the children of amakhaya

Mokete and Thembo... i can't remember the boy's name in the middle but they were all so sweet and a ton of fun!

me and jill with bobolo and nclacla... my two favorite girls at amakhaya!

nadia... beautiful girl with TONS of energy and an incredible dancer!

nclacla and bobolo were both hanging on me... luckily i had the help of thembo to keep them from falling off :) hehe

i'm not sure what the boy's name is in the middle of this picture but thembo and nclacla are on either side of him... this is my favorite picture :)

thembo and nclacla... i'm not exactly sure what the things were in their mouths but i do know that whatever came out of them was red and sweet and stained anything that it touched, including our arms!

one of the other girls in my group took this photo... i'm not sure what this boy's name is either but it is a beautiful picture!

Jo'burg

i must admit, never in my wildest dreams did i think that life was going to be as hectic as it has been for the past month or so. though i am loving everything i'm learning at cornerstone, the schoolwork is intense. we are in our last week and a half of school, meaning that finals week is upon us! In these next few days i have several projects, papers and presentations due... oh yenna (as they would say in afrikaans)! so, instead of being productive and managing my time well, i decided to update my blog instead, lol :) i am going to first bring you back to the first weekend in march when we got the amazing opportunity to go to johannasburg aka jo'burg! Quinton, the guy who has set up a majority of the excursions we went on, had connections in jo'burg and decided that we could not pass up a visit. We flew out saturday morning on our orange 'flymango' plane at around 10am, excited to see another part of south africa. as we were flying over the terrain, the mountains below us were absolutely stunning. i wish i could tell you which mountains they were but all i know is that it was halfway between cape town and jo'burg! We arrived in jo'burg and headed straight for the Voortrekker monument. this is an afrikaans monument dedicated to the afrikaans culture and how they tried to preserve it, especially in the midst of the boer war. unfortunately, i felt this monument to be quite degrading because, knowing the history of the afrikaners, it degraded the zulu culture and glorified their own. The boer war started because the afrikaners were kicked off of their land by the english so, in retaliation, they found new land where the zulus were living (and thus, kicked them out of their land). The zulus fought back, trying to regain their land but to no avail. in this monument, it portrayed the zulus heartlessly killing women and children and looking like savages whereas the afrikaners boldly went into the battle field killing the zulus in order to protect their families. that's a whole lotta crap if you ask me. you could almost feel the hatred penetrating off the walls as we walked around this national monument. it was not exactly the most pleasant experience i have ever had. what also shocks me is that so many of the whites here see it as a great monument dedicated to their heritage and culture... they see it as a good thing! i have a feeling that a lot of this has to do with the brainwashing of apartheid. even though apartheid has been over for 12 years, the thoughts and feelings have still been left behind and engrained into the minds of everyone living here. racism is still prevalent. not only with whites but with every culture. in that sense, it is just like america.
after the voortrekker monument we went to the apartheid museum which was again, a very powerful experience. because i am a visual person, the pictures that they captured drew me in and made me feel as if i had experienced apartheid myself. much of what i saw in the museum was a repeat of what i already knew but it was a good reminder of the past and how we must never forget it. i wonder why we dont have any museums like this dedicated to the civil rights movement in america?!
After finishing up there, we finally got to go to Amakhaya, which is the children's home we stayed at for the weekend. It is more like a campus than a home, with several homes for the younger children and the older youth who stay there. the younger children who live there have either been affected or infected by HIV/AIDS. Affected meaning that their parents, grandparents, etc. who would normally take care of them are either too sick to do so now or have already died because of the disease. most of the children here have been affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic rather than infected but there are a few who also have the disease. There are several homes for the older youth, one for the boys and one for the girls. the youth living in these homes have come here because they are having problems at home and need a safe place to stay. problems meaning alcoholism, abuse, no money for neccessities or just a family feud. whatever the case, they are allowed to stay at Amakhaya for as long as they need, with the director of Amakhaya in constant contact with the parents in hopes that the relationship can be reconciled. last year 11 of the youth went home to their parents which is definitely exciting news!! I wish i would've known more about the older youth as i would've loved to hang out with the girls but most of my time was spent with the children. One girl in particular, Nclacla (i'm not sure if that's the right spelling but that's how it sounds), was my absolute love while i was there. She would jump into my arms, rest her head on my shoulder and both of us would sing together for hours. our favorite song was a xhosa song which goes like this: bayete, bayete n'kosi, bayete, bayete n'kosi, bayete n'kosi oh king, king of kings. on sunday we went to a primarily indian church which was a great experience! though the preaching was a little long and dry, the worship was incredible! Afterwards, we hung out with the kids some more until we had leave on our next excursion, which was soweto, the largest township in SA. It was amazing to me just how different this township was from the townships in cape town. Here, people actually have their own yards, with gardens and clotheslines and such. It is much more of an agricultural city than the cape and the shacks are not piled on top of each other as they are in guguletu or langa (2 of the townships in cape town). Later on, we went to the Hector Pieterson memorial/museum which commemorated all of the youth who had died in the struggle which began in1976. this was known as the soweto uprising as thousands of school children refused to be taught in afrikaans and have it as their medium of instruction. hector pieterson was one of the young boys who fought against this injustice and was killed because of it. how could someone kill a child as if they were worth nothing more than a dog? it still astonishes me everytime i look back and hear or read about these stories because it makes me see the absolute evil and sin that can come about in every one of us. It was a human being that killed another human being. it is something that any one of us is capable of. it is through God's grace that most of us have never had those feelings but it makes me wonder, for all those white afrikaaner men who thought they were doing the service of God by killing off anyone who wasn't white... what must they be thinking now?

