Week 3: 26 Feb - 1 March

The further I continue with this blog, the more convinced I become that every week is just a whirlwind of activity!

On Monday, I landed up having flapjacks for supper with Dana. It was mostly a complete accident, which I now have half a mind to suggest become a weekly plan! I caught her between classes and told her that I had macaroni I wanted to invite her round for sometime, and then somehow that turned into a plan to share a meal together that evening which turned into a flapjack date. Dana did not however have any flour and so I had to go and buy some after classes. Dana is quite an incredible cook. She measures nothing, adds a disproportionate amount of sugar and baking powder, and yet somehow everything comes out excellently. I have now witnessed her make both white sauce and flapjacks and can honestly say she is the most chaotically awesome cook I have encountered thus far in my short existence! We did not have any eggs and so we used bananas instead, but you could never have tasted the difference. 

This week also held the MBLDS open evening, a sokkie, Hot Topics, a school visitation, a Maties dance session, and Kickstart. (I have decided however to give Kickstart its own separate post, so more on that later-- stay tuned!)

On Tuesday, Maties dance held their opening event to showcase some of the dances taught at the classes. Both Liesje and Marcel were dancing, so several people from the church came to support them. Melinda, Luna and I all walked together from church and had a splendid time watching the demonstrations. We saved Daneldi a seat and took videos of Liesje's dance. Between the different categories of dance, an open sokkie occurred and Marcel convinced Pieter to join the dancefloor; I got to be his partner. Later, Liesje asked me to dance with her too and she even dipped me upside down. She is very proud of having convinced me to trust her with that! It was most impressive to watch her sokkie so well in heels! Another break in the program included learning to tdo he Wobble (which I have perfected thanks to orientation week!)

After all the fun at Maties Dance, Liesje, Melinda and I headed to the sokkie at Kruiskerk, which had been moved to a Tuesday to accommodate a different event. It seems that this year they will be happening on a Wednesday. I suspect this may prove problematic for me since I will have to be up early for school visitations on Thursdays. 

On Wednesday, our growth group did not meet formally since Sam Allberry was coming to speak on the topic "Is God anti-gay?" Elmarie organised for us to bring our own picnic dinners and meet for doughnuts near the Neelsie instead, a suggestion that quite a few of our members took keenly to. The talk itself was excellent and I am only sorry that I did not manage to buy a copy of Sam's book afterwards. Since so many people came to the talk, several of us 'regular comers' were asked to sit in the overflow venue in the hall and watch the zoom live stream instead. It was quite strange when at the end, as Grant was wrapping up, Sam Allberry walked past us through the hall and pleasantly remarked, "Hello guys!" We were all a bit shocked! I got to thank him afterwards and ask my question that hadn't been answered during the Q&A at the end. I found him an honest and likeable person. I suppose it's just the accent, but he reminded me a little of uncle Steve. 

On Thursday, Rachel, Paige, Carle and I took a road trip off to St Vincent's to meet our class teachers for service learning. It was wonderful to me that the school was so organised. Walking into Ms Snow's classroom, I felt right at home straight away. Her class is decorated with plastic sunflowers, laminated sunflower-themed displays and plastic ivy. It felt like an answer to prayer walking into her little prefab. It felt like God was whispering, "See, I told you I would provide a school for you. Trust me."

After the meeting, we dashed back to Stellenbosch, parked Carle's car and began the long walk to the education building for our practical learning class. It had been around 36 degrees all day, but just as we were getting to the building, it began to rain. It was such a welcome relief. 

After class, I walked to academia to try out the Maties Dance beginner class. I needed to see how much I could remember. It is looking like I may have to stick with the beginners, which I am not all too happy about, for a number of reasons, but I am hoping to be able to figure something out or at least have Daneldi stick it out with me. I will never quite understand why it is the ChaCha that seems to have stuck in my mind and nothing else, but I am grateful at least that something has! I hope I will be able to find the time to enjoy the dance classes again this year. 

I think I will stop there for now, see you for the down low on Kickstart in the next post!

Growth Group doughnut adventure