The end of week 3 and Thanksgiving

These are pictures from my Thanksgiving. They will not go to the bottom of the page so you get to see them before you read the rest of the post. I promise they will make more sense once you read about my Thanksgiving adventures. I have taken many pictures of the babies and I am sure that many of you are waiting to see them but I am not allowed to post them for privacy reasons here. You will have to wait until I get home to see these pictures. I would also love to share with you more about the babies but again I cannot do this. I can tell you that they are very lovable and have captured my heart.

Zebra at the Lion Park.

Lion cubs at the Lion Park. The mother lion in the back had 4 cubs. Here are 3 of them. They were so much fun to watch interact with each other. 

Look at those teeth. Thank goodness the windows were up!

The lions were just beautiful.

Nap time for the cubs.

One of the giraffes that I was able to feed. The rest of the pictures of feeding the giraffes are on Margie's camera so I will have to get those from her before I can post them. 

Ostriche  

These were the lion cubs that we were able to pet. Again the rest of these pictures are on Margie's camera. 

The food spread on Thanksgiving with the IMB.

We started eating Thanksgiving dinner outside but then the rain came. This was our little set up before the rain. I will try to get a few pictures of myself to put up here soon so that you really believe that I am here!

End of Week 3 and Thanksgiving

Being a Missionary

There have been so many times in the past three weeks that I have been referred to as a missionary. I guess that is what I am right now. Never in my life would I have thought that I would be the one going overseas for a period of time to be a missionary. So far it has been an extremely humbling experience and I am sure that it will continue to be something that will change my life forever.

Baby Charts

I have already talked about the schedule for the babies but the one thing that I forgot to mention was the charting that happens. Each of the babies has a clipboard that holds their papers. Everything that happens with the babies is recorded. Each time a baby eats we record what he ate, who feed him and how much he ate. Each time a diaper is changed it is recorded who changed it and if it was wet or dirty. We record each time a baby gets medicine or vitamins. Each day we exercise the babies and that is recorded, each week the babies are weighed and that is also recorded. At the end of the day we write one or two sentences about the day so that night shift knew what happened. Night shift does the same charting so that we know how the night went. Nothing goes unnoticed with these babies.

Food

I know that many of you have been wondering about the food here and what I am eating. Most of what I am eating is the same kind of things that I would eat at home. Lots of chicken, pasta, rice, potatoes, fruits and veggies. The bananas here are really good and I am not usually a banana person. I have also learned how to make an excellent microwave chocolate cake. We even custom make them, mine so that they are nut free and one of the girls has a dairy allergy so hers are always dairy free. I do miss some of the familiar brands from at home but am starting to get used to the brands here. There is not boxed mac and cheese here. I miss it a lot and it will not be long before I start asking for it to be shipped to me. I also miss my peach apple squeeze applesauce as I have not been able to find that either. Otherwise the food is not that bad. I usually end up eating out once a week when I am getting Internet.

Glenvista Shopping Center

This past week I went to the Glenvista Shopping Center instead of The Glen to get Internet. The Glenvista Shopping Center is much smaller but about the same distance away. The Internet was free but every little while it would go out and I would have to sign back on. I prefer The Glen to The Glenvista but it was fun to explore some place new.

Thanksgiving Day

On Thanksgiving all of us volunteers had off. We spent the day out and celebrating Thanksgiving together. In the morning a group of us went to the Lion Park in Joburg with Margie. Margie works for the IMB and really cares for the volunteers here at Door of Hope. She is amazing! She has already been to the Lion Park countless times but was just as excited as the rest of us to go again. There are a few different sections to the park. You can choose to drive through yourself or take a tour bus through. We drove through ourselves. The first loop is full of different kinds of wild deer type animals, zebras, ostriches, giraffes, and wildebeests. There were many baby zebras, wild deer and even a baby giraffe! Some of the babies were just a few days old and learning how to walk. It was so much fun to see. Then we continued on to see the lions. There are five lion cages that you can drive through. It was hot so many of the lions were sleeping but they were close to the road. We even got to see 4 little lion cubs. After the 4 lion cages we drove through a wild dog cage and finally a cheetah cage. Once we were done driving around we got out of the car and went over to the area where you can feed some of the animals and pet some lion cubs. We got a bag of food to share and fed the giraffes and the ostriches. Margie showed us how to get a kiss from the giraffes by putting the food pellets between your lips. The giraffe will then use its long purple tongue to take the food out of your mouth. It is so funny to watch and feels very weird. Then we got to go into the lion cub cage and pet the 4-month-old lion cubs. It was lots of fun and so crazy to think that we were petting wild lion cubs! The lion park was a great start to Thanksgiving Day! Then we head over to Montecasino for lunch at the food court and to meet up with two of the other girls. Montecasino is a big area with lots of different entertainment options. After lunch we headed over to Margie’s office. On the drive back I was able to just take in the Joburg around me. There was one point that we were driving past Alexandra Township, which is a very poor area of Joburg. People live in tin houses and there are a few outhouses for the entire community to use. Just behind this area we could see the high rises of Sandton, which is the richest part of South Africa and one of the richest parts in all of Africa. It was crazy to see the difference. At the office we were able to get online for a little while. The rest of the girls then met up with us at the office. Some of us then went over to a street corner with a bunch of guys that were selling traditional Zulu beading crafts. I was able to get three Christmas tree decorations, a penguin decoration and a South African flag ornament all for about 135R or a little over $15. Super cheap for such beautiful and traditional artwork! Then we went back to the office for more Internet time and to eat Thanksgiving dinner. All of the IMB missionaries that were in the area were at dinner also. There were about 80 people total. It was a potluck style dinner but all of the traditional Thanksgiving foods were accounted for. It was amazing. Our group started eating outside (a first for me to eat Thanksgiving outside!) but it started to rain so we had to move inside. One of the girls is from Germany and another is from the Netherlands so it was their first Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to introduce them to the holiday and one of them said that she will be spending November in the States from now on! We finished off the evening with a little more Internet and then headed back home. It was a great day and although I missed family get togethers and birthday celebrations, it is a Thanksgiving that I will never forget.

