Culture Shock

Awakening to clouds was actually a relief to me this morning. Knowing the hot African sun wouldn't be constantly beating my skin to the salmon pink color that has become quite trendy for all of the Americans here to be rocking, was a relief. My friend Hannah and I decided to wake early for breakfast at Coco Wah Wah, so as we got ready, dawning our rain jackets, we excitedly chattered about our time here so far and our day ahead of us. We had plans of purchasing a Ukelele at a music store in Cape Town, which obviously i was excited for. The African rains poured down keeping the grass green and the flowers a vibrant pink and white color, splashing onto our legs as we walked the few blocks of Rondebosch to the cafe. I have been told by my friend Whitney to try the delicious chocolate flapjacks that they offer, and me assuming that they were normal chocolate chip pancakes, ordered them. A few minutes time passed and I was surprised to see that these were no ordinary flapjacks. These flapjacks were brown, tasting like they were made from brownie mix, and served with a side of stacked ice cream scoops, not the healthiest breakfast, but definitely a wonderful treat. As we sat for a few hours, Hannah shared her life story, and as I sat listening, processing it all, I was happy to know that we have much in common, and yet nothing in common as well.

Unconsciously I realized that I somehow assumed that all people have the same general desires and concepts of life, to be loved and wanted being at the top of the list. Although I do think there are universal desires, everyone achieves those universal needs in different ways, which is why I have loved meeting absolutely everyone, and listening and learning about all of the differences in people. I do struggle sometimes with not finding someone who I can fully relate to and be very real with, but I also am learning to take joy in the differences as well. In the end, people can be polar opposites, but the one thing we all have in common, that all of our lives turn around, is wanting to be loved and to give love back in return, so even the most unlikely stranger can actually have the exact same fundamental principles of needing love and giving love in return, there is in reality much in common.

Actions here speak much louder then words, but that statement is lived out completely in this place of differences. Walking along a sidewalk by one of the beaches, there were a group of kids playing Party Rock Anthem and dancing their hearts out. They must have only been 4 or 5 but they were just dancing whole heartedly for all to see. Hearing the music and seeing the dancing, I had to join them, how could I not?! So as I stood there getting my groove on with all of the kids I saw the response of not only them but the people around me as well. The kids started laughing and dancing even more energetically and as I glanced underneath a nearby tree I saw the children's' family lounging under the shade, and knowing that we wouldn't be able to communicate, I flashed her a smile and a wave, catching her eye as a sort of thank you for letting me be a kid again, dancing in the side walks with a bunch of other children. She smiled back and laughed, seeing that it was such a funny sight, full of life, the life of a child. It was in that moment we made eye contact, and although I didn't speak her language, I felt like we had connected in a much deeper way than words could speak.

We toured campus again today, reminding me yet again that although I though I was in pretty decent shape before I came here..I've got nothing on the South Africans who climb this mountain every day on the way to campus. Out of breath and panting, I was happy for the tour to be over and the adventure for the day to commence. Hannah and I headed back to the house and relaxed for a bit, looking up the locations and logistics of how to get where we are going. Kelsey, a girl in our house on the year long program, has already been here for a semester, and has been the best comfort so far. Her knowledge and street smarts is something I have tried to mimic every time she is around, and she came along on our journey today. So Hannah, Kelsey, and I got onto a mini bus.

I may have mentioned this before, but every time I ride is just a different, crazy experience. Basically the mini busses are public transportation where people are packed in seat to seat, and even sitting on a crate with a pillowcase placed on the floor. No one wears seat belts because there isn't enough room in the cars to put them on, and as the bus speeds through town we just hope we don't fall off of our seats. There is a person crammed in the bus with a cloth bag, and he is the one who collects money from every and also jumps out of the car, or shouts out of the window to get people to hop on the bus. It really is a crazy experience and something to get used to, a few things happened on the mini bus that I am still processing, but it is definitely nothing like we would find in the states. When we arrived in Cape Town, a man came up to us, harassing us, asking for money, the works, and I was just so caught off guard as to what to do, because it's basically a safety issue, depending on how the situation is handled. Kelsey immediately took on a harsh tone, "No, we don't have any, we don't have any, sorry no" As we picked up the pace a little, he spoke more, following us, until finally we shook him off. Kelsey told me that usually they won't follow you around like that, and they wouldn't try to harm us in such a public area with all three of us plus the passerby's. The street smart side of me definitely took over for the rest of time in Cape Town, and as my heart became a bit more hardened, and I kept watch with everything I did, every word I spoke, trying to be less American, culture shock hit me.

