if a pictures worth a thousand words - here are a billion
I am sorry friends that this is so long overdue.
I am also sorry I am not clever enough to make those bracket things that you click on to see the pictures.
oh well.
1. If i look sickly in this picture - it is because it was taken very soon after i got really sick. dont fear - i gained back, quite quickly, all the weight i lost. anyways, this was my first time out, and we went to the muizenberg [an area/suburb of Cape Town] beach. The ocean is so beautiful! In the picture is Megan [Canada] and Lizzy [USA]
2. This is a group of us girls before we went on a hike. It was quite torturous - I almost died - but highly enjoyable. We are all smiles in this picture on account that we are not aware of the excruciating physical activity awaiting us. In the picture is Felicia [USA] Kayla [Canada- my cousin] Me Emma [Sweden] Laura [USA] Collete [USA] Tina [Canada] Bekah [USA].
3. Climbing up the mountain. I forget the name of it. It was just outside of Muizenberg.
4. Gorgeous.
5. We had to go through caves during the hikes [there were bats!] and crawl through a little tunnel. I hurt my knee doing so. I consquently have, admited by everyone, the ugliest scab ever.
6. Felicia and I looking over Cape Town.
7. The group of us that went hiking - we were barely alive and very shortly after this picture was taken snarfed down some pizza [is anyone surprised i ate a whole pizza by myslef?]
8. On the way home from the Green Market in Downtown Cape Town. We're in a combi - which is a 15 passenger van. They have combi stations where there are gazillions of them and all of them are persuading you to take theirs. It's quite an interesting experience.
9. Table mountain - when the clouds seep over it like this they call it the 'table cloth'.
10. Some people hanging out on the base in the courtyard - i will put better pictures of the base up sometime.
11. Yes! Penguins in africa! Who knew? This is at Boulders Bay where the tourism industry is highly misleading - all the pamphlets, postcards etc. say this is where the Indian and Pacific Ocean meet, but it's not. They meet a whiles down, but this is prettier than where they actually do meet. I was rather disapointed it wasn't really the Indian Ocean.
11. My room. There are 10 girls in it. It can get pretty wild. A few nights ago we started a rendition of 'In the Jungle' and the whole room joined in. A nice bonding moment.
12. We aren't allowed to take our cameras in the township [one girl did and it got stolen] so basically we can only get pictures from inside the van. I will try to get a better one somehow someday.
13. This is me and my really good friend Melissa [Canada]This is at the Muizenberg beach again. We were innocently frolicking in the ocean waves when this guy who works for Beautiful Gate called us over. There was a shark sighting - everyone was getting out, alarms were going, guys were running down the beach with a shark warning flag - and we were oblvious to all of it. Thankfully we got out alive.
14. A picture of the changing rooms at the beach. I've never used one but gosh aren't they pretty?
15. And this is what you do when you have no television...In the picture is Pip [UK] Krista [USA]Bex [New Zealand] and me.
16. This is me and Pip at a rugby game. It was Cape Town vs. a team from New Zealand - Bex was pretty ecstatic that New Zealand won. One of the leaders had to explain the whole game to me - but you know for some reason the game seemed to have a magical feel to it, and by that i mean i felt like i was at the quidditch world cup - a whole stadium of people, a strange game...if only they were flying brooms.
I'm really sorry that I don't have any of the kids from the orphanage but we aren't allowed to snap pictures of them whenever we want [the leadership says it makes them feel like they're on display] understandable, there are a lot of visitors that come through here every week, anyways, so one person from our team is in charge of taking pictures of us with the kids [my dear cousin!] and i haven't been able to get any of her pictures yet.
Classes are going very well. The first week was on Children and HIV/AIDS [very informative, lots of facts] last week was on The Character and Father Heart of God [amazing - very challenging - wow. If you want more detail, email me] and this past week was on Worship [not really what I expected at all, but really good too. A lot of stuff on laying down our 'rights'- things we think we deserve, or would rather control than have God control. it's tough.] Next week is on relationships! That should be interesting!
We found out yesterday where we are going for outreach [leaving may 15th]. I am going to Johanesburg [but no one here calls it that - everyone says 'Joburg'] and Zambia. I have nine other people on my team and my team leader is a guy from Angolia. I'll be working at a beautiful gate orphange in Zambia, and doing other children's ministry stuff, and in Joburg doing a homework club, work with an organization called 'The Joseph Project' and visitng schools, prisions etc. We will start preparing dramas, dances, etc. next week for outreach!
Love you all very much - I am going to try and post some more pictures on my msn space if you're interested. Write me if you feel motivated!
-janO
p.s. i'm in love with casanova - saw it yesterday - swoon. i am hanging up a popcorn box that has a picture on it above my bed. sigh.