Sunday Church and the Baby Dedication

This Sunday I was able to go with two of the other girls and 5 of the babies to Berea Baptist Mission Church. BBMC was the founding church of Door of Hope and all of the DOH babies get dedicated at the church. This was also the first Sunday that I was able to go to church since I have been here. The church is small and in a bad part of town. When church started at 10:30am only about 50 people were there by 11:00am the building was full with about 120ish or so people. It was a church service that you do not stand still at. This is one of the first times that the babies have been out of the house. At first they were not sure but after they got into the music they were much happier. There were different people that volunteered to help us hold the babies during the service. Some of the babies were okay with this but others did not want to be held by strangers. This was so crazy to experience because I have only been with these babies for 3 weeks now but already I am the familiar face that they want to come back to. The service was long and lasted about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Another baby house is located behind the church and this is where the baby bin is also located. It was fun to see both of these things. I rally enjoyed the service and hope to get back to the church soon.

Schedule

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
11/25 Work	11/26       Off	11/27      Off	11/28   Work	11/29  Work	11/30     Off	12/1    Work
12/2    Work	12/3        Off	12/4        Off	12/5      Work	12/6     Work	12/7    Work	12/8        Off
12/9       Off	12/10   Work	12/11  Work	12/12       Off	12/13      Off	12/14  Work	12/15  Work
12/16 Work	12/17      Off	12/18      Off	12/19       Off	12/20  Work	12/21  Work	12/22      Off
12/23      Off	12/24  Work	12/25  Work	12/26   Work	12/27      Off	12/28  Work	12/29  Work
12/30 Work	12/31      Off	1/1      Work	1/2	1/3	1/4	1/5

The days that I have off will be the best bet of me being online. I will usually be online between 5am and 11am Michigan time. When I am online I will have Skype open also and would love to talk to you. emily.rosendahl1

Odds and Ends

-       It is hot here. The temperature has been ranging between 29 and 34 degrees Celsius during the day. This is between 80 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

-       I brought many toiletries with me to start with. One thing that I will need to buy soon is shampoo. I have used the same shampoo for the last at least 6 years but it cannot be found here. Time to start the adventure of using a new shampoo. Hopefully this does not throw off my morning routine. J

-       This has been the longest that I have ever been away from Holland in my entire life. I have gone on vacations and trips but have never been gone this long. Crazy to think about.

-       One thing that I have noticed is that many white men shave their legs here. I am not sure why.

-       I have bought an Advent calendar so I am ready to countdown to Christmas once December starts. I grew up opening the little doors of the Advent calendar each year and last year I got one for everyone in the Phat Pad where I was living. It was a lot of fun. When I saw them in the stores here I knew that I had to get one. Hoping that South Africa chocolate tastes a little better than dollar store chocolate from the States.

-       Within a week or so I will be getting a cell phone to use while I am done here. I will post that number when I get it. I am able to call the States using airtime that I buy here but you would also be able to call me. The charge will fall on whoever makes the call.

-       The sun gets up early here! Around 4:30am it starts to come up and by 5:00am my entire room is lit. It goes down around 6:30pm.

-       On January 1^st I will be working with the toddlers for the first time. Until then I am working with the big babies.

-       This past week we got a new baby. She was born on November 19 and arrived at the baby house on the 20^th. I saw her for the first time when I worked on the 21^st. She is a little sweetheart. It is crazy to think that her mother just left her at the hospital but that is what happened.

