Closing Time... For now

I realized yesterday when I was picking up my sister from camp that I never closed the chapter to my Cape Town journey. It is weird being home and not being as busy, and my dad always jokes that we need to do something like run a red light every once in a while to get my adrenaline rush for the day.

The last week in Cape Town for me was unfortunately spent on the couch quite a lot. It was ordered by the doctor and really hard to do, but I managed to spend the afternoons working on papers, starting to clean up the apartment I was about to move out of, and thinking about packing. "Thinking" being the key word. My personality can't just sit around though, so any chance I was offered to get up and leave, I took it.

Some of the fun things I got to do during my last week in Cape Town:

1) High Tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel- Something my great grandmother would have absolutely loved. It was a chance to get all dressed up and try all different kinds of tea and eat fun little finger snacks. Even people who weren't "tea people" still enjoyed it, and I ended up even buying some local tea and bringing it home to the States. My younger sister Catherine would be so proud because she has always had such a great appreciation for tea and I never liked it, until now.

2) Final Celebration in the Township- We as a whole group, all 150 of us, got to have a huge celebration in Sir Lowry's Pass one afternoon and it was one of the most fun days of the whole 5 weeks. Kids from the township and students from the States performed together and separately. They did everything from sing songs to choreograph dances. One of my favorite acts was the "Bokstreet Boys". Some of our SpringBOK boys practiced for hours and then danced to a mash-up of Backstreet boy songs and it was epic. The guys did a fantastic job and definitely seemed to be one of the favorite acts.

3) Sunset Champagne Cruise- Despite the fact that we missed the sunset, the majority of our group climbed onto a boat around sunset time, got a class of champagne, and took tons of pictures out on the deck of the boat. It was absolutely beautiful and seeing the lights of the city one last time was truly breathtaking. We also got to see whales, and it wasn't even whale season! After it got totally dark, we went back inside in the bar area of the boat and had a huge dance party. It was an absolute blast being able to look around the room, seeing everyone have so much fun, and realizing that we all got to share something so special together over the past 5 weeks. It was also fun being able to look around  and realize that I knew almost everyone's name, a big change from the first week when I only knew about 8. 

4) Final Sunday at Hillsong Church- I truly felt at home at Hillsong in Cape Town, so saying goodbye was a little bittersweet. Thankfully, Passion City Church is very similar in Atlanta so I knew I was coming back to somewhere great, but I was just so encouraged to see the Lord working so powerfully half a world away, and I loved being reminded of that every Sunday. At the last service we actually saw and met another group of American students from Oklahoma, and it almost felt like we were passing the torch on to them.

The journey home was of course extremely long, but so worth it. Thankfully there were no complications with the leg, and there were plenty of decent movies and shows to keep everyone occupied for the most part on the plane. My dad met me in the airport, and I can't even describe what seeing him felt like. I don't think anything could have made my huge smile go away. My mommy always told me that I was a daddy's girl when I was little, and after being away from daddy for what almost feels like a whole year with college, I understand how truly special a daddy and a daughter's bond is. I could write a million more pages about how much I love my daddy and why he is so wonderful, but I will leave it at this- he has always encouraged me to do the unusual and push myself to constantly try new things, and I always know he is praying for me and loving me no matter where I am in the world.

So my journey in Cape Town is done (for now), and my journey out to Colorado starts in just a few days. I'm very excited to see what the Lord has in store for me. It's been a harder summer than I anticipated in a good way, but I have gotten to do some of the most amazing things and the Lord is teaching me so much. I know I am exactly where I am supposed to be and for that I am thankful. I want to thank everyone who prayed for me while I was in Africa. If you think about it, please pray for the kids we are taking to Young Life camp next week: that the Lord would touch their hearts in a very special way, and that He would use all of the leaders to the best of their abilities.

Going out with a Bang… Literally

*if you are squeamish, you may not want to read this, or skip Wednesday and Saturday’s entry :)

I don’t even really know where to start with this entry. I have been staring at the screen for too long, and I just figured I would start typing and hope that this all makes sense. I have had a total sensory overload this week, but it’s been great.

