then headed back toward Cape Town. We stopped at the beach and walked along the rocks for a little while. The sun was shining, the day was virtually perfect, and it was the most peaceful, relaxed day one could ask for.


I knew I was in trouble when I walked into this little store and they were playing Heart of Life by John Mayer... and then I was in love. Got all sorts of little goodies, half for me half for friends :) and mainly just enjoyed the company of Louise, Carley, AC, Justine and Josh. It was a wonderful weekend!

don't worry, our album will be released soon..

This is Betty.. on her way to the coast.

double this, double that...

If I were to tell you my telephone number, I would simply begin with 2-2-3, spoken "Two, two, three". This is normal, this makes sense, yes? Well if I were to give you my telephone number with the Cape Town rendition of English, I would say "Double two- three- oh- two- double five" (all spoken with a lovely South African accent). This doesn't seem too complicated, but you are oh so wrong. The same goes for letters. If I were to spell letters from South Africa, I would say "l-e-double t-e-r-s". Well let me just say, my brain CANNOT COMPREHEND THIS. So when I'm on the phone asking for the Pregnancy Help Center's address today, I ask her to repeat "Wherry Road" THREE TIMES. Dumb Americans... can't comprehend. I don't know what it is, but it gets me every time.

Other than that, oh and the time I was typing out an email and asked Mrs. Genevere to email me "HIS number" when Jean is actually a woman, I didn't make too many mishaps today. I spent all morning in Oceanview with Michele doing some office work, and compiling a list of telephone numbers to create a reference index for social work related problems. Although this wasn't the most thrilling task, I kind of enjoyed the quiet and the calm.

Let me paint a little picture of Michele for you: She's precious, she's got this fair skin with freckles and red hair (it's like I'm drawn to those women who do in South Africa...), and you literally must crane your neck towards her to hear what she says when she quietly whispers in a normal conversation. She has this sweet, patient heart, and a bit of spunk that you miss at first glance simply because you can't hear her sweet meek little voice. After working with her just two days I feel like I've known her for months, she's so easy to get along with and actually quite funny the more time I learn to make out her jokes. Thank goodness Ethan is a natural born mumbler, because I've acquired the handy skill of deciphering mumble-speak, a difficult and peculiar tongue.

Another interesting fact about me in South Africa: because I'm fond of accents, and hear them all day long, even at home with two British housemates, my thoughts have begun to be heard in an accent. It's a combination of English and South African, but everything I'm saying in my head as I type right now is in the British. It's crazy, but I kind of love it. Rest assured I'll be using it to talk when I get back home.. get excited :)

Tonight I went with Ethan, Melanie, Shagmie (pronouced Shock-me) and his wife Lauren to the Capricorn youth. I'm still contemplating how I felt about it, so I'll let you know. But here are four words I never want to see combined again: indoors, ice cream, fire, and blindfolds. What a night.

Tomorrow is shopping :) and sleeping in.. Ohhh Saturdays...

& so it begins..

Today was my first real day doing what I've been assigned. I worked with Michele, the most tenderehearted, meek, sweet lady I've ever met. As soon as I met her I basically jumped right into the Social Work life at Living Hope. I sat in on a meeting with Kevin, one of the volunteers from the UK who is coordinating a bid "Celebration Day" at the end of the Holidays in July. The day is designed for about 1,000 kids to come and hear the Gospel. The setting will be divided with a soccer/netball tournament going on, and a rotation of games and events for those not so sportsy kids, aka the other 750. I was really encouraged when he took one of my ideas in mind and completely rearranged the schedule.. I felt semi-useful ;)


After our meeting we went into Oceanview for a home visit, only the lady we were visiting wasn't ready to be visited so our "visit" was about 3 minutes. We then spent a few hours in the Oceanview offices. She put me right to work--I made calls to find pregnancy mentoring for a 14 year old girl who is pregnant. She is a rape victim, but her and her family have decided to keep the baby and need somewhere to help her through the last four months. I typed up the notes from our meeting, and helped Michele brainstorm some ideas for the Celebration Day. It was so encouraging to see how I could already contribute to Living Hope. 


