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!

Week 5: Witch Doctor, Relationships & Cave Paintings

One more week, and I’m still going strong. While I do miss people, I still haven’t been homesick yet. There are so many more things I’d be missing if I hadn’t come to South Africa, and here are some of them (and just from this week!):
Counting grass (kidding. Kind of.)
Learning Zulu
The constant thought that I am in National Geographic
Carrying pepper spray to fight monkeys instead of muggers
Waterfall constantly in my ears
Witch doctors
Spiritual recommitment
52 amazing men and women
My favorite homework spot

The week started off with an incredible chapel. Last weekend, I felt like I had a lot of confirmation from God in decisions that I made and I continued to be assured during student led worship and prayer. Leslie, one of our student life coordinators got real with us, and I think it really stirred a lot of us. I know that I thought a lot more deeply about things going on in my heart, and I know that God is moving in my life.

Kristen and I had such a wonderful conversation this weekend. We’ve been friends for a while before coming here, and this environment is so perfect for helping us to grow even closer. We talked about where we are with God and agreed to help each other by keeping each other accountable to having God time every day.

The cherry on top of that was a similar situation that arose a few days later. Angie lives next to me in Mojalefa, and asked me one night if I wanted to have some quiet time with her and then talk afterwards. We pulled our comforters, Bibles and journals out into the hallway, put on some quiet music and just slowed life down for a while. As we started talking, a few more people came home, so we invited them into the conversation. It got a little loud, so 5 of us went into my room to continue.

As the evening grew later, we kept talking…and we ended up hearing a lot about Angie’s life. She was so open and willing to share and I was so grateful that she let me into that part of her life. I think we all felt the same, so that group of 5 decided to do it again. We’ve heard from Kristen and Rob since that night, and I’m excited to hear Carisa’s and share my own.

Carisa Hoogenboom is one of my favorites!


I realized as all this was happening how much I miss one on one time. I get a lot with Kristen, which is so good, but I’d been feeling like I wasn’t going to a deeper level with anyone else. I hang out with people pretty much 24/7, but you can only get so raw with each other in groups all of the time. I’m going to be intentional about spending time individually with some of the people here, and I’m excited to strengthen bonds that have begun to form.

I dove a bit further into culture this week. My Life and Teachings of Jesus class visited a Sangoma, or witch doctor last week. It was so, so interesting to see how modern day has transformed the image I had of a witch doctor. Instead of bone or sticks to call the spirits, he had soda can tops strung around each ankle. Instead of animal skin, he had a leopard print cotton robe with a white cowboy fringe and he wore a knitted black hat with long strings of neon beads hanging to his mid-back.
We went into his “hut,” which was a small, shabby room standing next to his house. The room was maybe 8 by 8 feet and there was only room for 6 people at a time. The Sangoma explained different medicines to our Zulu translator so we could learn about his trade. We saw candles that he burns so call ancestors and other living dead.

One medicine which stood out to me most was the love powder. It’s made of ground, dried animals hearts and some herbs, but the mixture is not complete without the patient. The patient must scrape the gunk from the tongue upon waking up in the morning. tongue gunk must then be mixed with a drop of blood from the chest and the powder. Then, while the couple is out to dinner, it must be dropped in the partner’s food. Once it is eaten, the patient’s partner will be fully in love. Hmm.

We hiked the next day into the Drachenburg Mountains to see the San Bushmen cave paintings. It was so cool to see paint on those rocks that had lasted 40,000 plus years! Not to mention the picture-perfect backdrop to the hike.
I kid you not, I have seen more beauty concentrated in this place than in any other place I’ve been (with the possible exception of good old Humboldt County itself). The company was pretty good, too. I love this group.

We’re into another pretty rough week here on campus. There are more papers and presentations this week, but spirits are a bit higher because we only have a few more sessions of each class before our finals week. I found my new favorite homework spot yesterday! I brought a towel over to the prayer chapel and lay on the lawn next to it. I was facing the chapel and the koi pond, the reeds, surrounded by bright green grass and the sounds of animals ringing in my ears. How are we supposed to study in this paradise??



