London to South Africa!!!!

Its been a while but here it is.....Now I have been home and the internet is less expensive I will give you a big update.

Well I left Miami and headed for South Africa. I traveled with my friend Brittany and we had a 12 hour layover in London and boy, we were excited, but tired. We had about 6 hours in downtown London and got to see the sights like the London Eye, Big Ben, St. James Park, Buckingham Palace and my fave, a local Fish and chips pub! It was a great time and it made it easier to sleep on the 11 hour plane flight to Cape town! We walked a lot which helped me stay awake! But Brittany manned the underground transpotation map and got us to the places we needed to see! I manned the street map which was fun but sometimes a little confusing! The weather was definitely cooler than Panama! We had some sun but a cool wind that blew all day! It felt like fall. Luckily Brittany had an extra sweater because guess who didn't even think to grab hers! Ya you guessed it, me!

On to South Africa........we arrived in the morning which helps you go about your day to try to defeat good ole Jet lag! We were met by two of our friends and they had picked some beautiful flowers to make us welcome. S.A. was a change from Panama in sights and weather, not to mention they drive on the other side of the road! We got to stay a couple of nights with the rest of our team that was in South Africa while we were in Panama. Jon showed Brittany and I around some of the coastal towns and especially to see the penguins. That was Brittany's firts goal was to see the penguins! Not your ordinary Penguins, they live in the sand! We arrived in there begining spring months and you pretty much were always cold and then if the wind died down you were hot no in between!

Our plans in SA were to go to a YWAM conference at a Spa/resort. This Resort had little round houses that we stayed in with a kitchen and a bathroom and three beds. They call them Rondowels (ron-dov-als) they were kind of fun but cold.....they don't have indoor heating. The resort had a nice natural hot springs that we got to swim and realx in. It was nice to have hot water in general since in Panama we had cold water.

Then after the conference we headed off over the mountain to a retreat center to debrief. Debrief was to get us ready to return home and know that as we have changed so had home and just some ideas to prepare us for that return! I had a great time and experience. I met wonderful people and formed lots of great friendships and it really was a familly! Not to mention the living in community which makes it feel like family but it was a christ centered family, focused on each other and learning not to just focus on ones self!

I am missing a lot of these people but its great to know that I will see them all again on day, here on earth or in heavan!