Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day, a time to appreciate the gift of mothers. Many times we don't realize hoe special these ladies are. My mum has been an incredible inspiration to me, and despite not always seeing eye to eye on some things, I'm ever so thankful for having her as my mum. Her and my dad definately had their work cut out for them raising my siblings and me. It's one of those holidays that have two dates, depending on in which country you're in. In the US Mother's Day is the second Sunday in May, whilst in the UK it's the fourth Sunday in lent, so in other words, yesterday. Sadly, this year I wasn't able to celebrate with my gorgeous mother. Leaving a card with my great aunt wasn't exactly the same as being able to be with her. She and my dad are in the Netherlands at the moment and will be traveling back to South Africa with in the next few days. It's strange being in England and not having been able to see them.

I spent most of Friday morning with a very good friend of the family who lives near where I've been staying. Mum delivered this lady's son twenty-five odd years ago (before my parents met and were married) and they stayed in touch. Her husband was away at a medical conference, but it was really nice seeing this lady. On Friday morning, I was also able to get my hands on a PINsentry card reader, which I didn't get when my bank card arrived. So now banking online is a whole lot easer than without one. I think one was sent to my great aunt's, which can serve as a back up one, which would be ever so handy. Personally I think it was a very good thing that I was able to get it when I did because that particular card reader the last that the Ramsgate branch had there. A miracle!

The journey to Dunstable, where my cousins, Taz, Alastair and Lindsey, live was dramatic as it sometimes gets. I arrived at the station in Broadstairs early and that I had already printed my tickets out, which was fortunate as my train arrived two minutes. When I got to St. Pancras International I had no idea which direction I needed to go to get the train to Luton. So after after asking a few people I was able to find the right platform. A train to Bedford (I think it was) was just pulling into the station when I got there. I vaguely saw that one of the stations it was calling at was Luton, so I lept on. I then wasn't sure because there wasn't any announcements or displays saying which stations the train was calling at. So I asked someone and they said the train should be stopping at Luton, so I spent half an hour or so worried I was on the wrong train and that I'd be in trouble. The conductor didn't say anything when he saw my ticket and Railcard, which didn't really help me with the nerves. However, thankfully I was on the right train. Then there was bus journey. I had no idea which side of the concourse I needed to be on, so I asked again and was directed to the other side. I was fortunate here too. Through out this journey my mind kept bringing up memories of Brazil, of traveling there, the second train somehow reminded me of the train journeys in São Paulo and the bus was a bit like travelling by bus in Belo Horizonte, though travelling in Brazil is good deal more chaotic than British traveling.

Saturday morning, I walked around Dunstable whilst Taz and Lindsey had a cake decoration class for Mother's Day. We then dropped Lindsey at her dance and drama class before doing a spot of shopping. We then went to collect Lindsey, and took the dogs with us. Ellie was trained as a hunting dog but was dumped because she wasn't doing what she was supposed to do, so Taz sent her running after her ball so that she'd burn some energy. Rocco had to stay on the lead because once he'd be let off, he'd been off and wouldn't come back. Rocco had been locked in a garage for five years, on his own, with irregular food and water, so he's still learning how to behave when around other dogs. He used to be ever so protective about his food, and though he isn't so bad, he still doesn't like people going anywhere near his food.

Then on Mother's Day (yesterday), the clocks all changed by an hour, as the European summer time has begun, so we all got an hour less of sleep. It's funny, last year the clocks changed over Easter weekend, so we got an hour less of sleep on Easter Sunday. I remember being in Latvia over that time. Funny. Anyway, poor Lindsey was yawning quite a bit towards the end of the day. It was actually nice that we stayed at home and didn't go anywhere. Taz is a trained chef and made us a lovely roast dinner. It was absolutely delicious. Alastair has two beared dragons, Norman and Norma, and Lindsey also has a pet lizard, named Lenard. I jumped at the opportunity to feed Norma and Norman their locusts. I guess growing up in Africa means that I'm used to locusts and grasshoppers as we see a lot of them there. It was actually a lot of fun feeding them. They're lovely, good tempered creatures. I forgot to take a photo of the guinia pig, who is another of Lindsey's pets.

I've just gotten back to Broadstairs, safely. The bus and train journeys both were relatively uneventful. I did loose my beanie and gloves on the bus and realized I'd done this when I was already on the train to St. Pancras International. They hadn't costed much but it was still rather frustrating that I hadn't been more careful with my things. I was also fortunate to be able to get a coffee whilst I was waiting for my second train, as I had been able to get on an earlier train at Luton and there wasn't an earlier train to Broadstairs, so my journey took a bit longer than I would have thought. However, that coffee I bought was from Starbucks Coffee. It's the first one I've had in a very long time, believe it or not, so the wait was worth it.

