Sunny Cape Town

Hello from beautiful sunny Cape Town!

I am definitely getting closer to home! There are many similarities I have found between NZ and Cape Town which makes the place feel very familiar. When I first arrived I was picked up by Jireh (who I did my communication school with in 2006 in Switzerland). We stayed with her parents the first night and then when to her place in Stellenbosh for two nights. People are very friendly here and it was great to spend time getting to know people who do not live on a YWAM base! One night we even went to watch Jireh’s sister play indoor netball and it just felt like home!

I then went to the YWAM base in Muizenberg and we had a YWAM/UofN staff training event which was good to be at. Now I am here until Friday doing random things; visiting the area. Saturday some of us went into Cape Town city; beautiful place and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. The V & A Waterfront was especially nice. Today I was out on the beach in Muizenberg and got some colour on my skin….mainly red, but still it is colour! Here are a few photos to enjoy….more on my photos site….the link is on the side here.

Looking forward to flying into NZ!!!!!

RWANDA!

Greetings from Rwanda!!

I can’t really believe that I am in Africa, it feels great! I am reminded how much I love to travel and meet people and go to new places. It has been a busy month leading up to coming here, and getting my passport back only a couple of hours before I flew added to the excitement. I had lots of hours in London; but I got to catch up with my cousin, Patsy, who came to the airport with some tickets she had picked up for me and we had a great time chatting in a restaurant. Next was the 9 hour flight to Johannesburg; it was so great to have a long flight!! Sounds strange but long flights means I am going somewhere exciting! Because of the way my flights worked I then boarded a flight to backtrack halfway up the continent to Kigali the capital of Rwanda.

The first thing that struck me was the friendliness of the people. They are so helpful and ready with a smile and greeting. They are also not shy to stare and the children cry "(white person)" when they see us, waving and jumping around. The YWAM base is in the city down a long red dirt road lined with houses and little shops with many many people walking up and down going about their business. The first week I was working with a team from Switzerland to help run a staff training event for the YWAMers. It was a great time of getting to know people from YWAM Rwanda, Uganda and Congo. I got to teach a little on Public Speaking and Learning Styles.

For my second week I will get a chance to go and see the ministries that YWAM has here. I will also go to the Genocide Memorial Museum to learn more about the months in 1994 that saw people murdered by the hundreds of thousands. On Saturday I went on a SAFARI!!!! It was an early start at 5 am and a 2 hour drive to the national park. The first animal we saw was zebras and then giraffes, which was the best because we got to walk around near them. Then we saw several types of deer type of creatures, hippos, monkeys and baboons; only missed out on the elephants!

Here are some photos, but look on my flickr site to see more photos.

I will be here until next Wednesday week and then fly down to Cape Town!


Helen