Hey guys...its true I'm here in Jeffreys Bay South Africa, my home for the next 3-8 months.  This blog will not be as neatly or beautifully written as I would hope because I have alot to write and not that much time so please bear with me. 

So last monday I left my home in good ol' Wisconsin.  That was one of the hardest things I have had to do, saying goodbye to my family when I knew it hurt them so much.  So after massive amounts of tears and hugs I began my adventure.  I actually cried so much in the airport that a young guy that I later found out was going to the same training camp as me, tried to tell me about Jesus!  So I arrived in Gainsville GA to meet up with my team of about 55 as well as numerous other teams heading to different locations around the globe.  We stayed at the AIM headquarters down there for our week long training.  This training consisted of being absolutely nasty for a week strait...wearing little to no make up..sleeping in very hot ant infested tents and showering with a hose.  It was beautiful lol!  We had different sessions covering issues we would be facing while out on the field such as spiritual warfare, childrens ministries etc, and in the afternoons we'd do team building.  Team builders varied each day but my favorite one consisted of going into the woods where we had to pretend our plane just crashed.  The leaders gave each person a disability such as blindness, no legs, no arms etc.  Our goal was to get all of the teammates out of the woods...and across a field to the safe zone.  I began the activity with a minor disability, my hands were stuck together.  Knowing many of my teammates were unconscious or missing legs I decided to take leadership.  We made a plan to get everyone out but after just minutes of leading one of the leaders told me i caught a fever that made me unconscious, so there I lay having to completely depend on my team to get me to safety.  I made it ,praise the Lord but getting there was quite the trip.  I was draged, thrown on peoples backs, carried...everything!  So yea it was very interesting. 

Training camp was great my team bonded quite a bit and before we knew it it was monday and we were about to begin our next great journey.  My bus left Georgia at 7:30 am on monday and I did not arrive here until about 11 Tuesday night (take in mind there is a 7 hour time difference)  We flew from Georgia to Washington DC and then got on a huge plane and flew from Washington DC to Johannesburg(spp?) South Africa which was about a 15 hour flight.  I had expected the worst for that flight but I must say I had a total blast!  My friend Ashley and i had a row of 4 seats for just the two of us.  Let me tell you, we were like giddy little girls!  We had four tv screens for the two of us and so we watched different things on each of them.  I spent my time socializing, watching movies, listening to music, and attempting to fall asleep.  The flight went really fast and next thing I knew I was stepping on African ground.  We had about a 4 hour lay over and then got on our third plane, this one took us to Port Elizabeth South Africa.  We were met at the airport by some of our leaders and their friends who drove us in vans to JBay.  You can only imagine our shock and excitement when we realized in Africa they drive on the opposite side as us!  Alas at about 11pm South African time we reached our destination.  Let me tell you...my home here is SWEET!  I live in a compound (which serves as a christian camp)  Its a bunch of little houses in a gated area.  Each house has two bedrooms and a bathroom/shower area and holds 12 girls.  Our compound is located right on the main street in town and so there are a bunch of cute little shops, it resembles a little surf town in san diego.  The best part is I live about a block from the ocean!!  Its gorgeous!  My friends and I walked to the beach today to check it out and ended up meeting some street boys who were just chillin on the beach smoking marijuana.  We introduced ourselves and chatted for a little bit, they were very friendly. 

 

As I sat in our compound today i saw a black woman walk by witha  baby strapped to her back...a rush of excitement went through my body...I"M IN AFRICA!