seals and rugby

these past few weeks nothing too terribly exciting has happened... just homework and papers and reading and papers and more papers, ugh! but hey, life is still good and i'm loving it here at cornerstone! let's see if i can try and update you on what has gone on so far: 2 weekends ago me, naomi and laine went shopping ALL day long. seriously, after that day, i dont think i ever want to go shopping again. we spent close to 6 hours at the mall because that was the only times we could get rides and none of us are big shoppers... lol i'm pretty sure we were dead by the time chez came to pick us up. but it was a blast hanging out with them, they are 2 of the greatest girls and i feel so blessed to know them! afterwards chez and i got some supper and then just hung out and talked. oh, i forgot to mention, on friday night we went to a rugby game! ok, so honestly, i really wasn't that excited about it because i am bored to death by football and heard that rugby is very similar to it but my expectations were totally blown out of the water!! we went with two of the guys from cornerstone and had such a fun time! if i can get pics from someone i will put them up here... its quite an intense game! sunday was church day as we went both in the morning and the evening (i must admit, the evening service is way better than the morning service but they're both still fun). on monday (which is our free day) Basil, pronounced baaa (like the sheep) -zil, our driver took us all around the cape point where we stopped at camps bay, hout bay, seal island, and cape point (plus many other places that i cant remember). when we got to seal island we hopped on a boat and went for about a 1/2 hour boat ride until we reached an island completely covered in seals! there had to have been at least 300 or so seals on this tiny little island, sunbathing and swimming all day long. while i was hanging off the boat admiring the seals i whipped out my camera hoping to catch a few action shots of the seals jumping into the water. sadly, as i was doing this i accidentally threw my sunglasses into the water! lol it was actually kinda funny but i was a little sad cuz they were real cute sunglasses and i bought them at such a bargain (only $4!!)! so after taking about 50 pictures of seals we headed back and finished up our tour of the cape point. the scenery was absolutely breath-taking. wow, God has done some amazing work out here! i would love to write more but i have been sitting here procrastinating for quite some time and realized i only have 2 hours left to finish my paper, ahhhhh!!

Going back to my first love

last night i was laying in bed, moping and being somewhat bitter about not having a date or even a cute guy around for today, a.k.a. valentine's day. i turned off the lights, though not even that tired, and put on my mp3 player, hoping it would help me fall asleep. as i do many nights of the week before going to bed, i turn on one of my favorite songs, "first love" by kirk franklin. laying there, it dawned on me just how selfish and absolutely mad (sorry, south african term, it means crazy) i was being. so often we look to physical, worldly things and humans to satisfy us, yet can they ever REALLY satisfy us as Jesus can?! Can they really solve our problems and make us feel truly loved? i would contest not. After coming out of a year and a half relationship that wasn't anything close to being Godly, part of the lyrics hit me like a brick wall:

You didn’t make it
You thought your love would last forever
Ain’t it funny how a chapter can make a story change
Cold and lonely, you never knew hurt could feel this way
Understand there’s a plan if you’re patient
Hear the savior say

God is able to heal if you listen
And He’ll show you His will if you listen
But you gotta be still and just listen, listen

Come back to your first love
Come back home, back where you belong
Come to your first love

though it's been almost 2 years since that relationship ended, i still am constantly learning from it. we need to come back to our FIRST love, the love of Jesus Christ, the REAL love because that is the only love that will truly satisfy our souls. Listening to that song led me to pray that God would teach me not to lean on the love of other human and other things but to lean on His love alone. i prayed that God would give me joy and happiness in being with him and in love with HIM on valentines day and that i would be totally content without having a guy on the side. He is so faithful! as Uncle Desmond constantly tells me, and he has been so good to me today on valentine's day. so i encourage everyone who reads this... don't get discouraged if you dont have a date for valentines day, because your first love is your valentine's date for the rest of your life!

new pics!

me and sharoneze!!

aunti sandra!

uncle desmond!

the view from the mountaintop... this is what naomi and i saw on our hike up this mountain/hill... absolutely beautiful!

an INCREDIBLE sunset at sea point (where we ate some INCREDIBLE ice cream as well!! :) )

my neighbor sinai, isn't she just adorable?!!

this was posted right before we entered the prison at robben island

me and chez at langabon

life is HECTIC!

