Hi friends....

Thank you for the comments on the last post...I'm glad that so many of you enjoyed the pictures and stories! So...here is "out of africa" #2:

Since returning from Africa, the two most common questions I received were "How was Africa?" (to which there is no satisfactory response) and "What did you do there?" I'll save the first question for next time, and I'll explain a bit more about what my team and I did for two weeks in South Africa.

The ministry I worked with (Monte Cristo Ministries) serves in many different capacities within the local communities. Each team that travels to South Africa and works with MCM is given a specific goal/purpose for their time, and we were given the task of making connections with and establishing an MCM presence in the local community of Mbekweni (see last post). We spent most of our time at a local community center that MCM had recently built as a meeting place for a local church and an after-school hang-out for local kids. The kids were out of school on "holiday" so we had plenty of time to play with them. I learned LOTS of dancing games, gave many piggy-back rides and painted faces with the Brazilian flag (what ever happened to a simple butterfly or snake??). We did some work projects at the community center and tried to show the "Jesus" film there one night... we had about 500 kids wanting to crowd into a building that could only hold about 250! The youth there are full of energy and excitement, yet so desperate for contact and affection. I had so many of them wanting to hold my hand and ask if I would remember them when I went home. I cannot explain how hard it was to say goodbye...

We also had the opportunity to work in one of the local schools and teach a "Life Skills" class. These classes are similar to our "Health" classes, so they focus on self-esteem, self-respect, AIDS awareness and other similar topics. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip... I taught with four other girls from my team and our lesson was about being a hero. We went from one class to the next and lead discussions about who are heroes and how we can all be a hero to someone else. At the end of one class, the students wanted to sing for us...so there we were...in a cold, cement classroom, full of energetic African kids with even more peering in the windows, singing at the top of our lungs, dancing around... it was one of those moments in life when you get a clearer glimpse of what your purpose and vision is in life. I became good friends with one girl in particular, Yolanda (the girl on the right), and she gave me a card and picture of herself on my last day at the school. I still keep in touch with her...

In addition to all these activities, we got to work in an orphanage for HIV-positive children and infants, we put on a "garage sale" for the Mbekweni neighborhood and we took a local youth group up to the Monte Cristo camp. We spent the weekend up in the beautiful mountains and had worship services and Bible studies, and we took the teens on a low-ropes course that helped build teamwork and cross some major cultural, racial and language barriers.

Even though our days were full, we still had time to rest and have fun as a team. We often spent our nights going out to coffee, playing "Settlers of Catan" (an amazing game!) and going out to dinner. The friendships that I made on this trip will last a lifetime; thankfully, many of us live near each other so we do get to see each other often.

One thing I forgot from the last post....as part of our touristy activities, we did get to go on a game drive...aka, a safari! We drove out to a game park, loaded up in some Indiana Jones vehicles and journeyed into the African wilderness to look for whatever animals we could find. We saw lions, cheetahs, zebras, wildebeasts, rhinos...my favorite part was when we drove up next to the giraffes, got out of the vehicle and got to walk around with the giraffes! Amazing... I've included some great photos as well. Let me just note that for the rhino picture, there was no zoom lens used...yeah, that's how close I was! I miss it all so much and would go back in a heartbeat... anyone want to come with me?!

much love... alair