Day 7 from Anna Scanlon

Happy 4th of July to all you Americans back home! Today was truly an astonishing experience and the most jam-packed day so far. The entire team met up this morning outside the cabins at 5:45 am to hike up the mountain behind us. Jokingly named Mt. Everest, this "mountain" is the smallest on the reserve, standing 500 ft about the base grounds. But don't be fooled--the hike was anything but easy. At 5 in the morning in South African winter the winds are fierce and the air is beyond freezing. Climbing Mt. Everest, which is nearly vertical in some places, was physically strenuous and took around an hour. It didn't exactly encourage me that our guide had once climbed the mountain in twelve minutes flat--and made the journey regularly three to four times a week. But for all of our shivers and huffs and puffs, reaching the summit was entirely rewarding. And if personal success wasn't great enough, the entire team got to experience the majesty of an African sunrise. Don't worry, I took great pictures. It reminded me of watching the sun set in the Australian desert the summer I was going into seventh grade, but this time something was different. This was a spiritual journey, and holding hands with our feet on the edge and our faces to the sun, listening to Stephanie pray was more than uplifting. There's something magical about feeling the God who painted the clouds on the pastel sky reach down and kiss your face with the wind. 

So after our little roundabout we ate breakfast (oatmeal and french toast!) and headed out for Qwa Qwa. In the morning we did the usual relationship evangelism things, except that my experience was different. My team went to visit a new home today, and as these things go we randomly wandered into the home that our interpreter suggested. As soon as I stepped inside the fierce aroma of incense filled my lungs.  This was by far the poorest house we'd been in, with the roof and walls made of tin and lined with adverts for sofas as wallpaper. There was no tile on the floor, only dirt and rugs, and the one room shack was divided in two by a hanging sheet. However, this hardly kept my attention for long when I realized what we'd stumbled into. The woman who'd welcomed us into her home was a sangoma--a witchdoctor. At first we were all pretty rigid. I tried to hide the bible in my hands and for a few minutes we made awkward small talk. Then she straight up asked us--why do you have bibles? So we attempted to ease into the conversation gently, but God wasn't having any of it. It became clear that He'd put us here for a reason, and we soon attempted to make the most of it. It turned out she'd been a Christian before becoming a witchdoctor, but now that she's turned away she feels she can only go back to church if she slaughters a cow and washes her hair (?). We told her the story of the Prodigal Son, and she seemed to be totally touched. Spending an hour and a half with her was a terrifying but incredible blessing. It was incredible how God just descended onto the situation and totally used us to bless her. 

Ok so this post is really long and I have to go to bed soon. But any hoo. After the sangoma we all hopped in the bus and went to a hospital where we prayed for sick people. What a total culture shock. Complain all you want about corrupt American health care, you ain't seen nothing till you've seen this. I would talk about this in detail but I really want to talk about dinner.

So dinner. Well it's the 4th of July in South Africa too, and after an exhausting day we we're all hoping to go home, maybe have some hot dogs for dinner and then fall into bed. But of course, that wouldn't be awesome enough for the staff at Cornerstone. They treated us all to an amazing dinner at a Native American themed restaurant called Spurs (I think), where we munched on cheeseburgers and ice cream. They even busted out sparklers. On the way out they gave us special one time permission to be loud Americans and we all broke out with a broken version of the Star Spangled Banner. Which, of course, turned into an hour long bus ride home with every single on of us singing every singable song ever. I mean, seriously, from Wannabe, to American Pie, to that awesome song from Mulan, the end of the day was one big sing-a-long. It was a perfect little bonding experience and a perfect end to a perfect day. The whole thing was just one big blessing.

Much love, have a fun 4th of July,

Anna