Thursday=travel

Two weeks ago today we left home. That is 14 nights in different beds. Is that suffering? Not really. Beds are good!

Today we are traveling again. We are taking the PREMIUM train from Johannesburg to Cape Town. It is an overnight -25 hour-experience.

Hopefully, we will have wi-fi sometime soon. We can get 30 minutes at the local Mug and Bean. Think Panera's.

I will post soon about our J-burg days.

Rolling far from home

It is Tuesday and we are now in Johannesburg . Six team members flew back to the states Monday night so we rode into the airport with them. There we took the Gautrain to Sandton station. Wonderful experience! There we were met by Adrienne Towe Penner & husband Nathan. We had dinner at a lovely African restaurant at the Nelson Mandela Square

They made arrangements for us to stay at a Baptist Missionary housing. They even picked us up a few groceries so we had a good breakfast. We are meeting them later for lunch and to visit the Apartheid museum.

Just counted on my fingers. This is our 13th day on the road. Still rolling! We are at a Paneras type shop using the wi-fi.

Our Sabbaoth

It was another beautiful day. We are 7 hours ahead of the eastern time zone. We should be watching the Super Bowl, but we will be going to bed soon. There is no tv here. If you have a tv you have to pay the government an annual tax or registration to use it. We saw a tv in the golf course restaurant. There was a soccer game and a summo wrestling show. Don't think American football is all that important.

Today we went to the Light House Church at the Del Cramer campus in the village. We helped serve the lunch. Every Sunday they feed all the children that attend and feed the adults if there is enough food. We could see the weather changing. Looked like rain in the distances and then we could see the red dust clouds. Just getting to the cars we were covered in the red gritty dust. Blew in our eyes, nose, and mouth. I will have to have the camera professionally cleaned.

We had lunch in a tree nursery--quite quaint. Then a few of us went to a large cat sanctuary. There we saw Lions and cheetahs up close, but behind a fence. Our guide was a young college graduate student from Mexico City. We learned a lot from her. We had time for a 3 mile hike to end the afternoon.

Tomorrow most of our team will depart for the states so after dinner tonight we sat around the fire circle and had a time of sharing and reflecting. It has been a very good experience for all of us.

Don and I are staying in country. Since we are here we want to see other parts of South Africa. We will ride to the Johannesburg airport with some of team. Then we are off to explore.

A quiet Saturday

Today we have taken a good hike. A few are golfing and there is a choir practice for church tomorrow. It is Jim Blessman's birthday today. That must mean a party later. We will see.

Yesterday the first load left at 7:00 am. The Capitol cityofPolokwane is over an hour away. We went to a large gift store to do some souvenir shopping. The vehicle went to the dealer for some service. After the next two groups shopped we squeezed into two vehicles and drove to Northern Academy. There we setup a vision clinic and saw 60-75 of the staff. This school has 3900 students of which half are housed there. It is a k-12 private school. We did the vision screening and were able to interact--visit and pray--with each person. We quickly learned of the hardships, crime and other issues that are part of their daily lives.

Our meal for the day was at Mall of the North in Polokwane. Just like home, sort of like home. There was a LTD store and a Sunglass Hut. We did see all the brand name merchandise. We had our meal and the stroll through some of the mall, then loaded into three vehicles and went back to the Academy. At 6 on Friday evenings a local pastor holds a youth group on the campus. It is limited to high schoolers that live on campus, but over a thousand were in attendance. They rocked the house with praise and worship. Dr. Blessman spoke and so did Mona Butters, one of Blessman's board members from Iowa. We are certainly having some wonderful experiences.

It was past 9:30 when we returned. It was too late to post so it is nice to have time today.

I still can't post pictures here. I keep trying so my pics are flying in cyber space.

Thursday --- groundhog day

Funny how when you are in a different place, you forget what is happening back home. We totally forgot about Groundhog day. It was sunny and around 80 here in mokapane, S.A. Our activity today was to go to a center for handicapped children. They are just a day center and are hosted in a church. There were two ladies and about 25 kids. It was the best run place of any that we have visited. We interacted with them for a couple of hours--building with blocks, tossing balls, the hokey pokey and observing their routines. We helped serve Meals from the heartland, too.

After our sack lunch of PB&j we toured some other locations. There was the gas station for a bathroom, an elementary school, and another feeding center.

We were back home rather early this afternoon.

Tomorrow is a long day. We will be gone from 7am to 9:30pm. There is down time for some local shopping, another vision clinic in the afternoon and a youth gathering at night in the Capitol city of Polokwane. Woo-hoo.

Don & I had a walk this afternoon. We saw the kudu deer and the monkeys. One of the rules here is that if you let a monkey in your room, you have to do the clean up. Good night. Jan

Ps still unable to get my pics here. Posted three on Facebook.

Safari continued

We took a safari this afternoon at Entabene. We saw giraffes, zebra, sable, wart hogs, wildebeest, impalas, kudus, white rhinos, black backed jackals, lions and a hippo. There was even a hot air balloon. So I have pics in my camera. I think I could put a couple on my phone or Dons iPad , but I haven't been able to get them to the blog. I have put a couple on Facebook.

We are going to visit a home tomorrow that cares for the handicapped. We will also visit another center that feeds children. Thanks for your prayers.

Wednesday we went on a safari!!

We spent most of our day at the Del Cramer Campus of Blessman Ministries. We cleaned and rePaired and painted. Don and I painted restroom stalls and an exterior wall. Now everything is painted the same color as the red soil and dust. We brought over some tools, but it seems like everyday we wish that we had brought other things--paint brushes, toys,sports equipment, books umbrellas, etc. Next time.

Today Erik Hansen from KCCI tv and photographer, Jesse, departed to Iowa. These guys were great. They think there will be reports next Wed & Thursday on the 10 o'clock news. Watch for teasers

They shot videos of all the ministry locations as well as their safari and their walk with lions. They had planned to go to the 19th golf hole at Legends via helicopter. It was too breezy todo.

We don't expect that we will appear but hope that we will get to see it. They said videos go up on their web site the following morning.