So. It has been a while, yebo?

I will admit, I write with a guilty conscience. I feel guilty because of the difficulty communicating with many of you back home. Know I miss you all! It has been over two weeks since I last shared anything new. I would like to think that a good amount of change in my mentality and life here has occurred since, but I'll tell you more on that a bit later. First, let's get into the logistics of things.

When I last wrote, I was nicely situated in a hotel in Jozi, Jo-burg, Johannesburg. We were there for all of two days nothing more. We arrived mid to late afternoon and were greeted with a nice bit of heat, that I know I had not felt since when summer was winding down in late August. After arriving, we loaded all our large bags, that we would not be needing, up into a van for Baba (daddy) Philip to drive to what will be our home for ten weeks in Pietermaritzburg.

On our fist day in Jozi, we were led around the city by our guide Alina. She took us around the city to several different sites, most spent in Soweto, the location of a major uprising of students protesting the use of Afrikaans rather than English in the schools. (Afrikaans was the language of Apartheid) In Soweto we went and saw Freedom Square which has a cone shaped building in its center which houses a monument to the 12 chapters of the new South African constitution.

Next, as we made our way to lunch Chez Alina, (Alina's restaurant) we passed by Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu's homes.

Lunch was a nice traditional meal of rice, chicken, fish, the works. It was a great introduction to the food here (which has not caused any need for ciproflaxin thank goodness :) )

From there we trekked over to the Apartheid Museum, for a difficult but import time of reflection on the nation's scarred history and the bright but long road yet to be traveled by this beautiful nation and it's kaleidoscope-like people.

That ended our day and we headed back to the hotel and posted up for the night. The next morning,(a Sunday) we flew from Jozi to Durban, which is approximately a 1 hour flight, on which they served us food of course. Durban and most all of the Kwazulu-Natal province, of which Pietermaritzburg is the capital, is a much more warm, muggy, tropical region. Which does not bode well for my VerWys sweat genes, but am and will deal.

I was struck from the very beginning, by the vastness and beauty of this place. To think it had been just an image in my head less than a month ago, to be here is surreal yet.

Arriving at the African Enterprise campus, I only began to realize the awesome location I would get to call home. It is nestled in the hills north east of the city with two small waterfalls and a game reserve virtually right on campus. I am SO BLESSED!

The next days mostly can be summed up with adjustment and getting acclimated to my new environment. I would even go as far as to say that in this in-between time that I have been rediscovering myself and my niche in a sense in this large group of 53. It can often overwhelm. And in all honesty I struggled with that dynamic. God is good though. Just when I was getting to a place of confusion and loss He sent a weekend of intercultural immersion in the Durban area, but specifically Umzinto. This area is heavily populated with Indians. South Africa has the highest population of Indians outside of the country of India.

Coming into this weekend, I had a variety of expectations and feelings in my head. Different struggles within myself with self-adequacy to be blessed in this situation, to be in South Africa, with so much to learn and be taught by God. For the first two weeks I was looking for the uncomfortable, and this weekend was when I found it, or it found me more like. Uncomfortable, because the people taught me so much about myself, my culture by being thrown out into the "deep-end" in my professor Clive's words. It’s funny how God works that out for us, challenging us right where we need it. I had become stagnant and comfortable where I was at, this weekend helped me to break from that mold. The highlight by far was the hospitality and amount of interaction that we were allowed to be a part of after the service at Umzinto Christian Fellowship at Reuben’s house. It really blessed me to feel a part of their family unit that opened up it’s doors to a group our size and sacrificed of what they had for us, who have so much. It should have been the other way around. It was quite a humbling experience. It really for me, felt like what God intended for His Kingdom and the relationships He calls us too. Giving of ourselves for one another and being raw and real in our conversations. This was just so clear to me when I was able to interact with Reuben one on one. We really were able to invest in each other and offer a deeper understanding of our pasts and what our lives and struggles are currently like. I remember sharing my pursuit of what God would have me do in his world career wise, and he in turn shared how God is using him in a very difficult situation of being a paramedic in a different country so that he gets two weeks at home and six away, and the struggles that he experiences being away from family and home, and he encouraged me to lean on God even when I don’t understand always where he has got me. It was exactly the antidote I was needing, and I bless God for how he orchestrated that in my life at my point of need.

The weekend stretched me, my norms of structure and order and ultimately changed my outlook on relationships and perceptions of the country. BLESS GOD, He is so GOOD. I know this was a lot to read, it was honestly as short a summary of life here I could muster. Thanks for your continued prayer and support. Love you all.

-Grace and Peace