josiahphilip.com

Hey everyone! The last couple of weeks have been so busy. We have done so much. This week was our last week at our service sites. This week I had the opportunity to go to the local primary school with three other team members. We spoke to about 1000 students about substance abuse and HIV/AIDS. It was so good. We also brought 3 young adults that we were working with at Walk in the Light to talk to the students. One of them shared their story about drugs abuse. Chad talked about HIV/AIDS. There was a really cool moment where Chad was telling the kids if people would only have one partner AIDS would eventually go away. Alfred, one of the guys who came, stopped in the middle of translating and asked Chad if it was true. Such a cool moment.

I knew when we went there the kids would be super excited. They were. I was blown away. It took us fifteen minutes to get out of the school. I have never given so many high fives, hand shakes, and make eye contact with so many people. Beforehand I prepared myself for it. As strange as it was to be treated like a celebrity because I am white and I am an American, I realized that it is a big deal for white Americans to come to the school. I embraced it and tried to say hello, make eye contact, and shake as many hands as humanly possible. It was so cool.

A lot happened this week. Bruce liked the paintings Jessica was doing so much he kept having her do more and more. A significant portion of the building now has murals. One of my friends was extremely scared of cats. All semester we have been trying to get her to touch a cat. She finally touched a cat this week. We were not able to finish the mud kitchen ourselves, but it is very close and some of the people who work at Walk in the Light will finish it for us.

This week completely changed the way I view Walk in the Light. I am extremely thankful for Walk in the Light, Bruce, Phendile, & Neils. I have learned so much in such a short time. It was a great experience.

I made a video, hope you like it :)

Last Weekend we had the long awaited safari. It was absolutely incredible. I saw so many amimals extremely close.

I saw elephants, wart hogs, cape buffalo, white rhinos, monkeys, impalaz, nyalas, giraffes, zebras, spiders, incredible birds, mosquitoes, crocodiles, hippos, lions (well through binoculars), and more!

It was definitely an African Safari. We stayed in permanent tents within the park. One night an elephant actually came into our camp while we were sleeping. We were able to get extremely close to breeding herds of elephants.

The whole time I was in the park I could not stop relating things to Disney movies. I have never had this problem before, but now I do. I was extremely disappointed when I found out there were only Pumbas in the park and no Timons.

Unfortunately I had a crazy allergic reaction to something on the safari, I got a rash and my eyes itched and were extremely painful. I took out my contact hoping to get some relief, it did not work, the pain got even worse. Luckily my body is recovering. The rash is going away and my eyes are doing better.

Well enough talking, I will just show you the pictures!

I filmed this video!