I'm an official old lady. Without the advantage of a great parking space.

Highlights of my day!

-waking up at 6 AM to skype with the beautiful Katherine Barton! She is such an encouragement! It was a blessing to my SOUL to catch up with her!!! Prayer partners, sisters, encouragers, accountability… girl, we’ve got it all J You are SO shiny for Jesus!!!!!

-Skyping those rascals, the Nightingales! Dad is super smiley and I LOVE it! J Hopefully next time shall be longer, loved ones!! Miss you Tom Tom! And Clinty!

-Singing on worship team. I felt so blessed to help lead 55 amazing people in worship… SO good! Can I get an AMEN?!

-Skyping with they-who-make-my-life-complete, the peanut butter to my jelly, the mac to my cheese….. Danielle and Francesca!!! You guys, I miss you so much it’s not even funny. Like, it’s not ok. My heart hurts for you. I have so much to say that I can’t say it… so much that I have so little… (a little philosophy for you, Danielle! =P)

-Skyping with Mommy. I miss you, wonderful lady!!!

Mall run today!!! Mall runs are just NOT THE SAME without Mama! We are speed shoppers! Oh so talented. If there was a shopping event at the Olympics, BAM! Can you say Gold Medal, Baby?! My run today reminded me somewhat of junior highers. No offense to you lovelies out there! You know when you go to the mall because you can’t drive, but you have nothing else to do, so you have your mom drop you off at the mall, and you have like $10, so what can you buy? Lip gloss? WOOOOOOOOOOOO party!!! (No, really it can be party. Be positive, please. =P) It is a foreign experience (LITERALLY) to go to the mall for FUN. I went to hang out with people, not to add to my already-ridiculous wardrobe.

PS:  After seeing one township of complete poverty, I am having a super hard time buying anything. Many people here are buying clothes and accessories, which is totally fine… but not for me, yet. I can’t forget. I will forever carry this image of a little girl playing in the dirt under a bunch of clothes on a clothesline because there’s not enough room in her shack for her whole family, let alone clothes. For me, it is an image that is not easily forgotten. Not that I won’t ever go shoe shopping again. That’s impractical. But I am definitely going to limit myself and take that memory into account. So far? I don’t need any merchandise. So I didn’t buy any.

BUT! Back to the mall run. Once we were there, I decided upon a MISSION: I would scavenge to find more blue hair dye (I’m FADING!!! Call 911! Wait, no- CALL THE EMBASSY!!!) Apparently the only unnatural COLOUR (<- check it. My Inter communications prof, Clive, would be so proud. “RRRRennna! [He RRRRolls his RRRRRs.] You aRRRRRe adapting!”) you are allowed to dye your hair is fire engine RED. I searched and searched for the blue my heart yearned for! But alas…. Sniff sniff… no blue was to be found. So I got the South African equivalent of Sun In instead. Blonde instead of blue. Eh! What a trade! I am super excited to try it! Everybody pray my hair doesn’t turn orange. I have rocked purple, copper, and blue… I will take on the challenge of orange, but only if provoked J.

For intercom, we wrote an essay describing what we see when we look in the “cultural mirror.” Nice one, Clive. I began my essay thus:

“Mirror, mirror, I detect

who the heck do you reflect?”

The prof said it was a chill essay and that he wanted to get to know us. Hope he likes my sass… I hope that’s acceptable in this culture… Hmmm… maybe I should research that before turning that in? J

Although I thought the essay to be quite silly and pointless at first, it actually helped me realize how influenced I am by American culture! Almost everything I think, feel, like, eat, etc. is in some way related to America. Think about it…

I was inspired to work at Forest Home today. It has been such a HUGE part of my life, as in childhood AND spiritual development. Ideally, it would be a dream come true to be the worship leader for Indian Village or Adventure Mountain. Anybody wanna tutor me in guitar? Wanted: positive guitar teacher who knows many user-friendly worship songs for an “almost-advanced-ish-beginner?” J

RANDOM:

-Apparently, dyslexia is a side effect of jet lag. Good one, Mom.

-The length of time I am studying abroad is equivalent to 3-5 years of GROWTH had I remained in the states. WHOA!!!! Right?! At minimum, I am getting a YEAR’S worth of maturity PER MONTH. Well, shoot. I already thought I was a mature 17 year old. Now, I’ll officially be an old lady on the inside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Take Liver! (if that confuses you, please go back and read my previous blogs. It is obvious you haven’t been doing your homework. =P) The world won’t end today because I already lived today. EHHH?! J

-“Clive! One more notch would do it!” From Deb. (Our intercom prof [clive-ster] wears his pants dangerously loose. He spends the entire class pulling up his pants.)

-“Look at you! Glue-stealing spider-killer!" For Deb. (She stole a glue stick for our project [temporarily!] and smashed a deadly African spider on our window. She’s boss.)

I loved talking to my home-skizzles from the states today! Miss you all. Love you like no other.

I feel like tomorrow is going to be a hard day… I don’t know why….

As you read this, please know that I would love to hear about YOU! What’s new? What are you going through? How can I pray for you? I feel selfish taking all of the attention J .

Shalom!