well, this will most likely be my last blog post from s.africa. i have spent the past couple of days in cape town and LOVE it. thanks all for reading and being a part of my adventure. i have had such an awesome time and have learned so much about God and what it means to abide in Him and to trust in Him.
tomorrow i fly back to durban. then to jo-burg. then to amsterdam. then to dc. i should land at dulles around... hmm. i don't really remember. late afternoon sometime.
while i am sad to leave s.africa, i am somehow quite sure that i will be back soon =)

some highlights of cape-town:

view from my hotel room

view from my little trek up lions head

so tempted to do this!!

but i didn't... maybe next time ;)

ha

this was on the way to cape point. out of my taxi window

so pretty

cool

me. and my miscellaneous clothing that i have after giving/throwing away most of it. bahaha!

SO COOL!!!!!

loved.it

my taxi driver exlained that this weather pattern happens when the cold atlantic ocean meets the warm indian ocean. SO COOL!

i love rainbows.

this place was awesome

late tuesday: "i must go" lyrics.

Time flies when you're having fun
And it's flown too quickly for me
For my time has arrived
The day has come, the day I must leave
Where I'll go I cannot barely know
All I see is the road at my feet
I must go, I must leave this place
I have somewhere to go
I have a new road to follow
I must go, and though I wish I could stay
There is something beyond what I see
I must go
And though I feel like I'm losing myself as I fear leaving all this behind me
I will not, I will not lose my faith as I go
For my fears will be vanished in time
And I know that I will be fine
I must go, I must leave this place
I have somewhere to go
I have a new road to follow
I must go, and though I wish I could stay
There is something beyond what I see
I must go
And I will not forget you, I could not forget you
Even though I cannot be by yourside
But life's course has brought us to this place, tomorrow we must embrace
And seek joy in this bittersweet goodbye

i hate goodbyes and am so sad to leave. going to try to enjoy all that i can these last couple of days.

house 19 boys spent the night with us last night and crammed onto that little couch to watch a movie!

quiet time on this beautiful sumday morning

 mbali and i

my view from the drivers seat!

driving to lily.

sunday lunch

managing to look like a giant while trying to see if the chicken was done

lihlie and i watching the boys play soccer this afternoon. 

i knew that my 8.5 weeks here would fly by. i thought i was prepared for that. i wasn't. i cannot believe that i am leaving lily in 10 days. i have finally learned most of the names and broken down some of the walls that the teenage girls put up. i am so sad to leave it all behind, but i know that i must.
i have always thought of myself as being a pretty flexible person who can adapt to new places and situations. while i think that is still possibly true, that is not why i felt so at home here. i felt at ease here instantly due to the generosity and kindness of the people here. and because i think there were a lot of people praying for me...
i was talking to one of the "house dads" here yesterday about how generous everyone has been and he was amused that i had noticed. its just so typical and normal for them that they are outraged when people make a big deal out of it. he was saying how when he gets paid, (he gets paid equivalent to 340 american dollars per month) he is out of money within a couple of days because he gives it away to people who need it. he never saves and seems unfamiliar with the concept. it is just so very opposite from what i do. i have never felt so selfish before. he then started asking me how much money i made and if i was generous with it... i gave a hesitant yes (though i knew it was kind of a lie) and he started asking who i was helping with my money and how i was being generous.
while i don't believe that we are called to give away everything that we have and to become a burden to those around us, i do feel convicted by my selfishness and love of possessions. i have been really praying that God will teach me to have the right perspective and the right heart when it comes to this issue. it is a confusing thing to try to work through. i am feeling a bit frantic to figure it before i return to the hustle and bustle of northern virginia again. its just a different world here. you don't worry about 401k's, raises, promotions, degrees, resumes or student loans. its just a much simpler version of life. in some ways it is easy and in other ways it is very difficult.

anyway, here are also some pictures from the past week or so:

how i feel about having my picture taken

madness! 

trying to get work done in the office. there is always someone who wants to sit in the chair with me!

mbali made a delicious banana bread/cake

 some of the boys with face paint!

the older boys playing soccer in phase II

life

i spent the better part of sunday watching gilmore girls with some of the teenage girls here. last night one of the volunteers (bethany) and i hosted a movie night for the teenage boys. it was hilarious seeing them all cram into our tiny house. some of them were sharing chairs and someone put a mattress on the floor and like 5 of them fit on it. i loved everything about.

this morning i "overslept" for the first time during my stay here. i have prayer meetings every morning at 8am and i woke up at 756a. its a good thing the office is right next to my house. i think that i am getting comfortable here if i am starting to watch tv all day and oversleeping my alarm! 

hammersdale mall

a few pictures from my drive to the hammersdale mall. i had quite a bit of trouble figuring out what lane to be driving in.. and also loads of confusion when it came to parking/backing out and generally everything parking lot related. but no accidents so i consider it a success!

there are lots of mysteriously bottled, very bright colored beverages. sketch

 and marshmallow candy is very popular.... looks like leftover easter candy, but i'm not judging.. 

