“Lord, I want to feel with Your heart / See the world through Your eyes / I want to be Your hands and feet / I want to live a life that leads / Ready yourselves / Ready yourselves / Let us shine the light of Jesus in the darkest night / … / May the powers of darkness tremble as our praises rise / Until the whole world hears, Lord we are calling out / Lifting up Your name for all to hear the sound / Like voices in the wilderness, we are crying out / And as the day draws near, we sing until the whole world hears”

… “Until the Whole World Hears,” Casting Crowns …

Today is one of those overcast, drizzly sort of days that requires a good book, a hot mug of Starbucks coffee, a warm blanket, and a comfy chair to curl up in. Were I in Virginia right now, I would complete this image with a warm fireplace and snow falling softly on the windowsill. However, my current location in the world does not allow for soft snowflakes settling on your nose. Rather, winters in northern South Africa are a curious affair, for the temperature cannot seem to decide which part of the year it is. The mornings and evenings are cold with a temperature generally around 45-60 degrees Fahrenheit, but the afternoons fall somewhere in the 70s range. (As the day progresses, one tends to find everyone slowly stripping away layers of clothing as the temperature rises.) Honestly, I could get used to this. This sort of winter suits me just fine.

Virginia, on the other hand, currently finds itself in the midst of summer with a bit of celebrating going on today. I only just looked to my calendar to discover that it is, in fact, the Fourth of July, which made me pause in surprise. This is the first truly American holiday I am missing. Not that my family ever did much on this day, but it’s still strange to be separated from the whole thing. I know Mom will be asking Dad to go with her to see the fireworks, but even as he rolls his eyes, he already knows he will be going. Kevin will probably be sitting on the couch with his laptop, smiling to himself because he doesn’t have to go, though chances are he will have to go to work before the day is out anyway. As for my friends, I imagine most of them will be having small celebrations of their own. Again, it really is quite strange to be so far away from it all. No banners in red, white, and blue, or sparklers clutched in a child’s sticky hand, or fireworks lighting the sky, or annoying neighbours determined to celebrate long into the night. (Of course, we have plenty of annoying neighbours here that celebrate anything and everything with loud music at least four times a week, so I would say we’re even.)

Despite my distance from the US and its celebrations, I did realize something the other day that left me flabbergasted, if I may use such a term. In 5 months and (approximately) ten days, I will be returning to the USA.  Um, what!?  Clearly, Time and I are not friends, because he seems to be running away from me without so much as a “Hello, start paying attention.” Honestly, where have the last six months disappeared to? Didn’t I just arrive on a British Airways flight in Johannesburg and move in to my new home in Shayandima? Haven’t I only just started working with these students and teaching Conversational English? People warned me that time moves faster the older you get, but for goodness sake, I’m only twenty-three years old. Why is Time moving so quickly?  Already, half of the year is gone. The 2^nd term ended a little over a week ago on June 24^th, so I’ve now been on holiday for ten days. We have a three-week holiday between Term 2 and 3, and believe me, I am enjoying the freedom.

Term 2 was, in a word, madness. Out of the two months of school, maybe four of those were full school weeks. All manner of holidays (ie. Election Day, Youth Day) peppered the term, leaving us with so many days off that we didn’t know what to do with ourselves.  Classes were difficult to maintain because there were so many lapses from one class to the next, and some of those classes didn’t even meet because they had that specific day off for one reason or another. Conversational English went into a spin for those very reasons, resulting in a very frustrated me. We somehow managed to pull through it all, and we even had two weeks of fun caught at the end of the term: an American team from Georgia came out for a bit of fun and mission work.

