Pathetically Overdue Post....

SO, to those of you who thought I would be thrilling you with well organized updates of my life abroad, I am sorry to disappoint you. But, as the old wisdom says, change of location does not mean change of person/character. Yes, I am still stuck in the same procrastinative (made that word up...) body of Hannah Hempstead of New York, who totally botched up her plan of keeping people well updated on the things she encountered.
To sum up my whole time in England, I will simply say that my life will never be the same again and if I can I will try to describe it to you someday.... and move on to the new topic: my first week in South Africa!
Saaaafrika, as most South Africans seem to pronounce their homeland, is beautiful. If you are worried that I am suffering as a missionary in the deep untamed plains of Africa, may I just set the record straight by reminding you that South Africa is much more western than the rest of the continent, and by describing where I have been and will be staying for the next few weeks. The team is staying on another YWAM base in Muizenberg (outside of Capetown). The base is about three blocks from the Muizenberg Beach, and sits at the base of Muizenberg Mountain (which the mental-er half of our team climbed at 4am this morning as I had a lie-in). The city is definitely a surfer-town, filled with old VW vans and beetles. So, with the comforts of home on the base (a converted 1930's hotel!) the beach at my fingertips, and a lovely scenic mountain at my back, I face the first days of "missionary life."
So far, I'm not suffering from anything more serious than a bit of sunburn. The sad thing is the suffering around me. The gap between rich and poor is a gaping hole... I can walk down the street and narrowly escape getting knocked down by a shiny/expensive european car and on the same street meet a woman who begs me to buy her bread... kids come up to you in the street asking for money, when you doubt they'll see the money themselves in the end... I drive by a whole colony of tin shacks not much bigger than an out-huose and enter into a neighborhood of stunningly lovely houses near the beach armed to the teeth to keep out desperate theives. HIV/AIDS victims and their families ask us for prayer as we preach on train cars, and I am confronted with the reality of something that is eating a part of the world I've always been so separate from. I have been able to pray with many women this week about different things, about depression, jobs, HIV victim in the family, and I've been so blessed with being able to see the people my team has prayed for display a real change... joy, hope, even healing (yes, a guy was healed the other day from a hearing problem!). So this week has been an interesting one, I've been confronted with a new culture, a new mindset, and new kinds of need.
This is going to be a crazy ten weeks.