Battlefield's tour weekend!

So Friday morning we all woke up at the crack of dawn (6 am) and scarfed down some breakfast and carried our overnight bags to the gigantic coach bus that would be our comfortable ride for the next two days. An interesting fact about the coach bus we were riding in is that it is going to be the same exact bus that the Brazil soccer team will be using when they come here for the World Cup this summer! I though that was pretty cool. Those soccer players get to sit on the same seats that our butts touched! How lucky for them!! haha Anyways, We were starting our battlefield's tour and were driving for about 5 hours away to visit different battle sites and listen to Tony. Tony was our elderly but very intelligent speaker for the weekend and he was so enthusiastic about the history of these battles! He is a very wise guy and did not take any crap from us this weekend, including yawning. Which was difficult considering that we just finished an intense week of finals and we were supposed to gather enough energy to be motivated to listen to a bunch of history.
So there were a few incidences where Tony freaked out and snapped at students in our group for yawning. I found it sort of funny but after a while we all were resenting his crankyness more and more. But I tried telling myself that he is just an old man, it is hot outside, and he just wants us to be so pumped about what he is talking about. But it just wasn't happening... haha.
Now many of you who know me, know that I am not a history learning kind of gal. So this weekend was just beyond exciting for me ;). But besides the history aspect of the weekend, a highlight was definitely our stay at this adorable inn! In was in the town of Dundee and we each paired with one other person! I was paired with this very sweet girl named Rachel!
For dinner, we had such a delicious meal! We ate lasagna, pork, rice, potatoes, and really good veggies! It was like a 3 course meal. And after dinner, a bunch of us attended a get together that enabled anyone to ask questions to Regg and here his insightful opinions about anything and everything! It was interesting to hear a lot of what he has to say because he knows so much but is so humble about it, too! So then the next day we had two other battle sites to visit, and trust me, many of us were counting down these sites.... I was very anxious for the bus ride back cause I just wanted to sleep!
So when we got back, it was such a homey welcome! I had felt so lazy the past two days because we literally were sitting down the entire time! Besides a few walks to wherever the battles took place, I felt like a blob. So a bunch of us (within 10 minutes of our arrival at AE) decided to work out to Jillian Michaels! Now let me tell you, Jillian has become a favorite amongst many of us here! It is a quick but VERY EFFICIENT 20-minute video which works on toning the arms, legs, abs, and works on aspects of strength, cardio, and core! hah! Many of us love to do this! And then I believe I was so exhausted from the weekend that I crashed pretty early Saturday night! This picture below is my friend, Daniele and I at the Blood river Battlefield!!

Giraffes and Rhinos and Poombas OH MY!

So finals ended for me this Wednesday, so come Thursday, I had a free day and spontaneously a small group of us decided to go to a game reserve today! It was called Weenen's Game Reserve and it was AMAZING!! We saw so many cool animals like Rhinos, Giraffes, these antelope things with really cool twisty horns, zebras, ostrich and poombas aka wild pigs! It was so much fun!! Our driver, Phillip who is from South Africa, was such a trooper and drove us both ways (2 hours each) and was so patient with us American tourists who had never seen such animals in our life except on the discovery channel! haha! We spent the whole afternoon taking pictures and just soaking in all of what we were seeing. We also cranked up the jams in the Bus when we were driving through the reserve and broke out dancing with the door of our bus open! HAHA I laugh just thinking about it. I think I can speak for everyone when I say we were experiencing an "African High" and were definitely showing it!

It was so refreshing to be in a small group also because it allowed me to have some very deep conversations with people and hear some of their testimonies and how each of us ended up in South Africa! I love getting to know people in this way. I had one conversation with my friend, Rob, who both him and I agreed that being here has really showed us a new appreciation and desire to grow deeper than just surface level with people. By understanding the way we each grew up and how or if we are stilly trying to find out who this God is and what He is capable of is really exciting. I find I am able to discover new realizations when I have these conversations with others!! So that was definitely a highlight of my already splendid day.

