Yep, that’s what we did today. It was quite interesting! It lasted about 2 ½ hours, so longer than we’re used to at home! We were warned that it would be longer than what we were used to. Apparently, church can sometimes go as long as 5 hours. The first hour was worship, and it was fun! Much more upbeat than what I’m used to. One of the songs was apparently an old hymn, but you wouldn’t be able to guess that from the tempo. Everyone was dancing and clapping. It was so much fun to see people unhindered by the fear of what everyone else thinks. We were thanked for being there several times; I hope this had more to do with us being missionaries than with our skin tone. From what I can tell, I think it was.

The church was held in the community center in Burlington. The building we used was pretty small, probably the same size or smaller than my parent’s living room. We sat on plastic lawn chairs, there was no air conditioning or fans (the temperature was 91°F), the music was super loud, and the service was entirely in Zulu. Nevertheless, it was still so good to be there.

On to the second part of this post. I realized that I didn’t really give you much of an environment in my last post; I just kinda stated our schedule. So, here’s the scoop.

South Africa is currently in spring. Today I think was the hottest we’ve had so far. It rains a lot, so it’s a bit tropical here. I had missed thunderstorms! The “base” is actually the base leader’s house, and it is amazing! It’s pretty interesting because it’s built on a hill, so it doesn’t really feel like it’s 2 stories, although it is. The house is so beautiful. It is a typical South African wealthier house in that it has quite an advanced security system. There are gates and bars on all the windows, a gated driveway, and panic buttons that trigger an armed response. I have never seen so many security trucks driving the roads as I have here. They’ve never had to use any of the security here, and this house is well hidden behind trees. If you didn’t know it was here, then you would totally miss it. (Also, I think the bars on the windows have a secondary purpose of keeping the monkeys out of the house.)

Michelle, the lady of the house, rescues cats from Burlington. There’s a cat compound at the front of the property, and there are about 100 cats total running around; quite a few prefer the house. Good thing none of us are allergic.

Did you know that South Africa has the highest number of HIV/AIDS infections in the world? And that the number is still on the rise? It is truly an epidemic here. For so long, the government insisted that there was no problem, and even now there is still life threatening misinformation from the government. The current president has even said that taking a shower after sex will prevent infection. The social stigma still prevents people from getting tested—many would just rather not know. Definitely be praying for South Africa in this area!

I know this post was a bit disjointed, sorry about that. I’ll try to give you more info as we go along!