Adventersome

Cape Point

Do you ever feel the urge to try something new? Just to go out on a limb and change something, for example a new hairstyle. That was this week’s newest adventure. I had been looking for a way to really grasp the African culture without leaving permanent ramifications. A big hairstyle for the African women is braids, so I figured that was what I was going to go for. It produces culture, but doesn’t permanently damage my hair and they can come out whenever I choose.  So the process began. The braids took about ten hours to put in, over the period of a week. When I first finished them and looked in the mirror, I freaked out. I have never had this intense of hairstyle and let me tell you it was rather shocking and carried many moments of doubt. After I got over the initial shock and stopped trying to take them out, I began liking them and then people I had never met began giving me compliments. It was so funny, I was at an ostrich farm and a guy came up and asked me if he could take a picture with me because of my hair. It also opened up conversation with so many people. When we went into Ocean View this past week, so many of the kids ran up to me and immediately wanted to play with my hair and many of the women came up to me and I was able to make new friends. It was like a blessing in disguise. I really learned a lot about the different cultures this week and realized if you try something new or try to learn something a culture can teach you, people really appreciate your efforts. I am not saying if you move to completely dive into everything the other culture does, but be smart have fun and try something new, you might be surprised.

Ostrich Farm

In other news this past week we had a lady from Youth with a Mission (YWAM) come and speak on studying the Bible and the importance of the Holy Spirit and the relationship that is important to carry with Him. It was a really interesting class and to me it opened up so many doors to really experiencing Christ and having a deep personal relationship with Him. In Ocean View it was our last outreach and we were saying goodbye to friends before we head out to our different outreaches. However, we made some new friends as well. Some of my fellow students who are planning on staying in Ocean View permanently made many new connections in the Rastafarian community and in a section of Ocean View called Mountain View and they had some incredible stories about the people really desiring to hear about Christ and really opened up to God. It was amazing. We said goodbye and had the people held a braai for us. The hardest goodbye for me was saying goodbye to Maria. We went and prayed with her for her son, then we just spent time talking with her. She is an amazing woman her love and trust for God is incredible. I thank God we got to meet her. It was a huge blessing. All in all it was a really good week just to say goodbye and begin preparing for our next phase.

Yes the camel bit me...

We also had a fun week exploring an ostrich farm and riding camels. We decided to take Saturday and go explore a little bit. We stopped by Imhoff Farm, a farmer’s market, and they had camel riding! So we went for a little ride, then headed on to Cape Point. Our next destination was an ostrich farm to see if we could ride ostriches. However, we couldn’t but we had fun just walking around and looking at the animals. After we returned home my friend Nokhutula and I went to the Waterfront where we just spent time together. It was a really fun and relaxing day. India is just around the corner we leave in a little less than two weeks and I cannot wait, all we are waiting for is our visas! God is so good and I cannot wait to see where He takes me next!