I’ve been quite busy lately as some of you may know because my family came to visit! They arrived late on April the 7th to a slightly cold dinner (I was expecting them to come a little earlier). It was great to catch up on everything that’s been going on, they also brought some cards and birthday presents which was a good pick me up! Thank you everyone who sent something out. We spent next 5 days at BG where the family got to meet my kids and see what my daily life looks like. The kids were of course very excited to see some more white people! We also went around town where my parents could reminisce about their life there 20 years ago. Then on the Thursday we made our way through Lesotho to Sani Pass. The journey was long mainly due to Lesotho roads and the mountainous areas which meant we had to wind up and down the mountains. But when we finally got there it was beautiful! And extremely cold! I think it was like 5-10°c, which was a shock for me because I haven’t experienced those temperatures in a while and it was a shock to my family because they didn’t really pack any warm clothes. It also has the highest pub in Africa which meant that we could all feel our breathing being effective by the altitude. We stayed there a night and then made our way down Sani Pass. It was really windy and steep to begin with but after that it was pretty nice road and beautiful scenery!
We then drove to just north of Durban to a place called Shaka rock, as we were driving into the main city we pasted a lot of townships, with loads of tin houses all bunched together. It was just incredible to see the difference between the main city which had very wealthy buildings compared to just outside where the townships were. We mainly went to the beach in Durban, the waves were huge! It reminded us all of Tanzania where we used to get completely wiped out by the waves. Then on Easter Sunday we went to rivers church which is linked to Hillsong. It was a great service in a really funky warehouse! The worship was good, the preaching was good, it was just a really nice way to celebrate Jesus and what he did for us.
Then we made our way to Swaziland! I think this is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever been to, so green and lush! It also looked a lot more developed then Lesotho, the houses and towns seemed better as well as the roads. We stayed on a pineapple farm which was beautiful! The next day we went white water rafting, tubing and abseiling. It was a really fun day spent with my family (-mum). Dad didn’t tell us about abseiling as he didn’t want mum to find out, but I was really excited to do it as well as nervous! We were abseiling off this rock down to a little ledge just before you hit the river. The beginning is always the hardest, but once I got pass that it was so fun and amazing to be walking down this huge rock with amazing views all around you. I would definitely recommend it!
After Swaziland, we drove back to South Africa to Kruger, a safari park. This was probably my favourite bit about the holiday because it reminded me of when we lived in Tanzania and went on safari. We were staying just outside the park next to the river, so late afternoon we’d get an amazing view of animals who came to the river to drink. On the first night elephants came right up to our garden and ate our plants. We had to move pretty quick because they were massive and could seriously do some damage if you got on the wrong side. I’ve never been so close to a wild elephant on foot before! We saw a lot of animals in the park including rhino, elephant, giraffe, lion, cheetah and hyena. Then on the 23rd of April we drove to Joberg where I caught my flight back to Maseru. I don’t think I was really prepared for the goodbyes again but I was a lot sadder then I thought I was going to be.
Now I’ve done my first week back at BG, I found it quite hard to get back into the swing of things. On Friday I went to the doctors in South Africa because I haven’t been feeling very well for a good 6 weeks now, when my family visited I got some symptoms that I thought could be related to glandular fever so I thought I’d better get a blood test just to check if I had anything. I’m waiting for the results of the blood test but the doctor seemed to think that I do have glandular fever, but I’m over the worst of it. For those of you who don’t know, it just basically means that I’m very tiered all the time, and the work at BG is pretty physically demanding as well as emotionally demanding. So, it means that I find it harder to do the work here in Lesotho. But I am managing, there’s not a lot you can do for glandular fever except rest which I’m awful at! So, prayers for that would be amazing.
One thing that I’m so thankful for is how God is a good God, he doesn’t do bad. I heard that all the time in Sunday school and we say it a lot in church but I never fully grasped what that meant. I used to think that if something bad happened to me or if I was struggling with something that God was part of it. I used to question why he was making me go through bad things but God is good. He doesn’t punish you, but he does miraculous things threw the bad times. It would be very easy for me to question why I'm sick when I'm serving him and literally living out what he says in the bible ‘to look after orphans and widows’. But I know that God is good and he will do something amazing out of the bad times. I remind myself of this daily as I have really tough days, but God is good and he loved his children.
I hope everyone is well back home.
E x
