OUTREACH: Capetown, South Africa!

I still can't believe I am here. It is so surreal to me. The base we are staying at here is so awesome. It's an old hotel, so it has all these neat staircases and stuff. I share a room with the three other girls on my team and we seriously have way more room then back in perth. And we have a shower between the four of us versus two showers between like 30 people.. This is like luxury living here. I feel almost guilty.. ahaha I actually don't mind at all.. it's really nice.

Yesterday we went into the actual city of Capetown (we are living in a suburb called Muizenburg). It is about 45 minutes on the train to get there. The train is pretty cool.. really rustic and old and crowded! We go in the first class just because there are less people who ride in it but it was still so full coming home during rush hour. The doors don't close automatically so there are people holding them open and hanging out of them, or they are outside in between two of the cars. It's a cool experience for sure. We walked around the city for a good while - it is so interesting! This is the most polarized city I have ever seen in terms of money distribution. Walking down the sidewalk.. you look to the left and there are poor street vendors and on your right are high end clothing stores. The contrast between rich and poor is everywhere. We all really enjoyed walking around, lot's of cool stuff to see. However, we did get a sense of the city and the darkness and danger that is there. There were a lot of people who came up to us begging for money and stuff or just hanging around us. We have been given many tips on how to travel safe, so if we are smart we will be totally fine. That being said, Capetown isn't the safest city ever, so prayer for safety over my team would be awesome! Because our team is multicultural (7 countries represented!) we look more like tourists.

Today was an even better day. We went into a township today, called Delft. We went there with the pastor of a church there who is going to always lead us when we go. Basically we visited his church (it's just a square building with nothing in it) and then we visited some of the people he knows. The township is like a slum area. It is a huge area or these super run down shacks. The government actually makes really nice (comparatively speaking) houses for them and gives them to the people for free, so that is good. But a lot of people live in terrible looking shacks made out of scraps. But when we went inside them, they are actually homes. They have furniture and electricity and it is a home. I was really surprised at how comfortable they are...at least the ones we went to. And the people we met were all soooo friendly. Very welcoming and just loved it that we were there wanting to help out and everything. And the children! Oh my goodness. My heart feels complete. They are just so full of joy, it is incredible. A whole swarm of them came up to us and just jumped on us. The climbed all over us and we gave them piggy back rides and swung them around and everything. And the cutest thing was that they kept on grabbing my hair and sort of stroked it. They actually took it out of the braid I had and were playing with it and said they loved it so much. It was so sweet. We are going back tomorrow and I can't wait. I loved it there.. I felt safe and comfortable - the people are awesome.

So basically, I love it here. I am excited for everything that is to come and all the opportunities we will have to talk to the people of this amazing city and share Jesus with them! So excited for the next month :)