-       Caring for the babies has been extremely emotionally and physically exhausting. Prayers for this would be greatly appreciated. There are times when I go on break and just want to sit and cry for these kids because of how their situation just breaks my heart. Please continue to pray for families to come forward to adopt them and for the process to go quickly once a family comes forward.

-       I miss living by a big body of water. At least once a week at home I would see Lake Michigan or hear it in some way. I do not live by water here in Africa and it is not within driving distance to go and see on a day off.

-       Today marks three weeks since I have left home. We have almost hit a month that I have been gone. In some ways it feels like I have been gone for so much longer than that but in others in seems as though I just left the States yesterday. The transition gets better each day. I am so thankful for this. 

Thank you for all of your continued prayers and support. The days and nights are both getting easier and I really am enjoying my time here now. I still miss you all very much and look forward to skyping and love receiving emails and news from home. It is still hard for me to believe that I am in South Africa many days. Look forward to hearing from you all again soon!

Emily

Joshua 1:9- A great verse that I have looked at many times the past few weeks. 

Week 3

I have Internet again this week! Let’s not all get used to this though! (Harder said than done, I suppose.)  Otherwise there is not much to update on.

The Babies

As much as I did not want to get attached to them, they have stolen my heart. You just cannot help it when you look into their big brown eyes that plead love me. There is a fine line here with the aunties between loving and spoiling the babies. It is hard. These kids just want to be held but you cannot hold them all so they each only get a few minutes. If they are held too long they just cry when you put them down. One thing that I have noticed is that when they are held they sit very still. They don’t move around or try to get down they just sit there and take in the feeling of being close to someone.

A Few Facts

Here are a few more things that I have learned about Door of Hope since arriving. Door of Hope is known for the baby bin but this is how only about 12% of the babies arrive here. Most are brought by police when they are found or the hospital calls that a mother abandoned her baby. About 4 babies are brought in every month. Once a baby is here and if family for the baby is known, the family has 60 days to decide to keep the baby. Once these 60 days are over the baby is then put on the local adoption list for about 3 months and after that is placed on the international adoption list. Most of the babies are adopted overseas to countries in Europe. There are a few adoptions that are going to be happening at the end of this month. One of them is one of the big babies that I have gotten to help care for the past few weeks! It is so exciting knowing that these babies will have their forever family and just be loved and held. Please continue to pray for the transition or these kids and families and also for more family’s hearts to be moved to adopt.

This and That

- Birthday Shout Outs to Eric and Grandpa this week!

Happy 16^th Birthday Eric! Hopefully the roads will be safe by the time I get home. I pray that you will have a great start to a new year of life. Keep being your crazy self. Love you brother more than you know!

 Happy Birthday Grandpa! Sorry that I went some place warm on your birthday and didn’t take you with. I guess I owe you one. Thanks for all of the emails and keeping tabs on everything I am doing and everywhere I am going over here. Miss you.

-       I miss the ease of water at home. The water here is same to drink but contains lots of chemicals. So far I have just bought bottled water and used that. I have saved those bottles and have now started to boil and save the water in the bottles. It can be a lot of work but it is going to be the safe way to consume water around here.

-       I miss clothes dryers. Everything has to be hung on the clotheslines here and it is a lot of work to do in the hot sun.

-       I miss the dishwasher. Everything has to be washed by hand. 13 baby bottles 3 times a day. 13 baby food bowls and spoons twice a day. All of my food dishes everyday. So many dishes.

-       I have never watched so many movies. Almost every night we will put a movie on. Some movies that we watch we agree never should have been made and others are not so bad. Most of them are movies and I would never watch anywhere else.

-       There is a chance that I will drive while I am here. Right now we have one car between 7 volunteers. It is stick shift. 2 of the girls live off-site so they use it to get to and from work each day. At the end of November one of them goes home and the other one moves in here. We then will have the car here. I believe that all of us are just going to be splitting the cost for insurance and gas and any other expenses that happen with the car since we will all be using it in some way. I am able to drive with my states drivers license and many are telling me that I should learn. I have never driven a stick shift before. I might just learn though because what a great story that would be.

-       Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you all have a great Thanksgiving remembering all that we have been blessed with. 

Week 2

Week 2- Just rode in the bed of a pickup on the African streets to come and get Internet! This is Africa!

First, there are pictures this week! Make sure that you make it to the bottom to at least see those. Second, I am feeling much better. I was in bed for about 4 days and then forced myself to get up and just push through not feeling well. I believe that most of it came from jetlag and the change in altitude. I am sure the change in food and water did not help either. I am doing much better now. Still drinking bottled water and will soon start to just boil a bunch of water and save it in the refrigerator to drink because there are many chemicals in the water here.

