Cape Town!!!!!

Hello Family and Friends!!!

As you can see by the title, I've made it to Cape Town! Now this is such a surreal feeling as Cape Town was always in our minds as our "last stop" before we went home! I can't believe it's already here. Since my last post on Friday it feels like weeks have gone by. I feel like I haven't talked to Mom or Dad or Jeremy in so long! I shot out a few texts to let them know I'm alive and well.

Since so much has happened in these last few days of road tripping it I am going to bullet point the highlights :) It's been so much fun!

Some prayer requests before I start:
I have been having some health "issues" since I've been here. As you have read before I have gotten very sick on two different occasions as without being too descriptive I have had odd bowel movements which the nurses here are saying is blood in my stool. So tomorrow I'm going to the doctor. Because the stool is black (I know, sorry if that's TMI) they say that the blood has dried and so the "problem" if there is any is coming from the upper intestines/stomach, if there is a problem. Tonight I randomly got very, very sick again. No throwing up this time but I was having awful stomach pains and felt like I was getting the same old sickness. I, very emotionally, told my leader Kelli that in fact the Dr's appointment I had mentioned to her earlier should happen tomorrow and she prayed with me and figured that out. So I am very grateful to be able to go to the doctor, but it stinks to miss out on the fun of touring Cape Town! So let's all pray that this gets figured out quickly! Oh, and the best part, about an hour after Kelli prayed with me I was typing out in my journal I keep on my computer a prayer for healing and at the end of it honestly felt SO much better... like all pain was gone. Praise the Lord! Let's all keep praying, please!


Saturday
We headed off into the coach promptly at 8:30am and drove until about 6pm to East London. The place we got there was BEAUTIFUL! Literally right on the ocean. Now that I think of it I didn't even get a picture! Shame. Anyways, we unpacked into our rooms and, let me tell you, these hotel rooms can be VERY different than the rooms in America! We had a full size bed and a twin on opposite sides of the room. A TV facing the full. Our shower was infact a bath tub with a three foot long hose so you had to sit to shower, etc. etc. My roommate Megan Hernandez (Or MegDez as we call her) and I laughed SO HARD!!! Showering was so awkward. But this place was very nice and we were so spoiled to be able to walk out to the beach! A bunch of us hung out that night on the grass by the water and looked at the stars which are SO much more evident here! We saw the Southern Cross and O'Ryan's belt (spelling?) but since we have a different view of the galaxies we see different constellations sometimes! Like, I didn't see the big dipper. Crazy!

Sunday
Woke up early and smiled ear to ear because today is Jeremy and my 6 months!!! :) :) :) Haha and this make it sounds so anti-climactic but it was ALSO the day that Jesus rose from the dead!!! (Which, believe it or not, is actually more important!) But in bed I got to finally open a package that I got from him last week for our 6 months! It was SO sweet! There were balloons to blow up and cards to read and things that made me laugh and things that made me tear up... All to say... I REALLY MISS HIM!!!!

So I got ready, went to a Baptist church with the group which was hilarious in itself because having 37 people walk into a SMALL church and take up over half of it.. oh and we're foreign.. haha we were a site. But it was great to be there and people were very welcome. AND I got to wear a new skirt which I now love! After church we headed to a different beach than the one we stayed at for lunch. It was WINDY!!! And I was the first one off the bus and my beautiful new skirt flew right to my chest with the gust of wind. Ha! All of us girls were dressed up so we spent the day holding our clothes down. I got some super cute pictures by the water which I will post later. :)

After lunch and pictures we got back on the bus and went to our beach and laid out/swam for a few hours until we headed back for dinner in the hotel. Since hospitality is so prized here we have met some of the most gracious and thoughtful people! That night a bunch of us went on the sandy part of the beach and hung out. It felt like our last night together which was really odd!

Monday
This was quite an exciting day! We were up early and packed into the bus by 6:30am. One car had gone ahead with 7 people who were going to be the first to bungee jump. I opted not to jump as it pretty much sounded either terrifying or totally not enjoyable, but 23/33 of us went! Impressive! So we drove four hours to the home of the world's tallest bungee jump! Yes, that's right, 23 of my friends jumped 800 feet. It was a BEAUTIFUL as the bridge was over a canyon with a river in the bottom that fed into the ocean, which we could see. The people that didn't jump got to eat some lunch and take pictures & watch the others. Mostly everyone LOVED it! Some wanted to do it again right away!! So that was so fun to watch and be excited for :)

After that we all got back into the bus and headed another big chunk of time to George where we stayed the night. And can I just say, we have SUCH a fun group! Even just watching Madagascar 2 or talking... I love our group! So I had a great time driving with everyone. The place we stayed last night was AMAZING! It was a "backpackers lodge" which I thought meant ghetto but it was BEAUTIFUL! Thought of Susan Turner (for those of you who know her... she would have loved it!) It was surrounded by mountains with zebra and geese and spring buck around. It was white buildings in contrast to the green hills. Roses and plants everywhere! So beautiful! And the food was equally as good! Probably some of my favorite meals since I've been in SA. I was super tired so after my roommate, Megan Biasotti, and I talked for a bit I headed to bed. Oh, and this shower I gave an A+! Much improved!

Tuesday (today)
Once again we ate and packed up early! We headed about 20 minutes to the Congo Caves for our Adventure Tour. I didn't listen to any history of the caves like a good girl, but they're OLD and they're BEAUTIFUL! :) And let me tell you, this adventure tour was no joke, an adventure tour. You could not have a bad back or not be able to climb! But I had BLAST! I was one of the few who brought their head lamp in (Thank you Aaron's for letting me bring it!!!) and it was put to good use! It was SO DARK in some spots! We had such a fun time. My friend Ashleigh fell in water accidentally and I don't know if I've laughed harder. Oh it was hilarious! That took a few hours and I got tons of pictures! Facebook will be updated "soon". (Basically I have no idea when, hopefully soon!).

Then we went about 40 minutes to an ostrich farm which, not going to lie, was in no way the highlight of this trip. I did get to sit on an ostrich and got a cute picture but the poor thing wasn't loving the experience as much as I was! Ha... it was kinda an awkward day with a tour guide who had awkward jokes. But not regrettable... just wouldn't do it again!

Then we started the very, very long journey to Cape Town! Mind you we were in a bus so everything took a lot longer then anyone had expected! We got in here at I think 8:30pm. But I had a fun ride. We watched 10 Things I Hate About You, played Mafia, played BS, talked for a few hours about nutrition and I am petrified to use teflon pans as I have just been informed "slowly kill you" ,etc. etc. After that convo I was ready to be a vegetarian, completely organic, grow my own crops, let my soil rest after 6 years, not use a microwave, filter my water with a GOOD flilter, swim in a pool without chlorine, buy shampoo from Trader Joes, not take hot showers, use a certain type of toothpaste, do a colon cleansing... I mean I thought I was healthy before but they just all freaked me out! But with legit information as well. So poor Jeremy will get hit hard with the effects of my new "lifestyle" ;) Ok, I'm definitely not changing THAT much but will make some changes!

And here I am, sitting in my hotel room, arrived in Cape Town, showered from my filth from those caves, wondering if this blog will even post! Wish I could add pictures and make it all cute but I really need some sleep.

I don't know when I'll get internet next but I'm sure it will be before the weekend. :) Don't really know the schedule here very well... it's all pretty vague to me. MISS YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Off to dream land!
With love from Cape Town, South Africa,
Paige