June 23rd 2011

Day eight:

Well so I am off with my blogging days.  Today is Saturday and I am just now doing Thursday.  Haha oh well, I’ll try to get back in the habit.  So Thursday was another good day.  We went to Kuyasa again.  It was raining when we got up, so we were a little bit slow moving to get started.  We ended up getting out there at around 10:15.  When we got there it had stopped raining.  We headed in to find Jenny and find out what she wanted us to do for the day.  However, we found that she was not there yet and so we set out to find other things to do.  We started by cleaning and sweeping out the apex.  The apex is what they call the garage that I described the first time I talked about Kuyasa.  It is a lot bigger on the inside and there are some rooms on a second story in the back.  The first thing we did was to organize and stack some wooden chairs.  Once that was done we set about sweeping.  We got about half of it when the guy that was supervising us said to go ahead and stop and pick up the piles we had made.  Once that was done, we threw away the collected dust and stuff and headed off to do some other work.  The next thing that they had us do was to straighten up one of the lofts that they use for storage.  It was a lot like the first on that we did, but there was much less stuff in it.  I think that took Drew and me about thirty minutes to sort out.  I took pictures of the room, so once I get those up you will have a better idea.  Once we were done with that, Jenny gave us the job of washing the walls of one of the classrooms that they have.  This was a very tedious job.  The room was painted like an ocean, so there were fish, dolphins, see turtles and other ocean life all on the walls.  Well kids in the past had taken pencil, crayon, and other writing implements and doodles all over the walls.   We went down and talked with one of the mammas (that is what they call the older women working at Kuyasa) and she gave us a mixture of soaps, some rags, and sponges to clean it up.  So at around 11 o’clock we got started on that.  We started on one wall and just tried to work our way around.  It was really tough going.  The pencil took about five to ten scrubs to get off, the crayon took about fifty and even then some didn’t come off.  We worked and worked and worked, making slow progress.  Drew was quoting movies while we worked and I was sitting there judging him every second of it (it was all in good fun).  After a while the kids came for the feeding scheme (that is the official name that they have given the lunch handouts).  We knew this because they came running down the hall that the room we were working on was in.  Some even poked their heads in and waved at us, and we waved back.  Then two girls came in and offered to help.  So we gave them a sponge and the four of us got to work.  Other kids came in and offered to help, but they thought that we were getting paid to do it.  When we told them that we weren’t, they quickly lost interest.  The four of us worked for a while and then the girls seemed to have had enough and ran out of there.  At that point we had gotten two walls done and a majority of the third.  While finishing the third wall, two boys came in and then offered to help.  We gladly gave them some cleaning implements and they got to work.  After a while we finally finished the wall, and there were high fives and fist pounds all around.  We then then thanked the two guys for helping us and decided to call it a day.  After all I think we ended up spending about four and a half hour cleaning that room.  Our hand were prunny and they wrecked like dirty dish soap.  I mean my prunes had prunes.  I think that I am just now getting over the smell as well.  I mean my hands are peeling and it is Saturday.  Any way, it was really nice to have all the help that we did.  It was very encouraging to see the eagerness of the kids.  I mean they legitimately wanted to help.  And then another thing that kind of stuck with me was that they had called us “teacher.”  I mean teaching is what I want to do some day, but I had not expected to have someone call me that.  Something I hope that I was able to teach them was that, they shouldn’t have to expect to be paid to do everything.  It is ok to do things out of the bottom of their hearts.  I also found being called teacher was a sign of respect and that the kids respected us even though they knew nothing about us.  So after we got done at Kuyasa, we went back to the house and cleaned up.  We then headed to the Spar to get dinner at the cafe and then do some shopping.  I ended up getting the Thai chicken wrap.  It was kind of bland so I don’t think that I will be getting that again.  I most likely will go with a pizza seeing as I can make two meals out of it.  Anyway, when we got back to the house I showered and watched a movie.  All in all, Thursday was a good day.

June 22nd 2011

Day seven:

