I’ve made it to South Africa! Travel days were crazy. It took us five days with two layovers, one 26 hour layover in Canada where I got to see my family and an 14 hour layover in Germany. Then once in South Africa we had an 18 hour bus ride to Jeffery’s Bay where I am living for the next three months. These past couple of weeks have been crazy as I’ve been packing up my life and moving to a whole new culture and environment.
I love my ministry a lot. I’m working at Global Leadership Academy. For the past week and half I’ve been doing construction work alongside the two other teams that were sent to this ministry host also. My team, Testify, works alongside team Sisters and Mosaic. The other teams on our squad are elsewhere in South Africa. Each Wednesday my team goes to an orphanage and takes the kids out. Then in the afternoon we go back to working construction. We work 8 hours a day and then have dinner and team time somewhere in there.
Team time is different each night but that can consist of… worshiping, journey markers (hard questions making you think on your life and relationship with God), blogging, feedback, debriefing the week, and then a night of just bonding together in some way.
We live in a log cabin. It has a sad story that has been redeemed by God to it. I know a couple girls in my team are writing about it so I’ll just share it on Facebook if you’re interested in hearing it. So touching and definitely something I’d recommend hearing.
The people here are amazing. I love my ministry host a lot. She’s an ambitious woman who has started several businesses in the area. We work alongside two guys named Molder and Nicky who look out for us. They are super hard working. Others who are super influential here is Wendy and her family. (The story of our home has to do with them! They are a super strong family!) Wendy makes our meals during the week and is an amazing cook! Super thankful to have her here.
Y’all there’s a 5k right in my backyard every Saturday morning at 8 here. And it’s free too!! Couldn’t be happier about it either!! We live next to the Global School and they host it or something like that. It’s called a Park Run and I guess it’s a thing all over the world which is super cool. I ran it last Saturday and plan to each Saturday I’m here. It’s so hot though with no shade. Just the African sun beating down!
Speaking of the weather! It’s really hot here. The sun is super strong and most will burn. The wind is crazy here. Yesterday the wind was going at 50 miles/hour. We had to cancel afternoon construction work because of the dust blowing into our eyes and all the supplies blowing away. I about blew away haha
My WiFi situation has been interesting here. I don’t have a place anywhere close to get it. The closest place is a McDonald’s but it’s timed to 30 minutes and then it kicks you off. Most places you have to buy vouchers. So posting blogs and FaceTiming home is a challenge. I love not being in social media though and don’t miss that aspect of WiFi at all!!
Taxis are scary here. The cars aren’t marked and they all look different so there’s really no way to tell but to trust. And there’s no Uber here. I haven’t used a taxi yet. I tried but it didn’t work out so well. The theft is also really high here. Going into town makes me nervous for some reason because of it. One of the days I went to the grocery and a man tried to take my bag. It turned out pretty harmless but wasn’t my cup of tea. We were also told that that day people’s phones had been taken. When walking in a store on the busy days there are security guards who take your bags from you, tape them, and watch them while you shop.
Life’s pretty normal. This Sunday I’m going to start attending a church here. It’s a 20 minute walk from our house called Victory. I’m trying to get back into running here. There’s a rugby field by the school I run laps around.
I think that’s one thing that’s struck me the most so far about my travels. Everyone lives. I mean obviously, but I think I glorified other countries and thought of pure excitement. Which I think it is when traveling for vacation, and don’t get m wrong my life is still pretty exciting but each country isn’t as exotic as pictures may look. It’s just different way of living but it’s still living and people don’t live that much differently than the US. Oh and everyone wants to be in the US! That’s the number one comment I’ve gotten from everyone. They all want to live and work here. People think the US is the bomb and I’d have to agree. I love our country and being gone has opened my eyes to how truly blessed I am.
My thoughts are randomly put, but here’s bits of my life and thoughts. Miss you all!
-Destiny Rae
