This has been the longest week of my life, I’m pretty sure. Again, not in bad way—just the truth. We wake up around 6 AM every morning (including the weekends) and stay in class until about 4:30 PM (Tuesdays I get out at 1 PM and Wednesdays, at 8:45 PM). It’s quite an incredible thought to realize that less than two weeks ago I didn’t know any of these people. In such a short time, I have heard many life stories, gotten to know people I wouldn’t normally gravitate towards, and experienced the beauty (culturally and geographically) of an entirely different continent.
On Thursday, I went on my first Biology field trip to Cumberland Reserve, about forty-five minutes away from AE (African Enterprise—where we’re staying). As soon as we got there, our teacher, Karen, commanded us to run away and climb a tree. I didn’t even climb trees when I was a tike, so to climb one at the age of 20 was not my specialty. I finally found one that didn’t look too intimidating, and I proceeded to climb it. Granted, I didn’t go very high, but it was fun, nevertheless. I was surprised how much I loved it, actually. Sitting up in a tree in the middle of a game reserve, doing nothing but looking all around for a good ten minutes had quite the clarifying affect on my mind.
After we finished climbing our trees, we headed to a little spot overlooking a waterfall. We ate our lunch and then proceeded to have quite times in pre-picked spots for about 45 minutes. My spot was perfect, and as I looked out from my seat on the edge of the cliff, I began to meditate on the God who created the heavens and the earth, this beautiful landscape, and yet still cares for me. Psalm 8:4 came to mind as I sat there. “What is man, that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?” I was this teeny tiny human, sitting on a rock, and as I looked around me, I saw trees and cliffs that have been there for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, yet God who created all of these things still cares for me? It blows my mind when I think about it even now.
As I sat and read my Bible, I saw the birds fly overhead and it reminded me of Matthew 6:26 that talks about the birds of the air and how the heavenly Father takes care of them, so why wouldn’t he care for us? (If you haven’t read Matthew 6 recently, and you’re worried or stressed out, it’s a great one. And my life verse is in there—Mt. 6:33—so it holds an even more special place in my heart).
As we were finishing up our devotions, I heard that one of our girls, Holly, had gotten hit in the leg by the tail of a spitting cobra (the second deadliest snake in Africa- no big deal). You might want to check out the pictures below. Her wound was pretty nasty. We headed straight to the hospital from the game reserve just in case there happened to be poison in her wound. Thank God, there wasn’t, or else she would not have celebrated her 20th birthday today (once a spitting cobra gets you—you have about half an hour to live, and it took us much more than 30 minutes to get to the hospital). The drivers in South Africa aren’t the best…
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| The eye after a few hours... |
On Saturday, I woke up around 6 AM (I told you—early mornings every day) and headed to Riv Life (one of the service sites some students will be going to five weeks from now) with about 15 other students in order to volunteer there for the day. The rest of the group made a trip to Durban for a beach day, but those of us who went to Riv Life joined in the activities there as we helped facilitate their Community Day that they had set up. There were tents for dental facilities, medical aid, counseling, AIDS testing, TB testing, Alcoholics Anonymous, and pretty much any main service you can think of, set up on their property, open for the community to come and take advantage of for free. I’d say there were about 500 people there that morning, into the late afternoon. For most of the day, I just served water to those waiting in line, but I found it to be quite the fulfilling task. Water is the one of the most basic elements of survival for us as humans (and even for the entire world). Something I felt the Lord had been revealing to me in the days leading up to Saturday (before I even volunteered to go to Riv Life) was that HE is the living water. That phrase had been stuck in my mind during the week, and there I was a few days later--pouring cup after cup of cool, clean water for person after person. It seemed like a menial task, but for me, it was a joy. Later in the day, I met two girls around my age who were waiting in line for an eye appointment. They both spoke English and once they found out I was a believer in Jesus, their eyes lit up and you could see the excitement in their faces. We were able to pray together and connect. What a beautiful thing. Jesus is common ground for all ages, genders, nationalities, and races.
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| The eye less than a day later...much better! |
That evening, as I walking around the campus back at AE with my new friend, Kristen. I walked into the middle of two guys who were throwing a football around. Unfortunately, one of the boys named Mark, threw it right into my left eye. The point of the ball came hurtling toward me, and I had zero time to react. Next thing I knew, I had a cluster of people around me asking me if I was ok. I just held my eye for a few minutes, scared to open it because of the impact from the tip of the ball. Finally, I did, and it began to swell immediately (check out the pictures). Luckily, I had Derek (a super senior nursing student) who took great care of me (along with another friend I had made during the day, Christa). We iced it, on and off every fifteen minutes and everyone was so loving and so caring, it was overwhelming. I ended the night with an oreo McFlurry from McDonalds and all was well. I thought I would wake up this morning with a nasty black eye. I’m pretty sure it’s a miracle that I didn’t. The swelling has already gone down since last night and it seems as if I’m on a nice road to recovery thanks to Jesus, Derek, Christa and an oreo McFlurry :)