i'm on my second week of school and i cannot believe how much work has already piled up. the work here is INTENSE. i have class tuesday through friday, one class on each day lasting from 9-3 (though most classes only go til 12 or 1, thankfully). We have packets upon packets of reading to do in each class (no books cuz its too expensive, so we just copy all the pages from the books and pretend its not illegal, hehe!) along with papers to write, exams to study for and presentations to prepare. and i thought bethel was hard! however, one person told me to look at it this way: we are here for 8 weeks of our life (for some students a bit longer but i think it still applies to me). in this 8 weeks the work will be hard and life will get crazy but in that time not only are you educating yourself on things of the world, you are intensly studying the word of God. you are here, immersing yourself in a world with other christians to go out and apply yourself to your society with a Christian worldview. is it not worth it to spend these 8 weeks getting the very best out of it that you can? these words were very encouraging to me and have helped to prepare me in the work ahead. i'm kinda bummed cuz i wont get to do the ministry that i was hoping to do (not only because of the work load but also because of transportation) but i know that i still have ministry within the household i'm living in and God can do a lot right where i'm at. please please please pray for my relationship with sharoneze and that i will be able to work in her life to bring her to a point where she wants to LIVE her life as a born again Christian and DESIRES to know God more. none of her friends are strong christians (that i know of) which makes it difficult for her to want that relationship with Christ. pray that i can be a light in her world and that she will listen and take in all that i can give her.
this past weekend for me was quite interesting. friday night i went to a 21st birthday party which HUGE!! no joke, 21st birthday parties here are like weddings... it is one of the biggest celebrations in south africa. me, uncle dez and auntie sandra drove about 45 minutes to this decked out hall with beautiful decorations, a massive amount of food, and a DJ. When they announced for Azalia to come in, she wore a beautiful white dress with a train (can you see how it reminded me of a wedding?!) and walked in with her cousin. the family all spoke and gave toasts to her, congratulating her on becoming a woman. unfortunately i really had no idea what they were saying cuz everyone spoke in afrikaans. but, all in all, it was still a pretty good night. on saturday, i hung out and talked with my brother and sister for most of the afternoon and then left to go spend the night at naomi and laines house. that night was great fun! we watched MADEA (ohhh i just love those movies!!) and laughed like no tomorrow, played a few board games and then took andre (their host brother) outside to jump in the rain puddles! (that was by far the best part!). later on, around midnight or so the power went off so we lit a bunch of candles and just sat around and talked in the candlelight. me, jill and mike went to bed about 4:30 whereas laine, naomi and andre didnt go to bed til 7!! needless to say, we had planned on hiking up table mountain that morning but weren't able to make it. fortunately, the guy who was going to bring us up never called us back anyway so it probably wouldn't have happened. sunday we had a huge lunch which was super good. i worked on homework, well, tried to work on homework, the rest of the day. not much else to say, pretty much just been consumed by work :( tomorrow is valentine's day so tonight i'm gonna help sharoneze get ready by blowing out her hair and straightening it so that should be fun! i just found out that if we dont wear red at school tomorrow they are gonna charge us 2 rand! lol, thats pretty clever if you ask me. i'll let you know if i get a date :D haha! love, melissa

uncle desmond

my host dad is freaking hilarious, oh my gosh. here's a few entertaining stories for you:

#1: the night of auntie sandra's birthday, after everyone had left, a man came up to our door begging for money. auntie sandra was there and telling him to leave. when he wouldn't leave, uncle desmond started shouting, "what is that man doing begging at 12 o clock at night? tell him to leave sandra or else i'll make him leave!" when he wouldn't leave uncle desmond ran to the back of the house and came out with a HUGE machete! he ran up to the gated door, waving the machete at the man, saying "you need to leave now! get out of here!" i was trying so hard not to laugh but it was quite a funny sight to behold.

#2: on saturday night after our day at the beach, i was walking out of the shower and into the kitchen when uncle desmond walked in, looked at me and said, "whats up my nigger?!" lol, i dont think i have ever laughed so hard in my life, which caused him and and auntie sandra to start laughing too. here is this 60 year old man saying something that, in america is almost taboo, while to him it's no big deal. he asked me, "hasn't anyone ever called you a nigger before?" i told him no and that made him laugh even more. so now he jokes with me all the time about calling me a nigger and saying that i'm no longer a whitey. lol, i absolutely love this guy.

the best weekend EVER!