This past week has been an incredible one, but it has also had its difficulties. It was our last really busy week because this week now is more of the wrap up and "good-bye" week. I have learned so much about serving others, through readings in class (even though I forget this is a study abroad program), and through my own personal experience this week. I guess I’ll just start from the beginning and hope it all makes sense.

Monday: We were assigned a soup mom to be paired with. I was in a group with 3 other girls that I love and we were given a bag of rice and lots of vegetables to make stir fry for the mom and her family for dinner. We drove out to Sir Lowry’s Pass, a township about 45 minutes outside of Cape Town, and were greeted by hundreds of kids who swarmed our bus. They were all smiles and seemed so happy to see us. They greeted us like this every day, despite the bad weather that came later in the week. There were about 50 of us and I think everyone had about 4 or 5 kids latched to their arms and legs- not a bad feeling at all. I think it’s safe to say we all felt very loved. The mom I was paired with was Ms. Vanessa. She has been married to her husband Shane for 10 years, and he has to work all the time. They have 3 beautiful girls, Casey (who is around 8 or 9 years old), Shevanah, (either 4 or 5 yrs old), and Shana, (around 3 years old). I loved being with a family of all girls because hey, that’s normal for me. There were plenty of friends running in and out of the house all afternoon, and I laughed with Ms. Vanessa that her household was very similar to mine. My dad always says he doesn’t feel like he has 4 girls, he feels like he has more, because there are always extra friends hanging out at our house. The three other girls I was paired with and I rotated making dinner, getting to know Ms. Vanessa, and playing outside with the children. We played all sorts of games in the street, including dodge ball, random hand games, and this one game that involved running and jumping over sticks. Again, it made me think of growing up at home in Atlanta. Obviously, I grew up halfway around the world from this community and in different circumstances, but I made a connection with these kids because I grew up playing some of the same games as them (for example: boom, snap, clap). Serving dinner went well. I honestly felt like we were feeding the 5,000 because we planned on feeding Ms. Vanessa and her 3 girls, but ended up feeding about 25 people in all and thankfully had plenty of food. 

Tuesday and Thursday: I’m putting these 2 days together because they were so similar. Both days were rainy and both days we were supposed to have “Camp Global LEAD” outside, but it was all moved into their Community Center, which I was very thankful for. We were already so soaked, so a roof over our heads was a blessing. As you can imagine, like children anywhere, being cooped up inside because of rain gives them even more energy, so it was a mad house. I was in charge of the “education station” both days, which meant I got to have kids sit in my lap and read them stories, give them stickers, and color. It sounds cute and peaceful, but having a kid stay in your lap for more than 5 minutes was a record breaking achievement. As hectic as it was, it truly was such a joyful event. After camp, we all went back to our mom’s houses and hung out with them. On Tuesday, we watched one of the girl’s favorite movies, (yes, they have a TV and DVD player- I was surprised), and talked and got to know them better. On rainy days, everyone pretty much stays inside, especially since it is their winter here. On Thursday, I helped Ms. Vanessa prepare dinner and some of the other girls I was paired with played with her girls.

Wednesday: We didn’t go back to the township, but instead we went to this place called The Amy Biehl Foundation. We helped them pick up trash in their recess field behind the school, we entertained the kids, and then we sat in on their after school activities and they asked us questions about our lives. Well it’s funny how God works, really and truly. This whole week we were being challenged by our teachers here in Cape Town about what service really is and if we are actually helping people if we come for a week and then leave, something I had never thought of before. We read several articles in class that provided very real evidence that random outside help may not be super beneficial, and that service should be more of a 2 way street for both the giver and the receiver. I don’t think I fully grasped this until Wednesday afternoon, when I had a little incident. I was watching all of the hundreds of kids chase all our Global LEAD boys around the field. It was funny watching them chase our guys, but what was funnier was seeing them catch the guys and then tackle them to the ground. Well, it was all fun and games until the boys decided to send all of the little kids after me… I took one step to start sprinting away from all these kids because I had seen what they were doing to the boys, and all of a sudden I had the most excruciating pain run through my leg that I had ever felt and I heard a pop. It was a cold day, and all of a sudden I was burning up, dizzy, and incredibly nauseous. I fell to the ground truly writhing in pain. The kids of course caught up to me and it was all I could do to send them after someone else before asking for help up. I thought I had just pulled my quad muscle, but I was in SO much pain. I couldn’t even walk. I had to be carried back to the bus, thanks to one of the guys on this trip, and the rest of the night I iced, elevated, and relaxed. (I promise, this has a point).

