Chrystal Loves Africa

Well I don’t post blogs as much as I would like to. I have found it more difficult than I thought to find time to update these blogs. Right now I’m in the air—probably somewhere over the Indian Ocean. I took some motion sickness pills, so hopefully I can write for a while without getting sick. It’s an eight-and-a-half hour flight from South Africa to India, where I have an eight hour layover and then another two hour flight to Dhaka Bangladesh. By the time I post this blog, I should be in Dhaka.

I have really enjoyed my time thus far in South Africa. A lot has been going on. If you are on Facebook, you may have seen my sporadic status updates, and pictures that others have posted and tagged me. I’m a little slow about adding pictures and stuff. The last few weeks we have been learning and I have come to love South Africa and the people.

The past week or so we spent traveling around Durban and Zululand. We visited some of the local churches in those areas and met so many wonderful people. They opened their homes to us and allowed us to come in and stay with them and become a part of their families. It was one of the most rewarding experiences ever. We stayed busy and would loved to have had more time with the people and staying with their families. You really come back with a different perspective when you stay in the homes with the indigenous people, rather than staying in hotels.

Darah and I arrived two days later than the rest of our team to Durban. On the morning that we were to leave, Darah became ill and I stayed behind with her for a few days and then we traveled by bus the eight hours to Durban. We were greeted at the bus station by some of our team members and then taken to the church where we met the family that we would stay with for two nights. Durban is a highly Indian population and the family that we stayed with was Indian. Unlike some of the other team members we did not have to eat a lot of curry. Althia, the daughter of the family we were staying with loved to cook southern food—better than the stuff I eat in Georgia.

We had church with the Indian people, and then one of the women worked at U-Shaka Sea World and was able to get all of us on the team complimentary passes to the park. It was the best aquarium that I have ever been to. We enjoyed our time in Durban and getting to know the people, sadly it was over quickly and we were on our way to Zululand.

We arrived on Wednesday evening, just in time to get changed and get to church. The service was held in a tent outside the church building. The church has grown so rapidly that the building is no longer big enough to hold all of the people. There are plans to build a new church down the street from the existing church. The church has bought property but is now praying for funds to build the new facility that will hold 3000 people. The old church building is going to be used as a school. The vision of the church is there and we were able to see the plans and the new site.

The Zulu people are very open and welcoming to us, they are not always sure what to do with white people, but they are very hospitable and loving. We had an exciting time and some good fun. Six of us girls stayed with a woman—Fiki. On Friday night before we went to church she was braiding some of the girls hair and used string in mine. I’ll post a picture for you to see. It looked like I had snakes coming out of my head. We all laughed—I didn’t wear it to church like that. Fiki is a high school teacher and her students one at a time kept stopping by her house to say ‘hi.’ They really wanted to see the ‘white girls’ getting braids.

From that part of Zululand we traveled to another area. We decided to leave a day early and spent only a night there. We had two church services while we were there, one on Saturday night as soon as we arrived and another on Sunday morning. Darah and I stayed with another woman. We joked with everyone that we stayed in a four-star bread and breakfast that night. We had a nice room with two queen beds and a full bath to ourselves. Then for breakfast our host stuffed us like elephants. The people are so willing to open their homes to visitors and sacrifice for us.

The Zulus and the Durban people don’t have a lot, but they are willing to give you the best of what they had. It was a wonderful learning experience and heart-warming to see the hospitality and kindness of so many people.

We arrived back to Krugersdorp on Sunday night, and had all day Monday to do laundry and pack for our next adventure and cultural experience. So now we each are off to different destinations. I’m with Jackie and we will be spending the next four weeks in Bangladesh and India. We’ll be experiencing and learning about the cultures there and meeting all the people. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and visit different areas.

Blessings,

Chrystal