this weekend has seriously rocked. on friday i went to orientation for, well, about 1/2 hour and then skipped out on the rest...ooops, my bad. but it was SO boring and all they were doing was teaching you how to write a research paper and i've definitely done that before so i just went to the computers instead :) afterwards, me, naomi and sarah met up with joelle, who is a student at Cornerstone and went over to her house for lunch. Joelle is SUCH a cool lady. She came over from england about 4 years ago to be a missionary in south africa. she has started up an amazing soccer ministry for girls but has decided to take a year off for school. however, she is still coaching one soccer team, which is something she is very passionate about. she has a foster daughter named Odi who really wants to come to America to study and play soccer... and marry an African American man, lol. personally i think the african men here are way cuter but that's another story... so anyways, joelle took me and the other girls to The Arc, which is a homeless shelter run completely by the homeless. it is a HUGE complex with around 2000 people living there. There is a range of all types of people, young and old, families, single parents, teenagers, young children and babies. Sadly, for the kids who are here with no parents, no one can adopt them because somewhere, they have parents that are living. this means that these kids are living completely on their own with no loving parents to take care of them on a day to day basis. however, everything that is needed is provided at the Arc. There is a school, cafeteria, beds, showers, etc. but none of it can compare to a nice home. i would highly doubt anyone there gets any real privacy. despite all this, the kids were extremely happy and greeted us with open arms. so many of the kids just craved for attention, jumping into our arms at every opportune moment. we also got to me some of the older girls who joelle has recruited for soccer. oh, i should also mention that the arc is in kyalietsha, which is a poor township about 45 minutes outside of cape town. i really hope to come back and continue volunteering with joelle as much as i can! after leaving the arc we headed deeper into kyalietsha to visit one of the girls on joelle's soccer team who had just had a baby. this girl was probably about 16 years old. we pulled up on a sandy road and walked a few feet up to her house. the homes in the townships are very much like mexico's poor areas: small shacks made of tin, usually with only 2-3 rooms inside. walking in we were greeted with a hug and kiss by the mother who was so sweet! we met the 16 year old and her baby as well, who was absolutely beautiful. there was also another girl living with them who had just moved in recently. the mother of the house found her alongside the road all alone with no family anywhere in sight. the amazing woman that she is, she took her in as one of her own and the young girl (about 8-9 years old) has now been living with them for several months. i tried talking with her but i dont think she spoke any english, only xhosa. but that didn't matter, i just smiled at her and she stretched out her arms and i held her for the entire time we were there. it reminded me so much of mexico and how love has no barriers. you dont need to speak the same language or enjoy the same things in life to love someone, it just comes from your heart. this young girl was also an awesome dancer! the mother of the house told her to show us some of her dances and WHOA, the girl jumped from my arms and brought down the house!! it was so cute cuz as soon as she finished her dance we all clapped and she got so embarrassed that she would run over to me and hide her fance in my legs and then reach up with her arms, asking to be held again. out of the entire day, she is the thing i will remember the most. her beautiful smile and laugh and her loving heart. i've gotta make it back there too. once the day was done with joelle, she brought me back home just in time to help prepare for my host mom's BIG 55th birthday party. and i thought the day was almost over... there was food everywhere and i helped to set up the tables and things. people started coming over around 6:30pm and didn't leave til around midnight!! they sure know how to party here! i met auntie dottie here who i will talk about later in the blog. we talked about her job (she works at the HIV/AIDS ward in the Red cross Hospital) and her foster daughter (who is 2 years old... auntie dottie is probably close to 70!). i didn't get to talk with her long but she definitely sounded like an amazing woman. she, along with the rest of the folks (there was probably close to 40 people there) were almost all from our church, Athlone Baptist. the rest of the night i helped auntie luverne (who is our neighbor and was hired by auntie sandra, my host mom, to clean the house and stay during the party and clean) wash dishes and clean up. chez, my host brother hung out with me the whole night as well, talking and helping to clean up (with a little push from me of course... but thats how all men are, hehe).

the next morning, saturday, we woke up at 7:30 to go to Langabon, which is a lagoon about 1 1/2 hours away. me, chez and uncle desmond drove together which was a lot of fun. on our way in we saw a baby tortise so of course, i had to jump out of the car, run to the turtle and touch it and take pictures of it, haha :) we got to the beach about 10 in the morning, had a little breakfast and then hung out. i met beth, a girl from oregon, who just got to south africa a week ago! it was so great to talk with her and we exchanged numbers so we will definitely hang out again soon. someone brought this kayak/surf board looking thing that i attempted to try and use. it is shaped just like a surf board but has a little dent for your butt and two littler dents for your feet and you have to balance and use a paddle to get yourself around. me and chez got a good laugh out of trying to use it... i think i fell out about 7 or 8 times before i finally got the hang of it! there were also quite a few house boats in the distance and so we snuck up on one that no one was in and dove off of the dock which was super fun! i layed on the beach for awhile more after that and then me and chez went for a walk on the beach... ok, so i know what you all are thinking... "hmmm, melissa sure is spending a lot of time with this chez boy"... NO! he is just a friend people, JUST a friend... but he is kinda cute ;) but for real, he's just a cool guy/brother to hang out with so dont worry, there is no future here! when we were taking our walk we saw sand sharks because the tide had risen and so they were swimming all around our feet, which kinda freaked me out a lil bit! the rest of the day we just ate, talked, swam some more and relaxed. unfortunately, i forgot about the power of the sun out here and didnt think to put sunblock on my back or my upper thighs... boy was i hurting that night!!! my back looked as red as a tomato! luckily, chez has connections to a pharmacist and so i got free stuff for my sunburn, woo hoo! on sunday we went to church, did homework and were just luming (afrikaans for hanging out/chilling). today, monday, i headed over to the red cross and got a grand tour from auntie dottie. if all works out, i will hopefully begin volunteering there next week! i hope you all are doing well back at home, i hear it's a little cold out there, shame :( lol. love you to bits! melissa

and the sickness finally kicked in...