Afterwards Allysha, our wonderful driver who has more spunk than anyone I know, drove Ethan and me to the mall to exchange some of our cash for rand. It was exciting to get back an amount in the thousands when I had less than $200 to exchange :) I also ate my first South African fast food meal at a place called "Wimpys". We had a Wimpy burger and chips (fries) with about two sips of Fanta since the cup is the size of a McDonald's Kids meal toy... Oh Americans, how we value size everything.


We spent the afternoon working in Red Hill again, picking up trash, trying not to be attacked by a mother hen who was protecting her chick, and laying mulch in the meeting area for the kids clubs. Afterwards we got a tour of the area and went into the ACTS Day Care. The most precious children were all around, climbing on backs and wanting to be loved. Even in five minutes I made a friend:

my new friend, whose name I cannot say but starts with an R I know :)

please love her eyes like I do???

Today was so encouraging. I'm anxious to see how my time here is used, and looking forward to what other opportunities I will have to serve. God keeps reminding me that the smallest things can still make a big difference. And He's also in the process of teaching me to rely solely on Him. Ironically (not really) my Bible study this week is on God as El Shaddia, the all sufficient One. Don't you love God's humor? 

day three is a good thing

I am currently sitting in my bed, waiting for dinner to be cooked, and enjoying this view:

What's NOT to love?


Today Michele was still not at Living Hope, so my job has not been detailed or determined yet. Instead I spent the day working with a few of the people who are helping in Kids Club. Danielle, one of the LH staffers had an entire list of things to do. Item number one read: "Finish 1,000 kids armors of God". Well rather daunting eh? So we set off on our to-do list and worked the smaller tasks first such as sorting/counting clothes and materials, peeling toilet paper off the rolls and hole punching them to become noise makers, and other various tasks. Although this sort of busy work can seem pointless at times, I was reminded of how the small things still matter when I was given the chance to have such good conversations with a few of my house mates.


I absolutely LOVE Carley. She's my fellow Chi O sister and we spent a good 30 minutes talking about Chi O.. the differences in our chapters, sharing ideas. Not only is she a Chi O, she's also her chapter's pledge trainer.. like me. Which was so nice to talk with someone who's already been planning! She also loves John Mayer, so we could basically be best friends, yes? We had such good conversations today about boys, our faith since Carley is Catholic--I had many questions! She's full of energy and life and so willing to share with you when you ask. She has the ability to make just about anyone feel welcome and I am so excited to get to know her the next few weeks.


I also had good conversation with Stuart, Josh, Justine and Ethan about Hillsong, religion, and the new trend of "religious experiences". It's so encouraging to be surrounded by other Christians around my age who come from such different back grounds and hear their heart.


Although today was calm, I am thankful to be easing into things as jet lag has been taking its toll on me! I did however get nearly 11 hours of sleep last night, so I guess it could be much worse :)


It's so beautiful here I never want the days to end just so I can sit back and enjoy the views... I haven't stopped smiling since I stepped off the airplane! Tonight I'm getting coffee with Melanie which I could cry I'm so excited for! This weekend we may go to the beach with her sweet friend Meagan. I love this trip!

ostriches, baboons & SOUP... oh my!

Today was beautiful. Even though it's "winter" the weather the past two days has been ideal--blue, bright skies with the ocean breeze and a high around 65. It's perfect. This is the view just off the side of the mountain that we drove up to get to our work site today.

