South Africa Recap

South Africa was quite a challenging month for me. My days would bounce between some of the highest highs and the lowest lows, and that emotional whiplash took a lot out of me. I struggled with my relationship with God and couldn’t hear or feel Him for most of the month. I found myself constantly frustrated, disappointed, and overwhelmed.

We landed in South Africa after an extremely long flight from Ecuador that included layovers in Atlanta, New York (where I got to see my mom and sister!), and Amsterdam. We finally landed in Cape Town late at night and crammed into some Ubers to get to the hostel. We only got to spend two days in Cape Town, but certainly made the most of it. Between cage diving with sharks, visiting the penguin beach, and Claudia losing and then finding her phone (check out her blog for all the drama), our time in Cape Town was definitely one of the most exciting I’ve had on the Race.

Our girl gang had an absolute blast at cage diving, even though we didn’t see a great white shark.

Boulder Beach is swarming with penguins! Look at this little guy!

Next, we hopped on an overnight bus to take us to Jeffrey’s Bay where we would spend the rest of the month doing ministry. I use the term “hopped” very loosely; we had to fight and push our way through an enormous crowd for nearly an hour before we finally got on a bus. That’s an experience I could go without repeating, especially with our giant packs. We got to Jeffrey’s Bay at around 3:00am and our hosts from GLA (Global Leadership Academy) picked us up, gave us a quick tour of the mission house we would be staying at, and let us go straight to bed.

GLA is a South African organization that works to break cyclical poverty by providing good education to elementary school students. Public education in South Africa is very poor and therefore the only true way to get a successful start is through private schools and organizations like GLA.

Over the course of the next few days, we settled in. We got our new teams, learned about our ministries, and found out about the drought in South Africa which meant saving shower water to flush the toilets. The whole squad would be staying together again, but each team would be doing a different ministry, and, because of the holidays, we would have a few days off for “Ask the Lord” (ATL). ATL is just that – asking the Lord how you can best serve the community you’re in and then doing it. The Golden Girls spent our days making care packages for grieving moms, intentionally praying over the town, and writing encouraging notes to the rest of the squad.

As for our structured ministry days, we spent our time in Timion’s garden. Timion works with families that have children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. We would start the morning by getting the four donkeys out of their pasture, feeding them lots of carrots, brushing them, and getting them used to wearing halters and interacting with humans. One day, Timion hopes to use the donkeys for animal therapy and fun activities during their camps.

We quickly learned that donkeys are always down for carrots.

After taking care of the donkeys, we would head to the garden. We spent most of our time pulling weeds but would occasionally help harvest and water the veggies. We spent long mornings and afternoons enjoying the peace and silence of the garden and snacking on hot, fresh strawberries. I also looked after my snails (read all about it here) and every now and then the neighborhood ostrich would come by to check things out. It was truly a dream come true. The garden became our little sanctuary away from the noise of the mission house and chaos of life.

We spent a whole afternoon harvesting a huge order of veggies with our new friend, Sakhile.

The garden was certainly hard work, but I struggled way more outside of it. First of all, there was always so much noise. At the mission house, which is very poorly insulated, you can hear absolutely everything done and said throughout the house no matter where you are. Ten of us shared one room filled with broken, creaky bunk beds, so I would wake up at least once every night. In addition to my lack of sleep and inability to hear my own thoughts, I felt like I was hit with frustration after frustration. We would walk to the mall to write a blog, only for the Wi-Fi to be so bad that nothing would upload. Our host said she would take care of our laundry but forgot to mention that we wouldn’t get it back for several days. The taxi service would take hours to pick us which resulted in wasting a bunch of time. Spotify decided to delete all the songs and podcasts I had downloaded. Each little thing would stack up throughout the day. Nearly every night I would go to bed thinking “I can’t wait to get out of South Africa.”

It also didn’t help that it was the holiday season. Caroline, our Squad Celebration Coordinator, did a great job putting on our Christmas and New Years parties. There were games, photo shoots, so many snacks, gingerbread houses to build, hot chocolate, giant bean bags, dance parties, really anything a girl could want. But the homesickness was so real. The novelty of the Race had finally worn off and barely a day went by when I didn’t miss home.

Claire needs a photo of us holding her in each country. What better time to hold a friend than on Christmas!

Cheers to 2022!

That’s not to say that South Africa was completely horrible. A few days before we left, Claudia planned a silent retreat for us. We all just sat with the Lord in complete (well, as close to as complete) silence and listened. It was truly a breakthrough moment for me. I realized that God had been calling me to silence this whole time. If you truly love and know someone, you can sit in silence, each doing your own thing, and just be with them. Their presence is enough. This was the lesson He had been trying to teach me all month by giving me the garden, not immediately answering my questions, and taking away my music and podcasts. I’m still riding this spiritual high as I write this blog and am now actively trying to practice silence. Some days are harder than others, but there truly is something sweet about just enjoying the Lord’s presence and not worrying about conversation or filling the space with anything.

We also had some incredible adventure days and Sabbaths in South Africa. English is one of the several commonly spoken languages in the country which meant… church services in English!!! This was such a blessing, and I didn’t even realize how much I missed it. Getting to participate in Spanish-speaking services was amazing, but nothing compares to actually understanding the songs and message. Jeffrey’s Bay is a cute little surf town with the main village right on the beach. We spent most of our adventure days exploring the little shops, tanning on the beaches (or in Claire’s case, burning), and surfing. During our mini-debrief at the end of the month, we did sunrise worship on the beach and spent a morning at a local watering hole – complete with a small waterfall, a zip line into the water, and lots of room for cliff jumping. There’s so much beauty and adventure to be found in South Africa and I’m so thankful to have been able to experience even a sliver of it.

There’s nothing more humbling than getting wrecked by wave after wave.

Overall, I’ve got mixed feelings towards South Africa. I was ready when it was time to leave and thankful for the fresh start in Lesotho, but I also made some incredible memories in this country. Thanks for keeping me in your prayers! I’m certain that the rest of the Race will be filled with conflicting emotions as well, so please be praying the I learn to lean into the silence and obey the Lord in everything. Also, be sure to check out this video from Dana showing you what a day in the life of gardening looked like!