Adventures in Africa

I know it's been a while since I updated again, but I'm beginning to realize that it's almost impossible for me to find time to do this more than once a week.  So I hope you guys don't mind but I'll probably end up posting weekly.  So with that said here are my adventures for the week:

Last Tuesday was Valentine's Day :-)  The activities
committee got together and planned a fun day for all of us.  We were all assigned a random valentine for the day, I got a lovely lady named Katie.  The events of the day started after class and we began with setting up the slip n slide.  We used up a whole gallon of dish soap for the slip n slide and probably spent an hour of our time throwing ourselves down the hill in soap.  This was so much fun and there were moments when I

My Dinner Table :-)

went down the hill at insanely fast speeds because we had so much soap.  I ended getting covered in mud and soap but it was quite worth it! After the slip and slide we all washed up went to class and prepared for our Valentines dinner.  The Valentines dinner theme was: "Would you love me if I wore this?"  So we all had to dress up really crazy for dinner.  We had places set up for us to sit with our Valentine for dinner and it was great to get to know new people by having the arranged seating.  Dinner was quite entertaining; we had someone serenade their valentine, some boys went on stage and had a poetry slam, and we all enjoyed taking pictures at the photo booth. Overall, Valentines day was great!!! It's definitely one I will remember!

 On Wednesday, I was expecting to just get homework done, but that soon changed.  My friend was getting her nose pierced that day so she invited me and some girls to come along.  I was excited about this because I had actually been thinking about getting my nose pierced.  I went with my friend expecting to watch her and then maybe set up a day to do my own nose later.  However once we were at the tattoo shop and I saw my friend get hers done, everyone else convinced me to do it too.  So I went for it!  It didn't hurt as bad as I was expecting, it kind of just felt like a long pinch.  But what I wasn't expecting was blood!  Once the needle was pulled out of my nose, blood began to drip out too.  This didn't happen to my friend, so I was a bit nervous.  But the guy piercing my nose said it happens to some people.  After a minute the bleeding stopped and everything was fine.  That definitely made my day more eventful but I'm glad I got my nose pierced when I did! :-) Now I just can't wait till it's completely healed and I can change the nose ring!  Later that day after lunch, a group of us went to Howick Falls and we were able to see a huge waterfall as well as do some souvenir shopping.  It was fun to get away from campus for a bit and the waterfall was absolutely gorgeous!

On Friday, I went rock climbing!  I wasn't expecting to do this but about 20 minutes before leaving I found some friends who were planning on going, so I went too!  I love rock climbing but I haven't done it for a bit over a year.  We discovered a rock climbing gym in town that we could go to and after spending a long time finding it, we finally began climbing!  There were many options on the wall but I stuck to some of the easier ones.  I made it half way up a harder one and all the way up an easy wall.  I also got a refresher lesson on how to belay, so after that I was able to belay for some of my friends while I rested.  We spent a good hour there but next time we plan on staying longer since we know where it is already.
 

Isandlwana

Over the weekend we had a trip to see some South African battlefields planned. The place we were headed was about a 4 hour drive away so we would spend the night at a hotel on Saturday night.  Saturday morning we all jumped on a big charter bus and began our long drive to see the battlefields.  The bus ride turned out to be a lot of fun!  The seats were very comfortable surprisingly and we all had a lot of fun chatting.  About an hour into the drive, we began playing games with most of the people on the bus. We played truth or dare and make it or break it.  It was fun to play these games with everyone because everyone got really into them and we were able to get to know everyone better.  These games helped pass the time and after about 4 and a half hours on the bus we had finally arrived to the first battlefield!  Our first battlefield was Isandlwana, at this site the British attempted to attack the Zulus.  The Zulus however had seen the British coming and were able to attack them instead, which lead to their victory.  We next visited the Rorkes Drift hospital.  The few remaining British soldiers from Isandlwana escaped to this location during the battle and prepared other men for Zulu attack.  The Zulu later crossed onto British territory to attack them at this location.  The Zulu were able to defeat many British soldiers and surrounded them inside of the hospital but after a long battle

jumping on the hotel bed :)

they retreated and returned to their own land.  After visiting these two sites we arrived at our hotel for the night.  The hotel was absolutely gorgeous and is actually one of the oldest buildings in the town.  We were served an incredibly delicious meal for dinner that night and eventually went back to our rooms to sleep.  The next day we visited one more battlefield called Blood River.  At this site the Zulu attacked the Afrikaans, but prior to the battle the Afrikaans made a vow to God that they would honor that day as a Sabbath if He aided