It was definitely a lot to take in today, don't worry mom and dad, you are probably freaking out reading this, but I promise you I've been and will be smart about everything I do, and I am learning the streets quickly. Aside from those experiences I got time to relax as we walked to the music shop where I got to play the test piano as my friends were looking at the ukulele's. The guy we talked to who worked in the store was really friendly and pretty helpful to us, which was surprising at first as most people here are pretty hostile towards Americans, but he was so friendly and I definitely will make it a goal to go back there.

We made our way to The Waterfront, and I felt like I was in San Francisco with the street music playing, boardwalks on the ocean front, a giant ferris wheel, markets, and restaurants spotting the docks. We ate at a great outdoor restaurant right by the ocean, and I got grilled squid which tasted so fresh, I am in love with the seafood here. It was relaxing and we finally made our way back to the mini bus to hopefully make it to our drum workshop and free dinner we had awaiting us. We got caught in rush hour but made it for the end of the drumming workshop which was a blast.

The beat and the rhythm of the African drum pulsed in my heart and body and eventually translated to my hands onto the drum skin. It was beautiful to see, hear, and be surrounded by music and rhythm. We made our way back to the houses for a game of 30 seconds and egyptian rat screw. Overall it was a very successful day. love to you all, my brothers and sisters in Christ -mia

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Bonding, hiking, and the works

These past two days have kept all of us students extremely busy, exhausted, and yet filled with a feeling of home. As I sit in Coco Wah Wah, a local café in town, I realize I still haven’t gotten time to process all that I’ve seen and felt here, making everything here still feel like a dream that I still have to wake up from. Running from place to place seeing sight after sight, South Africa, I’ve realized, is most definitely the most diverse, and interesting place I have ever been to. Yesterday, all of the CIEE students got to move into our assigned houses.

I am living in a house called nursery and it is pretty close to campus. It’s 3 stories tall, red brick, with winding wooden staircases on the inside, a nice kitchen, and basically everything is overall really nice. We have a cement wall surrounding the property with an electric fence on top of the wall. We also have a gate to get in to the house that we have to either have a key to open or wait for our csa (security guard) to open it for us. Each house has their own security guard who works from 6 p.m to 6 a.m keeping an eye out on the property making sure no one who isn’t supposed to be in the house gets in. The CSA at our house is named Allister and he is very helpful, he will even offer to walk us to places if we feel uncomfortable or if it isn’t safe to go alone. Our first task as housemates was to throw a braii to get to know each other. We went to the grocery store and bought burgers and chicken, watermelon, and other supplies, we also bought toilet paper because there is none in the house. The boys grilled and the girls made the salads and side dishes, and what was really great was the teamwork that went into this meal.

We had bought a watermelon and two of the girls in our house carved it into a shark, it was pretty great. Our RA Jesse invited some of his friends over to hang out, and we also have a girl living in our house who is on the year long program and plays on the girls soccer team at UCT. She also brought a few friends over and at first it was quite intimidating to get to know a bunch more people, it’s funny how much I’ve realized my friendships at hope came naturally to me, but here, meeting South Africans, I have to make an effort. After the night wore on we all got pretty comfortable with each other and it ended up being a blast, and a pretty successful braii with some good food if I do say so myself. Almost everyone in my house went out last night to either Camps Bay or Long Street, but I stayed in to spend some time with God, which ended up being me uploading pictures on the Internet.

Today we woke up bright and early at 7:45 to tour the Cape with other international students. The first stop we made was to Clifton Beach; we climbed some of the boulders and got to see the saltwater swimming pools! Then we hopped back onto the bus for a long journey to the Ocean View Community, the area where we will eventually be partaking in a weekend long home stay. They were all very welcoming and it was a great opportunity to get to see the talent in all of the young people of the area as they put on a type of talent show for us.

