July 16, 2015

Day #4 in South Africa.  Some things have changed a lot since I was here two years ago, and some things have not changed.   Yesterday and today, I worked in the Distance Office from Mukhanyo Theological College.  This is part of what I did last year as well and it involves proof-reading the distance ed material that is to be sent out to students of the college who are completing courses off site.  Most of the same wonderful and fun people work at the office and it was awesome to see them again. 

            After working at the office yesterday, Jane brought us (‘us’ includes myself and an American – Julia- who is doing the same things that I am) to Butjani Lodge.  Butjani Lodge is a beautiful game reserve that is about 10 minutes from the college.  Before we stopped at Butjani Lodge, we stopped at John and Linda’s place.  John and Linda are from the States and moved here a few years ago to work at a children’s dayhome called Malaleni(we hope to work here as well, so more will be coming about this later).  John and Linda have an amazing home that is not fenced in.  This means that giraffes and kudus and zebras and wildebeests come right to their back yard.  In fact, they had a man-made watering hole built to encourage the animals to come closer.  We sat on the back porch for a while, saw an amazing sunset and watched some of the animals meander over.  The words “O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder; consider all the worlds thy hands have made. . .Then sings my soul my Saviour God to Thee, How Great Thou Art.” came to my mind seeing this. 

After visiting with John and Linda for a bit, we carried on to Butjani Lodge.  Butjani Lodge is a lodge for tourists to come and stay for as long as they want.  It is another beautiful area.  It is fenced in, so the animals can’t come as close, but they are able to have some amazing plants as a result.  We are served breakfast and supper, lunches are packed if needed and our rooms are cleaned daily.  It is just amazing. I won’t know what to do when I arrive back home 

Today, I worked at the office all day.  We stopped work earlier in the afternoon and headed to Pretoria.  It was time to get a car.  I was a bit apprehensive about it, as I would need to get used to a stick shift again and to driving on the left side of the road.  Jane drove us to the car rental agency, I signed the forms, inspected the vehicle and started to drive.  The plan was to follow Jane out of the city, but we lost her at the second stop light.  We quickly phoned Jane and with her help, we were able to make it out of the city.  (I think I only stalled three times).  We then headed home and arrived at Butjani in time for another wonderful meal