One Last, Great Trek

My travels are complete until the going home flights; I'm sad.  But it was an awesome eight days of fun and adventure as I traveled to the Kruger National Park, Swaziland, and the Drakensberg Mountains.  In the KNP I saw 15 or so different types of animals, no cats but awesome nonetheless! (3-in-1 word, love it!)  It was actually quite warm all three nights of my stay- which was very welcome as I was staying in a tent.  The days were very hot: my car had A/C!  From the Kruger I drove a few hours to my destination in Swaziland where I spent the next two nights in slightly cooler but pleasant temperatures.  My one full day in Swazi was Sunday so I went to a multi-national church I found as I toured about the town the previous day.  After church I hiked up the mountain which I was tenting at the base of.  It was a nice hike with the payoff being a 360* view from the highest peak in the valley region.  I will add at this time that all eight days of my excursion were cloudless masterpieces!  To drive to the Drakensberg I set a 45-ish* SW course.  I arrived safely and in high spirits, but the warm Drakensberg personality gets a bit "icy" by the end of the day.  I thought the temperature was suppose to be about 2* and 0* the two nights, but the first night before I even went into my tent, the moisture on it had frozen.. yea right 2*.  With 3 and 4 layers on in my light sleeping bag I was lightly cold all night; but hey, I'm Canadian, stereotype says I can take it.  The next day I went on a tour into a remote area of Lesotho that no other tour groups travel.  I was pleased to find out that part of the trip price was donated to the communities school through school supplies and that the group has built a building to provide more class space for the school as well.  It was nice to see Lesotho in it's natural way of life with no big outside influences to corrupt the living. My last night I did get a couple blankets to aid my attempt to keep warm, and it wasn't as cold either.  My trip was excellent!!! I had an awesome time, sad it had to end.  I'm now hanging out in sunny, warm Durban until the 12th.

As School Ends- Travel Begins

School ended June 3.  Shortly after my last blog post I was given seven more children and thankfully one helper as well.  The last month was hectic with all the admin work to finish for the end of the semester.  It was a good challenge to see how far I could stretch.  Needless to say I was tired at the end of the term but it was a very rewarding experience to be at the school and I enjoyed it thoroughly!
The day after school ended I traveled with friends to Cape Town for 4 days.  The first planned stop of our adventure was at the world's highest bungy jump at Bloukrans Bridge.  The height of the bridge is 216m (+/- 710ft).  It is such a crazy thing to do, but as one slogan says "Fear is temporary, Regret is forever."  It's difficult to explain it in a way that if you have not done it you will understand: but I do have pictures and a DVD of my jump which if you see them may aid in comprehending the feeling of it... I don't expect you to ever understand why I did it-- because it was there and I can.  Moving on to CT now, we drove around the Cape Peninsula to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope; went to Hillsong Church- Cape Town; took a train tour to small tourist towns around Cape Town; went surfing; went ice skating.  On our drive home, we went to Cape Agulhas- the southernmost point of Africa.  The following weekend, June 10, I drove up through Lesotho- staying one night at a beautiful backpackers lodge in a remote valley-- and then down past the Drakensberg Mountains-- staying one night at a magnificent 4-star backpackers lodge at the base of the mountains-- and arrived in Durban on the Sunday.  On Monday I left with friends of a friend to go to the Wild Coast to stay in a nature reserve on the coast for the week.  We stayed in a camping lodge on a river and seconds from the Indian ocean. The weather was awesome all week and one night the full moon disappeared with a full lunar eclipse, it was cool!! The moon went a deep red before disappearing completely.  The Wild Coast is the most beautiful place I have visited so far in SA!  All the words you can think of to say how awesome something is won't be enough to describe the Wild Coast's beauty.  Tomorrow I am heading up to the Kruger National Park, Swaziland, and back to the Drakensberg Mountains for my final week of traveling before I hang out in Durban until I become a white line in the sky as I fly home on July 12 and 13.

'Karoo'-koo-koo-koo-koo-koo-koo-koo

Wow, it has been over a month since I posted anything.  Time has been going by so fast and I have been so busy in this time that it feels like warp speed!  When school started in April after a two week break, I took over the other class of the school to make one class of 17 students.(the other teachers are in the literacy center)  So, I have the sole-responsibility of overseeing these children, and what a task it is!!  Each day is a whirlwind of "excitement", but I think my life could use less excitement these days :P  This is my greatest challenge yet and possibly for a while, but by the grace of God I will overcome this and see it through to the end of the month which is the end of the term!  If it has not crossed your mind yet from reading this, please pray for me that I will be able to do everything these children need me to do in a day so they can excel in their school work!
This past weekend I was in Middelburg, which is in the Karoo, a desert region in the north or the Eastern Cape province for the Mighty Men Conference!  The MMC was started by Angus Buchan (if you don't know who that is watch the movie 'Faith Like Potatoes') six years ago.  The first five were held on his farm, the first of which had (all # are approx.) 200, then 600, 2 000, 20 000, 60 000, and 200 000 men all at one place.  For the reason of the last figures "ginormous" size, the conference was split into regions.  The Karoo MMC had 20 000-ish men attending.  It was an amazing weekend of fellowshipping with other Christian men and renewal of spirit.  The weekend was unforgettable, as was the temperature both nights in the tent; -3*C.  It was such a blessed, life-changing weekend!!!