You all know my love for dancing, particularly hip-hop. I absolutely loved it which is why I loved the crews that started break dancing, or telling a story with the music they were using and the moves they were doing, one of the crews was called BB FAB, and they were so funny. There was also an amazing singer who did an Adelle cover to Someone Like You, and also a guy who had an amazing voice but the sexual context to the song he was singing made everyone start to uncomfortably laugh. Then there was an amazing ballroom dancing couple, and overall it was a great experience. We boarded the buses again to head to Boulders Beach. This beach is known for the thousands of African penguins that wander around, swimming in the surf and lounging in the sand. My favorite part was when they walked, it was more of a waddle and it was so cute and funny at the same time. It was so interesting to me to see penguins on a hot beach surfing in the waves but hey…T.I.A.

Afterwards we went to our last stop, which was Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. We hiked up a mini mountainside for about 30 minutes to get the most amazing view of the world that God so creatively and majestically created. It was so easy to recognize God’s presence because just looking around, the utter beauty is indescribably solely because no words can fully cover how beautiful it is when God’s hand touches a place, a person, anything.

After finally taking an exhausting hike to the look out point, we then made our way down only to make our way up and down a larger cliff side until we reached Cape of Good Hope. Cape of Good Hope is the southern most tip of the Western Cape and although we were being rushed and there were people all around me, just the word Hope transferred me to a different world, as I was reminded of Hope College, and also of Hope in general. I need to constantly remind myself of who brought me here and realize that the beauty here is striking and astounding, the places they’ve taken us to have been amazing and have kept us busy for every second, but if I am to be changed and transformed by God I need to constantly be seeking Him, especially in this place when it is so easy to get caught up in the ways of this world.

That is all for today my wonderful viewers, I am virtually sending my love and smiles to every single one of you. Oh and lastly I am trying to get pictures uploaded but the internet here is pretty dodgy and so sometimes it cuts out without informing me, but I am doing my best to show you all my world here. Love you all! I will leave you all with a small but meaningful verse that God has been teaching me through my time here…”The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of the rulers of fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good” –Ecclesiastes 9:17-18 I am realizing how many words I speak in the day, and how many are actually quite pointless. I’ve been pretty quiet on this trip soaking everything in, and currently my biggest prayer is that whenever I speak, I let God use me and speak through me, rather than wasting my words in an attempt to be wise.

He gives us eyes to see

Something that I’ve been continually learning throughout my time here has been that you really can’t make assumptions about a culture until you’re in it. My first two posts were my initial reactions. Those initial reactions are constantly changing and rearranging themselves in my head. For instance, not all of the locals dress conservatively; in fact from my observations it depends on the location of where you are. Some wear short shorts and tank tops, others wear full on winter outfits, but most dress just like we do in the states. That is just one of the little things I continue to learn, you can’t dig deep into a culture in the matter of days. Things that may be observed at first, may change the second you turn around.

Now I still want to be modest, but tank tops and shorts are actually fine here and in 90-degree weather the heat is almost unbearable unless you are wearing one, the other, or both. Today was an incredible day. Tell fill you guys in, last night was a difficult realization I had to come to. Cape Town is known for their incredible party scene; almost everyone in my program last night went out late to the bars or clubs. Personally it sounds like fun, but something that would distance me from me true focus here, which is walking as Jesus walked. So as I politely declined on the many invitations to go out, while receiving strange looks from most of the people going out, I went to bed and curled up with my bible.

They’ve kept us so busy here it’s been hard to listen to God and see his plan for me, but today, I saw Jesus. I saw him in the face of a child reaching out her tiny little hand to me as she sat in her stroller. Her big brown eyes looking up at me completely entranced in the small game of peek-aboo I started up. I saw Jesus in the hands of the homeless man, sitting in a pile of filth, begging for change just outside of the shantytowns. I saw Jesus in two men, who are carrying a big dream, a dream that could change the lives of youth in the townships for ever, when they smiled, when they dreamed, when they hoped, I saw Jesus. He is all around me, and when I just take the time to look, He is there. Today was a special day.

