Update #1 Southern Africa

After two ten hour flights, we stayed in the Johannesburg, South Africa airport for the night on Sunday. 

We hung out in the airport, most of us trying to catch up on some sleep before our next flight at 6am. 

We all woke up together around 3:45am and played games before our flight. We boarded our flight and set off for final country around 6:30am! We were all extremely exhausted from the changing time zones and were ready to get to the site. 

The flight was only an hour and half long so we spent most of it talking, sleeping, and watching the beautiful sunrise! 

We made it through customs and met up with Glen, and the rest of the Hands of Hope team. The drive to the compound was incredible! 

My excitement and readiness to serve really grew in just the first hour meeting the team, riding in the van, and seeing all the amazing nature of this country. 

We all really began to connect with Hellen and her sweet baby girl on the drive too. 

Once we arrived to the compound, we unloaded some things, ate breakfast, and gathered with the team. We learned from Garikai, the national director, and Glen, the founder, about the culture and history of this country and the organization as a whole. We were fighting to keep our eyes open, as there’s a 9 hour time difference, but it was all worth it. 

We ate lunch all together and continued to learn. We had a little bit of downtime before heading to the house of one of the local pastors connected to the organization. We ate a delicious local dinner, including sadza. We even got to draw water from a well deep underground! It was super cool!!

We were all pretty exhausted and ready for bed, despite it only being 7:30pm. Returning to the compound we met up quickly as a team before heading to bed. It was an incredible day!

~Olivia