Home Time

I left Frankfort, Germany an hour ago and am now in the sky probably above the ocean.  So far the flight has been very uneventful.  I have been travelling since 2:00 yesterday afternoon and it is now 11:00 in the morning.  I should be home by midnight tonight, so that means another 13 hours of travelling L.  

Looking back on my trip, it is very hard to summarize.   I enjoyed it very much (even more than I thought I would, if that makes sense).  I made a lot of friends, saw a lot of Africa (both from a tourist perspective, but also from a local perspective),  grew in ways I’m not even sure how to explain and am now hoping to go back. 

I now have a huge appreciation for the work that mission workers do, especially the spiritual and emotional aspects.  For example, just before I left, a young girl who is a friend of one of the people I work with was raped.  The story and the background to the story would have been in the provincial news, if not the national news in Canada, but here rape is so common that it is not reported in the news often.  Jane and others are now trying to deal with this – they are trying to get counselling for this girl, they want to go visit her, they are sending emails out to contacts that they have to see what help is available, . . .

It was very hard saying good-bye.  I knew I was leaving them to go back to a life of ease and also that there was a potential that I would never see them again.   I am not a person that cries easily, but I was coming close to tears.   was a lot of people to say good-bye too and I tried to prolong it as long as possible, but eventually I had to leave. 

The students at the school had a good-bye party for me,  That was really cute and it was a nice way to end my time there.  I think about forty of the fifty students made me a good-bye card.  At the end every student received a cupcake that a teacher had brought.  It was kinda cute – the Grade 4’s received a cupcake first, then Grade 3’s, then Grade 2’s and then by the time it got to Gr 1’s, there were only a few left.  On the table there were just enough cupcakes for the Grade 1’s, but not the Grade R’s.   I hadn’t been paying attention to their faces, but I think they were pretty worried about not getting a cupcake.  The teacher then talked over to the bag and pulled out another package.  The Grade R’s all started giggling and the expression on their faces were just priceless.  They had been counting on cupcakes all day and when it looked like they weren’t getting any, they were quite disappointed. 

Just a side note about Mukhanyo: As mentioned previously, the government has suspended Mukhanyo’s accreditation as of December 31 of this year.  The college has appealed it and they will found out in the middle of September if this appeal was successful.  Please remember this issue in your prayers.

Food is here – not sure what meal this would be, as it is 11:25 South Africa time and 3:30 AM back home.  My stomach’s growling – so I’ll just call it lunch. 

Well, that’s probably all for this blog, I hoped you enjoyed it and thanks for following along and for all the well wishes and prayers I’ve received via Facebook, email, word of mouth, etc.  Even though I spent time travelling on dangerous roads and I was in many new situations, God has kept me safe and has taught me many things. 

Angela