The photograph captions, from the top: Rocco, the Siberian husky; Ellie and Lindsey, Ellie's a spaniel; Lenard, Lindsey's lizard; Norma, the female bearded dragon; Lindsey, and the last photograph is of Norman, the male bearded dragon.

Days Like This!

Greetings from beautiful Broadstairs. For those of you who don't know where Broadstairs is, it's a little costal town near Ramsgate, on the eastern coast of England, near Dover.

Here's a few things that you might find interesting to read about, a few things that have happened in the life and times of the blogger, me.

Today I was involved in another Easter Cracked program, like I was last week. If you haven't read my previous post, I'll explain what Easter Cracked is. All the schools in England have a few weeks holiday over Easther, but not everyone knows what Easter really is. So the whole reason Easter Cracked is run is to help school children who are in their last year of primary school (ten and eleven year olds) understand what Easter is really about. It went a bit differently from last week's program, despite having the same amount of children present. I do think all the kids, and their teachers, really enjoyed themselves and were able to take something home with them.

Over the weekend I'm going off to see some of my family, one of my uncle's kids and grandkids.  I'm really to going and spending time with them as I haven't seen them in over a year and a half, not since before I sent my DTS application off to YWAM Heidebeek in the Netherlands. It's also quite exciting for me as I'm going to be traveling by train to see them, and that's still quite a novelty as I haven't done a lot of traveling by train during my time in Africa. They don't have a passanger railway system in Uganda and we haven't used the one from Nairobi, Kenya, to the coast in years. Thankfully I have been able to get a British Railcard, which arrived this last Tuesday along with my bank card. The Railcard will hugely reduce what I'm paying on my train tickets, and as I'm doing to be visiting family and friends throughout my time in YWAM, having a Railcard takes a huge amount of money off what I'd otherwise be forced to pay for a ticket on a train that's going out of London.

Lucy

The family I'm staying with have a lovely spaniel named Lucy, pictured here. If you've been visiting my blipfoto journal you might have seen the picture I posted of her (if you haven't, then just click here). Lucy is twelve years old. Something that many find hard to believe when they've witnessed Lucy's before food antics, which usually includes springing about with all four paws off the ground like a circus dog, or watches her mad rushing about when someone she knows walks through the door. Yet, despite all of this, she gets a lot of sleep. Some of these places have been quite odd, like in the laundry basket. She wasn't in there long, probably because the basket was cold and there were clothes pegs underneath her. She's a lot of fun to be around and has a very unique personality, that's for sure! For some reason, she's made me realize how much I miss my own little dash hound, Bessie, with her own quirks and personality traits. I've written about Bessie on my blog before and there have been times when I've asked myself and God if I'll ever be able to see Bessie, and her mum, Natasha (Hannah's dog), whilst they're still alive. Bessie's six years old and Tasha's eight. I know the smaller breeds are more likely to live longer than the bigger breeds, but I still wonder if I'll ever see my beautiful and very naughty scallywag again.

I've been doing a lot of walking since I got here, out of the shear pleasure of it. Well, most of the time. There have been occasions when I did not want to stick my nose out the door because of the sharp edge to the wind, or that promise of rain. It's taken a lot of determination to do that, but it's been worth it. I kinda had to tell myself that I needed to get used to the weather here as English weather isn't always nice. The weather today was actually really nice, so before leaving to do the Easter Cracked, I walked from Broadstairs into Ramsgte, and I really enjoyed it. I didn't spend as much time there as I would have liked to, because I wasn't sure how long it would take me to walk back to Broadstairs. However, at some point next week, I'll be walking that way again and I'm definately looking forwards to doing that, well, of the weather's nice enough to be doing it. I don't much like walking in the rain,

I still can't believe I'm here in England and that the BLS is going to be starting soon! It's a dream come true, almost. I might have mentioned this before but being part of a BLS is a family thing now. My parents both did DTS's, my mum was part of the YWAM base in Hong Kong, whilst my dad did his in England, at a base called Holmsted Manor. My dad had already done one or two BLSs when my mum joined the team. That's how they met, but I'm kindly asking you, my dear reader, not to make any assumptions in regards to my relationship status and whether or not it'll change after the BLS. If you have any ideas, please keep them to yourselves or you could tell God what you think about it. The reason I'm doing a BLS is to follow where The Lord had called me and to serve Him in the BLS classroom and on outreach, the purpose of a BLS not to find a husband, no matter what your opinions are.