We’re almost there, though, and then we really get to dive into our service sites! More on that next week, when I know which site I’m assigned to. Until then, love to all!

Latest photo album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048478&id=1037910026&l=b72b98fa60

Week 4: Papers, Trailblazing and Valentines

Hello [mostly] Americans!

It’s been another week here in South Africa, and a busy one at that. Because we spent all of last weekend learning about the Indian Culture in Pennington, we had a lot of homework to catch up on. The stress level was pretty high among everyone and it was definitely noticeable. There was a lot less game playing, jumping, laughing and general adventuring. One picker-upper for me was my first mail! Thanks, Kayla! Your letter honestly made my week and a card went out in the mail today to get to you. Everyone else, if you write to me, I promise I’ll write back! I’ll post the address at the end of this blog.

We had another field trip for biology on Thursday. It definitely was not as exciting as last week. We went to a bunch of streams and had to measure the pollution and think about the industrial effect on them. I know, really exciting stuff. It is interesting in theory, but when you have to make a scale to measure how badly a polluted stream smells, it’s not so much fun. Then we headed to a nature reserve. We saw a bunch of giraffes and got really close, but that was by far the highlight of the day. The rest of the afternoon was spent measuring species along a quadrat and literally bushwhacking our way through vegetation higher than our heads. With thorns. And mud. And ticks. Again, not so much fun. To really put the cherry on top, the temperature was somewhere between 90 and 100 degrees with a heck of a lot of humidity. We were not happy campers, that’s for sure.

On Friday though, the spirits were back up. I turned in 2 seven page papers and a 5 pager after that, so there was a lot of weight off of my shoulders. Friday started off with our Kwase Afrika (About Africa) chapel. We heard from Clementine, a woman who lived through the Rwandan genocide and now lives in Pietermaritzburg. It was so incredible to hear her story.

I was thinking a lot about the genocides in the recent years and what we’ve been learning in History and Culture of South Africa. Did you know that the first concentrations camps were not from World War II? The first modern(ish) concentration camps were in South Africa in the 1600s (I think. Don’t quote me on any dates here). The people in the camps were not native Africans—they were the Dutch colonists, under control of the British. Of course there’s a lot more to it, but I wonder why everyone knows about the Holocaust, but most don’t know about the camps in South Africa and many don’t even know what Apartheid was. I wonder why our priorities lie where they do.


Feet dipped in the Indian Ocean at sunrise!

We spent Saturday in Durban. It was quite an experience roaming the market. I was very much reminded of the markets I’ve seen in China, the Bahamas, Venezuela and Hungary. The crafts and artwork was beautiful and I bought a few souvenirs there. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach…I still haven’t gotten badly burnt here!

Sunday was the best day of the week by far. It was Valentine’s Day of course, and we couldn’t resist a celebration. We had the option at the beginning of the semester to join a leadership committee, and I joined the activities committee. We decided to go big this weekend.

We found a recipe for chicken alfredo have the kitchen staff make, along with garlic bread and Caesar salad. We decorated Jabulani Lapa, a giant thatch-roofed tent by the waterfall with tablecloths, roses candles and dimmed lamps. We played Frank Sinatra, Harry Connick Jr. and Nat King Cole all night. Everyone dressed up nicely, took lots of pictures, enjoyed dinner together and we even danced some swing and salsa after dinner! Another favorite of the evening was the gift exchange. We all had drawn names earlier in the week, made valentines and bought a small gift in Durban. The evening wouldn’t have been complete had we not also converted our training wing into a movie theater by dragging in couches and topping it off with warm buttered popcorn and the movie 50 First Dates.


Kristen (roommate) and I before heading up to dinner.

Now we’re back into another weeks. Enjoy the pictures that I couldn’t post last week, and expect to hear from me again next Monday!

