Failed!

I totally failed! I don’t know why I thought that I did a post about my weekend, but I SO meant to. Now that I have started classes, my days are squishing together and I am becoming forgetful! Again, sorry about that.

Friday night of last week, I went to church! I love my new church. It’s called Power Encounter Fellowship. It’s the church that was started by a few of my fellow students. It’s strange to see them in a pastors role as opposed to hanging out in class, but I really like it. I think I have mentioned it before. There are about 25 people that attend on Friday nights, and then we now have a Sunday night service and there are about 50 to 60 people that come then. It’s a great time. Myself, and my friend Megan are the only white people that attend. So it feels strange at times, but it also feels perfectly fine. Everyone is so great!

Saturday morning was the big BEACH DAY! YAY! Jolene was supposed to pick me up at 7am, however, she texted me the night before saying that she was going to push it out a bit and pick me up at 8:15 instead. Which was perfectly fine with me, cause…really…sleep more? I’m not one to turn that down. Plus, we don’t get back from church on Friday nights till around 11:30 usually, so I was tired anyways. I got up at 7:45 and got ready to go. Packed a bag with some sunscreen, my costume (swim suite) and a few towels just in case I needed an extra. I met her in the parking lot and we took off! It was about a 45 minute drive to the beach. The church that Jolene attends, Hillsong Church, Cape Town, was putting on the beach day so we went to the beach they had decided on. We got there around 9am and wandered around the beach for a while till we found everyone else. They were just starting to set up. They had a huge sound system and platform to play music from. I was expecting, just as you might have been, that they play Hillsong music all day…but no. The first song that started out was “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus. I laughed out loud. But I like that song, so I sang along as well.

Jolene and I got our spot all sorted out and just sat down to apply sunscreen. Which is when we both realized that we each brought sunscreen and both of them were 6spf. Not 30,or 45 or even 60 like normal white people wear…we had 6. We applied liberally! I made a mental note to apply once every ½ hour just in case. Even if it didn’t help, it might calm my nervous about getting tourched!

They made an announcement that there were going to be surfing lessons. Jolene wanted to try it so I volunteered to stay back with our stuff. I really wanted to try it as well, but we also didn’t know anyone else, and we valued our stuff more then my surfing lesson. I was fine with it. I will take another lesson another time. We also entered a sand castle building contest. SO MUCH FUN! I have not built a sand castle in a LONG time. We paired up with another couple of girls and had a great time! We didn’t win, but we sure did have fun. You could tell we were all the intellectual type cause we had PERFECT corners and lines and details to it. The kids that won did an AMAZING job. They built a resort! It was huge and had a running waterfall. Seriously! We all knew they would win and were happy for them. The prize was a one night stay for two in a Cape Town resort. The team consisted of 8 boys under the age of 12. I have no idea what they are going to do with the prize, but we were still happy for them.

Jolene did great on her surf lesson and got up everytime she said. I was sad that I could not watch her because they took the surfers down to a different part of the beach and her team went during our castle construction so that kind of made it hard for me.

We shared a lunch box they provided and then decided to leave for the day. We wanted to hit another beach on our way home. So we left. But first stopped to grab an ice cream they were offering of course! We drove about an hour to the other beach. It was beautiful! WE had lunch a little restaurant on the waterfront and then walked over to the beach. We noticed that there was a lifesaving team doing some practice swims so we got a good seat right up front. So fun! We cheered loud for the cute ones! =) After we were done making fools of ourselves, we left. Jolene had to be at work later that day so we needed to get home. She dropped me off at the college and I went up and took a shower right away. I could tell that I had gotten some color, but was glad I was not burnt. After my shower I decided that the afternoon deserved a nap time. So I gave in and climbed into bed! I slept for about 3 hours. When I woke up and went over to my sink to freshen up, i noticed that my body felt stiff. So I looked in the mirror and I was a flipping TOMATOE! I was hot, and red and was in pain all over! My shoulders, neck ears and face were the worst. Strangely, I got one little strip on my lower back, most likely when I was bent over building the sand castle and then the tops of my knees were red as well. I applied nearly a whole bottle of lotion. I didn’t have any aloe or even any moisturizing lotion so I had to just use what I did have. Which was Cool Water perfume lotion. I smelled awesome, but I’m pretty sure those types of lotions are not meant for sun burns. I’m sure they are ONLY meant to smell.

