Day 22: ERs and Waterfalls

South Africa is so inexpensive...And so full of adventures!

So Monday was our three week marker! 21 days in the land of Nelson Mandela (it's his birthday today. Amazing fellow.) This weekend was pretty action packed though. Saturday we went back out to Assissi The Catholic orphanage, and painted and played with kids again. The view out there is absolutely astounding. Better than the gorge. You can see for miles and it's just chock full of rolling hills with colorful rondhavels (thatch huts), trees and sugar cane fields. Beautiful. Saturday night we had a braai ( barbeque) at the Flippo's house which felt like "family" time. I love the community here! Sunday morning we went to church and it was so fun. Pastor Trevor brought the word with great passion as always, and the worship was so encouraging and uplifting. I love how just the presence of God and the worship of his name in a community of believers is enough to bring people closer to Him. It doesn't always take a Holiday club, or expensive campaign. Just say his name and worship him with your life and people see the difference. Mmm.

That beautiful sunny afternoon we went grocery shopping and then headed to St. Michael's beach for our surfing lesson with Byron!!! The water was absolutely freezing, but you get over that when your sitting on a surfboard waiting for some killer pipe, bru. I got up on my 5th try after a few gnarly wipeouts and rode MY wave all the way in. Most exciting and exhilerating thing ever. Not gonna lie, I felt pretty cool. Then Katie W. got up and it was so exciting. We were bein all bold and surfer girl-ish the rest of the afternoon. We were so Blue Crush. I body boarded and swam for awhile longer before we headed back to the apartment and ate dinner and went to bed early. Monday we were suposed to go back and surf again, but the water was just not great so we decided to go hiking with all the becomers in the Oribi Gorge. About 10 minutes into the 2 mile or so hike to this waterfall, I trip over this huge, noticeable, obvious log. I was attempting to jump over and my foot got caught and as I'm catching myself/face planting into the dirt on the opposite side of Mr. Log, my left arm just gives out. So I roll over and I have a huge bruise on my right knee and my left arm is totally limp. But hey, in the words of Rod Kinball, Life is pain, and we have to scrape the joy out of it every chance we get. So I hop up and Amanda constructs a sling out of her shirt and I trudge on. I get feeling back in my arm and it hurts really badly, but it didn't really swell up too much and there was no bone jutting out, so I just hold it up and continue climbing and such. We get to the waterfall, and it's kind of dry, but so so so gorgeous. Like this hike looked like hiking through the set of Lost or something. Picture Jungle, opening up into an opening with water falling over a cliff of shelf-like. If I had a camera you could really picture it :( but still. Awesome. So we hike back and I call Cala and tell her about my arm and she suggests we see a doctor. After having the American doctor have a look, he says we need to head to the emergency room just to make sure it's nothing big, but he thinks there may be a fracture. So Ami and I and the doctor head there, and after x rays and a very expedient, cheap and pleasant experience, find out that we need to come back in the morning when the specialist is there to read the x rays, but there was nothing big from what the doctor could tell. Which was Encouraging news to say the least. So this mornign at about 9:00 am we got there and waited a bit but the specialist made the report and the doctor said there was nothing big and no fractures so if the swelling and pain wasn't gone in about 10 days to come back for another x ray. SO thanks to everyone who prayed against a broken arm! that would've ruined things. I'm planning on doing the big swing over the gorge next weekend so that would ruin things. Plus we are doing mainly manual labor this week, so my one arm will get a work out.

So much of this time has blessed me and grown me and it's been nice to know that even though it's all very emotional work, I don't just feel a strong emotion anymore. The feeling and act of living in obedience and through the spirit has become a lifestyle, and this environment is still much more condusive to that lifestyle, but I feel very encouraged about returning and continuing living in this attitude. Pray that We don't lose that mindset as we're over half way done here. I'd like to say I'm excited to go home, but it's about 70% not excited and 30% excited. It'll be bitter sweet for sure, but God will take care of our hearts.

Miss you all, and praying for your hearts as you pursue whatever obedience is for you this summer/winter.

Katy (still waiting for a sweet Zulu name)

P.S. Sounds like Kitale loves you, Yeah Yeah!!