The Glen

Except for the baby house The Glen is about the only other place that I get to on a regular basis. The Glen is a mall that is about a mile away from the baby house. Sometimes we are able to get a ride to The Glen and other times we have to walk. The walk on the way there is not bad as it is downhill most of the way. The way back is another story. So far I have been very lucky not to have to make the trek back with groceries. This could very easily happen though. Everything that we should ever need is at The Glen. There are clothes stores, shoe stores, home goods stores, grocery stores and a food. So far I have bought groceries from Pick n Pay. I would say that it is most like a Wal-Mart. It is busy, there is always a line for the checkout and it is loud, but it is the cheapest grocery store. There are other household things available for purchase as well. The second grocery store is Woolworths. I walked around the store the other day when I had some extra time before being picked up from using the internet and getting a few groceries at Pick n Pay. Woolworths would be more like a Super Target. There are many different things that you can get as well as a grocery section. It is cleaner, much more peaceful and the packaging is much more appealing but the prices are a little bit higher. I am thinking that I will be shopping at both of the different stores depending on my mood for the day and what the other girls are doing. The other place that we frequent often in The Glen is Mugg and Bean. It is a restaurant in the food court that has Internet! When you buy something at Mugg and Bean you get 30 minutes of free Internet. After that 30 minutes is up then you have to start buying Internet. It is about $5 for an hour. This is just one of those expenses that cannot be helped and I have to get over. While walking around The Glen the other day there were things that I began to notice that were like home. I have yet to find a store with the same name as at home but there are some that are very close. There is a Pick n Pay Clothing store and this oddly resembles Old Navy. The clothes look very similar and the set up is exactly the same. I also walked past the istore. It is everything apple. There are also many stores that are more upscale with world-recognized name brands. The last observation that I have made of The Glen so far is that it plays the same pop music that is played at home. While walking around the other day I heard a little One Direction, Justin Bieber and the likes of Call Me Maybe. No great African music. I am excited to go and explore The Glen more and learn about all that it has to offer me while I am here.

Currency

The currency that is used here is called the South African Rand. 100R is about 12.50 US dollars. It can be s little bit of a shock at first when you go to the store and see that cereal is 31.99R! Really this would be about $3. And it can be really shocking when the total grocery bill is 500.00R! Yet again this is about $62. It is kind of fun to see a 200R bill in your wallet but then you are brought back to reality and realize that this is only $25.

 A Day in the Life

This is what my typical schedule looks like for the week. Usually we work three days and then have two days off. This schedule continues to rotate throughout all seven days of the week. Right now I am working in big babies, the house also houses small babies and toddlers. The big babies are between the ages of 6 months and 1 year right now. There are 13 of them, 4 girls and 9 boys. There are three people that work at a time so this means that you are roughly watching 4-5 babies each although everything is done together. A typical workday follows this schedule:

-       7:00am- Wake up the babies. There are three bedrooms that the babies sleep in so each person takes one room. Usually the babies are already awake when we go into their rooms. We then take each baby individually to get ready for the day. First we give the baby a “bath”. This means that we wipe the babies down with a soapy wet washcloth and dry them off. We give them their vitamins, put lotion on them, change their diaper and put clothes on them. Then they go back and wait in their crib for the rest of the babies to get finished getting ready in the morning. It takes about 7-10 minutes to get each baby ready.

-       7:45am- Bring the babies to the living room. There are blankets spread out in the living room that we bring the babies out to. One person stays with the babies in the living room while the other two go and get the babies from their cribs. The person in the living room watching all of the babies puts a bib on each of them to get ready for bottles. The babies also get morning medicine at this time if they need it.

-       8:00am- Bottles. Each of the babies gets a bottle and they feed themselves. They all lie on the blankets and drink their bottles. It is usually 10 minutes of the day that everyone is happy! After the babies are finished with their bottles they have time to play. We put toys on the blankets and they can play. The living room is small and if I had to guess I would say that the babies have a 7-foot by 7-foot area to play. 13 babies in that amount of space is tight, especially when they are all starting to move. Someone is always pulling someone else’s hair, has a foot in someone else’s face or is crawling on top of someone. It is true baby wrangling as you are breaking up fights and taking babies off of each other. During the playtime we also help to exercise the babies and stretch out their muscles in different ways. We also encourage sitting and crawling and walking, as the babies are able to do this.

-       9:15am- Cereal. We move all of the babies to the dining room area, which is just across from the living room. 4 of the babies sit in highchairs and the rest of the babies sit in bumbo seats on the floor. They are all facing the TV and we put on a praise baby DVD. Then we start to feed the babies. They eat one at a time. We take them out of the bumbo seats and put them on our laps to feed them. The ones in highchairs just get fed in their highchair. They each get a bowl of cereal and about 7-10 minutes to eat it. Then they go back in their chair and watch the DVD until all of the babies are finished. Once the babies are finished eating one person will usually start on washing the bottles and dishes from cereal. Everything is hand washed and air-dried.

