That following thursday was my last clinical day. I was supposed to be at EastBoom clinic, but I was able to convince my teachers at the last minute to let me go to Ethembeni. I spent the morning massaging and talking with the hospice patients. I taught range of motion exercises and stretching techniques to one of the girls who is 22 years old, has HIV, and just had a stroke last month which paralyzed her whole left side. Then I went on a few home visits sharing a listening ear, the Word, prayer, and food. Afterwards, we stopped by at one of the workers houses (pictured below) to see her dog (also below). One of the things I love most about Ethembeni is that the volunteers are from the same community as the patients they visit, in fact many of the volunteers are community members that Ethembeni once supported or still does support.
That Saturday I went zip-lining in the canopy!!!!! SO MUCH FUN! I Absolutely LOVED it! It was composed of 8 "slides" together reaching over a mile long, making it the longest zip-lining course in Africa. Later that night we had a Braii and all gathered together to watch the rugby finals in which the Sharks won! We had good conversation as the meat roasted over the open flame, played various games, and I jumped for hours in a jumper with Monet, a 4 year old boy of one of the staff, and Daniel, a 7 year old boy of another staff member. They are two of the cutest little boys ever. This day was perfect to me. I loved the community; the feeling of family and love at the braii. It was a precious moment.
Sunday, October 31st, we had a costume party (not a Halloween party which is correlated only with Satanic worship in South Africa). I dressed up as a flower pot.
The following monday morning I came down with the stomach flu. We are a very sharing community. It spread across our campus to almost all 44 students within days. It also hit my church. It was a wonderful opportunity though for us to take care of one another. I am surrounded by such caring and loving students and staff here. They amaze and inspire me daily.
Tuesday night was my favorite Zulu class ever!!! Some Zulu students from a local school came and taught us Zulu worship songs and dance moves.
Then the next day, we drove a couple hours to see the Drakensburg Boy's Choir perform. They are currently the best boys choir in the world!!! They were amazing. They did one song in which they sounded exactly like an African rainforest in a thunder storm. It was totally lekker (cool)!
Thursday morning we did our community project in which me and 5 other nursing girls held a foot washing and massaging training session at Ethembeni. We bought and put together kits for the workers at the hospice center, family center, and for each home visit pair. The kits had a basin, towels, epsom salts, a pumice stone, soap, lotion, and bleach for cleaning. It also contained reminder sheets on what we taught them. We had one woman read John 13 for the group in Zulu, we prayed and then we explained the stations to the women. There was a spiritual station where they discussed the scripture of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet (John 13), a cleaning station that also addressed wound care, and a massaging station, which my roommate Jeana and I were in charge of. At the end we had them all practice on each other. The whole project went really well. The women loved it! They were joyful and commenting on how relaxed they felt, and how they were going to teach their family members at home. We told the women that we really wanted this to be their project, so we wanted them to name it. Later that week we found out they decided to name it John 13 so they would not forget the reason why they are doing this.
We spent the weekend visiting battlefields. The first day we went to the site of the battle at Blood River in which we went through the replica of a donga the trekkers made to fight off an unbelievable amount of Zulu warriors.
That night we stayed at the cutest little country inn that British soldiers used as lodging during some battles. After an absolutely amazing dinner, we had story time with Baba Reg!!! Reg is the South African director of our program. We all gathered around him and he let us ask questions about South Africa, the Bible, life, random silly facts about himself, and serious questions about his past. He is a man of much wisdom and it was a wonderful opportunity for us to hear his opinion on a variety of topics.
The second day we visited the battle at Isandlwana. We hiked up the hill and learned about the events of that day as we looked upon the white rock mounds that symbolized the dead soldiers. It was a beautiful, but sad place. The third battlefield we visited was Rorke’s Drift. We sat in the last standing position where mealie and biscuit (cookie) box barricades had been made and tried to imagine the vulnerability the trekkers must have felt as people read aloud eyewitness accounts of that burning night.
The stories of these battles are miraculous and unbelievable, yet also tragic. The word Zulu in KwaZulu-Natal means heavens. This land is beautiful and fruitful and the trekkers viewed it as their "promise land." It is sad to hear what awful things people can do to one another over land.
One of my favorite parts of these fields is the fact that alongside the monuments to the trekkers, there are also monuments to the Zulu warriors who died in battle. Whoever was right or wrong does not matter now. Zulu, Dutch, and British then, are all South Africans now, and were always and will forever be God's children. He loved them all and so shall we love and respect one another.
Then tuesday, Novemver 9th, was my 21st birthday, and very possibly my favorite day in South Africa so far. When I went to breakfast I was surprised with lots of decorations, birthday cards, a fruit basket with papaya and avocados and other yumminess, and a bag of raw almonds-heavenly. The night before, I was also brought a couple frogs as a gift, (this also happened tonight, and yesterday night and many other nights of the semester). After breakfast we drove to the breath-taking Drakensburg Mountains. I wish my camera could show how green and beautiful the land is, but my pictures just do not do it justice.
We had a milk tart with the South African flag drawn with cinnamon on top as my "birthday cake." It was delicious and I preferred it so much more than cake. The best way for me to describe it is that it tastes like pumpkin pie without the pumpkin. After we finished that and another South African sweet, we started backpacking in the rain through river crossings and rolling hills alongside lots of waterfalls to a huge cave-home sweet home. In the cave, we made an Afrikan fried bread which we ate for dinner with guacamole, and sauteed shrimp and garlic, among other yummy toppings. It was delicious and by far the most gourmet camping food I have ever had, and the fresh clean stream water was like nothing else (bottled water doesn't even compare). At dinner I was presented with a dessert cook book that everyone wrote thoughtful and funny messages in for me.