First off I want to say that it has been a while since I have blogged.  I guess that I got a bit lazy the last two days and just took a break.  So here are they are. Wednesday was a short day.  We ended up going to SCAS and helping with a camp.  The morning started early and was fairly cold, but it was clear outside.  We met William at 7:30 to get the equipment and get everything set up.  The field that we use for the camp is located about a kilometer away from the office, so we had to load everything in William’s truck and mosey on down the road.  We as facilitators were going to be providing four games and they would provide the rest.  So we got all the games set up and waited.  Drew and I talked to William about life in South Africa and all the things that he has done.  He was a really cool guy and I hope that we get to interact with him again.  So at around 8:30 two charter buses pull to the side of the road at the top of the hill, and kids start streaming off the buses.  We headed up to the road to meet them and had them all assemble on the field below.  We introduced ourselves and the teachers went about organizing the kids and taking role.  We learned that they were from a more affluent neighborhood in Stellenbosch.  They were on a field trip of sorts for the school.  There were about 120 fids and five teachers in the group.  It was interesting because it seemed to be run in more of an athletic/military way.  If the kids got out of line, the teacher would have them do pushups, or run lines, or something to that extent.  Drew and I got to talk to the pastor for the local church.  HE was the one who told us that the kids here were the ones that their parents were pretty much nonexistent.  The parents would drop them at the local mall for days at a time, leaving them to fend for themselves.  The private school that they attended was another form of babysitting for most of them.  He said that he was really happy to be able to get them to come on this trip.  It would give them the chance to go someplace and have fun, but also structure.  Once everything had been sorted out, we began the activities.  The four games that SCAS provided were: the human ladder, the bungee scavenger race (for a lack of better term), the A-frame walk, and bush bowling.  Bush bowling is where you take five stakes and set them up in a line at one end, and then throw another stick at them attempting to know the sticks (pins) over.  The more pins, the more points.  The team with the most points wins.  The human ladder is basically were you have ten small logs and you have to get one person from a starting point to and ending point and then back again, without that person or a log touching the ground.  The team that does it the fastest, wins.  It was really funny to watch that.  The next game, the bungee scavenger run thing, was what I coordinated.  At the beginning I would designate how many were going to participate at a time.  The guys were split into about four teams of twelve; so I might say three people, five people, or even the whole team.  They would them have to all get into the bungee (it was tied in a circle) and stay in the bungee until they got back to their cone.  I would have the team start behind the side line on a soccer field and run out and try to grab little plastic balls.  They were the kind that you would find in a ball pit at McDonald’s.  Each person would grab one ball and they trade would off with more people from their team.  This would repeat until all the balls were retrieved.  Once all the balls were retrieved we would count up each team’s balls, and the one with the most was the winner.  We did this a few times with each rotation and it would get progressively harder.  For example, I might tell each team to get a specific color, and if you got the wrong color you had to put all your balls back and start over.  The last game was with the A-frames.  The object of this was to have the guys walk and A-Frame with a person standing on it about twenty yards and then turn around and walk back.  The only thing is that the person on the A-frame couldn’t touch the ground and no one else could touch the A-frame.  There were four ropes attached to each one and so you had to work together to pull one rope and then lift the leg, so the same thing could be done with the other.  It was really quite difficult because you would have guys pulling on the ropes at the same time and the frame wouldn’t be able to move.  This activity was only open to like eighteen guys, so the others in the group played touch rugby off to the side.  After about fifteen to thirty minutes, we would rotate stations.  This was done for about two to three hours.  After that, the guys hiked back to the SCAS compound for the rest of their activities.  We then set about picking things up and loading the truck.  Once we were back at SCAS, we put up all the equipment and headed back to Stellenbosch.  While we were doing the camp, the clouds had begun to role in and threaten to rain.  Drew and I decided that we wanted to drive up the valley through the mountains, and just see some stuff for the rest of the afternoon. So we headed out past SCAS and went towards the mountains.  After about fifteen minutes of driving, we ran out of road.  Yeah it was pretty disappointing.  So we headed back to the house to plan what we were going to do.  We ate lunch and started thinking.  We decided that we didn’t want to get stuck in Kuyasa while it was raining, so that was out.  We then contemplated taking another road and driving for a while to see what we could see.  I had started a movie and about half way through that, I started pouring outside.  So since the weather made out decision for us, we stayed indoors.  That night we went to the Spar and picked up some stuff for dinner.  Once we got back, we went through the same routine.  So that was that day. 

June 21st 2011

Day six:

Well today was another good day.  We went to Kuyasa again today, but we didn’t start as early as we did yesterday so we weren’t up as early.  We woke up at around 9:30 this morning so that we could go to the Spar, pronounced “Spur,” so that I could get cash and Drew could get some water.  After the Spar run we headed to Kuyasa.  Upon arriving we were immediately put to work painting some patches that were just put in on the walls.  That wasn’t too bad of a job because the spots that they wanted painting were not too large.  We finished most of them until we ran into a bit of trouble because the others were too high.  We didn’t have a ladder at that point, so we set out looking for one.  Everyone we asked said to look for Pastor Wilson, Pastor Wilson is basically the handyman of Kuyasa.  Well we figured that he was in the devo that they have in the mornings and so we decided to wait for him.  And we waited… And waited… And waited some more.  Finally we were tired of sitting around, and decided to go looking for some other things to do.  Well right when we got up to go, the devo broke.  So we went in and looked for Pastor Wilson again.  When we still couldn’t find him, we went and found Jenny.  She said that she didn’t know where he was, but would ask him about the ladder when he got back.  In the meantime, she said that we could sweep the outside of the building so that another group could come in and paint.  So we did that.  We did that until around lunch time and then went and got our sandwiches.  We decided that we were not going to miss lunch a second day, so we did it early and out of sight.  After lunch we were told that the only ladder that Kuyasa had was being used by the painters.  So we were going to have to share it with them.  Well they were currently using it, so we waited…  And we waited some more… Finally at around 2:00 someone came and said that Mamma was looking for us.

Helping with Lunch:

Now Mamma is a very large black woman with a loud black woman voice.  She kind of waddles around the kitchen making sure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to do.  She is definitely the queen be in the kitchen, but she is a very nice lady.  So she come over to us, takes us by the hand, and leads us into the kitchen.  She grabs a back of apples, a big knife, and says to get to cutting.  So we cut about thirty some odd apples into fourths.  One we were done, Mamma again led us by the hand to where they serve the food to the kids.  I was given the job of marking the kids as they got their food and keep track of them.   I found that it is a very good way of doing a food line.  When the kids come up to get food I mark their hand, they then get to go get food.  If a kid comes back through to get food and their hand is marked, then we know not to give them more.  It is a way of making sure that everybody gets some and is a good way of making sure nobody cheats the system.  So once that was done, Mamma thanked us for helping and sent us back to paint the walls.  At that point Goo Goo found mu and asked if we would help with soccer practice.  We said yes but we would need to clean the paint brushes first.  We went back to get the paint brushes and there was Pastor Wilson!!!  After looking for him all afternoon he was there, and with a ladder.  So we decided to finish what we could and then go help Goo Goo.  Drew climbed up the ladder and got to work with the roller while I held the paint.  Once that was done, we told Pastor Wilson that we were supposed to help Goo Goo so that we could go ahead and clean the brushes and not have to paint more.  Unfortunately he did not have anything to clean them with so we left them and he said that he would do it when he got the supplies.  We headed over to the netball court to help with girls’ soccer.  After about ten minutes, Daniel walked up and asked if we still wanted to help with his soccer practice.  We said yes, and left with him to go to practice. 

