An African Adventure

Greetings, one and all. 
It's been a right old two weeks! I returned to the Mothership last Friday after 24 hours of travel. The travel was horrid, the trip was not. 
I'm not really sure where to begin. There's almost too much to tell, and you obviously don't want to be bored out of your tiny minds with long paragraphs and lame photos. I will definitely not be including multiple photos of landscapes - what is it with people and their holiday landscape photos? Or photos of stuff with no people in?  That's great for the holidayer to reminisce over. On their computer. Alone. Preferably at night. But I do not care for pictures with no people in. Unless it's of something that is obviously incredible, like a big building or a funny animal. So yes, I will put a whole bunch of pictures up but will limit the landscapes to a mere 2 or 3. Just so you can be like "ooh that's nice" but THAT'S. IT. 


I'm going to stick with the whole Top Five thing, I don't want to unsettle you all with too much change. As usual, these are in no particular order. You'll realise that when you see the last one (oooh, suspense!)


ONE.
The whole point of going to Zim was to run Arise, Shine Zimbabwe! which is a children's conference (sounds lame, but think action songs, running about, team games, veggie tales, craft) at a church in the capital, Harare. It ran from 9-1 each day and in the afternoons we did fun tourist stuff.
ASZ! was run by our team, helped by a whole load of local sunday school leaders. The children were split into two teams for a bit of friendly competition haha. 
It was absolutely brilliant. Exhausting though, and we went to bed at 8.30 every night haha, but it was really really enjoyable. The church in Africa is humbling and inspiring; their faith is stronger than anyone's I've ever met before and I found their emphasis on family spoke volumes to me. They were so grateful to have us, but we were grateful to be received; I was so aware this week of the presence of God - it was incredible. 

Room at the church in which we did the conference

Selection of games in which teams competed against each other

RED. TEAM. 

First morning. 

Prayer hands

Children at Prayer Mountain

Playing ladders!

Team Fwends

TEAM. 

TWO.
We did lots of super fun things in the afternoons after the conference, including going to Snakeworld, the Lion and Cheetah Park, visiting a children's home, going to a craft place, and hanging out at the Timba's house where we stayed. It was bant. 

View from house - landscape number one

They're going to get married one day. 

We're not going to get married, we're just bezzie matezz

Children's Home

Snakeworld

THIS CHEETAH LOOKS THE SAME AS PIN. THEIR FACES ARE THE SAME. FOR A MINUTE I THOUGHT IT WAS PIN AND WAS LIKE "PIN, HOW DID YOU GET HERE?"  

Night view from inside my room. Landscape number two. 

Hanging out in mine and emil-y's room. Joel quizzed us on categories of our choice and we got Dairy Milk as a prize.

THREE. 
After the conference was over, we went to Chengeta Safari Lodge for 2 days, which we did last year. We were supposed to go to Victoria Falls but Air Zimbabwe were on strike. Joel and Emily actually did end up going instead of staying for the 2nd day at Chengeta, but more on that later. We did a game drive and saw loads of giraffes which was SO AMAZING. We saw a buffalo, loads of impala, some zebras!! and we also went to meet the elephants - the same one I rode last year. But we didn't ride them this year. We just looked at them. On the second day we canoed up a dam; the water was INCREDIBLE, totally flat and reflected everything so perfectly. We got out at one point and walked up a dried up river. Team Member Greg decided it'd be fun to swim in a massive rock pool and as he readied himself, he asked our guide if it was safe, to which he responded, "I have no idea, I don't even know how deep it is. There could be crocs". Greg jumped in. 

Entering Chengeta

GAME. DRIVE. 

YES. THAT IS A GIRAFFE. AN ACTUAL GIRAFFE. SMILING FOR THE CAMERA. 

FOUR.
Now, this section is reserved for some very exciting news. The trip as a whole was wonderful, albeit very challenging and very hard work. Not being able to go to Vic Falls was disappointing but I'm super broke so I wasn't too devastated as it would've been quite expensive. Howevs, Joel was pretty keen to take Em to see the Falls so they decided to fly down to SA and fly back up to Vic Falls. Turns out it's because HE WAS GOING TO PROPOSE AND THEY ARE NOW ENGAGED, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Literally the greatest possible ending to the trip and the most exciting thing that has happened to me this year (apart from Sarah and Tom's wedding). It is so so great, I cried when they told me, and I cried later when I heard more detail about the proposal moment haha. Oh my DAYS, it is just the most wonderful and exciting thing. We had five hours to kill at Johannesburg airport so we heard all about it, drank champagne and Em and I bought wedding magazines and read them on the plane, much to Joel and his dad's bemusement haha. 

Stoopid window behind ruined this incredible moment.

FIVE. 
Anything I put now will be a massive anti-climax. All I can really say is that I was so blessed to be able to go back to Zimbabwe, it was absolutely unforgettable, and I hope I am able to go again next year. I also hope I remember every single day how fortunate we are, and learn to trust God the way the Zimbabwean church does. 


Peace out.