Broken To Blessed

Hi again! We are currently in Bulembu and enjoying our Sunday off. We started this morning by going to Potterwheel church. We had to be in church for 8:30am (there’s literally a timer that counts down to the beginning of the service and everything).There was lots of singing and dancing to be done and we even took communion during one of the songs. All in all, the service lasted an hour and a half and was really enjoyable. We even got to see the women from the Women’s Centre there along with Kevin and Helen Ward.

Just after the service we sat outside and had coffee, mingling with the locals. After we left we went back to Hawane for a light lunch which consisted mainly of fruit, before Bongani took us the scenic root to Bulembu. Also note that the weather was so hot today. At one point we got up to 40 degrees (the mini van Lindsey, Liz M, my mum, Bongani and I took also had no air conditioning. Which was great fun).

During the drive we did stop to get some pictures by a dam nearby. It was also here that Bongani told us about how the dam was extremely low on water due to the drought they experienced three years ago and how it has not replenished since then. Many people rely on the dam’s water to supply their electricity too and so prayers for rain there would also be appreciated by the locals. We stopped again at the dam viewpoint and got some dam photos and Geoff lost his dam camera- I mean camera. So we’re going to stop there again tomorrow and have a look for it.

The next part of our journey was by far the most bizarre. We had thought the road down to Ngwempisi was bad but the road to Bulembu was worse. “It’s a Swazi massage” Bongani called it as we bounced and rattled down the road. The view was amazing, with hundreds of thousands of acres of spruce trees and eucalyptus trees blanketing the mountainside. Now, I’m not afraid of heights, but I can tell you that I was clinging onto the back of Bongani’s seat praying that we didn’t drop off the side of the mountain. There were times during the drive we just got too close to the edge for comfort and in these times, while everyone else seemed preoccupied by how amazing the view was, I made sure to look away.

And then, after at least 30 minutes of driving down the worst road imaginable (it was 20km of driving over what felt like a dry riverbed, you would not even think about doing it a home) we made it to Bulembu, the most beautiful town we’d seen since being here. Many of us compared it to a ‘mini Eden’. I personally think it would be amazing to grow up here surrounded by the mountains and beautiful scenery!

Anyway, after getting settled in we went for a freezing cold swim in the pool at the lodge we'd paid extra for with our own personal money. We enjoyed some dinner and were told about the history of Bulembu before heading to bed pretty early but not before I stood outside in the dark just to get some wifi to talk to everyone back home. The poor wifi from anywhere but the main area was the only downside to this place, otherwise it's pretty perfect.

I'll end it here but I'm sorry for the late blog, again, I wouldn't have been able to get this up last night unless I sat outside to type it. I'm not that committed to the blog when there are snakes around.

"The Lord's people may suffer a lot, but he will always bring them safely through." Psalms 34:19 

PHOTOS TO COME LATER