Soccer Practice:

The field that the boys use is across from Kiamude, the village/suburb that Kuyasa is located in.  However, in order to drive to it you have to circle around through another neighborhood.  Once we did that, we parked in the middle of the open field.  Daniel was telling us the there are four Kuyasa teams.   There is an elementary, middle school, high school, and adult team.  He also mentioned that it is very hard to find a place to practice/play.  The field that we were one only recently became available.  That was because the field technically belongs to the neighborhood of Clareview (I thing that is what it is called) and that is a colored neighborhood.  That was the second time that I had heard that reference and so I started to process that a bit.  Form what I gather; South Africa is primarily split into three ethnic groups.  You have whites, colored or brown people, and you have the blacks.  The blacks are the dark brown people and the others are lighter brown.  As far as I know, there aren’t any other differences.  However, brown people may have slightly better living conditions than black people.  Also the brown people don’t like the brown people.  I found that really interesting.  Also Daniel said that racism is still very strong in South Africa.  I just thought I would share that little tid bit, now back to the story.  So Daniel got all the guys together and he took role.  He made a role sheet before the first practice so that he knew who he had and what they wanted to play.  I thought it was a really good idea because Daniel doesn’t speak Afrikaans.   He needs a way of having a little bit of order at practices.  Also the teams coach from last year was there and he said that he was going to help.  His name is Simba.  Yes that is right, Simba.  Right when I heard that the “Lion King” song started playing in my song, and I started singing it under my breath.  So after seeing who was there, Daniel got the team to do some warm ups and stretches.  He then went right into the first drill.  This was a real simple passing and shooting drill.  Next He set up another drill that had the guys shooting a ball at a goalie.  Another thing I have learned is that they don’t call them goalies, they call them keepers.  I must say that I like “keeper” I think it is just because of how they people say it with their accent.  Anyway after practice had been going for an hour or so and the drills had broken down completely (it is hard to keep kids doing drill no matter what culture you are in), Daniel got the guys together and had them break up into six teams.  He then had three small mini games going together where the winner would rotate to face a new opponent.  It was some good fun and a good way to end the practice.  At that time the field was filling up and it was time to head out before the brown people came and took the field away from us.  So we ended practice with a prayer and headed back to Kuyasa to pick up the car. 

Dinner:

Once back at the house Drew and I washed our hands and changed our clothes to head out to the Spar. On a side note, when painting never wear something good.  Even if you are extremely careful you will get paint on you, so it is a good way to mess up some good clothes.  I lot a pair of shorts and a pair of track tights, and those were good track tights.  Anyway after the Spar we headed back to the house and made dinner.  I had a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich.  We determined that after having meals prepared for us the last few days, we were spoiled.  Once done with dinner, I watched a little bit of a movie and then checked emails.  I also took a nice hot shower, and had a nice hot shave.  I love a hot shave.  Well now it is off to bed because we are supposed to be at SCAS tomorrow to help with a soccer camp.  That starts at 7:30.  I have a feeling I will need the sleep.  So until next time, this is Ryan Dillon signing off.

June 20th 2011

Day five:

Well today was a good day.  It was the first day that we got to serve and it went well.  We got up at 7:30 this morning to get ready to go to the office.  I ended up sleeping a lot better last night, thank you sleeping pills.  Drew on the other hand, did not.  He said he only got around three hours.  Poor wittle Dwew (yeah I tried to do the baby voice, so sue me).  Anyway, we got to the office a little before we were supposed to, so we took that time to check the emails and do some other things.  At eight o’clock Drew, myself, Hein, Yan, and Daniel had a small time of prayer.  It was good to get to pray together and really started the day off right.  After the prayer time, Hein told us what we were going to be doing for the rest of the week and that today we would be serving at Kuyasa.  Kuyasa is an orphanage that is located in the shack town, but they reach out to the community in general.  However, we didn’t have to be there until ten so we headed back to the house for a quick forty minute nap.  After the nap we headed back down the street to meet up with Daniel so that he could show us the way.  Kuyasa was about a ten-fifteen minute drive from our place.  When we got to the community, I knew that we were in for an experience.  There were shacks everywhere, and they were the epitome of shacks.  They looked just like the ones that we say in Honduras.  After going through this for about a kilometer, we made it to our destination.

Kuyasa:

Kuyasa is kind of an oasis in the desert.  It is not a real fancy place, but they do have very nice facilities.  There are two main buildings in the complex.  The first building houses a garage, workshop, and some office space.  The second building houses the main offices, classrooms, and kitchen.  While Kuyasa is not a school, they do provide extra classes after school for the kids.  They also have a food line in which they feed the kids, which I will get into later.  They also have a paved soccer court; it is smaller than regulation size, and a net ball court, that is used for soccer most of the time.  There is also a soccer field and basketball court.  So the first thing that we did when we got to Kuyasa was to check in with Jenny.  Jenny is the head honcho who runs Kuyasa.  It is actually kind of funny; she is in charge but doesn’t speak much Afrikaans which is the main language that people speak.  Also she has a son who went to ACU and played Tennis, small world huh?  Once we met Jenny, we then went and had a devotional with the whole Kuyasa staff.  There were about 25 of us in a room going through a chapter of “A Purpose Driven Life.”  I have never read the book but have heard good things from it.  The chapter that we went over talked about the family of God, and touched a little bit on baptism.  The question that it asked at the end of the chapter was, what can we do to treat others more like family?  We discussed that for a while in small groups and then got back together and talked about it as a whole.  I found it very interesting, was that the majority of the time was spent talking about baptism, and the different beliefs about it.  Some things we take for granted when we have been in the church for the majority of our life.  Once we got done with the discussion, we had a prayer.  However, it didn’t end there.  There was a faith healing.  I have always heard about them, but never experienced it.  This was a different experience.  There was wailing and shouting and crying during a very passionate prayer.  It was something that I was not prepared for.  However, apparently it worked.  After the prayer the guy that couldn’t hear, could hear.   And I know he couldn’t hear because I was sitting right next to him and tried to say hello, but he never responded until someone told me why.  So that was interesting.  

Getting to Work:

Once that was done we then went with some of the guys to help move and office so the tile guys could retile the floor.  That was all fine and dandy except the cabinets they had us moving where freaking heavy.  I mean they must have had lead weights in them they were so heavy, and it took four guys just to move one.  Good thing was that it was a small office. Once done there we were taking up to clean out the storage “closet.” Now apparently when they say closet, they mean attic.  There attic was full of stuff that appears to have been donated by various people with no apparent need for the stuff.  Hence why we found at least three houses worth of counter tops, about ten cot mattresses, a bunch of other random stuff as we were organizing and cleaning.  We did that for the rest of the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon.  At about 2:30 we decided that it was time for lunch and that we should go grab some.  As we headed down the stairs it was lunch time for the kids.  Oh my word, there were so many of them and when they say us they all came running.  There must have been fifty kids, and Drew and I became jungle gyms for about fifteen of them.  They climbed all over us, on our back one our front, up our legs, these kids were wired.  However, they were also some of the cutest kids I have seen. Yes I just admitted that some kids were cute good thing my man card is in South Africa.  They were cute kids.  The age group was mainly seven to thirteen, but they were cute.  It was actually kind of funny because one of the kids that cam and jumped on me then came back and ate his lunch on my knee.  Also I never knew that you could get so much joy out of a stop watch.  They would stop and start it, and then try to tell me what numbers it stopped on.  We had to have done that for about fifteen minutes.  The bad thing was… I didn’t get any pictures.  However, we will be back so it can still happen. 

Soccer:

After things kind of settled down, Goo Goo (yes that is his name), asked if I would help him with soccer practice.  I said yes, and commenced to lay goalie for a few hours.  All was fine and dandy until somebody kicked a soccer ball someplace that it shouldn’t have gone.  DISCLAIMER: The following is not meant for children under eighteen years of age.  Reader discretion is advised.  Now that I got that out of the way I am going to describe what happened.  Since you are reading this you want to know what happened to me in South Africa.  Well this happened, so I am going to tell you about it.  It hit square.  The Soccer ball hit square.  I mean there was no favoring one side or the other, it hit square.  So instead of me having a reduced chance of having kids, it may have been taken away completely.  I mean it was just awful.  Once it happened I immediately dropped. I tried to stay on my feet, but I just couldn’t.  I slowly crawled off the court, everybody else continued to play, except for one of the other guys helping.  He walked over and began frogging my stomach repeatedly and steadily.  I didn’t know what he was doing at first, but after about four minutes it didn’t hurt as bad.  I mean normally I would have been down for much longer.  You can learn something new every day.  Well at about that time it was getting dark, and we didn’t want to be there after dark.  So we went ahead and left Kuyasa for the day. 

An International Dinner:

After Kuyasa, we headed over to Daniel’s since we had been invited to his place for an “international dinner.”  The international dinner is just what they call having people over who are originally from different places.  Daniel and his wife had Hein, Drew, myself and John and Yin-mi over along with everyone’s kids.  John and Yin-mi are originally from Malaysia but have moved to South Africa because John works for a big non-profit organization (I don’t remember what it is).  They also have two daughters ages five and one.  Daniel and his wife have a son who is ten months old.  It was a very good evening, with great food.  We had a very good stew with cornbread (double the butter that is required, to die for), and chocolate chip cookies.  It was really good.  After dinner we sat around talking and laughing at the kids.  They reminded me of when my cousins were young and innocent.  Too bad those days are gone (I am kidding by the way).  After we left Daniel’s we headed home to shower and check the interwebs.  Today was a good day.  Tomorrow we will go back to Kuyasa for more cleaning, kids, and soccer.  Well I’m off to bed now.  This is Ryan Dillon signing off.

June 19th 2011

Day four:

Well since today was Sunday, we went to church.  Drew and I woke up at about 8:30 this morning to get ready to meet Hein at the McDonalds so that we could follow him to church.  Before I go on, last night was a rough one.  I woke up at about four in the morning and just couldn’t go back to sleep.  My mind was racing on so many things that I just couldn’t calm down.  I also had some odd dreams that made me try to think about them and what they meant.  That finally ended at around 6:30, but the damage had already been done.  The alarm went off and I was tired.  Also, something that may have contributed to not being able to sleep was the rain.  I poured several times last night.  I was really odd too.  It would monsoon for about ten minutes and then stop. Then maybe thirty minutes later it would start again.  I mean if it had decided to rain and then stay raining, and then I probably would have been able to use it to sleep.  But no such luck.  Anyway, we got dressed and went to meet up with Hein.  Oh and by the way it was still raining… We got to McDonalds and went in so that Hein could grab a bite and talk about what he was going to be preaching about and the questions that he was going to ask about during his sermon.  He wanted us to share a bit about our testimony to the church.  Honestly I had not thought about it much and so I felt a bit nervous.  We left McDonalds and started heading to the church.  Again the drive was very pretty; even though, it was raining.  That is one thing I have noticed about this country, the scenery is very beautiful no matter the weather.  We drove about twenty kilometers to get to the church.  Actually it is on the way to Cape Town and so we drove that road heading to Stellenbosch.  The church building is located in some of the more impoverished areas, but not the slums.  The houses there were very small, but seemed to be in good condition.  Parking is non-existent, I came to find out. We ended up parking in the entrance way of the church.  That kind of gives you an idea of how small the place is.