After we were fully satisfied with our exotic views for the day, we all were VERY hungry and so we let "Baba Phillip", which means Papa Phillip (That's what we call him :D) choose his favorite restaurant to eat at and that we would treat him to because he was so nice to spend his day driving us to and throughout the reserve. So he chose this meat restaurant called, "The Butch Shop"... lol.. And I was skeptical at first cause usually all the meat here is NASTY!, but I gave it a go anyways and ordered the best hamburger I have had in my life!! And as if the night couldn't get any better, it was ladies night so we got half off! Dinner was such a treat and throughout the whole dinner we all ended up dying in laugh attacks...I kidd you not. Thank God no one else was in the restaurant or they would have thrown something at us we were being so loud! Anyhow, I really enjoyed being with the company I had all day today and this has probably got to be one of my favorite days ever since being here!! I cannot believe that we are living in the "Lion King!!"



(The Giraffes were so beautiful and graceful!! One of my new favorite animals EVER!!) We got out of the bus (Even though we were advised not to because of the Black Rhino... Apparently they are more dangerous than buffalo because when they feel threatened they charge not once, but repeatedly at their target. So since they were in the game reserve, leaving the vehicle was at your own risk! But hey, TIA! ;) ) And we could not bypass looking at these animals through a tiny bus window now could we?? But we would ask for Phillip's advice and we knew that if he thought it wasn't safe we would not get out. (I added that part for all the parents reading this HA) Well this was how I celebrated being finished with two of my classes! I love and miss you all!! Tomorrow morning we leave early for a history/battlefield's tour which will inform us all about the history of Africa! I should be pretty interesting! So until then, mucho amor and take care everyone!!
love, Jamie

Karkloof Canopy Tours!!

Today was such a fun day! We went zip-lining with Karkloof Canopy Tours! It was about an hour drive from Pietermaritzburg and we split the 53 of us into two groups. The first group left at 6:45 am and the second group left at 9:30 am this morning. I chose the second group for sure! haha...

We all got harnessed up and then we loaded up into the back of this pick-up truck and drove for about 11 minutes on a very bumpy road until we were deep into the forest. Then we all hopped out and hiked up to our first platform. This was a little different from the last time I went zip-lining because we were in charge of our "brakes." That was the only part I was a little nervous about! We all wore super intense, gross smelling, re-used gloves that were a huge necessity for the whole tour. But it was very easy to catch on with after the first time. I believe there were about 4 different platforms that we zip-lined too! It took us a couple of hours to finish the whole coarse.

Our leaders were very nice and funny! Each group had a photographer who was always snapping pictures of us. I must say, however, that many of the pictures were not attractive because our facial expressions were hilarious and looked a little worried or uneasy at times! But it was more of an adrenaline rush than it was scary! It got a few of us talking about how excited and anxious we were for bungee-jumping later in the semester. Zip-lining is just taking baby steps toward our goal of jumping off a bridge and falling 215 meters and a free fall of 9 seconds! So today was some good practice and preparation for that day to come : )
All in all, today was one of my favorite outings that we have done yet! It was fun to laugh and share this whole day with a great group of people and be so adventurous! It was so beautiful all around us... so much green and the view was amazing from how high we were! God blessed us with a wonderful Saturday! P.S. Happy Birthday Mom!!

Fieldtrip to see Drakensburg choir boys and weekend plans!

(Above: Jessica, Becca, me, and Carisa enjoying the show)

On Wednesday afternoon, we all went on a field trip to see the Drakensburg choir boys sing! Haha. It it was such a good concert! It was definitely a cultural experience. They are a very well-known group of young boys that range from about 6-15 years old. It was so adorable! They had the cutest outfits! They wore these nice suits with a white bib around it that frilled out. haha. They have so much talent and sang very beautifully. My favorite song that they sang was, "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. MJ is definitely a favorite amongst the people of South Africa!