-       10:00am Naptime. All of the babies are taken to their rooms for a nap. They are not rocked to sleep but just placed in their cribs to fall asleep on their own. Then the staff and volunteers have 15-minute devotions and prayer time. Once this is over it is tea time or morning break. We usually get something to eat and take a few minutes away reading or lying in the sun.

-       11:00am- Hang the laundry. The cleaning auntie does all of the laundry in the morning and then at 11 we hang it out on the clotheslines to dry. Everything is dried in the sun outside.

-       11:15am- Make the bottles. We make all 13 of the bottles by following a chart based on age and size to determine who gets how much milk.

-       11:30- Wake the babies up. We also change the babies at this time. Once this is finished we take them back out to the living room the same way that we did in the morning.

-       12:00pm- Bottles. All of the babies drink their bottles and then play just like in the morning.

-       1:15pm- Baby food. The same routine happens with baby food as with cereal. The brand of baby food that is used is called purity and so baby food time is called purity time. Every other day is alternated between fruit and vegetable. The babies usually do really well with whatever kind of food they are given. If they don’t like it they usually pull a face but eat it anyway. Again the babies are watching a praise baby DVD during this time and when they are finished one person will start on the dishes.

-       2:00pm- Nap. The babies go down for their nap and we get a lunch break.

-       3:00pm- Laundry. We take the laundry off the line and bring it up for the aunties to fold while we start making the bottles.

-       3:15pm- Make bottles.

-       3:30- Wake up babies. We wake the babies up and change diapers again. We also get the babies in their pajamas at this time. Once they are changed and in their pajamas we pick out the clothes that they will wear for the next day and then start to take them into the living room.

-       4:00pm Bottle. The babies drink their bottles and play. During this time the babies that have nighttime medicine will get it and all of the babies temperatures are taken. This helps to track if anyone is getting sick.

-       5:30pm- Bed. The babies are taken to bed individually. Once they are all put in bed we finish clean up from the day and night shift arrives at 6pm so that we are free to go.

This is the schedule in a nutshell. It is an 11-hour day and it can get long. Really though it is the same thing just three times over. While it is long it is also fun and rewarding most of the time. When you can get a baby to laugh or smile there is not a better sight or sound. Now here are a few of the figures with the babies:

-       At least 60 diapers a day. This means that I alone change at least 20 diapers a day and about 8 of them would be dirty diapers. (That’s a lot of poopy diapers for you day camp friends!)

-       A 1,8KG jar of formula lasts about 2 days. We go through formula like crazy.

-       The laundry is never ending. I would have to say that there are at least 4 loads that we hang out everyday.

The Expo and Race

There is a big bike race in Johannesburg every year. I have heard that about 26,000 people race and I believe the race is around 94.7 km long. The main highway is shut down for the race because of how big it is. Some people race just for the fun of it, some people race for the time aspect of it and some people race to raise money for a charity. There are about 50 people or so that are racing for Door of Hope. The first few days before the race, there is an expo for it with some of the charities and many bike things raising money and promoting products. One of the days I had to work at the expo. The whole goal of us being at the expo is to raise money. We have to just ask people to donate or to buy t-shirts and water bottles. This is not my thing to begin with let alone in a forgine country. I don’t like asking people for money even when it is for something that I believe in deeply. This was a challenge but it was fun for me to be out of the house for the first time in about a week. Alright, here is a funny story about the expo. Most of the girls went to the expo with another volunteer so they were with someone that they knew. I went alone because no one else was on the schedule to come. So I had to be ready to go at 6:45am because is when I was going to be picked up. We got in the car and drove about 45 minutes away to Standton, which is the business area of Joburg. We did our thing for the day and packed up to leave. On the way home is dawned on me what I did. I got in a car with strangers in a forgine country not having any idea where I was going and without a phone so that I could have a way of communicating if something went wrong but everyone loved Jesus so it was an okay thing to do. This is when you know that you are in the mission field. Don’t worry though I made it home safe.

Just like at Home

There are a few things here that I have found to be just like at home.

-       Heinz Ketchup!

-       Oreos

-       Special K Cereal

-       The flat is the Phat Pad. For those of you not familiar with this Camp Geneva lingo, the Phat Pad is staff housing. Summer staff lives there during the summer and a few staff will also live there during the rest of the year as well. It is a place that has an open door policy and anyone is welcome over anytime. I had the privilege of living there October 2011 through June 2012. It is an experience like none other. The flat here is the exact same way. I will move in the beginning of December when there is room but right now I am over everyday. Both the Phat Pad and the flat are very much loved and this is very easy to see, as they are hardly ever spic and span clean. There are shelves at one end of the Phat Pad that has become a sort of storage place for odds and ends of any sort. The same is true of the flat. There are shelves are filled with the things that don’t really fit anywhere else. There are almost always dishes in the sink at both places and food on the counters.

