So, I’ve compiled a bit of the signs (and other written things I saw in my two months in Africa. Enjoy.

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Now that I’ve spent some time there I call it Jozi, but you can call the largest city in South Africa Johannesburg or JoBurg, if you’re feeling friendly.

Below are some photos from both Jxxxxxxx and Pretoria.

(After my time in Malawi, I entered Part II of my time in Africa- South Africa and Safari vacation)

Beautiful weather, interesting sites. South Africa has been on my bucket list since I was 10. What is surprising is the amount of crime- not that I’ve seen any, but hotel staff, tour guides, and every local person I met told me it’s not safe to walk in any area of the city at night and some places not even in the day time.

Let me be blunt. I’m not going all the way to Africa and not seeing any big, wild animals.

After my time in Malawi, I wanted to take a once-in-a-lifetime safari. I had been saving money for a couple of years and was ready. I checked out a variety of companies that offered where and what I wanted. Having taken packaged tours before with G-adventures (Peru) and Cosmos (the Balkans), I sort of knew what to expect. There are trade-offs with various companies. Here’s the blunt realities for me: GAdventures is a great company, catering to more adventurous, young and budget travelers. Downside? They travel exclusively overland, so you’re talking about a lot of days just riding in a big bus going from place to place. Cosmos travel offers a more “upscale” product, but they charge a huge single-supplement. For people traveling solo, that can almost double the price of your trip. I then read about Overseas Adventure Travel. They did the places I wanted to see, taking three internal Africa flights to save long bus rides AND had no single-supplement. OAT won.

So basically, the safari tour with OAT was:

• Begin in Johannesburg, South Africa (1 night at airport hotel)
• fly to Kruger National Park (3 nights)
• fly to Zambia’s Livingstone Airport, drive Zimbabwe’s Huange National Park (3 nights)
• drive to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe for 3 nights in a motel
• drive/boat to Impalila Island, Namibia (3 nights)
• boat/drive to Botswana’s Chobe National Park (3 nights)
• drive to Victoria Falls Airport to flight back to Johannesburg, South Africa, tour ends

While the name of the company had the word “adventure” in it, it was by no means an adventure tour. Every element was planned and the accommodations were sometimes overly luxurious and the meals were all-American as well (chocolate cheesecake for dessert, anyone?). (I plan to have a blog about each leg of the safari up soon). Every meal out of the lodges we stayed-in were full of other tour groups from around the world. We were in an American bubble most of the time…

… But the animals we saw were amazing.

And we saw them up-close and person. Here’s a short YouTube movie I put together of short videos I took of some of the animal encounters we had along the way. Footage is from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. All videos taken with my new Nikon P600 “bridge camera.” Does a great job -IMHO- for under $400.

During my time volunteering at the Rafiki Village Malawi, I was privileged to witness a high school graduation ceremony. Tables in the dining hall were stacked in the back and were draped in black. Chairs were set up for visitors. The dozen graduates (all girls), their family, and local dignitaries were seated. Some of the local dignitaries were elders from the Central African Presbyterian Church, with which Rafiki has a warm and cordial relationship, as well as some local elected officials (tribal chiefs are now elected in Malawi, and, from what I understand, more like city councilmembers).

As the videos below show, this is not your passive American high school graduation. No. There is literally dancing in the aisles and the MC for the event really gets into it (check out his moves- he’s quite good).

The ceremony started with a short performance by the school choir and I think you might be taken aback by how excellent they are. Rafiki Malawi is blessed with having an excellent music teacher and gifted students.

After the ceremony there was delicious cake and soft drinks for all the graduates, families, dignitaries, and some students. For the students to get American-style cake and a Coke is quite a treat. In my whole time there, I never saw such things served or available on campus. Kids were overwhelmed with excitement and joy at being able to attend this event.

Then the dancing started. I don’t want to reinforce stereotypes, but skin pigment color might also affect dancing ability. Use your own judgement.

It was a wonderful time to see these young ladies commence the next part of their lives. As Rafiki Foundation attempts to accomplish their mission of renewing Africa and integrating the Gospel into the lives of the people of that Continent, I wish them all God’s blessings.

A few Sundays ago I was asked by the Rafiki village administrator, Debbie, to join her and the two other mini-missionaries for worship at her church. How kind. Of course, I wanted to attend my first African worship service, but then I found out that it begins at 7 AM. Yes, you read that correctly- 7 A.M. So on my day off I had to get up early.

