I wonder what seals taste like...

Well, its actually here...my last month in Cape Town. For me, that's pretty hard to believe and is also rather bittersweet. My 7 months here so far has been an experience like none other and it will definitely be hard to leave the people, relationships, and projects that have each been such a huge part of my time here and what has made my time so special. The exciting part, however, about my departure on May 3rd, is that I will then be starting my 3-week trip to Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, and the Eastern Cape of South Africa before my final departure back to the States! As excited as I am for that trip and to get back home, it will be tough leaving Cape Town, the place that I've called home the last 7 months.

The last few weeks have been very good and very busy. A few days ago, Living Hope had the dedication ceremony for 2 new buildings, a chapel and a prevention center. Both of these buildings were funded generously by Brentwood Baptist Church. So, Scott Harris, BBC's misisons minister, has been here this week for the dedication. We had plenty to do in preparation for the 200+ people coming for the dedication. It all went very well though and the buildings look amazing!

The Music Academy has grown since I last posted. I had invited the 10 youth that I work with on the worship team at Capricorn Church to join the Music Academy, since they were all very interested in learning music and instruments, and Friday I met with 5 of them. This coming Friday I will meet with the remaining 5 which brings the number of kids at the Capricorn Academy up to 12-14, which is great, since we have only been working with 4! I am also meeting with 2 people in Masi this week to try and set up a plan for the expansion into Masi. We are trying to get as many things in place while I am here and for when I leave, so that things can continue to run well and can be ready for the next person who comes in to lead. There is a girl coming in August from the States for a year who will be taking my place, which is great! She is a music person as well and very excited about the Academy. So things with the MMA are going well.

On Saturday Jeremy, Danielle, Jonathan (new volunteer from Scotland), Chris and I went to Gordon's Bay, on the other side of False Bay, to go shark cage diving. It was a great day! We left at 5am from our house to get there close to 7 to head out on the boat. We road for 25 minutes out to Seal Island, in the middle of False Bay, an island inhabitated by 50,000 seals! There we spent 6 hours watching seals and dolphins and whales and great white sharks! We saw 3 great whites while we were out there and had one grab a seal and come right up to our boat with eat. So we got a very close up view of a shark attack, which was incredible! It was a bit of a "quiet morning" of sharks, according to our guide, since it is still early in the shark season. So, we didn't see as much crazy shark action as maybe we had hoped, but it was amazing to see some great white sharks up close in the wild! I'll definitely be posting some pictures from that soon. On the way back to shore after the shark trip, one of the guys on the boat turned to me and said "I wonder what seals taste like?" Good question.

So, just to fill everyone in on the 3-week African adventure that I mentioned earlier: Danielle, Jeremy and I are leaving May 3rd heading to Nairobi, Kenya for a week to visit Sam and Melody Harrell, friends and partners of FBC Dalton, who head up Africa Exchange. A lot of what Africa Exchange does is with development projects, such as water development and eco-tourism, as well as work with children and the people of that region. Sam will be taking us, along with 3 others to a few of his project sites to help in various ways. FBC Dalton took a trip to Kenya with Sam this past September. It should be an amazing experience.
We leave Kenya, headed for Livingstone, Zambia, just across the Zimbabwean border. There we will meet up with Lonnie and Fran Turner, 2 US missionaries who live here in Cape Town, but work in Zambia doing sports ministry, water development and several other things. They are currenlty working to construct a school. We will spend about 9 days with the Turners helping with their ministry projects and doing a coupe of days of sight-seeing. We will get to go on safari in Chobe National Park in Botswana, and also see Victoria Falls that lies on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. We are of course looking forward to all of these things!
From there we fly back to Johannesburg and will travel down the eastern and souther coast of South Africa back to Cape Town, through Swaziland. It really should be an amazing 3 weeks! After which, I then fly back home.

Well, thats about it for now. I'm definitely looking forward to these last few weeks in Cape Town and last weeks in Africa before I head home! Its been amazing. Thanks to everyone again for ALL the support along the way. I'll be seeing a lot of you very soon!

Cheers!