South Africa – Expect the unexpected

I had lots of fun this week! Today I went to the “Scratch Patch.” Basically, it is a place with thousands of rocks on the ground and you get to keep any of the ones that you found and fit in your bag. Yes, I was the oldest person in there besides the parents, but Kieran came with me so I didn’t look too silly. Plus, there were quite a few kids that fell into the water, so I was glad that my party left dry. We also went to Boulder’s Beach and saw the penguins. The sign said that the penguins were always ecstatic – well not today, but it was pretty cool to see live penguins. There was a penguin underneath the steps that I got a picture with. I went to pretend to touch it and the penguin made a horrible noise and snapped at me. Luckily, I didn’t get bitten but it scared me and Kieran as well!

Kid’s club is where this week’s craziness was at, surprise, surprise right? I thought I had seen it all at Kid’s club already – drugs, violence, and chaos, boy was I wrong, no pun intended! I went outside to play with a few of the girls and one of the older boys (who is about 12) rolls up with this huge, white, veiny, plastic man part, with exchangeable tips. 1. I couldn’t believe things that size were created 2. I couldn’t believe he brought it out in public 3. I just couldn’t believe it. 4. I’m just going to stop right there! I asked him to please go take it back home (probably should have told him to burn it and take a bath…but yeah) he finally took it home! That was part one of Kid’s club craziness. Part two and three involves one little girl named Tammy Anne. Tammy Anne is super, super cute, roughly 3 or 4. You can never get mad at her even though she is quite the menace! On Thursday, she thought that it was okay to bite me. She didn’t want to bite anyone else, she just wanted to bite me. So, for awhile I tried to shield by body whenever she would come around, which was actually quite hard when you have 3 girls hanging all over you. She got the best of me, and ran all the way around to my backside, where she then took a big bite of my right butt cheek with her baby snaggle teeth – I don’t know if they are so little because of them being rotten or because they are growing in, I think more because they are rotten. To make matters worse her brother saw this going on and decided to bite the other butt cheek. A tetanus shot maybe in order!  So, now to part 3. You have to forgive and forget quickly because the kids are really just out of control, but anyways, a few minutes later Tammy Anne had calmed down and she came up to me and reached her arms up. I try not to pick up the kids because I know all of them will then want to be picked up, but since she is the youngest I thought it would be okay. I kept her far away from my face though, in fear that she was going to pull a Mike Tyson and bite off my ear or something, which was actually a great idea, because she had a burp-throwup. She threw up all over her jacket and a stream of throwup went from my shoulder all the way down to my shoe. So thank you, Tammy Anne, for always keeping it interesting!

Yes, the kids are crazy. Some are crazier than others! This story is actually quite uplifting. One of the girls down the street, Tomia, came up to me on Tuesday and said that her mom wanted to talk to me. I asked what she wanted to talk to me about and she said “My mommy wants a book about Jesus and so do I.” I told her that I would be looking for a good one for both of them . I thought that was so cool though that they were trying to learn more about Jesus! Tomia also asked me if I could sleep over at her house. I am such a softy that I agreed to it as long as I got my own bed! So that will be a real Ocean View experience. Tomia and I sleeping in bunk beds next to a bed with Tomica and her mom – that’ll be something!

Austin has arrived in Ocean View and is fitting in quite well. Can’t wait to do more touristy things now!

Congrats to Casey, Michael, Treswill, and the A/B U13 Ubuntu players for getting first place in their leagues! We all are very excited for their success this season!

I hope everyone has a great remainder of their weekend!

Love you!