Whilst we're on the topic of relationships, I do want to say this. Over the last few days I've realized, again, how grateful for the friendships God has given me over the course of my life. Many of the friends I made in my early teens are still my very good friends, though not all of my relationships have been good ones, as I was bullied quite a bit through out my teens. Though I've learnt through them, not only about the others involved but about myself as well. Though all my relationships, I've grown stronger and closer to God. I know that you'd find it tedious reading through a whole long list of names, I know I would, and, because I'm only human, there's a big chance I'll accidentally forget people's names, spell them wrong or something along those lines. So, instead, I'm just going to say that the people who have touched my life is a positive way know who they are and they know the impact they've had on my life. Even if it's long hours of deep, intensive discussion, often late into the night, over bottles of soda and snacks. Then there have been those moments of rib-cracking, tears-pouring-down-my-cheeks type of laughter over a silly joke or something like that, its the memories I won't forget and the lessons I've learnt from you all. So here's a BIG MEGA thank you to those special people. You are awesome the way you are! So don't you ever try and change yourselves to please other people (its a lesson I had to learn the hard way... Don't make the same mistake as I did)!

To close my post off, I probably won't write again until I'm back from my time away, but do feel free to take a look around my site.

News Tidbits

Greetings, dear reader, from the beautiful English countryside.

April begins in less than a week's time and the BLS get closer with every passing day. I'm really looking forwards to the start of the school, though I'm really nervous about it, like I was with the start of the DTS eighteen months ago. I have an idea of what to except but at the same I'm not totally sure what to expect even though I grew up on my parents' stories of when they were part of different BLSs.

Looking back on to March 2013, now twelve months ago. The Classic DTS of 2012 finished in the first week, which was a dramatic event, in and of itself. One thing that I was able to look forwards to, through out the weeks after the DTS ended, was going to visit a dear friend of mine in Latvia. My antics in regards to seeing the snow made my friend laugh quite a bit, as I'd never see so much of it before, whilst she was used to seeing snow a lot. It was the first white Easter I had ever had and I'll never forget it. Easter of 2013 was at the end of March, falling on the weekend when the clocks changed, this year is another matter. Easter Sunday is on April 20 and well into spring, hopefully. I'm hoping that the weather will be nice, but being England, you really never know what might happen a few weeks down the road.

Since I arrived in Broadstairs last week, quite a bit has happened in my life. I've been able to help out with an Easter program. It's called Easter Cracked. English schools all have Easter holidays. The school year is planned that Easter falls between the second and third school terms. However, there aren't a huge number of children who know what Easter is really about. Many think it's about chocolate eggs, rabbits and baby chicks. Easter Cracked is designed to explain what Easter is really about to youngsters who don't know. So on Thursday (20 March), a class of year six students (year six is last year of the British primary school) came to the church, where a number of willing church members, following the Easter Cracked program, explained to the students and their teachers, all about Easter. A lot of the kids had been involved in the Christmas Cracked (a similar program explaining what Christmas is about), so they knew what to expect of the program as, I gathered, the way both programs faun are similar. I think the children and their teachers really enjoyed and got a lot out of it.

I've also been able to get some of things On my check list of items for the BLS. When I left South Africa I made the decision to leave my bedroll and sleeping bag with my brother, Caleb, so that he could use them on his school trips, for sleep overs and the like. Frustratingly, I'm a rather sentimental person, and both those items had been to Brazil with me (which means that I wasn't too keen to part with them because of the memories I have of going to Brazil with my awesome team) but the fact that my weight limit didn't allow me to bring both, I'm glad my brother got them because I know that he'd have something to take with him on his trips. It did mean I'd have to get a bedroll and sleeping bag for outreach. I went to the nearest big shopping centre  near where I'm staying to do a little bit of shopping and decided to peak into the outdoors shop, just to give myself an idea of how much they'd cost. Low and behold, both the bedroll and the sleeping bag I liked were on discount (nice big discount too). Not to add, the bedroll had a yellow label on it saying that if I found something cheaper, that item was free. So I got me a one litre water bottle, for free.

Another piece of very important Van de Ruit family news is that my beautiful sister, Hannah, has graduated from the supiriour course from Le Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Paris, France. Seven of the other students from her class didn't make the class and Hannah had to experience being around the other students who were getting phone calls telling them they had failed. However Hannah did amazingly, she ranked fourth, and she had the privalage of having our maternal aunt and great-aunt there along with our parents. You may wonder why I haven't gone. The answer is simple. Hannah only had two tickets and managed to get two extra tickets (as some people didn't have family coming and thus weren't using their two tickets) by going into the gray area. It would have been a bit tricky trying to get another one. I think Hannah was ever so pleased that our aunt and great aunt were able to go as they've never been to one of our awards events, due to us living in Africa. Hannah and I have been to all of each other's awards events, save my DTS graduation (which was strickly our DTS only type of event) and now this. I remember almost crying with pride when Hannah got the achievement award (I think) and was made one of the year 13 prefects at boarding school, just weeks before the end of year 12. A year later Hannah got the achievement awards for all three of her subjects. I'm ever so grateful for my clever sister... And my clever brother (who is still in South Africa)!!!

Well, that sums up my news for now. Till next time!

Making Or Breaking, Writing A Book

Greetings, reader! I'm writing this post to the scream of the seagulls, which could be take as an indicator to where I'm staying now. Near the sea. I'm now staying with some friends in Broadstairs. Their house isn't on the seafront but you can see the sea from some of the upstairs windows, like the view from one of windows, of the room I'm staying, in on the third floor.

