Well its Friday

And it has been nearly a week since I arrived in South Africa. And it has been quite the week, Saturday not much happened as John Cottier and myself arrived at about 6pm at our new African home. So we just ate some pizza and unpacked.

Our Flat

The Rest of the Compound

The View from our Porch (photo John Cottier)

Sunday we woke up and went directly to church then spent most of the rest of the day relaxing and getting some school work done.

Monday we decided to play some soccer with some South Africans and I was soundly whipped! I did however manage to get a terrific sunburn. My skin was used to sitting at home with the frequent blizzards and 500 ft elevation, not the tail end of summer with an elevation of 5750ft! We spent the rest of the day getting ahead on school work because on Tuesday we left for camp.

My Feet After Playing on the Muddy Grass

Me Lifeguarding at the Pool (photo John Cottier)

Camp was quite interesting. The 50 kids were all from the same Christian school and there was 6 people to run everything except for the cooking. So as a result we found ourselves both counseling, running games, and whatever else it is that people do at camp. "Uncle" Brad did all of the teaching and he taught out of the book of Jonah. During this time along with teaching kids about the Word of God and helping them grow in their faith. John and myself dispelled many myths about America, "professional" wrestling, and how many spiders you eat in your sleep. One of the first rules mentioned was "do not feed or bother the monkeys!" As a result of the breaking of this rule the first day a monkey stole allergy medicine from a girl and the next day one took food off someones plate and scratched the plate apart. ATTENTION DO NOT BOTHER THE MONKEYS

There was also a few interesting quotes from the kids such as:
"No I don't like rice krispy treats I prefer bran flakes"-From a 11 year old
"Does your mother drive a train? Oh then how do you fit in the back seat of a car?"
"are you putting plastic in your eye?!" (contacts)

Some of the Kids playing on the Obstacle Course

I pray that kids lives will have been changed from this time. We are now getting ready as we are going to be starting a 3 day camp on Monday and a week long camp the following week.

Please pray for us as we continue to adapt to the culture and that we will be effective ministering to these teens and kids the next few weeks.