Backpacking and Safari

the three of us rode with Reg every trip :-)

Hippos
Zebra
safari!
kels and me
rhinos
buffaloes
heyyy mufasa







holding the birthday boy
in our cave
SO COLD

our feet were so cold they hurt

in our cave





behind me is an extreme ledge


So two weeks ago 8 of the 9 nursing majors had the opportunity to go backpacking in the Drakensberg Mountains and spend the night in a cave. It was a 5 mile hike there and a 5 mile hike back. So exciting. However, it was definitely grueling. It was amazing to see the beauty of God's creation. I feel as though we often take it for granted. It was quite the experience having to pee in the wilderness that's for sure haha.

Then, that weekend we went 4 and a half hours NE to go on a safari! We stayed in little hut-type things and got bitten by mosquitoes haha. We saw: giraffes, warthogs (pumba), lions, buffaloes, rhinos, 1 elephant, impalla, inyala, koodoo (sp?), zebra, baboons, hippo....so fun! It was such a great experience!

As of today we have 1 week and 1 day left at AE. That's what I'm sad about. I have made great relationships here, and I'm really going to miss the people. Next week we head for Capetown, where we will be for the rest of the time. Oh...and I'm in charge of planning our bus driver's "American" engagement!!!! it takes place this sunday :-) i'll do a separate post all about that! miss and love you all!

Pray that I will be able to start sorting through everything that has happened and been experienced. Also...pray for stress. Trying to cram 2 courses into like 3 weeks...blah haha.

Update on the past week!

in the Drakensberg Mountains
gorgeous
sal and me
musa and me

kelsey and me
one of the paintings
my view of the people on the rock that I climbed
aaron, sal, musa, and drea
aaron and drea hiking


drea, rachel, and myself before the hike!

A little update on the past week. Last weekend we had community lectures for most of the weekend. We had an AMAZING speaker who is with us for the month named Francis. In those few days we were taught techniques for community building. We basically learned the importance of building the community and helping them to be self-sufficient vs. just sending money to the community/country. Sending money is often not an effective way to help people improve their lives. They improve for a while, but eventually that money is not given anymore, and then the community develops extreme problems. That was an extremely interesting few days. Last Saturday night we got pizza J…which was heaven for me! Haha. Sunday was the usual homework and such. This week and the last few weeks have been extremely stressful with classes. Just turned in a thirty page paper, and then I had to do a presentation on the paper (in an online class…that was interesting and caused me to be very creative haha). In addition, we have a few projects and big papers coming up. Just lots and lots to do! This past weekend (yesterday), we went to the Drakensberg Mountains. We hiked for about 45 minutes up to these caves to see the San Bushmen Paintings from many many years ago. Then we hiked the 45 minutes back. The hike was a blast. We got to do a little climbing while we were waiting for the tour J. That has been the basic happenings of the past week. So much learning going on. Please keep praying for me! I’m still struggling with the being angry with God…thank you so much for those of you who have responded with advice and understanding. I cannot begin to explain how much that means to me. I love you all so much, and am counting the days until I can come home and share everything with you!