Friday: This was our final day in the township and it was one of my favorite days on the trip. Despite the pain in my leg, I was able to participate in Field Day. It was raining again, so Field Day was in the community center. I got downgraded from my job as Team Leader to Station Leader because I couldn’t walk. I got to color with all of the kids instead, which as you can imagine, was crazy! Then we went back to Ms. Vanessa’s house one last time, and oh my goodness, we had a party. All the girls and their friends, after doing all of our hair-doos, put on a fashion show for us and it was one of the greatest things I have ever seen. These girls have some sass, and were dancin up and down the room in their dresses from their uncle’s wedding, school uniforms, and anything else they could find. I filmed the whole thing, and once again, was brought back to my childhood, (and early teens even), putting on fashion shows with my 3 younger sisters. I felt more connected to them in that moment, than any other day of the week and I truly wish we could have continued going back for the next several weeks. Thankfully we will all get to see our families one more time this Wednesday for a “final celebration”. The rest of my Friday was spent in the hospital getting a doctor’s diagnosis on my leg. My leg had continued to be swollen and painful, and while I kept insisting it was just a really bad pulled muscle, there was a purple lump on the top of my thigh that just didn’t seem right. Well, if we didn’t already have enough reason that I shouldn’t be a doctor, here’s more: I hobbled onto the little bed in the hospital and when the doctor asked what had happened, I told him to his face what my diagnosis was: I had a badly pulled quad muscle, but the Global LEAD staff were all making me come to see him… Well he had another diagnosis, and he wanted me to come back Saturday morning to get an ultra-sound on my leg. Not gonna lie, that concerned me a little. [I want y’all to know, I am not sharing this to get pity or to worry anyone. I promise I am fine. The medical help over here is wonderful, and the Global LEAD staff has been very on top of making sure I have everything I need, down to scheduling follow up appointments with the doctor here and continually asking me how I’m feeling and how my parents are doing.]

Little Shana

Saturday: I had a hot date in the hospital bright and early at 8:00 am with my friend Joe who had a purple, black, and blue ankle. I’m not kidding, it actually looked like someone had painted on his foot. He was getting an x-ray, I was getting an ultra-sound. His diagnosis was “severe ankle sprain with torn ligaments”. Mine was “ripped quad muscle with hemorrhaging of the muscle”… so gross, and so much worse than I expected. Again, I am not saying this to concern anyone. They are taking very good care of me, but I am sharing this to show you very vividly how the Lord is working in my life. I was given crutches (yuck), tons of pain meds (ew), and instructions to lay low and have a follow up appointment soon (…). I HATE being helped and I HATE when the attention is all on me. Well guess what, with crutches and a severe limp, people are gonna ask. Joe and I had such a great laugh over the fact that once we got to the Old Biscuit Mill, (yes we went there after the hospital- I’m 4 for 4 by the way), not one Global LEAD student there didn’t ask “oh my gosh, what happened?!”. No one seemed to notice he was limping too, but we hobbled around and got some delicious food. The rest of the day I spent posted up on the couch, again, my least favorite thing to do, but here is another cool part of the story. I made a friend early on in the trip who instantly became a close one. We have a lot of the same interests and views on life. She is a strong Believer and has been such a great encourager to me throughout the trip of continually pursuing Christ even while on “vacation”. Well, the moment she heard I was on crutches, she told me “Tell me when you get to Old Biscuit Mill, and I’ll be by your side helping you for the rest of the day. You don’t have a choice”. I of course argued with her telling her I was fine and was not going to suck away her day, but true to her word, Taylor was there when I showed up, and she took SUCH good care of me all day. She walked in front of me so that people wouldn’t bump me with crutches, she held the sack of clementine’s I bought, she walked with me as I fell behind every group of people I walked with, she came and sat with me in my apartment, and she forced me to rest and take my meds. I could have written pages before Saturday about what a great friend she has been to me and so many others already on this trip, but after the way she acted Saturday, I could write a hundred more. She has a servant’s heart and lives for the Lord, and her actions are such a reflection of what she believes. I am so incredibly thankful for her and that she took care of me, because I guarantee you, I wouldn’t have been so self-disciplined or so careful without her. I could talk about so many other people as well. Truly almost everyone has extended their hand to me and offered to help in some form or fashion. I have been carried more times than I would like to admit, and have definitely been giving these boys a workout with the amount of incredible food I have eaten down here, (sorry I’m not sorry). Again, I hate all of the attention being on me, but God is working through all of this.

