No Sleeping In The Aisles

Trip to the airport: easy. Ticketing: right on. Customs: breezy. Movie screens on the back of the seats: nifty. The announcement from the flight attendant that there will be no sleeping on the floors in the aisles: perplexing. This only means someone has done it. It's one of those rules that makes the list after the fact; like everything was fine and normal and then some flight crew member made their way into the cockpit and said, "Um, excuse me, Captain. There is someone sleeping on the floor." "Really," the Captain says. "Where?" "In coach, of course." "Yes, right. Well, make a note of it and drop it into the announcements on the trip back."

Sorry for the delay
First of all, sorry for the lapse in communication; it really took us nearly a day & a half to get here and unpack. But here we are and it's awesome. Flying into the George (our third flight) looked like the opening scenes from The Sound of Music - mountains that touched the sky, based with huge green fields, connected to small streets and farms. The airport rivals Savannah's, with one terminal and a baggage claim. We hooked up with this German boy making his way to George. I took 4 years of German and thought "I hang with this kid, no sweat." His English was about as good as my German so, we just sort of looked at each other while I said ridiculous things like, "I have a friend in Munich." He asked me what my French name was, which seamlessly ended our conversation. Pete, Fran & Denzil met us at baggage claim and we loaded up in a couple of vans and made our way to their house, a few miles away. It's very Euro here, which, to an American, means, it's all backwards! The steering wheel was on the "wrong" side. I was riding shotgun. I flinched the whole the way there. (So that's what it felt like for my parents as I learned to drive?) Once arriving at the house, we settled down for a dinner out at a place called Nando's. We hear it's Mark & Annette Tuttle's favorite spot. It was very choice! The table was covered with baked chicken, French fries and ginormous rolls. (That's not a real word for all the scorekeepers out there.) After dinner, we met as a team for 30 minutes or so and then all went to bed by 7:00 pm, sleeping well past sunrise.

Saturday: Team Glue Gun
We had an official sit-down orientation this morning, learning about our tasks and duties for the week. Pete shared some interesting things about South Africa and its culture, not the least of which was how 11 different tribes inhabit the country, with as many languages, to boot. Our job this week is to help run a vacation Bible school in a township just outside the city of George. We're planning for nearly 500 kids with two interpreters. Most of today (Saturday) is being spent setting up and preparing all the crafts for the week and various others items for the VBS. I'm actually operating a glue gun! My wife would be so proud.

So be in prayer for our time here. Be in prayer that we are able to help Pete & Fran in their endeavors with the African peoples. Be in prayer for our team, as we all are getting to know one another, some for the first time. I will post pictures very soon; our trip thus far has been all travel.