We were given the opportunity to visit some of the volunteer sites available to us. Now these sites were from a minimum of 25 minutes to an hour away from campus and yet I am fully willing to commit to at least two of them. The first we visited was the Brooklyn Chest Hospital, where most of the children and adults suffer from tuberculosis. Due to cognitive delays many of these children need to have occupational therapists help them to improve. It sounds like an amazing place as it also uses music therapy to reach the children, which is definitely something I would like to look into. The second option, and the one that I know I will want to work in is a place called The Arc. It is a place for orphans, non-orphans, women and men of all ages, even animals, to come and find a refuge. A refuge meaning not just found in shelter, but also in Jesus. It is a faith run program, with mostly volunteers working there and God finding ways to provide for the 800 or so people who come and go. They run a homeless shelter, a school, a rehab clinic for drug and alcohol addicts, as well as a bible school. From the second I entered this massive establishment spread out directly across the street from I believe the biggest township in South Africa, I could have cried from the emotions I was feeling. Pure joy as I heard the owner talk about Jesus to our group. He talked about how instead of writing letters first for support or fundraising, they take it up with God. They ask God and they have seen how much he has provided.

After The Arc, we then journeyed to a look out tower to stare at the one million people crammed into the townships in just the single area we were looking at. Then these two men, one who plays on the South Africa basketball team, spoke about their big dreams of bringing sports and the arts to schools spread around the townships. It really is a big dream once one thinks about how much has to go into it, but I know that their dream will be achieved because I saw the passion, drive, and hope behind their eyes for how much sports can improve a child’s life, reminding them of what it truly means to be a child.
The last place we visited was right on the outskirts of a township. No one on our bus got up because we didn’t actually think we were going into the townships but we did and it was great. It was a place called Ubuntu, and it’s an after school type program for kids in the townships, giving them a warm meal, and plenty of sex education as almost all of the children are HIV positive.

This evening, we were told to dress semi-formal and be ready at 6:15 to go to a wonderful restaurant in Moyo at Spier. It was completely and absolutely the most amazing restaurant I have ever been to. As we drove past the city and past the townships along the farmlands and past the vineyards, we finally arrived at Spier. It was so incredible, and the most fun night I’ve had here so far. Walking in was like a fairytale with the beautiful flowers lining the walkways, a clear view of the mountains in the background, and incredible lawn tents with outdoor tables and fountains lining the perimeter. Live African music was playing and after enjoying a buffet of the most interesting and delicious food I’ve ever had, including impala and ox tail, we went towards the live band and danced the night away. I was with friends who I could completely be myself with as we laughed, smiled, and were full. Full of life and happiness, adventure and wonder, nostalgia on the day we have had, and excitement for the future. As I sat with my new friends, a full meal, and African drums beating, I looked up to the sky. The stars seems so much closer here, so massive, and expansive and for that brief moment, I was suddenly reminded of how small we all are. When those stars were sparkling and shining, full of God’s glorious creativity, I thought to myself, this must just be a small taste of heaven. We left not only with full hearts and stomachs, but also with a great batch of memories with some amazing new friends.

CIEE keeps us busy almost every second of the day. On yesterday’s agenda, we listened to speakers come in and talk about volunteer opportunities in Cape Town. There were two programs that stood out to me the most, one was a program called CHOSA. CHOSA is the program that I would stick with to help my career as a teacher, and it allows you to create a lesson plan to teach kids English and also mathematics. CHOSA requires creativity and a heart for kids, which I believe I have, but if I stuck with where my heart really wants to lead me, I am probably going to end up at a different program at a place called The Arc. Now the Arc has many different services from spending time with kids, feeding the homeless, helping addicted drug addicts become clean, and even adopting a project of our very own to help out The Arc.

After learning about the volunteer projects we finally got to find out about housing for the semester! I am in a house called Nursery, named after the street that it’s on. Now my friend Hannah and I went to Nursery street to try to find our house, because we don’t officially get to see it until Saturday. If I am correct, it’s a three story brick house and looks pretty great. Nursery street is thankfully right near campus so it will be so easy to hop on a Jammie to campus within a matter of minutes. A Jammie is a shuttle program that is for UCT students to get around campus, which by the way, is absolutely huge. There are supposed to be 16 students in our house, 4 boys and the rest girls. Our RA’s name is Jesse and he seems like such fun I am really looking forward to where this semester will bring all of us in the house. Also, one of my closest friends here Hannah, will also be in the house and I am looking forward to it so much!

