Day One (Wednesday). After spending the night at one of our student’s brother’s house, our team packed up our bags and headed to the airport in Atlanta, GA. We took off for South Africa around 8pm that night. None of our team had seats together, so we were spread out all over the plane. I ended up with a window seat and was able to sleep a majority of our 15 hour flight. When I wasn’t sleeping, I tried to pick a movie from their huge selection (but never could decide on one), ate the food they passed out, or read a book. The time passed quickly and before I knew it, we landed in Johannesburg!
Day Two (Thursday). We arrived in South Africa around 5pm their time with swollen feet and sleepy eyes. I got my first stamp in my passport and realized that for the first time I stand out in a crowd. After meeting the COJ staff in the airport, we took a lift (elevator) up to where our kombi (10 passenger van) was parked and drove in the left side of the rode to our home for the next seven weeks. We were greeted by some of the student leaders (Tebogo, Moratu, Beulah, KK, and Michelle for those of you who may know them!) from our campus who helped us unload and had dinner waiting for us. I was surprised at how nice our place was and was especially excited to find coffee and tea in every room.
Day Three (Friday). I was surprised that I slept all the way through the first night, because everyone told me that I would wake up around 3am. We loaded our team up and took our first excursion to the Apartheid Museum where we learned about a key part of South Africa’s history. I was particularly impacted by the devotion of men like Mandela to their cause to bring about change in their country. The COJ Campus Director, Jeff, taught us more about South African culture that afternoon and we got to tour the campus. We finished up that night with a braai with the student leaders. We all enjoyed spending time getting to know their team.
Day Four (Saturday). We spent Saturday morning watching our first South African soccer game between two of the residence halls and then learned more about the specific res’s where our students would be ministering in. Our girls will be spending time in Amper Daar, Skoonveld, and Benjemijm. As many of you know, the culture in these halls is much like our sororities and fraternities back in the states. Lauren and Lindsay will be in Amper Daar, Karen, Danielle and Ashley are in Benjemijm, and Lawton and Emily are in Skoonveld. I’ll get to spend time with our girls in all of the res’s while I’m here. In the afternoon, our team had a lot of fun playing soccer together. We finished our evening with dinner and a time of worship.
Day Five (Sunday). This day will be a Sabbath day for us each week and will give us a chance to rest in the midst of a fast paced schedule. We attended church at Sophiatown Community Church which was within walking distance of Koffifi, our house. Our guys played some more soccer with guys from the church while the girls watched and talked. I got to talk for a while with TK, one of the student leaders with COJ who lives in Skoonveld. I’ve had many friends get to know her on previous CCP teams so it was sweet to get to know her and hear about her life. Then we had our first grocery store experience at the Pic’N’Pay. I’m finding that I like the food here better than in the states!
We start ministry on the campus this week and we're all excited to get to know students here!
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