Hello

It has been a couple weeks now since I have been able to post. Since there is quite a bit to catch you up on, there is going to have to be some summorising. First I will say that the scabbies, after the edition of a take over bed bugs, has been all taken care of. Our house has actually been more or less pest free so that is a good thing. Let me also say that on the 17th I was able to cellebrate St Patty's day with some real Irish and that was rather fun though no one realised what day it was until later in the afternoon.

I will start two weekends ago. We left early friday morning with the Durban YDC and Sally and her family to go to Sanni Pass in the Drakensburg mountains. It was in fact the most beautiful place that I have ever seen in my near 18 years of life. We stayed in a smallish cluster of huts on a hill down in a massive river valley surrounded by even more massive mountains. It is in fact one of the few places here in South Africa that gets snow. We spent the weekend doing some hanging out, playing soccer, and taking some hikes. One such hike took us to a huge, three level water fall with ice cold pools of water to swim in that were so brightly blue the pictures we took didn't do them justice. We were surrounded by wildlife and I dare say that if there is such a place as heaven it looks something like this. I have never felt so on the edge of civilization as I did there.

We returned home Sunday evening rather reluctanly and I had two days to clean my things and get myself back to reality before heading up to L'Abri for my first camp in two weeks.

Wednesday we left early for L'Abri, this time a camp of fourteen year olds from a Christian School. This camp started off like all the others but immediatly there was something different, something truely odd. Yes, it was freezing cold up there. We were almost always in the mists and I had to huddle under two hoodies just to stay warm. I found this camp to be a less meaniful one both for the campers as well for myself. We were unable to do all we had planned as well on account of the weather. We did get to go on a night hike though it wasn't nearly as cool as I though it would be. It was hard enough trying to keep all 50 kids together in the pitch black and thick fog. Some of the highlights of this camp were a soccer match of five L'Abri staff against 25 campers with us winning 9-2 and a tallent show. Martin, Richy and I decided to put on a fashion show with garbage bags and it later ended in a Zoolander style walkoff to conclude the tallent show. The teachers then held a spiritual with the kids which we were not obligated to attend. I was glad I ducked out of there when it turned into a crazy madhouse of wailing and speaking in tongues which could be heard across camp. Not to pass judgement on such things but I was rather put off that they were doing that with kids. Anyway, there was still some success to the camp and we wrapped it up an hour late on friday.

Friday night we went out a cafe, which has become something of a favorite, for dessert. We ended up having a dance party there and were the last ones to leave the place. Fortunately, the staff seemed to be enjoying us.

Saturday, Richie, Thirza, Aerin and I were the only ones around the house and we actually had quite a nice time. We saw a Rugby match down the street with the premier high school rugby team in all of South Africa. We watch some movies and if I may brag, I cooked one of the best dinners ever (well, that I have cooked anyway.) That night we went out to an Irish style pub and ended the night searching for a food place which ended in vain.

Sunday we went down to Durban and spent the day on the beach. The ocean was as warm as bath water and we had a lot of fun. The way back was not so nice though because I fell asleep just as we were leaving the city and woke up an hour later back in the city completely lost. Turns out our driver doesn't know how to follow road signs. So after a long long time we made it home and collapsed.

This week has been pretty mellow. I saw a huge monkey yesterday about ten feet from me which was cool. Tonight we are going to Kareoke and friday I head back to L'Abri for another camp.

So long guys