South Africa Itinerary

Please pray for us now and throughout the semester!

Aug. 29          Chapel, departure for Dulles Airport

Aug 30 –

Sept. 2           St. Benedict's Retreat Center – Rosettenville

                                      Cultural history lectures, language study

Sept. 3-22     Homestays - Soweto

                                      Field trips, history/cultural lectures and discussion,

                                      language study, involvement in community. 

Sept. 23         St. Benedict’s Retreat Center                    

Sept. 24-27   Malealea Lodge – Lesotho

                                      Language study, history and CC lectures, hiking

Sept 28-

Oct. 19           Homestays – Malealea Village, Lesotho

                                       Immersion in local villages

      

Oct. 20           Malealea lodge: rest, skits and dramas

Oct. 21-28     Royal Hotel – Bethulie, S.A.

                                        Lectures on politics, history and culture, Boer war

Oct. 24-26     Homestays – Bethulie

                                        Immersion in community

Oct. 29           Addo Elephant Park – Addo, S.A.

Oct. 30-31     Albergo Lodge – Plettenberg Bay, S.A.

                                        Reflection, discussion, drama groups

Nov. 1-6        Free travel       

Nov. 7-8        Banghoek Lodge – Stellenbosh, S.A.

                                        Reflection /discussion small groups

                   

Nov. 9, 10      Ashanti Lodge – Capetown

Nov. 11-

Dec. 2            Homestays – Capetown

                                        Series of lectures at University of Cape Town

                                         Immersion in community

                         

Dec. 3-6         Banghoek Lodge, S.A.

Dec. 7            Leave from Capetown International Airport

Dec. 8            Arrive at Dulles Airport

anti-senioritis?

Here's the thing:  Once you hit a certain point in the summer (like, August, for example), it becomes odd to keep saying, "I just finished my junior year."  So then you find yourself saying, naturally, "I'll be a senior this year."  Which is the cue for the other person to exclaim, "Oh!  What will you do after you graduate?"
Laughing uncomfortably is not really an adequate response, it turns out.

So I now know that I need to somehow formulate a response that does not either take an in-depth, lengthy conversation to explain, or sound like I'm going to be living in a cardboard box.  My extended family (who I was with at the beach last week) is pretty great, so they've seemed to understand when I babble for a while about my various options after graduation...and they've encouraged me that it's okay to have a lot of ideas and not very many plans.  But I'm already doubting my stamina when it comes to explaining this to every single person who will ask me this question.

The interesting thing is, it doesn't scare me at all to have so many possibilities.  There are many directions I could see myself going within the next year, and I'm okay with that.  I might not be ready to leave EMU yet, but that's okay, too, because I still have another year.

For now, I can use the excuse of going to South Africa this fall (in 24 days!), and not have to think about it too much.  But eventually I'll have to come up with some sort of creatively framed answer.  At the beginning of the summer, I panicked while filling out a staff bio and wrote "follower of Jesus" under "Career path".  Maybe that can be my fallback answer.  In truth, it's much more than a fallback -- it is a way of living, and maybe we all need to be a little more okay with ambiguity when it comes to seeking out Christ's path.