Mailing address:
African Enterprise
Hilary Hall
PO Box 13870, Cascades 3202
Pietermaritzburg, KZN
South Africa

Photo album that I’ve added on to (South Africa Beginnings): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046002&id=1037910026&l=89c4a544dc

Biology Field Trips: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046258&id=1037910026&l=e1013496fc

New photos! Indian Ocean: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047551&id=1037910026&l=19dadeee39

Week 3: little safari and weekend away

You better grab your reading glasses for this one, because if you read all the way through, I'll be impressed. Also, the internet is being awful right now, so my pictures aren't uploading fast enough for me to make it to bed at a decent hour, so you'll have to wait for pictures--sorry, friends. For now, enjoy and I'll add in the pictures later!

What a week it has been! I can’t believe all the things I’ve seen since I’ve updated you all. I’ve adventured a little more around the AE campus as well as Pietermaritzburg area and out to the coast!

I saw zebra last week! I went for a 6am run with some of the ladies of my chalet (called Mojalefa—Mojo for short) in the game reserve last week. We followed the same path that we normally do, but I went a little higher than I had before. We got to a little grassy area at the top, and saw 4 zebra! There were two big ones, a medium sized one and a baby. We just stood there for a while watching them in awe. When we finally tore ourselves away from the scene, we began to head back down the path. Within 2 or 3 minutes, we ran into 2 more. We shared the path with these ones, going opposite directions, so we were probably just 4-5 feet away from them.

But after last Thursday, those zebra are actually the less exciting part of this blog. My biology class took our second weekly field trip to the Tala Game Reserve. When the bus arrived and we saw the open-air (safari-style) jeeps that we’d be taking, nobody was left without a smile on their face.

We climbed up into our jeeps and took off down the dirt roads. It felt very much like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, but with real animals and more thrill. Our list of animals for the day got pretty big, including more zebra, ostriches, wildebeest, nyala, hippo, giraffe and white rhino! As we sat there looking at all of these animals and learned about the different natural tools that equip them to live in this area, I couldn’t help but sit there in wonder about how perfectly God created those creatures.

This weekend was an exciting one, too. I’m having quite a bit of difficulty accepting the polychromic nature of South Africans. I’m a pretty time-oriented person, and though I’m not always on time, it does stress me out a little bit to be late. The weekend was full of changed departure and arrival times, lots of (unnecessary?) stops in the buses on the side of the road and a lot of miscommunication. BUT, I had a few new experiences that made it worth it.

South Africa is the home of more Indians than any other place in the world outside of India. Our intercultural communication professor is of Indian descent, so he knows a lot of Indians in Pennington, which is not too far from Durban. We went to a camp there with little chalets to stay in and got to experience a little bit of life there. We ate some Indian food, invited a bunch of Indians from his friend’s church for dinner and games, went to Indian charismatic churches on Sunday.

There was a group of us who got up early for the sunrise on Saturday. We rolled out of bed and climbed in our bus and were in for a treat. It was getting light by the time we got to the beach (just a 5ish minute drive), and we all ran to the edge of the water to stick our feet in. There were crabs all over the shore and flashes of cameras everywhere. As the sun rose over the ocean (many of the group had never seen an ocean sunrise—only sunset!), I just stood there, snapping as many pictures as I could. My pictures can’t show the full beauty of it, but I hope you can get an idea of it from them!

We headed back to a different beach (with shark nets) for a couple hours that afternoon. As soon as we got there, our whole group was in the Indian Ocean, jumping and body surfing in the waves. I could not believe the temperature of the water! We heard it was 77 degrees. The waves varied in temperature, but I kid you not—many of them were WARMER than many baths that I’ve taken in my life! I talked with an older South African couple from Joburg out in the waves, and they laughed at my amazement and enthusiasm. As I got closer back to the shore, the water was too warm for comfort. I was out there in the waves for about an hour or an hour and a half, and wasn’t any less excited about the last wave than the first.

