Learning, growing, new friendsing, and other 'ings

Sorry, this post is long overdue!  I am going to attempt to update you all on the latest and greatest of this past week of my life in this wonderful place.

Let's see, ok as far as classes go, I am finally getting the hang of everything.  I am learning so much here.  My Life and Teaching of Jesus class is already rocking my world and the way that I view Jesus.  I gave a 45 minute seminar discussion with a small group today for that class regarding the controversies surrounding the birth of Jesus and his virginal conception (got an A too if I might add!) and it was just so interesting.  I love everything that I’m learning in that class.

On our biology field trip to a nature preserve last week, we had a poop spitting contest. I am not kidding.  We each put a little pellet of dried buck dropping in our mouth to see who could spit it the farthest (our teacher told us that lots of people here do this, so we didn’t feel too weird…)  I didn’t win the contest I might add. But it was an interesting experience.  And I’m not too tempted to do it again.

Saturday we went to Durban to visit an Indian marketplace (we stuck out an uncomfortable amount) but I met a few really great people.  One was a 19-year-old named Nadia who is married, has a 2-year-old child, and co-owns a shop with her husband and uncle.  It was interesting to hear about how she thinks arranged marriages are great and it was also interesting to note that most arranged marriages work out well, she says, while 50% of marriages in the US end in divorce.  This I just cannot understand.

We also spent the day at the beach, swimming in the Indian Ocean.  The water was warmer than the Pacific, but not by a lot.  Probably because winter is just ending here.  Shark Week prepared me to die of a Great White attack, but that didn’t happen.  Also, I am infamous for getting stung by jellyfish everywhere I go, but by the grace of God I didn’t step on one of the many jellyfish that had washed up on shore.  That could have put a damper on the day.

my beautiful chalet-mates

On Sunday I went to the church that our director, Reg, goes to.  It. was. phenomenal.  It was different than any church I’ve ever been to before.  I loved it because it didn’t have a set structure that they were afraid of straying away from.  I get so sick of the same structured 15 minutes of worship, then the pastor gives the message with 3 bullet points, then we all pray, then we worship a little bit more.  This was so far from that.  It really felt like they just let the Holy Spirit lead the service and addressed anything that they felt they were being called to do.  I was convicted of some things during the service as my prayer was “Less of me, more of You.”  I am trying to put this into action now.

Also on Sunday, I made new friends!  I got to know some great people from the church who are around my age and we totally hit it off. (Carrie, Lara, Brett, Gina, James, and Kay, I love you all already!)  We decided that seeing each other once a week on Sunday wasn’t going to be enough if we wanted to be “real friends” so they came and visited AE (where we are staying) on Sunday and I am waiting for them right now to come visit again.  We are having a blast learning about each other’s cultures.  First of all, their accents are BEAUTIFUL.  And surprisingly, they think that our accents are cool too (I don’t know why).  We found that we like a lot of the same music such as Muse, David Crowder Band, MuteMath, and Jon Foreman.  I am learning some of their slang and I am teaching them my abbrevs (totes presh, perf, bt dubs, etc).  And we are all friends on Facebook now so that basically makes us real friends, right?

I am on the Birthday Committee here and today is one of my favorite chalet-mate’s birthday J wonderful Janelle Yoder!  She is 21 and we surprised her by decorating the chalet with balloons and streamers, had Brett K and Calvin serenade her with guitars and bongo drums outside her window, and brought her breakfast in bed. We have more surprises coming later… I hope she doesn’t read this.  Love you Janelley!

We are continuing to visit service sites where we will be serving everyday for one month at the end of our time here.  There are five sites to choose from and we have visited three so far.  Please be praying for me as I consider which site to serve at.  I want to be able to pour my heart out into it.

I am so at peace here.  I am completely my weird self here and I have a little too much fun.  Music videos will probably be coming soon, so look out world.

I see God everywhere here.  Everything about Africa is beautiful.

Sending you love from SA,

Britt


ps. I may or may not have just thrown a live frog into a classroom through a window while they were talking about messing with animal spirits.  I mean, I had some help with this.  Be proud, Mom and Dad.