Queensland, Australia

After only being in Australia for two days, we boarded a train and headed up north to the sunshine state of Queensland. The weather is much nicer up here, and I have a red belly to show for it. We spent New Years on the Gold Coast, which is very similar to the Miami, FL area. It was hard to believe that it was New Year's - I spent the day going to a rainforest and swimming in the ocean, only to commence the night by watching fireworks in the park. It felt more like the forth of July! It was a lot of fun though.

After being at the Gold Coast for New Year's, we headed up to Brisbane. Highlights included riding the city cat ferry along the Brisbane river, going up to Mt. Coot-tha to enjoy the city's views at night, and visiting Steve Irwin's famous Australia Zoo! It's been a lot of fun, and I think the best part about it has been the generosity we've received from the Earle's, and getting to know a bit of the real Australia, behind the borders of tourism.

While in Queensland, we also took a plane up to Cairns for four days, which is situated in tropical north Queensland, just inland from the Great Barrier Reef. It was very hot and muggy up there, and our hostel was a bit, well, nasty, but we had a great time. I got to visit TWO world heritage sites - snorkeling in the the Great Barrier Reef via a restored sail ship, and the rainforest, which I viewed from a gondala ride and a scenic train ride! Going to the reef was deffinitely the best part of being up in Cairns. This was something that I had wanted to do my entire life, and I finally did! Although, one day simply was not enough to satisfy me. Now that I have seen it, I only yearn to go back and see more and more and more. But money doesn't grow on trees....

Well, our time in Queensland is nearly up, and later this afternoon we take a train back down to New South Wales to spend a week in Sydney. I have had a great time here and and am kind of sad to leave, but I need to keep my eyes opened to the future to see all the wonderful things still ahead in Australia!

That's a Fierce plane, MATE!

After a 1.5 hr plane ride, a 3 hr. layover, a 4 hr. plane ride, a 6 hr. layover, and a 14 hr. plane ride, we finally made it to SYDNEY! Our big plane was a piece-of-crap compared to South African Airways. I have never been so tightly squeezed in my life. I sat next to a woman who had been in Kenya doing the peace corps for 3 yrs., so that was interesting!!

In the Sydney airport we met two guys from Manitoba who has similar plans to our for the month. It was nice to meet people who were doing the same thing to know we aren't the only ones! They helped us find a hostel, and we got a decent deal at a nice place in central Sydney. We walked around a bit our first day, and I went to bed at about 630pm. The funniest part of the day was within a 15 minute period at the park where we saw a car crash and a near lethal tree branch fall on the woman next to us! Our roommate at the hostel was from Germany, and she was very nice. She gave us some great advice about what we should do on our trip.

We got our rail pass taken care of and tomorrow we head up to Queensland to spend New Year's with my friend at a family beach house. Sounds real rough. I am excited, although the 11-hr train ride will be hectic. Then we go to Brisbane for a few days, and hopefully we will make it up to the great barrier reef!

Right now we are in an Internet cafe. We just met a cool guy from San Diego. I have to go now so Tara can get online. Pictures to come soon!

Namibian Children

As the academic part of our trip was centered around human rights and development, we had the opportunity to visit many local Namibian agencies, including 2 orphanges. Many of us agree that these visits were some of the most impacting moments we had while in Namibia.

Many people would expect to meet children with frowns and scars of depression across their faces when visiting Africa. To my surprise, the way the ads they show on T.V. for starving children depict the children in these experiences is far from true. Even though some of these children were orphaned, HIV-positive, or malnourished, just to name a few, every single one of them was full of smiles and eager to share their love to us.

At each place we visited, I focused most of my attention with a particular child I felt I connected with. At the first home, this was a toddler boy, and at the second a primary school aged girl. I regret to say that I cannot remember either of their names, part of which is due to my inability to understand african languages, to my defense. Both of these children made a big impact on me, and I don't think I will forget either of them for years to come. I played football with them, played in the home's park, read to them, and even let them braid my hair, which I might say is a talent they develop at a young age.


Saying goodbye to the children was hard, as in the few hours we were there, many of them managed to get quite attached to us. The little girl I spent time with started crying, and telling me that she didn't have a mother. I was confused at what she meant by this, as if she wanted me to stay to look after her and give her love and attention, which is something she probably doesn't receive much from adults. I have hopes that one day she will open her heart to the love of Christ and realize that the love she is longing for is and can only be fullfilled by Him.

Spending time with these children inspired me to take advantage of the opporunities I have been blessed with, yearning to help improve the situations of others I meet, whether that may be a close friend at home, or a distant memory in Africa. The few hours with them taught me more than I've learned from hours on end in the classroom. As it was with most of the trip. Leaving Africa was hard, and leaving the sanctuary felt by being around the members of our group was even harder, but life isn't about always living where it's perfect. I'm still figuring that out, but I am so thankful I had the oppportunity to travel to Namibia and have such an amazing experience that will live with me forever.

