it's official

helllooooo all :] hope everyone is doing fantastic 

Well I have been kept busy this last week! I cant believe its about to come up on 3 weeks since we arrived in this beautiful place. This last week has been full of some exciting things. Including my first wine tasting, a carnival, bike show and getting put onto a new committee! OH and I have finished book 1 and 2 of the Hunger Game series...sooo recommend it! 

Well it's officially official, I got my picture taken with the Life Skill Educators so I'm a part of the team now! haha oh the little things that bring me joy.  

Well anyways my last post was a bit on the sadder side so I promised my next one would be more fun to read. && here goes nothing...

THE CARNIVAL 

A group of us girls went into Wynberg to check out their fair. The first thing Jennifer said to me when I walked out of our room to let her know I was ready to go was, 'Wow...you look very Texas' haha it was a proud moment :] but it was alot of fun. There were different foods from all over the world. A Holland section...Middle Eastern section...Italian...Mexican...you name it & im sure you could find it! I had some bratwurst and chips THEN this absolutely delicious apple thing. haha best way to describe it is to imagine really thin apple slices inside funnel cake batter topped with powdered sugar. yep...heaven! 

 before we left to go

 Me, Tammy and Jennifer

 Tammy got a henna tattoo

and while waiting Jennifer and I entertained ourselves!

THE WINE TASTING :]

Now I have never been to an actual wine tasting before so this was quite the experience. It was pretty busy when we got there, I think it would have been more enjoyable if we could of had a place to sit and hang out while doing it. But it was still fun regardless! There was 8 of us that went and it was in the wine country of Stellenbosch. I tried a bunch of different wines and a lot of cheeses. Had a few favorites and found out I'm not a big adventurer when it comes to my cheeses! haha

 Me && Julia trying some South African Wine

 THE BRAAI

Now for all you people back home...a Braai is what we would consider just a get together in the backyard and have a BBQ. Apparently South Africans have them all the time and it is AWESOME. You bring meat and drink for yourself then a side for everyone to share. I brought chicken and some corn on the cobs..delicious. Every Monday Tim and Natasha Hoffman, Tim is the volunteer coordinator at Living Hope, anyways they have a small group on monday nights for all the volunteers that are here. That group helped me deal with Papa dying, because Monday is the day I found out and the first day of work I had here. So not knowing any of these people and sharing that..while crying to the point of not being able to talk, yet having them all reach out to me was fantastic. So just another reason behind why I love the people I work with. That was a bit of a ramble to get to this...we had the braai at their house! A family, the Lankford's came, they are an american family from Tennessee and just hanging out with Joey, the dad and his thick southern drawl made me miss home!!! But It was a fantastic night and can't wait for many more to come.

 Some of the gang

THE BIKE SHOW

 This last Sunday, we had a big fundraiser up at Living Hope which was a bike show. Throughout the day hundreds of guys on motorcycles came to our campus to show off their one of a kind bikes or just to come enjoy some live music..good food and a fun atmosphere. I was in charge of making sure all these people got a green wrist band once they paid. In the begging I thought I had the easiest job ever..the guy would drive up, some not even get off their bikes to pay and id just slap a band on em. That was until at one point you look up over the hill and on the road coming our way was a huge group of riders, easily 40 coming in all at once. I started peeling off the sticky part of the bands and just sticking them to my shirt so I could run from person to person. At one point I had about 25 green strips all over my shirt. This was after the madness but you get the idea

 Then once the day was coming to a more steady pace, I sat myself down in the shade and helped with the money!

 

 It was a very successful fundraiser from what I could tell. There were bikes there that people had back in the 1940's and some that were decked out to just look awesome. One guy had his all custom painted about the detail on his was just unbelievable. If your a bike person you would have loved it. And all proceeds went to a good cause :]

 && that is a quick preview of what I've been up to these past few days..you'd think i never go to work! haha ohh trust me that's what keeps me the most busy.

OHHHHH almost forgot, the new committee I get to be a part of. So yesterday, Avril who is pretty much the boss..shes the wife of John, who is the founder of Living Hope, well she's just a free spirit and wants to do anything and everything. Well it's amazing that she wants to be so involved in getting new things started but there is only one of her and she cant be everywhere. Well yesterday Jennifer and myself had a meeting with her, she just wanted to catch up see how we were doing. She is so so sweet and has an open door policy so if we ever need her she is there..most of the time! Anyways to cut to the chase I am now a part of this new Men's outreach team. haha yeah I know why would I be a part of this since im a girl. Well she gave us some options of different things shes going to start up these next few months and this one just stuck out to me. 

There is an ongoing trend of men NOT going to clinics to get tested. So what this new outreach program is wanting to accomplish is get out in the surrounding townships and target the men and just find out what the real reason is behind not going. Today we had our first meeting and we had all the guys there were at the main campus to come in and sit down with us. We wanted to see what they thought was the reason these men won't get tested. Mind you, me and Avril were the only girls in the room and I will probably be the only girl from now on since well its Avril. But I was introduced as the go to girl, the administrator of this new program. Hopefully by the end of my 8 months here this will really be something I get to experience a change in. See numbers of men we've outreached to that ended up going to the clinics and what not. I LOVE all the guys im working with so it'll give me some feeling of being back home, since I hang out with alot of guys there. But I really am excited to see what God is going to do with me during this time. 

Well I hope you enjoyed the essay I just wrote! goodness sakes. 

Just asking for continues prayers for me while I am here. Not only for my safety but just that God uses me to speak his words and be his hands and feet in these communities.

If you are willing to take the opportunities you are given
and utilize the abilities you have,
you will constantly fill your life
with special moments and unforgettable times.

-Dena DiIaconi