After unloading all the American goods we brought for Grandpa and Grandma (chocolate, Ziplock bags, chocolate, assorted medications and supplements, chocolate, q-tips, and more), we all slept for about 10 hours our first night in South Africa, and a welcome sleep it was. The previous night we drove from Port Elizabeth in the dark, so we didn't see any of the surroundings when we pulled into the flat. So we were flabbergasted when we woke up to this scene:
Grandpa and Grandma showed us this scene while skyping, but it's a completely different emotion to wake up to the bright blue illuminating the flat, with rocking waves draining any stress that might have existed in your muscles previously.
We had a late breakfast and decided to go frolic in the Indian Ocean.
Well, the boys frolicked more than the adults because it was a bit chilly, it being winter and all. But since they are made of rubber and apparently their nerves have not fully developed, they didn't care.
This is my favorite picture of wave frolicking.
In a nearby tide pool, we discovered many hermit crabs. The boys chose what they thought were the fastest crabs and had races with them.
Keen-eyed D.J. found a star fish in the tide pool and my curious mind just couldn't resist picking it up to see the underside.
Can't leave the beach without constructing something out of sand.
The white buildings are the flat complex, Grandpa and Grandma's flat is in the middle.
We returned to the flat for a mince burger (the closest thing to hamburger that may or may not include other animal meat) with plenty of seasoning.
Grandpa and Grandma drove us to the Location. A Location is a Township, but they are no longer called Townships because that word has a bad stigma resulting from political changes of power and poor government assistance. Mark didn't take any pictures of the location because it just didn't feel right to do so. Just to help us remember, I borrowed some pictures from Grandma's blog when they helped one of the branch members build a house.
This is was the first house Mom and Dad helped with. The house was built, but the family needed a door on their outhouse, so that was the project for the day.
This is the house Mom, Dad and the proselyting missionaries helped a family build. The skeleton came from sticks and items gathered from nearby areas.
Then mud, grass, sticks and twigs are packed into the forms to make the walls.
When the family saves enough money, the walls will eventually be covered with cement and then when enough money is saved, the walls will be painted. For Christmas every year, families paint their homes a new color.
While we were touring through the location, the sun was setting, which meant that we had to get home, since there is a curfew in the location, for safety reason. I'm not sure if the curfew is a law or just an unspoken rule to live by in preserving life. It was a humbling experience to ride through the location and quite the difference from seeing ornate castles in Europe. Mark and I asked a lot of questions, but the boys were pretty quiet. It made me appreciate life lived in all sorts of ways and how we all just do the best that we can with what we've got.
We had a little bit of time before bed since curfew was around 7 pm, so D.J. and James took to cleaning all the shells we all gathered by the ocean. We also showed Grandpa and Grandma some of our pictures we took while in Europe until our stories put them to sleep, then we all retired for the night.
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