As “Madam Debbie’s” bungalow is literally 100 feet my my house, the walk over to her house for the ride to church wasn’t extensive. We arrived at her house at 6:30 for the drive to church. The church we attended was the Katawa congregation of the CCAP. That’s the Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian. Check out their website. You’ll see they’re very Reformed.

Above: Photos the the congregation and their building, which was packed to the rafters!

Due to the high cost of paper and pens, the entire church “bulletin” is read out. That takes a while. There were three (yes, three) different choirs that sang, lots of prayers (most of which I could only understand about a third due to their accent and my inability to follow it), three hymns, a few greetings of those around us, and a fairly basic sermon that began two hours after the service began. The entire service lasted over 2 and 1/2 hours. There are three services each Sunday here. One traditional English (the one I attended), one in Tumbuka (the common language in these parts), and one that is contemporary (English).

When we took our seats at 6:50, there were about 50 people in the building. By 8 AM (yes, an hour after it started, people were still arriving), I’d estimate that over 400 people were there. And there are scores of CCAP churches in this part of Malawi. You can certainly see that the church is growing in Africa!

Of course, I wanted badly to video the wonderful singing from the choirs, including their amazing hand and body choreography, but I was worshipping God with my brothers and sisters, not making a documentary.

The choirs danced from their seats to the front of the church and back again! I was in full culture shock!

Prior to the service, I did take the opportunity to video these two groups preparing for the service. This should give you a taste of the amazing time we all had worshiping God that Sunday.

Goodbye Malawi.

One mini missionary’s flight was Sunday at 3AM, mine wasn’t until Monday at 1 PM, so the Renners, Annie and I took a road trip down to the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe. Just a short five hour drive. So the Renners and I spent two nights in the capital. Did a little exploring…

Check-out the first real African animal I saw. On the drive to Lilongwe we saw monkeys fall out of a tree! We stopped by the road and I took this photo from the other side of the car.

Finally got a photo of a typical scene on the road in Malawi. People pile on high loads on their head or on their bikes.

Everything looked familiar until I noticed it, right between the milk scones and queens cake, the zitumbuwa. Say what?

Above, this is our hotel in Lilongwe, The Sunbird Capital Lilongwe

And across the street is this new, inexplicably ultra modern five-star hotel, The President Walmont. Just what one of the poorest nations in the world needs!

above: Here’s a photo of the Chinese built legislative building in one of the poorest nations in the world.

While visiting the open-air mausoleum of Malawi’s first president, this random guy insistent that his friend take our photo. He bowed to the grave- I smiled uncomfortably.

Above: Love these overly polite English-style signs

Enjoyed a lovely time with the Renners- Here at Mama Mia’s Italian restaurant

This is the plane from LLW to JNB- Rather than us just walking over to it, we had to take a 45 second bus ride.

And now, for my artsy friends, an artsy photo taken from an open window on the top floor of the President Walmont Hotel, Lilongwe.

Yes, it’s time. My short three weeks here at Rafiki Village Mzuzu are over. Today I leave for Lilongwe to catch a plane to JoBurg, South Africa on Monday for the next chapter in the SAoRS.

It’s been amazing here.

I’ll miss…

• The wonderful orphans and day students at school
• Having lunch and dinner with our students in the dining halls
• visiting the cottages of the resident orphans
• helping the godly resident staff
• substitute teaching Bible, history, language arts, and computers
• the wonderful weather (although it’s identical to a San Diego winter)

There are more posts to come from Rafiki. Once I have access to faster internet, I’ll be uploading videos into some new posts. They’re coming soon.

This afternoon I was invited by the Rafiki Village Plant Manager, Larry, to join him for a game of golf. That’s right- golf in Mzuzu, Malawi. It was perfect weather, as has been the case every day for the past two weeks- sunny and in the low 70s. Hard to believe it’s this nice when your less than 800 miles from the Equator.

It was a fun time doing nine holes. But there were some challenges. For instance, the course is now used as a informal park and trail network by the community. So you’re trying to golf over peoples’ heads. Moreover, there was a small group of children who followed us along the way, all wanting to be paid at the end of our round.

I paid “greens” fees, rented clubs, hired a caddie, and paid for my part of the rest of our unwanted entourage- all for about $10. (“greens” in quotes because there was essentially no green on this course)

The course was hardly regulation. There was trash everywhere. And the putting greens were made of sand (see photos). One tee-off location actually had a few fires burning on it (see photo). This apparently is a Malawi thing. They love to burn stuff. You see it all over the place (and smell it constantly as well).

