Self Defense & Salt Water

February 12

We are going into CATCH earlier and earlier every day. This leads to quite a bit of down time before the kiddies arrive at 3. It is a wonderful time to get to know the staff better. I chatted with one lady that joyfully exclaimed, “I thank the Lord every morning for my position at CATCH, I’m so grateful for this staff.” The faith here is very different. They do not struggle with unbelief like many Americans do. They’ve witnessed the powers of darkness but hold fast to the light that shines through God and his Word.

             I enjoy all of the languages floating around CATCH. Some people speak Xhosa, others Afrikaans, English or other native tongue. It’s like opening a present when you say hello to someone, what is inside? Will they say hello back? Today was girls club. During girls club we played games, and practiced self-defense. Girls are taken advantage of inside the village. They were taught where to hit and what to do in the event of an attack. We also have a punching bag for them to practice on. Those little girls can hit! They were fed a hot meal and on their way they went. Tonight I went for my first run. Yesterday I was soaking wet from the water fight, today it was from sweat. I ran a 5k loop around that meandered next to the ocean. As I got closer to the ocean, I could feel sprinkles of sea salt in the wavy mist. I’m not sure if the sea salt helped me or not, but it added a soothing touch to my run.

            At night I attended a creative writing class. How ironic that literally down the road sits a church which hosts a creative writing class once a month. There were sixteen people in all. I noticed that South Africans are not shy to talk. Many people approached me to chat when I stood alone. This made me feel very comfortable. The leader gave us a prompt from a Facebook status that read, “The test was negative”. Whatever came to our mind first, we were to write down that story. What comes to your mind first? It was fascinating to hear what some people came up with: HIV/AIDS test, fitness test to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, Yellow Fever test, pregnancy and cancer test.

            My computer wouldn’t turn on all day; I think it was in shock from the temperature difference. I was all, ‘Ayo Mac, I understand’. But just like my recovery from the tree, here Mac is up and running again. That’s my Mac (pat on the screen). Just when I thought I was getting used to the time zone difference, here it is half past midnight and I’m wide awake… enter Katy Perry song. Everyone says ‘half past’, so instead of 12:30 it’s half past 12. And my personal favorite saying so far: Would you like me to fetch you? Fetch you is the same as picking someone up. “I will fetch you at half past thirty”. Also I met a South African guy that knows 100 times more about America than I. Do you know how many US capital cities are named after US Presidents? Y’all gonna go Google it now, you can’t fool me. Goodnight. Xoxo