Month 7. The end of 2015, the beginning of 2016. My second African country.
South Africa.
I can’t believe that as I’m writing this blog, it was already two months ago that I was there. I am sorry for the delayed blog, but due the wifi situation last month I was unable to post a blog with pictures. This month, I will be doing a summary blog on Swaziland as well.
I already shared about my team’s beginning in South Africa and the warm welcome we all received which was the perfect beginning into the New Year. After we spent time with our Pretoria friends, we head to where we would live and do ministry for the month-a city named Bloemfontein.
Our ministry was called Eden Christian Ministries. Eden is a place for those whom are mentally impaired, homeless or is simply down on their luck. We stayed on site with our contacts and the residents-and here’s a perk-we all had our OWN rooms! (Super extremely rare on the World Race.) Our contacts names were Ralph and Rhoda and they have two beautiful girls.
When we arrived, they were extremely under staffed. The cook, the receptionist and the Creche (day care) worker all quit at around the same time. They only had one nurse that helped take care of all the patients. My team was literally an answer to the prayers and arrived right on time, which only God can orchestrate.
My first week there, I helped with my team mates, Lacey and Sam, in the kitchen and we prepared breakfast, lunch and dinner for over 100 residents. It was a lot of hard work, and it was very fast paced. I gained so much more respect for people who work in large cafeterias as a daily job. They have to be some of the hardest workers out there.
The week after that, I worked in the Creche and basically did different activities with the kids and just watched after them. There are two pre-teen girls that live at Eden that went to the Creche, our contacts’ daughters and a couple other kids. Most of the kids could speak English, but three of them only spoke Sutu so that was interesting! That was probably my favorite week of ministry in South Africa.
Our last week, within the last few days, miracles happened. A new cook and receptionist was hired and nursing students started helping out there and would be there for the next three months. God provides in amazing ways and Ralph and Rhoda had no doubt that He would! The faith that they had in God was amazing and inspiring.
The residents that live at Eden are lovely people. Some of their stories are absolutely heart breaking. The two girls that I mentioned that lived there, were dropped off by a family member and they never returned for them. There are others that are similar.
The ministry there offers so much hope to the residents. There is a stigma in South Africa towards people who have mental illnesses, and sometimes children that have a mental illness is not allowed to attend school and sometimes they are even looked down upon at churches. At Eden, they have their own church service and all the residents love it.
Also, they have their own land outside of the city. Even though Bloemfontein was experiencing a horrible drought, they had enough water saved up to nourish their land. They grew their own vegetables and provided most of their own meat. Their goal is to become self-dependent and not dependent on simply just donations from the community. One day, they took us to their land and showed us their vegetables and their animals. We also had a South African Braai there! It was so awesome!
On most of our off days, we would go to a mall that was within walking distance called The Waterfront. It was a nice mall to hang out at and get wifi. One Sunday, we watched Star Wars! It was awesome. Also, Bloemfontein just happened to be the birth place of J.R. Tolkein and they have a hotel commemorated to him called The Hobbit Hotel. My team mates, Clare and Mary Catherine, and I were able to go and check it out. It was awesome!
My favorite weekend in South Africa was a quick trip to Muizenberg/Cape Town. The start of the journey was a little rough, because we had to wait around five hours for a working bus to even start our trip…but it was worth the wait and only being there for 24 hours! Muizenberg and Cape Town are two of the most beautiful places my eyes have ever been graced to see.
Another perk, some of our squad mates were staying there so we got to visit and stay the night with them. That was a highlight because we had not seen them since the end of Month 5! We ate at a nice restaurant, chatted, and went to look at the beach. It was an amazing opportunity.
The next day, we had an amazing breakfast at a place called The Blonde and Beard. Afterwards, we went to the Muizenberg YWAM base to check out and had the opportunity to chat with the gentleman that runs the YWAM base in Germany. After that, we walked back to the hostel the other team was staying at to retrieve our stuff and we witnessed a girl have her purse stolen from her by two guys in a car. They drove off quickly, as we heard a girl scream. She was visibly upset, obviously, and we ran over to see what was wrong. She explained to us what had happened and we felt so bad for her. Her purse had her ID, credit cards AND passport in it. There were people that knew who to contact, so we left her in their care. That was definitely a crazy thing to see.
After that, we said our goodbyes to our friends and ventured into Cape Town to go to Table Top Mountain. We took a Cable Car up to the top and it was an incredible, breath taking view. Table Top Mountain is a World Wonder, and being there, you’d have no doubt why it’s titled one.
At the end of the month, we had Month 7 Debrief in Durban. We stayed in a really nice hotel and it was SO nice to see all of the squad after not seeing them in so long! We also got to see Kent and Erika, our Month 1-5 squad leaders, which was incredible! It was nice to go to the sessions, process through different things, and spend time with friends that aren’t on my team. Speaking of which-my team had a slight change. Two people left, and two people joined. We are called Team Captivating now!
My “adventure” during debrief was going shark diving. It would’ve been 100% awesome if I wasn’t puking almost the entire time….and even still, it was still cool seeing sharks so close. I do know, however, I will not be doing something like that again….being sea sick is NOT fun!
In conclusion, South Africa was awesome. I am hoping to return one day in the future, Lord willing!
I love and miss you all!
Sincerely,
Meraia
