Wow time flies...

We are home!!!

It's a shame we lost track of blogging so for all those who were so faithful in trying to stay informed on what we were doing, we apologize.

Life really started picking up in February and we are so thankful for all the things that kept us busy. We also lost our convenient internet connection so it became a challenge to find an opportunity to log-in.

Here's a tiny summary:

We were the only volunteer's working with Agathos when we arrived. Just after Valentine's Day, Kevin arrived. He is 21 and from Connecticut. We then started teaching English at the primary school where all our younger ones attend. We taught three days a week for a couple hours each day.

In the beginning of March a football team from Wheaton College in Chicago came for a week and helped us get a lot of work done. They also left a lot of work for us to do after they left! The next week another volunteer arrived from New Zealand. Richard is 23 and is still volunteering at the cottages.

By then it was Easter which we spent with about 20 of our friends at Barbara and JD's house. It was a beautiful day and a total blessing to be able to be with all those wonderful people.

The day after Easter David, me, Kevin, Adam and Chrissy and their two kids Zek and Phoebe went on vacation. We drove 5 1/2 hours to Hluhluwe Nature Reserve and Durban for just about a week. We saw an elephant, tons of rhino, giraffe, zebra, water buffalo, wildebeest, antelope of every bread, hippos, crocs, vultures and more. The best though was seeing 5 cheetahs tear apart a fresh impala 25 feet from our pick up. We stayed until lunch was gone.

When we got home from vacation it was back to our construction work getting more rooms ready to house more orphans. And by that time we were using all our free time to hang out with the kids as our time grew shorter and shorter.

We flew out April 19th and spent a week in New York on Long Island staying with some friends (Katie and Josh). We LOVED New York! It felt so good to be back in the states! The highlight was seeing Lion King on Broadway and they spoke in Zulu instead of Swahili (like in the Disney movie). We could understand some of what they were saying and singing about which was amazing and a end to our South African experience.

On April 26th we flew to Cancun to be with Heidi's family for a week. It was very relaxing and a great opportunity to catch up.

Finally on May 3rd at midnight we arrived back to Edmonds and ready to sleep on our own bed for the first time in exactly 8 months. It was AMAZING!

We would love to catch up with everyone now that we are home. We have new cell phones. David's number is (425) 205-3051 and Heidi's is (425) 205-3129

OUr goal is to post a big album or several albums that have some type of caption with them so that everyone can see our pictures -- well the good ones at least -- we took 10,000 pictures!

We also just want to say thank you again to everyone who helped support us while we were in Africa and for all those who were praying for us. We were so blessed while we were gone and are so thankful to be back safely and in good health.

-David and Heidi

Supplementary Photos now functioning!

Well, before I continue telling everyone what we've ben up to I'd like to announce that we found a way to post pictures! We are really excited so I wanted to show you some pictures that go with a couple of the previous posts.



This is the mother and baby rhino that were standing right in the road when Adam and Chrissy took us to Spioenkop Game Park at the end of January.





This is the dad that came out from behind a bush right by us to be with his family.





Also at Spioenkop.





When Betsy took us way up the valley to watch the kids put on a singing and dancing performance, this is the home that we went to. This is a traditional (and very nice) home.





This was the final dance routine and the one I referred to as "National Geographic" material. It was amazing.





In a previous post I said that after all the songs and dances, they all got together and did a breakdance-style thing where one or two people would come out of the crowd and show off their dance moves to the beat of the drum. Well, the Head of the Family got out there and did some shimmy and had everyone screaming and cheering. He has a dead and gutted meerkat on his head and is only clothed in different animal skins. He is the most respected man here.





This is our feast that we had after the show in the round house. These women were also spectators in the show. Betsy is on the left and I believe she knew all these women from her work here (with home-based care women). Betsy is fluent in Zulu so that was a real blessing going with her.





I think I mentioned that our river swelled like crazy one day at the very end of January. Well here's what the river looked like that day. Also, just a couple minutes after this picture was taken the river was up 2 feet past the tree that David is hanging on.





And here is the river on a normal day. So you can see that it rose maybe 8 or 10 feet but also got WAY wider so the flow was just insane.





