One Month and Counting

Today I have officially been in Cape Town for one month. It seems impossible that I have already been here that long. It also seems impossible that I will be here four months more. I am quite happy. I like going to classes at Udubs (as it is affectionately called) and being on campus. I have started a routine of buying a lemon poppy seed muffin in the B Block Café. I am still enjoying my classes. Thursday we had a guest lecturer in Women and Gender Studies. She was incredible. We talked about reductive and receptive views of cultures. Her presentation was so engaging and funny. I loved it. We also had a guest lecturer in our Theology class Friday. He was a youth activist during apartheid and now works as a leader in the Christian church to encourage the ANC government to continue to pursue a path of equality and justice.

I went Shark diving on Saturday! It was very cool, incredible actually. There are only about one thousand Great White Sharks left in the oceans because people are killing them for their fins and jaws, so we were quite fortunate to see four Great White Sharks on our little excursion. It was fun even to watch the sharks swim around from atop the boat. They are very much like any other animal. I actually felt like we were cheating them throwing in bait only to pull it away at the last minute. Then when I actually got into the cage I felt like I was on some episode of shark week. One of the sharks was 3.8 meters long! It came quite close to the cage and actually hit the cage with its tail as it propelled itself out of the water to snatch the bait. O, it was so cool! I am happy to say that I retained all my appendages. I am having a bit of trouble uploading pictures to this blog, but I am trying. There will be a few from this excursion when I do.

Otherwise I am still just living the everyday life of a student in Cape Town. I start at my service site tomorrow. I am going to be working with babies, 0-12 months, at the orphanage. I think I am really going to enjoy the work. I went to mass today as well. The gospel was about the paralytic man who is lowered by his friends from the roof to be healed by Jesus. Jesus first says “Your sins are forgiven you” before he cures him and tells him to walk out with his mat. The homily was how God is a yes or no God, not in between and we as faithful people should say yes or no to him and his will for us. There was also confession after mass today, so I went and got my soul all cleaned up before Lent begins on Wednesday. I am looking forward to Lent. Since starting college it has always been a spiritually enlightening time for me. I have been given good reasons to believe in the power of prayer, so I very much appreciate your continued thoughts and prayers. Peace.