Westford Suites Hotel Sandton

The knock on my door came early today. We have all been talking about how much harder it is to retain our composure because we are all so invested in our projects. We all want to do our best. There are incalculable needs. There is a significant urgency. So, bleary eyed and broken hearted I grab some instant coffee and prepared to join the group.

We are nearly halfway through our time here, and we are starting to see some of the fruits of our labors ...

I survived the 12 hour flight! Left Perth late but got into J'berg early and then had another 5 hour wait.











Last 3 or is it a 4 hour leg to get north to Nairobi. Airbus319 was only 3/4 full and that was great because .... the captain took us on a magic carpet ride by turning right and flying past Mt Kilimanjaro 5895 m. Tallest mountain in ...

... lifeless 13 year old boy being carried by another boy while his sister waled in anguish was used as a battle cry against the oppressive white government and eventually lead to the overthrow of the apartheid society, led by Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu.These men lived on the same street and both became Noble ...

... So far Zulu has been pretty fun, mostly because we laugh at each other so much. The hardest part is that c, q, and x are all clicks in Zulu- and they are different types of click sounds. A lot of common words have clicks in them too, so it is not something you can just try to avoid (for example to word "no"). The next day we drove from Jo'burg to Durban and got to see ...

... just had Room Service bring us ice cream sundaes and vegetarian spring rolls? Ah... hard to believe a few hours ago we were cramped up on a long plane ride and now were were in fresh sheets with food, ice cream and Airplane! Today was planned to be our "do absolutely nothing" day and that's exactly what we plan on doing. Alyssa is still sleeping at Noon and I'm playing around on the computer. This day of rest should get us ready for the adventures about to come!

... will need to quickly remedy this situation. The 2010 World Cup provides an excellent opportunity for this, and it will be very interesting to see how the world perceives the African Nation during and after this tremendous event. The finals are scheduled to be played in a new stadium being constructed among the shanties and low income housing of Soweto. Latly, the remnants of Apartheid are slowly but surely working their way ...

... had lunch in a local restaurant and, wouldn't you know it, ran into another Canadian. Small world. Shadrack also took us over to the Constitutional Court which has become an important landmark symbolizing South Africa's new era of democracy and human rights. It's a beautifully designed building on the grounds of a former notorious prison which had some high profile ...

A long day on the truck. We stopped at a roadside cafe called Ronnie's Sex Shop. Michelle told us the story behind the name. It seems that Ronnie opened this café more or less in the middle of nowhere and called it Ronnie's Shop. One night his buddies came along and painted Sex on the sign and it became Ronnie's Sex Shop and soon was a famous stopping place on the ...

... over for dinner Thursday evening and we had a great time talking about South Africa and the future of the Church here. This is early Friday morning and Bill will take us to the airport as we continue on to Malawi. Not sure what our Internet connectivity will be, but keep checking back with the blog. We will be logging our daily experiences and will upload them as we get to the Internet locations. We are excited about being with the Churches in Africa again.

... bought the safari we decided that we need some extra clothes for the trip, along with a pair of sandals. We bought all the stuff within 20 minutes in a shopping mall, and once again everything was dirt-cheap. When we came back to the house we had a "braai", this is the South African equivalent of a barbecue. We had steaks, a type of SA sausage... I didn't ask where it came from, for my own safety. And we drank beer. A good night was had by all.