Yes, those are fires burning as Larry tees off.

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Random non sequitur in the middle of this post: We saw some pied crows in the trees at the golf course. Putting the new Nikon P600 to the test.

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“Uncle Larry” looking good

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This is yours truly putting on sand. No putting green here, just a sand-trap with a hole!

Along the course- right in the middle of the fairways- were people playing soccer, drinking and just hanging out. I was a little concerned that I would hit someone with a ball, but everyone dodged well enough.

Certainly one of the most interesting golf experiences I’ve ever had. All in all, a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Malawi is always surprising.

Pardon my pun with rice. Yes, rice is popular here  In fact, kids love to tell you their favorite foods and rice seems to be #1- even more than the national dish of nsima. Go figure.

But what this post is about is the Rafiki RICE program. RICE stands for Rafiki Institute of Christian Education. And it’s the natural next step after Rafiki’s orphanage’s classical christian education program. The plan being, once children are finished with their secondary education, what to do? Some will go on to university, some to trade schools, and some directly into the work force. But having so many well educated young people- educated in understand God’s Word and world, it makes natural sense to train these folks to start their own community schools. So RICE is like a teachers’ college.

This past week, I’ve conducted a basic computer class with the RICE students. In my classes we’ve go over the basics of computers, with a special emphasis on learning and using Microsoft Excel (you techies may be asking, “hey, that’s old hat- why aren’t they using Google apps?” Well, remember, they don’t have the internet here much. And what they have is painfully slow and expensive. Technology is 30 years behind. No fast internet, no Google apps). We built spreadsheet models to determine the economic viability of starting and conducting a school.

Of course, this is just in the initial years of the program. But Rafiki is getting ready. The photos below show the current students (affectionately known as the Rice Girls). They are under the tutelage of Madam Jane, a missionary from Lexington, Virginia.

The goal is to have these women start their own classical Christian schools in their villages across Malawi. It’s a great way to leverage the great Christian education they’ve been given and share the blessing with other Malawians.

Currently, the RICE program here is conducted in a small building with some classes held in the JSS building (Junior Secondary School- left [are you mirin my artsy photo now?].

But very soon, a massive new building will be completed here on Rafiki’s Mzuzu campus (see construction photos below).

These workers are excavating the area on the side of the new RICE building. Yes, it could be done with a rented backhoe. But it was determined that it’s cheaper to do with manual labor (and it provides more employment, too!)

It’s all so exciting and amazing what God is doing in Africa!

San Diego is over 10,000 miles away, but I feel right at home here. Everyone is very kind- the Americans, national staff, and the orphans.

Every school day begins with all the students and teacher at the “pad” for welcome and announcements by Madame Debbie Needham, the head of school; prayer; and singing the Malawi National Anthem. (Note about titles: from what I can gather senior female staff are “madam;” junior female staff are “auntie.” and all non-[regular] male teaching staff are “uncle”)

I’ve been substituting for a variety of classes this week. I’m now doing Standard Sixth Bible and computer class for the RICE program (Rafiki Institute of Christian Education- Rafiki’s post high school program) every day, as well as Sixth Language Arts and Seventh Language Arts the last couple of day. The school goes from Pre-K to Eighth, then skips to the post-high school program, the aforementioned RICE. The curriculum here is of a classical Christian bent. For instance, the Seventh Graders are reading selections of the Epic of Gilgamesh. It was fun going over a section of the story with them. It’s quite complex in story and language so we explored many of the ideas in this ancient Sumerian tale (circa 2,000 B.C.). Tomorrow is a half day for students so the other two “minis” and I are taking the kids for the PM while the staff has an in-service. We plan to show a movie (Joseph: King of Dreams [cartoon version]) and have three activity games after: relays, four square, and limbo (maybe too much detail for this blog?)

I’ve been super busy these past few days. I am very happy for that. One of my concerns is that I would arrive here and they would have nothing substantial for me to do. Quite the contrary. Busy, busy, busy.

As I’ve previously mentioned, this campus is huge – 70 acres. My house is at one end of the campus and one of my classes meets at the other end. It literally takes ten minutes to walk there. This photo doesn’t do justice to the distance, but you get an idea.

Above: This is half-way from my one class to my house- you can’t even see my house in the distance. The dining hall is pictured on the far right. Below: And this is taking with me turning and facing the other direction: