Living the African Life, Southern Style

I realized my last few entries haven't given a good idea of day to day life here. Here are a bunch of random details and stuff thats going on that will hopefully feel more connected to my time here.

First I should say that internet is actually quite good considering where I am. Right now I'm typing this halfway up a mountain on the middle of a game reserve. I'm over 2km from the entrance of the reserve that merely opens up to a dirt road. Take a left on the road and follow for probably close to 5k will take you to an actual tar road. Take another left follow for probably 8k and you reach the N3, The Main Highway between Johannesburg and Durban. Harrismith is only about 5 minutes from this point. Harrismith is a nice quaint town that we visit once a week to enjoy. During our town time we buy groceries for the next week, do light shopping, pick up mail and visit KFC (the only fastfood in the town). We have begun to frequent a local coffee shop that has quite good shakes and desert beverages. Its small but a very nice little town.

Running on the base is becoming much more enjoyable. We are close to 6000 ft in elevation and if you have never run much let me describe this to you. Running up a hill at elevation is like taking the worst hill that you've ever hiked up and doubling its gradient and length. Lets just say the lungs aren't too pleased with you when you crest the top. Thinking about it your legs feel like crap too.
It is getting better though and to be honest there is a hill that I have run in New Hampshire that was considerably worst than anything I have run before. Im getting about 3-4 runs in a week and get to enjoy seeing the local game during almost every run. Lechwe are quite beautiful as are blesbok. Look them up if you don't know what Im talking about. I just had my best run here on tuesday. It was cool late afternoon and my lungs felt good and my legs felt even better. Being able to run here is awesome.

Living accommodations here are quite nice but you have to come to terms with the reality of moths. Every night you get used to seeing moths flying around and killing at least a few. They can be annoying but generally aren't too bad to deal with. You also get used to persistent flies buzzing around your head during the day. Again a minor annoyance but not a big deal.
An annoying thing is that two of the last few nights we were visited by a bat in our cabin. Getting them out made for a bit of an unwelcome night-time activity but I'm looking forward to a bat free night tonight.


I'll have an entry about ministry soon. I wanted to tell you all that I leave for Botswana on March 25th. We are going to northern Botswana for about 2 weeks to help out the ministry Love Botswana Outreach mission (www.lovebotswana.com) We will be doing hard manual labor lightly renovating a house as well as anything else needed.

Please pray for me as I seek to prepare my heart for this new experience. It will be hot, hard and tiring but we get to bless an awesome ministry so Im excited for another opportunity.

Launchpad and Hope house are going amazing. Please pray for growth in the students I teach and that they will live out living with Christ on a day-to-day basis.


If you have not done this already bookmark www.thriveafrica.org. They have great near daily updates in their field blogs as well as great pictures of me and the other interns doing our thing here.


Thank you for your support and be blessed.