Church:

 Hein said that the church regularly has about 40-50 members.  Today I think there were closer to 30.  The building is a small three room place.  There are the main worship areas, a storage room, and an office.  There is also a restroom but I didn’t really count that.  It wasn’t much bigger than a closet.  There was a keyboard, drum set, and a base guitar for worship.  Yes, this is not a traditional Church of Christ.  The chairs were white lawn chairs that the men set out before each service.  In front of the band there was a pulpit with a simple blue and gold tapestry on it that says “Jesus is Lord,” and above that there was a blue and gold banner running the width of the room.  The service was very interesting, but amazing.  We started out by singing.  The pastor, Pastor Bailey, led the singing.  There were people on the drums, bass, and keyboard.  There were also a couple of girls singing backup.   I am trying to figure out the best way to describe the worship.  From a musical standpoint, the pitch was off and the words to the song were not always sung correctly.  However, it was beautiful.  I have been in lots of worship services in my day, but this one was different.  This service really tugged at my heart.  Seeing the faces of the members as the contorted into longing and want as they sang the words was breath taking.  Like I said, I have had my share of worship services.  Some of them have even brought the chill bumps, but this one may have been the first one to bring me to tears.  I mean driving up and seeing the condition that these people live in, and then seeing them praise Jesus as passionately and genuinely as they did was beautiful.  That is the only word I can think of to describe it.  I think I felt some of the walls that I have put up in the past start to crack.  After we had worshiped for a while Pastor Bailey got up and introduced the youth.  Then we sang some more.  This time not only did the congregation sing, but they danced.  They danced up and down the aisle.  Pastor Bailey himself was even breaking it down at the front of the church.  It was a sight to see.  It was then time for Hein to give his message.  He decided to talk about Jesus walking on water, and the story of Stephen being stoned.  Most of the time when those stories are brought up it is,” Ye of little faith, or something to do with Peter.”  Hein took a different approach, and decided to talk about the disciples.  He spoke on how the disciples were afraid to get out of the boat and what fears we have in our lives that keep us from getting out of the boat.  The part about Stephen was a little bit different.  He pointed out something very interesting.  He showed that in the New Testament, when it refers to Jesus at the throne, he is always sitting.  However, when Stephen sees Jesus he is standing and applauding.  I had never thought of that before.  That Jesus was so happy that he stood and congratulated Stephen.  All in all is was a great service.  Hein also mentioned something to me that I found very interesting and something that I think I will pursue when back in the states.  That is that the entire church’s yearly budget is around 500 dollars, and that it wouldn’t take too much to support a church from the states. 

Lunch:

Afterwards the women went to a nearby house and started cooking.  Meanwhile, Drew and I stayed in the church and talked to the kids.  And for the first time I had my camera to take pictures.  So we did that until lunch was prepared.  We went in to the house, where a large feast had been prepared.  I mean there was a lot of food.  The wives had prepared lamb chops (yes we had them the night before but they are good!!), sausage, chicken curry, potatoes, sweet potatoes (some that would give my mammy’s a run for their money, and lasagna.  It was a fantastic meal.  While we ate, Pastor Bailey talked to Drew and I about South Africa and the politics that were involved.  It was an informative conversation and one that I was glad to have.  After lunch, we thanked the people and headed back to the cars.  We headed back to the room with full stomachs and a nap on the mind. 

Evening:

Before we headed in, I finally did something that I had been meaning to do since I got here.  That was take pictures of the place, which they will be posted eventually.  Drew and I then laid down to take a short nap.  But, in true Brandon Fry style (yes you just made my blog), we woke up two and half hours later.  So much for sleeping tonight...  Anyway I lay in bed for a while, while Drew went to go see if he could get an internet connection.   And low and behold he did.  We finally are able to get connected without having to go to the office.  So I spent the evening updating my blog, checking emails, and then facebook.  Once that was done I decided it was movie time, so I watched the” A-Team.”  This, by the way, has a South African actor in it.  Didn’t know that did ya?  Well it is getting late and so I think I am going to call it a night.  Tomorrow we are headed to the office finally get started doing things.  The only problem is that it is an 8:00am day so things must happen early.  So this is Ryan Dillon signing off.

June 18th 2011

Day 3:

Well I forgot to blog last night before I went to bed so I am going to do it today.  So, yesterday was a very uneventful day.  Drew and I were still knocking off some jet lag, so we just did pretty much nothing the entire day.  I must say it was nice to just have a lazy day.  I know that in the next few weeks we are going to be working hard and going strong, so some rest before that was very welcome.  Anyway the day started for me at eleven.  Yes you heard it right, eleven.  In fact, I think I got eleven hours of sleep that night.  How about that for awesome?  After I got up, I took a nice shower and curled up in the sunlight to read a book that I had been neglecting.  We were going to head down to coast with Hein, but the fact that I got up so late and that Drew was nowhere to be found when Hein called; we decided to just chill for the day.  As I said I began reading.  Well I didn’t stop reading until it was almost time to go to Hein’s and eat dinner.  It is a, or was a great book.  I read a little bit before yesterday so I started on page 78 and finished on page 360.  Not too bad if I do say so myself.

