South Africa Ministry - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Our third month of ministry was in Jeffrey’s Bay (also known as J-Bay), South Africa. For the first time on the race team Meraki would be doing ministry on it’s own! Traveling to J-Bay was quite the adventure. We left Swaziland around 7am and took a 5 hour bus ride to Durban, South Africa. We were then met by the ministry host of one of our other teams who would be serving in J-Bay as well. His name is Lindon, and he had kindly arranged transportation for the 2 teams staying with him, as well as our team, and a forth team that served in Port Elizabeth. The travel time from Durban to J-Bay was about 23 hours! In total we traveled for about 28 hours.

Our ministry host was Willie. He and his wife run a Christian Camp in Jeffrey’s Bay. When we first heard the word camp, we all jumped to images of tents, campfires, and bucket showers. However, this was not the case. The camp has several very nice cabins or vacation homes, as well as several bunk houses. They frequently have different youth groups or organizations stay on the property for activities like retreats.

While we did stay on the property for the month, our ministry was actually with Ithemba. Ithemba is associated with a local church and runs what we would call a Pre-School/ Kindergarten program in the morning, and then has students from the local primary and Junior High grades come for tutoring in the afternoon.

Everyone on the team split up and was assigned to work with a teacher in different rooms. I worked with the 3 year olds in the morning. It was pretty neat because my good friend Carmen has been teaching me a little bit of Dutch. One of the languages in South Africa is Afrikans, which is similar to Dutch. Carmen had taught me my numbers and the days of the week in Dutch, and so it was easy to learn them in Afrikans. My 3 year olds were learning their numbers and days of the week in both English and Afrikans, so I got to teach them in 2 different languages! We also learned our shapes, and they’re favorite one to say was ‘Pentagon!’

In the afternoon I worked with kids who ranged from Grade 3 to Grade 7. Most days we worked on homework such as reading and writing in English or Math. The three girls liked to sit at one table and the 6 boys sat at another table, so I had to split my time evenly with each group, which led to lots of laughter. We did get to take them on a field trip one afternoon. We walked the kids down to the beach, where we collected sea shells that were going to be used as decoration for the pre-school/ kindergarten graduation. I absolutely loved working with these kids, and they will always hold a special place in my heart.

October is actually spring time in South Africa, so the kids were getting ready to be finished with they’re school year. Ithemba finishes in mid November, so they were preparing the kids for the big program and graduation ceremony. We had lots of fun helping the kids prepare and watching them practice their different songs that they would be performing.

Since they finish before Christmas and don’t return to school until January, the school puts together a big early Christmas party and picnic. During the afternoons of our first 2 weeks there, we decorated over 250 brown paper bags for the kids’ presents. This involved LOTS of glue and glitter.

At the end of the month (it also happened to be Carmen’s birthday) all the kids got to come over to the camp site for the big party and picnic. The little kids came first during the morning. We had put together a rotation of games for the kids to play. This included their version of Duck, Duck, Goose, musical chairs, an obstacle course, and the cookie face game from minute to win it. Willie also arranged for a bounce house and slip and slide to be set up. After we played games for a bit, the kids got to eat hot dogs for lunch and have a Christmas cup cake for dessert. For the grand finale, we got to hand our the Christmas presents to each of the kids.

We had about an hour and a half break between when our younger kids left and when the older kids we tutored would arrive. And so in honor of Carmen’s 22nd birthday, the four of us girls (Mariah, Bailey, Carmen, and myself) got into our swim suits, loudly played Taylor Swift’s ‘I’m feeling 22,’ and spent a good half hour sliding down the slip and slide. Because really, you’re never to old for a slip and slide!

Our older kids that we tutored arrived later that afternoon, and we had just as much fun with them as we did the little kids. All in all it was a great way to celebrate Christmas in October with our kiddos.

It was a full month of ministry, but we also took some time for adventure! As many of you already saw, I bungee jumped! On our first day off, Carmen talked me into jumping off the tallest bungee jump bridge in the world. It was quite the experience, a definite adrenaline rush, but I’m not sure I will be rushing to do it again. At the end of the month we received the opportunity to travel to Cape Town for a few days. For Halloween I was able to visit Table Mountain. From the top you get the most incredible view of Cape Town. We also got to visit the penguins of South Africa. That’s right, there are penguins in South Africa! I can’t even tell you how often people ask me if there are penguins in Alaska- there’s not, but they do live in Cape Town, South Africa. While I was in Cape Town, I also had the opportunity to visit Robbin Island. This is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for over 20 years. It was truly an amazing experience.

It was so hard to say good bye to everyone at the end of the month. We all really fell in love with the teachers and our kiddos at Ithemba school. I will forever be grateful for the month we shared with them.