Day 3

Haven’t really had a single day of respite yet; woke up @ 9, got picked up @ 10 and ran around ALL day with Rod on errands for L’Abri; heavy lifting and everything, so again have come back to the YDC utterly exhausted, and because of that, feeling pretty overwhelmed too

L’Abri is a beautiful place, quite magical in terms of natural beauty; I’ve confirmed however, that they’re hoping for me to spend most of my time up there, where I’ll be the only volunteer/white person, and in my section of this large camp, quite by myself when camps aren’t on (i.e. all non-weekends); just when I’d only barely started to get somewhat comfortable with staying @ the YDC, I now have to continue to shift my mindset to see L’Abri as my home base

Compounded by the fact that I’m the only really fluent English speaker, the boys shelter is right next door right now, that there isn’t that much personal space and everything is completely foreign, I’m feeling pretty silly for being so confident about doing all this by myself!!

There’ll be a lot for me to do @ L’Abri, between helping out with the camps (this weekend it’ll be the boys shelter up there) and maintenance of the site itself (there’s a LOT to do; fix the climbing wall, chop down trees and then use that wood to build railings, map the site itself, etc) so I won’t be bored, but I’m going to have to come to grips with being so far out of civilisation for a long time; with no Internet, no PEOPLE, no shops or services, just me, my room, beautiful scenery... and monkeys and wild pigs...

Last year @ Urban Seed the critical thing that got me through it all were the resies, and it seems that God’s taken it one step further to remove ALL things; Will be a severe time of testing for me, to spend all this time utterly and completely alone when I already feel so stretched, but I really, really pray that I’ll be open to what God is trying to teach me through it all

Observations from today...

·         In the Zulu culture, a man is only considered marriage material AFTER he has sired a child, and THEN is marriage even considered (sometimes they’ll even marry the mother of that child)

·         HIV is considered a manageable thing; a new strain of TB is reported to have no cure and is completely fatal

·         Africa really is a sunny country; there are never any clouds in the sky

·         Russell Peters is right; there ARE a lot of Indians here, and from once upon a time being brought in as slaves, they now own a lot of the businesses here

·         There are no Asians; I appear to be the only one everywhere I’ve been

·         Races are broken down to blacks, whites, Indians & coloured; Coloured being halfies (white and black parents); yep, again no Asians

I’m not sure what’s going on tomorrow; I’d originally heard that I’d been down to spend some time with the volunteer co-ordinator, am also hoping to get a bit of time to myself too (to wander into town and perhaps grab a few things) because on Friday I get carted off to L’Abri until God knows when :S

So much for easing into things, and I know I’ve maintained that I’ll get to rest all I want when I die, but this is a little crazy...