at the end of the day, everything works out

i didn't have much internet access in SA. if i did, it was only a few minutes here or there to check my email.  never enough time to blog. therefore, i'll try to commit to writing a little everyday about the trip as i process it.

the sunsets in africa are spectacular, amazing, beautiful. lekker. there isn't a sunset in the world that even remotely compares. every night, while we ate dinner in the restaurant (which was out in the open), we experienced this beauty. it was relaxing, refreshing. after a long, hard day of manual labor, the sunsets revived us for the evening meetings we held for the black workers on the farm. the excellent south african food helped, of course. (sidenote: i know you want to know! we tried warthog, kudu, giraffe, and guinea fowl. loved warthog and guinea fowl, kudu is ok, giraffe is pretty gross)

every morning, we were picked up in a game viewer and taken to the bottom of the mountain to work. every morning but one, we were greeted by the giraffes. God blessed us, because many people stay on the farm for several weeks and never see one of these beautiful creatures. one morning, they were blocking the road and we had to stop and wait on them. another morning, we woke up to four of them right outside of our rooms on the top of the mountain! it's impossible to wake up in a bad mood, even with the lack of good coffee:) they are the most graceful animals, and hands down my favorite animal i saw the entire trip.

the highlight of the trip were the kids. they were just incredible. the farm has a school on it for the children of the black workers, as well as for the children of the couple who runs the farm. there are seven kids right now, all boys, from 2 years to 6 years. at 6 they leave the farm and go to school in town, or back to zimbabwe for school (most of the black workers are from zim). in particular, these two captured my heart. if it was even remotely ethical, i would have packed them in my suitcase and brought them home! on the right is deserve, who is trying pop rocks for the first time with matt. he's only 2, and has such a charismatic personality! on the right is matthew, whom we sponsored for the trip. each person on the team took one of the kids and brought presents, clothes, and shoes for them. matthew is also two, and became matt's favorite kid in the world. he's just like us...quiet, shy, and has the cutest little boy giggle ever. they loved to be loved on, snuggled, kissed, tickled, played with... even people who don't particularly care much for kids (like matt) fell in love with them. matthew and deserve are cousins and live in the same house (called a lapa). we delivered some things to their parents, and as we were leaving the compound, the two of them shouted "ha-le-lu-jia!" over and over and over again to us:) it was precious:) i miss them already!

Our team, plus  5 of the boys:) minus les