The view on the road past Red Hill

Today after breakfast we headed off for a short orientation. We had a daily devotional/praise time with the Living Hope staff before the five new comers headed off for their meeting. Mike and Pam, the volunteer coordinators who answer countless emails pre-trip, gave us a run down of all that Living Hope encompasses. It's SO MUCH MORE than I know! I won't explain all the details but basically Living Hope serves as care for people with AIDS/HIV through their hospice, as well as through teaching prevention in the communities (Capricorn, Masi, Ocean View and Red Hill... I'll be working mainly in Ocean View just a few minutes from the main Living Hope building). Living Grace is a homeless soup kitchen and locker service where men and women can store their belongings. Living Way is an economic planning program that works with men and women in the communities to teach them how to make and save money as well as learn to budget and spend wisely. It's amazing how many people are being reached with the Gospel through all of the services Living Hope provides.

There are fourteen of us staying in the house: Carley and Hanna (two CHI OMEGAS from TCU :) Justine, my sweet roommate from Samford, Chelsea from Kent State, Louise from England, Zhusana from Czech Republic, Kendra from Tennessee, Amy who plays for the women's AND men's soccer team here in Cape Town, Stuart from UK, Josh and Brock from Samford, Ronnie from Michigan, then me and Ethan. It's quite an interesting mix and I love having people from all over the world to share this place with.

After Carley, Hanna, Justine, Josh, Ethan and myself got the official orientation, we were taken on a tour of Cape Town. We went into Masi (technically its called Masiphumelele... say that one for fun), which reminded me of a city in Mexico. The neighborhood has about 3,500 people who occupy shacks that surround a brick "house". The neighborhood is black, which means it consists primarily of Xhosa people (you get to say Xhosa with a click!). Just down the road is the colored community of Ocean View, which is just a little nicer, but equivalent to a ghetto in any American city. The colored people are what we would consider mixed, and generally speak Afrikaans. This is where I will be working for most of my time.


After our tour and a lunch break, the few of us who will not be working with Kids clubs participated in our first community service project, which we will do each Tuesday and Thursday. Today we went to Red Hill, which is made of three different "camps". We worked in middle camp where the Living Hope hosts a kids club. We picked up trash and pulled weeds around the dirty floor that kids club is held. I was amazed at how friendly and welcoming the people are, they are so generous and kind even in the midst of all their hurt and suffering.


Jet lag set in around 4:00 this afternoon when I was fast asleep on the van.. But not before we stopped on the side of the road for the baboons! Plenty of baboons surrounded us, baby baboons, mating baboons... you name it! The baby ones were so cute it's easy to forget their terribly mean animals!

For dinner, we had soup. Homemade chicken soup. And, for the first time in many many years, I actually ate soup. It was such a rare occasion, and bound to happen many more times this trip, but I survived... and ate plenty of homemade bread to fill me up and limit my soup intake ;)

And to cap off the first wonderful day, was the beautiful view from our front door. I love this place! I am so eager to see what the Lord has in store once I start tomorrow. I am appreciating the beautiful views that this city offers because it's such a remind that our God sees, our El Roi, the God who sees, can appreciate the beauty He created just as we take Him in. How great is our God!

a donkey???

Welcome to Cape Town! After many many hours on an airplane, four movies, some sleep, and lots of reused air, we arrived in Cape Town at 9:00 pm Cape Town time, or 3:00 pm Birmingham time. The flight was overall painless, no problems with baggage, seats, or people (Thank you Lord for that!) and we had hardly no waiting to do at any of our arrivals. Melanie picked us up along with Kendra and Allysha. As soon as I saw Melanie I cried.. shocker :)

We had our first South African snack at Mugg & Bean-- in Melanie's words, "The closest you'll ever get to Panera". Lemon poppyseed muffin and sprite welcomed us to Cape Town. We took the Living Hope van back to the Team House--which is nicer than a hotel. It's beautiful here. The city is huge (Kendra estimated it's roughly the size of Chicago if that gives you a better idea). And the mountain view even at night was breathtaking. All the lights.. I can't wait for the morning view!

Tomorrow will be a tour of Cape Town and some sort of orientation to give us a better understanding of the area and what we'll be doing while we are here. I love it already and I've only been here a few hours :) God has already be so faithful in bringing us here safely and I know this month is about to bring so many surprises and adventures. Thank you for everyone's prayers and love and support!