 s.a hot sheets

 my shopping companions. siya on the left, and jo-jo on the right. the stores here are pretty "american"-- everything is in english so its pretty easy. the meat sections are a bit dodgy and i have learned to check the thermometers to make sure they are within temp. ha!

goodbyes, cake and toast

three little cuties walking. asibongwe (in the process of getting adopted) is the boy in the middle. those are his best friends with him. they were walking and singing in zulu. so precious.

kabelo, pee-wee and sphelele baking today.

 they were so funny.

 ready for the oven.

 they licked the bowl clean in less than 30 seconds!

 we made some toast while we waited for the cake

 half of the cake was for one of the volunteers going-away-lunch

 and the other half was for the kidlets

 and then they all brought over bread so that i could make toast for them. what a little crowd! 

some thoughts:

sometimes utter peace and the feeling of contentment and closeness with God comes at unusual times. last night i was sitting in the backseat of out our toyota condor, surrounded by shopping bags and munching on KFC, pondering what a different life it is here. i am struck by how little i miss home. i miss people and certain things about home, but this place has started to feel more authentic in so many ways than the home that i have always known.

the culture here is warm and generous. i have never experienced generosity this way before. what strikes me is how little these people have yet how much of it they give away. whenever we are out driving and see homeless people, everyone in the car immediately assesses what we have that we can give them (we give out food, not money). this is unusual for me after living my whole life trying to avoid eye contact and pretending not to see these people in need. 

tonight i stood in line behind an elderly woman who was only buying two items: corn flakes and milk. i wondered how many people she was going to try to feed with that. when i first arrived here i was confused about why the checkout lines at the stores were so slow. i have finally realized that they are so slow because more often than not, the shopper in line ahead of me has a declined credit card or not enough money, so they have to begin the process of deciding what to put back. i have never experienced that in my life. granted, i would not consider myself "rich", yet i have never had to worry about having enough money to pay for my groceries. 

we were shopping at a "mall" in hammersdale (poor area) and i realized that i was the only white person in the whole mall. mbali was very impressed with me though as i managed to greet as well as say thank you in zulu. several security guards asked me how i was "being treated in their country"-- mbali found this very amusing and she would laugh and jabber something back in rapid zulu. i have decided that mbali could charm absolutely ANYONE into doing ANYTHING for her. i determined this when i walked out of my house this morning and saw the entire group of maintenance men (4-5) standing around trying to fix her hair straightener! i just about died laughing! and i'm sure she somehow made them feel like they were saving the day.

in other news, due to the severe shortage of volunteers, i have decided to start driving the car during my last few weeks here. i was never opposed to the idea of driving, however, initially we had so  many volunteers who knew where everything was so there was just no need for me to drive. today i had my "drive test" with one of the women on staff here. i felt like i was 16 again! it went great except for the fact that i have a bit of trouble with this whole concept of being on the wrong side of the road and trying to shift with my left hand.. she was somehow impressed and gave me permission to drive. hopefully i will have passengers who will remind me of which side of the road i need to stay on! 

july 1 &2

two of my favorite boys: Sphelele and Kabelo. sphelele and i bonded when he injured his leg a few weeks ago: he now runs to me daily to show me his scar and stitches. sphelele is ALWAYS getting into mischief: always. kabelo comes over to my house every morning with bread and asks me to toast it for him. he likes peanut butter and cheese on it and he is so cute that i haven't figured out a way to say no.  i go through a whole container of peanut butter each week, due to the high volume of foot traffic coming through my door.

these are the lengths that we go to to get internet in our house: please note the height of the chair as well as the open window and curtains

and sometimes you just have to hold the computer higher and hope for the best. this was jo-jo trying to check his facebook last night.

Asibongwe and I. he got adopted today by an american family. it was soooo sweet seeing him running as fast as he could to meet them. i possibly teared up at the scene. he was in my grade 1 class and i just love this boy. he could never sit still and would randomly break into song/dance. it was hard to scold him without laughing!

one of the kidlets took this picture by accident but i thought it was beautiful. it has been very stormy and overcast here. it actually rained a couple of days ago. 

this was the punishment. bahahah!

even though literally everyone here speaks english, it is very typical to suddenly find myself in the midst of a zulu shouting match. it is absolutely hilarious to try to piece together what it is that they are talking about. it is also amusing to me because in america it is so very rude to speak in a language that some of those in the group do not understand. sometimes i feel so at home, and at times like that, i feel like such a foreigner. 

south africans do not have a high opinion of americans, so during the times when we get out and away from lily, if asked, i tell people that i am canadian. it seems like the best solution. :)

we have had quite a lot of rain over the past few days, which somehow led to power outages. i am no wimp, but i was very excited for the power to come back on so that i could heat up water for dishes, baths etc. there is just something gross about being cold with no way to warm up. thank you moms, mel and family for the warm clothing that you sent me!! i layered up and loaned a couple of things out as well. 

a typical scene in the office, as i am breaking for lunch and checking emails etc. the boys come in to try to use the computer and mbali comes in shouting in zulu for them to leave. this is all done in good humor. today she threw a cup of cold water on them to make them leave. so funny.