This is what the Lord taught me firsthand: Service must involve a relationship with someone. I have a hard enough time anyway accepting help from others, and if they didn’t already have a relationship with me, I would hate it even more. I know part of it may be a pride issue because I don’t want to be seen as “weak”, but I also genuinely hate all the attention being on me. I constantly have the feeling that I owe people back for the energy they are expending on me, but because I know the people who are so kindly serving me, I know that isn’t what they want. The same rings true with missions work. No one, no matter how poor they are, wants to be seen as a charity project, a one and done kind of deal. If my friends just came to serve me for one day and then I never heard from them again, I would honestly be angry and think their service was not genuine. I know sometimes, it may not be possible to do that, but it should be attempted as often as possible. This past week has totally reaffirmed my belief in life long missions and being a missionary, and it is interesting that being here would open that option back up in my heart again. It has at least made me realize that I want to expose my own children to long term missions work as they grow up. One of the only advantages to having crutches- all the cute locals want to help you out and that turns into a conversation of what happened, why am I here, etc., so maybe I’ll fall in love with one of those guys and have a family that grows up here doing missions work in Sir Lowry’s Pass (I’m kidding mom and dad… but not totally). You just never know what the future holds, and you never know what life events the Lord is going to use to teach you incredible, life changing lessons.

The Garden Route- Not just a walk in the park

Well I have just had possibly one of the most insane weeks of my whole life. I can just hear my dad saying: “You have done more in your life at 19 years old, than most people do in their entire lives”, and I definitely feel very blessed to agree with him. If you are like me, when I first heard we were going on the “Garden Route” for a week, I literally thought we would be strolling through botanical gardens for a week, stopping here and there to do random activities maybe, but mostly just looking at scenery. Well I was very wrong. The Garden Route is an actual set route along the coast of South Africa with different hostels to stay in along the way and different suggested activities to do along the way as well as things to visit and places to stay (Google it if you have a second). My journey on the Garden Route started at a very early 4:30 a.m., but let me tell you, it was worth it!

Monday: 4:30 a.m. wake up call so we could make it shark cage diving on time. I was with a group of 24 students and 1 leader and we crawled into the funniest looking bus I have ever seen. “Bus” is a generous word. For those of you who have seen “Indian Jones and the Last Crusade”, think about the transport van they carried the ark in… That is what we were riding in. We went to this place called Shark Alley right by Geyser Rock, one of the 2 infamous “seal islands” where Discovery Channel spends a lot of time filming for Shark Week. We put wet suits on and hopped in the cage hanging off the boat, but before I go into any more detail, let me just say that before they even put the cage in the water, an 11 foot shark started circling our boat. That might not sound big, but they were huge!! The pictures don’t even do it justice, but I’m hoping some turned out well. I was in the cage with 4 other girls and we were loving every minute of it, but the sharks were realll close. There were 3 sharks, a 10 footer, an 11 footer, and a 12 footer and the closest they got to our cage was a few inches. They were baited by tuna heads right in front of our cage, so we got to see these huge sharks up close and personal. I felt like I was in an aquarium, until they started getting closer! Right after our group got out of the cage, the next group to go in actually had a shark run into their cage and shake it, as well as the whole rest of the boat. We were screaming, but again loving every minute because when else is something like that going to happen in your life? After that, we got back in our bus/ van/ army transport vehicle and drove for about 5 hours to our first hostel located right on the beach. It was a beautiful place, apparently “too nice to be considered a hostel”. The food was incredible, and we, all 25 Americans, sat around the camp fire and made s’mores. We taught some of the other travelers staying their how to make them and they were a big hit of course.