Since I've been here in Broadstairs (I arrived on Tuesday evening after spending my first few days in England with my mum's aunt), I've been doing quite a bit of thinking, especially about starting a new book. One of things I've loved doing, over the years, is writing books and poems. It's risky saying things like "Yes, I am going to write a book about..." The reason why is simple, actually. I'll either not write the book at all, or it'll end up going a totally different direction that first intended. So I won't tell you what my book's going to be about just yet, simply because I'm still thinking about the details, the characters (their names and descriptions), the location, when it takes place, stuff like that. It's a fragile stage at the moment. There have been people have told me I need to structure my books according to an outline of some kind, but that causes quite a huge problem as I end up writing all sorts of twists and turns that surprise even me, the author. The ideas come quite suddenly and take the whole story away from the intended plot. So getting the story back onto the plot is too complicated for me that I end up giving up on the book all together. I always find it really difficult admitting that a manuscript isn't going anywhere and needs to scrapped because I can't salvage it. The difficulty is because I so want my books to succeed, to be completed, even if no one ever wants to read them when I'm done.

A few years back, I wrote a book for a very dear friend of mine, Sharon. She was coming back to Uganda to visit after being in the United States in university, and I wanted to give her something to take with her to read, something to make her laugh. So Susan, Sharon's younger sister, and I had such fun discussing the different parts in the story, sometimes late into the night. We wanted the characters to be serious and funny at the same time, which was quite a challenge. There were also a few sleepless nights, when the story was coming to me fast and furiously, and I would loose track of time trying to get the story into my laptop fast enough. I think that if I'd been forced to scrap the book right at the end of the year I'd spent writing it, it would have definately take a while for me to start thinking about writing another book. The characters had all been on their own journeys, as the book spans about seven or eight years. The story began before the start of World War II and ending roughly around Victory in Europe Day (8 May 1945*). As the writer, I had been on characters' different journeys with them. I must say that writing isn't what it seems. There are so many lovely books out there and even more that haven't been published. I've never tried to publish the book because I know how problematic publishing a book is (and how dramatic it can be). After much thought, I decided not to bother going down the road of self publication. I guess writing a book whilst in Africa hasn't helped with the publication process. Maybe one day I'll get round to publishing the book myself.

*Important Note: the Second World War doesn't end until Victory over Japan Day (also known as Victory in the Pacific Day), on the 15th of August Japan's surrender was in originally announced and on the 2nd of September, World War Two was brought to an end with the official signing of the surrender document. Whilst the United States celebrates V-J Day the 2nd of September, the United Kingdom celebrates V-J Day on August 15th (the information in this paragraph is sited from Wikipedia).

If you're interested in knowing what it's about, it's about a young woman who's parents had died before the start of the book and she lived about an hour (by train) from London. The story starts with her walking into a soldier, and drops her bag. Thinking he was going to rob her, she slaps him. They do meet later the same day, and over the course of some months, become friends. The war comes and takes them on their separate paths, his goes to war and hers to raising their children, for they had married. There are twists and turns in there, and I deeply enjoyed writing it. Because I wasn't sure what direction the story was going to take, I didn't know what to call it, so for most of the time I spent writing it Susan and I called it 'the book' or 'WWII Manuscript' so even to this day, that's the title that jumps to mind. I can't, for the life of me, remember what title I gave it in the end.

Moving on to other topics, for those of you who are wondering what's going on in my life at the moment, beyond my thoughts of writing books. I mentioned at the beginning of this post (and the location points to this) I'm in Broadstairs, with some dear family friends. Over the next few weeks (after my bank card arrives) I'll be going about, visiting a few friends and family members. My plans will be coming together more next week

My beautiful, talented sister, Hannah has her graduation ceremony tonight in Paris. You're probably wondering why I'm not over there, celebrating, with my parents, aunt and great aunt, but Hannah could only rustle up two extra tickets (she could take two guests with her to begin with). When it was decided who was going with my parents to be with Hannah, I still didn't know know where my next port of call was doing to be after Hoedsruit. My plane ticket was booked toe days before my parents left South Africa (talk about last minute).

The Dramas Involved

The last few days have been rather interesting for me. I've been busy getting used to the weather and the time change, amongst other things. You'd think that going back two hours wouldn't be that big an adjustment to get used to, but it did take me a day or two to get over that. My watch would tell me one time and my body would tell me that my watch was wrong, that it was two hours ahead of the time on my watch.

There's also been a bit of drama with trying to get a telephone number and back account sorted out, which I'm with my great aunt.

Getting a British telephone number and SIM card wasn't that huge a problem to sort out. All it meant I had to do was go to a phone shop, and ask for the company that gives the best deal with Internet data. This means I can use the internet, Facebook, and email from my phone as well as whatsapp  for a very good deal. So I was able to sort that out on Friday, which was the day after I arrived in the UK. So I'm happy with that.

