My Glitter List

Hello friends, family, and any random people reading.  I hope you have had a great week, and are doing well.  As I realize that my first full month in South Africa comes to an end, I see that time is going fast, and that I only have four months left to do all that I need to.  Good thing too-because I’ve got plans.

This week was not as intense as last week, but has had it’s own ups and downs, I got my first C this week.  (by first, I mean since like high school).  Then I found out that the grade equivalent back in the states to that is an A.  Weird, and pry the root of many Americans having a small panic attack.

Today was the first day that Jeremy and I volunteered with the penguins, I had so much fun, and they were super cute.  We cleaned, watched a bit of Toy Story 3 (great movie), and helped record how much the penguins ate.  Not bad for the first day J

Plans are now underway for spring break…drum roll please…badadrabanda…we are going to Namibia!!   For 9 WHOLE days! It’s gonna be wicked awesome.

Also had a Bible Study this week, which was AWESOME to go to.  This week has been pretty chill, I read a couple books and have been working on some volunteer projects and such.  One thing I expected when I came was to be immersed in culture, unfortunately that is not true, yes I get some here and there, but it’s more like a small city in America (sans Pizza Hut), I’m going to try to find more cultural things, (we’re going to coffee bay this month for a full moon dance ritual event), but it’s not as different as I expected.  Not sure how I feel about that yet, suppose I’ll let you know when I do.

Also I thought I’d start sharing my list of things to do before I die (My Glitter list) –the pageant girl in me is coming out ;-)  I have already done some of them, and so you’ll see that checked, but I figure I’ll post 5 each time, and perhaps by the time I come back from Africa I’ll have a few more checked and you’ll know a little bit more about me and my dreams.

BTW. They are in no particular order of importance

* means done already

Glitter List 1-5

*1. Perform in another county (In China we had to do a mini performance)

2. Go Sky Diving

3 Go Bungee Jumping

4. Become Fluent in another language (have a bit more to go with ASL)

5. Read the entire Lord of the Rings Series (this one will take me a while)

I know this post is not as interesting as the others, I promise I’ve got some sweet stuff coming up that will be awesome to read about, and I just want to thank you for taking the time to read my blog, whether you’re my aunt in Florida, my mom in Iowa, or a friend in Oklahoma, I appreciate it, and I hope that you like it, if you do and you want to share it, or someone asks you how to get to it, tell them to type www.apassionateadventure.blogspot.com into their browser, and it’ll come up. J If you’d like to hear about anything more in depth or have any questions please let me know!

Love you all,

Aj

Radiantly Stellar

This past week has been awesome.  I feel like I am really growing and changing since being down here in Africa.  Not sure if it is just the way people are, or because I’m in another part of the world and away from home.  Either way, I’ll let you in on what’s up, and what has been mulling around in my brain lately.

I started volunteering this week, at Thandusana and through Unity for Africa, the first is an abandoned babies home, and I just love it, the kids are amazing, and I feel so blessed to be able to work in a Christian home for these little ones.  I love every day I can go, and might start going on Thursdays as well, we’ll see.  Unity for Africa was really cool we are doing art projects to help kids find what they are good at and explore it.  I enjoyed it last week, and I’m excited to go back, although this afterschool program is in a very run down part of town, it just goes to show the difference in rich and poor.  It’s crazy intense.

I hosted a girls night on Friday night that ended up getting crashed by Jer and the guys, but we had a great night and ended up going out dancing at a club.  It’s kind of crazy, at first I thought all of us had come to Africa to give back and be an effective part of a community, but you can start seeing who wants to give back, and who is here to party.  Nothing bad either way, but I feel like your missing out if you are just going out all of the time. 

I’ve been reading my Bible more that I’ve been here than I did before I came,  I felt so disconnected before I came, I think because I was travelling so much, and just felt out of place.  I started reading my Bible every day, and having God time, and it’s amazing how much my perspective and attitude has changed just in a few weeks.  Amazing what God can do, when you just push through the 7^th veil, we’ll see what else he has in store for me.

Watched my first rugby game on Saturday, we went to an amphitheatre to watch it, it’s intense.  It’s like football, but much crazier, and no armor, glad I don’t play.

Found a new place to volunteer at, it’s a rehab center for penguins, I’m pretty stoked, Jer and I are going to start going once a week to help out, I think it should be a lot of fun.

I represented America the other day on Friday and each country that came to the international fair had to bring some sort of food that represented their country.  I decided on Puppy Chow, one because I’m really goopd at making it, and the other reason is because nobody knew what it actually was.  While we were lined up at the fair people kept coming up and eyeing our stuff and were like, “what is that?”  I was like really?  You are going to eye my table with oddness, when there are worms over at the other table?  J But everyone liked it, and a judge came over and said that we had the best food and came back for seconds.  We didn’t win anything, but we did run out of food by 11.  Guess it was good.  I made 4 gallon sized bags for it, it was intense. 

