Orphanage

Hello People! Today I got to go to an orphanage. There was about 8 toddlers there, they just accepted 10 more so there will be about 20 total in the mornings and over 65 after 2PM when school gets out. They are guaranteed one hot meal a day and can do homework supervised in the building. It was really hard to hear that all of the kids have to leave in the afternoon and although some of them go to grandparent's houses, many of the grandparents are elderly and cannot provide well for them. But at least it's protection. The kids who are toddlers get taken home by the volunteers but the ones without anywhere to go sleep on the streets. And the streets are dirt roads. It's not like in the states where there are buildings which they can sleep under the awning of. Literally this area is beautiful grass fields, hills, and houses shaped like boxes. It broke my heart thinking of a possible 30 kids sleeping outside somewhere with no one to look after or care after them.

I asked about adoption but that is not common either. People will take in children possibly but a lot of times the owners of the orphanage have no idea where the parents are, if they died or just ditched the children, so they can't give their children away.



There was one girl in particular I fell in love with and no joke would have adopted in a moment but she was visiting with her Grandma and her Grandma wouldn't have liked that at all!! :)



So that was my day. I thought I would be a lot more emotional but it more just makes me mad. I wish this could be fixed right now but I can't fix it.. right now at least. And it was encouraging to see how much love those babies were getting at the orphanage. Really cared for.

Since then I have eaten lunch and had meeting of possible outreach thing we can do while we're here. I signed up to go to an AIDS orphanage and play with the kids/help out with homework, etc so hopefully I can start doing that soon.

I updated Facebook with a whole album of the orphanage so take a look. And I know some Mom's read this blog so if you have a Facebook I won't be weirded out if you added me! (Hi Mrs. Jensen)

Off to do more productive things on my day off... or take a nap? Haven't decided...

With love from Africa,
Paige

P.S.

If you have sent something in the mail already that's OK! Your package or letter will get here with no problems. But they also gave us another address which they prefer:

Paige Jennings
API Education Foundation
P.O. Box 13870
CASCADES 3202
Pietermaritzburg
KZN, South Africa

:)

So much!

I can't believe two days can provide so much information and so many pictures! (All added to my newest Facebook album)

Saturday was one of the most fun days we've had here (or that was the group consensus at least)! First, I got to Skype with Jeremy that morning which made the whole day great :) Although usually when I'm at the beach it is a time I call Mom, Dad, Brooke and Barbie so it was hard not having a cell phone. :( But we went to Durban, about 45 minutes away and home to one of the top 5 surfing spots in the world. It was fun saying we have swam in the Indian Ocean! The water was SO warm! And especially salty so we all floated really well.


At first the waves were mellow and my friend Megan Goeman and I hung out while three girls rented surf boards and we taught them the basics on how to surf. So we were in the water with them and the waves were all mellow and great for us beginners and so Megan and I felt like we were missing out so we went and got boards of our own! And lets just say- we were HUMBLED! Somehow the waves turned vicious in the 20 minutes and we got flipped and flipped in the first 5 minutes we were out there. I didn't even end up getting up but Megan did a great job. Overall it was fun but TIRING!!!

We then got out and relaxed for a few, went and returned our boards and then went and got some smoothies which tasted GREAT after all that salt water!! We ended up searching for a market which was about a 30 minute walk which we did about 25 minutes of then decided to turn around (bummer!) but luckily we'll be back there in a few weeks to go to a water theme park on the beach we were at. (awesome!)


The overall feeling after our beach day was, "Doesn't this feel like vacation?!? And THIS is SCHOOL!" :) Below is a picture outside the bus on the drive back...


Today (Sunday) was equally as FUN! I went with about 10 other students/leaders to a church here in town which we nickname the Family Church since the name is long. It is more charismatic than Arcade but extremely different than what I was used to. The service was a little bit longer than I'm used to but I went in expecting it! It was SO great... so there's about 50 people there, maybe more, but it's a very small room that's PACKED full! And when worship started it sounded louder than Arcade (300 people) doing a hymn (so everyone's singing) on Easter Sunday. The energy and JOY in that place was AMAZING!!! Everyone, and I mean everyone, was singing enthusiastically to the Lord and the whole time I felt like "THIS is what Heaven is going to be like! PURE JOY!"

I could go on and on. But overall: great and so welcoming. Definitely going back. Then we stopped by a bakery and got some goodies and headed back to school for lunch and got ready for PAINTBALL! Again, so much fun! When we got there (about 25 minutes away) we numbered off into teams, got geared up, instructions and went at it! It was each team's goal to reach the other side without being hit and hitting the button which sounded a horn. I mostly played the sniper role by the goal as I had a good shot but didn't want to be the runner who was getting shot at!!