Things I am still getting used to

There are many things that are different here than at home that I have to adjust to. Here are a few:

-       The milk that I have is called long life milk. It does not need to be refrigerated and the first carton that I bought is good for the entire 6 months that I am here. Not like the expires in 3 weeks milk that must be refrigerated at home.

-       There is always a baby crying. Since I live and work in the same place I am always able to hear the crying. I am not sure if this is ever something that I will get used to or want to get used to.

-       Everything is measured with the metric and Celsius scales. Speed is measured in kilometers, water for bottles is measured in milliliters, liquids are measured in liters, the oven is in Celsius, etc. So far this has not proved to be a huge issue and maybe I will just be really good at conversions when I get home. 

There are also many different vocabulary words that I am beginning to learn.

-       diapers are called nappies

-       traffic lights are called robots

-       roundabouts are called circles

-       trash is called rubbish

My Days Off for the Month

I will put my days off for the month on here as I know them. These will be the days that I will have the most probability of being online. When I am on it will more than likely be between the hours of 8am- 2pm Michigan time. I know this is a big timeframe and it is still not for sure that I will be on, but this is when the probability will be the highest. Hopefully someone will be online when I log on and the word can be passed around. I will start off by logging onto facebook and email. So for November the days I have off are: November 18, 20, 22, 26, 27, 30.

A Little Bit of Everything

-       Birthday Shout Out to Justin this week. Happy Birthday! Miss your calls to just complain for a little while and your 1am texts. Miss the arts and crafts and RCA talks. Miss the Wild Chef and McDonalds runs. Most of all just miss hanging out with you. May this year be everything that you hope for and more.

-       I can’t get over that I can wear my Chacos for almost the next year. Love not having to put these babies away for the winter!

-       Gas is 11.87R for 1 liter. Makes the prices at home not seem so bad.

-       I was able to make a few phone calls home this past week. Mom I have saved calling home for Thanksgiving so don’t worry, your call is coming. I am able to buy airtime minutes at Pick n Pay. I still have to figure out the calculation as to how expensive this is and then try using a calling card to see which method s cheaper for calling home. I hope to then make a phone call a week to someone at home and hopefully this can be scheduled so that I don’t miss anyone. Although the surprise phone calls this week were a lot of fun!

-       If you see my parents congratulate them on living through 4 kids learning how to drive. I have heard that Eric passed his driving test and will be getting his license next week.

-       162 days until I start coming home!

In closing I have a few scripture verses to leave you with. These really hit me this week as I was reading.

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, than I am strong.

-       2 Corinthians 12:7-10

This has been an extremely difficult transition for me to make here. I knew that it was going to be hard but never could I have understood how hard. If I were given the option by anyone to pick up and come home I would have. It is not by my own ability that I am able to do this but only through the power of Christ and all of your prayers and support. When I am weak than I am strong. This is a hard concept to grasp and I am not sure that I will ever really understand it but I will continue to rely on Jesus to keep teaching me and making me strong.

A guilty request: If you ever have a quick second and happen to think of it, send me an email. It can be about anything, what you did during the day, a funny thing that happened, a quote or even simply what you had for dinner. I don’t care. I love hearing from you all more than you know. It helps to reassure me that I will not be forgotten. (This may sound silly but it is really one of my greatest fears that everyone will get wrapped up in the nest 6 months of life and I will not be needed when I get home. Jesus and I are having daily conversations about how ridiculous this is.)

Thank you for all of the continued prayers and support. I cannot say enough how much they mean to me. Keep them coming and please let me know how I can be supporting and praying for you all at home while I am here. Love you and miss you all. And now for a few pictures. Hang with me on the formatting and quality of everything as I am learning and also trying to do this in a word document and then copy and paste it onto the blog. Also if there are things that you have questions about please ask and if there are things that you want to see pictures of let me know and I will do my best to get those pictures up and answer those questions. Remember it will be a few weeks because of lack of internet but I will do my best!

This if the right side of my room when you are standing in the door way.  All of my clothes are in the black drawers!

First African wildlife. It is a little lizard guy near the green leaves.

My view

My bathroom. Only part of the shower has a glass door and the rest of it is open.

Left side of my bedroom. My bed is the bottom bunk with the polka dot bed spread.

Week 1

I am in South Africa. Today marks a week of being gone and 5 days of being here at Door of Hope. I plan to write all of my blogs in a word document and then copy them to the blog when I am able to get Internet. These posts could get long but I hope to section them off so you can read what is interesting to you and skip the rest.