However, opening a bank account has been rather more complicated. I'm a duel citizen and I was born in an East African country. It caused quite a fuss with opening a bank account here. My great aunt and I went to a Barclays branch and were told that I needed to register. Once that was done, I had to wait six months. Or I could open an offshores account. However, I would have needed £5,000 to open the account and annual income of £50,000. So that was automatically out the question. So a few phone calls were made, and some confusing information given. Then, we went into the Gravesend branch this morning to figure out if I could open an account. The staff were ever so helpful, they said I didn't need anything, other than my passport, address and telephone number. Thus, within a short time they were helping me open an account. It was nothing short of a miracle, in my opinion, because I'd ruled it as impossible, but God can make the impossible possible. So I now have a bank account. I'm really happy about this because I had thought I wouldn't have been able to get an account any time soon because of the situation with my being born in Uganda.

I'm off to Broadstairs, later. I'll post again with any news that comes in.

Safe, Sound And ... Mildly Culture Shocked

Hmmm. Where to start? Well, I'm safely in England with my mum's family. I'm staying with her aunt and uncle right now. It's lovely being here, especially after such a long journey from Hoedspruit. I think it took me about thirty two hours from when I walked out the door of my house in Hoedspuit to the moment I walked through the door of my aunt's house. The trip was rather uneventful, other than some rather interesting conversations I had with other travelers on route here, like the Italian couple going home to Rome (I think it was). I had to smile when one of the stewards on the flight from Johannesburg said that I looked famous and said he'd seen me somewhere before. It was rather exciting though. I must say that it was hard to believe that I was actually leaving and, as I was waiting in Johannesburg International Airport, I felt like I was dreaming about leaving. I had to remind myself a few times that it wasn't a dream. Even now I still catch myself wondering that. I'm glad thankful that God had made a way for me to make this step, even though there are still trails I have to face and overcome each day.

Now that I'm here, I'm suffering with a rather mild case of culture shock. Everything's different here to what I've gotten used to in South Africa, over the last year. Like the prices, here, are different to prices in South Africa and the way of British life is different to the way of life in South Africa. I'm constantly thinking back to, say, prices in the shops and supermarkets in South Africa and thinking about how expensive everything is  in the UK, compared to the prices in South Africa. I'll get over it quickly, I'll have to. The last few times I've travelled to the UK and the Netherlands the culture shock didn't last very long. I think it will be the same in this situation as well. There have been times when the family hadn't been to the UK and the Netherlands in two or three years and those times we all struggled adjusting to bring in Europe, and when we returned to Uganda we struggled adjusting there as well. In the last four years we've been able to come back every year or so, sometimes more often. So the culture shock hasn't been so bad.

There have been a few new installments in my life since I arrived in the UK on Thursday afternoon. For example, I now have a British SIM card in my phone, so I have a different number to what I had in South Africa. I got it yesterday and it now works really well, though the network does drop from time to time at my aunt's house. Yet I'm pleased with it because I  was able to get one with a really good deal on the data package. This is due to my using Whatsapp to communicate with people more than email or facebook, I think. The other installment is that on Monday I'll be opening a bank account. It's all very exciting for me, especially the whole business of the bank account. I haven't had a bank account since I was about eighteen or nineteen. I'd been banking with one bank in Uganda and had an awful experience with them. So because of that and because of all the traveling I've been doing, I've been reluctant to get one. However, now that I'm looking at being in the UK for a while now, I'm actually looking forwards to having that in place.

Due to the fact that I've arrived in England a few weeks before the BLS starts (on April 10), I'm going to be staying with some friends of my mum's. So on Tuesday, I'm going to stay in Broadstairs. I'm also going to be seeing a few people before the BLS starts. I'm sure that once the school starts (on April 10) I'm going to be very busy with the school, if it's anything like the DTS and I must say that when I did my DTS I had very little time outside the busy schedule. But I  didn't mind that. It was nice being busy, even though it was tiring sometimes. The outreach was also quite hectic, as we sometimes had to work for eight days before we had a day off, but that didn't happen often, towards the end of the outreach, we didn't work as long.

I've decided to condense the captions for all the photos in this blog at the bottom here, as it saves time, tinkering about trying to get the photos themselves to behind, without jumping about. So the first photo is of my second flight, to Johannesburg. The plane was almost empty, which was nice. The second and third pictures are the sunsets I've seen last night and tonight, and the final photo was the last sunset I saw in South Africa, I snapped it just as we were arriving in Johannesburg. The final photo is of a pigeon that had found its way into the departure lounge of the airport in Johannesburg. It was sitting on one of the information signs when I walked out of the restaurant near my gate. It sat on the sign for a while then when flapping about. 