Heading to Hein’s:

 Anyway we had to go to the “Spur” before we headed to Hein’s so we could get stuff to drink.  I, being the healthy person I am, got a two liter Pepsi and felt no shame about it.  After we got our drinks, we headed to Hein’s.  The drive over there was really cool.  It took us through the rolling hills next to Stellenbosch.  Hein’s is located in a security community outside of town.  A security community is what we would call a gated community in the states, except that there are guards at the gate letting people in and out.  So we headed to the gate and told the guy who and where we were going to go.  However, one thing Hein forgot to mention was that we would have to play twenty questions with the guy.  I mean he drilled me on who, what, where, when and why.  Then he asked for a contact number and the phone that Hein gave me is not exactly the latest piece of technology.  So it took me a bit to try and figure out how to find A number so that I could give it to the guy.  All the while he is railing on me about not being able to figure out the phone.  I figured that since he began talking about me trying to give it out to a lady, that he was kidding.  Once that ordeal was over, we made our way to the house.  Now the gated community that Hein lives in is not your average one back in the states.  Usually with those you have a sense of direction and order, not here.  There were roads going everywhere.  We had no clue what road to take.  All we knew was that it started with a “Hu” that was it.  People in South Africa speak English, but they speak with such and accent sometimes that it is hard to understand.  This was one of those times.  We know that Hein had given us more directions, but we couldn’t get them.  So we guessed, guessed and we guessed wrong.  We went up one street and down another.  We went through wide streets and we went through narrow streets. We went through streets that were continuous and ones that had dead ends.  Those were the interesting ones.  You know dead ends in the US have lots of space to kind of turnaround in.  These did not.  They were just slightly larger than the car, which I took pictures of finally but that is for a later time.  So after driving for probably 15-20 minutes, we headed back towards the gate so that we could take a different road.  You see from the main road there were two other roads to turn down.  We went left, this time we would go right.  At that time I was getting a little bit frustrated and told Drew to call Hein.  Drew called and right when Hein answered, we found the road.  You have got to love it when that happens.  So we made our way to Hein’s house.  Now I forgot to bring the camera, but hopefully we will get to go back.

Hein’s House:

Anyway from the outside, the house looks small.  However, when you get in the house it is a fairly moderately sized place with very nice furniture.  We walked in and were motioned towards the couch were the first Rugby game was already playing.  The game was between the Bulls and the Sharks.  At about that time Hein’s wife, Elsaid, came in (I’m not sure how to spell her name, but I can pronounce it).  We greeted her, and she set about preparing dinner.  One thing that I have learned about South Africa is that there are no heaters.  Hein’s was no different.  It was pretty chilly in the house.  Anyway, moving on.  The meal was great.  We had “chops” which I figure were lamb chops, grits, this good dipping sauce that went on the grits, a dark sausage (no clue what meat was in there), a hot link type sausage with cheese in it, and a small salad.  It was definitely the best meal we have had in SA so far.  So about half way through the meal we hear a knock at the door, and Hein’s son and one of his friends come bursting through.  Hein has two sons one named Josh who is six and one named Jaden who is one and a half.  So those two come running in, we introduce ourselves, and they scamper off.  After dinner they come back down.  Drew made the mistake of being done first and putting his plate away.  So without any provocation, the two commence to jump on him and they wrestle around. That lasted for about ten minutes or so and then they got bored and ran off.  About that time the second Rugby game started.  This one was between the Cheetahs and the Stormers.  Hein said that the Cheetahs came from the Free State and were known for their quick attacks and small size.  I am not sure what the Free State is yet, but I will probably look into that one of these days.  So that game started at about seven o’clock and at around 9:30 it ended.  During that time we honestly didn’t spend a whole lot of time watching the game.  We were too busy paying attention to Hein’s youngest and playing with him.  He reminded me of my cousins when they were young and innocent.  That was a joke by the way for the family that would be reading this.  Anyway we left Hein’s and headed back to the room.  It was very nice out with no clouds in the sky.  The cool thing was the moon just clearing the mountains to the north east.  It was a pretty sight indeed.  When we made it back to the house I finished my book and went to bed.  Finishing the book was why I didn’t blog last night.  So that was the day.  Like I said, I didn’t get pictures but I’m getting better.  Well until next time. This is Ryan signing off.

June 17th 2011

Day Two:

