We finally made it! It was so cool to meet everyone at the
airport; we had a lot of people see us off that were not parents or even going
with us, so it was awesome to see how much support we had. We got checked in, made it through security
relatively fast, and headed to Atlanta.
Overall I would say it was pretty easy traveling, which was a surprise
to me. The last time I made a big trip
like this half of our team had luggage lost, but everything arrived at
Johannesburg when we did, and everyone made it here safely.
When we landed we met up with three staff at the airport;
Lloyd, Tim, and Sam. It was cool to hear some of the different languages spoken
as we went through customs (fun fact: South Africa has eleven different
official languages). We then went to
grab some food, which was great but still pretty American, so maybe we will
start to explore their food sometime soon.
The currency here is the Rand, so my meal said it was 79.50 RAND on the
menu, but we found out that was actually relatively cheap when converted to
American dollars. It might take some
time to start figuring out these currency conversions. (One RAND = $0.08)
Friday was our first day of orientation, and those of us who
were potential drivers got up earlier to go through a driving lesson. Since I
can drive a manual I am one of five people that will be driving. It was a
little scary at first since here they drive on the right side of the road, so
everything is backwards from what we are used to; I’ve thought I was going to
have a heart attack more than once. I’ve
gotten a little bit of experience now so it’s not so bad, but there was one
time that I almost turned in front of an oncoming bus because I forgot we had
to look for traffic in the other direction than I am used to. Fingers crossed that things like that don’t
happen often.
We also got to meet the students from Campus Outreach
Indianapolis, and had a tour of the campus of UJ Witswatersrand Friday
afternoon. It’s a BEAUTIFUL campus, not
just the landscaping but the architecture as well. We met a lot of the student
leaders on campus, and I am so excited to start doing ministry with them. I’m
amazed at how friendly and open they are to us; one of them ran up to me and
said, “We’re so glad you’re here. We’ve been counting down the days to meet you
since January.” I think that made the
people I was with, and myself, feel like this summer was going to bring about
some radical things.
Today, we went to the township of Soweto. It was really humbling to see where these
people live and the history behind the township, especially the violence and
the racial oppression. We ate dinner
there as well and finally got our first taste of some authentic food. It was very good, but interesting for
sure. One of their favorite foods here
is tripe, which is cooked cow intestines. I tried some and actually found that
it was pretty good, though it had an odd aftertaste. I’m excited to see what
else they eat and give it a shot.
Some things that I have learned about South Africa that are
different than America.
1. It is very very rare to find families that are still
together here. Almost all Africans are
products of divorced households, much more so than the United States. It is common for a family to have many
children from different parents. For
instance, I met a woman today who had a couple of full blooded brothers and
sisters, but her father also had nine other children by a different woman. This seems to be typical (maybe not nine
siblings, but at least a few).
2. Materialism and the pursuit of money is highly prevalent
here. The goal of most South Africans is
to get out of the cycle of poverty many are born into and to make it rich. So the pursuit of a high paying job and good
status is something that has heavily penetrated society here.
It is obvious that God has great plans for this city, and we
are excited to be a part of them. Monday
we officially start ministry, so I hope to have more about our ministry
experience posted by the next time I get internet.
In Him,
Katlyn
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