SIX WEEKS IN AFRICA…an update on liiiiiiife.
I can honestly say I have loved *almost* every minute of the
past six weeks of my life. Seriously!
On the rare moments I feel errrr...maxed out, at least I have a constant theme song going on in my head thanks to Shakira and the World Cup. It never fails to come to mind. Circumstances with background music are always suddenly better. Always. Haven't you ever been to church? Mood music, people.
We arrived and the insanity and hilarity began MOMENT
ONE! As many of you know driving in a
foreign land is just strange in general.
Signs are different, roads are unfamiliar, everything is just a bit off…especially
when one is forced to drive on the opposite side of the road AND drive a
stick-shift on the left side! Now, for
those of you that know my husband he is a man of MANY talents. One of which is that he, in fact, IS Google
Maps. No matter what country, what city,
whether it’s our first time in that location or not, the dude can get us where
we need to go…ALWAYS. It’s a strange
gifting, but one I’m quite thankful for.
That being said he’s not gonna win any safety awards for defensive
driving anytime soon. One might start
praying from moment minus-one of arriving in an automobile he is
commandeering. So…back to my story. Night one.
Arrive at the airport late. I’m
giddy and taking pictures of my feet and stuff.
Cheesy things that I had dreamed of doing since I was little. Ya know, my feet, on African soil, calling it
home…finally! Jason is in ZERO hurry to
get off the plane? Why? OH BECAUSE HE SLEPT THE ENTIRE FLIGHT! Me, yep, eager beaver to get off the
plane. Re-circulating air, slight urine
smell, stiff chairs, alwaysgettheseatwiththebrokentv (I do mean ALWAYS!), ya
know…just ready. So, we are the LAST
people to get off the plane. Haven is
DETERMINED to pull her own suitcase, which is cute and all but in functionality
and a DEEP DESIRE to leave the airport it can create a need to meet Patience
the Person that dwells within. (Note to self:
NEED MORE REVELATION!) Got our bags and made
our way through customs without any problems except that the customs officials
did have to ask Selah on several occasions to STOP acting like the bars in the
waiting area were the tryout locations for the uneven bars event. We are a circus and people stare. Much to my amazement my family NEVER SEEMS TO
NOTICE THIS! Okay, geez, back to my
story…we are finally in a rental van giddy as can be. Jason hasn’t looked at a map but just going
on instinct to our hotel. I am
relentlessly asking him to look at a map.
I mean, at this point it’s midnight.
Just MAKE SURE. We’re driving,
we’re driving, we’re driving, ohhhhhh all the while we are driving one should
picture the stop-n-go motion of heavy HUGE CITY traffic. No, there was no traffic on the road at
midnight in Cape Town it was just the FEELING of that because of Jason’s not so
graceful shifting of gears. I mean, I
just want you to get the whole picture, okay!?
Oops, need to u-turn suddenly!
OHHHHHH wow. No turning radius on
this bad boy. Jason starts man-handling
the gear shift like it’s gonna save his life!
He is thrashing and I’m so confused and asking what in the world is
going on!? He suddenly is NO LONGER IN
OUR CAR! (Pause for scene intake: we are
downtown. It’s dark. At night.
We have somehow come across a street full of clubs. Music bumping and actually some traffic
coming RIGHT AT US! Jason not in car. ) I look up and to my dismay Jason is
ATTEMPTING TO PUSH OUR CAR.
WHAT!?!? The car didn’t DIE. Yep, he just couldn’t figure out how to get
it into reverse so with traffic whizzing by and SEVERAL strapping young men
from da club coming to our aid he was able to back us out of our predicament
while I took over the driving responsibilities the remainder of the way. (Okay,
it was only like three more blocks, but STILL! Forever grateful for my parents
teaching me how to drive a stick-shift in high school no matter how frustrating
it might have been at the time, right Mom!?)
We arrive at our hotel.
(Can’t get into our rental home until the next morning. No keys)
They immediately start referring to Jason as Lord Kennedy which has me
laughing uncontrollably until they started calling me My Lady to which I looked
around and in fact it DID look like a castle!
HA! Stop it though, my name is
Ashley. Expedia booked us a SWEET
HOTEL. We didn’t even know but were
super grateful for our posh beginnings.
It even came equipped with a washer & dryer! WOOHOO!
I was ready to wash our travel clothes and get the plane smell OUT of
our clothing. A washer & dryer isn’t
the correct saying anyways it was a washer/dryer in ONE. So, the genius that I am I throw in the ONLY
CLOTHES we brought in with us. I thought
to myself, “Hope this works because all of our other clothes are in suticases
in a car that I have no idea the location of currently! Ehhhh, it’ll be FINE!” Welp.
Fast forward to the next morning and we are running late to meet with our
rental agent to receive the keys to our NEW HOME…in AFRICA y’all! Annnnnd I must’ve done something wrong with the
laundry because Jason’s jeans are SOPPING wet…like wring them out dripping
wet. We try drying them again. Instead, we WASHED them again! So, in our fancy shmancy hotel my sweet
husband put on his DRIPPING WET jeans and held his head high and waltzed right
through that lobby to check us out with puddles in his wake. It was awesome.
By the way, it was SLEETING AND HAILING the night we
arrived. SO BIZARRE for Cape Town but
made our first several nights in our new home freakishly cold. Cold was an understatement. We were all on blow-up air mattresses on the
floor and we might as well have been on a mountaintop full of SNOW. Ah well, we were happy nonetheless.