Blood River

them in their victory.  The Zulu eventually attacked them at this location but the Afrikaans were victorious.  It was determined that 3,000 Zulu warriors died that day, which is why the river is known as blood river, but not a single Afrikaans died.  This amazing defeat blew my mind when I heard it and the Afrikaans stuck to their vow because they continue to honor that day every year.  Even though battlefields aren't the most exciting things to see, I had a fantastic weekend.  It was great to be at the places were history occurred and picture the events take place.  The places we visited were absolutely gorgeous, I had a great time on the bus ride playing games with everyone, the food was delicious, and it was great to get away for the weekend!

Since this weekend there haven't been too many adventures, but I'll keep you updated!  Hope all is well!

God Bless,
Yvette

The Most Beautiful Place on Earth

On Saturday we woke up early to go to Drakensberg and go on a hike there to see some Bushmen paintings.  I had no idea what to expect and was a bit cranky because I barely got sleep the night before.

About an hour and a half into the drive though all my feelings about the day began to change.  When we left campus it was cloudy and rainy but suddenly we passed through the clouds and the whole scenery began to change.  It was sunny now and we had made it into the mountains, where there was green grass and rolling hills everywhere.  Once I noticed this change in setting, I realized the day was about to be much better than I expected!

For the last half hour of the drive we drove through a valley with luscious green fields and hills all around us.  We drove by little villages on the way and many people were waving at us as we passed.  There was one moment where we drove by three little kids jumping on a car and waving at us.  They were so happy to see us and it overjoyed me to know how happy these kids were despite their circumstances.  I wish I could have got a picture of the kids jumping on the car but I have a feeling that will be an image that stays in my head for a long time.  We continued driving through the valley and up hillsides.  There was a beautiful clear flowing river in the middle of the valley and I was just dumbfounded that such beauty could exist.  I had already thought South Africa was gorgeous, but this drive made it even more beautiful than I thought possible.

After these breathtaking views we eventually arrived at our stopping point.  Our group split up into two groups to go on the hike to the Bushmen paintings.  So we ate lunch and then began our journey.  The hike was easy and pretty short but we took much longer than necessary because we were stopping every two minutes to take pictures of the incredible beauty.  When we made it to the caves where they have the Bushmen paintings, a guide joined us and told us a little about the paintings and the meanings behind them. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to understand her

Bushmen Cave Paintings

through her accent so there aren't any facts I can recall.  Once we saw these paintings we continued on the hike that would take us along the river and back to where we started.  When we were walking along the river, I was in a state of complete bliss.  I don't think I could have been happier!  I was at the most beautiful place I've ever been, in gorgeous sunny weather that wasn't too hot, and with incredible friends.  When we were hiking my friends and I kept talking about how we wouldn't mind if we got lost or left behind there because we would love to spend the rest of our lives living there.  Some of us stopped along the river and played in the water.  We had a fun photo shoot with someone's waterproof 

camera and used up every minute of time we had in Drakensberg. We then returned to our meeting spot just in time to use the restroom and buy some souvenirs at the gift shop before leaving.  It was sad to leave such a beautiful spot, but I told myself I’d be back someday.  The place where we hiked is called Giants Castle and they have chalets that can be rented out, so I think it would be amazing to someday return and spend a week or more there enjoying God's magnificent beauty.  I wish I could better put into words the beauty of this place but I don't think even the most carefully selected words could describe how I felt being at this gorgeous place called Drakensberg.  

Hopefully these pictures help you understand the beauty of this place but believe me even these don't compare to the real thing.

 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!  Most of them were taken by friends but I figured I would show you the ones that best exemplify the beauty of Drakensberg.

