Week 3 Summary

Sorry that things are so delayed, since we've been here for almost 6 weeks, and yet I'm only up to posting about the 3rd week! We never really know when or how much time we will have on the internet, so we post when we can!

Monday (7/5)
Not a very eventful day for us. We returned home from Theresa's house and spent the day in Somerset West waiting for a ride back to Grabouw.

Tuesday (7/6)
Today was Rachel and Nicole's last day to spend with the kids as they left the next day. They spent the day at Asiphe` while Alissa and I spent time at the house with the kids and cleaning up our house. We made special streamers to send them off properly! After the girls came back, Gerrit, Milani, and John took us out into the community to walk among and inside the houses. I've done this before, but the girls hadn't and neither had the British volunteers. Even though I've seen it before and we've been surrounded by it, seeing it so up close and having your eyes open to the reality of it is really hard. As we were walking, Rachel and Nicole were looking for a family to bless with their bedding and to buy some food for. Even though we would love to give to everyone, we were warned that you have to be careful of who you give to, because many of the people will take the gifts and then sell them for drugs. And if they don't sell it, they may be targeted and their house may be broken into to take the gifts. So we sought wise council from the leaders of Agape so we gave to those that will use it appropriately. When we returned from our walk, the power was out, which made it more of a "township" experience. We cooked pancakes on a kerosene burner- in the dark- which provided to be quite an interesting and challenging experience. It gave us a greater appreciation for the electricity when we woke up!

Wednesday (7/7)
After Rachel and Nicole finished packing, we went out with Ami (one of the founders of Agape) and gave out bedding and food items to families. I was blessed to watch it happen, and I know they were blessed as well.
Gideon then drove us to the airport and we ate at our favorite restaurant here in SA called Mugg & Bean. We said our goodbyes and Alissa, Gideon and I returned to Grabouw. It was hard to say goodbye. It hadn't felt like 3 weeks had passed yet. It seemed like we had only arrived! :( They will be missed!!!

Thursday (7/7)
Alissa and I spent the day @ Asiphe`- what a great day!!!! We LOVE being there with the kids, and my Catie Belle is there all day because school is still out for Winter Break. She will go back to school on Monday, which she is happy about, but I'm a little sad that I won't get as much time with her!

Friday (7/8)
We had planned to go to Asiphe`, but our plans were changed, once again! ;) We were asked to help take all the Agape kids to World of Birds in Hout Bay. (Except for the Asiphe` kids). It was fun and interesting, but a little crazy at times. It wasn't near as scary as taking the 91 preschoolers to MonkeyTown! :) We then took the kids to the beach, took off our shoes and walked around in the water collecting shells. We ended our day with ice cream!

Saturday (7/9) 
 Yesterday, they told us that we were moving from the "cabin" at Agape 4, to the flat attached to the Asiphe` house at Agape 2. So we spent our day repacking and figuring out how to get all of our things and food moved. Moving was stressful, but we had beautiful weather and now we are right next door to Catherine!!! :)

Sunday (7/10) 
We went to township church again today. It's always a great experience, but it is hard because they speak Afrikaans for the service and most of the songs. Sometimes things are just lost in translation! We normally have someone sitting next to us translating, which we are grateful for, and we LOVE when they sing a song in English! :)
The weather again today was GORGEOUS!!!! Alissa and I sat outside in t-shirts and shorts and wrote in our journals. It's winter here people!!! That's crazy!!! :)