We have made it to Swaziland! And I only have one word to describe it as of
now…..FREEZING….and we have only been here for 36 hours!! It is literally freezing outside. Just to give you an idea, we were getting
ready to land into Johannesburg, South Africa and the pilot came on the loud
speaker to tell us the temp. and said,
“It is 1 degree Celsius in Joburg and we will be landing in
approximately 26 minutes.” You
should have heard all 41 of us World Racers.
That is 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
FREZZING.
It doesn’t help that we have been in
80-100 degree weather for the last 6 months and have been living in our own
pools of sweat. We are now making a drastic change to freezing cold
weather. We were all in our
shorts/t-shits/and flip-flops on the plane and we were quickly met by the cold
as soon as our feet stepped off the plane into the terminal. Our first day in South Africa was spent being
sick, sleeping in a building with no heat and holes in the wall, and shopping
for warmer clothes. We then got on a van
the next day to head to Swaziland where we hoped it would be a little
warmer. No such luck. Our wardrobes have gone from hot summer
clothes to winter clothes, which mainly consists of layers of hot summer
clothes and the few things we were able to by at the local Mr. Price store. Needless to say we were unprepared. Myself included. Layering has become my friend, as well as dry
cracked skin, a crusty nose and frozen fingers and toes. Oh, the life of a World Racer.
People have always asked me in the past
would you rather be hot or cold. Now
that I have experienced them both within a 36 hour period, I would have to say
my answer is hot. Why? Because hot
doesn’t hurt, it is just uncomfortable.
When you live in places with minimal utilities such as aircon or heat
and begin to fully experience the elements, you look at things little differently!!
I was soon reminded that my comfort is
just something that i will have to continue to get over. When we arrived in Swaziland and found out
that it was even colder I knew I was in for an interesting month! The lady that stamped my passport asked how
I was doing and I simply replied, I’m cold.
She took one look at me and said, “Well you know it is winter
right?” See the thing is, I didn’t
expect that winter would be this cold in Africa! Another expectation blown away….thanks World
Race! : )
This month we are working at an orphanage
called El Shaddai that has about 60 kids ranging from 2-20. It is so beautiful here!! There are
mountains as far as the eye can see, a river running through the range,
and spectacular sunsets every night.
Little did we know that when we left Nepal we would be going to another
beautiful place straight out of a postcard.
God is definitely Good. When we
got up this morning we were in the clouds.
It had rained the night before and the fog was right outside of our door.
You couldn’t see anything. It was
magical! Already in the first week we
have started digging a hole 6 feet X 6 feet X 6feet that will be used to hold
sewage, we have raked lots of leaves in the wind, we have cleaned out and
around an old camper that is being used as a play house, moved gravel and
cinderblocks from one place to another, dug in a huge pile of trash for cans,
cooked dinner a few times for 16 people, helped make fire breaks around the
property by actually starting a contained fire and played and helped kids with
homework. We will continue all these
tasks as well as start some new ones. We
are supposed to start building a house for an older man in town, go and talk at
a school, as well as a few other things here and there. It is a very physically demanding month, so
many of us are already sick and sore.
Please pray for the health of our two teams while we are working
here. As you may have noticed, there is
so much need here in Swaziland and more specifically El Shaddai. We will definitely be staying busy and
helping out wherever possible. It is
evident that this place is truly making a huge difference for the Kingdom and
we are honored to partner with them in ministry.
