Be spontaneous!

The kids in the neighborhood are out on winter break for 4 weeks so the streets have become one big playground. Kids are out til dusk playing games, hanging out, singing, dancing etc. It reminds me of the neighborhoods when I was little. The only thing that would interrupt our play time were cars that passed by. We all moved to the side and then resumed right where we left off.  I have learned to play a game called “Tennis”. I have noticed that only girls play it. Two people bounce a tennis ball back and forth trying to hit the person in the middle. My favorite part though is that if you drop it or the ball goes past you, it is literally a free for all. Everyone standing around you runs and fights for the ball. If you are the person to get the ball it’s your turn.  This creates lots of laughter and shouting (in a fun way). Oh, and I’m learning names. As you can imagine this is not an easy task. Not counting Luc’s family I think I remember 6. I’m trying to add 2 each day.

We attended church at the children’s home this Sunday. Thomas, my fellow teammate, preached and did a great job.  We also caught the end of a choir competition. Most of the groups were just kids of all ages singing together, but there were two legit choirs. They were really good. In two weeks I’m going to preach on Sunday. I’m going to use the bible story about Joseph to talk about when we are called by God or have dreams we want to achieve, though people may intend to stop us or try to keep us down God will use it for good.  Or something like that…

We were invited to a surprise birthday party and you can’t go to a party in Africa and not dance. There was a congo line at one point and the older ladies took us by the hands to dance in the middle. Oupa, our team leader, warned us that it would be spontaneous and sure enough it was! I was asked to make a speech; a word of encouragement or blessing to the woman whose birthday it was. Uhm. Sure?  I was just one of probably 10 people that got up to share something. There is an MC and a program of which I was just added into on the spot. I had a lot of fun though and it was another great culture experience.