Summer in SA
Its gettin' hot in here! As summer begins in SA, the bugs come out in full force. I like them though, well sort of. As I walked to lectures I stop and stare brightly colored bugs, and remember being a kid reading about walking sticks and wishing I could see a real one. Now I have! Praying mantises and scary venomous spiders in the kitchen, flying ants when it rains, red and black millipedes. They’re beautiful to me. People laugh at me as I stop and watch the bugs, but I enjoy it. Its amazing to me how much I’ve seen here, and I don’t feel like I’ll have enough time to see everything I would have liked. Classes have officially ended and it’s the month of exams.
I’m going to miss walking up the hill to class and being late because I run into friends and stop to talk. (They tell me I got used to "African time" very quickly, I think that's why.) I’m starting to go all nostalgic, but I really will miss dancing in the sweltering heat in the music room, and the sweet people in the dorms who drop notes under my door to say hello, the girls on my floor who ask how I am everyday and like to watch me cook funny food in the kitchen. I’ll miss the lady at the campus coffee shop who knows what I’m going to order and smiles at “Miss America”, and my favorite cab driver who is more like an uncle. I might even miss the ridiculously loud “duf duf” (house) music in the mini buses, and the monkeys running around. But most of all I’ll miss the great friends I’ve made here. Isn’t that always the hardest thing to leave? It’s so bittersweet; I get to go back to wonderful people and lots of love at home. But I feel like I’m walking away from such good people here too. It will be sad to see this adventure end. It has been a growing journey that God knows I needed to take. I’ve learned my own strength, learned to face my fears, and that doing so is very much worth it. I’ve learned about other cultures and other ways of life, I’ve learned about my own soul in the process. I feel so rich for all of it, my life is richer for the people I’ve met and the relationships I’ve made; for the things I’ve seen and felt. Before I left home, I was in such a good situation; wonderful people, beautiful state, good life. But I wanted more. I wanted to see more, to really understand it. My mom said to me, “I knew you wanted to get away but I didn’t think you’d have to go to the other side of the world!” I guess I did. I needed to see life in bigger terms. Every minute, even the hard ones, have been valuable and well worth overcoming the fear. I am so thankful for it all.
I’m heading to Cape Town in a couple of weeks, after exams; very excited to do so. From the moment I got here everyone told me I couldn’t leave South Africa without visiting Cape Town, it should be an incredible getaway!
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