Week 6: Singing Angels, Ziplining and Fellowship

First, I have a question for all of you. Where the heck did February go? It blows my mind that more than 5 weeks have passed since I stepped off of American soil. And if the first 5 weeks have gone so quickly, the next couple months are going to fly even faster.

Highlights of my last week:
Dead bat in the toilet (highlight? Maybe not. But definitely interesting.)
Drakensburg Boys Choir
Karkloof Canopy Tours
Church Picnic



Our chalet woke up one morning to a sign on the toilet’s door reading, “BE CAREFUL! There is a bat in the toilet!” Naturally, I was curious, so I slowly opened the door, fully expecting a bat to fly in my face. Inching the door forward, nothing was jumping but my nerves, so I held my breath and swung it all the way open. I peeked in the toilet bowl, and there was a poor baby bat in there! I guess he drowned overnight, but it was definitely something to spice up the morning!

On Wednesday, we got the afternoon off of classes to drive back to the Drakensburg Mountains (where we saw the Bushmen paintings last weekend) to see the world famous Drakensburg Boys Choir. We took two buses and two cars, and I got to ride in Reg’s car! Reg is the head of the South Africa semester. He's also my Life and Teachings of Jesus teacher and such a wise man who is adored by everyone here. It was good to talk with him on the way back about all things South Africa, African Enterprise, hear about how he ended up at APU and just chat in general.

The performance itself was astounding! I was so impressed by the boys, who sang in English, German, Latin(?), Zulu and Xhosa. They sang a lot of traditional songs in the first half, but got really energetic and colorful for the second half…wearing colorful clothing, dancing, playing instruments and even including a Michael Jackson song. During the intermission, I talked with a few of them. They come from all over Southern Africa to live at the school (Drakensburg Boys Choir School) and be trained to sing.



I got up bright and early on Saturday to zipline through the canopy of South Africa’s second largest indigenous forest. We got on our very flattering and attractive gear (complete with a helmet and giant leather gloves) and rode up to the high point where the first platform was. We ziplined from platform to platform…check out all of the photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049383&id=1037910026&l=64e8b1437e

After church on Sunday, the whole church family headed to Midmar Dam for a braai (barbecue). We loaded up in the bakkie (the pickup with the shell) and headed over. I was a little nervous that I’d be too shy to meet many people, but a family invited a few of us onto their blanket straight away. We met Elwin, Abigail, Sheila and baby Noah, who will be 2 years old next Saturday and pretty much melted my heart.

It was so good to talk with them and hear about things from the South African Christian’s point of view. I also spent some time down at the water just laying in the grass and talking with some of the APU ladies. There were a couple of us in the water playing with all of the kids, so I sat on the bank and watched them.

On Wednesday and Thursday, I’ll have a final exam on the Life and Teachings of Jesus and biology. After that, I won’t have those classes anymore! Instead, I’ll be spending my weekdays at Project Gateway, my service site for the next four weeks. I’ll tell you more about it once I’ve started.



For those who would care to pray, pray that God would keep building my relationships. Pray that He would make His thoughts given to me clear and that He would help me to recognize what is not from Him. Pray that I would have confidence to initiate relationships in my service sites and that I would see the people how He does.

I’m sending love to you all, and I’ll catch you up some more next week!