Here is a clip of "Man in the Mirror" :




Today (which is Thursday), was my day off! I love days like this, but the only thing that was not exciting about it was the fact that I had two huge papers to write! But none the less, I was fortunate to have the drive to be productive today. I finished my 12 page Life and Teachings of Jesus paper and got over halfway on my 7-page Intercultural Communication paper! It feels so good! For a portion of the day, some new friends, Bianca, Nicole, and I went to Coffee berry to work on homework. This is a common event that many of us students like to partake in because it is refreshing to get off campus a bit and study elsewhere. Whenever we have the opportunity to get off campus, it is nice because sometimes you get the, "I am stuck in this place" feeling and cannot leave because we can't drive here! Not that we would want to because it would be so dang confusing being on the opposite side of the road! It is so crazy that they drive on the opposite side... just very trippy!

And the cherry on top of my very productive day was that I got my 5 kg package from my mama! Yay! There are so many treats in there that I am excited to eat. It worked out perfect, too, because dinner was absolutely disgusting and so I happily skipped it and went right to my box! : )

Tonight there was a huge thunderstorm and the thunderstorms in Africa are like nothing I have heard before. And I am from the midwest, so I have witnessed some pretty intense storms! The thunder makes it sound like something is shattering!! I always look forward to them here!!

Tomorrow I have class for most of the day and then my Friday night will probably consist of working on my huge Art project that I have not started yet... oopsies. Lame I know... but I have no choice!! But then on Saturday!.... We are Zip-lining (Canopy Tour) and I am so excited! I have gone once before when I was in Jamaica a long time ago, but I am so pumped to go again in Africa!

Alright, ta ta for now everyone! Miss you all and hope you all have a great day!! :]
love, Jamie

Here is a clip of them doing a dance portion of their concert!

Ethembeni: "Places of hope"

Today we found out where each of us will be for service sites! We visited each site once over the past three weeks to see where we felt that God was calling us to serve. There were a limited amount of people that were able to serve at each site so we all picked our top two choices.

I chose Ethembeni, which means,"places of hope," as my first choice and I found out today that it is my service site! I am so excited! It seems that everyone is very happy where they are at, which makes it so great! I just know that God had this all planned out and that we all are meant to be serving at the places we are assigned to. Ethembeni is an HIV/AIDS ministry that has a few different programs within its ministry. One way that the ministry serves the community is by helping to restore and mentor the community by providing help with family care and support for orphans and vulnerable children. The community that we will be serving in has a population of 43,000 and 80% of the population is unemployed, and more than a third of the people are infected with HIV. Saying that last fact is surreal, and it is hard for me to grasp the truth and reality in that statement. I cannot imagine living in a place like this but I am thankful for the opportunity to serve and love on this community.


(Above: I know it is small text, but Howick Community is right above Pietermaritzburg)

Please pray for our group of seven who will be serving at Ethembeni and to prepare our hearts to serve. I pray that we will be able to work as a team and spread the Love of Christ and that we are able to show them a light where there is darkness. I pray for strength, open minds, humility, empathy, and an overflow of love at Ethembeni. Please pray for all 53 students at different service sites, as well, and that God's hand will be working everywhere as we are dispersed throughout this region in South Africa. We will be starting out service sites in about 2 or 2 1/2 weeks!

I found this quote to be very encouraging to serve and love one another:

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other." -John 15:12-17

This is the website to the ministry at Ethembeni! Check it out, it is very cool: http://www.ethembeni.co.za/

Thanks!! I love you all!! :)
<3 Jamie

Talk about a CRAZZY WEEK!

(Ugly giant monkey above! So thankful these creatures are not lurking around on our campus! The tiny ones we have are a big enough pain! haha)

(Above: Climbing a giant rock during our hike in Drakensburg!!)