my gosh it has been FOREVER since i've written on here! i hope i can remember everything we've done. i don't think tuesday was too eventful cuz i can't remember a thing from that day... i'll ask around and try to figure out what we did. wednesday we went to robben island! we took a 1/2 hour boat ride over to the island which gave us an incredible view of the ocean and city. about half way there a bird came up behind the boat where the motors were spewing out water at a high velocity (it would've been SO awesome to tube behind this boat, holy crap!), and tried to race us! however, it wasn't a very smart bird because it was going back and forth from one side of the boat to the other, barely missing the high waves that were just waiting to suck it in. sadly, the second time the bird tried to cross over he went too low and tumbled into the waves... lol, ok it may not sound funny but you really had to be there... it was quite a sight! anyways, onto the good stuff. arriving at robben island it was EXTREMELY HOT. i mean for real, it was probably in the 100's that day, whoo! we jumped onto a bus and took a tour of the island. we saw the limestone quarries where men had to work every day, monday through friday, no matter what the weather was like. there were no bathrooms and no shade except for one cave, which is where they would have their meals. it was brutal. inside the prison things weren't much better. there were absolutely no whites on this island, only coloureds, indians and blacks. no matter how bad a crime, whites were never put on the island. there was also a lot of discrimination on the island between the races. the lighter your skin, the better food and treatment you got. meaning indians were treated the best and black africans the worst. you were given a bucket with fresh water in the morning to use all day for washing your self and going to bathroom. this would sit in your cell overnight and then be washed in the morning. mandela used the same bucket for over 10 years. they could only get one visitor every 6 months and they had to be older than 16. english and afrikaans were the only languages that could be spoken so if you were a prisoner or visitor and didn't know those languages, you would sit across from each other... and not speak a word. all of the tour guides at robben island had, at one point in their lives, been prisoners on the island. our tour guide told us about his experience at the end. he was a political prisoner, thrown into jail for being a part of the ANC and trying end the injustices blacks and coloured faced every day in apartheid. for 5 months he was put in a holding cell, tortured and abused by the government who was trying to get information out of him. the last three months he was held in the cell completely naked. in order to get information out of him they would sit him on a chair and strap electrodes to his privates, shocking him over and over. this kind of abuse happened every day at any hour. when he told us about this, i was in complete shock. how could someone treat another human being like this... like an animal?! after those 5 excrutiating months he was brought to robben island where he was sentenced to a life prison. luckily, after 6 years he was released due to the end of apartheid. that was in 1992. now, 14 years later he as come back. not because he wanted to but because he had to. he was out of a job and out of money and needed to support his new family. please pray for his healing because we could tell that he still has a long way to go in the healing process. it was so heartbreaking to hear his story and the pain that he went through because i will never understand what it felt like to be in his position, or anyone else at robben island for that matter. it was a difficult place to go but also a place i will never forget. that day, unfortunately, was also the day that i started to get sick. so, for the next week i was stuck in bed and the toliets. it was not a pleasant experience though i have to say i felt a little guilty because i seemed to be such a wus compared to all the guys who suffered at robben island. but, eventually i started to get better and on saturday i took the taxis all by myself to the shopping center (which was quite the experience)! winding my way through the markets, i just inconspicuously (or so i thought) tried to follow people who looked like they were going shopping and finally found my destination. that night my family took me out to sea point and we watched the sunset on the beach and ate ice cream. it was so beautiful! i came prepared and whipped out two ziploc baggies and dragged sharoneze down onto the beach to look for shells in the dark... we found some pretty cool looking shells and even a few small sponges!! sunday was church and chilling with the family and feeling sick again :(. from monday to wednesday we had camp for the first year students which was a little scary but lots of fun. i had some great conversations on tuesday with a guy from Umtata and another guy from limpopo. it is such a blessing to have people at this college who are so fired up for Christ! it is definitely a totally different experience from what Bethel is like (and i'm loving it a whole lot more!). nothing else too exciting has been happening, just still working on a lot of homework that is due from our history on south africa course. today i'm going to an orphanage in kyalietsha with one of the ladies i met at camp so that should be tons of fun! last night was my host mom's birthday so they're throwing a huge party tonight, woo hooo! tomorrow me and my family and people from church are going to some lagoons to swim so it should be a hoppin' weekend! i hope you all are doing well. i miss you all so much!! continue to let God work in your life and please keep me in your prayers. love you all, melissa

pictures!!

auntie lorraine

Auntie Lorraine. she is a tempermental, wild driving, panty washing woman who will crack you up at any moment. she is also jill's (a student from bethel) host mom. here are a few funny stories about her. enjoy!

story #1: i walked into aunti lorraine's house a few days ago while she and jill were sitting down eating breakfast. she said something that shocked me and so i said "holy cow!" her being from south africa and having never heard this expression busted out laughing, mocking me, "holy cow? holy cow! i didn't know cows were holy!!?" now apparently she keeps walking around the house to jill saying "hooooooooly coooooooow!" and asking what is wrong with me cuz i talk funny. lol she also told jill that "i should be going with the imams to prayer."

story #2: every morning she makes jill wash her panties, lol hehehe.

from penguins to townships...