Tuesday: We had another early wakeup call and headed to an ostrich farm where I actually got to ride an ostrich! If anyone has ever seen the movie “Swiss Family Robinson”, think about Ernst trying again and again to hop on that ostrich. They move soo fast and it’s a very weird feeling sitting on a big ball of feathers. I had to put my legs under their wings and then hang onto the top of their wings for dear life. They are not nice animals, and I have decided here that I really don’t like them. They are everywhere and so ugly! After the ostrich farm, we drove to the Cango Caves and explored these caves full of all kinds of secret passageways and trails. Someone asked me before we walked in if I had done this before because it “seemed like my thing”. I laughed and said I had explored caves and thought back to “Fat Man Squeeze” in New Zealand and it made me thankful my parents had pushed us to explore places like that. There were some VERY tight spaces in the caves, and some people who were very claustrophobic really struggled. The worst part was this place called “Devil’s Chimney”, which was a vertical climb through a teeny little hole. The only way to get through it was reaching up with your hands staying totally vertical and grabbing any hand hold you could to pull yourself up vertically because there was no place for your knees to bend. Tight to say the least, but very cool and I loved it. We drove back to the beach hostel and enjoyed another night by the fire enjoying the stars and being together.

Wednesday: Another early morning, getting up at 7:00 a.m. to be on time to our appointment at the elephant sanctuary!! Definitely one of my favorite activities since I have been here and one I was looking forward to the most. Elephants are one of my favorite animals, and I actually got to walk one around, play with it, and then ride it. The boys will tell you how uncomfortable they were the whole time while riding them, but the girls all had a blast and pretty much every girl walked away ooing and ahhing over the elephants and talking about how much they wanted one. This of course led to one of the guys making the logical conclusion that instead of getting a puppy so girls would approach them, they were going to invest in an elephant. Totally logical… We left the elephant sanctuary and went to the cat sanctuary where we learned about all the different kinds of cats in South Africa and we got to see them up close and personal. We walked into the cheetah cage and got to sit right next to one of them. We also got to go in some more cages, but petting was “strictly forbidden and highly unadvised”. We left the cat sanctuary and went to Monkeyland where we ate lunch with the monkeys. They were everywhere and so silly, but they were aggressive when it came to getting food. One jumped on my leg trying to get my ice cream bar! From there we drove to our 2^nd hostel and played soccer against the local children. We pulled up to the school and they all had their uniforms on and every other Global LEAD group had been beat by this team of 11 and 12 year old boys, but we had too many competitive people on my team to allow that to happen and we really fought had. We had 2 super stars on our team, a girl who played in high school and scored 3 of our 4 goals, and then a boy who loves soccer and hockey the most out of anything in this world and he was able to coach the rest of us. I’m happy to say that Tophat Soccer prepared me a little bit for playing against these kids and we had an absolute blast. We ended up beating them 4-3, but it was a hard fought game. Afterwards we danced with the kids and played with all of them, and let me just tell you, they love to love on you. The girls played with our hair, danced, sang Justin Bieber, etc. The boys ran around rough housing and playing even more soccer. It was total chaos but it was truly beautiful. I had the most content and peaceful feeling as I was sitting there looking over the field with a beautiful little girl named Aceely on my shoulders. We were watching all the others kids playing together, the sun was setting, the weather was warm, and I had the most incredible feeling come over me and I just knew that that was exactly where I was supposed to be. I wish I could go back and be there right now. Another day well spent.

