I'm here!

Hello from South Africa!

I can’t not believe I have been here a week! Actually I can, because we have done so much that it feels like we’ve been here much longer. I love being back in this amazing country, but it’s so different from my previous experiences. A lot has happen in the last week, so I will do my best to catch you up. I promise I will be updating more often in the future. Our schedule has been packed and Internet access is extremely limited. I have also set up a blog that I will be updating frequently so you can keep up with what I’m doing that way.

Let’s start from the beginning………

The group of 37 APU students left the school last Friday the 11th. We flew out of LAX and embarked on our first 10-hour flight to London. We arrived in London for our 6 hour lay over, during which we were able to go out of the airport. We only had a couple hours but we were able to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Although we had a limited time, I really enjoyed walking around and I think got a feel for the city. After our quick exploration of London we boarded another plane for our second 10-hour flight to Johannesburg. Luckily, I was able to sleep most of it. We arrived in Jo-burg on Sunday morning. After loading the bus we headed off to see the surrounding area. We visited Soweto, the town where Nelson Mandela’s former house is. The house is now a museum that we were able to go to and walk around. Next we went to the Apartheid Museum. The museum was very interesting and I learned so much! I could have spent so much more time there.

Sunday evening we settled into a hotel in Jo-burg for the night and begin to recover from jet lag. Monday morning we toured Pretoria, one of the capitals of SA. We visited the parliament buildings before our last plane ride to Cape Town, a two-hour flight. We arrived in Cape Town mid afternoon. We then went to Cornerstone Christian College where we would stay for the next two days. (We’re in Cape Town until Feb. 7th and then we go to Pietermaritzburg until May We’ll be doing a lot of service projects/mission work in Pietermaritzburg). We are taking our classes through Cornerstone Christian College while here. CCC is small Christian college that many local South African students attend. The students are on holiday break since it is summer here, but we are still able to get to know a few of them, as they act as culture mentors for us. Tuesday, we spent the day doing orientation for the program, learning the guidelines, the basics of the program, and where we would stay for our homestays. Wednesday, we moved in with our host families who we will be staying with for the next 3 and half weeks. This was very exciting and I was quite anxious to meet my future family.

My host family is great. They are a retired couple, Denise and Jacob, who have 3 grown children. And very cute grandchildren! ☺ Their youngest child is 27; he lives at home and travels often for work. I’m staying with another girl from APU also and our next-door neighbors are housing two APU students as well. Our host mom takes very good care of us, and is always telling us we don’t eat enough. I promise I eat enough! One thing is for sure; I will never go hungry here!

We live in a middle class neighborhood. I have a whole room to myself, something I wasn’t expecting. The area I live in is pretty developed. My previous experiences in South Africa were in cities where everyone was poor. Here there is much more diversity. There are townships, where everyone lives in houses constructed of plywood and other materials with no electricity and no formal sanitation, but if you drive five minutes away you can find neighborhoods with nice houses where everyone owns a car and has all the basic necessities.

Field Trips and Learning
I never thought I could learn so much in such a short time. One of the things I love most about this study abroad experience is how hands on it is. Whatever we are learning about, we actually have the chance to go and see or talk with a South African about it. We go on field trips every Tuesday and Thursday. This last week we toured the city center of Cape Town, went to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 20 years, and took a tour of the local townships. In Cape Town we learned of what is being done to get ready for the World Cup in 2010 and how they are trying to transform in into a modern city similar to New York. I think they have a long road ahead of them as our tour guide told us that most of the shops currently closed at 5 in the evening. Robben Island was the most interesting place we’ve been so far besides the Apartheid Museum. Our tour guide on the island was a actual political prisoner who was imprisoned on Robben Island for 5 years. It was interesting to hear of his experience and the conditions of the prison. We got to actually see the cell where Nelson Mandela was held. I could not imagine being held there unjustly for such a long period of time. We walked the same route that many of the prisoners walked the day they were released. I can only imagine what that walk must have felt like after being confined for several years.


Honestly I feel so ignorant, I have been here on mission trips twice, yet there was so much that I didn’t know or understand. The Apartheid was so recent (14 years ago) and you can see its ramifications everywhere. Especially in talking with South Africans. So many of my conversations with people come back to something related to the Apartheid or the current situation here. SA is still extremely race conscious and many people still harbor prejudices against races different from their own. Segregation among races definitely exists geographically as there are white townships, colored townships, and black townships, with black townships being the worst (the terms black, colored and white are acceptable here in SA and commonly used. it’s been hard to get used to!). It has been so interesting talking with people about the situation here in a post-Apartheid SA. Everyone has a different view of things. Many of the adults here were directly affected during the Apartheid. In talking with my host parents and their children I have learned so much.

Fun stories and Prayer Requests

Did you that traffic lights are called robots here? Or that here high school is college so whenever I tell people I’m in my first year of college they assume I’m a 19-year-old high school freshman. Last night my host mother complimented me by telling I had nice fat legs. Haha. She really was complimenting me, as the word fat does not have the same negative connotation as it does in the states. I think she was trying to say I had nice muscular legs but the whole encounter is too funny not to share.

As for prayer requests: Pray for continued health and safety. Safety is a huge thing here. Crime is very common, which requires us to be cautious. Everything has been great so far though and I haven’t felt unsafe at all. So it would be great if you could pray for that to continue. Pray that my faith will be strengthened while I’m here and that I will be able to spend time with the Lord daily. Pray that I will be able to complete all my homework! I have so much! Haha.