Capetown Outing

Our team went on our first outing this past weekend to Capetown. Our first stop was in Simon's Town at a place called Boulders Beach. I didn't expect it to be so beautiful! This is the Indian Ocean side of Cape Point.


We got pretty friendly with these penguins that live on the beach. Aren't they cute? I have no idea how they've adapted to survive in such hot weather with all their blubber and rather sedentary lifestyle. But then again, I didn't watch March of the Penguins.


They were very friendly creatures but this was about as close as I could get =)


We also saw some of these beaver-like animals in the bushes.


Here's me with Martha, another staff member on our team. She's from Uganda and has two crazy little boys, Loren and Caleb. It was her first time ever going to the beach so we made her get her feet wet.


This is The Waterfront of Capetown. You can take ferry rides from here to Robben Island, where opponents of apartheid including Nelson Mandela were exiled and imprisoned. In the background is Table Mountain (supposedly very famous here). The cloud is like a tablecloth, get it?


Wow, I'm really far from home. =(


Here's Grant and Rodney, the youngest members of our team. They're technically called junior staff because they aren't students but are helping out. Grant's mom is one of our school leaders. Aren't they good-looking boys?


Here's Audrey, Luana, and myself (taking the pic) romantically dining over the waterfront.

Outreach and Missions Weekend

Here's my team enjoying some cool drinks in town.


This is the clinic that I volunteered at last week. It's in a town called Zwelethemba and serves a community of people who speak Xhosa. This indigenous language is soo interesting ... it involves clicks, lip smacks, and other sounds (like the X in Xhosa is a click sound)! Anyway, the people there were very warm and sweet ... hopefully I can build some good relationships there.

I was amazed at this old blood pressure machine. I had no idea how to use it!

Once a week, our team goes on local outreach. This past week we got to organize an afternoon program for high schoolers. We spent time praising God and sharing about what we love about His character.


This past Friday and Saturday, our HIV DTS team hosted a Missions Weekend. As pairs, we adopted a missionary family and presented their work/country. It actually went really well and we were able to raise some funds for our outreach. I'll try to post some videos of the performances and dances later.

Jan and I adopted missionaries from Angola. We learned how to make Mwamba (this peanut butter chicken dish) and Pap (Angolan version of mashed maize). Yum =)

This is my small group: from left - me, Audrey (She's one of our staff/student leaders from South Korea), Debz, and Jessica. I'm very thankful for Audrey because she feeds me Korean food and gets me invited to the Korean braais (bbqs) here. =)


Yay for crickets. At least they aren't flying cockroaches.