After going over house rules, we then played the game…the AMA “zing”! race. Pronounced in the South African style ☺ It was one of the longest days by far due to the amount of walking around campus, getting lost, and eventually finding our way back to Graca Michel (named after Nelson Mandela’s wife, it’s one of the dorms we are staying in) for a braii (brabeque) and eventually some sleep. Campus was more massive and more beautiful then I could have ever imagined. We must have hiked for miles and miles just finding our way to different buildings in order to receive a clue, that would lead us to the next place we had to go. Our team didn’t win to say the least, we actually came in third to last and it was probably a 4 to 5 hour race spent maneuvering our ways around the beautiful ivy covered walls and hundreds of stairs. Eventually we got to the last clue, overjoyed and exhausted we made our journey to the braii where we all ate chicken and ribs, and I managed to fall into the best night of sleep I’ve had yet!

Day 2

Today was a very eventful day. The first half of the day was spent in a beautiful church on campus, listening to lectures about safety, health, general awareness type things, and then we were divided up into orientation groups. My orientation leaders name was Collin, who has attended UCT for all four years but his home is Rwanda. Our group was quiet at first taking it all in, but after we were asked to think of our goals for the trip, you could see the energy in the group change from tired and jetlagged, to excited and anxious.

As I started focusing on my goals I had to remind myself of why I was in Cape Town. God brought me here for a specific purpose, and my journey is to walk full with Him experiencing this new and foreign part of the world that he so craftily created. With the diverse amounts of people, the beautiful landscapes, and all that comes with it, God knew exactly what He was doing when He created this place and not it’s time for me to tune in to what He is speaking to me.

We met up with another orientation group run by Reinhard (RJ) and were put onto a public transportation mini bus which was an experience in itself. Seatlbelts were not an option, nor were seats for some people considering the amount of people crammed into the bus. The ride to the heart of Cape Town only cost 8 rand, so a bit less then a dollar I believe, and it is a ride I will want to take many times. We first went to lunch, which also made me feel like a complete tourist, and yet more determined then ever to pick up on some of the languages here, and the customary way to do things.

We went to this huge Indian restaurant where there were many different booths to order from. The way it works is you pick a booth and figure out what you would like to order, then you go pay, and then you go back to that booth, give them your receipt, and wait for your food. Simple enough right? Apparently not, for some of us Americans. With not being able to understand the thick accents or the language being spoken, it took us awhile to get used to the system…but when we finally did it was completely worth it because it was the best Indian food I have ever had and for super cheap too!

After eating lunch we were led to ‘the castle’ which honestly, we were there for about five minutes and I forgot what we were told about that place. Then we stopped at the place where Nelson Mandela addressed the country in one of his famous speeches. Afterwards we walked quite a few blocks until we made it to “Company Gardens” which was absolutely stunning yet simple, definitely a place I would love to spend many of my days lazing around in the sunshine under the palm trees, surrounded by dozens upon dozens of pigeons. We relaxed a bit, and instead of our leaders taking us to the waterfront like all of the other groups did, they took us bar hopping on long street. Long Street, we are told is the place to be if we go out at night, but even during the day, there were some really nice cafés and restaurants. We went to two bars here and everyone except for maybe three of us got drinks, no worries I was one of the three. Tempting as it was, I decided it was best if I didn’t and instead I played a game of fusbol with some friends…and of course I one..although everyone else had already had a drink in them…so I’m not sure if it really counts…but I think it does! The bar was actually amazing though, we walked in this little door and immediately up a flight of winding stairs until we were in the bar. There were five rooms all conjoined, some for lounging, some for eating, some for playing pool or fusbol, and then an absolutely gorgeous balcony with tables overlooking a lot of long street. There was also a library located in the bar as well which was quite intriguing.

After everyone being exhausted, we made our way onto a bus to head up to Table Mountain to watch the sunset and to eat dinner. I have been getting to know Hannah much better after meeting in the Chicago airport, being seated next to her on the plane to London, and finding out we will be living in the same house together this semester. She has been absolutely wonderful and I have loved getting to know her, especially learning more about her faith (Jewish) and sharing about mine. I can’t wait to see where this adventure will lead our friendship. Our intentions were to drive the bus up to the base of Table Mountain and hop on a cable car to take us the rest of the way up. As we were driving though, our bus sort of braked, started rolling backwards, and then shut off. We all emptied the bus and walked a calf burning hike to the cable car area. I also made a good friend named Taylor who is from Virginia, and Michelle who wants to check out some churches with me! Anyways, we got to the top of Table Mountain and I was just stunned at the view of the entire city and ocean we were giving. I can’t even try to describe it because no words are beautiful enough to capture what I’ve seen.