Communication- Internet and Phone

I have learned that Internet is going to be very limited while I am here. I am hoping to be able to get on for a little bit at least once a week but there will be no guarantee of that. This is because there is not Internet at the baby house. We have to walk to a restaurant in the Glen. The Glen is a mall that has everything that we need about a mile away. There is not a car available for the volunteers at the baby house so we have to walk to the Glen when we need anything. The catch is that you cannot go alone. It is too dangerous to do this. So we have to wait for a day off and someone willing to walk with us. I have also learned that I am able to get a half hour of Internet free and then have to start to pay for it afterwards. It is going to get expensive but that is just something that I am going to have to deal with. I believe that I am 7 hours ahead of home time wise. There is never going to be a guaranteed time that I will be on the Internet. Hopefully I will be able to set up times with the girls once I get on more of a schedule. It will always be morning in Michigan though. There are a few phones that we share here between us. I will hopefully get one the end of the month that will be mine while I am here. I can then buy minutes and hopefully use a calling card to call and even text everyone once in a while! I will post more about that when I am able.

Homesick

To say that I am homesick would be an understatement. Know that I am not writing this to get pity from everyone but because I promised that I would be honest on this blog. I would say that the worst part of the day is the morning and the evening. I have compared myself to a camper many times already. I just might be to the point some evenings that I would be the one crying during tie-dye. I miss you all the most but there are little things that I miss also. Things simple like driving. I have only ridden in a car twice since being here.  I have experienced homesickness before. The prime example is moving in at Hope. But even when there, I had a car and was able to go to familiar places. That is not possible here. There are not familiar places, only familiar things. I cannot thank you all enough for the daily encouragement that you gave me. I know that the purpose was that I read a page everyday and there would be something new and a reminder from home but truth is I have read the entire thing already, more than once. I have also brought about two dozen printed pictures with me. I have to limit myself how often I look at these so that they are a help and not a hindrance with the homesickness. I continue to pray and read scripture whenever the homesickness begins to set in. The day after I got here one of the girls was leaving She did not want to leave as she got attached here. I would have given my right arm to trade places with her at that point. I do believe that this will subside soon but if anyone has any ideas how to make homesickness better I am open to ideas. I would love nothing more than to have nurse Andrea fly down with homesick medicine, so if anyone wants to contribute to her plane ticket fund that would be greatly appreciated.

Jet Lag and Sickness

I am experiencing jet lag to the full right now. I still have to adjust to the different sleep schedule and currently spend about 4-5 hours in the middle of the night awake. I am praying that I am able to get on the right schedule very soon. One thing that has not helped me get on this schedule is that I have spent the last three days in bed sick. I have had extreme dizziness and nausea. While is bed I am able to sleep when I want and that is what I have done. Not helping the schedule thing. The dizziness and nausea have still not gone away completely and when talking with some of the girls I have to believe that they are also part of the jet lag factor. I have not started work yet because of not feeling well.

Other Volunteers

Well, right now it sounds like life is horrible. (Depending on when you would catch me I would say it was. Just being honest.) There are some things that have been good, one being the other volunteers. Right now there are 8 volunteers at Door of Hope. Many of them are also from the states along with one from Germany and one from the Netherlands. Two of the girls will leave at the end of the month and three others will leave the end of December and beginning of January. At that point one more will join us. Many of the girls are here for three months. There is one that came this summer and will be here for a year and another that came three weeks before me that will be here for seven months. She leaves the week after I do. There are many times that I am extremely jealous of the three monthers but I am glad that there will be a few here the entire time that I am as well.

Where am I living

I am at baby house one in Glenvista. Hang with me as I try to describe what it is like and hopefully I will be able to put a few pictures up soon. Otherwise check out the pictures on Door of Hope’s facebook page. First off, everything is in one building but it is not all interconnected. The baby house is one entrance, the volunteer flat is another and the two more bedrooms are part of the third. In the baby house there are three sections. There is the big baby section, little baby section, and toddler or starfish section. There is a big kitchen in the baby house also that was recently renovated. The volunteer flat is next. In the flat there is a living room, a bedroom that houses three people, a bathroom and a kitchen. It is where we hang out on our days off and in the evening before bed. There is a tv and dvd player in the flat so almost every night we will watch a movie together. Then there is the last of the bedrooms. These are in the basement of sorts. There is a 2-person room and a 4-person room. I am currently in the 4-person room with one other girl. There is also a bathroom here and the laundry room is next door. Two of the girls in the flat will leave the end of November and when they leave I will be moving there.  All of the rooms are very small, dorm room size. It works but there is not much space to just be alone if that is what you want. A few of the girls also stay in a flat off site. The property that this baby house sits on is very small. There is a small yard area with nice grass for the babies to play on. There is also an in ground pool on site. We are free to use this on our days off. So I better be coming home with a great African tan since I am here during the summer months. Everything here is surrounded by gates and security systems. It is like nothing I have ever seen in the states. There is a big gate around the entire property and smaller areas sectioned off inside of it, such as the pool and grass area. All of the doors to the building have a gate that is closed and locked and then the wooden door is closed and locked.  Before going to bed we also lock our bedroom door, so we are locked in at least four times!