i got to swim and touch penguins!!!! on thursday we went to boulder's beach which is where all the jackass penguins (now called African penguins) hung out. it was incredible. we walked on the boardwalk which led us to a cluster of close to 200 penguins swimming in the ocean, sleeping in the sand and uh... doin their thang with their mates, haha. after taking about 70 pictures of penguins we decided to go down to the beach and relax. but! there were more penguins there too! so of course, we had to take our pictures with them. then me and naomi decided to go exploring (i cannot tell you how excited i am to have another adventerous person on the trip with me!). we swam around the boulders screaming the whole way (with alissa as well) cuz we thought we were gonna get eaten by the sharks. finally making it to one of the boulders that kate was standing on we all climbed up and just took in the view. the water is crystal clear here. alissa and kate went off to some wading pool while me and naomi decided to climb the boulders and look at more penguins. there was one point where we walked through a narrow pathway with tons on penguins on each side of us, all following us with their eyes as we walked.... ohhhhh man, it totally reminded me of the movie "the birds." though it was dangerous, we snuck up on several penguins and quickly pet their backside before they had enough time to whip around and bite our fingers off, haha, it was awesome! i also found some beautiful sea glass and shells which i will share with all of you! that night we just went out to eat at the waterfront and met up with the other group from bethel who is here just for interim and hung out with them for awhile. on friday we went to the district 6 museum and bo kaap. these areas were both predominantly muslim areas until the forced removals took place. we also visited a mosque which was so helpful in understanding more of the muslim religion and really made me realize how much they have been persecuted as well. many of the muslims have been able to come back to the community now that apartheid is over. saturday we went to oceanview which, in minnesota terms, would kind of be equivalent to north minneapolis. it is looked down upon by many people in south africa as a rough, dangerous neighborhood which no one should go into. oceanview was created due to the forced removals. before the 1960's, there were many blacks and coloureds who lived in simon's town, which was a safe, close and economically stable community. but then, around 1965, the whites decided that they didn't want any blacks or coloureds in that area and thus began the forced removals. ALL of the black africans were uprooted, thrown into a van and dropped off at oceanview within 2 weeks. once given notice that they had to leave, they were given 24 hours before forcefully removed from their homes. the coloured community was gradually removed over a period of ten years. this caused a lot of problems to arise because these people were thrown into an area far away from any stores or public transportation and had to completely begin their lives all over. new neighbors, new churches, new everything. for those that refused to leave simon's town, the whites would come in, drag all of their belongings out onto the lawn and demolish the house. in fact, most of the houses in simon's town were demolished and then rebuilt. all for the benefit of the white afrikaaner. now that apartheid is over, people from oceanview could go back to simon's town but it is extremely expensive and many of them would never be able to afford to live there any more. plus, they don't want to be uprooted from their homes again and start their lives all over. once is enough. as of now, oceanview is very poor and many gangs and crimes flourish there. but so do the churches. we all had a homestay there from saturday to sunday and it was by far the best weeked i've had here so far. me and naomi stayed with a young couple, anita and beary, and their little 2 year old son josh. beary goes to cornerstone college and anita used to. they took us out to cape point where we saw the most incredible ocean/mountain view of my life and baboons!! anita was absolutely wonderful and so easy to talk to (and so was her husband). on sunday i went to the best worship experience of my life. we all packed into this tiny church and seriously brought down the house. WOW. they told us we can come back for a whole weekend sometime soon and we will definitely take them up on that. i wish our home stay could've been in this community. yesterday, on monday, we took a township tour. i was very uneasy about this at first because i didn't want them to think that a bunch of white people were coming in to their neighborhoods, again, and looking at them like it was some kind of zoo. because i know this has happened many times before. the townships here reminded me a lot of mexico except that everything was cramped and in extremely tight quarters. all of the shacks were literally less than 3 meters (9 feet) apart, some as close as only 1 meter apart. this can be really dangerous because fires are very common in the summer time and when a fire starts in one of these shacks, it spreads in a matter of seconds to the surrounding shacks and soon hundreds of people's homes are on fire. because of the 2010 world cup, SA is trying to cover up the shacks that you see as soon as you come out of the airport with newer homes. although it is a nice attempt at trying to get people better housing, many still cannot afford the electricity and water bills. just as it is in america, instead of trying to bandage the problem, they need to get to the root and start solving it. on monday we also went to a bed and breakfast in kyaleitsha (a township) for lunch. the owner explained to us that she hated having people come in and looking at them through the car windows, too afraid to even get out and talk with the people of the townships, and decided something needed to be done about it. she now trains others how to start their own B and B's for tourists they can learn about the Xhosa culture and the townships and experience it with those people rather than just staring out the window. afterwards we visited an AIDS orphange for young children. i wish we could've stayed there all day. we went into one room where some of the young ones were sleeping. i looked in at one that was awake and waved to him. He reached out his hand so i put mine in his and just held it there. then he reached out his other hand, moaning and wimpering for me to pick him up. his eyes just broke my heart. South Africa has such a huge problem with AIDS and it is just devestating the people here. america has so much money and so many resources, we need people not only to give money but to give their time. that would be one of the greatest gifts of all here. when all of us walked out of the children's home, the children followed us and just started bawling. ohhh my gosh, it was really hard to take. i am hopefully going to get involved in something soon. jeannine, one of the ladies here at cornerstone is working on setting us all up with organizations. i hope this gives you all a better glimpse into south africa and also gives you a passion for coming here!
love, melissa

interesting tid bits

NEW WORDS:
1. robot = stoplight
2. chips = french fries
3. que = line (like a line of people)
4. bucky = truck
5. hectic = this is word is used for EVERYTHING... anything and everything is hectic!
6. shame = "oh shame" is used all the time
7. SMS= text
9. tomato (pronounced toe-maat-o) sauce = ketchup

more to come!

so much history!

