We arrived Monday around lunch time to the facility where we were hosting it. We were so blessed to have all day Monday to spend with the African counselors who were volunteering their week to help us. My African coco's (co-counselor) name was Corretta. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. Like Andrew and I, her and her husband, Lucky, just got married over the summer. So we had a lot of fun bonding over our new marriages! I also was blessed to have another American coco whose name was Tia.
We spent that whole Monday bonding, getting to know each other, and teaching one another about each others cultural differences and similarities. We all had so much to learn!
One of the biggest cultural differences that I kind of touched on before was the language. Certain words of ours that aren't bad in anyway to us mean very offensive things to the Africans. And similarly, certain words of theirs our cuss words in America. HA that was interesting when I kept hearing my girls say them throughout the week. We especially made sure what we said was offensive in no way.
That Monday night, the African counselors introduced us to potjies! And did we feast! Andrew and I are totally going to do this here in the states for a college football game day!
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| you fill cast iron cauldrans with all sorts of veggies and meats and let it cook for two hours over hot coals |
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| Kevin and Mlu keeping the fire going |
Tuesday the kids arrived. So in America, I already have a heard time getting people's names right. I'm terrible with names. Here are the names of mine and Andrew's campers. Enjoy!
Kelsey's:
Meta
Mpho
Bulelwa
Talent
Gugulethu
Titamenji
Tshegofatso
Bobo
Shirley
Skylar
Mia
Andrew's:
Ope
Bongo
Lehlogonolo
Siyabonga
Keitumetsi
Mulalo
Patrice
Bryce
Sethenjwa
Blake
Tebalo
Braxton
David
Remo
Siyabonga
David
No, that is not a typo. He had two campers with the name Siyabonga. I thought it was going to challenging to pronounce their names, but it suprisingly came a lot easier than I thought. Whenever I'd asked someone what their name was, they'd ask me in return, "Do you want my African name or the name I go by?" HAHA.
We spent the week with our cabins playing games, doing crafts, eating meals, and challenging other cabins to activities. I spent hours teaching my girls how to make all sorts of friendship bracelets. They LOVED them! But most importantly, we introduced them to the love of God. We shared our lives with them to show what God can do for their lives. One of my favorite moments was two nights in a row we sang around a huge bonfire worshiping God singing in African. It was so cool to worship Him under the African stars in a different language. So moving.
We made so many friendships that week. I may never see most of those people again but we will forever remember them. My girls even gave me an African name. Mine is Kamohelo. It means "acceptance" in African. We feel so apart of the Joburg church and the African families because of this camp.
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| me with my girls |
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| andrew with all the guy counselors |
Thank you God for making life worth living. We love and miss all of our African brothers and sisters!
...even more to come tomorrow :) You seriously thought I was going to do this in 2 posts!?
...even more to come tomorrow :) You seriously thought I was going to do this in 2 posts!?
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