At this point, I was going through my closet realizing that I didn’t have anything that was strapless! Like a top that I could put on that would not bother my shoulders. I became VERY creative and decided that I would just use one of my skirts. HA! I have a skirt that is made of just jersey material that I used back home on hot days when I was just around the house. So I folded it in half and put it on up over my chest. Sometimes, having a big chest is USEFUL! It worked PERFECT!!!! I loved it! So that top and a pair of shorts were my outfit for the next several hours and each night after that till now. I did put on a different tank top when I went down to play UNO. Cause really…no sunburn can keep me away from UNO, YOU KNOW! Sleeping was painful, moving was painful, smiling was painful, and even just looking at something felt painful…or at least I thought so.

The next morning I got up and got ready for the day. No shower. I went downstairs and around here everyone hugs everyone. It’s just part of their greeting. Like…every time you seem them! I think that I give out like 200 hugs a day. Cause I see the same people all day. And they feel the need to hug every time! Now, I would think, if you see that someone’s face is BRIGHT RED, you might think that their sunburn would be elsewhere as well so maybe you should be careful. Oh no, not here. They see you have a sunburn and feel the need to hug you and rub your back and pat your shoulder. I wanted to scream GET OFF ME! So many times. But…I use the calm spirit God has given me and I bite my tongue (literally) and say “thanks, I’m doing well, it’s nice to see you” and then I slightly whimper under my breath.

So Sunday morning I had lots of those hugs, and then at noon, I had Michael, my friend (and pastor of Power Encounter Fellowship) take me to the store. I needed to get some aloe lotion. Then he dropped me off at the Boost Africa Gallery. I think that I have mentioned this before, but then again, maybe I just thought that I wanted too and I thought about it so much that soon I just figured that I had done it. (you ever do that? Cause I do that all the time.) Just in case I have not told you about it, or in case I told you in the latter half of a post that you had given up on reading cause it was so long, I will again state what it is. Boost Africa is a non-profit organization that provides school uniforms to students so that they are able to attend school. They mainly focus on the young ones, like in grade 3-6 but sometimes they have older kids as well. Here in Africa, no matter what school you attend, a uniform is required. If you don’t have a uniform, or can’t afford one, you are not allowed to come to school. And if the kids are not in school, they are on the streets begging for money or working in order to help out the family. Which is where they start to learn about how to be in a gang, and getting into criminal activity. So, Boost Africa uses the money that is donated and pays for students to get uniforms and their books and such so that they will stay in school and get educated. Therefore, stay off the streets for the most part. Boost Africa’s office is right on the beach down the street from the school. And the school that they help out with is just down the road as well! The office, is a cottage that has been transformed into a 3 flats. So currently there are 3 different people renting rooms and they have the joint restroom and kitchen. Then what would have been the main living room and sitting room has been turned into an art gallery where artists can display their art and sell their items. When something is sold, they then give a portion back to Boost Africa. Most just give 10%, but some give as much as 30% of the sale.

When my mom was in Cape Town last November, she wandered into the gallery and realized that it was something that I would be interested in getting involved with, so when I arrived here, I called of the director of the organization and we met at the gallery to go over all that they do and how I could help. Everything is a volunteer basis and they have the gallery open 6 days a week. (closed on Mondays) Mary, the director, asked if I could help out by volunteering to work at the gallery so that herself and the one other volunteer can have a break once in a while. I was more then happy to do so.

So this last Sunday, I went in and volunteered. Mary was there the whole time, as I needed her to show me what to do, but I had a great time! I picked it up quick. She also has a bunch of computer things that needed to be taken care of so I was able to help her out with that as well. I stayed there and worked for about 4 hours. Then Michael picked me up and we went to church.

Church was great again! There was a guest speaker that did a great job! My sunburn still hurt and it was a lot more hugging, but I really enjoy the people, so I didn’t mind. (that much)

I will attach a few pictures of the church, as well as the Art Gallery in another post.

I hope you all are doing well! Sorry it took me so long to get around to telling you about my weekend! Things are hectic here!