Home Stays and Table Mountain!

This past weekend was spent with our home stay families. On Saturday they took us past an ostrich farm where we fed them through the fence.  And then we went to Boulder's beach where they have the penguins! Penguins... in South Africa! It was really fun! We walked along the trail where they come up and lay their eggs. Then on Sunday we went to church with our family. It was a Pentecostal church and it was very different from most of the churched I have experiences. It was very small- I think only about 30 people including all the children.  After worship, the next hour or so people from the congregation came up to speak just what was on their hearts or a message they wanted to share with the church. It was really cool and made it feel more community based instead of just one person speaking at everyone. Then the pastor (also our Grandma) came up and also spoke her message. Me and Yvette also had a little surprise- they asked us to come up and speak too! We were taken off guard a little but managed to say a couple of words :) After church we went to Ma's house for lunch and had a feast! She cooked so much food for us and then we passed out on the "coma couch", as they call it. It definitely lived up to it's name :) After a long nap we went for a walk on the beach with our family.  


On Monday we were reunited with everyone for class. I didn't realize how much I missed everyone after only 2 days of being apart! I don't know how I will survive this summer! We had class at the Bible Institute of South Africa in Kalk Bay.  It is a beautiful campus that overlooks the ocean. John Wallace (the president of APU and basically celebrity), was also there! He spoke for our chapel. After class we explored around Kalk Bay, had lunch, and then walked back to Fish Hoek to relax for the rest of the day. 


The next day we hiked Table Mountain! It is the beautiful backdrop to the city of Cape Town and recently named one of the 7 wonders of the world!! The hike was pretty tough and extremely steep but we made it! It took my group about 1. 5 hours.  But, of course, the second we reached the top we made the wrong turn.  Instead of turning left to the cable cars and restaurant (a 15 walk), we turned right going to the whole other side of the mountain! It took us on a 1.5 hour detour! Woops! It made for a great adventure and story! We eventually made it back the right way and caught up to everyone else. The view from the top was spectacular! (when the dense fog was not in the way). Some of us took the cable cars down, that was also a beautiful view! But the 2 minute ride down made our long hike up seem like nothing! 

View from Table Mountain

Today we had class again and John Wallace even brought us doughnuts!! We had lunch at a little place on the bay and I had my first ever fish and chips! I really liked it! And they were only R20, which is only $2.50! The rest of the day has just been relaxing and then later will we get picked up to go back to our home stays :)