I don’t know if I talked about this before, but something I’ve been stirring around in my head is what God has called me to be.  I read a magazine article about being freaking awesome.  Due to the real title having a less than appropriate four letter word in the title, I decided to change it to mean “radiantly stellar”.  You know those people that you meet and they just seem to be the coolest people you’ve ever met?  You just feel like you know them, and they exude this contentment and easy going-ness. I have so many things I want to do in my life, but if I can just be radiantly stellar and help other people and be a woman of Christ then I did my job.  God put other people on my heart, and so whether that will be volunteering here in Africa, or helping kindergarteners read back in America I’m not sure, but I feel like I’m starting to discover what kind of person God wants me to be.

God bless,

Aj

Sorry the blog was so long, I haven't been able to post in a while. 

What is and is going to be home.

Today I had my first thoughts of homesickness.  Ya ya ya, I know I brought Jeremy and he is my home, but there are some things you don’t think you care about until they are gone, things you don’t even notice while you have them.  Like the option of heating in your home, or eating a bologna and butter sandwich, or being able to order papa johns and know that I can have some breadsticks and pizza if I have a rough day.  Now let me clear the air, I’m not complaining, I’m just….surprised.  I feel comfortable here, I enjoy it, I like the people, and the food, but there are bits of home that call to you, reminding you that you have a place in another part of the world.  Is that supposed to keep me grounded?  Remind me of where I come from?  Am I supposed to encourage these feelings, and become moody, or suppress them and resent everything around me.  I feel the answer lies in just accepting it as something that happens, and adjusting. Although I call our house home, something still hasn’t set yet.  Whether it’s time or me, I don’t know.  This brings into question the rest of my life, will I have multiple homes, a place in my heart for each place I’ve lived, for each place I’ve tried to leave my mark?  I assume so, but it’s interesting to question.

There was a few stories I want to share with you that I heard this week that have brought me to this pondering.

There was a elderly man fishing on the beach, when the tide would rise he would cast out his reel and immediately a fish would bite, he’d bring it in, roast it and eat it.  He’d relax on the beach, and enjoy the day, when he was hungry again, he would cast out again.  After a few months of this, a young man approached him and asked if he could catch fish like this all of the time why didn’t he set up nets and get money from all the fish so he could sit around fishing all the time.  The old man looked at the young one and said, “Why?  I am doing that right now”.

The second story I was told the other day,

There was a couple, mid to late 40s.  They both had high jobs in corporations in a big city in America. One day they looked at each other and said, “what are we doing?”  They quit their jobs and started traveling to complete their bucket lists, which included sky diving, working as a chalet during the ski season, volunteering for 6 months, as well as many other things one can only imagine.  They were approached about volunteering in South Africa, they started an organization called Zama SA and haven’t left since, and I believe that was a few years ago.  I’ll start volunteering for this organization through Unity For Africa, and I start next week.  I wouldn’t have this opportunity unless they followed their hearts and did the unexpected.

I've been thinking alot about the future, and what I'm to do, or how I'll make a difference, and who I am, and who I want to be, not just job wise, but on the inside, what type of person do I want to be.

 I want to be someone else’s story that they share. As I look for what to do in the coming months when I return from South Africa I am impressed by the sheer number of things to do, however I’m determined to seek God and see what he has planned, because if God has it planned, then I know I’m going to have a great story, and possibly many places I call home, or not.  I will just have to wait and see.

God bless,

Aj

So let's do something!!

This has been an exhilarating (and exhausting) week; I’ve been busy, from hosting an anniversary potluck, volunteer work, an Ethiopian dinner, the beach, and one of the best weekends of my life (top three, if not top two).

As many of you know it was my two year wedding anniversary this past week on Monday to my amazing hunk of a hubby Jeremy.  We decided to celebrate by hosting a potluck.  No one knows what a potluck is here, they call it a ‘bring and share’.  ::Very literal these South Africans::   Jeremy made up a huge pot of spaghetti and sauce, and I made fantastic chocolate cake. We ended up having about 40 people over at our house.  Our roommates were amazing about it and made our day that much more special.  People are really excited about Jeremy and I being married, I think it’s because we’re a unique pair within the international students…we actually got flowers.  Kind of cool. :-D

I feel very blessed to have the partner I do, and I thank God that Jeremy is here with me to experience South Africa by my side.