A Season Ends, Another Begins

It's finally happening! My adventure in England is finally beginning, finally materializing after so much prayer and thought. My next step in the great journey of life with my Lord is about to begin. It's scary and exciting at the same time. That kind that robs sleep and leaving you groveling for another cup of coffee to keep you from falling asleep or dozing when someone's talking to you, which is rather embarrassing. At least there's the bus journey when I can always try to get some sleep before my flights. The first flight I'm on is eight hours long, and is flies during the night, and the second, after an three hour, thirty five minute layover, is only about four hours long or so. Not nearly as bad as flighting directly from Johannesburg to London, which is about eleven hours long, about the same length as the flights to and from Brazil to Germany.

Due to the fact that I'm packing my life into two suitcases, yet again, and shutting the door on another season of my life, the last few days have been quite tough on me. I've had moments of extreme highs, like that moment when I was changing my rands into pounds, when I realized how close I was to leaving. Then those extremely low moments, like trying to decide what to pack into my suitcases, and what to leave behind. Most of what I have with me has memories attached to it and as I've had to weight up each item's usefulness over the sentimental aspect. I've been forced to ask myself, "Is this item going to be practical to have in England?" As well as praying that The Lord will direct my hands in regards to what to put in and what to take out of each case. It's a journey I've had to walk alone with my God, which is why I've not said anything before now.

To be honest, I feel like I'm in a waking dream almost, because of the potential the future holds for me. I'm ever so excited, but at the same time I feel almost like it's happening to someone else and I'm watching from a distance. Like I'm watching myself leave, if that makes sense. I can truthfully say that I've really learnt a lot living in here. I never dreamed I'd be here for so long (a total of eleven months), but I know that maybe one day I'll understand why I had to be here for this season, as I'm not sure I do now.

The photos in this blog post were taken, on Monday morning, when I was walking through Hoedspruit, running errands. The weather, for most of Monday, was down right strange, in my opinion, though the weather yesterday was really nice. Monday's weather was acting was like it couldn't make it's mind up whether or not to pour with rain. I kinda wished it would decide, because I kept having to pull my umbrella out and then put it away after only a few minutes, of light sprinkling, and with the laundry, I was forced to keep an eye on the clouds in case I needed to go running outside to bring it all back in. The rain kept coming and going, there were a few times when the rain was slightly heavier than a light sprinkling. I found it annoying, simply because I had washing that needed to dry and when you're trying to get a whole load of washing to dry outside, all the weather's sprinkling does is keep the clothes damp. So I had to resort to hanging stuff inside. It dried over night so I was able to put it all away this morning, after I ironed what needed ironing. At least the weather today is nice and the sun's shining. I'm still hoping and praying it doesn't rain this afternoon and tonight because some of the riverlets will flood if it rains heavily, which will make it difficult getting to Johannesburg and the airport.

As I have to sign off now, I want to say that I'll post here again. As tomorrow is going to be quite hectic getting out, so I'll probably write when I get to England, once things are settled down a bit. However, I do encourage you towatch my blip journal for the photos I'm attempting to post there on a daily basis. Simply go to "photography" at the top of the page and follow the link from there.

Done And Dusted

The last few days have been extremely hectic with all the preparations that we've all had to do. Packing has been a big thing for me, as has the drama of looking for an airline that will let me take two pieces of luggage and one piece of hand luggage. It seems like almost all the airlines on the cheaper end of the spectrum only allow one piece of hold luggage between 23 and 30 kg. A lot of people think I should fly with the cheapest airline I can find and repack my luggage so that the second piece I was going to take is my hand luggage and my big suitcase goes in the hold. The problem with this is simple, with all that I need to take to the UK with me, I'll have to pack my suitcase over the weight limit. This will mean paying a rather large amount of money for the excess. So my reasoning was that I'll book with an airline that's slightly more expensive that the airlines I was looking at and allows two pieces. I'd rather pay more for the flight and not worry about being able to take both the suitcases without a mega fine. It's better than paying less and spending the entire journey from Hoedspruit to OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg (a good five and a half to six hour journey), hoping they'll let me through the check-in counters without being fined. The flight's departure times have also played quite a big part in the search for an airline, as well as being able to pay on-line. One airline closes it's on-line ticket sales a few weeks before the departure date, which means having to go through their agent (who isn't nearby).

Let me explain about the times, real quick, because I'm traveling down to Johannesburg by bus, which leaves here at about eleven o'clock in the morning, I was forced to look at each flight's departure time, out of OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg, as well as the prices. The reason for this was because I didn't want to the night in a hotel in Johannesburg or in the airport. This meant I was then forced to look at flights that fly out of OR Tambo in the late evening (around 9-10 o'clock) because of the shuttle bus' estimated arrival time at the airport. It's been quite a tricky procedure, because the cheapest flights don't always leave in the time bracket I had.