Thursday: BIG DAY. Today was bungee jumping day, but we did several other activities first. We woke up early again to drive to the place where our wild game drive (aka safari) was going to take place. The game reserve was over 200 acres, and all of the non-predators literally roam free. The lions were kept in a separate part of the park, but we drove everywhere in a safari vehicle that looked like an oversized uncovered Jeep, (keep in mind, it is winter here…), and saw everything from zebras, to springboks, to giraffes! I also got to see the rest of the “Big 5”. The Big 5 are the 5 most dangerous animals to hunt on foot and they include elephants, water buffalo, lions, hippos, and rhinos. I had obviously already seen elephants, but we got to see all the others on the safari and I loved it! We then went to the Tsitsikamma National Park to do a quick hour long hike before we ate lunch and then we headed to bungee jump. For those of you who haven’t already seen my profile picture, it was INSANE! We went to Bloukron’s Bridge which is the highest bungee bridge in the world at over 750 feet tall! Again, if you have a second either Google it or YouTube it. I was pretty terrified, but always knew I would do it. Our whole group jumped, another Global LEAD first on this trip, and they pick who goes totally randomly. I was the 4^th to last which wasn’t my favorite thing ever, but while everyone else jumped, we had a dance party on the bridge. Cleary they know what they are doing and I had a blast pumping everyone else up and cheering for them as they jumped. When my number was called, all of a sudden my demeanor totally changed. For those of you who might be so unfortunate to endure my video when I get back, you will hear the party music pumpin’ but see me taking deep breaths and doing some stretches. They hooked me up and strapped me in all in about 2 minutes, then they carried me to the edge of the bridge, counted down “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, bungee” and off I fell. For a split second I thought “what the heck am I about to do? Why am I doing it?!” but by the time I processed that, I was already at the bottom of the bungee bouncing back up and screaming the whole way! It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life! I was absolutely terrified but I loved every second of it! Nothing hurt, nothing was uncomfortable, I was just hanging upside down and it was so quiet and peaceful, it was unreal. I just looked around me and saw the ocean and thought about 1-how thankful I was to be alive, and 2- how not very many people ever get to experience what I just did and how I needed to be soaking it all up. Explaining it on here doesn’t even do it justice, but I will say that I would do it again in heartbeat and I even said I was happy it wasn’t shorter because it goes by SO fast! After bungeeing we went back to our hostel and had a huge party. We danced all night and the bartender gave out free shots to anyone who wanted them, so some people had a rough bus ride the next day, but all in all it was an incredible day.

Friday: We drove back to Cape Town, all 8 hours. We stopped here and there to walk around and take pictures from gorgeous look outs, but it was nice to have a more relaxed day and be able to enjoy the gorgeous scenery of South Africa, because let me tell you, it is that. One of my favorite things happened on this day though, and it’s so incredibly cool to see how God works. I was sitting next to a girl that from before the trip even began I wanted to get to know better. We sat next to each other on the bus and played the “Share your life story in 4 minutes” game. Of course neither of us could only share in 4 minutes, so we spent a long time talking about our lives and she has had an amazing life and one that I would love to replicate one day, but she also had a lot of questions about my faith and why I believe in the Lord. I got the opportunity to tell her why I believe in Christ and what that means in my life and what that looks like for me. I was blessed by the conversation and I hope that she was too. I’m looking forward to seeing how God continues to work in my life as well as others around me. 

It was an incredible week and I truly hope that one day y’all get to experience one of the things I did- whether its peace about where you are in life, a sense of accomplishment for doing something that terrified you, or even being blessed by what could have been an awkward conversation but turned into something wonderful. God is moving over here in Africa and in my life, and I’m excited I get to share that with y’all. Thank you for all of the continuous prayers and please know I am praying for each one of you.