God Bless,

Yvette

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

We are now half way through the academic portion of our time here in South Africa.  We only do our main classes for 6 weeks and then the rest of the time is service learning and touring around.  I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks! And it's been more than a week since I've posted on this blog so lets get to it...

Most of last week and this week I've been busy with homework during the weekdays but weekends are always full of adventure and sometimes our weeknights can get adventurous too!

Adorable Cuttle Fish!

Saturday we went to uShaka Marine World!! uShaka is in Durban so it was about an hour drive away but it was well worth it!  We began our day at uShaka by visiting some sea animals and going to the aquarium.  There were many cute sea creatures and even some scary ones.  When we were in the aquarium, we were looking at some fish and noticed that some people were scuba diving and snorkeling with them.  We decided we wanted to do this! So we made plans to go snorkeling after lunch and headed to the water park.  The water park was so fun and we went on a really hot day too, so it was perfect to cool off on water slides.  uShaka has the tallest water slide in the Southern Hemisphere so clearly I had to go on it!  I was a bit nervous about this at first because once you get up there you realize just how high

highest water slide is on the far left :)

up you are but I went for it!  It was really thrilling but most of the way down I was getting water splashed in my face and once I reached the bottom... major wedgie! Haha, but luckily I had shorts on :-)  Anyways we went on many more slides later and went through the lazy river.  We had lunch and then headed over to snorkel with the fishies.  Once we paid and got out snorkeling gear the guide just said to get in and he would call us when it was time to get out.  We paid for 30 minutes so that was plenty of time.  The place we snorkeled was huge and we were so excited to explore and see all the fish.  About 2 minutes in, all 4 of us popped our heads out of the water and yelled "shark!"  We didn't realize it but there were many sharks in the water we were snorkeling in.  We were a little frightened at first but

Sharks we were snorkeling with

realized the sharks weren't too big and everything would be okay.  So we continued exploring for well over 30 minutes, until we decided it was time to get out.  Swimming with sharks was definitely the highlight of my day!  After we finished we all went down to the beach for the hour we had left.  I instantly got in the water with some friends because I was so excited to touch the Indian Ocean for the first time.  The water was surprisingly warm and I loved it!  One of my friends was surfing and he let me try.  My first time trying to catch a wave, I got one and was able to get up on my knees.  It was so fun and I'm determined to stand up next time!  I think I'll be renting a surfboard next time we go to the beach :)

SNORKELING!

Indian Ocean :)

Playing games at the Braii

After we got back that night, some of us went to a Braii.  A Braii is a South African barbeque.  Some people from one of the churches was putting on this Braii for us, so about ten of us went out to their home that night.  It was great to meet new people and hang out with people who live here in South Africa.  We've been spending so much time with just our group lately that it was so refreshing to finally see what life is like for people my age that live here.  We ate some

Hanging out with new friends :)

delicious foods at the Braii and all played a group game similar to "catch phrase."  I got to know some girls that go to the church I would be going to on Sunday.  Somehow we got talking
and they decided to teach me and some friends how to drive on the left side of the road while we were here.  Sadly to accomplish this task I will also need to learn how to drive a manual car but I'm so excited to learn and will hopefully be doing it in a few days!

Sunday we went to church.  This was the last church out of my three options that I haven't been to and I really enjoyed it.  It was nice because it was smaller then the church I went to the previous week but it wasn't as different as the one I went to the first week.  I think I will be sticking with this church because it is the perfect combination of the other two churches.  I feel like this church will challenge me, provide me with great spiritual growth and they also have a great community of people I'm excited to get to know.  After church we went back to campus and had a volleyball tournament.  My team lost our game but we were just playing for fun and definitely not expecting to get far.  We'll see how we do in the loser's bracket next week though.

During the week I got busy on homework and studying!  I had a 7 page paper due Friday and a Midterm to do by Saturday, so my brain got a bit fried.  However this still left time for some adventures during study breaks.