Schedule

The typical schedule for working will be three days on and then two days off. This does include weekends because someone has to take care of those babies! There are times when it is different but this is what they try to make happen. I have not started with the babies yet because the first three days I was suppose to be on I was not feeling well, so I will let you all know what the daily schedule is like when I know it.

Pictures

I am able to take pictures of the babies! If you look on the facebook page you will see very few pictures of them and you never see their faces. This is to protect them. As of this month there are not going to be any pictures of them posted online at all. I am able to take as many pictures as I would like for personal use. They will never be able to be shared or published online or elsewhere in any way. So this means that you have to wait until April to see pictures of me with the babies or the babies in any way. (6 months just got a little bit longer for you all too, didn’t it.)

Wednesday Night Bible Study

Door of Hope (DOH) has connections with the International Missions Board (IMB). One of the ladies that works with IMB has developed a strong connection with DOH and especially the volunteers. She also has two college-aged girls that have been here for I believe the semester as interns. Together they have created a Bible Study on Wednesday nights for us. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon so I was able to meet everyone and participate in the Wednesday Bible Study last week. I loved it!  We are looking at women in the Bible. Last week we looked at Esther. One of the girls also plays guitar so we were able to worship before the study. It was extremely refreshing. I am going to look forward to this every week. It also helps that it is on Wednesday since this has been a night that I have spent time with friends for the past year or so being honest with one another, sharing about life, taking time to pray and eating ice cream. I am missing traditions like that a lot right now but these new ways of life have started to help.

Personal Goals

I have made a few personal goals for myself while I am here. I am sharing them with you so that you can all help to keep me accountable to them.

1.     Take a picture a day. I bought a new camera before I came. Yes, it is the big fancy kind that cost a little bit too much money. I wanted to have good pictures from my time here and I hope that it is an investment for the future as well. This being said I need to make sure that I use it. There are no rules for the daily picture. It can be of whatever I want. This just gets be using the camera and documenting my time here in full instead of on the last two days.

2.     Write everyday. I have never been a journaler as much as I want to be sometimes. During these months though I feel that it is important to write down the new experiences that I have and keep track of my feelings and emotions. I have challenged myself to at least write about the picture that I take everyday. There have been some days so far that the entries are very short but there are also some already that take up pages.

3.     The final goal is to read scripture everyday and to ultimately read the Bible through. I started with the small goal of just reading scripture everyday. If I am being honest this is not something that I am good at. There can be days at a time that I will not pick up my Bible and that is just disappointing to me. I want to get better at this. I decided to add reading it through in the past few days. I have tried to do this before but have always failed. I believe that there will be great power in reading scripture cover to cover while I am here. Besides there is not much else to do on our days off.

This all being said, I need to have you all help keep me accountable to these goals. Remind me of them every once in a while. I would also challenge you to the same ones. Maybe you want to pick just one or maybe you want to join me in all three. It would be great encouragement to have others participating with me. It will also be fun when I get home to compare the past 6 months that we have been apart.

A few fun things that don’t fit anywhere else!

-       I am Auntie Emily here! Everyone goes by Auntie and their first name or most of the time just Auntie. I love it. It unites us as family and it is a great reminder of camp.

-       Cape Town looks like it could be a possibility! Four of the girls went about three weeks ago together and a few of the other ones are trying to set a trip for in January. They have invited me along. We just have to hope that they are willing to give us all the same week off. Penguin beach would be a stop. The other girls did some pretty crazy things such as horse riding on the beach and cage diving with great whites. I really pray that this can happen and in the middle of my stay would be great.

-       We all have Thanksgiving off. They try and give all the volunteers one day off together each month. The lady from IMB has invited us all over to her flat and we will have a traditional Thanksgiving meal. I am very excited for this and so grateful to be spending the day with the rest of the volunteers in a relaxing way. This will be the first holiday away from home ever and the first holiday out here.

-       Birthday Shout Out- Happy Birthday Beth! I pray that this year is your best yet. I pray that dreams come true. Know that you were thought of often on Saturday. Miss you and love you more than words can say.

-       24 weeks left. 168 days before I head for home. Lord, continue to give me the strength to achieve this dream and be your hands and feet here in Africa. I can only do it with your help!

-       My address here is, hopefully it will get to me. Send a letter first and I will let you know that I got it.

Door of Hope

c/o Emily Rosendahl

15 Barbara Road

Glenvista Johannesburg, 2058, South Africa

Well I believe that is all. Long post I know. If you have any questions please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them as I can. Know that you are all in my thoughts and prayers daily. I miss you all more than you know and love you more than words can express.

P.S. I am not proof reading this so if there are spelling and grammar errors, and I am sure there are, please excuse them.