This is our new group of friends. This picture was taken at Cameron's going away party on Superbowl Sunday. There are some people we don't know because they were other friends of Cameron's but I'll introduce you to the people I do know.
Starting in the back left is Chrissy holding her son Zeke, and then Adam, her husband. In front of Chrissy is Slindile and her new born baby on her back (they are living with Betsy right now) and her son (called "bookie" meaning brother) in front of her. To the right of David and I is Betsy and Barbara. Behind Barbara is Betsy's boyfriend Eugine. To the right of him is Cameron and Andy (his wife Roz was not in S.A. yet). Sitting down, starting on the right is JD, Barbara's husband, Mya (Sophie's daughter), Sophie (with a newborn she is caring for temporarily), Pheobe (Adam and Chrissy's daughter), and Sophie's son ( I forget his name).

And I think that pretty much catches us up to the present!

This is the first day of school! I can't believe I got this ONE picture to work!

Zulu Style

So things are looking up around here and life is getting fuller. We have now met a lot of people to call friends and it has given us more to do. We have begun a Friday morning Bible study with about 9 other missionaries who live in our valley.

There's Andy and his wife Roz from the UK who have two babies (one is only a month or so old). There's Adam and Chrissy who have two young children and go to our church and they are the one's we probably hang out with the most. There's Betsy who is originally from Seattle but has lived here for 4 years now and her boyfriend Eugine from Cape Town; and with Betsy comes Slindile who is Zulu and 18 years old and has two babies and is living with Betsy for the time being. There's Sophie from Australia who's been here for 9 years and also has two young children and is also looking after a new born Zulu baby because her mother is extremely sick. There's JD and Barbara who take good care of David and I and are very involved with the work at Agathos. There was Cameron from Australia but his going away party was today. And I thinks that's the group - lots of awesome people and lots of little kids running everywhere.

On Saturday Jan. 26th, the day after we met Betsy at the first Bible study, she gave us a call and invited us to a Zulu dance performance show. We had no idea what that meant but we found out that there is a Zulu woman who runs an after school program with a bunch of kids and teaches them traditional dances and songs to kind of keep them out of trouble. So we drove about 45 min. into the valley on dirt roads and then arrived at the traditional home. Homes are usually set up for the whole family, not just the immediate. This home had 5 buildings - two round rooms and tree square mud rooms.

We were invited into one of the rounds and sat on thatch mats on the ground and sipped a traditional Zulu drink ( something like sour milk made with ground up maze). We visited with the ladies there until the show started. We brought our mats outside and the whole village started arriving. There wound up being quite a large audience. The guys came out first singing Zulu songs. Then the girls came out and did a Zulu drill team type dance. The guys came out again and sang and then the girls had another dance. This one was much more lively and they came out without any shirts on. It was quite interesting and we got some good shots to send into National Geographic (just kidding of course). The whole time there was someone pounding the beat on a drum and someone with a whistle. The last performance was everyone dancing breakdance style - one at a time - showing off their moves.

After the show we went back into the round and had a feast. David sat on a stool in the corner because men are not supposed to sit on the floor with the women. He got a nice ceramic plate filled with all the food and was served first. Women are supposed to wait to eat until the men are finished but we just gave David a 10 minute head start. The food was all laid out on the ground and all the women ate with their hands. There was mashed potatoes mixed with ground maze with a tomato chutney type thing to dip your handful of potato in (delicious). There was Zulu bread (my ultimate favorite) with a broth dip and a whole chicken that got ripped apart as we dug in. They also had Zulu beer which is nothing like beer and has hardly any alcohol and tastes a little like vinegar. It only takes three days to ferment. It was such an awesome experience to see real Zulu life. The uncle of the family who was the "family leader" was dressed only in animal skins with a meerkat on his head.

Two and a half months left

So we have purchased our plane tickets home but are just now trying to extend our visa to match up with our tickets. I think it should all work out but it is cutting it REALLY close - something to be in prayer for so that we don't have to wait for our visa to process in Lesotho!

Well, we spent Super Bowl Sunday at a party but we didn't think once about the big game at home. We had a "bring and braai" BBQ as a go away party for Cameron who is now headed back home to Australia after living here for one year. Everyone was there and we ate good food and hung out all afternoon.

We have also been trying to get involved with Barbara's bead market more and more. We are allowed to drive the "kombi" (the 15 seater van) now so we can get away and have some free time which is an awesome blessing. We've been pressing for two months so it feels great to have some freedom. Just down the street from us are several hiking destinations in the Drakensburg range and there are also a few tourist stops nearby that have great food, specialty shops, etc.