Having been the only American on base for the last two months, it was incredibly strange to hear southern accents again. I didn’t know what to think when they first arrived, but all it took was one conversation with these people for every single one of us to be won over. They brought life to the school, and the students loved having them here as much as we (the staff) all did. They hosted classes during the week that played out like a VBS program with Bible lessons, crafts, music, and games. My Mom has always been involved in all manner of VBS programs and children’s churches on Sunday, so I was completely in my element. I’m fairly certain I had more fun than some of the students did. They even brought snacks and candies from the US, which I went ballistic over. For example: One morning as I was sitting in the staff lounge during first break, one of the Americans named Moose (aka Joshua) walked in and asked if he could join me at my table. Once I smiled and nodded, he tossed a bag of Nutter Butters onto the table, said he would be right back, and headed for the kitchenette. My squeal of joy at the sight of those wonderful, peanut buttery cookies stopped him in his tracks.  Needless to say, I enjoyed those tasty little Nutter Butters immensely.

While the American team was here, I was able to join them on a trip to a local church for a mission outreach. I had been to the church once before, but this trip was even better because of the team that was with us. The church building is a single room with worn wooden benches lining the sides. The windows (brand new since my first visit) are covered in newspaper, and the doors are made of a simple, sturdy wood that has yet to be painted. The pastor is an exuberant older man who welcomes each person individually. During praise and worship, he dances about the front of the church clapping his hands and stomping his feet in time with the song’s rhythm. He speaks both Venda and English, so he and a younger man would go back and forth with the translating between the languages. I didn’t know what it meant to truly feel God’s presence in a place until I visited this church. The building isn’t much and the congregation is small, but the love for God that lives and breathes in that space is unbelievable.

A few days after our visit to the church, we headed off to Kruger National Park. This was my first trip to Kruger, so I was just as excited as the visiting Americans. Our first giraffe sighting had me lunging for my camera faster than a cheetah. We saw all manner of animals that day, including elephants, giraffes, zebras, impalas, ostriches, buffalo, kudu, etc. While driving through Kruger, visitors are not allowed to leave their cars unless they are in designated areas, so you spend most of the day driving around, but since you are surrounded by incredible sights and animals, you don’t mind the cramped legs.

I did manage to visit Kruger a second time a little over a week ago with some friends from the base, which was a nice way to start off the holiday. Four girls in a small car surrounded by animals might spell disaster for some, but we had a blast. We had a bunch of great animal sightings (including a zebra crossing the road and a giraffe munching leaves right next to the car) and a very relaxing day. At one point, we stopped off at a rest point and chilled out under a tree for a while. From our location, we could see a herd of elephants and zebras at the nearby watering hole drinking and wandering about the grass. We were also visited by three yellow hornbills (otherwise known as Zazu from The Lion King) that kept hopping around us hoping for some food. They were quite cute and completely unafraid of us.

Since then, life has settled into a quiet, relaxing routine. Most of the base inhabitants have bailed out of town for the holiday, leaving a small group behind to enjoy the solitude. I know “solitude” is not a word typically associated with me and my lifestyle, but you would be surprised.  I thought I would be curled up in a ball rocking back and forth in the corner of the room after a week of this, but I’m actually enjoying myself. There are just enough people here to keep my sociable meter at a good level, and I have enough hobbies and duties to keep me busy. With the available free time and quiet, I’ve finally managed to make some headway on the book I am writing for Mr. Palmer. I was getting frustrated with my inability to write, but as it turns out, all I needed was some solitude, an early morning sun streaming through my window, and a very good friend willing to text me over and over again until she knows I am physically out of bed and sitting at my desk ready to work. (Yes, it takes extreme measures to make sure I am awake in the morning while on holiday. Haha!)  In addition to writing, my spend my days having tea and coffee with friends, watching movies, and scribbling away in my Disney colouring books so kindly sent to me by my parents.

My only qualm with this holiday is the distinct lack of books. With such limited funds, I cannot purchase books for my Kindle, so I’m stuck reading some of the free e-book classics. I’ve always been more of a modern literature reader, so I tend to avoid the classics. However, I suppose this is good for me. I can already hear my English major friends cheering because Kellie is, finally, going to read something from before the 20^th century. I’ll just start with two of my favourite classic writers: Jane Austen and Fyodor Dostoevsky. I might even throw in some Tolstoy and Dumas for good measure. Huzzah!