South Africa is a large country with a rich, complicated history. Along with the Zulu and many other tribal histories, many people are also descendants of British, Dutch, German, French, and other European immigrants, or immigrated more recently from Asia and the Middle East. It was an amazingly interesting mix of cultures that was somewhat confusing for us at first but was really fun to learn.
We stayed near the city of Durban. Although Durban is directly on the coast with a beautiful beach, we lived on top of a small mountain 20 minutes away. For me it was the best of both worlds and a dream come true! I woke up to the crisp air and a beautiful misty mountain view every morning but on days off the beach was easily within reach.
The languages we experienced in South Africa were super fun. Although there are many, we were mostly around Africanz and Zulu. Africanz is a language basically derived of several European languages (mainly Dutch, French, and German) with added influence from local tribal dialects. It sounds both familiar and distinct at the same time. A good example is the South African roiboos tea which we were told Americans always pronounce wrong lol. It means “red bush” in Africanz and should be pronounced roy-BOSE. They told us our typical American pronunciation actually means “red bus” in Africanz… So now you know 🙂
Zulu is one of the more prominent local tribes and spoken languages. It was fun to learn because it has a few of the clicking sounds we Americans aren’t used to. (But not so many as to be overwhelming lol) We spent a good part of our month practicing different clicking sounds just to be able to pronounce people’s names.
My favorite South African food was “bunny chow.” The name really makes no sense and no one could tell me why they call it that. It’s basically curry (with veggies and whatever kind of meat you want) in a hallowed out loaf of bread. The first time we ate it, we got a full sized, not realizing just how big it would be. It was a standard sized loaf of bread like you would buy in the grocery store, except not sliced. We split it between 3 people and still couldn’t finish it!
Our ministry in South Africa was at a long-term child foster care program called LIV Village. LIV Village was an experience all its own and we loved being there. It’s an amazing ministry that takes local orphans or at risk children, places them within homes with a Mother and families, teaches them about God’s love as a Father, and gives them an education. All this is done on site, within the safety of the village. Although LIV is still a young ministry thy are very well organized and established. It was a truly inspiring thing to be a part of for the month.
The Village itself was made up of clusters of houses built to resemble neighborhood house clusters to encourage community, a school, a small medical clinic, staff and volunteer housing, an office building, a social services building, and also a good sized gym they use for basketball, church, and events.
LIV focuses on community, not just with the children, but among staff as well. Our team was so blessed by the welcome we received there. It truly felt like we belonged there as we were whole heartedly included in daily life. We enjoyed Bible studies, movie nights, going away parties, and even got to attend a wedding!
We stayed in a house with several other volunteers and it was so much fun. It felt like a huge apartment or a dorm with awesome roommates. Some were South African, some were English, and there was even one other American. Everyone was amazing and we made a lot of new friends. A lot of nights people would stop by to hang out or watch movies. There was never a dull moment.
Our individual duties at LIV were very different. Some of our team worked in the marketing department, some worked to help distribute food among houses, some worked on child portfolios in the school. Wherever we could help fill in the gaps, we jumped in to help! I spent a good amount of time organizing a new filing system in their social services office. It sounds mind numbingly boring to some, I know, but I love filing and had a lot of fun learning the complicated behind the scenes work involved in this sort of an organization.
Personally, I struggled some with my health while there. I had severe headaches and spent several days in bed, unable to do ministry. I was blessed to be able to visit the clinic on site completely free of charge. The doctor basically told me the headaches were stress related. Apparently having your entire life change every month for 10 months in a row can cause some stress lol. The muscles in my back and neck had begun seizing up. Probably because of constant change to sleeping patterns and locations, as well as long travel days once a month. (This trip is NOT easy on your body!) So I now have stretches and random exercises I have to do every day to keep my neck muscles from freaking out.
I was happy to know it wasn’t anything too serious but also frustrated there wasn’t a quicker fix. Being told just to rest sounds like an obvious answer but it’s difficult to rest when all I want is to finish strong. And it’s never easy to be the one cutting out of ministry when the rest of your team is still working hard. But I was blessed to be in a location and ministry that allowed me to rest like I needed to.
In all, South Africa was a beautiful country and a truly GREAT month. It is one of the countries I will DEFINITELY visit again.