Swakopomund

Our second weekend excursion in Namibia was to the coastal community of Swakopomund. The town is located in the middle of the Namib Desert's sand dunes on the Atlantic Ocean. The weekend was probably my favorite part of the trip!

We started off by visiting Cape Cross, the spot where Portuguese explorer Diego Cao first landed in present-day Namibia in the 1400's. The area has somehow attracted the location for a colony of seals, which you can smell for kilos away as you are driving up to the place. Nevertheless, it was very cool to be at the spot where Diego Cao landed, and to watch the seals, which were cute, but some were gross and dead.

We finished off the first night by climbing what we were told was the highest sand dune in the world, even though we later found out it's actually like the second or something. Ah, I still say its the 1st!! The sand dunes are beautiful, and the drive was fun. I had to laugh when Bob, our driver, randomly yelled out "Look at the Sand Dunes" after we had been driving past them for about 20 minutes. Yup, thanks Bob, I see them. We went out to eat the first night at a restaurant called The Lighthouse, which was right on the coast (who knew?). The meal was good, and there was also a fun park we played in after dinner.

On Saturday, I spent the morning and early afternoon exploring the town of Swakopmund. Being a typical tourist, I went into many of the tourist shops, some African art shops, and taking a wonderful walk on the beach of the African coastline. For the latter part of the day, I went quad biking (4-wheeling) on the sand dunes!! It was super fun, and admittedly a bit scary. I got put in the slow group, haha. Unfortunately we didn't get back in time for me to take a swim in the ocean, but quad biking was worth it. We finished off the evening by eating at Cape de Cairo, and I had ostrich. Yum.

Sunday morning I woke up really early and couldn't sleep, so I went out to the beach at about 6am and jogged around with my ipod taking in the serenity of the African coast. I then sat down and just looked out at the water for over an hour, and just thought, about all kinds of things, such as where my life was leading me, trying to realize that I WAS IN AFRICA! On the way back from the beach, I ran into Chris and Troy and joined them for a church service in town. Part of it was in Afrikaans, so it was more of a cultural experience than a spiritual one, but I was glad to have gone! When we returned back to our hotel, it was time to pack up the vans and head out for our 3 hr. drive back to Windhoek. What an amazing weekend!

The biggest SAND DUNES in the WORLD!

One of my favorite things in Namibia was being able to witness the towering Sand Dunes in the Namib Desert. As quoted from a Namibian poet, being on top of a sand dune is like "being in a painting where the painter is still painting". After a strenuous walk to the top, you look out to see the sea and dunes, which look like mountains, for miles and miles, all below you. You really feel like you are in Africa!!

Up on the top, we walked along the edge of the dune for awhile, after which finding a spot to sit down and watch the most beautiful sunset ever. One of the most peaceful moments was when a fellow group member starting singing "Sanctuary" and we sort of just submitted ourselves to silence and the beauty of the Namib Desert, after which we all joined into singing songs of joy to the Lord. A few of us also has a few races, which is fun because the sand is really hard to run in. I may have face planted a few times... :)

The best part of the Sand Dunes is definitely running down them! Gravity has no end and the mound of sand gives you a nice soft comfort for when you do fall. I had a lot of fun racing down and barely made it past the finish line which was conveniently set up for me! I am in love with sand dunes.

Loping Giraffes in Etosha

Here's a quick video clip of the excitement that was during our safari at Etosha Nat'l Park in Namibia.

On SAFARI @ Etosha National Park

After our sad (but not too sad) departure from Lake Oanob, we headed back north of Windhoek (way north... try 6 hours....) to Namibia's Etosha National Park. Etosha is a wildlife refuge which is home to many incredible game animals such as giraffes, elephants, lions, cheetahs, ostriches, black rhinos, kudu, springbok, and I've even heard you can see flamingos occasionally. The most common and favorite sight to me was the giraffe... they are so cute! In the middle of Etosha, there is the Etosha Pan, which was once a massive lake which is now dried up. The park is huge, and it took us about four hours to drive from one side to the other, which were almost all spent with our heads out the window behind the eyes of our cameras.

During the night, we stayed in a gated-up area within the park called Okaukuejo. We were literally locked inside for the night (you can only drive around the park when it is light outside). There is a watering hole on the side of Okaukuejo, where we were able to see a mom and baby black rhino - a very rare sight! We also had a good time playing frisbee and met a couple of people from New Zealand who played with us for awhile. There was also a very random tall column within the camping area which had a spectacular view from the top. We climbed up it once at night, as well as early in the morning to see the sunrise over Namibia's beautiful landscape. And for Bonnie... I can't leave out our little pineapple escapade. For some reason we decided that we were going to steal a pineapple from the breakfast buffet. I don't really know why, because we never ended up eating it, but I carried it around with me for the rest of the trip, until I ended up throwing it away the morning we left. It made for a good laugh though!