Our group is just hilarious in general. We had so much fun and everyone who went (so it seemed) really loved it. I played 4 games and we were all POOPED! Time for dinner...

After dinner 6 of us stayed at our table and talked until we had to move then went to the couches and continued for a few hours. So great getting to know people more and just enjoying being around them.

RIght now I'm about to talk to Jeremy so I'm peacing!

With love from South Africa,
Paige

Happenings

Ok, so I realized I need to post before I start forgetting things!!

Wednesday:

I had done tons of homework Tuesday so Wednesday I was able to go with about 8 people to a preschool called Bonginkosi. The conditions here were definitely not like in America. There were 3-4 teachers for 50 kids. It was hard to see the conditions of the kids. Obviously they don't know any different so they were happy as can be! But I felt bad they weren't able to get individualized care and education. And there are SO MANY of them! I think those women running that preschool every day are SAINTS! I was tired after an hour and a half. They loved our cameras and wanted to "shoot" them over and over! They didn't know english but I had no idea so I was blabbing on and on until I realized. It's so funny because I naturally start speaking to them in Spanish but they have no idea.

After that we came back, had lunch, and honestly I have no idea what I did to occupy my time. I should really blog everyday. BUT I do know that Wednesday night I went out with 5 fun girls to "Keg & Hedgehog", a new, nicer restaurant and we had a BLAST! We may make it a weekly tradition :) And it was ladies night so all our food was half off!

Thursday: Art class for 4 hours, and it was a lecture day so you can imagine... then lunch and Life & Teachings of Jesus which is a great class. Then tea and break until dinner. After dinner a lot of us just hung out in the dining hall and then went and attempted homework, but there were way too many extroverted people so we all talked, and then we decided to start the Bourne series (movies) so we watched the first one until about 11:30 then slept!

Today: I am on the chapel team with two other people so we plan chapels (minus worship which another team does). We made a theme for this semester called "Before and After" (logo below), mainly talking about how once we receive Christ we are a NEW creation, the old has gone and the new has come! So, today one of the other chapel guys gave a devotional on just that and then I facilitated a discussion with our group, talking about how NOW is our "before" of this semester and what are we doing well and what do we need to fix. And our group is so great that wasn't a problem at all :) Chapel went really well overall :)



Then we went to visit one of the four possible sites we are able to work with from Mid March to April. After visiting the four we give the leaders our preference of which one we want to work with and why and then get assigned. I didn't feel a tug to work with this one today so I am looking forward to visiting the other ones. This one focuses a lot on children and community development- which is AWESOME- don't get me wrong! But I just felt like one of the other ones could suit my talents better.

After that we had lunch back on campus, Life and Teachings again, and here I am! We're about to go on a mall run. The malls here have grocery stores, shopping carts, cafes and banks inside them too so it's a great one stop shop!

Things I'm looking forward to:
-DURBAN DAY TOMORROW! Aka BEACH TIME!!!! :) Soooo excited! We can get surfing lessons and whatever... I'm just excited to go!
-Sunday: Church at a charismatic church which will be a blast! Then PAINTBALL! Which if any of you have seen me in airsoft you know I'm quite possibly the biggest wimp ever and that will have tons of stories... and bruises... to follow!

Ok, got to go to the mall! Some days I feel so busy and rushed, like today, and some I have all the time in the world. So sorry about the sporadic blogging!

**Updated Facebook with pictures from the preschool :)
WIth LOVE from Africa,
Paige

Newwww post!

Man, these titles are getting tricky!

Sooo I accidentally cut it off right as I was saying goodbye.. but despite that here is a video update :)



With love from Africa,
Paige

P.S. so far I haven't figured out how to get my videos over 2 minutes and still work, so that's why all of them are so short!

Correction:

You can send packages/letters through any form (UPS, etc.) not just DHL. People have received multiple things sent through any form. FYI :) Here's the address again:

Paige Jennings
African Enterprise Center
1 Nonsuch Road
Chase Valle
Pietermaritzburg 3201
3200 KZN
South Africa

Expect 2 weeks for it to get here:)

Thanks!
Paige

Alive!

I will post more later but I wanted to let you know that I am feeling so much better and really appreciate everyone's encouragement and prayers. Off to bed! Have a happy Super Bowl Sunday! Pretty bummed I am not able to "celebrate" with people. I think I've entered phase 2 of culture shock today. "Everything is Awful" Lol! Ok, these phase names are a little dramatic. It goes

1) Honeymoon 2) Everything is Awful 3) Everything is OK 4) Reverse Culture Shock- when I come back home.

Basically in the common version of stage 2 the differences from my culture to the new culture get annoying and stand out a lot. I want familiar but it's not here so it gets frustrating. I'm sure it will pass in time :) And this isn't to say I'm not enjoying my experience... just transitioning.

Love,
Paige