So, you're probably wondering what I've had to do now. I did get to the point where I was wondering if I'd just have to go with a heavy piece of hand luggage and one 23kg suitcase, Thankfully, EgyptAir came to mind. I've flown with them three times now, as a family we flew to with them between Europe and Uganda ten years ago, with lay overs in, Cairo on both flights. The second layover was two days long so we could leave the airport. The airline put us up in a lovely hotel nearby, this we were able to see the pyramids and the Cairo museum. I flew also flew down here with them in April last year. They're the only airline I've found that charges a price I can afford and allows two pieces of luggage (of 23kg per piece). Thankfully the layover in Cairo isn't too bad either (three hours and thirty five minutes).

So the flights to the UK are now sorted out and paid for, thankfully. The shuttle to OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg is, as well. I'm traveling on Wednesday, 12 March, to Johannesburg and then flying from Johannesburg to London Heathrow, via Cairo on wednesday evening. Yes, it'll be over twenty four hours of traveling with very little sleep involved, but at least I'm getting there without risking the loss of money or luggage. I'm so relieved now.

Now, all that's left is finishing my packing and I need to do some other small things before I leave. One of these things I want to do check in online at least twenty four hours before my first flight leaves and printing my boarding passes out.

I know I'll really miss certain aspects I've experienced in South Africa and all the incredibly inspirational people I've met since I moved down here eleven months ago.

LONDON!!!

The Frog On The Window!

Before I get down to writing the more serious information that I'd like to share in this particular post, I have some rather interesting insight. On Thursday morning, as I was doing the house work, I opened one of the curtains in the corridor of our little home and was surprised to come across a lovely little frog (it's the same frog in both the first two pictures). He was sitting on one of the security bars, looking out at the rain swept patio. So I though I'd help him get out so I opened the window. He then lept onto the glass (as you can see in the second picture) and, instead of climbing down towards the nearby plants as I expected him to do, he climbed up the glass and onto the roof.

It was really encouraging for me to see this frog because I love animals, not matter what size, be it frogs sitting in the house or lions walking around the estate. It made me think again of how God looks after each one of us, individually. He knows our problems, and the trials we all face. He sees our joys and our happiness just as He knows our hearts and He hears them beat. I'm ever so grateful that He has been walking this difficult road of waiting with me because I'm sure that I would have given up a long time ago, if not for the determination He planted inside me.

On The Glass

I know that you really want to know what's happening about the next step forwards towards going London. You probably gathered enough from the title of this blog post that I've been accepted into the Basic Leadership School (otherwise known as a BLS). I'm ever so excited about it. I do want to write down the story of how I got to this point in time, and the journey of faith and trust I've been on (I'm still on that journey).

:: PART ONE :: Before the Skype call :: (I wrote this yesterday) ::

I'm sitting in a sweet little café and deli near my home. My sister, Hannah, worked here before she left for Paris. She was one of the chefs and joined the kitchen crew soon after the place opened. If you're ever in Hoedspruit, you have to visit! I'm was at that point when the beautiful decor and the lovely smells of cooking food or roasting coffee beans (which is one of my all time favorite smells) isn't totally registering anymore. I'm waiting for a Skype call from YWAM London. Nerves are playing up as I don't know what the conversation is going to look like. Even though I have total peace about it all, I'm still shaking slightly and trying to hide it from those around me. I don't really want anyone to know how important this is to me, well, not until the call was done.

Maybe I'd have to wait a few days before knowing if I've been accepted, or maybe I'd know before I go to bed. It's a journey I'm on and I must definitely say that it's been a walk of trust, it still is. I knew my God is total control of what's doing on in my life and in the situations I find myself. I'm praying that everything will definitely come together before my parents leave the country.

There's two reasons behind why I've been praying for this.

The first reason is that my mum will be able to leave South Africa without having to worry about what's going to happen to me and the small details involved with me traveling from Hoedspruit to wherever I'm going to be staying in the UK. 

And the second reason is that I don't have a bank account, in South Africa or anywhere else in the world, so I won't be able to book plane tickets and pay for the shuttle service to the airport. This will be very tricky for my parents to do when they're in Europe, and they already have a hectic schedule ahead if them with what they're doing after they leave South Africa. If everything's sorted out before I leave both my mum and I will be able to sleep assured I'll be alright and that everything's sorted out.

My parents are going to do quite a bit of traveling in both the United Kingdom, where my mum's originally from, though she spent more of her childhood in Hong Kong and Uganda than in England, and the Netherlands, where my dad's from. They're also going over to Paris, for a few days, to go to Hannah's graduation from her cooking school. Hannah's  planning on staying in Paris to do some more practical training (on the job kind of practical training) in a number of different restaurants in the French capital, as well as working. She's part of a Hillsong Church and enjoys spending time with her friends from both her cooking school and the church.