RivLife :-)

On Tuesday we visited a new service site called RivLife and I fell in love with it! I have just been so moved by all these visits to service sites and can't wait to take part in them.  At RivLife they help children without parental support develop skills to get far in life.  They help them with homework, play with them, and teach them any skills that could help them out.  At the site we walked into a room filled with little kids and I was brought to tears by their joy.  I sat down with the kids and didn't want to leave after seeing them.  One of the ladies in charge asked us when we were coming and I wish I could have said "now".  I know we will help when we are done with classes but it just saddens me to know that they need us now and we don't have time to help them.  Even though I loved RivLife, we are visiting one more service site next week and I know I will be happy to serve wherever I end up.

I also went to Home Groups on Tuesday night.  Home Groups is a group of college age students from one of the churches here that get together each week for a Bible study.  This was my first time going and it was great to meet a lot of new people again.  I really enjoyed having this interaction with South African's my age and will definitely be going again!

My delicious dessert at Ladies Night

Having fun in the mall :)

Thursday night, most of us ladies went out for dessert after dinner because it was 50% off at a restaurant in the mall.  It was fun going out and getting away from campus for a bit.  After dessert some of us girls ran around the mall and took pictures on the kiddy rides.
 
And then it was Friday... I finished my 7 page paper on Thursday and got that turned in, then I studied most of the day for my Midterm and took it after dinner.  I'm not sure how well I did on my midterm, but I'll take what I got.  It was difficult because it's for my online class I'm taking so I didn't feel as prepared as I usually do for tests.  Then that night we had a D-Group hang out.  D-Groups stands for Discipleship Groups and it's basically small groups that get together each week to talk about issues and encourage each other in their spiritual growth.  At our hang out us girls had a blast talking about random things and then we even got to hear a couple of life stories.  I love hearing and telling life stories because it helps everyone get down on the same level and truly understand each other.  After the hang out I was planning on going to bed but some of us decided to go on an adventure.  We were trying to decide what to do and then somehow the idea of going on the slip n slide came up so we brought out the slip n slide and had fun sliding around in the middle of the night.  When we were done slipping and sliding we went down to the waterfall to rinse off and the water was surprisingly warm!  This was a great way to end the week and start the weekend!

I'll try to post more often this week but until next time!

God Bless,
Yvette

Settling in...

Now that the first week of classes has finished, I've began to settle in to this new lifestyle.  I'm excited for the classes I'll be taking this semester but I'm also dreading the assignments coming up.  Well it will all be over soon and at least my classes are interesting.  We have all settled in to our living situations now and it's been fun getting to know the girls in my chalet better.  Just to explain we all live in chalets on campus and each one has 4 bedrooms with a big bathroom to share.  I share my chalet with my roommate, Yui, and 5 other girls.  This week it was pretty easy to tell that we've began settling in because everyone has been waking up later in comparison to the first week and people are showing up to breakfast later too.  Aside from getting used to life here, we haven't had too many adventures, although we did have a fun weekend!

This weekend we celebrated two birthdays and also got to explore Pietermaritzburg a bit.  On Saturday, we woke up early and headed to the African Bird of Prey Sanctuary.  Before arriving at the sanctuary though, we stopped at the Pietermaritzburg train station.  We stopped at this train station because it is in fact the train station that Gandhi got thrown off of in 1893.  During that year, on the night of June 7th, Gandhi was riding first class on a train and he got harassed by officers because he was not white.  He was asked to sit in the other cabin because first class was only for whites even though Gandhi bought a first class ticket.  When Gandhi refused to move he was removed from the train at the Pietermaritzburg station and spent the night in jail.  This event fueled his fight against racial oppression and thus changed the course of history. At the train station we were told about the importance of the site and the story of why Gandhi was removed from the train, then we were able to take pictures before we went on our way.

So Cute! I want one!

Some of us girls at the Bird of Prey Sanctuary.