over the past few days we have done a lot of toursity things which has been good but can get a little monotonous at times. on monday we went to the slave lodge which was very powerful. it went through the entire history of how slaves were brought over to south africa (very similar to the US), treated as unequals, freed but not really free and what it is like for people of color today. there was also an exhibit on the american slave trade and the civil rights movement which i really wasn't expecting to see in south africa. in one room it was filled with confederate flags, a kkk costume, etc which was really unsettling and i think was used as a shock factor. it made me realize how much we downplay that era in america and i never really understood just how evil and scary that time period was. i really appreciated this musueum because it made me reflect a lot on race in our society and in SA and what it means to be white and to be a person of color. in one of the rooms there was a long wall with different quotes that just really hit me and inspired me:
"NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HUMAN THINKING."
"NEVER DOUBT WHAT A FEW COMMITTED HUMAN BEINGS CAN DO TO CHANGE THE WORLD."
"JOY IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING."
on monday we also visited the cape of good hope which was a historical site...kinda boring if you ask me so not much to write about. the next day, tuesday we visted several Afrikaaner sites which gave everyone mixed feelings. it was hard for us because it was the afrikaaners who started and enforced the apartheid movement and here we are looking at sculptures and monuments that embraced that culture. our tour guide, mervin, who is coloured, told us that we need to remember the importance of understanding all aspects of apartheid, so we do not repeat it again. for mervin, it was very hard for him to visit these monuments at first and not many coloureds or blacks would ever want to set foot next to them. the white afrikaaners believed that they were God's chosen people and God told them they were better than all other races (reminds you a lot of hitler huh?). what i dont understand is why is it that all these white people seem to think they are better than everyone else?! i mean seriously, what got these ideas into their heads?? i've really been struggling with that lately and really been trying not to be bitter about it. but its hard. the second monument we went to was a sculpture of a woman on top of the world with a bible and broken chains symbolizing freedom from oppression. oddly enough, the french who were here (who later became afrikaaners) actually felt they were oppressed. i just really dont get it. but after that confusing day it got a lot better. i went out with my host sister sherenice, our neighbor stephanie and sherenice's cousin to this huge mall. we walked around for awhile and then went to see the very american movie "material girls." lol oh my gosh, i can see why so many people outside the US have bad impressions of americans. but it was still fun and i love hanging out with my sister! this morning, wednesday, i woke up at 5:30am for devotions with the family. whoa, was that early! lol i didnt know any of the songs and was trying to croak through them all with my sleepy voice but it was still enjoyable. and the prayer that uncle desmond said was just beautiful. i feel so blessed to be in a family that has such a strong connection with Christ!! i feel like part of the reason i am with them is to minister to their daughter, sherry, so please pray for our relationship and her being open to me teaching her what i know. today we went to several historical churches: the first was the dutch reformed church which gave the theological justification for apartheid and was the leader in bringing it into the government. interesting fact: the church was built by masons and so there was A LOT of hidden masonry symbols in the church (and the masonry is satanic i believe... i dont really understand the masons so if anyone has any info on it please email me because i would like to know what the significance is of it and what in the world it even is). the second church was the anglican church, which desmond tutu was the first black archbishop at! it was so beautiful and was also home to the black madonna (again, if anyone has any info on this as well, i am very curious as to why it is called the black madonna and what its significance is). lastly, we went to the slave church which was much smaller than the other two but really humbling. tonight i am going shopping with my host mom and sister, yay! however, i seriously gotta start doing my readings and homework... it has been so hard cuz sherry (sherenice) is always in my room hanging out and talking with me and i would MUCH rather do that than homework :( so... haha, let's hope i can start gettin it done soon! love, melissa

my host family

i got in saturday morning to meet uncle desmond, my host dad. he was a bit quiet at first but very nice. he showed me my room which is really big and then said, "well, i'll let you get unpacked and settled in, you must be exhuasted" and then he shut me in my room, hahaha. that made me a little nervous cuz i thought i wouldn't get to talk with anyone in the family! but all is well... after unpacking i nervously went out and uncle desmond was SO easy to talk to... a little bit hard to understand because of his accent but so warm and friendly. we talked for a long time and he made a great lunch of meat, potatoes and veggies (which is very much a south african meal). his wife was on a retreat for church so i didnt get to meet her until sunday evening. they have three children. his oldest son is a stockbroker, 32, and lives in south africa close to our house here. i met him on saturday and is GREAT! we talked for awhile and it was so easy to talk with him, i hope i get to hang out with him more. then there is their daughter who is in her late 20's, she lives in america in PA and has done so much with missions. i wish i could've met her! then there is sherenice who is 16 and lives in the house with us. this girl ROCKS, oh my gosh we get a long so well. it is such a blessing to have her in the house. sherenice, desmond and his wife sandra all came back from a month long holiday in america just a day after i arrived in south africa (they were visiting their daughter there). so a funny thing, they didn't even know i was coming to stay with them until a day before i arrived!!!! and they had no idea i was staying for 4 months! luckily, desmond was telling me that their ministry is taking people in and letting them stay in their home. there is so much to tell you about this family, i wish i had more time to write! saturday evening me and three other girls from bethel went to the waterfront which was beautiful but very touristy. LOL and the host mom who drove us was hilarious... this woman seriously drives like a maniac, we probably could've killed like 10 kids who were walking down the road but she just sped up and drove right through them telling us "you can let people push you around down here, you gotta show em who's in control" she is quite the interesting lady but so sweet. on sunday i went to church with desmond, sherenice and her friend stephanie (who is over a lot and is practically like another sister). church was a wonderful time but reminded me a lot of church back at home (which i was a little bummed about because i wanted a different and new experience) but it was still very good. i also found out that it is a tradition in our house that we wake up every morning at 5:30am for devotions! i thought this was fantastic but holy cow is that early! i think it'll be a good way to start the morning though so i feel blessed that God has given me such a Godly host family! today we had school for just a bit and then went on a historical walking tour to the dutch settlement (which was quite boring if you ask me) and then the slave trade building (which was so powerful and amazing! highly reccommend it mom and sharon!). i have six minutes left before my time is up on the computers so i better type fast! one last thing, mac and linda this is for you. so i was talking to desmond and guess what, he is related to graham and dorkus!!!! can you believe it?! graham is sandra's (my host mom) brother and he actually grew up in the house i am living in now! desmond also knows cleve mcintosh but i cant remember how he knows him. dorkus and graham are no longer doing the broken walls ministry but instead are working at the hospital. i'm sure i'll see them since they are related to my family so i will tell them about you. how is it that you know them? also, for anyone at church that talks to sandra, will you tell her to email me because she wanted me to call her before i left but i just didnt have time. tell her i'm sorry i didnt get to her in time. thanks so much and blessings to everyone! i love you!
love from lansdowne (the city in which my college resides), melissa

