New Year's

This year’s New Year’s holiday was absolutely the best I have ever had. Usually I celebrate New Year’s sitting at home, maybe watching a movie and eating takeout. Sometimes we watch the ball drop. I think once when I was like thirteen I went to a New Year’s Eve party, and we made earrings. Even that wasn’t as fun as this year.
Our holiday started at 10 PM on Thursday the 31st, at church. BCI has a “praying in the new year” service every year, and let me tell you…it was awesome. I think it was my favorite church service ever. We had wonderful praise and worship and got to see lots of “items” - things like songs, poetry, and dance. And after the service, just after midnight, we put off fireworks in the church yard.
After the fireworks our team went off with a number of other youth to an after-service party. We played some Frisbee and football outside, danced (or, in my case, watched dancing), listened to music, played in the pool (or watched people get thrown into the pool), and played 30 Seconds, which is a game pretty much like Taboo. It was really nice. It was so weird to be standing outside in the early morning in shorts and a tank top, not cold at all…in January. Weird, but awesome.
Then around 4 AM or so, a bunch of us began setting off for the beach. We were attempting to watch the sunrise to bring in the New Year, but we didn’t actually end up leaving Pietermaritzburg until nearly 8, because we had to drop off so many people from the party and pick up so many people for the beach. Finally, at around 7:45, thirteen of us set off for the beach packed into a van (aka a pickup truck; this one has a covered bed), cramped, hot, and tired, but also excited.
We spent a little time on the beach, but due to a shark sighting and not-so-hot weather we weren’t there for long. We soon retired to a water park and spent a long time living it up on the slides. It’s amazing how much use you can get out of a few slides and some inner tubes. Around 1:00, extremely hungry, we got some pizzas and ate, and then I fell asleep at our child-size picnic table (the only one left in the park for us to use) for a good while. It was lovely.
The ride back to Pietermaritzburg was equally cramped as the ride to the coast, and we were all even more tired than before. I had: one guy leaning on my shins, asleep; another guy leaning on my shoulder, asleep; another guy with his feet on my thighs, asleep. I was holding onto some guy’s knees, dozing. It was hot hot hot and cramped cramped cramped, but during that ride, in that van, I fell in love with South Africa. I don’t know how I will ever leave.