February- saying goodbye to SOS, Germany & Chicago!

In February I had to say good bye to the kids at the SOS Children's Village - it was soooo hard!! I love these kids so much! Above is my friend Sarah, she's beautiful, sweet, smart and giving. I miss her immensely and hope I will be able to stay in touch...below are some of the kids posing by my car as I was getting ready to leave...neither of us really wanted me to go though!!
When I left Cape Town I flew to Germany where I toured around for a week visiting past volunteers who are all now good friends....a lot of fabulous reunions...first pic, me, Bao-Nhi, Feli and Edith in front of the dom in Cologne...Then here's me with Nina, Isabel and Caro at Nina's house in Schwabisch Hall...
Then, here's Theres, Birgit and Isabel posing with the giant teddy in front of a teddy bear store...And finally here's Steffi, Jessi and me goofing around while out shopping - gorgeous, eh?!


Then I flew into Chicago and stayed a few days with another past volunteer, Amy. And was joined by Gabe, Charlotte (visiting from Norway!) KT, here in this pic along with me and Amy. Lots of craziness and laughter!!

We had to show Charlotte the city, so here's a pic we took at what KT called "the bean" - I forget what the official name of it is, but I love the reflection of the city in it - too cool!! It was a really fabulous time! Then finally, I took the Amtrak back to Iowa and was greeted by my parents and my sister and her family! It was so great to see everyone!!

January - Youth Week & Botswana

In January YFC South Africa always has a youth camp called Youth Week from the 3-9th. Usually most of the Cape Town YFC International Volunteers go. Everyone said how much fun it was so I decided I needed to check it out. We chartered a bus to take everyone from Cape Town, about 50, and the trip took 20 hours! It was pretty fun, though much of the time I felt pretty old...yea, obviously I've left my youth behind a lllloooonnnngggg time ago! =:) It was a lot of sports and a lot of worship followed by a speaker, twice a day...overall I had a good time... Then I got on the bus with the YFC group from Botswana and went back with them. Gabarone, the capitol of Botswana is only about 4 hours from Johannesburg so it was a much shorter ride than the ride back to Cape Town!Here is a picture of the YFC office in Mochudi, Botswana. This is where the bulk of YFC's ministry takes place in Botswana. Its about an hour from the capitol city. I also got to meet all the international volunteers currently in Botswana, this is a pic of them.Most importantly, I got to visit the Orphan day care YFC runs in Mochudi. My main task when I get back to Botswana is to get another one of these started in another area of Botswana. It will be a whole new challenge for me! It was a great visit...then I flew back to Cape Town to start saying good bye... =:(

December 2008

In December, 12 of us volunteers and our project manager, Andre and his wife, Lindsay, decided to go on a road trip once school was out. So we rented a large van and headed out... ....we saw this lion at a wild life ranch and saw the Cango Caves in Oudtshoorn.... ...then headed to Knysna and checked out the lagoon... and the Big Tree (its BIG! =:) ....then we laid on the beach in Plettenberg Bay (also went to beaches in Jeffrey's Bay & Durban)then on to Port Elizabeth where we went to the Addo Elephant Park...here's me with the ellies! In Durban we also went to UShaka! Which is part Sea World, part water park, part mall...the water slides were a great way to beat the heat - it was very HOT in Durban!! Then we made the long trip home....took two days, driving about 11 hours a day... here's a pic of the whole group, minus Helen, who took the pic! We were home in time for Christmas but during the trip my wallet and cell phone were stolen so I wasn't so much in a festive mood.... pretty much stayed at home and took it easy.... saved what little cash I had....