A Lizard Outside My Room

:: PART TWO :: A Short Wait :: (I wrote this section this morning) ::

The call went amazingly well. I talked with one of the YWAM stuff, Apryl. She asked me some questions about what my thoughts were are on leadership, why I want to do a BLS and what led me to apply to YWAM London. I also had some questions for her about the base, the accommodation and the outreach locations. The onset of nerves I had before the call seemed to disappear almost as soon as I hit the green 'answer' button on my screen. It went so smoothly and afterwards I walked around for about an hour and a half with this huge smile plastered on my face. I was thrilled about it all. Apryl said that before she could give me a definite answer to my being accepted into the BLS or not, she needed to make some phone calls and talk to the leaders about my application. She knew about the situation with my parents leaving South Africa and my lack of a bank account, so she said she'd get back to me as soon as she could, which was either Tuesday evening or on Wednesday. The Lord had really been working in me, teaching me to just wait on Him because He knows the right time for everything.

:: PART THREE :: A Step closer to leaving for the city of London ::

Now for the news you've been waiting to hear. I've been accepted into the BLS, which starts on the 10th of April, and will run until September, because my parents are leaving soon, we've spent some time discussing the fine print, as it were. My parents know I don't want to stay here in Hoedspruit for too long after they go.

My mum has an appointment the day her and my dad travel to the UK, so it's a bit unpractical for me to travel down to Johannesburg with them. They're flying with British Airways (they have given  my parents the best return), whilst when I go I'll be flying with another airline that gives the cheapest price with a layover that isn't too long. Since I've discovered, after much research with Sky Scanner, that if you travel British Airways' return, you get a good price, whilst this isn't totally the case with the one-way flights. Because the two flights leave at different times it could easily spell disaster for someone, due to traffic in the big city.

So, you might want you might want to know. Well, my patents and I will spend the next few days talking and praying things through. I'll also be sorting through what I'll be taking with me and what will be staying here in South Africa. There will be a few trips into Hoedspruit, to get a few things I don't have on the list of things I need to take with me. Thankfully that list isn't very long! It's a good thing I've kept hold of my bed roll and sleeping bag, both of which saw me through my DTS outreach. I must add that the sleeping bag saw me through the lecture phase and a Dutch winter (which was VERY cold for a girl who'd grown up in Uganda).

As I think I've said before, my life is totally and completely in God's hands. As things start to  come together, after such a long time, I'm continuing to trust Him and hold onto the truth in His Word.

I do encourage you to watch this space for more news, photos and information. I do think that as things get busier, I won't be posting as often. There's a lot to do before my parents leave, and a lot for me to do before I follow them to the UK.

A Quick Update

I still don't have the news I know everyone, including myself, are wanting to hear. The news about what's happening next in my life. I was due to speak to YWAM London today but we have rescheduled the call due to a DTS team arriving at the base today and the students were expected to either be unpacking or resting, but it turned out to be busier than expected. So the Skype call has been set for tomorrow. I'm a bit nervous about it but I trust that everything is in The Lord's hands. He's in control of my life and I'm looking forwards to what the future holds, even if it means staying in South Africa, for the moment, doing whatever The Lord wants me to do here.

I'm one of those people who would love to have the next few years of my life planned out, so when people ask what I'm doing with my life and what my future looks like, I can answer them with more than: "I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but I'm hoping to do this, or that" but you know what but The Lord does know every detail of my life, and He holds me in His hands. Even though the worry about what's going to me when my patents leave on furlough is intense at times, I've had to keep stopping myself from focusing on what's going to happen when my parents leave and refocusing on God. As I was walking today, I was thinking a few things over, and praying. I set out feeling worried about what's going to happen next week and how things are going come together. I was also nervous about some if the fine details. I'm one of those people who are more of a thinker than anything else, so when I set out to do something I like knowing exactly detail before I start. Sometimes it's a real challenge for me to lay everything down. As I walked home, I had to do this again. I had to make that choice to lay everything down again. A deep sense of peace had settled on my heart by the time I got home.

I do know that at some point I'll be going back to England, my maternal home. My parents are leaving and I'm was hoping to travel on the same day as them, but now it's doesn't look likely. They're planning on being in Paris for my sister's graduation, as well as traveling to the Netherlands to see my paternal grandmother. They're going to be doing some information nights in both the UK and in the Netherlands. It's the first time in years that they're doing it together, just the two of them. It's always been the five of us traveling together from place to place. Two months in Europe, and almost every night we're in a new place. In a way, I'm glad I'm not going to be traveling around with them, but at the same time I'm incredibly proud of them both and their commitment. The last few weeks have been extremely busy for them as they've been sorting out flight dates, train times, transport and accommodation in England and Holland, information evenings and stuff like that. I don't think I've realized, up to now, what they have to organize before they even leave the country. There's a lot of small print that's involved. They've been talking about it for quite a while now, as well as doing tones of communication.

Please watch this space as I'll post again soon when I have some more information about the next step in my adventures!