Sorry for the Delay!

The past three days have been a whirlwind of activities and business. We just finished our last day on the work site and starting to finish the walls with plaster and laid the cross beams for the roof. On Sunday we spent the morning at a church in Mbekweni with Pastor Eugene. He has an incredible church with a congregation who are all on fire for Jesus. His message was very touching and quite a few of us had the opportunity to join in dancing up front with a group of locals, which was a ton of fun and very emotional. We then split into three different groups. One group hikes Table Mountain, one took the cable car up Table Mountain and one group went snorkeling with seals in Hout Bay. I was in the group that went snorkeling, which was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. On our way out to the island on the skipper we got to stop to see Humpback Whales feeding. We also got to see them breach before we headed to see the seals. The seals were compared to dogs, they are curious and just want to bump into you, smell you and nibble at you. While we were snorkeling I had a seal come and nibble on my fingers before shooting off into the bay. The other three who were with me also had amazing experiences, and the intern who brought us, Lars, was a trooper through the whole thing. After snorkeling we went into Cape Town for some shopping and dinner. We were the last group to arrive, but ran into a few other members of our team when we were heading to dinner. We finally headed back to the guest house after Cape Town.

Monday we spent the day at the work site. We started the roof and started plastering walls in the houses. By lunch time quite a few of us were expert plasterers. In the afternoon a few people were given the opportunity to visit the after school program at the Mosaic Community Center. We played with the kids and helped with some of their school reviews. I got the help children with past, present and future tenses. The interns do an incredible job with all of these kids. They love on them, help them and teach them. I’ve never seen so many smiling faces in one room. All of the Hopewell people that went to the after school program seemed to be in their element with all of these kids. We had dinner at the guest house after a very long and hot day. We ended the night with a group devotion.

Today we went back to the work site for our last day at the houses. We had a very long, hard and hot day. All of the support beams have been placed, but we did not have the metal sheets to finish the roof. We also almost finished plastering the first house. All of the locals were on deck helping us with everything. It was amazing to watch all of the locals work hand in hand with all of our crew. In the afternoon we had a group go back to the community center to help with the after school program. We got to play with all of the Mosaic kids for a few hours. By the end of the day all of the support beams were done, all of the rooms were cleaned and all of the rooms were either plastered or ready to be plastered. We ended the day at Diemersfontein, which is a local wine estate. It was an incredible meal with all of the Hopewell crew, Meyer, Karen, Lars, Anne and Rebekkah. Everyone enjoyed all of  the time together and we have now returned back to the guest house. Everyone has turned in for bed and is trying to get some rest before our busy day tomorrow.