Saturday, 7th of August

To those friends and family following along back home, the four of us (Eric, Brad, Grace, and Ben) as well as Vicki and Francois are doing well and are looking forward to the ocean. As Brad has already informed you in the last post, we have seen a great deal in our 8 days on safari in the north of South Africa and are looking forward to experiencing a bit of the culture of SA as we have just finished (at least for now) seeing the country’s great wildlife. As I write this entry, I realize that there is so much that is different here as compared to the states. Obviously, the scenery is much different and the people have changed; what is curious is how we have adapted to our new environment. For example, I have noticed that Grace and I have been sleeping much deeper in the last many days as compared to the states. You don’t find precariously placed streetlights or traffic noise from a distant thoroughfare while living in the bush. Really, the only things that have rustled us from our sleep are the grunting hippos, the trumpeting elephants, and a smorgasbord of ridiculously loud birds, all of which I’ve finally learned to tune out. Perhaps the stress that is always present in our daily lives living in America has begun to dissipate now that we can call ourselves resident Africans.

To be frank, still on a daily basis, I find myself whispering under my breath, “Ben, what are you doing?!?!” Though I’m excited to move on from being a vacationer into the role of humanitarian worker, I still recognize that this is a huge leap of faith and a great expense for someone who never gave much thought to overseas work. I went into these five months thinking only about the help that we could provide to the Swazi people, either with the use of my hands or my mind. Along with these hopes of action came a good deal of anxiety over how we could complete all these grand wishes for our stay. In the last few weeks, however, I have tried to temper my expectations for our stay and have begun realizing that it is me who I have come to change (Selfish, I know J). With this change of perspective, I have seen my anxiety lessen and my heart encouraged. In any case, I look forward to the next step in our journey and hope that this entry finds you all happy and well.

-Ben