During the dinner/game time together with the youth group members that night, I spoke a lot with a girl named Leona. She’s 24, Indian, and has just finished her studies. It was so interesting to talk with her about her balance of traditional Indian culture and Christian life. We talked about different holidays and churches and compared each other’s. We talked about free time, freedom given by parents, slang and accents (one of the first things she said to us was, “cool accents!” I keep forgetting that we’re the ones with the accents here).

The church experience was very different than anything I’ve seen before. First, the building was 80-something degrees and we were moving around with the music quite a bit. We sang mostly in English, but they did a Zulu medley as well (one song of which we had learned, so we could sing!). The service was just over 2 hours, and we ate lunch with some of the leadership in the church afterwards. It was delicious curry, but it definitely heated us up even more than the service—and we ate in the same hot room!

We headed back to Maritzburg Sunday afternoon. I slept on the bus and woke up as we were bumping along Nonsuch Road..I could tell we were home even before I opened my eyes, just from the smell and sounds that I realized I’d taken for granted. I still am overwhelmed at the beauty by which I am surrounded at AE. I think I have more appreciation for it all now. Maybe except for the monkeys, who kept popping their heads in during biology today and stole a bunch of our mints from the classroom.

There’s a lot of homework to do this week, since we didn’t do any this weekend. I’m not looking forward to writing the papers due at the end of this week and early next, but I think I can handle it—after all, how many people write their papers on a lawn by waterfalls with zebras next year and monkeys to throw water bottles at when they get too close? Yes, for now, I’m happy. It’s my “for now” home and I’m going to soak it up while I can.

Pictures for YOU!

We had the luck this semester to be traveling with a few pretty nice cameras, so when Jon posted these pictures today, I had to share them.

At the end of last week, there was a ton of rain, so we decided to have fun with it. There is some sports equipment laying around this place, so we grabbed a rugby ball, ran up to the soccer field and went nuts. We ran around tackling each other, getting soaked and muddy and enjoying each other’s company and a newish game to us. It was enough fun that I’m pretty confident it’ll be happening again.


That's ME making that catch!


That would be my roommate trying to tackle me.


The ladies of the afternoon.

On Sunday night, there was a big lightning and thunder storm—no rain, just the noise and flashes. It was getting dark, and each flash would light the entire sky. We even saw a lightning bolt every few minutes. We got out of The Truth Project screening and there was a group 10 or 15 of us standing outside for literally about 15 or 20 minutes staring at the sky.


Some of the patient spectators.

Week 2: Getting Comfortable

Just over a week in this treasure trove of a country, and we’ve seen so much already. I feel at home at AE (African Enterprise). I feel like this is my place, I belong. I eat here, I sleep here, I have friends here.

I’m at the point where I’m going past surface-level conversation with some of the group. As I spend more time with each of these peers, I get more comfortable with them and so excited to learn more about their lives! There are people from all over the states, from Alaska to our Community Life Coordinator from Cuba. Each person has such a different story, and it thrills me to be let in on those stories.

We’ve done a bit of exploration since my last post. I’ve had a full week of classes and I can tell that I’ll be visually, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually challenged over the next few months. I think my favorite class will be Life and Teachings of Jesus. My professor is Reg, who is the director of the APU SA Semester program. He’s a tall, sixty-something, very intelligent, passionate South African who loves his country, his god and his job. We’ve just had one day of his class and I’ve already learned a lot about the context of the gospels.

So Life and Teachings is my favorite lecture, for sure, but biology field trips will be something else. We’re in lecture all day on Mondays, but our Thursdays are spent going out into the field and putting a practical spin on what we’re learning in class. Last Thursday we went to Krantzkloof Nature Reserve and it was awe-inspiring.

