South Africa Semester: March 15, 2009

Hello Mates! Well here’s the official down low on the sickness. Diarrhea has passed (Hallelujah!), the fever’s gone for good!, and it turns out I’ve had bronchitis for a week now…but it’s finally going with some medications. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel…in fact, I’m almost out of the tunnel. Yeah!
We’ve had some fun here since last chatting with you all. Thursday night 4 APU graduates from last year and one of their friends from South Africa showed up and have been hanging out since. It’s really funny to see the excitement brought when new people join the group. Sadly they’re leaving tomorrow morning, but it’s been really fun.
Friday we had class as usual, there wasn’t anything too special. Class. Class. More class. And then class finally ended. Went to the mall. Ate some dinner. Had an event here where we’re staying for a youth evangelical group who is going out to the corners of South Africa to make a difference…and that was it.
Yesterday, we went to Durban. It’s probably beginning to sound like a broken record, we do go to Durban weekly after all, but it’s awesome every time. Yesterday, we got to go to UShaka Land…or something like that. It’s essentially half water park, and half sea world. So we got to see a dolphin show. We got to play on slides and be kids again (which is always awesome). We got to go through an insanely cool aquarium, see all that jazz. The coolest part though was the last thing we did. We heard of this snorkeling thing you could do for 45 minutes so we thought, hey why not. It was only 35 rand ($3.50), and we got to scuba in one of the aquariums with all these sweet fish…including 7 sharks! They weren’t the biggest sharks there, but they were about 5 feet long, it was super cool and a great way to end our time in Durban.
Last night we went to the Keg and Hedgehog (our local Red-Robinish restaurant) and got some dessert, watched Italian Job and that was about it.
Today I skipped church. It’s really hard the whole church issue. I don’t feel connected to any of the offered churches. I don’t really take anything from them, and I don’t enjoy them too much. Now I know there’s much more to church than entertainment, and I know it shouldn’t be about what church can offer me, but what I can offer the church, but it’s super had to muster up the motivation when I know I’ll only be here 3 or 4 more weekends anyway. Regardless of the issue though, I’ve really been enjoying my Sunday mornings of rest. I was able to just relax, listen to as much of a podcast as I could before the net decided to cut the download, go on a run, and enjoy myself. Later in the day we went to the mall to see a movie. I saw “New In Town” I think it was called, and it was awful! Since things are so far behind here, I’m sure it’s already out of theatres back in the states, but if you ever get the chance to rent it, say no please!
That’s about it for now. Life is good, God is better, and I’m happy! Here’s some random pics from the last few weeks for those of you who don’t have facebook. Peace!