FINALLY HERE!

wow, there is so much to say already i dont even know where to start! ok, let's see... well for those of you who dont know i almost wasnt able to make it over here. the day before we were to leave for south africa i lost my passport. and i mean seriously lost it. i was calling the s.a. embassy, passport services, everything! it was really scary but God was good and after several hours of the most stressful state of my life i finally found it under a pile of papers at my dad's house. don't ask me how in the world it ended up there cuz i have no idea! so anyways, we got on the flight which was close to 20 hours and landed in south africa wed. night around 10:30pm. we walked into the airport and you could just feel the humidity already sticking to your skin. it was GREAT! Quintin (the leader) and several students from cornerstone met us at the airport with hugs and hellos. we slept at the college and will continute to do so until saturday (today). on thursday we ate breakfast next door at the restaurant which was really good. we then took the train and headed out to the city of cape town (the college is in lansdown which is a suburb of cape town). we walked around, took pictures and soaked up everything we could. so here's an intersting thing about this country: they eat chips (french fries) with almost EVERY meal!! i mean for real, they served us chips for breakfast and then they actually put chips INSIDE our chicken sandwhich called a Gatsby (this consists of a 1.5 foot long sub with chicken, chips and a mayo/tomato mixture). it was definitely an interesting sandwhich but i think i kinda liked it! we were gonna go up to table mountain that night but we were all way too exhausted. instead, we went over to monique's (student at cornerstone) friends house who had a pancake party. however, they were not like our pancakes. they were like swedish pancakes, very flat and large, and we put carmel sauce and chocolate sprinkles and cinnamon and sugar on top...mmmmmm! they were delicious. we got home after midnight that night and just crashed. on friday we went to fish hoek beach which was incredible!!!!! i have never been on a beach with white sand, green water and beautiful mountains in the background. i took many pictures which i will try to get up soon. it was just stunning! we then went to a braii which is like a barbeque in the states. quite a few people came and it was so beautiful to see how community oriented people are here. i have
never experienced anything like it. there is so much love in this country. today we move into our host families in about half an hour! i am very excited but a little nervous. please pray for strong connections between me and my host family. also, please pray that i will break out of my shell more and not be so shy about talking to people. thank you and i will update you all again soon! much love comin over from africa!

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve this year was a blast. i've added some pictures on here from that night. me, kiarra, yetta and yonis went party hopping that night! first we went out to the schmits (on the way almost getting run over by a suburban who wasn't able to stop but God is GOOD and we missed the car by about 2 inches!!). there, we went out and made snow angels and watched snowmen (and snow turtles) being made by Erika and her friends. Then we had an awesome DP (dance party) and learned lean wit it, rock wit it; the motorcycle; and walk it out. i think i'm getting the hang of them! after a while we headed over to walt's to finish out the last of 2006. we played several board games and had an AMAZING snowball fight, though i was pretty sore the next day it was definitely worth it. what a great way to end the year!!

6 days to go!

so we had our first meeting today with the 7 other people that are going to South Africa. Everyone is so great and i am getting so excited to go! At the same time though, i'm also a little nervous and a little sad to leave everyone behind. but i know this is going to be an amazing, life changing experience. i got to see the promo video of Cornerstone Bible College and am absolutely psyched to go to this school. not only does it have a strong biblical background but they also have groups that focus on helping you to grow spiritually which will be a great way for me to connect with other people from S.A. Please pray for my spiritual growth on this trip as i really hope to gain a lot that i can bring back to the youth group and church. lately i've been caught up in all the stuff i feel like i "need" to bring but i think God has really been trying to show me, through many people, that material things are not going to make my trip any better. that's something i've been struggling with as well so please pray for that aspect of the trip. i thank God for everyone in my life and all the support you have given me. CCC has been such a blessing and the things everyone in that church have done for me moves me to tears. thank you for all your prayers and i will continually try to update this while on my journey in cape town. i love you all!
God Bless,
Melissa

Almost to AFrica!

Well, i'm about a month and a half away from getting on a plane and flying to South Africa! For those of you who don't know all the details I will be at Cornerstone Bible College which is in the city of Capetown. I will be there for four months (from January to May) studying their reconciliation process. If you are interested in the reconciliation process South Africa used (TRC= The Truth and Reconciliation Committee) i would highly recommend reading Desmond Tutu's "No Future Without Forgiveness." OR you can just check out my blog while i'm there and i'll give you all the info you need :)