I missed another election, now all I need is for there to be a municipal election before I come home and I complete the trilogy :)

(write title here)

It is currently the middle of a two week break between the first two quarters of the school year and I can't think of a blog entry title.  To go back a couple weeks to the end of the first quarter, I had the privilege of doing my students’ report cards.  This was a surprisingly easy task and very enjoyable time seeing all the work my students accomplished!  There was a week of school between report cards and the two week break to finish work and get ahead with the next quarter’s work.

I started off the break by house-sitting a friend’s house for the weekend, and due to lack of sound bed-time judgment I slept for the first half of the week..

This weekend I was in Plettenberg Bay at the 2011 A.C.E. Educators Conference.  It was a very refreshing time of teaching and encouragement and it was awesome to see some of my friends from the head office in Durban!  We drove on Thursday to Plet. with a detour to Oudtshoorn to visit the Cango Caves.  They are an impressive caves system with beautiful limestone structures which are said to be older than the Earth actually is :P   I also got to ride a camel, named Joshua, and visit a wildlife center/zoo.  Our accommodation was a beautiful wilderness lodge just outside the city which we received, by the grace of God, at a discounted rate!  God is good!!

-Fin-

South African Adventure (Radio Edit)

Earlier tonight I was on the radio with my surrogate father doing a late-night Christian, motivational show. (We have connections to the station manager and were asked to be guest hosts.)  It was so fun!  Reading texts that people sent in wanting prayer for things, sharing motivational and inspiring stories, giving micro-sermons (as in a few verses to make a quick point) between worship/gospel songs.  It was such an awesome experience just sitting in a chair during the songs and just getting stories and Bible verses flying into my thoughts to share over the air.  I really felt the Holy Spirit giving me the words to say through the whole show!
In other news: School has been running smoothly, there are just two weeks left until the end of the quarter... then a two week break!!    The weekly youth services continue to improve in the presentational flow of things.    There are more "ants" in the house than a family reunion.

Back at it for the long haul.

It's hard to believe that it is the start of the 4th week of school since the start of the new year!  I have no idea where the time has gone, I blink and another day is done.  School so far has gone extremely well.  I am the overseer(supervisor) of 8 children who are doing Gr.1 & 2 work.  It's interesting and rewarding to hear what a difference or school is from the government schools.  My newest student came from being in a government school last year and she needed to be taught the 'routine' of the ACE curriculum.  She said to the principal about me, "At my old school, I would have gotten yelled at for doing my work wrong and then still not know how to do it, but he was so nice to me and explained it to me so now I understand it and can do it right!"  THAT is my salary.  If nothing else I do here makes a difference, it was all worth while.
We started a weekly youth service at the church on Sunday evenings on Jan. 23.  I have the responsibility and privilege of being the worship leader.  I play my guitar and sing 'to them' for the most part until they become more familiar with the 10-ish songs I will rotate through for the first little while.  It is a huge success just having had our second service this past weekend.  It was even better than the first- which was awesome!  Three words that best describe it are as follows, and I quote, "Lights, Loud, Life!"
Well, those are the recent goings on here; life is so fast-paced!  It's scary how fast it flies by if you aren't paying attention.
Further bulletins as events warrant.

Break's over!

Well, this is the final few days before school starts up again on the 10th of January.  Christmas was a different experience for me, but it felt normal due to the fact of the closeness of the family I stay with so that although the surroundings were very different, the spirit of the day remained the same.  I went swimming on Christmas Day in 30* weather, a first for me.  Just as Christmas passed, I had another adventure. This past week, Dec. 28- Jan. 4, I traveled to Durban to visit friends.  I rented a car and drove for 14 hours to my destination.  My stay in Durban was very relaxing and fun.  The undoubted highlight of my stay was touring the World Cup Soccer Stadium- a tour which included every part of the stadium: press boxes, changing rooms, Presidential Suite (as in Team Presidents), field, stands, media lounge.  I even took the Skycar up the arch that is part of the stadium's design.  The rest of my trip was very nice, very relaxing before the rush of school starts again.