Well day two has come and past.  We started this morning a little bit earlier than expected.  Hein said that he wanted to have us come to a personnel meeting at 8:00am this morning.  That was a little bit earlier than we expected to be up; however, we set the alarms for 7:00 since we were not sure where we were going.  7 o’clock rolled around and the snooze button was pressed.  7:15, and again the button was pressed.  Finally 7:20 rolled around and we got up and got ready to go.  We were pulling out of the driveway at 7:35am.  Not too bad for still being jet lagged.  Well so I thought.  We started down the road and both asked each other the same question, “Do you remember how to get there?”  And the answer was universally “No.”  Well that meant one thing, we were going to have to try and find it on our own.  So we started driving.  We drove in the direction, on the road that we thought was correct.  This took us through the heart of town at rush hour.  Talk about a wakeup call.  Two minutes of that and I was wide awake.  After driving down the main road for probably twenty kilometers, we finally turned around.  The drive took us through some of the wine country. It was beautiful.  There was a fog up the mountains and in the valleys which covered everything in a serene ambiance.  It was amazing.  It helped take my mind off of the fact that we were lost and most likely going to be late.  I wish I had taken pictures.  However, I am learning that being the one to drive has its draw backs.  The first of which is that my picture taking is non-existent.  Anyway, after we turned around we made our way back to Stellenbosch on the road that we thought was correct.  Again we were wrong.   We drove through more wine country and through several sharp turns, and started heading up the mountain.  Well I know that this wasn’t right.  Hein never said anything about a mountain.  So on a steep incline, with a turn really close by I shifted into reverse and prayed that we wouldn’t get hit.  Luck was on our side and we made it back to Stellenbosch safely.  Well at that time, I had had enough stumbling around in the dark.  So we went back to the bed and breakfast and asked for directions.  To our delight/dismay the SCAS office was not very far away.   Also the directions could not have been simpler.  So we jumped in the car and headed out towards our destination.  Third time is the charm.  After driving three kilometers through more wine country, again very beautiful and in the shadow of the mountains was a very amazing sight, we made it to our destination.  One problem, the turn off is not labeled like I expected it to be.  I guess I was looking for a giant billboard with neon light.  Well there was none and so I missed the turn off.  Once again I did the impossible and whipped that little car around to head back the other way.  Driving in Crawford has helped me in these endeavors.  I mean back home I use side streets at turn a rounds all the time, that was good practice for South Africa.  Well we finally got to the SCAS office almost a full hour after we meant to.  What can we say; we like to be fashionably late.

SCAS:

At the personnel meeting we met the staff.  Of course Hein was there, but we also met Mariska, Marta, Yan(I may be wrong about his name), and Daniel (Daniel is from Texas, small world huh?).  We also met two other of the staff but they working and we weren’t really able to get their names fully.  So after the personnel meeting we finally got to get some internet time, hence why I got a blog post up.  We then left SCAS following Daniel to the place where we were going to meet Hein for lunch.  I must say that it is nice following someone around an unfamiliar location, especially on the other side of the road.  We then headed back to the room, and I grabbed a short nap before lunch. 

Lunch and Our Tour:

After the nap we headed to a nice little strip mall shopping center for lunch.  We also got chargers for out electronic devices; thank the Lord for I would not be able to blog without it.  After lunch Hein jumped in our car and we headed around Stellenbosch for the tour.  It was pretty cool.  The purpose was to help us to know where we are going, but I don’t think it helped me that much.  I am still concentrating on staying on the right side of the road and driving the standard.  It is a lot of work.  Hopefully Drew has picked up most of it and can be our navigator.  After the grand tour, we headed back to the bed and breakfast to chill for the rest of the day.  I’m not going to lie after being jet lagged and worn out, a lazy day was very nice.  Tomorrow we are going to head to the beach and see the sights there.  Then it is BBQ and Rugby time!!! But first, we sleep.  This is Ryan Dillon signing off.

June 16th 2011

Arrival:

Well we are here.  After two flights and a seven hour lay over we have made it.  I got up this morning at about 6:30am (11:30pm your time) and looked out the window of the plane to an awe inspiring sight.  To the east, the sky was a bright orange with dark blue clouds siloheting the horizin.  To the west you could see a mixture of orange and pink clouds above us, and dark blue below.  I was bueatiful and a testimate to God's creation.  At about 7:45am we started out approach into Cape Town International.  We decinded into the sea of gray and broke through to another amazing sight.  The area had just had a fairly large rain storm come though and the remnants of the of that were outlining the city.  We flew in from the north going over the city and turning around over the ocean.  A couple of minutes later we were on our final approach and finally touching down in Cape Town.  Oh it was such a good feeling to finally be at our desination.  We got off the plane and headed for customs.  Drew had decided that he was going to not get his arrival form, so before we got in line to go through we contemplated on whether or not he would make it in the country.  Well luckly he did and so we proceeded to get our bags.  That in itself took about an hour.  I don't know what was going on out on the tarmack, but it seemed like we waited forever to get the bags.  I mean, I didn't expect that my gbag would be the last one off the plane.  Oh well it's not like we had something to do at 10 o'clock, which we did but more on that in a second.  After getting our bags we made our way to the airport arrival terminal.  Standing there behind the waiting line was a gloryous sight.  Hein Renekye, the head honcho for SCAS( Sports for Christian Action in South Africa), was there to greet us as we arrived.  Drew and I shook hands with Hein and we made our way to start the next adventure.... driving.  We met the guy who was there to show me to the car, and had a little bit of fun finding out that we had to pay him a deposite in cash up front instead of paying with a card as planned.  So we headed back to into the terminal to get cash.  I withdrew half of the amount, and Drew did the same for the other half or so we thought.  We went back out and paid the man.  Hein put down his contact number since we don't have phones yet.  Once that was all stored away we went back into the airport, because the church that we were supposed to be working with wasn't sure the were going to proceed with the activities since it had been raining.  Well sit down and just start to talk to Hein about things to do, what we need to do, and life in general.  Hein the gets a phone call from th rental guy.  In Drew and I's lack of sleep, we had shorted the guy on our deposit.  So off we were again to get more money.  Once that was taken care of we finally got a call form the church.  They had decided to cancel their Youth Day.  I am not going to lie, I was a little bit happy.  My body was so worn out that I just needed a break.  I mean 8 hours of sleep within the last 48 will do that to you.  So Hein decided that he would show us the market and then take us to the place that we would be staying.  The time had come... to drive.

