So! Even though I often say “I never do anything here,” it’s not really like I’m always on vacation. I mean, I look for work, and that’s almost like working. Also, I am always available to do work if it comes up.
However. Now, I can finally say that I really don’t have anything to do! I’m on vacation!!
Christmas (as you know) just happened, and New Year’s (as you know) is rapidly approaching (ahh!! 2010!). So this whole week – that’s right, the whole week – we don’t have to work! We don’t have to report to the office at all. We can just chill. Oh. My. Goodness.
Yesterday was the beginning of our vacation. I slept in and woke to a delightful, sunny, gorgeous blue sky. My morning was slightly interrupted by a text message from our pastor asking us to clean up the church yard because of a recent wind storm, but it was so gorgeous outside that I didn’t even mind. After that Gabby and I went outside and sun/shade bathed in delightful silence. The carpenters (who normally work in our backyard every day but Sunday) are now on vacation as well. It was awesome.
I plan on doing mostly nothing this week. I will probably venture out to the store at some point this week (unfortunately the need to eat and bathe doesn’t go on vacation) and we will hopefully go to a waterfall with some friends on Wednesday for a picnic, but other than that my days are blissfully empty. Score!

Also: Christmas was pretty good. We were invited to the home of a family member of some church members (I know, right?), and we ate like there was no tomorrow. The food was basically eternal. Then we came home, chilled, and watched all of the Christmas episodes that we have from “The Office.” Very nice.

Right now I am dealing with a lot of Christmas envy. For those of you who don't know, "Christmas envy" is the turning of Christmas into a frustrating, foreign event that doesn't even seem celebratory. I almost hate Christmas.

There are manyn reasons for this, I think. Among them are:

1. It's hot. Even here, though, Christmas is portrayed in pictures as a snowy, cold event. It's like Christmas is taunting all of the southern hemisphere, laughing at our misery.


2. I'm away from home, so all the things I'm used to having for Christmas, like a big, beautiful, sweet-smelling Christmas tree and six siblings to make fun of, are far off from here.


3. We don't have stockings. Maybe this Christmas-killer belongs above, with "away from home," but stockings are so important to me they get their own category.


4. The church here doesn't seem to celebrate Advent, and this is hard for me to adjust. It is difficult for me to get into the "Christmas spirit" when life seems to be going on as normal, just hotter.


5. Team England is sucking all the life that's left out of my South African Christmas. Their Christmas is cold and will possibly be snowy; they have stockings; they have a Christmas tree; they get to drink hot chocolate and not sweat their weight. They will soon know what they did.

I know I shouldn't be looking at Christmas this way. After all, it is the birthday of Jesus and shouldn't (and doesn't) depend on things like snow and hot chocolate. But it's hard for me to feel celebratory here. I am sort of working on it, but also sort of basking in my negative emotions. Anyway. Merry Christmas!

birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday! In true RJ: Team South Africa style, Anna and Gabby have been treating me to an awesome, three-day, deliciously fattening celebration of my 18th birthday. We started the festivities on Monday night when they made me homemade peanut butter cups - yum! Then on Tuesday, on my actual b-day, we did a bunch of delightful things.
First we went out to lunch at Essence, a wonderful cafe near our house. Then we went up to Phil and Christine's house to watch...wait for it...FOOTBALL!!!! AHH!!!! We got to watch the Ravens play the Packers! True, it was a sad game, but I have been so football starved that it didn't even hurt that much.
Then Gabby and Anna made me Indian food, and we had a feast. It was topped off by the scrumptious chocolate cake with strawberry frosting we had for dessert. It even had candles on it. Amazing!
Today, Anna bought me a coconut dessert at Spar, the local amazing grocery store. And tonight, we hope to find "Hot Rod" at the video rental store, so we can end the celebration in true style.

Sometimes I feel like there is a lot to be gained from being a part of BCI.
I know I spend a lot of time feeling frustrated with the church and wanting to go home, but I think I'm ready to get over myself. I mean, okay - I know that I disagree with a lot of BCI's theology, and this is different from what I'm used to, and I sometimes feel useless here, but I don't want to waste ten months of my life trying to cut myself off from an entity that I basically live with. I don't want to waste my time in South Africa trying to claw my way out of South Africa. What I really want is to get to know the people of BCI, because I think that is where the treasure lies. Sure, sometimes I disagree with the pulpit, but one thing I know for sure is that the man (or woman) behind the pulpit is still a person with a heart and, I'm sure, some good in them somewhere. So I hope these next seven or so months are spent, on my part, working to get to know the people around me and learning to love them.

Bum Bum Bum.

This past Monday night during the youth prayer meeting I settled into a routine I've adopted in order to keep myself from getting distracted. There is so much movement and noise during praise and worship that sometimes I find myself watching those around me instead of truly entering worship. So I've taken to closing my eyes and standing still; sometimes I don't even sing. I just like to be able to hear the words and feel God speaking to me through the music. And do you know what? On Monday night, I did. I heard God, and I felt him, humming softly through the bassline.

Lovely Day

Today was lovely indeed! Minus one slightly scary incident, our Saturday was as peaceful as we've seen [that I can remember]. Here lie some highlights of our day:

• We got to sleep in, to some degree. During the week we are usually up by eight, which, although late by South African standards, feels early to most of us. Today, however, we had no reason to be up that early!
• Gabby made roll kuchen, delicious fried dough thingies, for lunch. Yum!
• It was a gorgeous day - sunny and breezy and warm but not too hot.
• Tomorrow we celebrate American Thanksgiving! We weren't able to celebrate on Thursday, but tomorrow we will be celebrating with other North Americans. It's gonna be awesome. Today Anna and I made two pecan pies, and with the leftover pie crust we made an impromptu apple pie that we happily ate.
• We watched "Slumdog Millionaire" while eating apple pie :).
• I got to make dinner! Yay for Indonesian food.
• Anna and I went to the grocery store, and on the way home were followed for a block or so by some weird guy who kept saying "You so pretty" and "Can I have your number?" It was irritating at first, then scary. We began to think of how to keep him from knowing where we lived when we got closer to our house, and I started to get legitimately worried. And then, finally, he left us alone.

So that was our day! It was very nice indeed.

Dwight!!

We have a new addition to Team South Africa: Dwight the Baby Cat!
We spent yesterday and the day before yesterday removing a big pile of sticks and compost from a corner of the church property. We would load up a trailer with these big branches and sticks and whatever else was there and then drive thirty minutes out of town to a township called Sweetwater, where we unloaded on a farm [the best part was the drive up - it was gorgeous!]. Anyway, one fateful moment, as Kyle removed a stick from the compost heap...a baby cat revealed herself to us! She is black and white, about four inches long, and basically incredibly cute. I love her!
We have been talking about getting a cat ever since we found out we had mice - so basically since the first week here. However, before yesterday it would have required either a) going to the SPCA and paying for one, or b) catching one of the many strays that hang out in our yard. Neither one of those things ever happened, because we're too cheap for the SPCA - sad, I know - and those strays are not people-friendly. Little Dwight [so named because we all have an obsession with the NBC show "The Office"] is an answer to prayer! Hopefully she doesn't get too big so we don't have to spend too much money on cat food, but hey - who's thinking about that now? We got time :).