After the sun dropped below the sky and the stars came up, we made our way to the table mountain restaurant and ate some great food, with home made frozen lemonade. It definitely helped with the dehydration I was starting to feel. I got to talk to Rue for a bit about her interests (hiking, dancing, stargazing) and what she was studying (social work and sociology) and she gave me some great tips on places to go around here. I also met a guy named Kotaro who is from Tokyo and is on my program as well. He goes to the International Christian University and it was great to get to know him a bit. Then we boarded the buses and prepared for a 20-30 minute ride back to campus.

Shalom, one of the RA’s ended up sitting next to me which was great because I hadn’t gotten to know him yet. We talked about our lives, our hopes, and general feelings of everything that we had taken in from today. Shalom is studying law at UCT which is such a demanding program, but we talked about how he used to play soccer and basketball but is now quite busy with coursework. He asked about my home life, and we talked about t.v shows. It was a very funny moment when he asked me about parks and recreation, if it was based in a real place in Indiana. It definitely brought a smile to my face. I have so many little details to fill you guys in on, but these posts are way too long..I have to apologize..and they are quite poorly written as it is pretty late here and I’ve had such a long day. Sending smiles and love you guys’ way! -Mia

Day 1

My dear friends and family, brothers and sisters, anyone who is reading this, I am here, in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. As I write this, the sun is just coming up, the strange birds are chirping, and cars are already on their ways to work. Being jetlagged has made my first day here definitely more surreal. To start with, I made some friends in the Chicago airport who were all going on my trip, and we stuck together as we arrived in London. From there, we boarded the plane to Cape Town and prepared ourselves for the 11 hour flight we had ahead of us.

I entertained myself with watching the movies The Lion king and Madagascar, and an hour long show about sea turtles…yes, I was psyching myself up even more for Africa. We touched down just as the sun was rising over the city, highlighting the most prominent feature of Cape Town, the mountains. After arriving in the airport we immediately heard an beautiful chorus of voices singing in a different language, although many of us thought it was coming from a radio.

We rounded the corner and the voices became louder as we realized they were not in fact coming from the radio, but from our CIEE trip leaders and RA’S. It was the most amazing welcome I have ever received because not only were they singing with so much joy but they were dancing for our arrival. We were immediately hugged, and greeted in every way possible. As Americans we tried to catch onto their funny hand shakes…similar to a “pound it” but actually way more complicated, and we laughed at each other in our attempts.

We boarded the bus to Cape Town, and as most of you know I am usually a pretty talkative person, pretty able to make conversation with any stranger, but no words came to me as I stared at the place I will be living for the next six months. Mountains overtook almost every angle of Cape Town taking my breath away. It was only 6 a.m Cape Town time but the city was bustling with life as many people were already off to start their day at work, and school children in their wool blue uniforms had begun their walk to school. Might I mention that although it was early in the morning, it was already so very hot….my hair got a little angry with me, but it’s ok..I managed to tie it up in a hair tie ☺

Some major differences I have noticed from being here include but aren’t limited to, adjusting to walking on the left side of the side walk, not the right. Watching as the cars drive on the opposite sides of the roads with the steering wheel on the right side of the car. Getting used to figuring out when we are actually allowed to cross the street. (In the states we have the white walking sign when we need to walk but here there is a red man who turns green.) Another drastic difference is realizing how much women are degraded in this place, as anywhere a woman is walking, cars full of men will slow down, stare, honk, yell things out the window, even full on stop. I have learned the absolute best way to handle this is ignore it, eyes down, and keep walking. Now, I have fully prepared myself for this, but it still surprised me that everywhere I go, the street is filled with noises of honking and shouts at all of the women walking around which definitely helps me to realize that in this place, modesty is something that I will strive to keep, even though the weather is about 85-90 degrees. The toilets have funny looking flusher buttons, people greet you with “howz it?, baboons walk around in some of the streets, there are no window screens in the dorm windows…no chance of getting fined 100 dollars here for the screen popping out ☺ And every single one of our doors is locked with a padlock that we have to keep on at all times and keep our keys with us, even when going to the bathroom so we don’t get locked out. And last difference I have noticed today is that there is an intercom throughout all of the dorms we are staying in, which the program takes full advantage of by making frequent announcements…if we are in our rooms though we can’t hear them so we always have to go in the hallway to hear the announcements.

