I haven’t updated for a while. I started blogs 2 times before this, but either fell asleep or it didn’t publish due to internet issues. So, I’ll catch you up.
On Friday Shawna, Jodye and I went to 2 schools to see how they run schools here. The rest of the team dug in and did projects around the church. They covered the stage, redid the bathroom, and a few other things. Grace, one of the pastors from the area, got permission to bring the 3 of us to the schools.
The first one we went to was Greenhill Primary School. The grades run up to grade 7. The kids are really intelligent and well behaved. They were excited about us visiting them. One of the class rooms won a contest for Bic. They colored alot of Bic Men and hung them in a row. The prize was 10,000 Rand for their school and another 10,000 Rand for the charity of their choice. Pretty neat. That class showed us some of their textbooks and sang a song to us. So cute. After the tour, they served us tea and Samoosas while we talked about differences in the schools. It’s amazing how little money the government gives the school for books and supplies.
The second school was EPS Secondary School. It runs from grade 8 and up. This school was not doing as well as the primary school. Even though the primary school didn’t have much, they were doing great with what they had. The secondary school was falling apart. Literally. It’s a pretty old school that used to be really nice, but then the community started robbing from them and vandalizing the place. One of the robberies ended up burning their library, computer lab and most of one building. The building hasn’t been repaired since then and is just abandoned. The community has gone so far as stealing the wiring from the school. They no longer have electricity. No lights, computers or anything. The thing that amazed us was that while we were there (lunchtime) they had a building that the students were going to to hold church service. They were shocked to learn that America (“the Christian country” as one lady called it) has taken Christianity out of schools.
When we returned, we hurriedly set up for VBS. It went much better than the day before. We had a lot of fun doing it, but it was exhausting. After dinner, we did a youth service for the teenagers. When I talked to a few of them afterward, they were saying how much they’d love to go to America. 
They were all really sweet.
Yesterday we started off with our carnival. It was so much fun. They kids loved the prizes and games. I worked with Magnus and he was cracking me up. He was trying to do a voice like a side show announcer and ended up souding Italian. The kids loved him! We then fed them hot dogs and juice before they headed home. We all wanted to see where the kids lived so Pastor Adiel brought us to Shadagashly (I probably butchered that spelling), the shanty town they live in. It was very humbling. These kids and adults made their houses out of any materials they could find. They aren’t allowed to have a foundation or bricks (since they are not permanent residences per the government), but they take any rocks, mud, and wood they can find to build the structures. It was neat to see how they worked things. The kids help out with chores, like the trek to the water or laundry. When we got to the water hydrant (the government gives them this and another faucet to get water), guess who walked up? Asanda! Go figure! She was walking with her friend to get water. We passed them and headed through the village some more but they still caught up to us. Asanda showed me her house when we were passing it. I only saw the roof, but it was weird to think she lived there.
When we left the village, we had to go up a steep hill that nearly killed me. But that made me love this team more. A few were very encouraging and helped each other (mostly with jokes). I nearly collapsed when we got back to the church, but I had to pull myself together fairly quickly in order to go to the mall. It was like any mall you’d see in the US. I bought a book of phrases from the 11 languages of Africa. I’ve been trying to pronounce some of the words (including learning some clicking), but I get giggles from the kids.
Last night we had our first service of our Purpose Driven Life crusade. It went really well. Dennis taught, but a few of us fell asleep during it. Thank God he’d excused us since he knew how exhausted we were. As tired as we were, the guys, Taylor and I still stayed up for awhile joking around. We were laughing so hard, my cheeks hurt. I crashed when I finally laid down.
It was really hard getting up this morning, but we dragged ourselves from the comfy beds. Actually, they aren’t comfortable. They’re actually really hard. But when you’re this tired, you’ll sleep on the ground and be comfy. Service this morning was really good. Matt Minor taught this one.
We are currently waiting for lunch to be ready, then we are heading back to AE to nap/quiet time. Tonight we finish the crusade with Matt Vogel and Dennis teaching. I’m looking forward to tomorrow because we’re supposed to go to a drive through safari and the Indian Ocean!!!!
