Last, but not least!

A week of adventure and understanding!

Community stays. During this DTS we had a week of staying with a partner in one of the communities that we’ve been working in throughout the schooling. This week was a total out of your comfort zone week and just learning how South Africans go about their daily lives and what struggles they face. The typical day of a South African women is:

1: waking up around 4 or 5 to start their day.

2: Bathe in a small bucket of water, of which they have to fetch almost all the time and sometimes it’s a fairly far walk to get it. While walking home they balance the water on their head.

3: cooking for the children before they have to head off to school by 6 or 6:15. Most kids walk to school and have to leave fairly early to make it on time. There are school uniforms for almost every school as well.

4: spend most of the day cleaning/ shining floors/ cooking/ work around the yard/house. The floor is swept 3-4 times a day or more and work.

5: At 8pm all of South Africa that has a tv stops to watch a show called “Generations”, which is a soap opera or they call it a “soapy”. And then more tv and it’s off to take another bath and go to bed.

During this stay I stayed with Rebekah in Kabokweni along with five other of our students. We all had very unique stays with fun, struggles, and adventure. Rebekah and I actually got to stay in three different house because of some complications with our first home. Our first home was completely gorgeous. We lived up in the bushes away from everyone in a small family almost village like area. In our family there were 7 kids and three adults, a grandpa, a gogo (grandma) and an older daughter. Of the 10 people living in this home one of the adults and three of the children knew English, but were too shy to speak. Most of the night that we stayed with them was talking about how there are blacks that live in the states, they were speechless to know that, what America is like and then sitting on the couch listening to everyone else speak their own language. Later that night Rebekah and I had our first experience of bathing in the community, which consists of about three inches of hot water in a small bucket. Very interesting. We went and visited a neighbor and on the way back realized that some of our next door neighbors consisted of 6-7 males living there by their selves. They were yelling something to the gogo and the daughter in their language. You can only assume so much of what is being said when you’re a white young girl and don’t know the other language. We kind of shrugged it off, but not when it came to sleeping. The family went to bed around 8pm. They stayed in a house down the hill and in Rebekah and my house stayed the children sleeping on the ground in one part and Rebekah and I sleeping in the other room on a bad with a machete knife under the couch to keep safe with. It honestly was a very difficult night for both Rebekah and I. Neither or us fell asleep till 5am and then we were apparently suppose to be up at 5:30am to make breakfast, but since few spoke English that was never communicated to us. We woke up at 6 with all the kids sitting there staring at us with only enough time to make them sandwiches for lunch. After that we left to Elizabeth’s house(a lady that runs a care center/feeding program most days of the week.) to do our feedings for the day. Rebekah and I didn’t stay at the first families home after that due to safety.

Our next home was a family of 8. There were four boys, one dad, one mom, and two daughters. During this stay the father talked to us a lot about America and once again was surprised to know that blacks live in America as well. During this stay I helped one of the daughters dig in the yard and got laughed at because you never see whites working like that, it also happened later when Rebekah and I were grilling chicken; men normally cook the meat. Every night we sat down to watch their famous soap opera that all of South Africa stops to watch. It was pretty interesting, but I guess it’s a lot like America’s soap operas. Towards the end of the week the father was talking to Rebekah and I telling us how proud of his family he was and how they had money. It was nice to hear how proud of his family he was, but a little weird how far he went with it. Soon he told Rebekah and I that we must stay and marry one of his sons and they would take care of us because he had money. We laughed about it for a while but then tried switching the conversation because he kept telling us we must.

Our community stays came to an end and it was honestly sad leaving the families and Elizabeth’s, but the amazing this is how excited we were to get back to the base and see everyone that we hadn’t seen all week. I’ve never seen any of our students and staff so excited to see each other.

Last few days in South Africa:

We leave in the morning for ZAMBIA!!! It’s insane, but I’m super excited. Our team has had some great bonding experiences in the last week or so. Saturday we climbed up Mt. Legogote and had a wonderful time. We started at 5:40 in the morning and didn’t get back to the house until 10:30 in the morning. We’re all pretty tired and sore, but are loving packing and getting ready for the great adventure that we’re about to embark on. We won’t have much internet, which isn’t a big shock for us anyways because internet has been out on base for the past month, but the things God has in store for us there I’m sure we’ll keep us busier than we think. There isn’t much update in what we’re doing in Zambia or Johannesburg since I last wrote about it except for our house is on the water front and we can go swimming 15 minutes away. Girls are not allowed to leave the house without a skirt on that covers your knees, because in Zambia knees are considered a women’s second breasts. Interesting….!

Thank you all for keeping up with my blog and I can’t wait to share all the stories I didn’t put up when I come home! Thank you for those who have supported me and who are still supporting me. This trip has been a life changing trip so far and I can’t wait to see what else is in store for me.

Love,

Breanna

p.s. I would just like to mention a little prayer request. A woman that is very dear to me previously had breast cancer and they thought they had gotten rid of it, but it seems that the cancer has come back. Please lift her up in your prayers.