God's Parade of Marvelous Creatures

So I have officially been initiated into Africa, or that’s what everyone calls it here. Back home we normally just call it a stomach bug. Apparently everyone gets it around the first week or two that they are here, adjusting to the water, food and atmosphere, etc. I got it Wednesday night and it was very disappointing because we were going to have Braii (barbeque) chicken for dinner. Needless to say I didn’t eat anything for dinner or breakfast or lunch the next day. I am almost back to normal I suppose, I couldn’t fully enjoy the McDonalds we had today though. That’s right I said it, we had McDonald’s today for lunch and it tasted…almost the same. Close enough for me to be glad I wasn’t eating our base food :). Here are some pictures of our base, I know my family has been dying to see these.

Our base sign :)

Where I live

Our Classroom with paintings that one of our leaders, Anneke, painted

Most of the girls on my team, from left to right...
Shayla, Kelly, Breanna, Me, Marcella, Pinkie (in front), Laney (in back)

So besides the sickness, orientation week went well. Kinda slow. Just basics about what we are going to be doing and the culture, etc. Monday starts full swing of classes, community outreaches and work duties from 8 am – 6pm. My work duty is kitchen clean up or prep, but I think I might do clean up every week because then I will have free time from 4-6 instead of prepping for dinner. I’m sure my family is in shock right now, considering I just said I would rather do dishes everyday then prepare food. On Thursday we actually had a chance to go into the villages and visit the places we would be doing community outreach at. They are two different houses where we will go and feed children in the afternoons. I couldn’t enjoy interacting with the kids because I was still sick and it was very hot so hopefully this week I can have a good time with the children. Yesterday we went to Kruger National Park on a Safari. Before we went into the park one of our leaders, Rich, prayed that God would parade his marvelous creatures for us to see. And that is exactly what happened. We saw lions, zebras, giraffes, warthogs, elephants, rhinos, water buffalo, wild dogs, hyenas, impalas, baboons, monkeys, bats, crocodile, and hippos. Here are a few of the animals that came out to greet us.

We also went swimming while at the park so I have a nice little tan going. That’s right Kyli, be jealous. Haha. And to end our wonderful day we went out for pizza, it was delicious. We are really roughing it over here as you can tell. Well that’s all for tonight. Tomorrow is church and Monday starts our first official week and guest speaker. Please keep praying for my team that God will guide us as our weeks progress and there are quite a few people here not feeling well so please pray for healing and protection for everyone at our base. Thank ya’ll for all your love and support.