The Drive:

Well I wish I ould tell you that I was a natural born stick shift driver, I am not.  Getting out of the airport parking garage was a bit of a hastle.  I think that I stalled out about five times before getting out of the building.  Oh it was murder.  I mean Hein had told us to wait on the side of the road outside of the airport because he was parked a level above us and would take longer to get out.  Or so he thought I, however, knew better.  Once out of the airport and on the road, things went a little smoother.  I mean if I can get started, driving standard is a paice of cake.  It is just the getting started part.  We drove several kilometers away to town of Stellenbosch.  This is were we would be staying and were SCAS is located.  I wish I could say that I looked at the sceenery as we drove, but I didn't.  I was totally concetrated on the road.  I even, politely, had to tell Drew to quite talking to me because I didn't want to be distracted.  I mean I am in a different country, on the other side of the road, driving on the other side of the car, and shifting with my left hand; I think that I get a little bit of a pass on this one.  All though, Drew did say that the veiws were very pretty and I think he got some of them.  So we finally got into Stellenbosch and to the market.  I got out of the car and my heart was racing.  I'm not going to lie and say that I wasn't a nervous wreck.  My adrenalin was pumping.  Hein said that we should walk around the market and go ahead and get a couple of things to eat.  We then went and walked around the main street of Stellenbosch.  It reminded me a lot of a small town In Colorado.  There were little suvanier shops lining the streets with cafes on each side.  The was around about in the middle of the town and an old church that was founded with the city at one end.  I didn't get pictures, but I think that I will have the oppurtunity at some point.  After about 15-20 minutes of walking around, Drew and decided that we were probably done sight seeing.  So we met back up with Hein and headed to the house.  The good thing is that I only stalled out twice in that parking lot, I think I am getting better at this standard thing.

The House:

We got to the bed and breakfast which was about a 5 minute drive from the main part of town.  I stalled pulling in to the place at wich point Hein and Drew laughed, I didn't.  I mean the parking spot is a drive way that has a pretty steep incline to it.  We were lucky to get out of there alive, ok not really but I needed some dramatic effect.  We then met Johan who owns the bed and breakfast.  Johan is a tall fellow.  I mean think Dirk but with less hair.  Ok maybe a little shorter than Dirk.  Anyway he showed us to our room and gave us a key.   The room we are in is a very nice place.  It is a lot like a hotel room with a kitchen and microwave.  There is also a pool!!! however, since it is winter time I don't think that I will go swimming.  I did bring my trunks though  so we will see.  We got into the room and Hein said that he would meet us for dinner here and show us where to go for cheap dinners.  He also said that if you are going to take a nap, only take about a 2 hour one.  Of course I said, how hard could that be?  Just in case I set me alarm for 2:30.  Well 2:30 rolled around, my alram went off, then the alarm went off and Ryan was still in bed.  While I didn't sleep the whole time I laid in that nice comfy bed until about 5:30.  So much for getting on a good schedule.  Luckly I'm still worn out from the trip so sleep will be no problem.  Anyway Hein knocked on our door and we were off to dinner.

Dinner:

Well the good thing about this trip is that I didn't stall.  However, the street before we got to where we were eating, I reverted back to US driving and was on the wrong side.  Luckly nobody was coming so we were able to avert any catastrophe.  What can I say, I like to live life on the edge.  Well we get to where we are eating and I come to find out that it is basically the cafeteria for the universtiy there.  So, for my ACU readers, thnk of the Bean except it has three levels. On the bottom level is where you get your food.  The second level has a bunch of shops, so like the Campus store and a couple of other places.  The second floor also has a couple of ATMs and tiny banks.  The third level is where the university administrrators have their offices.  So think of were Dr. Schueb is adn you would have a good idea.  We didn't go up there.  Hein said that his wife had made dinner plans for them and so he had to go do that, but would meet us at the SCAS office a 8:00am.  So he left and Drew and I had dinner.  IT was actually really good, we had broccoli and cheese, rice, and chicken livers.  So I have never had chicken livers before but they were really good.  We finished dinner and started the journey back home.  We only had one problem... we didn't remember how to get back.  Hien was gone, and didn't have the prepay phones that he was going give us so we couldn't call him.  Well that meant it was time to break out the handy, dandy GPS.  Only problem is that a GPS needs a point of origin and a destination to get you someplace.  Well we had a point or origin but no destination.  So we started driving and me in my frustration, tiredness, and lack of knowledge where we were going, I reverted back to US drving.  Well this time it almost cost us.  I looked left instead of right, and was almost T-boned by oncoming traffic.  Well we got to going on the road, hopeing that we would be able to find the place.  I mean Stellenbosch is only the size of like Robinson (moderatly size town for those that dont know, think about 5000-10000 people).  So we drove.  We drove this way and we droe that way.  We drove past nice houses, ok houses, and no houses.  Finally after about 30 minutes of driving we made it back.  Oh the bed never looked so sweet.  Drew and I will be hitting the sack soon so we can be ready to be up at 8:00am.  We are meeting Hein at SCAS so that we can meet the staff of do a couple of other things.  Then it is off to get a feel for the town.  I am going to try to blog about it, but don't know yet.  I will take pictures this time though :P.  Well this is Ryan Dillon signing off.

T-minus 1 week...

Well here I am one week away from heading to Dallas.  I have already started packing and will continue to prepare off and on though out the week.  I will say I am starting to feel a little bit antsy about the trip.  I mean I have been excited for weeks, but this is the first time I have begun to feel a little bit nervous.  Oh well... I know that great things are in store for Drew and I, and that is what is helping me through.  Well that is really all I have to say right now.  I'm just trying to get in the habit of blogging so I will do it while in South Africa.  Well until next time.

Blessing
Ryan