josiahphilip.com » South Africa

Final Week @ Walk in the Light

josiahphilip — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:30:20 +0000

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 :)

Safari time :)

josiahphilip — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:25:17 +0000

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!

2 Months

josiahphilip — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:50:01 +0000

I cannot believe 2 months ago TODAY I began this crazy adventure! South Africa has truly been such an incredible experience. I experienced a brief honeymoon stage followed by a long homesick stage. Now I am out of the homesick stage, but I still really do miss home. I am doing everything in my power to take advantage of every opportunity handed to me here in South Africa.

This week has been a huge learning and growing experience. I enjoyed my second week at my ministry site. We were a lot busier than last week and the weather was cooler. We got a lot done. I was frustrated because I felt underutilized again. I hate feeling like what I am doing does not matter. It bothers me when I spend the morning sitting down because there is nothing I can do. If I could take one lesson from that experience it would be to never let volunteers feel underutilized. If volunteers ask for more to do, give them more to do because they truly want to do more. If people feel underutilized it causes people to be devalued and they may not want to do ministry with that organization again.

On a better note, it has recently come to my attention how much I am learning here. Our campus pastor and his family from APU is here right now. It has been really good to get to know him and his family. It has helped me to see other people learning the same things we have been learning the past two months. I cannot believe how fast I have begun to forget the problems and issues here, it has been good to remember the needs of South Africa.

One of the things I am able to do in my service site is do home visits for people who are sick. I really enjoy my home visits and being able to hear people’s stories. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is such a huge problem with no end in sight. It is hard to see so many people suffer. I am learning to love people in a whole new way. I am learning to look past what kind of house people have and see people as children of God. This is a constant learning experience and I definitely do not have it mastered. I am just learning.

On Friday it was the National Day of Prayer for South Africa, it was incredible to have the opportunity to pray for this country. I have learned so much from these people; I am so thankful for this incredible experience

As much as I love life here in South Africa, I am counting down the days until I land at LAX.

Last week I found out that I am going to be an RA at school this fall! I am so excited! For all of you APU people I will be in The Village West! I am so excited for the incredible opportunity.

Here are some pics!!! :)