I stayed warm with tea as I watched a huge thunder and lightning storm and enjoyed a long night of good conversation with the 6 other nursing girls that came on the trip and our two guides- Michael, one of my professor's pastor, and Brian, a retired Botanist that attends Michael's church. In the morning, we were engulfed in the low clouds. The boys were getting nervous that we would have to stay another night due to the heavy rains we had experienced that night and the effect that would have on the river crossings. We only had three river crossings going to the cave, but returning we had 5 due to avoiding particularly harsh crossing zones. Even with the careful selection of our crossing points it was a challenge, but we prayed hard and worked as a team and made it across, completely soaked, but nevertheless we made it. It was an adventure and I loved every minute of it. As we arrived back at the rangers station, I couldn't move my fingers I was so soaked and cold, but the nice rangers let us use their personal fireplace to defrost and dry up a little bit. Then we drove to a little house my professors had rented for the night and cooked up a delicious hot breakfast (for lunch) and curled up in blankets before driving back to campus.
The following several days I worked non-stop from morning to night on my Senior Seminar paper and presentation, along with other nursing research papers, and studying for finals. In order to get it all done I had to skip a couple excursions, but I would choose camping over other excursions, like shopping at the beach and amusement parks, any and every day. I did manage to take an hour break Saturday night to go to our "AE's got Talent" show complete with judges and everything. It was hilarious and memorable. Then sunday night I got an hour break to dig into Revelations with Reg.
Tuesday night we had a fancy “Surprise” 21st Birthday dinner for me and two students whose birthdays are happening in Cape Town. I accidently found out about it that morning, but it was still quite lovely. Everyone dressed nice, and we had really good food, and some kind toasts.
Wednesday morning we drove to Mpopomheni to hear how the foot washing program has been going. We found out that they elected a couple volunteers to be the leaders of the program and sustain it. We also got to listen to the volunteers' stories of how the program has been going so far. Here is what some of the women shared:
·Lunka said she felt “humbleness of kneeling down and washing feet.” Her patients were shy and embarrassed at first, but they accepted her offer and ended up being really happy.
·Toniwe said washing feet helped her love and trust more. Her patients said, “My feet is sore and now it’s better, my heart make me love God so much.”
·Nombeku said that at first her patients were embarrassed, but she explained to them that she wanted to wash their feet as a way to show them Jesus’ love. She said one patient reported that their foot pain has been gone ever since she gave her a massage.
·Thembelihle said that one women who's feet she washed said that it helped relieve her stress.
·Dudu had a patient who asked, “You are washing my feet? Why you wash my feet?” She responded perfectly by saying, “No one is bigger than other one. To wash your feet I am showing you Jesus’ love.” This patient had been really shy before and never talked too much, but that day Dudu stayed with her for an hour and she was told many stories by the patient. She said she learned a lot about her that day. Touch is such a great way to break down barriers.
·Thembelisha is a worker who got a massage by Louise, a white nurse who works at Ethembeni. She said she had pain in her neck, but as she was getting the massage it went away and has not returned.
·At the care center, Margaret washed a man’s feet and afterwards his legs were tingling. He ended up falling asleep because it was so relaxing. He told her that he has been amazed by the faith shown by the workers through the acts of their servant hearts. He has been encouraged by them and wants to share his new love for Christ with his family now.
·The last woman that shared said that she massaged a woman’s feet that was dying. Although the patient still died, she said that her confusion lifted for a few moments and she was relaxed in her last moments of life.
I am so sad to leave these wonderful and inspiring women, and am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to serve alongside them. I am sad that in less than a month I will be leaving Africa. Tears well up in my eyes everytime I think of this program we initiated-John 13, and know that as it continues on, a little piece of me will always be here.
Once I got back to campus, me and three other nursing students decided to do a surprise for one of the boys here. He got in a big argument at breakfast that morning about how he does not think Christmas music should be played before December. So, we decorated his room with snowflakes, streamers, signs with various Christmas greetings and phrases, a fireplace drawing with stockings with our names on them hanging above it, a snowman, and a big christmas tree on his wall with presents. We set up a speaker and blasted christmas music in his room and set up a video camara to catch his reaction. He threw his hat down and exclaimed "but its not time for Chritmas yet" and we jumped out from the room next door and shouted, "It's always time for Chritmas!" He loved it.
Right after we finished, me and two of those girls went out for Indian food, after all KwaZulu-Natal has the highest Indian population outside of India. It was delicious, of course!
Friday morning, John Wallace, the president of APU, came to South Africa for business and stopped by to visit and give a great message in our last chapel. One of the things he touched on was Ithemba, which means hope.
Colossians 1:27 says "To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Christ is in us, so Hope is in US!!! We have the power to share it with others, and as I have seen here in South Africa, the world needs hope.
Today, I enjoyed some hiking along our driveway and in the nature reserve. Then my friend Karlie and I hiked to a waterfall. I then spent some last moments with my South African church friends. After that we had a fancy farewell dinner in which professors, and workers from the service sites came to share a five course meal with us and say goodbye.
I leave in a couple hours for East London, for a new beginning, and many more adventures.
Sala Kahle
The second day in George we went to the Cango Caves!!! We toured 1 cave that had 12 chambers. The first chamber was the largest and can hold 2,000 people. I chose to do an extended tour in which we explored the caves more in depth and went through 4 tunnels, the smallest of which we squeezed through, the "postbox," was about 11 inches in height. It was quite an adventure and I loved every minute of it!