I signed up to start volunteering this week at the abandoned babies home called Thusanda, the idea of orphans makes me already feel compassion so I can’t imagine what it’ll be like walking into the house of 6 babies that more than likely already have HIV.  I am blessed with this opportunity to help, and I’m excited to do all I can to make these ‘left over’ babies feel love. Just trying my best to be Jesus with skin on.

Speaking of HIV I had a workshop this week and found out that there are 33 million people in the world with HIV, 22 million of them live in South Africa.  That just blows my mind. So we were prepped on how to stay safe and not get it, basically don’t play in blood (good thing I’m not a vampire), don’t have sex with strangers (I’m married so that’s one is taken care of) and don’t do drugs (seeing as how I’d like to complete my stay here that’s not a problem either). 

Crazy thing of the week, I went to an Ethiopian restaurant, with Andrew, James, Bree, and Jeremy.  We got there and it’s an illegal restaurant behind a little convenience store, so we went in and asked for the place and the guy tilted his head towards the back, I’m not gonna lie, I was kind of nervous, it was sketchy. We went in, and ten minutes later we were served pitas that looked like foam pancakes.  Bree thought you washed your hands with them, but not so. We were then given like 15 different bowls of different fillings, and so you picked what you wanted to put in your wrap and ate it, it was pretty good.  Pretty spicy but interesting nonetheless.  James said it was the best food he’s ever had, I’d take tuna casserole over the Ethiopian food any day, but for sure I’ll be going back because it was pretty good, and really filling.

The beach was perfect this week, a bunch of us took the afternoon (you only have class for 2 hours a couple days a week) and went surfing and sat on the beach, I came late so James and I will go surfing next week.  I would like to mention again that I am a 15 minute walk from the beach…I don’t know if I can go back to living so far away…this is like heaven. Don’t worry, I’m using lots of sunscreen (which is expensive here oddly enough).

I just got back an hour ago from Plettenburg Bay, where we (Anna, Inga, Louisa, Jer, and myself)went along with a bunch of other people, but we all drove in a car together, and rocked out the preplanning so we could do cool stuff. It was AWESOME.  We went to go ride on the Elephants but one had twisted its ankle and the other had diarrhea.  Instead we were able to go feed and walk with the elephants (for an 1/8 of the price, you know me, BARGAIN SHOPPER!) and it was sooo cool. We have lots of pictures of us with the elephants, and then one almost ran me off a small dam into a mud pile hill, I gripped onto the elephant and switched sides and so instead of me sliding, it slid down…close call, because at 4 years they already weigh a gazillion pounds, and I would have not looked the same from under the elephant.  Their trunks are so cool, they like grab and suck, it’s awesome, they also ate from our hands which felt weird but was hilarious.

Then later that night on Saturday we had a Braai (BBQ) at the backpacker lodge where we stayed.  It was amazing, especially the people, enthusiastic travelers that want to see the world for what it is, not what commercialized ads says it is, and these people are from all over the world.  It’s like a camp atmosphere with dorms, and so in one room there is twelve beds, and they have lots of different rooms, and the backyard.  aah, my dream backyard, minus the 4^th and 5^th hammock and add a hot tub instead.  I was able to watch the sunrise this morning on a tree swing and read and drink instant coffee, (not good unless you add LOTS of sugar). All of this for 20 dollars a night, and I met some of the neatest people.  I can’t even begin to express how much excitement it gave me for the passion Jeremy and I have for traveling and seeing the world and absorbing cultures.  I can’t wait to go to the next backpacker.

 

Today we went to the market and found some cute little trinkets, and some awesome scarves but they were way overpriced, so that was a no go (although I did find some makeup, and I ran out of mascara so it was great to have some again) gotta look cute in the bush!  Later we went to the cheetah park Tanikwya, we were able to go into the enclosures and see the different wild cats, then we got to take 2 year old cheetahs for a walk!!! We got to touch and pet them and walk them on a sunset walk.  One of the coolest experiences of my life, and I didn’t even know I wanted to have that experience.  Just goes to show to try everything, because you never know what will change your life.

This week was enthralling. Lately I’ve been having ‘I can’t believe this is my life’ moments.  I am so blessed to be here, the people, my roommates, my husband, and just everything. I’m having a great time, and am so content. I feel like I don’t have to try to be anything for anyone, I can just let loose, relax, and take it in…maybe that’s what it’s all about…we’ll see, I guess I’ll have to keep exploring and keep blogging. :-D

Back to the grindstone! (Actually, to bed, it’s been a long weekend and I’m toast)

Lots of Love,

Aj

Ps. Mom, finding lots of awesome cool jewelry, luckily it’s all pretty cheap, otherwise my pocketbook wouldn’t like me very much.