Welcome To South Africa

(The greetting we recieved upon ariving at the creche in Shongweni)

After a loooon fligh the October team landed in Durban, with feelings of exhaustion, excitement, and everything in between.  We were met at the airport by our local guides and carted of to the hotel for the evening. 

Bright and early Friday morning we headed out to get a truly local experience at White Elephant Lodge and Bush Camp a couple hours away on the border of Swaziland. 

Those in the group who had been on safari before knew what to expect, yet were still in awe of God's awesome creation.  Those of us who's primary knowledge of Africa came from Disney's  "The Lion King" were impressed by the movies accuracy, yet blown away by the magnitude of seeing elephants, zebras and hippos almost close enough to touch. 

After a weekend of relaxing and getting to know each other, we headed back to Durban to prepare for our week of work. 

As you can see from the above picture, saying we were greated with open arms is an understatement.  The kids met us with the kind of genuine love and affection and curiosity that only small children have.  We had traveled 10,000 miles to show them love, and here they were setting the perfect example. 

After lots of hugs and picture taking, we met our local missionaries and Pastor Twala and divided up into groups to get to work.

The group building the storage center had quite a time hauling bricks from the top of the hill to the site, but the teamwork proved effective and by lunch we were ready to build.  After many hours,  and a new appreciation for cement mixers, we laid four rows of blocks and were done for the day.

The group in charge of painting had the awesome opportunity to get to know and work with the Dludla family as they painted the entire interior of the house and even got a head start on the exterior for tomorrow.

A third group worked with the local women to improve their sewing skills, which will greatly increase their chance of bringing in income and becoming self-sufficient.

After a day of hard work, the team went home tired, but excited to head back tomorrow to see what else God has in store for us.