Here begins the epic tale of my trip to South Africa. Most of the content will be taken from my journal that I kept (quotes will signify journal material). Enjoy.
June 30, 2008
This entry was written on the second floor of the Wilson House, a large mansion similar to the Story Mansion in Bozeman. Campus Crusade operates out of here; and Pat and Tammy McLeod, two of the group leaders, live here.
"I made it to the Wilson House, where members of the team are trickling in from all over the country. I am meeting a lot of people and trying to remember all of their names: Rebecca, who is ferrying people here from the airport; Stephanie, who runs track at Stanford; Mike, who graduated ? [NE Univeristy] in criminal justice; Susie, a beautiful graduate student at Harvard; Paul, who almost qualified for the Olympic swim team [by .03 s]; and all the McLeods- Mr. and Mrs., Chelsea, Zach, Nate, and Sorren.
I was pretty nervous on the flight out (it was my first time flying alone), but everything went smoothly. My connecting gate in Minneapolis was extremely far away, though as that was the biggest hassle I encountered, I'm OK.
All of these college guys and girls make me feel humble - many are athletes attending top-ranked schools (Harvard, Stanford, and NorthEastern). I'm just a pre-frosh [or pro-fro] who hasn't yet been tested. I am a little concerned that the consensus says Caltech is an extremely hard-working campus where a ton of studying goes on. We'll see.
One more thought - I wish now that I was going for the entire five weeks, not three. It seems too short to do any quality work, and I'm afraid it'll be awkward to leave half-way through. If I did this again, I would go for a longer time. Yet the decision was made when I felt overworked and overwhelmed with graduating, the plane tickets are purchased, and a family trip back East is planned over the last week of the mission; so it will stand. I didn't realize that this would be a break from the work at home.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Staying in Africa
After some deliberation and a last-minute travel change, I am staying in South Africa until July 28. I am flying right from here to a family vacation in Delaware, so I won't be back to Montana until August 10. I will post my exceedingly voluminous journal then. I am writing about five pages a day.
Here's a brief recap: I am spending some days a week evangelizing on the University of Pretoria campus. The conversations I have had are good. On the other days, I am playing with orphans in the afternoons; and working on computer issues and a powerpoint presentation in the mornings. I am having a great time. The people are wonderful. Talk to you all later.
Here's a brief recap: I am spending some days a week evangelizing on the University of Pretoria campus. The conversations I have had are good. On the other days, I am playing with orphans in the afternoons; and working on computer issues and a powerpoint presentation in the mornings. I am having a great time. The people are wonderful. Talk to you all later.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Working in Africa
July 9
Hi all
I made it to another internet cafe, so here's another memo. I have been working this week on the maintenance of grounds at Sizanani village, which is semi-boring compared to what the other groups are doing - working with AIDS orphans, helping disabled children, caring for people in the hospital who have AIDS, and visiting the surrounding townships. It would be more fun is I was doing skilled carpentry or electric work, but we're mainly raking a lot of grass and leaves. Next week should be better, as I will switch to one of the other tasks.
I still like the people a lot, and I think they like me too, though that is somewhat unexplainable. I have been completely adopted into the community, which feels good. A few more guys arrived who had been swimming at the Olympic trials, it is good to have them here. One is 6' 6'', and nicknamed "Gangles." All the guy are wonderful - I think I said this before, but it is worth repeating.
Today, we visited the University of Pretoria's Mamelodi campus, and spied around. Our group is trying to set up a campus crusade group here, so we were just gathering information and talking to people. The school is on break right now, so the main work of this project will start next week when the students are back.
Hi all
I made it to another internet cafe, so here's another memo. I have been working this week on the maintenance of grounds at Sizanani village, which is semi-boring compared to what the other groups are doing - working with AIDS orphans, helping disabled children, caring for people in the hospital who have AIDS, and visiting the surrounding townships. It would be more fun is I was doing skilled carpentry or electric work, but we're mainly raking a lot of grass and leaves. Next week should be better, as I will switch to one of the other tasks.
I still like the people a lot, and I think they like me too, though that is somewhat unexplainable. I have been completely adopted into the community, which feels good. A few more guys arrived who had been swimming at the Olympic trials, it is good to have them here. One is 6' 6'', and nicknamed "Gangles." All the guy are wonderful - I think I said this before, but it is worth repeating.
Today, we visited the University of Pretoria's Mamelodi campus, and spied around. Our group is trying to set up a campus crusade group here, so we were just gathering information and talking to people. The school is on break right now, so the main work of this project will start next week when the students are back.
I'm in Africa
July 6
Hi everybody!
I made it to Africa safely, and the flights were good. We arrived right around bedtime and so experienced almost no jetlag. The team is really awesome, I love all the guys. And the girls are amazing too. Almost everyone is an athlete, and so most of our free time they spend working out, or playing a game. We have had some sweet ultimate frisbee, football, kickball, and soccer games. Right now we are working on team building exercises and evangelism training. On Monday the real work starts. We are staying at Sizanani village, I think that they have a website you can look up. Most of our work will be done there, but as they do a lot of outreach in Pretoria and the surrounding region we will get to travel outside of the compound. The "village" is gated and walled around and it feels safe - the only problem would be petty crime. Pretoria is a big city - right now I'm on the sixth floor of an enormous mall - it feels weird; but our guide said that this is as much Africa as the mud huts.
I am keeping a journal though which I plan to post on my blog when I get back for you to read.
Hi everybody!
I made it to Africa safely, and the flights were good. We arrived right around bedtime and so experienced almost no jetlag. The team is really awesome, I love all the guys. And the girls are amazing too. Almost everyone is an athlete, and so most of our free time they spend working out, or playing a game. We have had some sweet ultimate frisbee, football, kickball, and soccer games. Right now we are working on team building exercises and evangelism training. On Monday the real work starts. We are staying at Sizanani village, I think that they have a website you can look up. Most of our work will be done there, but as they do a lot of outreach in Pretoria and the surrounding region we will get to travel outside of the compound. The "village" is gated and walled around and it feels safe - the only problem would be petty crime. Pretoria is a big city - right now I'm on the sixth floor of an enormous mall - it feels weird; but our guide said that this is as much Africa as the mud huts.
I am keeping a journal though which I plan to post on my blog when I get back for you to read.
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