Wow so it has been a while since my last entry but that is because I have been SO busy! Goodness gracious we have had loads of schoolwork these past two weeks and it is nearing finals so it has just been intense. Many of us are very stressed out but I have realized that stressing about it won't really solve anything am I right? Yea, I thought so too. So I am surprisingly "chill" in this moment even though I have lots to do! But since I love to procrastinate, I thought i'd write a blog entry. So besides schoolwork, this past week we signed up for our top two choices for service sites! I am getting so excited and no matter where I am placed I am going to go out with a heart ready to serve. So once I find out where I will be, I will let you all know : )

Last Wednesday was Ladies' night at the Keg and Hedgehog Restaurant down the road! It is so fun to go with all the ladies because we get half off all the food! woop woop! So that is a tradition for many of us when Wednesday rolls around. Something quite interesting happened to me and my friends, Tanya and Amberly, the other night. We went on an evening walk after dinner through the game reserve. Now, this was like any other night, except for something very unexpected happened! THE ZEBRAS FREAKING CHASED US! I do not lie when I tell you this. I was about 20 feet in front of Ambo and Tanya and I saw the zebras in the distance.. but I thought nothing of it because we always see them in the reserve and they had never shown any sort of aggressiveness towards us. So as I get about 20 feet from the Zebra, The mama one (I think) looked at me in a really weird way. She seemed very aware that I was standing there and then the other three Zebras joined her in the death stare. Next thing I know, they all start walking towards me. I slowly started walking away... but as I did so, the Zebra pack picked up their pace and now were trotting faster at me. I started running back towards Ambo and Tanya and told them to run. They sort of looked at me like, "Why do we need to run" and I had terror on my face. When they too, saw the Zebras running at us, we all turned and ran so fast down the path! I honestly did not know whether to laugh or be scared for my life.. hahaha! I was in shock and when you are in shock like that, many different emotions come out! The rough thing was, all three of us were so exhausted because we ran up the steepest hills of our lives right before and we had lost a lot of energy. But if we wanted to get out of this situation in one piece, we had to pick up the pace! So I kid you now, we ran for 4 minutes straight, with them stampeding toward us. Finally we ran off onto a side trail hoping to lose them. And we looked behind us and they stopped at the very top of the trailhead and didn't move. We were free! But oh my gosh... It was so crazy you guys! I had never seen that kind of behavior from them. Definitely a crazy highlight of my week looking back on it!



On Saturday we went hiking in Drakensburg to see Cave paintings! It was so much fun. It was super hot and sunny out... so after we loaded up on sun screen and packed our lunch bags, we were on our way! The car ride there was about 2 hours so my friend Becca and I watched the show, "Friends" which I had never watched before and it was quite entertaining. Anyhoo, the hike was pretty easy and all around us was so BREATHTAKING! It actually reminded me a lot of the midwest. There were tons of green everywhere you looked! The clouds looked like fluffy marshmallows (almost fake-looking!) and there was this huge waterfall. The place we went hiking looked a ton like Montana. It made me a little home-sick to be honest, but I loved seeing it in a whole foreign place, too! After taking about a million pictures (no joke) and had thoroughly enjoyed our hike, we headed on home. It was a really fun day and just to be surrounded in all of God's beauty was so humbling.


(The beautiful green hills and fluffy clouds!!)


[Above: Carisa, Angie, and I on our hike posing for a picture!!)


(Above: Some of the cave paintings that were made in the 1800s!!)

It is Sunday today, and I decided to go to a different church this morning. It was definitely the ultimate cultural experience! Our group was definitely the minority...but I didn't even notice because I felt so comfortable with all the people in the congregation. We all were split up amongst the congregation and so I was sitting alone with South Africans I had never met before. They were so nice and welcoming! I pretty much got to know them well because when we worshipped, we all were jumpin up and down together and like bumping into each other. hahaha. It could of been awkward but it totally wasn't! I loved the worship so much and as soon as the first song came on, I almost forgot my surrounding because I was so into just praising the Lord! The whole atmosphere and energy of the place was SURREAL! Everyone was so pumped up and excited to be there and you could tell because they used their bodies to show their excitement in praising the lord. This made it all the more comfortable for me and it made me not even care what I looked like when I worshipped. It was just so "free-ing" in a sense and I loved the service. I am going to return to the same church next week and am already looking forward to it!

