Remember Why You Came Here.

Today was literally the best day ever and I will tell you why. Today was our first field trip for our Biology class and wow was it exciting! We left AE after tea time and drove about 45 minutes to a conservation site in the Pietermaritzburg area. Caryn, our teacher sat us down to explain the "must knows" of our day in the reserve. She then told us what to do if a deadly snake bites us. In her words "Stay away from snakes, even if they are not poisonous it's better to be alive and wrong than dead." hmmm comforting. She then told us what to do if we are cornered by a large cat. As the icing on the cake we found out that climbing a tree will only help if you are being charged by a buffalo. We were all looking at each other like.. is this girl for real? Now we are all a little apprehensive as to our choice to enroll in this class if these are "the basics". In Caryn's defense she did tell us that it was highly unlikely but I think even the suggestion of such things was enough to widen our eyes. Our first assignment when we got there? Climb a tree. I am definitely okay with this class from now on. So I climbed said tree, saw nature from a new vantage point, and got back down. Next assignment: Pick as many different species of grass that you can. This turned into an adventure down to a waterfall which I was more than okay with. 

After tasting aloe (don't do it its disgusting and it tastes like that stuff you put on your nails to get rid of a biting habit) we were dropped off on the edge of a cliff to have some quiet time. 30 min alone with African nature in your sight. I was so blessed by this time. I got to worship, write, read, and pray for 30 minutes alone with my God. It's been so difficult to be alone the past week simply because there are so many fun things to do. These things aren't wrong but what really hit me was what Caryn said to us after. We are sitting under a tree as a class and she says, "Do you know that each one of you came here for a purpose?" That hit me. I have not doubted that God has put me in South Africa for a purpose but hearing one of my professors say it so clearly was incredible. She then went on to tell us that we are going to get busy (check) and we are going to forget what quiet time feels like. We are going to be running on empty and then try to give more of ourselves and that just won't work. Caryn reminded all of us to remember why we came here. Even when we are up to our noses in books and assignments because we are trying to do 15 weeks of school in 6. Even when we are trying to decide which hike to go on, which group to join, and what things to plan. We can't forget to stay quiet with God so he can speak. The thing I like about Caryn is how she does faith integration. Instead of asking us to write a 2 page reflection on how God fits into the class we are taking, Caryn started out the class telling us about faith integration herself. Then, she backed it up today. Caryn's version of faith integration was faith action. It was putting into action the fact that God and biology fit perfectly. They don't contradict. Faith integration is not an add on at the end of the semester. It's not trying to use a Gsus chord as faith integration ;) It's something that permeates the entire class and I think the speech from Caryn was asking us to keep her accountable. I felt like she was asking us to remind her when the class gets hard and we might possibly be failing, that we are here for a much bigger purpose. 

After this, we walked up the hill to play some games. "Games" in South Africa are much different. It turns out games included seeing how far you can SPIT a piece of impala poop. Yep.. I stuck THAT in my mouth. And almost won too! If it weren't for the one boy in the class. Dumb boys. I swear you are all born with the innate ability to be gross. Whoops. Then we played a lovely game of river land which is sort of like Simon says and finally as we walked up the hill we played a game of camouflage a high speed version of hide and seek. 

Now here's the best part. As we continued walking we ran into two giraffe. For those of you who may not know, I am obsessed with giraffe. They are by far my favorite animals. I don't know if I can put into words how excited I was to see these two little guys. They were far from little but they were majestic. I wish that I could have sat there all day and just looked at them to see their blue tongues and watch them interact. I cried. Giraffe were the one thing I knew I HAD to see in Africa and I saw them in the first week. How cool is that? As we were walking back to the bus I got to thinking about why I like giraffe so much. Aside from them being incredibly beautiful and having blue tongues which is awesome I wasn't so sure. I have always heard that "giraffe have the biggest heart" which sounded so cheesy to me but today I realized that is why I like them so much. Giraffe have the biggest heart because their heart has to pump their blood through their whole body all the way to their head and their brain. It must be powerful! I realized today that I want to be like a giraffe and sometimes I am which can be a good thing or a bad thing. I want my heart to be so big because I have so many places that I would like to pump the life and love that I have out to, but this also makes me gangly and clumsy like giraffe are often seen.  I make mistakes, I fall, I pump too much blood to one spot and it gets an ache. I know this about myself. But I HOPE that someday someone will look at me and see the big heart that I have and find it endearing and not exhausting. 

There's my two cents for the day :) Another amazing day in Africa. This place is stealing my heart :)

Peace, Blessings, Love

Kendra