Three days later a group of 26 young world-changing,
globe-trotting, hilarious, game-playing, Gospel-sharing students showed up on
our doorstep and we were in for an adventure.
Unfortunately class at UCT was only in session four more days upon their
arrival. EVEN SO…they left us with so
many people to follow up with! Had they
been here when school was in full swing we would have loads of people
gathering. These guys were humble, fun,
engaging, generous and incredibly flexible.
A few mini-adventures of their 3-week stay WITH US (yes,
HALF OF THEM stayed in our home!) One
night a girl in her sweetest voice said, “Jason, our toilet is bubbling!” He
didn’t think much of it as we had countless issues already with our toilets and
plumbing in the four short days we’d been there. When he went downstairs to check it out it
was a fecal matter RIVER flowing through our garage. I hate bathroom talk. I hate even the idea of discussing it and
this, by far, was one of the most disgusting things…EVER. Through much dry heaving and gagging Jason
mopped it up, cleaned it up, called a 24-hour plumber and still…to this day…is
almost too traumatized to talk of it. It
was gross. Ew. I just shuddered thinking about it.
Many many games of Nertz, Spades, Bananagrams were played
with much passion. I love me some
competition. And winning. Stories were told, dreadlocks were made &
friendships were formed. I FELL IN LOVE
WITH THESE PEOPLE! It was soooo God that
within my first week this amazing crew would show up, bless our socks off,
encourage us & ride the waves of the unknown with us in our first month. They loved people like Jesus does day in and
day out and our city was deeply changed by their short stay here. I’m certain of it! Saying goodbye to them was terribly sad.
Then we had a few days of trying to get life in order and
some details sorted out before our bestie BROOKE ELDRIDGE showed up! Man, God LOVES ME! In my first month I had a best friend
visit! Not only is she a dear friend she
is ON OUR TEAM! She committed to our
team and this great nation in REVIVAL prior to ever seeing it so we touristed
(word? No, don’t care.) it UP for a couple of weeks. Played with penguins, drove on roads carved
out of mountain-sides, went to where the locals are and had SUCH A BLAST! Brooke keeps me sane. She has a unique ability to KNOW EVERYTHING
I’M THINKING, WHAT I’M GOING TO SAY, WHAT I LIKE…everyone deserves a Brooke in
their lives. Insanely refreshing, loves
my kids like her own, happiest person of all time, incredibly effective with
her time, passionate about Jesus and OTHERS, and helps me with the dishes with
a happy heart. Man, I LOVE HER!
Other updates:
Kids are thriving.
They love the townships! True
really comes alive there. And the
beach. HE LOVES THE BEACH! We have a motto. It goes something like this. “It’s a pretty
day. We should go to the beach!” We are the only ones on the beach because we
are crazy enough to go—it’s winter here.
We don’t care, it’s GORGEOUS!
Haven sings “My Soul Sings” at a deeper octave than any man
I know but boy-oh-boy is it cuuuuute. My
kids love to worship. With no television
and STILL NO INTERNET they have plenty of time to do just that. On occasion I zone out and notice Haven (eyes
closed like she’s almost in pain and arms raised) is “worshipping” to “22.” Um, oops,
mom fail. Love ya Taylor but not sure
how that song surfaces on my ipod ALL OF THE TIME!
Jason is busy
following up with people who want to know more about Jesus and also trying to
get us a car, buy us appliances, set up house & home, get our visa
situation in order, etc. etc. Things
here just happen sooooo slowly. It’s
good for us though.
Selah is beginning
dance classes again on Monday and she is very excited to meet girls her
age. Please pray for my kids to make
amazing friendships quickly.
Oh, and we are still on air mattresses…some of us. Our shipment doesn’t arrive now until SEPTEMBER.
Homeschool begins shortly. Sweet Jesus, help us all!
If I haven’t texted, or Skyped or overall been super communicative with you I’m sorry…we aint got no internets. We have the data on our phones but that is precious and I’m burning through it at RAPID rates. Oops. I miss Sonic happy hour, Chick-Fil-A and fast internet with limitless downloads and data usage. Oh and friends. And syrup. OK, I miss a lot of things but WE ARE THRIVING HERE! Come join us! You won’t regret it. University students come back next week and we will be busy bees again and we are STOKED.
Miracle updates:
People have been saved, healed, set free on the daily. No JOKE!
Also, I got insanely sick and wanted to be hospitalized with an IV of pain meds flowing through my body STAT. Instead, we prayed and I was healed. Like INSTANTANEOUSLY. I sent out a mass text to friends and family that I knew would pray like crazy and within minutes I was feeling healthier than I had in YEARS. Y’all, I went HIKING the next day. Also, in that text mentioned we needed thousands of dollars for unexpected expenses. Within 48 hours THOUSANDS of dollars had been committed. Blown. Away. I love the global Body and I LOVE MY GOD! He so sees you. He notices you in your need. He is GENEROUS beyond compare.
I love everyone!
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| Isn't she lovely? |
Happy 4th of July y'all!
True is truly in his element on the beach!
The happiest baby on the planet HANDS DOWN! Mercy Rose is almost 7 months old!
Just love her.
Selah is always up for the next adventure!