At the Sanctuary we got to see many different birds of prey, which basically means they hunt for food.  They had owls, eagles, kites, hawks, vultures and other birds I can't remember the names of.  When we got to the Sanctuary we were given time to walk around and look at all the birds.  My favorite birds were the owls and there was one owl in particular that I absolutely fell in love with.  It was a tiny owl, that was just a little bigger than my fist.  This owl was so cute, I wish I could have had it as a pet to cuddle up with but clearly that wouldn't be possible since it is an owl.  After seeing the lovely creatures we got to see a show, where one of the workers at the sanctuary talked about the birds and showed us some of their talents.  It was incredible to see how far and fast some of these birds could fly.  One thing that I found interesting was that in South Africa, they have more birds of prey than any other country in the world and you can often see some while driving around.  The show was very interesting and the sanctuary was in a gorgeous location above a valley.  When the show ended we hanged around and then we got to see the vulture feeding.  This was quite scary actually.  When we arrived at the vulture enclosure, the vultures were already screeching for food and fighting each other to be closest to the door.  When the worker finally arrived, she threw a huge chunk of meat in for the vultures and they became savages fighting each other over every little piece of meat.  I had never seen anything like this before and I was able to realize the impression I had of vultures before was actually quite accurate.  When the feeding frenzy was over we all returned to the buses to head to campus for lunch.

The Guys

The Girls

After lunch we went on one more adventure.  We went to a lookout called World's View.  This lookout allows you to see over all of Pietermaritzburg and it is also part of the original road that was taken by the South African pioneers.  At the lookout we spent most of our time taking pictures and looking at the incredible view!

Me and the Birthday Girl

When we got back from the lookout we had some time to spare before we went out to dinner to celebrate Janet's birthday.  Janet is one of the CLCs here, which stands for Community Life Coordinator.  She's basically like an RA, but she does much much more and she also a fabulous friend!  So for her 24th birthday, we all decided to go out to dinner and celebrate.  There was more than 50 of us going to the restaurant, so we clearly had to make reservations and order ahead of time.  Luckily, the restaurant did a fabulous job at accommodating us.  It did take a while for some of us to get our food, but what do you expect when you're in a group with 50+ people.  We spent a long time at the restaurant but it was fun hanging out and at 8 o'clock a DJ came and some of the boys had fun dancing to the beat.  Overall it was a great night out to be with everyone and celebrate a lovely new friends birthday!

The next day we went to church.  There are three different churches that we have the choice of going to, last week I went to Leizel and Reagan's church (they are both CLCs).  This week I decided to go to Janet's church.  I really enjoyed the church service and it reminded me a lot of church at home.  Which can be both good and bad, I think it was good because I was able to get a lot out of the sermon since it was a familiar style of service but it's also bad because I felt like I wasn't in South Africa and didn't experience any cultural differences.  So far, I think I will be going to this church though because even though it didn't feel much different then church at home, I was able to get a lot more out of it then I did at the other church.  But next week I'll be going to one more different church and then I'll decide from there which one I choose to stay at.  Everyone at church was so nice and after the service they brought us coffee and cake as we talked with some people. 

After church we had the rest of the day free but I decided to go to the mall with some others.  I had been to the mall a lot the previous week but every time we went I didn't have enough time to buy anything so finally we were going for a good 2 hours.  At the mall, I already knew what I wanted but I had time to try stuff on and also look in other stores.  It was a successful shopping trip and now I don't plan on going again for a while.

Gangsta Dance Party

Sunday night we had a dance party planned for one of the guys in our group's birthday, Enoch.   The theme of the party was Gangsta, so we all dressed up in our most gangsta clothes and had a blast dancing for hours.  Everyone had a great time at the party and we got to see some incredible dance moves!

Monday we went back to classes, I only had one class Monday though so I spent the rest of the day reading outside and doing homework.  It's been really hot and sunny here, and since there's no air conditioning the best way to stay cool is to go outside in the breeze or if your room is cool you can stay in there.  I chose to spend the day outside and take advantage of the gorgeous weather, even if it is hot.  Luckily, it isn't humid like it was when we first got here though, because then I don't know how enjoyable this heat would be.  Well Monday I got most of my homework done and what I didn't finish then, I finished after classes on Tuesday. Although, I still have much more work to do by Friday because we will be busy again this weekend.  On Saturday we are going to uShaka Marine World in Durban, which is basically a water park, amusement park, aquarium, and sea world all in one.  I'm so excited to see the sea animals and also be able to cool of on some fun rides, but until I can do that I have to finish my homework!  So that is what I will be doing all day today, homework! I miss you all and hope everyone is doing well!

God Bless,
Yvette