Yesterday we were given the opportunity to go to lunch, explore Rondebosch, buy our cell phones, and sleep. Today we are going to explore the Western Cape, and we get to eat dinner atop Table Mountain as the sun goes down. We also find out our housing assignments and who our RA is, and we are receiving our many health and safety briefings as well. The Ra’s and trip leaders have been wonderful although I wish I could remember/pronounce their names…There have been so many people I’ve met names have become a challenge to remember. So far there is Quinton, Felicity, and Earl (who is awesome!!! Dad..I told him your name was Earl…and his expression was priceless) . Then there is Michael, Nahmle, Mumbi, Sihle, Rudo (Rue), and Reinhard. Oh and there is also Carol! Those are some of the RA’S here who have gone above and beyond to make us feel welcome. Pictures are coming as soon as I figure out how to get better internet access! Sorry this post is so long I want to make sure I remember everything! Love you all! -Mia

Current time in Cape Town

Ozzy

Ozzy Townsend, thanks for 11 great years.

I should  mention that when things get difficult I love to write.  I write when I am happy and I write when I am sad, and yet tonight I am both.  Tonight a very loved member of our family passed away, the greatest dog a girl could ever ask for, Ozzy.  As I awoke this morning to a blustering of fresh snow dusting the earth, I walked downstairs to find Ozzy happily waiting at the back door.  I think he may have known this was his last day and wanted to live it out to the fullest, like a champ.  Ozzy has had trouble getting up for the past few weeks but he was so lively this morning I couldn't believe it. I let him outside thinking he needed to go to the bathroom only to realize he wanted to play.  I grabbed my snow coat and boots and joined Ozzy in what was one of the best mornings a girl and her dog could have ever spent together.  Chasing each other, rolling around in the snow, making human and dog angels :).  We have been blessed to have had Ozzy for eleven fantastic years of our lives, to play with us, to comfort us, to save us when we needed him, to go for a swim, and of course to beg for food that he didn't need.  (Sorry mom, all these years I snuck him food under the table...although I knew you did too :))  God, I don't know your policy on having dogs in heaven, but if you do get to keep Ozzy...well I know you'll love him, I mean who couldn't.  And I am glad one of my last days spent here at home was spent with Ozzy saying goodbye to him in the best way possible.  We often overlook how meaningful our pets our in our lives, even calling Ozzy a pet seems wrong because he was so much more then that.  He was a gift. So God....remember...he's big on swimming, nature walks, and wrestling....have fun with him :)

"We are called to love with the fullest capacity of which we are capable"

   Packing up my belongings for six months has already proved to be a struggle, as items that go in are taken out, only to be placed back in my suitcase again due to my indecisiveness.  I am starting this blog to share with everyone my journey, stories, struggles, and all that God is doing through my study abroad journey to Cape Town, South Africa.
   I was so blessed with peace and excitement for the unknown as I said goodbye to my beautiful friends on Hope College's Campus and here at home.  As I am preparing my heart for this amazing and incredible journey I am reminded of a quote from one of my favorite books "Hinds Feet on High Places".
    The quote reads "Oh, what a life of wonderful joy, adventure, and ever-deepening love the Good Shepherd leads us all to!  As we follow him along the path of life, let us leave him to choose every step of the way, as we live in his radiant presence and are ever led to still higher places"
    I hope my heart continues to be captured by the amazing beauty, grace, and love that is God's being. I hope I am led to the higher places. That my heart is shaped and formed to look more and more like Jesus.  I hope I am broken constantly for the hurting people of this world. I hope I am constantly being filled with God's love and in that way, can pour out His love to all I encounter. I also hope that this blog serves as a way to keep all of my beautiful friends and family filled in on my life and journey in South Africa.
I love you all
-Mia