Alright, only two more weeks of school! It will fly by I have a feeling, so please pray for all of us with our studies and to kick it in gear these next two weeks. We'll need lots of energy, sleep, and focus to get through. : )

<3Love you all and God bless!!
Jamie Lee

Valentine's Day Weekend!

This weekend was so much fun! So on Saturday we spent the day at the Indian Ocean in downtown Durban. It was a beautiful, hot, and sunny day! We packed lunches and spent the day in the water and eating ice cream. It was so crowded at the beach. I don’t think I have ever seen a more crowded beach in my life. The swimming area was jam-packed as well because they only let us swim in a certain area. Theft is a big issue here so our group of 53 constantly had to be careful with all of our stuff laid across the sand. One person had some money stolen, which was a bummer, but it is definitely a reality check with not being so trusting of everyone.
I didn’t put on much sunscreen because I thought that I had enough of a base tan that I wouldn’t burn… but I was WRONG. I definitely frieddd! Haha (sorry mom). The sun is definitely way more intense here. At least it feels like it compared to California. Anyhoo, it was fun!



On Sunday (Valentines Day), I chose to go to a different church than the first week. I went to an Indian Church and it was awesome. It was in a small air-conditioned building with about 50 of us in the congregation (about 12 of us were from our group). I loved the entire service. Everyone was so welcoming and it was such an amazing feeling to be in this foreign place, while all of us worshipped the same God. It just sort of hit me when I was in there. It was an indescribable feeling to realize that we are all able to come together (complete strangers and different races) and have a common ground of loving God and worshipping Him. At the end of the service, a lot of the teenagers came up and introduced themselves, already inviting us to their youth group and really just reaching out to us. It was so welcoming and I am excited to return to it next Sunday.

Later that day, a few people from our group planned a VERY special Valentine’s dinner and movie night! It was a lovely night and it was fun to get dressed up and take pictures with everyone. I honesty did not think it was going to be as fun as it was but their was a candle-lit dinner with fettuccini Alfredo, salad, and watermelon! So delicious! We turned on some Latin music and many of us danced afterwards. It was just a feel-good night : ) After dinner and dancing, a bunch of us watched the movie, “50 first dates” and ate lots of popcorn. It was definitely the best Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had.

I am a little ancy to finish up these next three weeks of school because I am craving to get out into the community and work at our service sites. But I know I want to soak up every little thing about being here, so I am trying to enjoy all my classes and taking advantage of the information that I am learning. One aspect that I've enjoyed about my classes is that all the stuff we are learning, it relates somehow to the African culture which is so interesting to learn about. I have realized how much I am unaware of in terms of other countries. It makes me sad that I have had no knowledge of what this country has been through before this, but I am glad that I am able to learn now.

The highlight of my Monday so far has been laying out next to the waterfall for a few hours this morning. It was bearable to be in the sun because the waterfall gave off a light mist that cooled off your entire body. I had some great conversations with two awesome people while we sat and enjoyed this spot. I have found that I love having deep conversations. I think there is so much to learn from everyone, and that by sharing and opening up with each other that we are able to encourage and motivate each other that much more. So I thank God for that opportunity this morning to just enjoy laying next to the waterfall and talking with friends. Ok so I lied. I have another highlight of today. I went on a long walk with my friend, Amberly, and had a great opportunity to have another deep conversation with her. She is such a great encourager and really just pumped me up about God! I thank God for those conversations I had today. I hope you all are doing well and that great things are happening in all of your lives!!

A verse that I really enjoyed in church this past sunday:
"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps" -Proverbs 16:9
--> I really found comfort reading this because it is so true for me. I try to plan out the way I want my life to go. I go to college, pick the courses that I want to study in, choose the type of friends I want, etc. But it is God who really determines my journey. It is Him who chooses my path.
<3 Jamie