A Semester Has Come & Gone...

Nearly 4 months, 51 friendships, and 15 units later, I am done here. As I am writing, I am spending my last night in South Africa. Maybe ever, but I really hope not. By the time this blog is read, I will be done with plane flights and customs, and be back in CA. I have realized that even my blogs have forgotten to cover huge chunks of my life here. In fact, I realized I forgot to write one about my week experience in a Zulu village and on a safari. Considering that the week included near death for some, about 15-20 hospitalizations, and over a week of continual sickness for about 30+ of the students here (including myself), I will need to explain that one someday… But then again, it’s not the most pleasant story. I’ll leave it up to you if you’d want to hear it...

There are many stories I have worth telling. And there were many moments when cameras were not around to capture all the memories (which are usually the best moments, since you’re so busy enjoying life you forget about things like cameras). But besides all the stories and pictures I will bring back to share, I realize that there might be things I cannot share at all, even if I tried really hard to. I am different now, and I am not even exactly sure how; but I know I’m a different person than the one who got on that plane to Africa back in January.

I will be processing and trying to figure out this whole semester for a long, long time. But I know that I have been so blessed to have been chosen for the opportunity. I know that God chose this for my life for a big reason, one I do not understand fully, but am slowly starting too. He chose to meet me here in South Africa; to meet me at the Indian Ocean when the sun was rising, to meet me in the things I learned in classes, to meet me at the waterfall, and to meet me in the lives and faces of women suffering with aids. He showed me more about His greatness, His Grace, and His Love for a suffering world. He gave me more clarity about the direction of my life (yay, I finally think I might have a direction…maybe) and showed me more about myself. I also learned more about what it means to really trust God, and that to gain my life, I need to lose it.

By far, this has been the greatest and most life changing semester and 4 months of my life; months full of thousands of moments that I hope to hold on to and never forget. They were months where I was broken and built up, and months where I got to live and experience community and life in a new way. They were my months in the wonderful country of South Africa.

The Last Month

The last month of my time here I have been in buses, hotels, people’s houses in the community, Christian colleges, and on some trains. It has been hectic and busy, and I have rarely spent time on my computer; at least not enough time to blog until now... And my guess is that by the time I post it, I will already be home in the U.S. Because I have had so much happen and these last 20 or so days have felt like years, I will try to (very quickly) recap my life.
I traveled 25 hours in a bus over one week, stopping along the way, and saw some gorgeous oceans and places. I watched my crazy adventurous friends do the highest bungee jump in the world, which unfortunately I had neither the guts nor the money to do. I rode an ostrich. Yep, pretty weird, but it was fun. I also explored the Cango caves, which I think I heard is the world’s largest underground caves, but I’m not sure… I arrived in Cape Town, which is a gorgeous exciting city that’s a mix between San Francisco, Europe, and LA, with hints of Africa, of course. It is more touristy and westernized than PMB was, and feels a lot more like a vacation. I took trains to fun places and markets, and spent too much money on food. Like always. I also hiked up and down Table Mountain, which is huge (google it) and I felt accomplished.
For just over a week, my roommate Jessica and I stayed with the Mostert family in a town called Ocean View. They are an Afrikaans speaking family, and we got to know Naz, Wayne, and their two boys; Luke and Noah. We ate meals with them, had great conversations, watched their soap operas (and many, many Michael Jackson music videos), went to their church and their son’s soccer game, and even took a trip to the emergency room when Noah cut his head open at a carnival one night. Remind me to tell you the story behind that emergency room visit sometime; it involves a love confession, and a bipolar patient named Aiden who claimed to have a “billionaire playboy mansion.” Oh, lucky me…
In just that one short week, the Mostert Family became our family. We knew their lives and history, and they knew ours. Our host mom Naz took amazing care of us. She fed us way too much, did all our laundry, and cried the day we said goodbye. Our host dad brought home delicious chocolate cereal and Kit-Kats from work. Luke would cheat when we played cards every night, and Noah woke us up each morning bright and early with his two year old screaming and whining. It was wonderful, because it was our family, and it was a really hard thing to leave and say goodbye to.
The next week, we stayed at a small Bible college called The Bible Institute. It was kind of like The Master’s college of South Africa, a college where you cannot dance or “have celebrations of any kind in the parking lot” (that was literally in the rule book we had to sign…). However, it was right across the street from the beach and in a great little town, so it all worked out. I spent mornings (well ok… one) running along the streets next to the ocean, and went to a nearby bakery/café literally every day, where I ate chocolate croissants, drank coffee, and was glued to a good book. I also explored the city a few times, going to waterfront (which is like Pier 39 but better…) and to a town called Woodstock, where I went to a fabulous market w/artsy things and gourmet food (and almost got mugged a few times on the way… don’t worry mom, I’m okay..)
To remind you, that was the short version of my last month. Ah, hectic. Now, I am sitting in a hotel as I finish writing; the last hotel I will be at until heading back home to America. It has been a wonderful last month. It went by in the “blink of an eye” as a saying goes, and I do not want to see it end… But, as another saying goes, “all good things must end.” Man, I hate true sayings…