I cannot describe to you the beauty that I experienced, but I can tell you that my jaw was pretty much hanging the entire time we were out of the bus. We were on the edge of a gorge, we hiked down to a better view of a waterfall, we hiked to the top of the waterfall and down to the bottom. As we wandered through the tropical forest, I couldn’t help but imagine I was on the set of Indiana Jones or Avatar. We saw brightly colored birds, big spiders and giant millipedesHave a look at my album for an idea of what we saw: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046258&id=1037910026&l=e1013496fc

On Saturday, the whole group went to a Birds of Prey reserve and a Lion Reserve. We saw owls, eagles, hawks and vultures, bunnies and guinea pigs and dogs. Best of all, we saw lions. There was a really high but pretty flimsy fence, and they came within inches of us! If I had worked up the guts (or the idiocy) to stick my fingers through the wires, I could have touched a lion. I couldn’t believe the size of them! The alpha male’s back was as high as my ribcage. I’ve added the pictures from there to my first album. Here’s the link repeated from last week: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046002&id=1037910026&l=89c4a544dc

I experienced my first South African church yesterday morning! It was in a hot little building on a school campus and we were so enthusiastically received there. I loved being there in the midst of South African families—I think that interacting with families is one of the best ways to involve myself in a new culture. More on church next week, promise.

Last night, several of us opted to see a screening of the first lecture of The Truth Project, a series of lectures on Truth in the bible. I hope I can keep the motivation to go each Sunday night, because I think that it would be really thought provoking, challenging and beneficial for me.

This place is a unique one in which I can grow and learn so much. I’m praying that I’ll really take advantage of that to the full extent. I’m already over a week closer to my return flight home, and there are so many more adventures to be had before I’ll be willing to step on that plane.

Week One

I’m writing this blog from the top bunk of my bed in my new South African home. I live in a chalet called Mojalefa just outside of Pietermaritzburg, and I think I’m in paradise.

The group arrived to Johannesburg on Friday after 29 long hours of traveling from Azusa. We wasted no time and spent all of Saturday diving into South African culture. We piled in a bus and met Alina, our Zulu tour guide for the day.

The first part of the day was spent in Soweto, the former black township (during Apartheid) in the middle of Joburg. It was such a strange feeling to see these shacks with corrugated iron roofs, men carrying live chickens down the street or women with boxes and bags balanced on their heads when I live in a place where we live in big houses with double paned windows, where our chickens are plucked for us 99% of the time and we can put our groceries in our shiny cars to get them home.

We went to a Zulu restaurant for lunch…and when I say restaurant, you probably aren’t imagining quite right. It was an outdoorish place with a roof and a very small building (for lack of a better description) for the kitchen and buffet. Our group filled every seat. The people there were so joyful! Some children came in and performed dances for us, and even grabbed me and a few others to dance out of the eating area!

We spent part of the afternoon in the Apartheid museum—it was surreal. I’ve always paid attention to the segregation history in the US, but that’s always been history to me…as in several years before I was even born. Apartheid didn’t end until I was 6 years old. It was the strangest feeling to realize that the “White Only” signs displayed in the museum were only taken down 16 years ago. Most of the people that I’ve met and will be meeting lived during Apartheid.

On Sunday, we flew to Durban and drove to African Enterprise just outside of Pietermaritzburg, where we’ll be living for a while. The campus is so lush and green and incredibly beautiful in a way that’s so different than home.

There are tall trees, big bushes, a watering hole and a waterfall right behind my chalet! I listen to the waterfall as I go to sleep and I can hear it in my classes, too. We’re right by a game reserve, so my roommate (Kristen Capodanno), my Joburg hotel roommate (Katie Hahn) and I got up at 6 this morning and took a path through part of the reserve. A couple girls took the same path and saw zebra later this morning. We didn’t get that lucky, but we saw an impala and her baby! I plan on running there lots, so hopefully we’ll spot some excitement.

We started classes yesterday, and since I’m taking History and Culture of South Africa, Intro to Zulu, Intercultural Communication, Humans and the Environment (Bio) and Life and Teachings of Jesus in an intensive 6 weeks, I’ve got a ton of reading and homework to do—I’ve even already turned in a paper this afternoon!

Miss you all! I’m sending hugs to California, Virginia, Washington, Great Britain, Hungary or wherever else you may be reading this from!

To see all of my pictures, check out: